By Caitlin Hawke

Along the lines of my "Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition" and "From the Vault" posts, I continue to traffic in nostalgia for the neighborhood, both old-old and new-old ephemera. In a neighbor's files when questing for something else, I came across this 22-year-old NYT article from March 1997 that I, too, had clipped at the time. My thinking was: if I ever sell, this will prove to prospective buyers what a great neighborhood this is.

Ha!  Here we sit two decades later in this charming district -- now basically subsumed under the generic Upper West Side moniker -- wistfully remembering the days both when we were a little out of the way and when the median rent for a one-bedroom was $1800, and a one-bedroom co-op in 300 Riverside Drive went for $245K, a bag of shells to folks in the market today.

By and large, the piece holds up. I think you will enjoy it. If the print in the images is too small, you can read it in the NYT archives here.

And another thing about this piece, I like that the Times had it right with the surtitle: "If You're Thinking of Living in Bloomingdale."

Oh, dear. But first the headline screams "A Family Enclave That Some Call SoCo" -- for South of Columbia.  

Whaaa? Gimmearoyalbreak!

​I had a friend back in the 90s.  A bit sassy.  But smart.  She lived in this neighborhood when it was unchic by many realtors' standards to do so.  Frankly, I thought, let them think that! My neighbors and I could live with that illusion.  Preciously, I thought at the time, that friend called this area "Peru" since it was south of "Columbia." Fortunately that didn't stick. Nor has SoCo. On the other hand, I find myself wondering if there is a south of Columbia? It seems the university's reach may know no bound. 

So to all the would-be branders: Here's the thing. When you have a great name, don't mess.  It's Bloomingdale.  It's been Bloomingdale.  And Bloomingdale it will be.

You just don't change something that's been around since 1688.

And if you don't believe me, believe Gil Tauber.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

First, I want to note the kindness of Chris Brady who gave me permission to illustrate this post with his technicolor photos of the Movie Place (TMP), the way it was. I found them at Chris's photo feed here a while back, and they stopped me cold, for the love of a place I remember so well. I've been saving them for you.

Incredibly, gone for 12 years already, the Movie Place hasn't come close to being replaced around here in its role as a neighborhood hub drawing from north, south, east and west. Never mind its mom-and-pop-edness.

The last owner of TMP was Gary Dennis, who is equally known for his efforts to get Humphrey Bogart his due by the dubbing of W. 103rd Street for him, replete with a ceremonial appearance of Bacall. Yes, right here in Bloomingdale.

I wrote a piece about that here last year. 

Now I love Bogie and Bacall as much and perhaps more than most. But it takes a force of nature like Gary to move city elements -- NYCHA et al -- get the naming done. So I want you to remember that when you are walking the block between West End Avenue and Broadway on 103rd staring at a "This is Us" rerun on your smartphone. Look Up! For the love of the silver screen, look up. Look up from your big sleep and appreciate that you trace Humphrey DeForest Bogart's footsteps as he left his home at 245 W. 103rd St. and padded over to the Trinity School. He lived there from about December 25, 1899 until he enlisted in the navy in 1918.

But I digress.

I still see Gary around from time to time. At a Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group meeting last year, he gave a great presentation on the neighborhood as portrayed in films. Many chase scenes later, he had the audience eating out of his hands.

He used to keep a wonky blog on lost cinema houses. And I think he still gives tours.  Bloomingdale born, Gary grew up loving movies. Ironic then that when it was a novelty, everyone said his was the voice that used to animate the old "Moviefone" reservation line. And that amused me. You remember the Moviephone? It's the line you dialed that responded in a quasi-human voice: "Hello, and welcome to Moviefone! Using your touchtone keypad, please enter the first three letters of the movie title now."

If you don't know the voice I am talking about, here's a fun clip. It's not, spoiler alert, Gary Dennis. But he sure coulda been a contender.

TMP lasted in situ for 22 years, and it is now gone for 12. Together, that's more than the full lifespan of the Betamax.

Yes, 12 years ago, our mecca of movies closed, and it was noteworthy enough for the New York Times to weigh in. If you never had the pleasure of pushing through the door into the high-ceilinged space bustling with first dates, lonely hearts, groups of buddies and old couples riffling through bins of movie titles, you haven't lived.

