The side of a building on 125th Street and Broadway has become a focal point of AIDS awareness in Harlem. Until March, two huge billboards on the building combined to declare, “We’re not taking it lying down!” – the tagline of an ad campaign by The Women’s Institute at Gay Men’s Health Crisis. The posters were replaced by twin ads for the “HIV stops with me” effort sponsored by the state and city health departments.

The messages and their prime Harlem placement come at a time when African-American women are the group with the highest rate of HIV infection in the city – and the nation.

Farmers in the Midwest have more than doubled their profits since 2005 by selling grains like corn and soybeans, thanks to the country’s biofuel craze.

But Northeast farmers, who primarily raise livestock, have ended up on the wrong side of the tipping scale.

The agricultural shift is having a direct impact at New York City’s Greenmarkets, where farmers are struggling to keep prices down as their fuel and feed costs skyrocket.

Many blame high food prices in the U.S. on the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which called for the amount of biofuels produced in the country to almost double in six years.

The price of corn, the main ingredient of ethanol, soared. Wheat and soybean farmers devoted some of their acreage to corn. In response, the price for those crops also rose.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, soybeans prices have more than doubled, and corn and wheat prices have tripled.

At the same time, gasoline and diesel fuel prices have risen by about 30% and 50%, respectively, since 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Meanwhile, farmers at the Union Square Greenmarket are holding their breath – and trying to hold their prices steady.

Kaiser Wilhelm started it all.

Wilhelm was the hamster Jessica Wells found crossing Broadway during a walk home nearly three years ago. “I had been shoe shopping that day, which was really lucky,” said Wells, 30. “So I took the shoes outside and put the box on the sidewalk.”

Wilhelm walked straight into the box and the New York Hamster House was born. Local shelters do not accept hamsters, inspiring Wells begin taking them in.

Run out of her one-bedroom apartment in Inwood, Wells currently houses 22 hamsters and other small animals. Cages are neatly lined up against the overflowing bookshelves in the living room.

For a room with so many animals living in it, it was surprising quiet on a recent Sunday. This all changes come nightfall – the cacophony of the hamsters squeaking, running on their wheels and shredding cardboard boxes can regularly be heard. “I had to move my DVD player into the bedroom because it got so loud in here,” Wells said.

Before Kaiser Wilhelm, Wells had never owned or taken care of a hamster before. “A lot of it is trial and error,” she said, crediting hamster discussion groups online and comments hamster aficionados post on her blog for much of her knowledge.

“I’ve learned a lot. The good thing is that I don’t pretend that I know everything,” added Wells, who estimates she has taken care of more than 400 hamsters since 2005.

Wells does not charge a fee to adopt, though occasionally families will donate when they take their adoptees home. She said she spends $150 to $500 a month on supplies.

Currently, New York Hamster House is not officially a nonprofit operation, though Wells is working to change that. “Right now I’m just a girl with a lot of hamsters,” she said.

In March, Guillermo Montero, a cabbie for more than 30 years, bought his first hybrid taxi.

Montero’s Toyota Camry is now among the 1,020 hybrid cabs in New York City – about eight percent of the medallion fleet. Since making the switch, Montero said he saves at least $30 a day on gas.

“The car is the only answer to the price of gas these days,” said Montero, a 67-year-old Cuban immigrant.

As gas prices rise at a record pace and environmental concerns mount, this city is making efforts to reduce the gas consumption of its 13,150 taxis. By 2012, cabs will have to get at least 30 miles per gallon city driving. The requirement is expected to convert the entire fleet to hybrid over the next few years.

“That would be a great idea,” said Montero.

Montero’s Camry hybrid, one of about 30 such cabs, is a rare bird on the road. Montero said he responds with the same answer whenever asked about his car, “[It’s] the best buy for your buck.”

With gas prices at a record high and environmental awareness growing, bike use is on the rise in the city. Since 2000, the number of riders has increased 75 percent, according to the city Department of Transportation.

Some new businesses are popping up to help meet the demand. Meet the self-proclaimed “Drug Dealer of Bikes” – a bus driver whose side business is also in transportation. Meanwhile, the folks at Recycle a Bicycle in the East Village are taking donated bikes, fixing and selling them – with profits going toward the group’s education programs.

First-time businesswoman Doris Wade looked around her South Harlem neighborhood two years ago and saw a need: services for pets.

So she opened Posh Paws - the first of four pet-services businesses that have opened within three blocks on Frederick Douglass Blvd. in the past two years. The newest is Harlem Hound, a dog-walking and cat-sitting service that debuted in April.

“I’ve worked for animal care services before. They would never go beyond 101st St.,” said Oliver Rhee, the entrepreneur behind Harlem Hound. “It was as if there was an imaginary line that you just didn’t cross.”

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With food and energy prices rising faster than dough in a brick oven, virtually everything that goes into making and serving a slice has gotten more expensive, New York pizza makers complain.

From flour to boxes, overhead costs for pizzerias have rocketed, prompting some on Manhattan’s East Side to commiserate with the competition and talk about how much to charge for a slice.

“It’s very hard, very hard to stay in this kind of business,” said Nicola Camaj, co-owner for 20-plus years of Adriatric Restaurant on 19th St. and First Ave.

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The South Street Seaport Museum in Lower Manhattan wants to reduce its fleet by one ship. The museum is looking to shed itself of the 2,800-ton Peking, the largest vessel in its flotilla, citing a lack of resources to maintain the aging vessel.

One morning in early April, at the start of Zimbabwe’s contested election, Chaka Ngwenya was one of the many Zimbabweans in New York City anxiously awaiting news from back home.

“I don’t know what’s happening in our country,” he said of the possibility that President Robert Mugabe’s 28-year polarizing rule might soon come to an end. “But I think it could be a good thing.”

The only difference: Ngwenya was live and on air, broadcasting from a tiny room on the second floor of the Salvation Army Church in Harlem.

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Actor Gbenga Akinnagbe is reaching for new artistic heights after completing his role as assassin Chris Partlow in HBO’s acclaimed drama “The Wire.”

But life for him wasn’t always pleasant.

As he starred in the recent Off-Broadway show, “Lower Ninth,” Akinnagbe talked about his life before and after “The Wire.”