Make sure to head to Park Avenue on Sunday, October 1st, from noon until 4:00 PM to join in the joy, the festivities, and the celebration of Harlem. The event will be from 125th Street, all the way down to 111th Streets.
Activities, food, music, giveaways, information, and so much more.
Starting today – Sunday, September 24th -the MTA will initiate a free bus pilot program on five routes, each representing one of the five boroughs, and in Manhattan, travel on the M116 bus line is free.
This initiative is a pilot program created by the MTA and is expected to run between six months and one year. Following this evaluation period, both the Governor and the State government will convene to discuss the program’s results and its future.
NYC’s new Rat Czar and the mayor have created a new look for the city’s rat portal – a map of property in the city, color coded according to rat activity inspections:
Pink and purple are not good (notice how all our parks fail…) and green means all good.
Check it out yourself to see how your building fared:
Uptown Grand Central is reigniting Party on Park – a Harlem celebration on a closed-to-traffic Park Avenue between 125th and 116th Street – on Sunday, October 1st.
Party on Park will be from Noon until 4 pm and we need you to help staff a Harlem Neighborhood Block Association table. We’ll have cards and flyers for you to hand out, and otherwise all you’d have to do would be to enjoy the vibe, listen to the great music, and say Hi to your neighbors.
If you could volunteer an hour or two on October 1st, at any time between Noon and 4pm, please email us to let us know at: [email protected]
We really hope you can help.
An Open Letter to NYC’s Commissioner Raine (Department of Buildings)
Dear Commissioner Raine,
I’m writing to ask that you stop the planned demolition of the Landmark houses at 66-68 W 119th Street in Harlem and work with the owner to have them redevelop the properties to their original splendor. I am the immediate neighbor at 64 W 119th Street.
The buildings are part of the Mount Morris Park Historic District, which remains one of New York City’s most vibrant African-American communities. Preserving its historic buildings and streets highlights our rich and diverse history, and the social and cultural influences of our different communities. It is very important to the community that Harlem retains its culture through its architecture and people; as the world around us changes, we should try to retain a bit of Harlem’s history by preserving its landscape.
The owner should be allowed to restore the properties under the supervision of the DOB and the Landmark Preservation Commission. If the owner can perform repairs to the satisfaction of your agency, there should be no reason for the DOB to rush through an unnecessary demolition.
I and the other immediate neighbor at 70 West 119th Street are convinced that all safety concerns can be satisfied as a standard matter of course in doing the restoration.
Social capital – the strength of our relationships and communities – has been shown to play an important role in outcomes ranging from income to health. Using privacy-protected data on 21 billion friendships from Facebook, Opportunity Insights measure three types of social capital in each neighborhood, high school, and college in the United States:
Economic Connectedness
The degree to which low-income and high-income people are friends with each other
Cohesiveness
The degree to which social networks are fragmented into cliques
Civic Engagement
Rates of volunteering and participation in community organizations
The site visualizes where different forms of social capital are lacking or flourishing and allows you to explore how likely children in a given neighborhood, will be able to rise out of poverty.
One measure from the Facebook data was volunteerism. The map below shows how likely community members were to be engaged in volunteering in some sort of community group/action:
Note how the Bronx and East Harlem have very low volunteering rates, but then again, so do parts of the Upper East Side.
In the screenshot (above) the Upper West Side shows the highest rate of volunteerism – reflecting the attributes of social capital – time, status, connections, and financial stability – which permit/foster volunteerism.
To see more about what 21 billion friendships on Facebook can tell us about our communities, see:
All-vinyl D.J.s, vinyl swapping and selling, analog lessons, plus skateboard: That’s this month’s installment of Open Sounds at Open Streets with Uptown Vinyl Supreme.
All-vinyl D.J.s, vinyl swapping and selling, analog lessons, plus skateboard: That’s this month’s installment of Open Sounds at Open Streets with Uptown Vinyl Supreme.
This Sunday from 2-5 p.m. at our Open Street at 100th & Lexington, there’ll be skateboards and safety gear available to borrow, plus skate obstacles where you can show your skills. Newbies are welcome for a beginner clinic hosted by Bronx Girls Skate from 2-3 p.m., followed by a free skate session from 3-5 p.m.
