Four New Groups Address ‘100’ Block Concerns

BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC  |  Four new block associations have joined the Council of Chelsea Block Associations (CCBA).

The new additions are the West 25th Street Project, the 100 West 22nd St. Block Association, the 100 West 17th and 18th St. Block Association, and the 100 West 19/20th St. Block Association — all between Sixth and Seventh Aves.

Bill Borock, the president of the CCBA and of one of the new associations, said there is strength in numbers.

For example, a new Lowe’s store is slated to come to 19th St. and Sixth Ave. — an area that, Borock notes, is already having issues with loading docks, noise and trash collection.

There is a concern that Lowe’s may compound the problem. The CCBA and the new block association of 19th and 20th Sts. has decided to be proactive, by drafting a letter to be sent to the company.

Maybe you could ignore one block, he said, but a coalition of 16 associations that covers 26 blocks would give a company pause and might sway them to talk and work with the organization.

“Hopefully, there’s more impact when they see that the whole larger group is involved and is supporting the local group,” Borock said in a phone interview.

Each new association is an equal member and has the ability to bring an issue to the larger organization, which can offer support and expertise, he said.

The reasons a new block association gets formed vary, said Borock. Sometimes it is one big issue that unifies residents. For instance, on the block where he used to reside, W. 17th St., the issue that electrified them was a woman who — for unclear reasons — fell off a roof and died. This was a time when there was more crime, but people were outraged and banded together.

For the West 25th Street Project, one of the main issues is the Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC) at 127 W. 25th St., which has been on the block since 2011.

“Basically, [we] came together because there was a change in our block insofar as quality of life issues were concerned,” said Carla Nordstrom in a phone interview.

Nordstrom and her neighbor got together and started to approach people to find out if there was any interest in trying to talk about the issue, she said.

They went to City Councilmember Corey Johnson’s office in January to learn about what they could do, and it was suggested that they apply for a Love Your Block grant (which gives resident-led volunteer groups up to $1,000 for community improvements).

“We were trying to take a different kind of approach then just sitting around complaining about the block,” she said.

Recently, the Department of Homeless Services has assigned 24 peace officers to the BRC.

“We fought pretty hard to have them out patrolling the block,” she said.

Nordstrom said that the project is working on making the peace officers permanent, as having their presence on the block has made a difference.

They had their first meeting in March and although they didn’t get the Love Your Block grant, they have applied again.

The project is also focused on green initiatives and Nordstrom said that they want to do more plantings. She said that they wanted to plant more trees, but due to the sidewalk being vaulted — meaning the space underneath was once used for commercial storage — she thinks it will be difficult to add more trees.

If the association does receive the Love Your Block grant, Nordstrom wants to have a clean up and planting day for the block. She has won a tree guard and would like to put it around a tree that is near the shelter. Perhaps, she said, the people at the shelter could help with maintaining it.

“We felt very strongly that if we could make our block a more beautiful place everybody would benefit from that,” she said.

She would also like to have the Parks Department conduct a workshop on tree stewardship.

“We have so few trees, we really want to make sure we take good care of them,” she said.

Nordstrom is very happy to be a part of the CCBA and said Borock is “an incredible resource,” and very helpful in figuring out how to reach out to people, dealing with elected officials and connecting the association with other blocks.

“It’s really great for us, especially as a new block association, to have a place to go to get support and expertise,” she said.

When Borock hears there is an issue that a particular block is confronting, he invites them to CCBA meetings to learn about funding, the organization’s history and to hear feedback and advice from other block associations on how they have handled situations.

“I’ve tried to reach out to other blocks, and when I hear there’s an issue or something, I mention to them, ‘Did you consider having a block association?’ ”

Block associations not only start because of an issue, he said, but also can begin because residents want to be neighborly and improve the block. Borock said that associations do wax and wane and that many have been started or reactivated in the last five or six years.

The 100 West 17th St. Block Association, which has been around for 30 years, has integrated a new block, the 18th, into its organization, said Craig Slutzkin, its president, in a phone interview.

Earlier in the year, Slutzkin spoke with 18th St. residents who were interested in forming a block association but not necessarily starting their own. The two blocks decided to combine efforts.

