Asked who was going to carry the torch for Harlem as the old political guard enters obsolescence, Governor David Paterson responded, as is his wont, with a joke. As he walked out of a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast at St. Bart’s church on 51st Street on March 17, Mr. Paterson told The Observer, “Somebody once wrote that you shouldn’t pity the community for wondering who its leaders are—you should pity the community that needs leaders.” Mr. Paterson’s point was that the attention should be on Harlem’s problems, not its politicians. But up there, right now, Topic A is David Paterson.