Sorry, but it was a thing.

People came from many neighborhoods away to partake. To feast in the selection.  And to go home with armfuls of movies. To come back three days later and do it all again.

It wasn't just the selection. It was the connoisseurship. The guys and a couple of gals behind the counter each had a specific taste. You could ask anyone anything and with just a few hints at what you liked, out poured 5 or 10 suggestions of other films to watch. An algorithm in flesh and blood. It's called a brain and memory, actually. And it worked.

Yet it wasn't just the connoisseurship, it was also the place.  Patina would be a nice way of describing the layers of this loft-like store. Grime would be a bridge too far. Let's call it wabi-sabi.

If the Movie Place were a rock star, it would have been Keith Richards.

Yes, technology has transformed our world since then.  And yes many don't even feel the need for a screen bigger than an iPad to enjoy a film, old or new. And yes, I'll even cede that streaming a movie is more convenient.  But algorithms will never replace synaptic encyclopedias like the brain that is Gary Dennis's or that of the employees, some of whom, thankfully, still live in the neighborhood with their dogs or their now-grown kids. And for what the human touch is still worth, you can't get that kind of prickle online. Or snark. Or voice. Or, truth be told, that warmth.

Starbucks will never replace the town-square feeling that was the Movie Place on a Friday night.  And Tindr will never be as electric with possibility as browsing the Nouvelle Vague section over a handsome guy's shoulder.

Seek no more the ghost of the Movie Place, let loose to wander since 2006. For it is here. And this one from the vault of Block Association newsletters is a David Reich original. Scroll all the way down to read it.

Enjoy!

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

In the February 2001 edition of the BA newsletter, Jock Davenport covered the opening of Silver Moon Bakery in November 2000.  Deep in the heart of Y2K.  In the very same month of the infamous "election."  A year before 9/11.  It's a veritable lifetime ago.  And yet 18 years have sailed by. 

Yes, other places mentioned in the piece like Mama Mexico and Turkuaz are gone, but it's nice to have moonlight glowing still.

If Jock's piece wets your whistle, there's more to read, such as the interview with Judith Norell here and an ode to a favorite hyper-local eat here.

On your 18th, I say, Judith, and to all your Silver Moon family: To life, to life, l'chaim!

Your lagniappe today is Lin-Manuel Miranda's rendition of the "Fiddler on the Roof" tune as a surprise to his bride at their wedding reception. You'll enjoy it for the showmanship even if the singing is a little dicey at times! Scroll down to view or if you are receiving this in an email subscription, click on the picture of Lin with his father-in-law below!

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

This one from the vault makes a nice diptych with last week's post about the Roerich Museum.  There's no end to my appreciation for the rich history of 310 Riverside.  In fact, you don't have to go far to get elbow-deep in the Horsch archives if you are inclined.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

Born 144 years ago today in Saint Petersbourg, Nicholas Roerich is part of our neighborhood history. In the 1990s living just one block away, I learned of the Roerich Museum from a cousin visiting from Budapest who was horrified I'd never been not to mention never even heard of it!

Suffice it to say, this little-known pocket of culture dedicated to the painter, spiritualist and theosophist is worth checking out. Roerich's connection to Louis Horsch is a whole other saga.  It was Horsch in 1921 who financed The Master Institute of United Arts, which in 1929 became the site of magnificent deco 310 Riverside Drive, known as the Master Apartments! 

Read more below and here.  Spoiler alert: it doesn't end well for the Master mystic.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

It's been 10 years since that freak 15-minute storm mowed through our neighborhood. This piece recounts the hard-to-imagine tale.  Dug out from our vault, this piece appeared in the September 2008 edition of the Block Association newsletter.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of Block Association newsletters for the benefit of new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read other pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

I am tagging this as both "One from the Vault" and a "Throwback Thursday" because it's that delicious.

First, a big shoutout to Ginger Lief for the feature, a charming, well-researched March 2006 piece from the Block Association's newsletter vault offering up names -- many long since lost or forgotten -- of the neighborhood's buildings.  Ginger's research reveals not only the names but the reasoning behind several of them. Often harkening to places in Europe, the names tell a story about who the neighborhood's builders were, and how they left their mark.

