The Harlem Neighborhood Block Association

Neighbors united to improve the quality of life in Harlem

Category: Events

Events happening in Harlem or East Harlem, or elsewhere but about our community

National Night Out

Posted on by Harlem Shill

The 25th Precinct Community Council is looking for organizations to staff a table at National Night Out on August 3rd. If you would be interested in staffing a table for HNBA, let us know:

Contact Us

Here is the letter from the 25th Precinct Community Council:

Good Evening,
As you know National Night Out is an annual event that happens on the 1st Tuesday of August.  We, unfortunately, were not able to host it last year because of the pandemic.  However, we are looking forward to a fun-filled night this year. 
I’m hoping that you and your organization will participate with us on the evening of August 3rd.  We are asking all organizations and partners to contribute by tabling and possibly supplying a fun activity or game.  Your activity can be for children or adults.  I.E. If you are an organization that specializes in art then you might want to have the kids color/paint National Night Out Logos (This is just an example) or you might want to host a carnival game of some sort or you can support by making an in-kind donation such as Snacks, Hot Dogs for the grill, Hamburgers for the grill, condiments, water, ice, possibly even a bouncy rental for kids, or some other inflatable rental (WE REALLY DO NEED A BOUNCY HOUSE) —(You get my drift) –  But It is totally up to you.  Look, bottom line is- we just want you to hang out with us and help make the day fun.  
If you do plan on participating and have an activity or plan on donating something please email me or text me so that I can put it on our spreadsheet.  
We totally appreciate anything that you can do to help support this night. 
Best Regards,Kioka Jackson and the 25th Precinct Community Council

Where Did Eric Adams Campaign

Posted on by Harlem Shill

The City newspaper has tabulated the 800 campaign stops that Adams, Kathryn Garcia, Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang made around the five boroughs between April Fools’ Day and Primary Day. After months of seemingly endless online forums, the location of these campaign stops is fascinating and tells you a lot about who they saw as their constituency.

In the map below, you can see Eric Adams’ campaign stops and note the heavy uptown/Harlem numbers:

The circle with the “3” is at the National Action Network headquarters, the “2” is near Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

In this detailed screenshot of upper Manhattan, you can see where Eric Adams campaigned in our community:

As Adams’ campaign staff notes:

Adams grew up in South Jamaica, and voters in the area are exactly the type of constituency he was hoping to attract: Black homeowners who “are active in civic life and deeply concerned about public safety and motivated in this election by serious concern about the decline of the city,” Thies said.

To see the full article, and the interactive maps, see:

https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/7/14/22578035/mapping-nyc-mayoral-campaign-stops

Jazzmobile on Wednesday Evening

A fantastic concert with Jay Hoggard:

https://jayhoggard.com/

West 132 to be Named After Evelyn Thomas

Posted on by Harlem Shill

On Saturday, July 17, 2021 @ 12:30pm join the American Legion Post #398 of New York in co-naming West 132 Street between Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd and Frederick Douglass Blvd. This initiative by the Neighbors United of West 132 Street Block Association (or NUW 132) recently received the go-ahead from the City to co-name the block in honor of Evelyn Thomas, a longtime resident of W132 St who successfully fought back against the Urban Renewal Programs of Robert Moses, providing those who lived in the four-story brownstones on W132 St to remain in their homes, and allowing all of us residents of W132 St to live here now.

Please join your neighbors and attend the street co-naming ceremony to learn more about why the street will be co-named after this important local historical figure.

Cornerstone on West 129th Street

A truncated cornerstone on West 129th Street near ACP

An Op Ed in the Daily News on Harlem and Oversaturation

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-harlem-is-overdosing-on-methadone-20210716-d3634ejjbredphqobz5d3e3jhq-story.html

104 and 25,626

Posted on by Harlem Shill

Only 104 votes separate Kristin Jordan from the incumbent, Bill Perkins. 104 ballots (out of 25,626 ballots cast in the City Council 9 race means that we’re headed for a manual recount.

We have not heard from the Board of Elections specifically that Bill Perkins’ wife – a patronage appointee to the NYC Board of Elections – has (or will) recuse herself from the process.

According to an article in The City:

https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/7/13/22576294/bill-perkins-council-seat-manual-recount-likely

This manual recount will take weeks to accomplish.

Sidewalk Mosaic on Astor Row

1936

Posted on by Harlem Shill

In 1936, on this day, Jesse Owens qualified for the US Olympic team, running the 100 m trial in 10.4 seconds (note the Ohio top).

He also jumped 26′ 3″ in the broad jump, and set a world record for the 200 m race – 21 seconds.

What few people know, is that this qualification and his world record, were all done on Randall’s Island in the stadium. It was in East Harlem that Jesse Owens qualified for the 1936 Berlin Games.

A month later, in Berlin, Jesse would win 4 gold medals and destroy Hitler’s dream of using the olympics to showcase white/Aryan superiority.

A Raised Bed and Birdhouse

As seen near Taino Towers

Protest Tomorrow @2:00 PM

Posted on by Harlem Shill

Join tomorrow’s March on Gracie Mansion.

We are marching for housing for the homeless because we are disgusted at the ineffectiveness and the cost of New York’s current shelter system.  Every day the residents of Harlem see shelter residents discharged onto our streets without adequate support.  As a result, our streets and our parks have become part of the Department of Homeless Services shelter system – failing shelter residents and failing the communities that house them.

