By Caitlin Hawke

Perhaps you've noticed the new sign at right which sits at the corner of W. 103rd Street and Broadway: "Room to Move! Open Streets." Or maybe you joined in the 2021 Earth Day events above.

To quote my favorite octogenerian: "Something is happening here but you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?"  Well here's a chance to come find out more. For an open discussion on this NYC designation of W. 103rd Street, join our next meeting on June 15. Below are further details from the board of directors about this Q&A with neighbor Peter Frishauf.

By Caitlin Hawke

The year 2020 has thrown just about everything up into the air. We've paused, and in the pause our hyperlocal selves have had time and space to re-embrace our immediate environs. You've enjoyed your roof, your stoop, your sidewalk, your bike, and, when needed, your street as you spilled into the curb to give wide berth to each other. But you've also enjoyed each other, bumping into someone -- anyone -- after days of solitude was the highlight of many a 2020 day. 

While not without controversy, the opening up of streets to people undeniably gave pedestrians refuge -- a huge port in the storm of Covid. Perhaps you've noticed that W. 103rd Street has been one of the streets that opened for neighbors -- especially kids -- to enjoy. New York City calls these 'Open Streets' as they are open and safe for walkers, bicyclists, and those in wheelchairs. Cars, delivery, and service vehicles have access, subject to a 5 m.p.h. speed limit.  A harbinger of things to come?

There are many neighbors who hope that with all these open streets, we've crossed the Rubicon. Many have been buoyed by this unexpected momentum of prioritizing people over traffic. Of cleaner air and quieter airwaves.

It turns out that the groups Open Plans and Street Plans have been re-imagining a lot about W. 103rd Street, which near Broadway is home to an older adult community -- The Marseilles. Also, in the Marseilles's vacant storefrontage, the Purple Circle early childhood program will soon take up residence. Young and old cheek by jowl and in need of green space.  That might also be an engine for the re-imagination of W. 103rd Street.

So here's a chance for you to come learn more for yourself about what's being tossed around. At a socially-distanced, outdoor occasion this Friday, Open Plans and Street Plans will welcome your input and invite you to complete surveys about how you might use W. 103rd Street as a magic-carpet connector from Riverside Park to Central Park. 

If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that we have to be prepared for everything! We must be willing to roll up our sleeves to make the society, the city, and the neighborhoods that we want.  When coronavirus is no longer a threat, we need to be able to find each other and commune again. We need to seed the next generation of street-level commerce that has been chiseled away by years of our neglect, which I've written about at these links:

Part 1: We Got the Supply. Where's the Demand?
Part 2: In Joon, Our Fall
Part 3: Lincoln Plaza Cinemas: Fare Thee Well My Honey
Part 4: Three Restaurants Go Down in One Month
Part 5: A Glorious UWS 800-Person Wave Turns Back the Tide

Incredibly, we saw a remarkable reanimation of Broadway and Amsterdam with the recent outdoor café life, and perhaps there's a whole new business model there for our restaurants. But we do know that block after block of empty storefronts coupled with fewer pedestrians is a bad combo.

The pressure is still very much on for those very businesses who were hanging on pre-pandemic, and who now have been dealt a coup de grace by months of closure. Countless -- literally countless -- are lost and gone forever. Transformation can happen -- and often does happen -- quickly. Or at least tipping points come fast without warning after a long priming.

As we grind through these very hard times, there is so much potential right now to build back the way we want it, to push to the tipping point of our choosing. To demand reform at the commercial storefront level. To support greener streets and more vibrant avenues. To favor the strengthening of the fabric for all to benefit from.

I love this neighborhood and can imagine only the sky as the limit for Bloomingdale.

So mask up, come out on Friday to the SW corner of W. 103rd and Broadway, and tell the folks who are driving this innovative project what you think about their rethinking.

In the morning, you may find a parking space or two transformed into a parklet. And starting at noon, the Open Plans and Street Plans folks will be standing by to hear your take.
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Rain date is October 30th. More below.

By Caitlin Hawke

Reflecting nigh on 100 days of solitude, I should be writing a love letter to Bloomingdale Aging in Place, or "BAiP" as everyone calls it. A bit over ten years old, this network of neighbors has proven itself to be the insta-community just waiting for anyone who wanted to join and meet-up hyperlocally. Did you ever watch "Cheers"? It's like that bar. But without walls. And no taps. You walk in, and everyone knows your name. BAiP is a perfect third place.