Having done a little research, I can add to Ginger's work about the building referred to in her newsletter piece below as the "Standoche" at 855 West End Avenue.

855 West End was established as the "St. Andoche," and the name came to be mashed up into the "Standoche" in various real estate ads and municipal documents.

But the actual name is two separate words, and its significance is connected to the builder of 855 West End, a famous Civil War era actress, Maggie Mitchell. Mitchell made her fortune in the play "Fanchon the Cricket," a stage adaptation by Augustus Waldauer of George Sand's novel, La Petite Fadette.

The second act of the play takes place during a festival, the feast of St. Andoche. Mitchell's shadow dances in the play, and particularly in the second act, were adored by theater-goers and garnered her fame from Louisiana to Massachusetts and beyond.

In 1895, three years after retiring from the stage at the age of 60, Mitchell bought the parcel of land on the southwest corner of W. 102nd Street and West End Avenue and built the building that stands there -- solid as a rock -- today. Since the role helped Mitchell earn her considerable fortune, it's not a leap to understand why she tipped her hat by naming her building for it.

Click on "St. Andoche" in the list below for more.

Like 855 West End, some buildings have been featured in my Throwback Thursday posts, and you'll find those links are clickable in the list immediately below. Others are still to come. I'll update this list down the line.


Our Buildings' Names
Broadmoor: 235 W. 102nd Street at the northwest corner of Broadway
Clearfield: 305 Riverside Drive at W. 103rd Street
Friesland: 235 W. 103rd Street at the northwest corner of Broadway
Haworth: 239 W. 103rd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue
Magnolia: 240 W. 102nd Street at the southwest corner of Broadway
Hotel Marseilles: 230 W. 103rd Street at the southwest corner of Broadway
Hotel Alexandria: 250 W. 103rd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue
Ideal: 315 W. 102nd Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue
The Master Apartments (originally The Master Institute): 310 Riverside Drive at W. 103rd Street
Rockledge Hall: 299 Riverside Drive at the south corner of W. 102nd Street
St. Andoche: 855 West End Avenue at the southwest corner of W. 102nd Street


If you are a Block Association resident and your building has a name (or had a name), yet you don't see it, contact Ginger, send me an email, or leave a comment below!  Crowdsourcing comes to Bloomingdale.

Enjoy!

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

The one from the vault below by past editor of the Block Association newsletter Jock Davenport is about parking challenges. The piece is now over 20 years old but given new talk about parking garages, paying for street parking, and congestion pricing, I thought it might resonate.

Today, parking spaces cost considerably less than rent on a studio apartments (at least in this community), but much of this sounds rather familiar.  It's the time honored dance of alternate side of the street parking.

Some of you know the ASSP dance all too well, crosswords and coffee in hand or maybe it's Words with Friends.  You manage to work your schedule around this very NYC ritual.  Enjoy it while you can. 

Just not this coming Thursday, May 10, when rules are suspended for Ascension!

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

New to the neighborhood or simply moved here in the last 13 years? Perhaps you've wondered about the story behind the stories of the two towers at W. 100th Street and Broadway. Wonder no more. This one from the vault written by David Reich lays it all bare.  St. Michael's was a player in the rising skyline.  That intangibly opaque thing involving the acquisition of 'air rights' added to the mix.  A key decision not to put in parking underground allowed the whole thing to move forward "as of right." And lo!  Two highrises were a fait accompli.  Yeah, I know.  The Zeckendorf's Columbia on the NW corner of Broadway and 96th was the game changer of the early 1980s.  And in the early 2010s Columbus Square transformed the Park West Village area. And I know what is now happening up on W. 108th Street.

All those carveouts (see illustration below) on the west side of Broadway in the last landmarking phase in 2015 will usher in new stories of skyscraping construction soon enough.

Some new construction will be known to neighbors in advance.  Some will squeak by under cover of night.  Of this I am sure.

(See the "As Designated" map with the 2015 landmark boundaries that exclude nearly every building on the west side of Broadway. The map "As Proposed" with the red border only carved out a few buildings by contrast.)

