The time has come to deal with the inevitable… All good things will eventually come to an end.
Charles Rangel has honorably served the people of Harlem as its Representative for nearly 40 years. The dedicated public servant and decorated war veteran is the real deal. Charlie has made history and lived it. He is an iconic political figure who by every measure will be remembered as one of the great politicians.
Congressman Rangel assumed office in 1971 and has won re-election every two years for 19 consecutive terms in office. Forget the controversy over the ethics investigation, forget his well-deserved stature and forget his power as the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. After 40 years in office it’s just time to consider what happens next.
Let’s look at the district he represents. The 15th Congressional District of New York is one of the smallest geographically and is comprised of the communities of Harlem, East Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood and a portion of the Upper Westside including the Columbia University Area. The district is incredibly diverse and has approximately 650,000 residents from a wide range of ethnic, socio-economic, religious, and cultural groups. Rangel is a master at doing what is necessary to remain in office even with the massive change that has transformed the district over the years. This is no small task considering the district is very different than the one to which he was originally elected.
Asking the question of what comes next is not an assault on our esteemed Congressman or a call to action against him. Instead it is an attempt to address what has become obvious to many residents… Charlie Rangel will not be our Congressman forever.
HN
Harlem NOW! 
I’m sorry, I have to disagree here. Rangel is a crook and a liar and has brought a lot of shame and embarassment to our neighborhood. I, for one, am really looking forward to the day that he is forced to leave office. Hopefully we will get someone with more integrity to replace him.
I too must take issue with your characterization of Rangel, especially when you saym “Charles Rangel has honorably served the people of Harlem as its Representative for nearly 40 years”. That’s factually incorrect and this blog site loses credibility when you too buy into Rangel’s vision of himself. Rangels involvement in the Freedom National Bank Scandal, Apollo Theater State Funds, Rangel functioning with dishonorable and corrupt intent has been going on for DECADES, literally every single decade. Does this blog site have room for honesty? Do you realize Black people were better off in Harlem before Rangel took office than they are today? Rangel basically made himself rich over the course of time by placing people Haiti’s Aristede over his own citizens (because Aristede paid Rangel). Rangel never cared about anyone but Rangel as seen by the “Monument To Me” Scandal. The NY Times has asked for him to step down, Rangel has literally said he’s above the law when it comes to being entitled to having numerous Rent Stabilized apartments. The congressional system virtually guarantees re-election to the incumbant and Rangel enjoys and under-educated and under-informed voter base, sorry, it has to be said, the 15th District is comprised of poorly educated and informed people. Rangel could not dupe a broader voter base, hence he’s never risen to Senator, Black men like Carl McCall came on the scene and ran for Governor, but not Rangel? It all comes back to the mind of criminal, a crook, a thief – which stays in the SAME PLACE stealing. Talent rises (OBAMA), crooks stay in the same place stealing off the fat of the land. If you know your history Rangel F’ed over Adam Clayton Powell big time back in the early 70’s to get elected, but I won’t go into that. I can’t stand this revisionist history as if Rangel has served Harlem well. No. If he had talent he would have risen. The man thinks he’s “Papa Doc” and the 15th District is his kingdom. Today he’s a total embarrassment, top to bottom. He plans on running for office for a long time going forward and is going no where. Rangel has flunkies like Inez Dickens who plan on taking his seat once he’s gone,…but don’t hold your breath. The 15th District is majority hispanic in the ethnic voter base and Harlem needs a Puerto Rican or Dominican leader to rise and dethrone this clown congressman Rangel. Rangel is a total disgrace, let’s be honest.
The more appropriate question should be is: Why has our community’s elects failed to seek out and groom their successors? Charlie may be the “dean of Harlem politics” but he is not the only culprit of this failure. Throw in Keith W, Gov David P, Bill P, Inez D, Robert J, Denny F, and the list goes on and on and on. All have had their own political clubs (or in David’s case held leadership roles) and right in the communities they sit, have not gone about bringing in and cultivating the leaders of tomorrow. I have personally been in all of them at one time or another and witnessed the “toy drives, turkey give aways, etc” but what about adopting a junior high or high school class in their districts, volunterring their time, engaging the youth in the political agenda, bringing them to city council so that they can here what the budget hearings process is like and why (since it impacts them the most and potentially the longest) having them intern in their respective offices, assign them to community youth committees etc.. You’d think that this would be the kind of legacy that would be important but sadly it appears not. Hopefully when people get to “outraged”, as right now I just believe that they are just “a little pissed off”, then we will start to see them become unelected’s and real progressive candidates can start to carry the torch. I’m praying when they do they dont forget whats really important and thats the WORK of SERVICE and not the WORK of getting RE-ELECTED every couple of years.