Movin' On Up

Several thousand people chanted "We want Bill!" and "Four more years!" at a campaign-style event in Harlem to celebrate the official opening of former President Bill Clinton's post-White House offices.

"Now I feel like I'm home!" said a beaming Mr. Clinton. "I am honored to be in Harlem."

Mr. Clinton, who was always popular among New York voters and the black community, almost sounded as if he were running for office again as he told the crowd, "You were always there for me and I will try to be there for you. And together we can be there for all of our neighbors around the block, around the country and around the world."

"If we had our way, he would be re-elected," said Rep. Charles Rangel, the Harlem congressman who helped Mr. Clinton find office space on 125th Street.

Red, white and blue balloons decorated the plaza where the ceremony was held outside the Harlem state office building, down the street from Mr. Clinton's new offices. Supporters waved paper fans bearing a picture of the former president's face.

"Harlem Welcomes President Clinton!" read an enormous banner stretching behind the stage where Mr. Clinton sat with actress Cicely Tyson and black politicians such as former Mayor David Dinkins and state Comptroller Carl McCall.

Mr. Clinton said that his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and daughter Chelsea could not attend because his mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, was undergoing surgery in Washington on Monday morning.

"I've never seen Bill before and I just had to be here," said Marie Douglas, a Harlem retiree who hails from Mr. Clinton's hometown of Hope, Ark. "I think he's a wonderful guy, regardless of all the sex scandals. I think he's going to be wonderful for Harlem."

Some held signs protesting the outcome of the last presidential election. "We were robbed. Remember the Florida count!" read one sign. "George Bush was selected, not elected!" read another.

Mr. Clinton's arrival in the neighborhood will help confer legitimacy on a Harlem revival that's well under way. National retailers such as Gap and Starbucks are moving in. Home ownership rates and housing prices are rising.

"Bill Clinton is no friend of Harlem," said Malik Zulu Shabazz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party, who was among a group of several dozen protesters. "Poor black men and poor black women will not have a home in Harlem any more because rents will be going up. ... We are losing our urban inner-city that is ours."

Mr. Clinton, retaining his touch as a masterful communicator, addressed the protesters' concerns head-on and respectfully.

"I want to make sure that I'm a ood neighbor in Harlem," he said. "I'm glad the property values are going up but I don't want the small business people run out because I'm coming in."

He also read aloud one protest sign that asked what he had done for Harlem. "That's a fair question," he said, then cited statistics on lower unemployment and welfare rates and noting that a local federal empowerment zone created by his administration had attracted $600 million in private investment.

On a lighter note, he recalled that as a child, he dreamed of playing the saxophone at Harlem's legendary Apollo theater. "I ain't dead yet," he added. "I may play there before it's over."

Mr. Clinton shook hands and worked the crowd after the speech, then headed to lunch at Sylvia's Also, a satellite of the legendary Harlem restaurant. "I'll be at all the local places," he said on his way in to be served hors d'oeuvres including fried chicken, bite-size barbecued ribs, teriyaki fried vegetables, teriyaki beef and sesame chicken on a stick.

Asked how his first day was, he responded, "Great! This is so awesome to be in Harlem. I'm so glad to be here."

The new office space is a departure from his old work area in the White House. There's no oval in this office, no classical furniture and no mahogany, said Navid Maqami, director of the New York office of Greenberg Farrow Architecture, which is working on the office space with Gruzen Samton Architects.

"We were delighted to find out that he liked a cleaner, more contemporary look," said Maqami, whose office came up with an understated design in beiges and earth tones with accents of cherry veneer.

Mr. Clinton's 22-by-42-foot private office, at one end of the space, features a table for small meetings, a pantry, and a private bathroom with a shower. The space also includes a reception area, conference room, and glass walled offices for staff members.

The interior, which includes glass-walled offices for some of Mr. Clinton's staff, is meant to capitalize on the stunning views from the 14th-floor penthouse that looks out at Central Park, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and the Empire State Building.

The 8,300-square-foot office, leased at a taxpayer cost of about $261,450 per year, is on the top floor of a newly renovated 14-story building. The lease comes to about $354,000 when electricity is added and tenant improvements are made.

Mr. Clinton is not the first president to set up shop in Harlem, reports CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts. In 1776, during the Revolutionary War, General George Washington used the Morris-Jumel Mansion as a military headquarters for a month.

In 1790, President Washington returned to the site for a commemorative dinner and celebration with his Cabinet members and their wives including, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

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