Andrew Gombert for The New York Times

NYTimes:

Their Kingdom for a Bike: It’s Polo on Two Wheels

“They call it “the pit.” On a shady asphalt lot between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets on the Lower East Side, a young man in glasses and a faded tank top walked around with a leaf blower, sending twigs, grit and debris into its far corners.”

Best quote:

“The players at the pit remain devoted to each other and to the sport, but also to just having a good time. “At the end of the day,” Ms. Flores said, “you rode your bike in circles all day with your friends and had fun. How many adults our age wouldn’t want to do that?”

Andrew Gombert for The New York Times

M’Finda Garden

When  Sunday, September 23, 11:30am     FREE!         

Where    Meet at Merchant’s House Museum 29 East 4^th (btwn Bowery & Lafayette)

RSVP Required:  merchantshouse.org/calendar/reservations       Space limited!

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

We cordially invite you to join us for a unique experience.    

RSVP Required  (See below)

Gardens & Graveyards Walk

A reflective guided stroll through idyllic, often hidden green spaces

of Little Italy, Noho, Bowery & the Lower East Side 

Tour will visit graveyards and gardens, many not often open to the public, as well

as the sites of the long-vanished Vauxhall Gardens and the Second African Burial Ground.

M’Finda Garden    

Participants/Sponsors

Bowery Alliance of Neighbors

Elizabeth Street Garden

Liz Christy Garden

Merchant’s House Museum

M’Finda Kalunga Garden

New York City Marble Cemetery

New York Marble Cemetery

St Patrick’s Old Cathedral

M’Finda Garden 

Appreciations to Captain Yao and our local community officers PO Bozzo & PO Urena and for Community Policing.

All present reinforced the idea of forging an honest and real partnership between the community and police to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

The goal seemed to be to create a place where no one gets targeted by racism, sexism, their age, their physical or mental abilities or status, not criminalized for poverty, etc. and no one is permitted to engage in destructive or threatening behavior towards anyone else nor permitted to persistently erode the quality of life for others.

A short introduction by Captain Yao on the concept of Community Policing:

Then officers Erena and Bozzo led the meeting:

PO Urena Enrique.Urena@nypd.org (929) 334-9607

PO Bozzo Joseph.Bozzo@nypd.org (917) 455-0917

Quarterly meetings with the neighborhood like this one are planned (there are also monthly Community Council meetings at the 5^th precinct – typically the last Wednesday of each month at 7 PM 5^th precinct – 19 Elizabeth Street near Canal Street).

Introductions by everyone with a short description of who we are why we came.

An array of issues were aired. Here are the issues we heard:

Speeding and idling cars.

Speeding bikes on the pathway without regard for pedestrians, wheelchairs, children, elders, etc especially on the Chrystie Street two-way bike lane.

Complaints (not without compassion) re: street homeless in need of mental health services [non-existant?]. Some present a danger of violence, some create an atmosphere of intimidation especially to those who are vulnerable due to size, strength, etc.

Many complaints about loud, drunk parties in various locations in Zone B (officers have those exact locations). Some due to bars letting out, some not.

Many complaints about drug dealing in various locations in Zone B. (officers have those exact locations).

Solutions proposed:

Police will come back having solved or addressed the issues raised.

Police will make policing entities in areas they don’t have jurisdiction aware of the difficulties (such as subway).

Officers will rotate meeting sites from northern section to middle section to  Southern section.

Call 911 if it is an emergency – Don’t be afraid to call this number!

Call Officers Bozzo and Urena.

Call 311 if it is more of a nuisance issue – no life in immediate danger. The City responds to the issue that gets the most 311 calls. You can also do this on-line https://www1.nyc.gov/311/ or on Twitter @311

You will get a complaint #. Send the 311 complaint # to the Community Board 3 office – the office will follow-up.

LED lighting in troubled areas

Open 24/7 bathrooms in SDR Park – hire security to monitor them.

Asked by an attendee for the PO’s to go out and meet more of the small businesses.

Fund mental health options for those who are street homeless.

Acknowledge and support the homeless who are merely trying to survive and often are helping out in the park or elsewhere.

There is a block association forming on Stanton Street..

