February 17, 1985

To those not familiar with the area, Harlem may seem like a vast slum above Central Park. But Hamilton Heights is just one among many Harlem neighborhoods that never lost their commercial or residential vitality.

THE OLD FOREST And Other Stories. By Peter Taylor. 358 pp. New York: The Dial Press/Doubleday & Company. $16.95. THOUGH he is younger than the others, Peter Taylor belongs essentially to that generation of writers - John O'Hara, John Cheever and the early Irwin Shaw - whose names, glimpsed at the end of a New Yorker story in the 1950's, flashed like a red signal to the casual peruser of cartoons and ads: ''Stop skimming! Go back. Read.'' Now, decades later, among a whole new cast of diversely signaling writers, Peter Taylor's name still flashes its promise of something at once substantial and subtle, of fiction well grounded in its time and place, of a story well crafted. Inclined neither to soar lyrically like Cheever nor to pick at morally unsound tissue with the sour pleasure of O'Hara, Mr. Taylor shares with them an exactitude of observation and loving attention to the minutiae of class behavior that characterizes much of our best writing in the realist mode.

For the Nets, it was a night to pass a milestone in what has been a trying and enigmatic season. For the Knicks, it was just another night of misery. The Nets reached .500 for the first time in more than three months by defeating the Knicks, 126-117, before 11,862 fans at the Garden. They did it despite a furious second-half comeback by the Knicks, who sliced a 27- point third-quarter deficit to just 2 in the final period, and despite another phenomenal performance by Bernard King.

Spurred, no doubt, by a late tapas snack in SoHo the other evening, I had a nightmarish dream about a group called Artbabblers Anonymous. It was one of those addict support organizations, and the scene was a large auditorium, peopled by a wide variety of types that I instantly recognized as art worldlings. They all shared an addiction, but it was not one of your more conventional vices: drinking, smoking, gambling, drugs. No, the problem they had in common was something that, believe it or not, seemed even more difficult to overcome. They were guilty of what one might call cliche abuse. In my dream, a team leader stood before them, and with his encouragement, different sinners would get up before the group, make a clean breast of things, and vow to break the habit.

For some months now, travelers on the Connecticut Turnpike who pass Southport at Exit 19 have been watching the framework for a multi- family residential project evolve into picturesque cluster of residences distinctly English in their style. The new Georgian-style homes now nearing completion are 16 clustered town houses in Southgate, a condominium community off Center Street.

MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT Indians in Ledyard need cash, says Tribal Chairman Richard A. Hayward. Their pizza parlor and maple-sugar harvesting businesses are not lucrative enough to help the tribe attain the financial security they desire. So the Indians, who only a year ago consolidated their reservation by regaining hundreds of acres of tribal land that they had lost in 1855, are turning to bingo - high-stakes bingo of a type that is not legal anywhere else in Connecticut, with prizes of tens of thousands of dollars a day that Mr. Hayward envisions bringing in players by the busload. Connecticut law limits bingo prizes to $350 a day, but the tribal chairman says the Pequots' bingo games would not be subject to that limit. The bingo parlor is planned for the tribe's reservation, and the reservation, he contends, is exempt from state authority.

Israeli troops pulled down their last flags, razed their last encampments and withdrew from the Sidon area today, completing the first stage of their three-phase pullout from Lebanon. The withdrawal, involving 300 men - the last units holding the Awali River bridge north of Sidon - went off without incident and was observed by the Chief of Staff, Lieut. Gen. Moshe Levy, and by Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin from the Buqsata hilltop overlooking the bridge. General Levy went down to the river to order the pullout started and reportedly shook hands with the Lebanese Army commander there. Lebanese Troops Take Over Units from the Lebanese Army's 12th Brigade entered Sidon shortly after the last Israeli personnel carrier had pulled away. Pro-Israeli Lebanese troops of the South Lebanon Army had left the city earlier.

AS the ''bed-and-breakfast'' concept grows in popularity, more and more homeowners, especially those in or near seasonal resort areas, are considering it as a way to augment household income. All they normally need for overnight guests, they are told, is an extra bedroom or two and an available bathroom. Then they may join about 6,000 homeowners around the country who are making on average about $40 a room a night in season by operating B. & B.'s. But is it that simple? Are there prudent steps to take before launching such a business? According to professionals who manage listing agencies or run such establishments, there are several issues that must be addressed before a house may be considered ready for its first guests. Among them is the possible need for zoning permits or clearances from the local fire or health department. Care should be taken to limit the number of guests to the permissible maximum without coming under hotel-type regulation.

Housing Boom Thanks largely to the recent decline in mortgage interest rates, the Government this Tuesday is expected to report that housing starts rose a whopping 4 percent in January, compared with 2.1 percent in December and 1.2 percent the month before. ''After seasonal adjustments, the January figure should translate into 1.65 million housing starts on an annual basis, up from 1.58 million in December,'' said Richard E. Mount, senior economist at Merrill Lynch. ''But the housing situation is not as rosy as the figures indicate,'' Mr. Mount continued. For one thing, most of the January gain was in single-family residences to be used as a family's principal home. The building of vacation homes has practically halted because of the Administration's proposed tax law changes, which would prohibit the deduction of mortgage interest costs on such homes.

A breathtaking if bloody 15-round fight, which began with a skull and crossbones and ended with expressions of love, may have gloriously capped the boxing career of Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini, not with victory but with dignity. Livingstone Bramble, sometimes belligerent, sometimes hateful in the buildups to his two victories over Mancini, entered the ring with a skull and crossbones on his trunks. He left it, 15 grueling rounds later, embracing Mancini and telling the former champion, ''Ray, I love you, I love you.'' Bramble found it was much tougher retaining the World Boxing Association lightweight title than it was winning it from Mancini last June 1 with a 14th-round knockout. In fact, all three judges wound up giving the 24-year-old from the Virgin Islands the verdict by a single point.

A RUTGERS University history professor and eight state and county college professors have been named to develop college and high school curriculums to help students understand the experiences of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. The yearlong, $147,000 project at Rutgers is headed by Dr. Virginia Yans-McLaughlin and financed by the state's Department of Higher Education. Extensive renovations are now being made at both Ellis and Liberty Islands, especially on the Statue of Liberty. Dr. Yans-McLaughlin was a member of the special advisory committee formed by the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to determine the design and content of exhibits in a museum to be created on Ellis Island. She also advises the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Commission headed by Lee Iacocca, chairman of the Chrysler Corporation.

JERUSALEM LAST week was one of those moments in the Middle East when everything and everyone seemed to be in motion. But despite the whirlwind of diplomatic activity spanning three continents it seemed prudent to wonder whether there was much ado about nothing. ''There is a lot more motion than there is movement,'' said Prof. Mark Heller, co-author of the Middle East Military Balance, issued by Tel Aviv University. ''I don't have the sense that there is any grand design or big picture being fitted together.''