Speaking outside the church this morning with supporters holding campaign signs, Bernard was asked by a reporter if it was difficult to endorse the mayor over the likely Democratic opponent, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, who is African-American.

“I’m confident in Mayor Bloomberg and what he’s done,” Bernard said. “I’m not saying that no one else can do it, but he’s proven his leadership.”

Bernard said he contacted Thompson to let him know of his decision, and told reporters there was “no love lost between us.” He said Thompson “of course was disappointed but he understood and respected my position, the fact that I was candid with him.”

Bloomberg emphasized how he was seeking support from “all New Yorkers” and said, “We don’t, in this city, make those kind of divisions that sadly in some places around the world, they do. New Yorkers work together and that’s why we’ve done well.”

Among the churchgoers who watched the press conference but decided not to stand behind Bernard and Bloomberg was Rudy Washington, a deputy mayor under Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani and the highest-ranking African-American in that administration. Washington told me he may endorse Bloomberg at some later point.

After the event, I asked Bernard about Thompson saying Bloomberg is out of touch and unconcerned with common New Yorkers.

“Well, you know, Bill Thompson has a campaign to run so he has to say those things that will, you know, question the mayor’s relationship with all New Yorkers. But I said this in his re-election the last time, he’s a billionaire. I don’t hold that against him.”

Bernard praised Bloomberg because “he has kept his promises to return to the neighborhoods and understands. He’s got his feet on the ground.”

The announcement comes as Giuliani defends comments he made claiming to have spent more time at Ground Zero than most rescue workers, and saying he feels like "one of them."

Washington, who was a deputy mayor under Giuliani, now suffers from respiratory illnesses related to the time he spent at Ground Zero.

Two months after Mayor Giuliani told New Yorkers to "get back to normal," a small but vocal group of city residents is asking for the right to define for themselves just what "normal" means. For them, it's the right to mourn together in Union Square Park-and to preserve on the site an ongoing memorial to those killed on Sept. 11.

Attending the Nov. 8 Board 5 meeting, members of the Union Square Alliance spoke out against the Parks Department's decision to clean up the grassroots shrine that had sprung up at Union Square Park in the days after the Sept. 11 attack. "They took down all evidence of the memorial," said Gregory Nissen, who formed the alliance in direct response to the city's regular sweep of the once-sprawling expressions of grief-candles, prayers, poems and hundreds of missing-persons fliers-posted around the park, turning it into the city's spiritual epicenter just 20 blocks from ground zero.

On Sept. 20, following a forecast of heavy rain, the Parks Department cleared the site, bagging hundreds of materials, some of which had been sent by people around the country to comfort New Yorkers.

"If people want memorials, there are many places around the city," Henry Stern, the city's parks commissioner, told The Observer. "You can't turn the park into a garbage dump." According to Mr. Stern, the materials are being kept at the Hamilton Fish Recreation Center on the Lower East Side. The department is seeking advice from the Museum of the City of New York on how best to preserve and archive the materials as a record of the tragedy.

Whatever the Parks Department's intent, many residents, including those in other neighborhoods, are outraged. "It's like sterilizing our minds and sterilizing our emotions," said Yvonne Fawcett, a writer from the Upper West Side, who also spoke at the Board 5 meeting. "Let's get back to business, but let's never forget."

For Mr. Nissen, keeping an ongoing memorial at Union Square is crucial to the healing process. "It seemed to be the one place where you could go where feelings of grief and empathy were not overshadowed with patriotic rage," he said. "[The Parks Department] stopped the momentum and natural outpouring that citizens expressed in Union Square."

According to Mr. Nissen, the Union Square Alliance met recently with Manhattan Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe to negotiate the presence of an ongoing memorial at Union Square. At the meeting, parks officials agreed to limit their sweeps to once a week, on Monday mornings, giving the organizers a chance to remove memorial items the night before.

But fewer and fewer people have been visiting the memorial; for the alliance, the park's confiscation of "vigil materials" has discouraged gatherings and vigils when they are needed most.

The alliance asked the board to serve as an intermediary with the Parks Department. Board 5 agreed to put the proposal on the agenda for its December meeting.

- Shazia Ahmad

'Save the High Line' May Be Too Late

Like Pennsylvania Station before it, the old, elevated West Side Highway went down in the late 1970's in a silent crash of ornate metal and concrete, with just a few hearty souls resisting the idea of obliterating this vestige of a simpler New York.

That can't be said for the High Line. A phalanx of celebrities (Diane von Furstenberg and Glenn Close, to name two), area residents and even Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg have been pushing for the preservation of the rusting elevated railroad track on the West Side. But chances are that the High Line will, like the old West Side Highway, still face the demolition cranes.