Its network of neighbors has launched nearly 100 different social and activity groups in the last decade. Groups that meet monthly, weekly and in some cases daily. 

But when Covid-19 hit and flung all BAiPers into their respective corners, with a halt to in-person social activities, it was hard to predict what might happen.

Three months later, there are more than 100 people meeting up -- sometimes three times a week -- to join remote yoga classes and then stick around in a post-yogic haze for breakouts just to schmooze, share, check in, be.

Many of the activity groups have not missed a beat, moving swiftly online and picking up when Mother Nature thwarted them from meeting together in cinemas and museums, in parks and living rooms. Each group its own mini-community led by a neighbor, when beheld together these dozens of groups weave into a tight-knit fabric of connectivity for nearly 1500 people throughout Bloomingdale. The grassroots, neighbor-to-neighbor model not only has proven resilient and responsive, but it has also been a lifeboat ferrying from desert island to desert island keeping us castaways connected while we all endure the strange pause.

Knowing that with a click, three times a week, I can jump in for a yoga class, instantly connect, and lay eyes on all these neighbors makes me feel a solidarity like the one I feel at 7 p.m. sharing glimpses and furtive waves with neighbors across the street, ringing my bell as fast and hard as I can to keep up with the cheers.

And while these classes are great for body and spirit, BAiP's neighbor-led groups are the community-building engine at its core, and despite worst initial fears, many have found a way to persevere online.

One of BAiP's oldest living room groups, Photography, is led by Block Association cameraman and ubermensch Ozzie Alfonso. Just as Covid-19 struck, Ozzie sent out word to the neighbors in his group that the next theme to shoot would be "Life in the Time of Coronavirus." Slightly ahead of the wave, the crew got out there way back a lifetime ago when the crocuses were starting to come up.  Over the weeks, they began documenting our neighborhood, our stores and streets, our residences.

Below is the very special, personal gallery that these local photographers produced. To view more of this group's work, see the dozens of their beautiful galleries here.

For me, coronavirus is a clarion call, like the one intoned by Allen Ginsberg at the end of Scorsese's documentary on Bob Dylan's magical mythical tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue. It's as if this virus is saying the same:

"Try to get yourself together, clean up your act, find your community. Pick up on some kind of redemption of your own consciousness, become more mindful of your own friends, your own work, your own proper meditation, your own proper art, your own beauty. Go out and make it for your own eternity."

Here's hoping that if we take one kernel of truth back out into the social world with us when we emerge it is one akin to BAiP's truth: build the community you aspire to and they will come.

This Block Association and its sister organization, BAiP, spawned here 11 years ago, deserve your TLC. ​We have work to do, people. And redemption of our consciousness may be the one true gift to arise from this ordeal.

Credit: Gallery "Life in the Time of Covid '19" courtesy of BAiP's Photography group led by Ozzie Alfonso. Note: if you received this post in an email via your subscription, click on the title of the blog post to view the gallery online.

And lastly, my lagniappe for you is the Ginsberg benediction of the Rolling Thunder Revue. Again, if you are reading this in an email via your subscription, click on the blog post title to view the video on the blog.

By Caitlin Hawke

Those are the words of the terrific UK internet information source on the current outbreak of novel coronavirus, John Campbell, PhD.  His youtube channel is here. Campbell posts short videos daily that I find strangely calming. Below I am embedding his tips on hand washing, but have found all of his videos filled with evidence-based information.

Below, there are links to documents put out last week by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which include a fact sheet, a guide for residential disinfection and a poster that you can download and print and share as needed with your neighbors or building managers.

If you are receiving this message in an email subscription, you'll have to click on the post's title to view the video directly on the blog. I heartily recommend it. You will also find it on his channel at the link above.

Lather up and stay vigilant, neighbors.

By Caitlin Hawke

On Wednesday, come out for this resource fair for older adults in our neighborhood.  

Don't need these resources now?  Well, you or someone you know will soon enough!  By the middle of this century, the age pyramid of the U.S. is going to start looking rather top heavy with those over 65 making up about a quarter of the population. This is unprecedented and thanks to the Baby Boomer generation and strides in public health.

The Upper West Side, we know, is a great neighborhood for folks of all ages.  But for people nearing retirement or who have retired, it's a launch pad to all NYC has to offer: access to transportation and healthcare, free courses at Columbia, local shopping (or what is left of it), cultural institutions, volunteering gigs, it's all right here.