So, you got something to say about Ariel East and West?

Extell me about it! 

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of Block Association newsletters for the benefit of new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read other pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.

By Caitlin Hawke

Some treasures, once unearthed, give unexpected context for people whose paths cross. I stumbled on this, as I do many of the vault pieces, and recognized the subject as a blog reader: the multi-talented Jimmy Roberts.

Written 20 years ago by Jock Davenport, the profile gives an inkling as to how many talented people live behind the closed doors of our neighborhood's apartments.  I shouldn't be surprised; the neighborhood is well known for its concentration of musicians. 

So, here now, in one from the vault, is a little window into this musically gifted neighbor, Jimmy Roberts, the composer responsible for one of the longest running off-Broadway musicals "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change".  If you search it on YouTube, don't be surprised to see Chinese and Hungarian productions.

Lagniappe below (for email subscribers, don't forget to click on the title to view the videos directly on the blog).

Enjoy.

To see the video above if you are reading this in an email subscription, click on the title of the post to go directly to the blog.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history. To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

Missing Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, my thoughts turned to the landmarked Metro Twin at 2626 Broadway and I recalled I had this old newsletter article (below).

You'll see that the account is about the Metro's last gasp as a movie house almost 13 years ago. Its current state of not-so-benign neglect is a tale worth telling and retelling. There's more about the house's chronology here. But the truth is, aside from a near-miss with the Alamo Drafthouse chain and rumors of a fitness center moving in, there's not been much action at the Metro since this article was written.

I know many in the area hold out hope that it can be revived as a cinema.  But sadly, I doubt the Metro could serve again for films because, it was gutted to make room for a big box-type store. I've suspected that the expense of making it back into a multiplex is what scared off the Alamo folks.  

And the Metro's exterior is not a pretty picture, as the marquis begins to sag. That's what I mean by not-so-benign neglect. The community really should organize to find some solution so the whole thing doesn't just crumble around our feet. It's happened before around here: the Riverside Theatre at 96th and Broadway suffered a collapse and was demolished around 1974. It could well happen again with the Metro.

And now, just as cinephiles are despairing over the loss of Lincoln Plaza, good news may be in store. Norma Levy, a film-loving Upper West Sider has organized a movement called Coalition for a New Cinema that has incorporated, put up a website, formed committees and begun to raise funds to keep an independent cinema operating somewhere on the UWS.  Over 11,000 people signed a petition to try to save Lincoln Plaza, so Levy began to explore options. With a "New Plaza Cinema" as the goal, the Coalition was formed in the hope of "creating and operating a new cinema devoted to quality independent and foreign films on the Upper West Side of Manhattan."

We might just get our own little Metrograph if these movers and shakers get the help they need from the community.  The Coalition is looking for help to draft a business plan, raise funds and get the word out. You are hereby invited to attend an organizing meeting:

When: April 17, 7 p.m.
Where: 142 West End Avenue, Apt. 27L (entrance is on 66th Street between Amsterdam and West End)
What: to hear further details on progress and plans and obtain community input on the effort to open a new movie theater.

Read more here. (H/t to neighbor Esther R. for the news.)

So two mysteries to be solved: will the New Plaza rise and will the Metro rise again?

And now, one from the vault dated September 2005.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history. To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

I miss freekah. I miss bringing my own bottle of vino and hanging out in relative quiet with a date or a close friend. I miss the salmon. The flaky guava puff lagniappe at the end. The bold Cuban art. I miss Fidel's edge and conversation and his blunt opinions, and I miss Glenn's gentleness and scrumptious food.

I miss Buster's.

Before you criticize me, let me be clear: I think it's good to be able to voice an opinion and engage directly, keep folks honest, call out truly bad practices, and more. And I get that we're all paying a lot of money to survive in NYC. But I don't have a lot of patience for "mobbing" a store or restaurant due to one incident simply because you have access to a platform that can amplify your message and exact your pound of flesh.

Crabbing about bad products that aren't to one's taste or about one-time mishaps is just so easy in this era of iPublishing.  Words live on for ever.