Board 4 learned in October that the city in March lifted a hurdle to the High Line's destruction by making a "negative declaration" that its demolition would have no environmental impact. The board hasn't taken a position on whether the High Line should be preserved or demolished, but at its Nov. 7 meeting it quickly took a firm, very negative position on being left out of the loop.

The High Line, which stretches for 28 blocks between the meatpacking district and 34th Street, was built during the 1930's to lift freight transport off street level and avoid pedestrian accidents. It has been out of use since 1980, and the owners of the property over which it runs have been trying to have it torn down for more than a decade. They formed a group called the Chelsea Property Owners and have been negotiating with the High Line's current owner, railroad company CSX, over how to split the demolition costs.

On the other side, however, is the Friends of the High Line, which wants to see the High Line entered in the national "Rails to Trails" campaign, whereby thousands of miles of out-of-use rail track have been converted into open public space.

The city hasn't been receptive to the idea thus far, but the Friends of the High Line is "hoping very much that there'll be a shift in view that the High Line can be a positive element to economic development on the West Side," Joshua David, one of the organ-ization's founders, who is also a member of Board 4, told The Observer .

More than a dozen High Line supporters urged Board 4 at its Nov. 7 meeting to take action against the city's issuance of a negative declaration without public review. "I'm outraged that this deal is being made behind our back," Chelsea resident Rodney Durso told the board.

The legality of the negative declaration, which was based on an Environmental Assessment Statement prepared under the auspices of Rudy Washington, the deputy mayor for economic development and finance, is just one of the issues the board wants to see discussed in a public forum.

The board dispatched a fiery letter to Mr. Washington saying that it is "deeply disturbed" about the fact that demolition plans have been progressing without "public review or even notice." The letter goes on to reject the "sweeping assertions" that tearing down the High Line would have no environmental effect. "The impacts of demolition on over a mile of the fashionable arts district and on the new residential buildings in the area as well as the resulting interruptions to traffic is sure to be a considerable economic and environmental burden."

City officials did not return calls for comment.

- Karina Lahni

Nov. 14: Board 6, N.Y.U. Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, Classroom A, 7 p.m., 319-3750; Board 8, Hunter College School of Social Work, 129 East 79th Street, auditorium, 7 p.m., 758-4340.

Nov. 15: Board 2, St. Vincent's Hospital, 170 West 12th Street, Cronin Auditorium, 10th floor, 6:30 p.m., 979-2272; Board 3, Public School 20, 166 Essex Street, between East Houston and Stanton Street, auditorium, 6:30 p.m., 533-5300; Board 9, 565 West 125th Street, between Broadway and Old Broadway, 6:30 p.m., 864-6200.

Nov. 20: Board 1, Southbridge Towers, 90 Beekman Street, community room, 6 p.m., 442-5050; Board 11, North General Hospital, 1879 Madison Avenue, first floor, 6:30 p.m., 831-8929.

Sources told The Observer that City Hall officials have asked Deborah Wright, president of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, to withhold funds from projects in which Mr. Butts or the Abyssinian Development Corporation, the development arm of his church, is involved. Ms. Wright helps oversee the distribution of $300 million in economic development assistance for the New York Empowerment Zone in upper Manhattan as well as the South Bronx. (Ms. Wright, through an aide, declined to comment. City Hall did not return calls seeking comment.) Mr. Butts and Mayor Giuliani have had a stormy relationship, and it reached its nadir last year when the cleric called the Mayor a racist.

City Hall's actions threaten to bring to a halt at least two major community development projects–the restoration of the Astor Row homes on West 130th Street and the construction of 80 units of lower- and middle-income housing nearby. The A.D.C. has played a role in both projects.

In addition, sources said that administration officials have suggested that City Hall will not approve Government grants and will not allow development of any city-owned land for any projects with ties to Mr. Butts or the A.D.C., which has attracted financial support for its work from private sources such as Chase Manhattan Corporation, General Electric Company and American Express Company. The A.D.C. is just completing work on a sprawling new supermarket in Harlem and was involved in a major renovation of an underused parking garage–a project that reportedly has been blocked by City Hall since Mr. Butts accused the Mayor of racism.

Mr. Butts and the A.D.C. are major players in the neighborhood's economic revitalization effort, which began when Harlem and the South Bronx were designated as Federal "empowerment zones" in the mid-1990's.

"We've just gone through a period of great tension–we've gone through a lot of misunderstanding and name-calling," Mr. Butts said. "In the end, we're going to find out that we can work these things through. If we can't, it won't be because I haven't tried."

