Northern Flights

Washington Heights?­??“Inwood latest hot nabe

By SONI SANGHA
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Susan Martin Maffei had decided she no longer could afford her loft in Chelsea when a colleague suggested she look in Inwood. "We were a bit apprehensive about moving up here," said Martin, 56, a tapestry weaver who moved with her partner, Archie Brennan, 71, to Cooper and 207th Sts. two years ago. They have no regrets. "Here we have great light, good ceiling heights, and we're close to a beautiful park," she said. Martin is part of a growing number of New Yorkers who are ditching the West Village, Chelsea and even Williamsburg and Park Slope in search of larger spaces and cheaper rents in one of the last remaining untapped areas of Manhattan??“north of 155th St., which includes Washington Heights and Inwood.

Many of the newcomers are renters priced out of trendier neighborhoods and young professionals looking to buy their first apartment in Manhattan.

The move began a decade or so ago, as Broadway actors and musicians moved north after being priced out of Clinton. They liked the convenience of the A line, an express subway ride to the Theater District.

The influx, along with a renaissance in Latin businesses fueled by a sharp drop in crime, is turning the once sleepy neighborhood into a vibrant community of stylish restaurants, hot clubs, cool art galleries and high-end stores.

"When we started, we used to carry 40 or 50 imported wines," said Ernest Campos, who has owned Cabrini Wines on 181st St. for 25 years. "Now we have about 2,000."

Yuca-dusted salmon

Last year, Rolando Lantigua, 29, a Dominican born and reared in the neighborhood, opened Hispaniola on W. 181st St. He sells yuca-dusted salmon with purple mashed potatoes and criolla sauce for $15 and a Latin-inspired roll of tuna, sweet plantain and avocado for $12.

"When I first opened Hispaniola, people said the neighborhood was not ready," said Lantigua, who also owns Rancho Jubilee Restaurant and Arka Lounge uptown. "Now we serve up to 220 people on Friday and Saturday nights."

Ten blocks north, at another restaurant, DR-K, for the initials of the Dominican Republic, locals dressed in black dine on quail in cognac on tables made of seashells.

"This is just great," said Morgan Pfaelzer, 23, who moved to Inwood last month from Park Slope. "There are so many great things here waiting to be discovered."

Once a predominantly Irish, Greek and Jewish neighborhood, northern Manhattan saw a large influx of blacks, Puerto Ricans and Cubans in the 1950s and 1960s. But it was the Dominicans who ended up laying claim to the area.

Fleeing poverty and political turmoil back home, they started settling uptown in the mid-1960s. By 1990, the Dominican community in Washington Heights and Inwood was the largest in the United States, and locals started calling the neighborhood "Quisqueya Heights," after the Indian name of the Caribbean nation.

But if Dominicans have their own name, so do real estate brokers. Hoping to attract home buyers and renters priced out of other parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, brokers coined the term Hudson Heights in the early 1990s.

A nice price

As of Friday, a one-bedroom apartment on Park Terrace West, a quiet, winding tree-lined street, was listed for $209,000, still way below $320,000, the average Manhattan price for a one-bedroom. A one-bedroom rental on the same street was going for $975.

Dana Lang left Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for Inwood when her landlord refused to extend her lease and she heard her neighbor was paying twice the $850 she was shelling out for a one-bedroom apartment.

"My price range was better for Inwood," said the 33-year-old aspiring playwright, who also scoured Harlem and Williamsburg. "As soon as I have the chance, I'm going to buy something up here."

Businesses are counting on the new arrivals.

Farther uptown, Michael Petelka, an abstract artist, opened an art gallery a year ago called "Two07Art" in a building he owns on 207th St. "I'm going to take on the boys downtown," he said.

At year-old Umbrella Bar and Lounge, on 202nd St. and 10th Ave., clubgoers pack into the former auto garage, which features a DJ in a dog cage and 200 umbrellas hanging from the ceiling that serve as screens for videos and movies. For the two years since she moved to Inwood, Christine Peters, 30, and her dog, enjoyed the spectacular view of New Jersey's Palisades Cliffs from the Tubby Hook Caf?, a waterfront tavern at the end of Dyckman St. "I was, like, 'When did this happen to the neighborhood?'" said Peters, beer in hand, who once considered living in Williamsburg but shied away because it was too trendy.
The areas' parks, Inwood Hill and Fort Tryon, cited by many as one of the main reasons they decided to move north, also are getting face-lifts.

Police crime statistics show that between 1994 and 2002, there was an 87% and 86% decline in murders in the 33rd and 34th precincts, respectively, which cover Washington Heights and Inwood. In the 34th Precinct alone, murders have dropped from 50 in 1994 to seven last year.

With the support of Bette Midler's New York Restoration Project, the New Leaf Cafe opened last year in a 1930s stone building at Fort Tryon Park, near the Cloisters. And in the 196-acre Inwood Hill Park, which contains the last remnant of primeval forest in Manhattan, a boathouse at the Swindler Cove is scheduled to open in the fall.

"It's finally getting its due as being part of Manhattan," said Joseph Pupello, president of the New York Restoration Project.