A neighbourhood community wants its historic district

New York

"WHAT we have is 12 houses," Matthew Spady said, walking down a ski-slope-steep street in Washington Heights, in upper Manhattan - 12 houses that have stood together in an unbroken row since the president was William McKinley and the mayor was Robert Van Wyck, who tends nowadays to figure in rush-hour rants on the expressway named after him in Queens.

Mr Spady is worried that the row, described several years ago as "a tiny Alamo" that had managed to avoid demolition when apartment houses were going up nearby a couple of generations ago, may not remain unbroken much longer.