“There’s strength in numbers and a lot of the issues that are facing 17th St. actually will face 18th St. as well,” he said.

The two blocks have a lot in common, he said, with buildings that have entrances on both blocks and the fact that they are mixed-use with commercial and residential buildings.

“That is a relevant issue for both of us because we have to figure out a way how the businesses and residents can co-exist,” said Slutzkin.

There are several quality of life issues, such as insuring proper sanitation on the block, safety concerns and parking — both sides of 18th St. are only for commercial use during weekdays.

Also of concern is the sale of the building at 115 Seventh Ave., which was owned by the Rubin Museum of Art.

“It is something that will clearly affect us,” he said.

The association is trying to learn more about the sale in order to ensure that potential construction, traffic issues or rodent infestation if the street is torn up does not negatively affect current residents, said Slutzkin.

Slutzkin said that it is great that more new block associations will be a part of the CCBA.

“I think it’s really good for individuals to be able to voice their opinions. Sometimes it’s hard to approach an elected official as an individual. The block associations and the CCBA have excellent relationships with all the elected officials in Chelsea.

“I think having these block associations and certainly having them as part of the CCBA will really foster a cooperative spirit between the residents, the block associations, the elected officials and by extension various city agencies,” he said.

There are differences of opinion on Chelsea’s boundaries, said Borock, but no one disputes that the neighborhood is getting more residential.

“The block has morphed into a residential community,” said Sally Greenspan, one of the members of 100 West 19/20th St. Block Association.

Greenspan has lived on W. 19th St. for over 30 years and said that the block needed to get organized for the residents’ quality of life.

“If we speak with one voice it will make life better for all of us,” she said in a phone interview.

Another member of the same association, Melissa Stern, also noted how the neighborhood has transformed.

“It’s a neighborhood that has undergone tremendous changes — from being mixed use, light manufacturing with very little residential to a neighborhood that is now predominantly residential,” said Stern, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1990.

Stern said in a phone interview that there has not been a history of solidarity or a lot of neighborliness. The block association should change that, she said, and was formed “to create more of neighborhood, to create connections between people so that neighbors would know each other as well as having a little bit of a say in things that go on around us.”

The neighborhood is “severely lacking in green space,” she said, and the Friends of 20th Street Park have focused on the former sanitation facility on the block to turn into a park. The same site also has been considered for affordable housing.

“One of the issues was the entire neighborhood’s great desire to have some say in whatever future development is going on with the sanitation facility on 20th St.,” she said.

Michael Walsh is a member of both the block association and the Friends of 20th Street Park.

“A bunch of us on the block have been involved in an effort to create a park on our block,” he said in a phone interview.

While discussing the park at meetings, other issues would be brought up, said Walsh and “it sort of dawned on us that we need another entity.”

Another issue for the 20th St. block is a late-night garbage collection that happens between 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. and is sometimes noisy, said Walsh.

Walsh said that Borock guided the new block association through the whole process.

Stern said that there had been a lack of representation from W. 18th to W. 23rd Sts.

“There’s been absolutely nothing here in terms of people having a voice and a conduit to our electeds,” she said. “What we’re going to add [to the CCBA] is a whole new part of the population [that] will have at least a voice.”

“It’s important to be connected with Chelsea as a whole,” said Walsh.

Chelsea and other parts of the city are coming to terms with gentrification, said Borock, and the CCBA has an eye on local mom and pop stores that make up the fabric of a neighborhood.

“These mom and pop stores are part of the character of the neighborhood,” he said. “Once they’re gone all you have is the big box stores and the chains stores.”

It is important to keep the community integrated, said Borock.

Coterminality — the proposal that W. 14th St. to W. 26th St. would be served by the 10th Precinct instead of the 13th — is a still important for the council.

“It’s a big priority but the question is what to do at this time. We tried it and the answer was no,” he said. “But people are very concerned about it and feel it really makes sense to be coterminus.”

He has heard comments from business owners who have said that sometimes there is a long response time.

“It would be great if we could get that changed where those blocks became part of the 10th Precinct,” he said.

The CCBA is also focused on tenant and resident protection, building permits and after-hours construction.

“That’s an issue we’re concerned about also that all this noise that bothers neighbors [and] people can’t sleep on the weekends,” he said.