I didn't even mention Bloomingdale Aging in Place -- BAiP -- which, as the spiritual child of our Block Association and the one just to the north, has thrived over the last 10 years. BAiP have a spot at the fair, so drop by and ask about how to join, what groups are open and how to get involved. It's also a chance to meet our electeds who will be there in force. No matter you age, come let them know what you need to bloom in place.

It all happens on Wednesday, December 11, from 1:30-3:30 p.m. at Children's Aid (885 Columbus Avenue and W. 104th Street).

By Caitlin Hawke

At some point, I am going to write long about BAiP. There are a lot of angles about this organization that would make good blog fodder. One of the most compelling is how deep its grassroots have dug in as if it's always been here. Another is how its existence was catalyzed by two block associations pooling resources to make the initiative known ten years ago as it started up. Originally a community tucked inside the community of the Block Association, BAiP has grown to cover well over a half mile squared.

I know college-age students who are envious of the depth and breadth of connections fostered by BAiP's members. That reaction is always sobering to me because no matter how "connected" we all are with technology, nothing replaces the person-to-person experience of sharing meals, books, walks and many other pursuits together right in the neighborhood. It is not an age-group specific yearning. We all need it and we all stand to benefit from knowing our neighbors better for lots of reasons.

I've written about David Reich here before, and it's hard to speak of BAiP's 10th anniversary without acknowledging the incredible work that David did, first from his perch as head of this Block Association, and then heading the steering committee that would eventually become the non-profit known as Bloomingdale Aging in Place. As a founder, among many other efforts, he laid down the communications systems that have proven to be BAiP's enduring but virtual infrastructure. Of course David was far from alone in building the initiative, but he was the undeniable organizational engine.

To recognize the decade gone by and recommit to BAiP's mission of creating connections, throughout the fall, its members are finding dozens of ways to mark the birthday as well as to look forward to what is to come.  One of those "BAiP@10" activities happens this week: "How a Community Blooms: An Oral History of BAiP." 

This event is a debut of sorts. You see, a few years ago, one of BAiP's activities groups took up a training in the art of oral history, in a workshop led by neighbor Pat Laurence. Once trained, the group members turned to exploring progressive movements on the Upper West Side and set its sights on compiling an oral history project on BAiP's founders, how and why this organization materialized, and then how the founders oversaw its organization and sought to carry out its mission. There were many people who poured love and sweat into laying down just the right tracks, several of whom have long history with this Block Association. Some of these neighbors were interviewed in two lengthy oral histories over the past two years, with interviewers trying to understand the "special sauce" -- the secret to BAiP's success.

This project is now nearing completion, having documented some of these early voices and perspectives in an archive consisting of audio recordings and transcripts, photographs, a timeline, press clippings, and much more. The collection is open to researchers and producers for future study and/or documentation of progressive, grassroots movements on the UWS that have taken hold. The collection illustrates how community members have come together and assisted one another as older adults. In sum, BAiP represents an early, ahead-of-its-time community response to issues around aging that are now part of the state and national dialogue.
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This BAiP Founders Oral History project comes alive on Wednesday, October 16, 6:30 p.m. at Hostelling International New York, 891 Amsterdam Avenue at W. 103rd Street, in a program presented by the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group and conceived by BAiPers Pat Laurence and Nancy Macagno (who also wears the hat of a BNHG Planning Committee member).

It is free and open to the community.  Come check it out!

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By Caitlin Hawke

We've changed the clocks. We've seen the snow drops. Crocuses and daffodils are popping up quicker than in time-lapse photography. Next come the cherry blossoms and blooming trees of all sorts.  It's officially Spring; so bring on the rain. Or as someone I cherish quipped with regard to global warming, "March flowers bring April showers."

The diluvial photo below from last year is courtesy of neighbor Ozzie Alfonso, and I thought it was a good way to ring in the season. (Did anyone hear the thunderstorm on Friday? It took me straight to summer!)

For 10 years, Ozzie has run the Bloomingdale Aging in Place Photography group as a volunteer. The group's monthly output has been lovingly socked away into dozens of galleries that he maintains. If you click on the link in the previous sentence and then onto a theme, you can view their postings.

If you don't know about BAiP and feel like you could use some ways to bloom in place in sync with the spring season, see more here. There are nearly 80 activity groups all run by volunteers for neighbors who join BAiP. Most are full, but neighbors may express an interest in joining one once they've signed up for membership. For more about BAiP membership (it's free and for residents who live between West 96th and 110th Streets), see this link.

