56 years ago today, Mayor John Lindsay vowed to revitalize Mount Morris Park (soon to be renamed Marcus Garvey Park) . The west side of the park looked like this (image looking northbound towards the corner of Mount Morris West and West 124th Street):
Mayor Lindsay vowed to revitalize and announced the project with a billboard:
The result was the amphitheater and the pool. Perhaps most dramatically was Mayor Lindsay arriving at the park by helicopter, and landing on the acropolis:
Recently a New York historian – Eve Kahn – reached out to residents on East 126th Street regarding a former resident from the block – the reformer/publisher/writer Zoe Anderson Norris (1860-1914).
Zoe Anderson Norris lived at 57 East 126th Street around the turn of the 20th century. In addition, as an author, Zoe would write about and describe her life on East 126th Street, including her view of rose gardens out the back window and the sound of nearby church bells (most likely St. James).
On either side were other back yards of the same shape and pattern, better tended, being private back yards, the roses held primly against the wall by strings. Further on yet rose the rear of a church, covered with vines, the tinkle of whose chimes told the half hours and the quarters
She said Zoe was a strong willed woman, believed in God in her own way. Eve Kahn said she’s thrilled to learn that Zoe’s former house is still full of empowerment and rejoicing!
Black Minds. Black Creativity.
Alice H. Walker was working as a cook in New Jersey in 1919 when she patented a central heating system that led to the creation of modern home heating systems used across the globe.
Garrett Morgan, the son of formerly enslaved parents, had only an elementary school education when he created the stoplight that is still used at intersections today.
Mark Dean led the team of computer scientists at IBM who invented color computer monitors—the technology that allowed for modern computers and smartphones.
Valerie Thomas is the NASA physicist who invented a transmitter in 1980 that could project 3D images onto a screen, thus paving the way for the 3D movies playing in theaters today.
And in 2020, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett became the lead scientist at the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center. Her work led to the creation of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
The Henry J. Carter Specialty Hospital, just east of Marcus Garvey Park (between 122nd and 121st Streets and Madison and Park Avenues) replaced a Harlem church (outlined in green below)
The photo (below) shows the rock rubble in Marcus Garvey park before the depression era work to revitalize the park, with the church in the distance.
Zooming in, you can see the church, and the brownstones that used to line Madison Avenue.
Financial Literacy Panel
Health and Donation Event
East 115th Street and Lexington Ave, in the East Harlem Neighborhood Health Action Center.
“The overhead lights in the back of a public plaza in East Harlem, mounted on a rusty viaduct that supports the Metro-North Railroad, were not working. And Carey King was panicking.
Ms. King, who runs the plaza as the director of Uptown Grand Central, a nonprofit group formed by local merchants, was getting ready to reopen that section in the spring of 2021 after two years of construction to make it nicer. It was so dark that neighbors stayed away. Drug addicts shot up in the shadows and others found hidden corners to urinate and defecate.
When Ms. King tried to get the lights turned on, the Metro-North Railroad, which is operated by the state, said they were not its lights. She went to the city’s Department of Transportation, only to be told to check with Metro-North. After months of going back and forth with different agencies, she finally got city transportation officials to take ownership of the lights.
‘It’s a bad joke: How long does it take to change a light bulb?’ Ms. King said.”
There’s just a little while longer to enjoy the Winter Lights that are glowing here along East 125th Street.
Our trees are lighting even more blocks than ever before, from Fifth to Second avenues. We’re grateful as always to local small business Urban Garden Center for the many weeks they spend to bring you the holiday magic.
The lights will be up through the end of February — adding not only festive cheer, but extra shine and safety on the sidewalks on these dark winter nights.
City and State has an article on New Majority NYC formerly known as 21 in ‘21, a women-in-elected office advocacy group that played a key role in bolstering the number of women represented in the City Council. Since its founding in 2017 the group has surpassed its initial goal two years ago when voters elected 31 women to the body – the majority of whom were women of color. Members’ work has since shifted into a new stage of sustaining the majority of women in the city’s political leadership for years to come. The group’s endorsements for the 2023 City Council elections were staked around that premise.