I'd like to see some of the commenters walk a mile in an owner's shoes. Prior to ranting, some margin of maneuver needs to be factored in: did you ever have a bad day at work? Or deliver a substandard job to your boss? Imagine your boss's rant on Yelp that day and then looking for another boss, the next. Ouchy.

I suspect that dealing nobly with customers whose expectations are unreasonably high is one of the hardest things a Mom & Pop can face.

I have sympathy, I really do. Fidel's flames, I will admit, were not for the faint of heart -- and yet there was some bold-faced honesty in them.

So here, in one from the vault from December 2006, is Hedy Campbell on the subject of a now lost Mom & Pop, or Pop & Pop: the late, great "spa-tinental" hole-in-the-wall kitchenette oddly known as Buster's.  Sadly, the story of the name is one I never got.

For Busterfans, rumor has it Fidel is serving it up from a truck at the Jersey City side of the ferry. I don't think the critics are the reason the shop pushed on. I think it was the razor-thin margin of making a micro-restaurant go 'round without alcohol and with human-scale hours.  Apparently that formula is DOA in NYC, and I'd venture the guess that it's one reason some of the smaller spaces aren't snapped up by new entrepreneurs.

I hope Fidel and Glenn know they are missed.  At least by some.  I hope their hours are saner.  I hope their critics are gentler.  And I hope someone is gobbling up a guava petit four right this very second and feeling their love.

Buster's. Closed two years ago but not forgotten.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.

By Caitlin Hawke

Happy Vernal Equinox! 

What better day than to pull from the vaults from about 10 years ago, a newsletter piece written by local gem Dorothy O'Hanlon and featuring the architect of many a planter (and walker of many a hound) our neighbor, Precious Costello Caldwell, Jr.

Since 2008, other media outlets have piled on, and he has been profiled in the NYT, on the show "Neighborhood Slice," in other blogs and on the news.

But you read it here first!

His tree well construction days are behind him, I hear.  But he'll go down in our local lore as the arborist EMT who salvaged our West End gingko post-assault three years ago.  A miracle of ingenuity and TLC, his surgery postponed the tree's inevitable demise.

It's a good time to remind  you that the Block Association's Spring Planting Day is scheduled for April 21, 10 a.m. Save the date.  I'll post a reminder in mid-April.

Hope to see you at the Master on Thursday, March 22 for the Block Association's Annual Meeting.

Details for both events are on the BA calendar.  And now to Precious.

By Caitlin Hawke

Did you get yours? The Spring 2018 Block Association newsletter is hot off the press. If you want to jump the gun, you’ll find a copy here.

I’ve lived in the catchment going on half of forever. And still that evening when I put my key to the hole and push open my door to discover the crisp quarterly lying in wait, I drop everything to read it on the spot. Old faithful.

If you are a Block Association member, have you ever wondered how this sweet read wends its way to you? It took me a long time to learn that Ken Henwood was the delivery man for my building, and he’s virtually my next-door neighbor. So, let’s ballpark it at 80 times that Ken has crouched in front of my apartment and glided the quarterly under my door. I am aghast that I’ve never actually thanked him for doing this!  (Ken, thank you!)

If you live in the catchment, you, too, probably have a courier ferrying “old faithful” to your door or building entryway. And you, too, probably dig in as soon as you get it.

We’re coming up on the newsletter’s 47th birthday. The first issue — entitled “Neighborhood News” — rolled off a typewriter on May 20, 1971, thanks to original editor and publisher Richard De Thuin who, sadly, passed away recently. You can read that whole issue right here.

More or less, the newsletter has been chugging along ever since. So here now is a chance to consider the 102-103 Streets Block Association Newsletter and what happens behind the scenes to get it to your door.

The best place to begin is with Hedy Campbell. You may know her name from the many roles she’s had within the Block Association since moving here in 1984. Shortly after arriving, she went to a Block Association board meeting and has stuck around ever since. Over the three and a half decades, she’s organized Halloween parades, solstice caroling nights, Spring planting days, and more.

About eight years ago, the West End Historic Preservation’s effort to landmark the avenue inspired her to think about the people who live in those buildings and the stories they could tell. This led to the launch of the Block Association’s Residents of Long Standing Hall of Fame with 27 inductees and counting — a great feat that we owe to Hedy’s ingenuity and her appreciation for neighborhood and neighbors.