The tension in Harlem comes at a time when City Hall is embroiled in racially charged complaints about police brutality, and when African-American leaders are complaining that the Mayor refuses to talk to them.

Critics charge that City Hall has been dragging its feet in general on zone matters. Mr. Giuliani's representative on the New York Empowerment Zone Board of Directors, Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington, has twice canceled meetings of the zone board in the last month over what one insider deemed "non-economic-development issues." And, sources said, the city's procedural slowdowns on zone issues are now systemic. According to one, "the [Giuliani administration] just keeps coming up with these problems. When someone objects to four out of 10 of the Empowerment Zone's initiatives, you can deal with it. But when they object to 10 out of 10 because somebody didn't get a piece of paper on time, that's a problem. It postpones everything." The Empowerment Zone board includes Mr. Washington, Empire State Development Corporation chairman Charles Gargano, U.S. Representatives Charles Rangel of Harlem and Jose Serrano of the Bronx and Ms. Wright.

Mr. Rangel, a Democrat who helped write the Federal legislation for Empowerment Zones, complained that "there's just no excuse" for Mr. Washington's apparent snubs of his partners on the Empowerment Zone board. City Council member Bill Perkins of Harlem said that City Hall's actions were "acts of revenge," while State Senator David Paterson called Mr. Giuliani an "obstacle to the Empowerment Zone for a long time."

The criticism of City Hall from Harlem's community leaders contrasts with the kind words that many have for Gov. George Pataki and his allies for their work in the area's rejuvenation. Mr. Pataki would seem to be an odd champion of Harlem development, but his economic development czar, Mr. Gargano, and Randy Daniels, a Harlem resident who is a senior official with the Empire State Development Corporation, have garnered high marks for their efforts in Harlem. Mr. Butts, himself an ally of Mr. Pataki, said he has only "high complimentary comments" for state officials, adding that the Pataki administration "is doing more to help Harlem than anyone in the last 25 years."

A Local Hero?

Many sources placed much of the blame for the current difficulties on the very man who ostensibly acts as the Mayor's ambassador to the city's black constituencies, Mr. Washington. Several sources complained that Mr. Washington has been unresponsive to their needs and virtually inaccessible to representatives of the Harlem community. "It's inexplicable," said Mr. Perkins. "[Mr. Washington], the local kid, he should be our champion. But also you have to understand that our local champion is representing someone else: the Mayor. [Mr. Washington] won't even meet with black leaders."

Senator Paterson, who last year chastised Mr. Butts for "fan[ning] the flames of contempt" with his provocative criticism of the Mayor, said that he has never had a conversation with Mr. Washington about the Empowerment Zone, although he had talked with Mr. Daniels and Mr. Gargano. "To me, the state is fighting over a vision for the project [while] the city is fighting more over control of the process. Maybe the city has a vision I don't know about."

According to Mr. Daniels, the state has enjoyed some measure of success in the Empowerment Zone by maintaining a flexible attitude in dealing with its partners: "The Governor and Chairman Gargano are prepared to do whatever we have to do to make the Empowerment Zone work. At times we will have to compromise, and we will do so as long as our principles are not reduced in any way. It's really important that we compromise politically when we have to." Asked if Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Washington were attempting to freeze out political adversaries from the Empowerment Zone, Mr. Daniels said he would not "single anyone out and say that. But we will not accept that from anyone. I don't know what motivates some of the decisions that are being made. But it's really important to put politics aside. We will not support or exclude anyone because of political reasons. It's inappropriate."

Tensions are such that a source close to Ms. Wright speculated that she might step down as president of the development corporation because of strained relations with Mr. Washington and City Hall. That, said the source, would be "a disastrous blow to Harlem's hopes of working successfully with the city." But sources familiar with the zone said they've nearly resigned themselves to waiting for Mr. Giuliani to leave City Hall, either in January 2002, when his second term expires, or in January 2001, when he would leave office if he runs for and wins a Senate seat next year.

Apparent setbacks notwithstanding, there are some signs of progress. On 125th Street, ugly scaffolding covers what will soon be the gleaming new exterior of a long-awaited mall called Harlem USA. Nearby, on Lexington Avenue, a new Pathmark is set to open its doors, meaning that residents will no longer have to travel out of the neighborhood for routine grocery shopping. And Harlem will soon enter the company of some of Manhattan's most yuppified neighborhoods when a Starbucks outlet opens on the corner of 125th Street and Lenox Avenue.

Mr. Perkins, the local Council member, remains upbeat about the New York Empowerment Zone's potential, saying it could have a "ripple effect" not just in Harlem but throughout the city.