Map of “Sector B”

From Neighbors to Save Rivington House Update:

Press coverage (thank you to our local media – never more important). Quotes:

“…in a letter from CM Chin and Man. Borough President Brewer to Dep Mayor Alicia Glen, [both insisted that] Rivington House should not be converted into residential use. [arguing] that while the building itself predates current zoning regulations, its conversion to the type of residential space Slate wants to create violates the area’s 2008 zoning agreement because of … infrastructure burdens. .. the question of whether to approve the conversion is at the discretion of the Department of City Planning, and the council member’s office has been talking with lawyers from the city about ways to get the building back to its previous use. “Considering how the deed restriction was lifted and the transaction was allowed to go through, we’re still exploring every opportunity legally that the city has to take back this property,” – Paul Leonard on behalf of CM Margaret Chin’s Office.

“It’s the neighborhood, the building, but most of all the people I miss the most. I’m still very angry and upset about what happened … Basically, I think Allure should be punished for what they did to us.”…

“I wasn’t supposed to make it past 48,” he said—described the “really great experience” he had while receiving care at Rivington House, recalling his daily walks to the post office, and how students from the Julliard School would come to perform for patients. I just loved the neighborhood. It’s the people…Everybody was on a first-name basis, even the administrators, It was a place to live—Rivington House! We need this place back.” – Richard Rosenberg 70, former resident of Rivington House diagnosed with AIDS in 1994 and told he had two years to live.

“I’m the only one that can go visit her regularly. Once in a while one or two people go visit, but it’s not the same, I want her to live longer and be happier, I don’t want her to go into [depression].” – Sally Roldan forced to place her 84-year-old mother in the Bronx where it takes her more than two hours to visit — one way.

“..I had looked forward to in my retirement that I may see some of the work I’ve done in the park… If I get sick, I would like to be close to my community—the one that I spent so many years developing and nourishing. I would like my final days to be here in this community. Right now, if a senior gets sick, there’s no place for him. There’s no nursing homes. There’s nothing right here for us. And there should be. This has always been a building for the community. And it should always be a building for the community…We’re not going to give up. We will never give up. Never. – Bob Humber Park Warden of Sara D. Roosevelt Park for the past 28 years

“This could’ve been turned into so many really wonderful beds for homeless people or for people with dementia or just really people with chronic illnesses,” Shields said. “I mean, the place was perfectly set up.” – Rosemary Shields former nutritionist at Rivington House

My friends who live down here have been fighting for this building for over three years. And I’ve been hearing about it and inspired by the idea that you don’t have to just gripe about gentrification. You can actually fight it. And so I’m coming here hoping that it’s infectious. And it’ll motivate me to organize people to fight gentrification. –Ela Thier, supporter

I work for the Alliance for Positive Change. ..working mostly with HIV and other chronic illnesses…I’m here, first of all, because it’s my community. This block is special to me because …This is where, [when] I was maybe 12 years old, I used to come to buy $2 bags of dope. Eldridge Street right there used to be the drug capital of the Lower East Side. A lot of big drug dealers came out of here. And they contributed a lot to the spread of HIV… the one good thing that was left of this block was this house. And the mayor sold it. This was the only thing helping people who were adversely affected by drugs on this block. And he just sold it. He sold it like a bag of dope…My cousin who is here right now, she has been HIV positive for a long time. She’s doing great, but she was here one time. She was hospitalized here. If this wouldn’t have been here, she probably would have died. 

– William Gonzalez, lifelong LES/East Village resident

“…As family, friends and neighbors maybe all we have is our determination to care. You can’t always stop mistreatment, but you can always oppose it… And sometimes, when we act, we win a few.” – K Webster N2SaveRH

“Neighbors to Save Rivington House has always advocated for the return of the building and that’s still our stance. No matter what the little pieces are, there has not been a replacement for the 219 beds in Rivington House.” – Debra Jeffreys-Glass N2SaveRH

“Something that has fallen off the radar is HIV housing and the need for it, once we had the effectiveness of treatment, people lost track of how dire the need for housing is, and we are trying to get that back.” -Jason Rosenberg, a member of ACT UP New York,

“According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in 2016, there were 385 new HIV diagnoses of New Yorkers over the age of 50. And, while new diagnoses are declining overall, there was an increase in new diagnoses among women (including transgender women) over the age of 50 from the previous year. Of all those over the age of 50 diagnosed with HIV, nearly 26% also received an AIDS diagnosis.” –George Kevin Jordan, for “The Body”

