Hello Friends & Neighbors,

We held our first in-person West 71sty Street Block Association meeting on Sunday June 26th at 4pm at our usual meeting place, Grace & St. Paul's Chruch at 123 West 71st Street. Thank you to Pastor Martin and the church for working with us and welcoming us for all these years.

We are continuing to focus on beautifying and cleaning our block and we welcome your donations to buy mulch, signs, etc.  Please let us know of your concerns and ideas!

Please let us know if any of your concerns and we will keep you posted as to our next meeting.

Meantime, continue to enjoy the Summer, including free activities at Lincoln Center, in our Parks, and other nearby spots.

                                                    Lincoln Center Plaza on a Summer evening

The West Side Rag has a consistently great weekly events listing here. 

Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City programming continues; check this link for calendar. Every Wednesday from 8 – 10pm on Jaffe Drive, Comedy Underground presents new standup comedians. Film at Lincoln Center screens several movies outdoors each week. 

NYC Parks and the Riverside Park Conservancy sponsor hundreds of free events in the park all summer (PDF). Follow them on Twitter, especially for cancellations due to weather: @summeronhudson.

Hudson River Park events can be found here; sign up at the top of their webpage to receive their weekly newsletter with dozens of free events listed. 

Sunday Open Streets on Columbus Avenue! 

https://www.columbusavenuebid.org/openstreets

 

Parks

For weekly emails on events in our parks: manage your NYC Parks newsletter subscriptions.

Kind wishes,

Katina and Neighbors

Theo "Mayor of West 71st Street" celebrates his 96th birthday with friends and neighbors!

 

                                       Happy Birthday Theo!

                    Your sunny disposition cheers us all.  We love you!

2021 Certificate of Appreciation from our City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal!

 

    We thank Helen and her staff for working with us on our efforts to improve our neighborhood!

                                                        Outreach Day:  Meet & Greet!

                            Some of our Work and Traditions: 

1.    Pedestrian Safety:  Worked with our local elected officials to improve pedestrian safety at the “bow-tie” intersection at 71^st and Broadway. Thank you, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal and Erica Overton. This is an ongoing project as the area continues to need traffic light adjustments, etc. 

 2.     Scaffolding & Dumpsters: Worked to have scaffolding and dumpsters removed when they lingered too long!

 3.     Rats: Organized walk-throughs of our block with the head scientist from the Health Department along with Sanitation to assess the rat problem and solutions. We are grateful to Linda Rosenthal's office and Erica Overton for help in arranging this critical step. 

 4.     We hold Spring Spruce-Ups every year to tidy the block, clean out treewells, and put fresh mulch and daffodil bulbs in.

 5.     Reached out to neighbors during the COVID crisis to offer help with errands and provide info on tests, vaccines, and more. 

 6.     Homelessness: Held meetings on homelessness to find solutions to provide housing for all.  We communicate with Goddard Riverside when someone is experiencing homelessness to be sure they are already reaching out to the person.  

7.  Open Streets: Successfully advocated to NOT allow our street to be closed to traffic daily to allow school children to play in the street.  We have a senior center and senior housing on the block and want vehicles to be able to come and go easily, including for emergencies. 

 8.     Tenant’s Rights: We provide information & resources to tenants with concerns, both in rentals and co-ops. 

 9.     Had illegal electric neon signage removed, as it violates city code. 

 10.  \Noise Control: Advocated along with others to close very loud nightclub which overflowed with drunken loud patrons shouting and fighting on the street in the middle of the night.  

 11.  Regularly bring our concerns to the monthly Police Community Council Meetings, including bicycles on the sidewalks, dangerous crosswalk (bow tie intersection), and more.

 12.  A chance to meet and socialize with neighbors:  we have had gatherings and potluck celebrations with live jazz – thank you, Pastor Martin and Grace & Saint Paul’s Church!

 13.  Work with our businesses who have provided food and snacks for our gatherings and meetings!  Thank you, Tallulah, Oxbow, Metro and Tasty restaurants and Magnolia Cupcake!

 14.  We have an ongoing relationship with both churches on our block ~ we help each other!

                                                        Michael is our chief gardener!

 

Winter 2021 ~ During the Fall, some treewells were beautifully planted!   Even mulch or Christmas tree branches can make a treewell look better and deter trash and doggies.  We just obtained more "Love Your Tree" signs and plan to clean and decorate neglected treewells with mulch and fresh signs. 

 Hello Friends!

Despite the current crisis, the West 71st Street Block Association remains active behind the scenes, working on issues of safety, beautification, rat control etc.  Soon we will clean out the treewells that are neglected and place fresh mulch and then Christmas tree branches after Thanksgiving. 

We continue to monitor conditions on our block and call 311 when appropriate for sanitation and safety issues as they arise. We are working with OneBlockUWS on keeping our neighborhood clean!  

Our members work to see that scaffolding, sidewalk sheds and dumpsters are removed as soon as work is finished. 

We will resume Zoom meetings shortly and will send out an invitation.

We welcome your ideas!

Kindly,

Katina and Friends

                                        Treewells at Blessed Sacrament, when beautifully planted;

                                     we have plans to spruce up all the treewells, as we do each year

        

Update - January 2018

Please join us for our next meeting Sunday January 28th at 4pm at Grace & St. Paul's Church at 123 West 71st Street, between Columbus and Broadway.

We took a hiatus from meetings in November and December but our work continues.  Here are some of the activities we have been engaged in:

1.  Treewells:  Cleaned out tree wells and replaced "Curb Your Dog" signs.   Please help us keep these treewells tidy and urge your super to do the same.

2.  Pedestrian safety:  Reporting dangerous conditions at the bowtie intersection (71 and Broadway),
     and working with elected officials to make this crossing safer.

3.  Cleanliness:  Working with managers and supers to keep front of buildings and sidewalks clean.
     Call 311 if you see a sanitation issue on ur block, and please urge your super and building management to keep the sidewalks clean at all times in front of the building including 18 inches into the curb and cleaning out tree wells.  This is the law in NYC.

4.  Homelessness:  The homeless couple and their dog that were sleeping at the church have found housing and have not been sleeping there.

5.  Police Meeting: We attend the Police Community Council Meeting  several times a year to bring our concerns to their attention. These concerns include homelessness, panhandling, and the dangerous bow-tie intersection.   We learned that panhandling is legal and that homeless people can only be arrested if they break a law such as threatening people.  We are in touch with many groups who help the homeless and hope that every homeless person on our block can be offered services and housing.

6.  Rats:  While the situation has gotten better, people continue to report seeing rats on our block.
     That is why it is imperative to keep trash contained, and to report sightings of rats to 311.
     Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal who has been working on this issue reported that the city plans
     to use dry ice to humanely eliminate the rats, and approval is forthcoming.