The gross mismanagement of Harlem’s homeless shelter system, coupled with the oversaturation of shelters in our community reflects decades of systemic racism and closely follows the patterns laid out by redlining.  Wealthier and frequently whiter neighborhoods in New York do not carry their fair share of New York’s shelter system.  Our proud village of Harlem demands that all communities help to shelter our homeless neighbors and we have united behind a “Housing Not Shelter” policy.  

We have 4 demands of our current and future mayor:

  1. Oversaturated communities’ shelters must be redistributed to neighborhoods that are not sheltering their fair share of homeless New Yorkers
  2. The shelter system’s budget must transition from shelters to market-rate rent vouchers.
  3. Large congregant shelters must be downsized immediately and adequately staffed and supported
  4. Shelter residents should be supported on-site with drug treatment, mental health, education, and job training programs directly located in the shelters.

Play Street This Summer on West 124

March on Gracie Mansion

Posted on by Harlem Shill

On July 10th (this Saturday) at 2:00 pm, Shams, aka Da Homeless Hero, and numerous other organizations are marching to charge the mayor with reckless endangerment of homeless New Yorkers due to poor conditions of the shelters and lack of social services for shelter residents, and also to demand fundamental reform to shrink the ever-growing shelter system.  These reforms range from changes to the voucher system to get people out of shelters, and addressing the lack of incentives that promote truly affordable housing.

The march starts at 86th and East End Avenue.  Please consider joining the march at that location or at Ginjan Cafe (Park/125) at 1:30pm.

This march is highly relevant because many of the quality of life issues we witness daily can be attributed to mismanagement of the congregated adult-only shelters on Wards Island and to some extent shelters in other Harlem locations.

Let’s also not forget that East Harlem and Central has 14% of NYC’s entire single individual homeless shelter capacities (10% in East Harlem, 4% in Central Harlem).

Happy 4th of July

Posted on by Harlem Shill

Vaccination Scholarship Incentive

Enter your vaccinated 12-17-year-old for a chance to win a full scholarship to a SUNY or CUNY school.TOPVaccination Scholarship IncentiveSHARE

GET A SHOT TO MAKE YOUR FUTURE

The ‘Get a Shot to Make Your Future’ vaccine incentive is a public outreach campaign consisting of a series of statewide drawings to increase awareness of the availability and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and provide incentives to New Yorkers 12-17 years of age to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

Parents or legal guardians of any New Yorker, ages 12 to 17, can enter their child who has received at least their first COVID-19 vaccine dose, for a chance to win one of 50, four-year full-ride scholarships (including tuition, fees, room-and-board, and expenses) to any New York State public college or university.

REGISTER TODAY

Enter to Win a Full Scholarship

Parents or legal guardians, enter your vaccinated child for a chance to win a full scholarship to any New York Public College or University.

REGISTER

The Marcus Garvey Park Bathroom Construction Saga

Dear Friends:

I am pleased to report that the construction of the Little League clubhouse building has finally been completed. The construction fence was removed yesterday.  The public bathrooms are fantastic.  They have air conditioning and heating and are far superior to the bathrooms in almost any other Parks Department comfort station.  However, at the request of the Department of Environmental Protection, we are not opening them yet.  DEP needs to repair the sewer line in Mt. Morris Park West, and we are waiting to find out when that will happen.  It has been my hope that we can open the bathrooms in time for the start of the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s performances on Tuesday evening, but unfortunately that is not clear at this point.

I will try to keep you posted.

Steve Simon

Chief of Staff – Manhattan
NYC Parks
T 212.408.0110

Kudos to Metropolitan Hospital

Posted on by Harlem Shill

The Metropolitan Hospital – as a part of NYC Health + Hospitals – has announced it will participate in a “Medical Eracism” initiative to eliminate biased, race-based assessments used for decades in hospitals and clinics across the country to influence medical decisions that have been found to negatively impact the quality of care patients of color receive. The public health care system has already eliminated two common diagnostic tests – for kidney disease and vaginal birth after a cesarean delivery (VBAC) – that have embedded race-based calculations for severity of illness and risk, and can lead to implicit biases and errors in diagnosis and treatment. This initiative builds on the health system’s commitment to eliminate implicit bias in health care and provide equitable, quality care to more than one million New Yorkers who choose NYC Health + Hospitals as their medical home. For more information visit here.

Metropolitan has also been named “America’s most racially inclusive hospital” in the 2021 Lown Hospitals Index, the first ranking to examine the racial inclusivity of over 3,200 U.S. hospitals. For more information on the rankings, visit here.

Seen on FDB

CB11 Wants to Hear From You

Manhattan CB11 is seeking your input to help determine East Harlem’s greatest needs and budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. You can participate in the annual budget process by filling out the Public Input Survey today! We will be accepting responses through August 22, 2021. 
Access the survey here: https://forms.gle/qHEr3WvVrxcH2kNa6

For more information, please contact the community board office at
(212)831-8929 or [email protected].

Karaoke at The Corner Lounge

Posted on by Harlem Shill

Romeo the owner of a new lounge/restaurant is hosting a Karaoke night tonight at 8:00 PM

Bring your own bottle (wine and beer only) and they’ll have excellent food at reasonable prices. Get there early if you want to get a spot – 130th and Madison. 

See their website and menu, here:

https://www.thecornerloungeny.com/

Vaccine Available – July 9th – Lex/129