“The building should’ve been maintained as a nursing facility and there was a terrible bait and switch and terrible dereliction of duty by city officials. “The city should proactively give this facility back and get out from under what was basically a bait and switch in the first place,” Stringer said. “So we continue to come out here and protest, and it also shows that without [an] affordable housing plan that really speaks to issues of healthcare and also true affordability, then the city is going to continue to gentrify and become unaffordable for the very people who moved to the Lower East Side when no one wanted to live here and built this community.” …“You modify a facility — you don’t close it. The list is endless in terms of the needs of a community as it relates to healthcare. There’s a tremendous pressure on the healthcare system in this city. – NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer

“All of us have parents and all of us have bodies that break down every once in a while. So all of us are vulnerable and are going to need healthcare at some point, We know that as people get older and need nursing care, they need to be near their loved ones”…of Slate’s intentions for the property: “This is a part of gentrification.” – Melissa Aase ED University Settlement.

Articles about the Vigil:

Gothamist http://gothamist.com/2018/08/09/rivington_house_les.php 

Patch https://patch.com/new-york/lower-east-side-chinatown/compensate-lower-east-side-rivington-house-sale-locals-urge

Bedford & Bowery http://bedfordandbowery.com/2018/08/residents-hold-vigil-for-former-les-nursing-facility-sold-by-the-city-like-a-bag-of-dope/#

CurbedNY https://ny.curbed.com/2018/8/10/17672628/lower-east-side-rivington-house-activists

BoweryBoogie https://www.boweryboogie.com/2018/08/neighbors-demand-return-of-rivington-house-with-vigil/

The Villager http://thevillager.com/2018/08/16/rivington-rallys-cry-meet-with-us-mayor/

 The Body http://www.thebody.com/content/81226/neighbors-rally-outside-former-nursing-home-for-hi.html  

Articles Pre Vigil:

Lo-Down  http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/tag/rivington-house

Patch https://patch.com/new-york/east-village/calendar/event/20180808/389612/rivington-house-supporters-direct-action-wednesday-august-8th

AM NY https://www.amny.com/real-estate/rivington-house-vigil-1.20342263

And this: an email sent to non-profits and government throughout NY State:

Campaign contributions from Slate Property Group?

(Rivington House buyers and authors of the famous email: Slate Co-Owner: “Do not discuss this deal, the seller [Allure] is very concerned that the city & union [1199] will find out that he is in contract to sell at the price we are buying it which will directly impact his ability to have the deed restriction removed. Once he has it removed, we can do whatever we want.”

Disturbing/surprising News: “For her AG campaign, James took $10,000 from Slate Property Group” [links below]

We are asking that Public Advocate James give Slate $$ back. There should not be even the appearance of buying political influence from those who cost NYS taxpayers this state-of-the-art infectious disease facility and left a low-income community of color without a place for elder or disabled care. 

Please, Public Advocate James: return the Slate money.

https://nypost.com/2018/07/28/state-politicians-accepted-illegal-donations-from-corporations/

https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/politics/campaigns-elections/letitia-james-health-care-group-fundraising.html

http://www.gothamgazette.com/state/7818-inside-attorney-general-candidates-july-campaign-finance-filings

In the United States today “.…this is about who gets to live and who is left to perish today in America” – Mijente

Hardworking Audubon Society volunteers led by Richard Santangelo, Program Director, For the Birds!, and Nico Sarbanes interning with Audubon, with volunteers Louise and Sandy bought pebbles and refurbished the pathway in the interior and cleared debris and weeds! The local elementary and middle schoolers will come in the fall.

Thank you to Parks Department’s Forestry for their tackling the dropping limbs from London Planes (and trimming back a few other overgrown trees):

And thank you to the NYC Fire Department for answering yet another K2 emergency call:

We regret to inform our Park goers:

An homeless man was killed after a fight broke out, killed by another homeless man in SDR Park.

Lo-Down has the in-depth reporting here.

Quote from SDR Coalition:

NBC News reported here.

More important than ever to reclaim this section of SDR Park for positive uses that would bring in resources for the homeless, activate the building and surrounding area?

NYTimes:

“All year long as Earth revolves around the sun, it passes through streams of cosmic debris. The resulting meteor showers … can light up night skies from dusk to dawn, and if you’re lucky you might be able to catch one.”