West 71st St Block Association

Neighbors Working Together for a Safer and More Beautiful Block!

Please join us for our Autumn Celebration on Saturday October 4th from 11am-2PM!

at Grace & St. Paul's Church at 123 West 71st Street

at Grace & St. Paul's Church at 4pm

123 West 71st Street

Come meet your neighbors and share and your concerns for our block!

Join us for refreshments,

Block Association T-shirts,

literature, and more.

Children are welcome!

The West 71st St Block Association covers the blocks between Central Park West and Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

West 71st Street is a great place to live and we are working together to make it even better! Come and meet our co-leaders Katina Ellison and Karen Raschke.

Current issues we are working on: Improving safety and reducing chaos at the pedestrian plaza outside McDonald's following the shootings there on Halloween 2024. Stopping the proposed e-bike charging station for the bow-tie intersection (sign petition below!), beautifying the tree wells, rats, trash/litter on the sidewalks, scaffolding, nighttime noise and illegal behavior, working with the 20th Precinct and outreach groups to help the homeless, and replacing the newspaper bins with newer and fewer ones.

We work on the above issues by collaborating with local legislators, Community Board 7, city agencies, police, both churches on the block, local businesses, outreach to the homeless, Sanitation and Health Departments, landlords, neighbors.

How to help:

1. Tell your neighbors about our block association and have them e-mail us to add them to our list.

2. Call 311 or e-mail 311 at http://www.nyc.gov/apps/311/about.htm to report block issues. Or call the 20th police precinct at 212.580.6411.

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

We were so happy to see so many of you at our Autumn Block71 Celebration this past Saturday and to meet new friends who signed up to join us!

We loved meeting neighbors and learning about your concerns and ideas for our block. Welcome new members!

The weather was perfect and our elected officials popped by including City Council Member Gale Brewer, Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and City Council Member Erik Bottcher. Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and Senator Hoylman provided invaluable materials for the day. We were also happy to see Elizabeth Caputo from CB7. They all listened to our concerns and goals as they always do. Details of our current work in an upcoming email!

Voter registration! We were once again joined by the League of Women Voters who signed up new voters and provided information on upcoming elections. A sixteen year old was so excited to register even though she will have to wait until age 18 to actually vote. Visit the LWVNY website!

League of Women Voters registered new voters and shared election information

Literature from Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal

Below: Susan kept the bees away from our Two Boots Pizza!

Below: Phil Hartman of Two Boots Pizza with Karen

Below: Steve Anderson, Pres. of UWS Coalition, Katina, Karen, Susan and City Council Member Gale Brewer

We were so lucky to have the jazz duo of Bruce Edwards and Felix Hartley. Thank you to Teddy Yoon Location Services & Majestic Hour Productions for sponsoring our music!