As BAiP looks to its 10th anniversary this fall, maybe you'll find something in there of interest to you! 

By Caitlin Hawke

She turns 91 today. The great Estelle Parsons. No better way to celebrate her verve, than to watch her walk the neighborhood in the interview below.  If you are receiving this post by email subscription, you'll have to go to the blog to see this video that will, I guarantee, delight you. If you don't come away shaking your head as to why she isn't in her own starring role each and every season on Broadway, I will come shake your head for you. It's an oft-repeated truism that we need more roles for women, more roles for women older than 40, more roles written by women. And more roles for Estelle Parsons. Maybe you saw her in August Osage County or perhaps as Clyde Barrow's sister-in-law, Blanche back in the day.

Her intensity and her energy are her superpowers that allow her to thieve every scene she's in.

Below, I give you, Estelle Parsons, in her natural habitat, and a hat tip to her on her birthday!

By Caitlin Hawke

Come out and bring the kids to the Block Association's Fall Tree Clean Up at 10 a.m. in front of 878 West End Avenue.  B.A. volunteer and neighbor Mark Schneiderman has it all organized.

Saturday has us scrambling with many neighborhood options. Here's a suggested schedule for you -- I know you can fit it all in!

• 10 a.m. to noon: Fall Tree Clean Up with your Block Association (see below)
• All day: W. 104th Street Block Association Street Fair -- come visit the BAiP table too! It all happens on W. 104th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.
• 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.: Walk over to Hostelling International NYC and see BAiP's Arts Groups exhibit of neighborhood works.
• Also, for Open House New York aficionados, the hostel has tours for you!

A reward for getting to the bottom of this post: my automnal lagniappe along this same theme -- les feuilles morts se ramassent à la pelle -- is a beaut from Serge Gainsbourg covering his forebears in, yes again, the circle game of life marked by fallen leaves.  Remember, for those of you reading this directly via your email subscription, click on the title of the post to see the video online.

Ladies, gentlemen, I give you La Chanson de Prévert.

By Caitlin Hawke

I once heard an interviewer ask painter Françoise Gilot (who is well into her 90s now) would she still paint as she ages.  Affronted by the question, Madame Gilot responded something akin to: "That's like asking me if I will still breathe.  I have been an artist all my life. Why would I stop now?"

I paraphrase but you get the idea.

Stupid question. Great answer.

Now comes an enlightened show from the Manhattan Borough President's Office entitled "Better with Age" featuring artwork from the city's older artists.  And I am chuffed that two "hometown" artists have made the cut. Below find Emily Berleth's painting and Bob Lejeune's photograph, both of which will be presented in the show.

It runs from October 11 to November 1, 2017 at the Maggi Peyton Gallery in the Municipal Building downtown at 1 Centre Street, 19th Floor South. 

An added neighborhood connection, in case you think 1 Centre Street isn't on my beat: Maggi Peyton died last year and was a Bloomingdaler.  From a tribute written about her by Harold Holzer, I am certain blog readers will know her well and understand the rationale behind naming the Municipal Building's gallery in her honor:

For more information about the show, contact the Manhattan Borough President's Office.  And keep your eyes on this space for news about Bloomingdale Aging in Place's "clothesline show" at the local hostel.  It will feature works depicting the neighborhood done by members of the four BAiP art groups.

Age+Art. It ain't just gluing together popsicle sticks, folks.

By Caitlin Hawke

Thanks to BAiP's Panel Committee, the upcoming June 7th panel features two Columbia University scientists presenting the latest work in neuropsychology and the aging process: "The Aging Brain and How to Keep It Fit."  This panel isn't just for the older adults among us! 

It will be held on Wednesday at 5 pm (til 6:45) at the Bloomingdale Branch of the New York Public Library, 150 W. 100th Street in the Community Room on the 2nd floor.

So, does it boil down to good genes?  Or is it a matter of 'use it or lose it' when it comes to keeping cognitively fit? You might be surprised how compelling the research that argues for staying physically active is for keeping sharp.  Speakers will present latest research and some strategies that might be helpful.

Here's the line up. Hope you can join us.  I'll be moderating it, wearing my work hat as Senior Science and Strategy Officer at the Columbia Aging Center.