“We’re thrilled to see so many women who are stepping up and saying that they want to represent their communities,” said Yvette Buckner, executive board chair for the New Majority NYC. “It’s so critical and important because they are seeing what’s happening on the ground from very different perspectives.”
That’s not the case in District 9 in Harlem, where the New Majority NYC endorsed Assembly Member Inez Dickens over Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan. Richardson Jordan got the group’s second-ranked endorsement two years ago, but the socialist has courted controversy in her first year, voting against Adrienne Adams as speaker, tweeting apparent justifications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and opposing a controversial rezoning that would have created some affordable housing units. The Democratic primary has already taken on a fairly competitive tone, and Richardson Jordan is likely to lose other mainstream endorsements that some incumbents take for granted.
Richard Jordan’s racially divisive and nationalist rhetoric has also alienated many Harlem residents who have noted (for example) that she did not attend a vigil for Yao Pan Ma, a 61-year-old from China, was murdered in 2021 while collecting cans on busy 125th Street, and has failed to attend any of the Upper Manhattan Asian American Alliance cultural events.
The Studio Museum Grows
Facade work continues to climb on the new Studio Museum of Harlem building.
Columbia Journalism Student Wants to Hear From You
My name is Morgan Desfosses, I am a staff writer at Columbia Daily Spectator’s long-form magazine The Eye. In case you are unfamiliar with us, we are the branch of Spectator that focuses on nuanced, in-depth, human-centered reporting.
I am currently working on an article about Columbia University and New York City’s overdose prevention efforts including the new overdose prevention centers provided by OnPoint.
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I have met with several leading researchers in this field and will be meeting with a NYC DOH commissioner and OnPoint themselves. As residents and community stakeholders in these neighborhoods, your voice is necessary to understanding the complexity and nuance of these issues, and as such I am eager to hear your perspective.
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Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you! Morgan DesfossesStaff Writer |
Al Taylor is vieing to be Harlem’s next City Council member and here is your chance to meet him, and walk with him in the neighborhood. Meet him at La Marqueta – 115/Park – tomorrow at 2:30pm and walk up to 126th Street.
Al Taylor is an assembly sponsor of a bill to legalize supervised injection sites in New York State, yet has apparently never seen/toured the OnPoint facility. Here is your chance to show him East 126th Street.
If you can’t walk up from East 115th Street and Park, email [email protected] and ask for an ETA at Lex/126.
You are invited to join a virtual meeting with Yusef Salaam this Thursday at 7pm. After a district walk last Monday, Yusef has a good idea of East Harlem’s quality of life issues and concerns. We are hoping that after witnessing our street experience, Yusef will tell us more about what he intends to do, if elected to City Council.
Please help forward this email to your neighbors! When our neighbors are more informed about the election candidates, they will turn out to vote, and then we can effectively hold our officials accountable.
Quote from Yusef “This gives us the opportunity to be able to restore Harlem to the greatness that it is and could always be.” (read more here)
Note that if you have questions for Yusef, you can post your questions on the Q&A section of the webinar, or feel free to send them to me ahead of time.
Some great CONFIRMED news coming up for all of us at Marcus Garvey Park & there is more good stuff brewing.
FUNDING FOR INFRASTRUCTURE
1. $12 million designated by Mayor Adams for stone repair and rat abatement / awaiting information on timeline as this was recently announced.
