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CNN Live At Daybreak

Clinton to Officially Open Harlem Offices Today

Aired July 30, 2001 - 08:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: If you are anywhere near Harlem today, you will know something is going on there.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right.

Maria Hinojosa has a front-row seat.

Maria, I heard that the rents in New York are pretty high, but $300,000 a month?

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, actually, it's $300,000 a year.

(CROSSTALK)

HINOJOSA: So that's -- well, it's still pretty bad, but it's that bad considering New York. Now, people have been out here since well before 6:00 a.m. this morning getting ready for this welcoming block party for the former president.

You've had people blowing up balloons, putting up the flowers. I don't know if they counted on the amount of wind that we would be seeing today. I know I certainly didn't count on it.

But one of the things that you can see, which is really a typical kind of Harlem scene, you're seeing little old ladies already sitting up around the gate area, around the periphery where this event is going to take place.

The former president will be officially opening up his offices today -- this, he said, because he wanted to move into Harlem to support the federal empowerment zone that he helped to create. It perhaps also has something to do with the controversy of him and his original plans of moving down in Midtown, which would have cost taxpayers over $800,000 a year -- here a little bit more low key.

Now, we're expecting to see Cicely Tyson. We're having the Harlem Boys Choir, all of them. The former president is expected to show up around noon today -- back to you, Carol and Colleen.

LIN: Thanks, Maria. Have a good time out there today.

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