East Harlem.Com

East Harlem - February 26, 2001
East Harlem Online celebrated its 5th birthday today. Mr. Jose B. Rivera, founder and webmaster of the site, celebrated at his residence. Mr. Rivera has been the sole supporter of the site all these years. “The cost of the site is nothing compared to what I have received from this community. The site is my way of giving back to my beloved barrio”.

East Harlem Online first four pages where uploaded to an internet server on February, 26, 1996. Since then it has grown to over 280 pages of content and more than 500 image and photos.

Highlights
In July 1996 East Harlem Online was mentioned on both NY1 (New York 1 - Channel 1) and NBC (channel 4). It was also chosen as “Site of the Night” on MSNBC’s “The Site” cable show on June 25, 1997. East Harlem Online has gone from having 17 to over 1,000 unique visitors a day. Those who visit the site include East Harlem residents, local, national and international students.

Questions
Most questions submitted to the site are from students looking to learn more about the community. The major question though has to do with crime statistics. “One of the reasons I created the site was to dispel the bad reputation our community has”, says Mr. Rivera, “The other reason was to have the site serve as a community resource and news gathering organization. So far I have managed to do a little of both, but there is still a long way to before those two objectives are met.”

The Future
Mr. Rivera is busy installing discussion board software to give visitors the opportunity to ask questions and to speak to one another. The East Harlem Online Discussion forum will become available by Mid-March 2001. Mr. Rivera also hopes to provide small sniplets of filmed community events later this year.

Congratulations to us!