2. $1.7 million allocated by City Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan for “Green 2 Greener Initiative”/ sustainable energy solutions (we are working with her office & capital & planning offices at Parks now to finalize this plan)
3. $1.6 million committed by State Sen. Cordell Cleare for NW small playground / awaiting information on timeline as state funding moves more slowly than city funding
4. State of Good Repair Grant for repaving of the entire NW and SW sections of the park which will add new curbing, paver stones and (5) ADA entrances and fix the drainage issues inside the 123rd & MMPW entrance where the “lake” forms (expected to begin in early November 2023)
NEW HARLEM HORT HQ
— $50,000+ pledged by New York Junior League to finish needed work and open this to the public in June 2023
You may have noticed (2) greenhouses set up at the east end of the pool. Mike, Erick & I have been building out our plan to create a horticultural headquarters (HQ) that will do the following:
1. enable us to cultivate our own plants for Marcus Garvey & for the other (3) historic Harlem parks
2. enable us to offer free public horticulture programming (workshops, demonstrations, author talks, arts horticulture events, etc) by our Parks horticulture experts and with interested partners including GreenThumb, Partnerships for Parks, Harlem Grown, City Gardens Club, Horticultural Society & others
3. offer a meetup spot for the uptown gardening/hort community such as GreenThumb gardeners who have never had a central meet up site
4. create a hort volunteering meet up place where schedules can be posted, signup and pickup of tools, gloves, etc, can happen
5. offer a beautiful positive space for the community that can be used for events, meditation, etc.
$1.3 MILLION GRANT FROM MELLON FOUNDATION TO HARLEM GROWN
Harlem Grown submitted a grant to Mellon Foundation to provide support to Marcus Garvey as a cultural heritage site. This grant will provide the following:
1. support / fund new & existing community programming
2. support more public art in the park
3. support the mobile Harlem Grown teaching food kitchen in the park
4. support community engagement for the park
NEW COMMUNITY ROOM BY BALLFIELD TO BE AVAILABLE TO COMMUNITY PARTNERS / HARLEM LITTLE LEAGUE
The new comfort station between the ballfield and amphitheater has a community room inside of it that I can begin scheduling now for use by community partners such as Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, MMPCIA, Harlem Little League and others. Please contact me if your group wants to schedule time in the room for a meeting, community engagement forum, a membership recruitment event, etc. We are very excited to officially open this room with our great park partner — Harlem Little League in April as they kick off another season !
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
State NY Parks office has taken the lead working with me and our 2 parks groups to submit nomination paperwork for Marcus Garvey Park to be named to the National Register of Historic Places. We have moved forward to the next nomination round. If selected, this would provide more opportunities for needed funding such as for the acropolis.
ON POINT PARTNERSHIP REDUCES NEEDLES & MORE IN THE PARK
Our partnership with On Point, a drug treatment center on E. 126th, has helped us reduce the following:
1. # of needles in the park
2. the # of drug-addicted people choosing the park to inject/use
3. the # of people our PEP unit (Parks Enforcement Patrol) saves the lives of via NARCAN, which enables PEP to focus on its primary job of public safety
HARLEM EAT UP COMING TO THE PARK IN SEPTEMBER / OTHER KEY PROGRAMMING
I have been working with Harlem Eat Up to move their great food event from Morningside Park to Marcus Garvey Park, which is confirmed. Red Rooster’s own local & global celebrity Marcus Samuelsson created this local focus on great Harlem restaurants. The official event will take place September 9-10. We are finalizing logisitics and working with our Parks special events team. I will keep you informed on this great news.
Other key programming of our April – November schedule includes events being planned / confirmed per below:
MARCH – Bethel Gospel Social Justice & Community Volunteer Event
APRIL – Earth Day Community Volunteer Event
MAY – Mother’s Day Gardening Day
JUNE – Harlem HQ Opening Weekend and later in the month the 3rd Annual Juneteenth Festival
JULY – Classical Theatre of Harlem with annual free Shakespeare in the park & Jazzmobile Fridays
AUGUST – Jazzmobile Fridays continue & Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
SEPTEMBER – 3rd Annual Opening Night of MET Opera
OCTOBER – 2nd Annual Halloween Fright Night
TRAIL BOARDS FOR THE PARK
I have submitted for budgeting approval for (2-3) trail boards — bulletin boards – to be installed in the park to share news from Parks / city agencies and our (2) park groups, Marcus Garvey Park Alliance & MMPCIA with the public.