Speakers:

Dr. Richard Sloan is Nathaniel Wharton Professor of Behavioral Medicine.  Among his research pursuits as a behavioral scientist, Dr. Sloan examines the effects of exercise for the prevention or slowing of age-related changes in the brain.

Dr. Anna MacKay-Brandt is a neuropsychologist specializing in geriatrics who will speak about evidence-based strategies to improve memory.  BAiP's Caitlin Hawke, who is Senior Science and Strategy Officer at the Columbia Aging Center, will moderate. With articles -- like this one from last week's New York Times -- regularly recommending strategies to stave off memory loss through behavior modification, we thought the research focus of this panel would be compelling to BAiP's members.

By Caitlin Hawke

On November 1st, BAiP held its second volunteer appreciation event with 130 neighbors attending.  All volunteers were feted and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer proclaimed that the day be named for BAiP. It was a special moment for our neighborhood and for our Block Association because this year's honoree is one of our own:  our board member and co-treasurer Dorothy O'Hanlon received BAiP's Sands Award for "her gentle touch while riding herd over her flock as a BAiP group leader, for her dependability and grace while wearing many hats within BAiP, and for her ever-generous spirit and capacity when it comes to volunteering in her community whether by way of her vital role as a BAiP building representative or her devotion to the W. 102nd & 103rd Streets Block Association."

​So here's something to give thanks for: a wonderful colleague who devotes her talent to her neighborhood!

By Caitlin Hawke

In the June 2015 issue of our newsletter, neighbor Lydia Dufour has a wonderful piece about a former leader of this block association and one of the primary founders of Bloomingdale Aging in Place: David L. Reich.

BAiP has been a dynamo of community building these last six years, and its backbone has been its technological structure and the administrative framework meticulously laid down by David Reich. It is fair to say that BAiP is absolutely soaring with over 1000 meet-ups each year, 100 volunteers to make all the activities and services available to neighborhood adults, and new blood and fresh ideas pulsing through the organization every day.  All this was accomplished under David's leadership -- at first with a dedicated steering committee and then alongside a very roll-up-your-sleeves board that is going strong today.

David is, quite simply, a force of nature when it comes to neighborliness and getting things done. He may find purpose and meaningful engagement in all that he has taken on over the years in our neck of the woods, first with this block association and now with BAiP.  But we are all the beneficiaries of his efforts.  The mark he continues to make on this neighborhood ought be proudly and loudly noted. 

And so it was, on April 9th, when all of BAiP's current and former board members gathered to thank David as he passed the presidency of BAiP over having come to the limit of his term.  Thankfully, for BAiP's sake, David will continue serving on the board AND leading BAiP's ping pong group.

To quote Lydia, all BAiP's board members including me "count our blessings that he so successfully transplanted to our corner of Manhattan and will continue to be a vital member of the BAiP board as well as an active community and activity volunteer with the organization."

In honor of his unparalleled work within the organization, the Board of Directors of BAiP presented him with the following commendation.


To learn more about BAiP's opportunities to get involved, please email: info@bloominplace.org or call (212) 842-8831.

Save the date and come to the Marseilles Residence's community room at 230 W. 103rd Street on Thursday, May 15th, at 7 p.m., to learn all about conducting oral histories.  This is a Bloomingdale Aging in Place panel for folks of all ages.  Special presenters will be Erica Fugger and William Chapman of the Center for Oral History at Columbia University,* who will give a brief history of the form plus tips and methodologies for conducting interviews.

Bring your kids or grandkids if they are interested in your family genealogy.  Oral history is a great way to dig into stories that, sadly, don't always outlive our families.  Or oral histories may serve to preserve a community's collective memory.

This panel is one of many offered completely free of charge by Bloomingdale Aging in Place (BAiP).  In addition to its panel program, BAiP offers a helping hand to seniors in our neighborhood.  But did you know that neighbors of any age can do something with BAiP almost every day of the week?  It's true.  Walk, cycle, read, sew, juggle, paint and get together with neighbors at various outings, coffees and happy hours.  BAiP has over 400 meet ups each year!  Check out the many, many activities offered by BAiP for adults of all ages in our community.

To receive information directly from BAiP, join the mailing list here.

As a volunteer for both the Block Association and BAiP, I can honestly say that these two organizations are what makes living in Bloomingdale so wonderful. 


By Caitlin Hawke

*Check out the center's website to learn more about their special projects including explorations into the history of the rule of law, the Apollo Theater, and 9/11.