God is Good, Yo

"This isn't that expensive a hotel. It's moderate," Pumpkin Lopez explained. "It's basically clean because I try to thoroughly clean it. I try not to have too much, you know, craziness going on, like people getting into problems with other customers, you know, or people running up and down and in and out, you know, and working with this guy"-Lopez indicated a large olive-skinned man with a shaved head who stood by silently. "He don't understand English and he's deaf in one ear, so it makes it harder on me."

Lopez, who earns $3.50 an hour plus tips at the Park Avenue Hotel on 124th Street, is indeed a hard worker. He appears to have several duties, including janitor, chief of security and concierge. He runs around with a mop and bucket and a set of keys, while Manuel Pena, a sixtyish Dominican man who sits behind a thick plastic window, calls out room numbers in Spanish.

Across the street, a $236 million Marriott is set to begin construction. The project is being hailed as the first major hotel to go up in Harlem since the Hotel Theresa, onetime host to Fidel Castro, closed its doors in 1966. Mexican architect Enrique Norten is working on the design, and Danny Meyer, a downtown chef whose customers would probably not blanch at the idea of reserving a month in advance to pay $15 for a cheeseburger, is reportedly negotiating to open a restaurant there.

The Park Avenue's customers are on a somewhat tighter budget. For just $40, anyone can enjoy one of the hotel's rooms for six hours. Other options are $75 for 12 hours, $300 per week, and $600 per month. There is a common bathroom off the lobby, and some of the rooms also have private bathrooms at no additional charge.

The amenities are popular, but spotty. There is no bar, though to judge from his breath, one repeat customer appeared to have done a bit of drinking before he arrived. He had a lady friend in tow. Tall and wiry, she wore a bandana on her head and hung back silently.

"Are the movies on?" the man asked Pena, plunking down 40 dollars. "Are the movies on?"

As this couple was leaving, accompanied by a shout from Pena-"Dos veinte cinco está libre"-another one entered. The second lady asked the first, somewhat conspiratorially, "Do they have air conditioning in there?" The shy response was apparently in the negative, as lady number two moaned dejectedly before climbing the stairs to her room.

Perhaps the Marriott will have a gift shop. The Park Avenue has Robert Grant, who, like many hotel gift shops, carries a range of items for sale. On this particular day, he was very interested in moving a bottle of calcium pills. He also had a book by Bill Cosby entitled I Am What I Ate and I'm Frightened.

Grant stood at the front desk hawking his wares while Genna Borrero, a transsexual and frequent hotel guest, repeatedly asked various bystanders for three dollars. She eventually walked away disappointed, as Grant shook his head pitifully.

"That cat is always begging for money," he said. "I don't like doin' it but people are very nice to me-helped me, you know? White people, black, Spanish. I get along with everybody. And I've helped people too. When I give, I give from the heart. God is good, yo. I can give you those pills for two dollars but that's as low as I can go. If you want 'em."

Apparently like the Marriott, Grant knows racism is bad business. Lopez knows this too.

"All walks of life of people come through that door and I try to tell them they're people. There's no color. The only color is green. You remember that there's no black. There's no white. There's no Chinese and there's no Jew. The only color is green money. And plastic. Plastic and money rule. They have the say," Lopez said.

The Park Avenue does not accept credit cards, but if Lopez's vision of the future proves right it will be forced to do so or be forced out of business. Credit cards are the future. Credit cards and racial tolerance.

"Sometimes the racism issue gets in the way. People get angry and they shout out other than the person's name. I step in and try to fix the problem. In the next ten years there will be no paper money circulating. If you're gonna dispute and argue over the little things you won't be ready for the future. Things are going quick-fast, and by the same token you have to be up you have to be in tune because before you know it that building will be up."