The Work of the Block Association • Letter III
Communications & Neighbor Outreach
How news travels around the Park — in both directions
Dear Neighbors,
In our first letter, we said little of our work succeeds without communication. Here is what that means in practice, beginning with something many of you lived through this month.
Forty-Eight Hours in August
On a Monday night, a concrete pour at 38 Gramercy Park ran late into the night. By Tuesday morning we had heard from neighbors in several buildings around the Park. By Tuesday afternoon, those complaints were in front of the developer’s senior management. By Thursday, you had their explanation, the City’s rules on after-hours work, and our promise to keep reporting back.
That exchange is a regular part of our work: neighbors tell us what is happening, we take it to the people responsible, and we report back with their answer.
How You Hear From Us
The main channel is the one you are reading now. In the past year these letters have carried construction schedules, a caution about a tampered mail collection box, snow-removal updates, two red-tailed hawks, and your own photographs of the neighborhood in snow. Not all of it is urgent; a neighborhood’s news is also its pleasures.
How We Hear From You
All of it starts with you. Your messages put that Monday night in front of the developer within hours. A neighbor’s report let us alert the 13th Precinct and the community to mail theft within a day.
If something on our streets is affecting you — noise, hours, sanitation, sidewalks, anything that does not look right — write to me at harrisongramercypark@gmail.com. Every message is read. Every concern is raised. We cannot always fix it, but we will always tell you what we learned.
Our Neighborhood Institutions
The blocks around the Park are home to some of New York’s storied institutions — Calvary Church, the Brotherhood Synagogue, the School of Visual Arts, The Players, and the National Arts Club — and we keep the lines open between them and the neighbors beside them, as we do with City agencies, the Community Board, and our elected officials.
An institution tells us about an event that will fill the block, scaffolding going up or a change in hours, and we pass it along. When a neighbor raises a concern, we take it to the institution while there may still be time to adjust the plans.
It is also simply being good neighbors. This summer we replanted the tree gardens outside the Brotherhood Synagogue and presented them with a basket of tools to help maintain them — the same care we give the 41 tree gardens around the Park, extended a few doors down.
The Park and the Trustees
The Trustees of Gramercy Park are responsible for everything inside the fence. When they have news for the neighborhood — a gate away for restoration, the Park closed for its spring cleanup, families welcomed in on Easter Sunday — our list helps carry the word. It is a small part of a long and valued working relationship.
Our Role
More than 900 neighbors filled Brotherhood Synagogue in March 1994 to talk about what the neighborhood needed. Most of that conversation now happens by email. Our role is still to hear from residents, bring their concerns to the people who can act on them and keep everyone informed.
One Request
This letter reaches only the neighbors who have signed up. If someone on your block is not on the list, please forward this to them, or send them to our sign-up page. The more of the neighborhood on the list, the better this works.
Warm regards,
Arlene Harrison
President, Gramercy Park Block Association
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