It’s been a while since our last communiqué. There is much going on in our ‘hood: from Related Development’s latest non-payment to the MTA for the Hudson Yards to mammoth new apartment buildings to yet more bars and a Bank Street College sponsored Head Start for needy pre-k kids. The Head Start program is housed at the Metro Baptist Church on 40th Street west of Ninth Ave. (212) 353-2532 Extension 232
HKNA’s next meeting will be at 6:30 pm Monday, March first downstairs at 454 West 35th Street, just east of Tenth Avenue. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend. We want to hear your views on community goings-on. Guest TBA.
We’re sad to relate the recent death of Alice Parsekian, long-time resident of West 34th Street who tended the garden there as well as the flower beds at Midtown South precinct house. Alice will be remembered at St. Michael’s Church February 13 at 11 a.m.
The threatened closing of Saint Vincent’s hospital presents a dangerous future for us all.
St. Luke’s-Roosevelt hospital is neither large enough nor equipped to handle everyone on the west side south of Columbia University. Fortunately we have our elected officials in our corner. Their neighborhood liaisons are in parentheses:
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at 212-564-7757 (Amanda Younger)
(Christine is Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton’s representative on the City Council as well as the Speaker)
NYS Senator Tom Duane 212-633-8052 (Seth Berliner)
Assembly Member Dick Gottfried 212-807-7900 (Jeffrey LeFrancois)
Borough President Scott Stringer 212-669-2258 (Sandy Myers)
to find out what you can do to help. The state has promised $6 million and another $2 million is coming but that will keep the hospital afloat only a few weeks. Urgent solutions are needed now!
Community Board 4 has a new website: www.nyc.gov. Type CB 4 to get to the site and sign up for their informative e-messages and monthly calendars. CB4 Office: 212-736-4536 – 330 West 42nd Street, 10036, across from historic Holy Cross Church.
If you are concerned about the proliferation of bars here, to the exclusion of anything else, express your concern to the chair of Community Board 4 and co-chairs of the Business License Committee. Bear in mind that just between 49th and 50th Streets in and around Ninth Avenue there are 20 liquor serving establishments. Landlords are charging exorbitant rents only bars can afford;
HKNA Winter Newsletter 2010/Page Two
which means bakeries, family-oriented retail; book and stationery shops, virtually ANY small independent business, cannot compete. HKNA thinks it is time for the Community Board to represent the community on this issue by saying NO to more bars. Bring down the rents to let others in!
John Weis, Chair, CB4 – John Owens, Chuck Spence, co-chairs of CB4’s Business License Committee. Write to them at the address above or e mail them at: info@manhattancb4.org
For those who are new to the City, help from our government works like this:
First contact
Your Block Association , then your Community Board, then your New York City Council representatives: Gale Brewer and Christine Quinn
For Albany issues, your New York State Senator Tom Duane; New York Assembly members Linda Rosenthal and Richard Gottfried; Congress: Jerrold Nadler (all have web sites)
Bearing in mind that Community Boards, which have all volunteer memberships, are ‘advisory’ only. That said, CB4 is one of Manhattan’s strongest.
Here are addresses for block associations in Hell’s Kitchen:
44th Street: west44nyc@yahoo.com
45th Street west45thstreet@gmail.com
46th Street – west46ba@yahoo.com
47th/48th Streets: aefearshk@earthlink.net
50th/51st Streets: HK5051@gmail.com
55th Street: west55ba@gmail.com
The Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association (HKNA) membership is open to all. We are entirely volunteer-led and charge no fees. Let us hear from you: information@hknanyc.org
Good news! Community Board 4 has unanimously approved part of HKNA’s plan for a “Green Necklace of Parks” between 34th and 42nd Streets. Thanks especially to board member and planner/architect, Meta Brunzema. As well, Community Board members unanimously passed a resolution to help small theatre companies stay open here. Bravo!
More good news. The City has planted several trees here and more are promised. But it is up to us to buy top quality steel tree guards. Without guards trees are vulnerable to – well, you know. We’ll be contacting business owners along the route for contributions.
Head’s Up: A new branch of the celebrated Housing Works Thrift Shop(s) has posted signs at the World Wide Plaza 9th Ave strip. Profits go to HIV-AIDS programs.
Here’s a useful site to check weekly: www.chelseanow.com
We look forward to seeing you Monday evening, March first.
Best wishes from Kathleen McGee Treat, Chair
Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association – 454 West 35th Street, NYC 10001
212-501-2704 - www.hknanyc.org
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