Pool Boots Kids Who Might “Change the Complexion”Campers sent packing after first visit to swim club

By  KAREN ARAIZA Updated 2:01 PM CDT, Wed, Jul 8, 2009 NBC Philadelphia Dymire Baylor says he overheard a woman ask, “What are all these black kids doing?” when he and his freinds showed up.   More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason. Pool Boots Kids Who Might “Change the Complexion” Watch Video Kids at Creative Steps Day Camp were thrilled to go swimming once a week at the Valley Swim Club. But after only one trip to the private club, they were… “I heard this lady, she was like, ‘Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?’ She’s like, ‘I’m scared they might do something to my child,’” said camper Dymire Baylor. The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers’ first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.   “When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool,” Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. “The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately.”   The next day the club told the camp director that the camp’s membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.   “I said, ‘The parents don’t want the refund. They want a place for their children to swim,’” camp director Aetha Wright said.   Campers remain unsure why they’re no longer welcome.   “They just kicked us out. And we were about to go. Had our swim things and everything,” said camper Simer Burwell.   The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded.   “There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement. While the parents await an apology, the camp is scrambling to find a new place for the kids to beat the summer heat.

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Harlem’s Real Estate Boom Becomes a Bust

clipped from www.nytimes.com Harlem’s Real Estate Boom Becomes a Bust Tina Fineberg for The New York Times Craig Charie paid $750,000 for a brownstone he had hoped to resell for for as much as $1.6 million. It is for sale for $599,000. By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY Of all the New York City neighborhoods swept up in the real estate boom of the last decade, few became as hot as Harlem. It grew increasingly gentrified and integrated. Its economy developed a lively pulse, and its town homes — stately, historic, but often neglected — fetched prices unheard-of for the area. But that sense of electricity and evolution, which thrilled some residents and troubled others, has been unplugged. And a single block — West 134th Street between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard — offers a vivid illustration of just how cool the market and the mood have turned.

READ MORE @ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/nyregion/08harlem.html