Protecting and improving the community for the people who live and work here

From The Door, University Settlement House and Broome Street Academy:

Beautiful day, beautiful people so many to thank and we won’t have all their names! But a few… Jin Xiu Chen and Jenifer Marcus all day providing activities for the children: making paper flowers and planting real ones! Bud Shalala for being on the grill all day, Penny Jones for tackling the hoses throughout the M’Finda Garden, Kate and Carol for sprucing up the front planters of the BRC Senior Center, Kirsti Bambridge (Partnership for Parks) for getting those amazing bird attracting plants, Terese Flores (Park Manager) for bringing them to us and for listening to the community, Andrew Knox for getting the sand for the sandbox, Bob for being Bob and organizing us, Lanzo for helping Bob, Debra Glass for leading us, The CSA for holding their first meeting of the season and Ted from Windflower farms – always generous with us, Roni – Sue for coming by with candy from Roni-Sue’s Chocolate Shoppe, Nini from the Evolve Health and Wellness for organizing the food, (both these small businesses are on Forsyth Street), too many more to name!!

Join us in our It’s My Park Day for Sara Roosevelt Park: This Saturday from 1-4pm our anchor space for all projects will be the M’Finda Kalunga Garden

in Sara Roosevelt Park at Rivington Street gate between Forsyth and Chrystie Streets.

Games for children, food and work! What could be a better way to spend this lovely Saturday?

Planting and watering GreenThumb flowers and hanging up hummingbird feeder. Nice work everyone!

Evolve Health + Wellness  (the new business occupying the old produce warehouse on the corner of Rivington and Forsyth) 

Grand Opening Celebration

May 14th, from 6-9pm.

It’s a family gathering and meet and greet with all the practitioners of Evolve –  featuring snacks and drinks from some of our neighbors here.

They are also hosting a Benefit for the Nepal Earthquake victims at our clinic for the remaining Saturdays of the month. 

Providing community acupuncture treatments for donations, and all of the proceeds will be going toward direct relief in Nepal.

Interesting article in DNAinfo

“The program, which enables developers to tap low-interest funding, is intended to be a job-generator for high-poverty and high-unemployment areas.

In reality, EB-5 is helping fund some of the city’s swankiest projects from some of the top developers like Silverstein Properties’ towering, ultra-luxurious Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown rising at 30 Park Place, the Durst Organization’s Danish-desinged glassy pyramid-shaped high-end rental rising on West 57th Street and Kushner Real Estate Group’s NoMad tower at 281 Fifth Ave.

EB-5 has also been used for infrastructure and industrial projects like the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal, Battery Park’s Pier A renovation, the redevelopment of Manhattan’s East River waterfront, and the expansion of Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.”

Kehila Kedosha Janina synagogue located on Broome Street since 1927 presents: 

First Greek Jewish Festival

Broome Street (Allen and Eldridge)

May 31 from noon to 6 p.m.

from The Kehila Kedosha Janina website:

“Kehila Kedosha Janina was first organized in 1906 by Greek-speaking Romaniote Jews from the city of Ioannina in northwestern Greece. In the early twentieth century there were hundreds of other synagogues on the Lower East Side that mostly served Ashkenazi Yiddish-speaking Jews or Sephardic Spanish-speaking Jews. Needing a place of their own where they could preserve their unique traditions, customs, liturgy and language, property was purchased at 280 Broome Street, and the congregation opened its doors to worship at its current location in 1927. For the past 88 years KKJ has served the Romaniote community on the Lower East Side and, after the closing of nearby Sephardic synagogues, many of the remaining neighborhood Sephardim. In 1997, a Museum was created in the women’s gallery to tell the story of this distinct community to a world that knew so little about them. Today KKJ is proud to be one of only a handful of active synagogues that remain on the Lower East Side.” 

Kosher Mediterranean food

Live music

Outdoor market (with local vendors  Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery  the Pickle Guys

The Museum at Eldridge Street and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum will have activities for children.

From DNAinfo

For other street fairs and parades in the Lower East Side and East Village this month see DNA article for links:

St. George’s Ukrainian Festival, May 15-17. The annual fair hosted by St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church: traditional foods and dances, as well as music and artwork.

Dance Parade and Festival, May 16. Tens of thousands of dancers are expected to shimmy, shake and sashay from Union Square to Tompkins Square Park in the ninth annual Dance Parade and Festival. 

The Loisaida Festival, May 24. The three-day festival’s main event, an outdoor fair and parade on Avenue C that pays tribute to the neighborhood’s Latino history, will include live music, theatrical events and kid-friendly activities.

IDEAS CITY Festival, May 30. After two days of lectures, panel discussions and art events, the New Museum’s IDEAS CITY Festival will cap its event with a free outdoor street fair featuring more than 100 cultural and community groups. Highlights of the fair, which will take place in Sara D. Roosevelt Park and the surrounding area, include a hands-on bacteria-printing workshop and a “Mayan Ball Game Tournament,” which meshes an ancient Mesoamerican sport with street basketball.

Essex Street Market 75th Birthday Block Party, May 30. The historic market will cap its month-long 75th anniversary events and Lower East Side History Month with a block party on Essex Street.

A great day at the Firehouse. Great people!

Thank you to the men and women who are regularly asked to risk their lives to save the rest of us.

We brought flowers from the M’Finda Kalunga Garden (from my plot!) and the Certificate from the Borough President Gale Brewer.

Captain Siani and Firefighters Sieli, Myers and Proctor

photos by Steve Elson

From the Pace High School Seniors:

Dear New York City Department of Parks & Recreation,

Parks are vital to our city, society, and well being.  They give children safe spaces for play and activities, provide ecosystems for native plants and animals, and help bring communities together.

We, students from PACE High School, want to help to make Sara D. Roosevelt Park a safer, cleaner, and more updated environment for the community.  Sara D. Roosevelt Park is a vibrant park in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, and stretches from Canal to Houston street.  It is utilized by many schools and cultural organizations in the area. It is also used by sports teams, elderly people in an aerobics class, and families simply enjoying the day often use the track.  This park is a cultural keystone to the Lower East Side and has impeded gentrification.

That said, portions of the park are in disarray.  The track requires fixing, the surface is deteriorating and many people can get hurt by getting caught on it.  Other facilities in the park also could use repairs, including the basketball courts, soccer fields, and the sidewalks.  There also continues to be a rodent problem in the park.

We, the undersigned, are advocating for more funding from the NYC Parks Department to aid in improving this culturally diverse and important park facility.

Sign the petition here!