VOLUNTEERS
Please consider volunteering for the park as we always need interested people from the park community, partner park groups, schools, churches, etc, to help our small staff with the following:
Gothamist and WNYC are reporting on the quiet closing of a disfunctional, dangerous, and troubled shelter on Wards Island.
The shelter which took up a few floors of the NYS psychiatric center (pictured above) was part of former Governor Cuomo’s family legacy – with his sister taking the helm most recently.
Tweet Regarding The 25th Precinct Community Council Meeting Gets Thousands of Views
100+ Harlem residents came out last night to precinct 25 to demand more police presence. We urge officials to set aside personal ideologies & listen to what residents want-safer streets for our children. We want to end mass incarceration but we can’t put the cart before the horse pic.twitter.com/5TzXbhJdjh
— Harlem East Block Association (@harlemeastblock) February 17, 2023
From Kioka Jackson (the 25th Precinct Community Council President):
Good Morning Friends,
I just wanted to stop in and say thank you for making last night’s meeting a success. There was a ton of things discussed and I am sending affirmation that all of your concerns were heard. When we said that you wouldn’t hear a resolution last night, it didn’t mean that we wouldn’t be doing our best to find resolution for the things within the control that we have. I am confident that the 25th Precinct’s Commanding Officer and his team are taking all things into consideration.
The word of the evening was: ACTIVATE! One of the ways that we find resolve together is strategically creating an action plan and executing it. Together we can make change! When we come together our voices are heard, and work can get done. Our District Leader agreed to work with community members to help level your concerns up to those who need to hear and see it. This is a great start! Because I know her well – I know she stands by her word.
Let me thank Shawn Hill and his team for sharing the word for community members to come out and speak up! Let’s have the same energy for our ENTIRE area! The same community issues and grievances effect the whole neighborhood. TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER!
I have vowed for the last couple of months that if we could continue to have a vibrant, full group that I will continue to bring requested voices to the table. Last night a huge request was for more resources, more Officers. Next month, I am inviting the a few Chiefs to the table. Because of the large group, we will need a bigger space – location to be announced.
Lastly, let me repeat that we may not all agree but we can respectfully disagree. My team is empathetic to all concerns and is up for the challenge to foster positive change. We can’t do that without you. We are also respectful to people’s personal grievances regarding elected officials but in this particular meeting it is not the place to address it. We are a bi-partisan entity of the NYPD charted by New York City. This not being a part of our meeting doesn’t mean that we agree or disagree – it’s just not the space where we can allow it.
I am looking forward to all the good work that is about to happen!
Good Things!
Kioka Jackson
HNBA Members Notice Increased Police Presence
A number of HNBA members, particularly near Madison/126 have reported increased police presence after Wednesday’s meeting at the 25th Precinct:
Thanks for your help [25th Precinct]. Please let everyone know that their efforts are paying off. Let’s hope there is sustainability
Academy of St. Paul & St. Ann to Close
The Academy of St. Paul & St. Ann, located at 117 E 188th St. in Manhattan., is slated to close this school year along with 11 other Catholic schools in NYC.
Lessons from 2022
Join East Harlem’s Ny Whitaker tomorrow for a conversation about lessons learned from the 2022 elections:
Hello! Please be our very special guest this week for two of “the most anticipated plays of 2023!” (NY Mag, Vulture). Complimentary tickets for WICG friends & family are available for select performances, Tue – Sun, details via the RSVP links below.
Redeem 1-2 tickets for yourself, and please share this link with colleagues. A confirmation email with etickets will arrive the day of your performance. See you soon!
Sarah Ruhl’s Letters from Max: A Ritual, is based on the book by Ruhl and Max Ritvo, directed by Kate Whoriskey, and features Jessica Hecht, Ben Edelman and Zane Pais. In this lyrical play, Ruhl shares a personal correspondence with her former student, the late poet Max Ritvo (Four Reincarnations), who openly discusses his terminal illness and tests poetry’s capacity to put to words what otherwise feels ineffable.