She’s also inadvertently responsible for this blog. Hedy gingerly approached me to manage and update the website when the prior webmaster stepped down. My first response was that I couldn’t imagine taking on more work given my time commitment to BAiP. But how could I say no to her (anyone else ever had that reaction?). That was four years and nearly 300 posts ago!

The hat Hedy’s worn longest is newsletter editor. She took over the duties at the beginning of 1987, succeeding a long line of editors: Richard De Thuin, Mary Louise Taylor, Evelyn Brodwin, Marilyn Ehlers, Connie Fredericks, Ginger Lief and Kathy Giannou. Between 1987 and now, Hedy has had a couple of breaks when Jock Davenport and David Reich each did stints as editor. (My apologies to any past editors I’ve neglected to mention!).

I caught up with Hedy to ask about her 20+ years at the helm. What follows is our recent Q&A.

In the coming weeks, to honor the longevity of our newsletter I’ll be featuring all kinds of pieces “from the vault."  Many of these archival pieces are thanks to Ginger Lief and Ken Henwood who've preserved the back catalog. I'm very grateful to both of them, and to Ginger in particular -- the human "wayback machine." 

So, stick around since there's lots more memory lane to come! And if you are a fan of the newsletter, tell Hedy and her team in the comments below.


Q&A with Hedy Campbell, newsletter editor

Caitlin:  To orient us, what roles have you held within the Block Association over the years?
Hedy: My board positions have been co-chair; chair; treasurer; recording secretary; newsletter editor and co-editor. I ran the Halloween parade for many years. And I’ve run caroling for many years. (Anthony Bellov used to run it but some years ago maxed out. He was happy to continue as the musical brains of the operation as long as somebody else did the organizational stuff.) And for more years than not, I’ve been in charge of yard sale refreshments.

Caitlin: Can you tell me a little about your history with the newsletter?  I know it started in 1971 but tell me about when you entered the picture.
Hedy:  For some years starting in 1987 it was just me and my typewriter and our goal was a monthly distribution, which was a goal I couldn’t consistently meet. I don’t remember when we decided to go quarterly, which actually made brilliant sense because we’ve always asked for dues quarterly. Alan Leverenz was the first designer I worked with. Jock Davenport took over from me as editor for some years. David Reich took it over from him, then I became co-editor with David, then I became editor again.

Caitlin: And here we are. Do you know how much people appreciate the fruits of your labor?
Hedy: Not really. We get occasional comments from readers, mainly written on the flaps of contribution envelopes.

Caitlin: Well believe me, we do. So, how does each issue actually magically appear under my door every three months?
Hedy: The issue gets submitted digitally to Best Copy — the Mom & Pop (or more precisely Pop & Son) copy shop on the northeast corner of 101st Street and Broadway. They print it, insert the loose sheet manually, and fold the print run. Block Association member Eliza Lansdale gets it from them. She counts out newsletters and envelopes and runs around the neighborhood delivering them to sub-distributors and building captains who then distribute them further. For instance, she gives a couple of hundred issues to a high-school student who lives in my building. That person subdivides the batch and delivers to the small buildings on West 102nd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue. The big buildings like the Broadmoor and the Master get batches delivered to their building captains.

Caitlin: Why a print newsletter in this day and age?  Do you foresee a day when it will go electronic?
Hedy: In addition to disseminating information, the print newsletter is our vehicle for envelope distribution, which is still primarily how we receive membership contributions from residents. But residents should know that on our website, they can contribute by credit card any time.

Caitlin: In its slightly anachronistic way, I suspect that a paper copy makes people stop and really take the time to read the news and neighborhood vignettes. How much does it cost to produce?
Hedy: Each issue costs about $800. The contribution envelopes cost about $150. We print 2100 copies. And that’s attractive to our advertisers because I estimate that 2-3 people read each issue, so our reach is around 4000-5000 people. The ads generate income to defray the cost of publication, and thankfully we have all the ads we need. Jane Hopkins has done such a good job! In publishing, a 50:50 ratio of ads to articles is the approximate goal, and we’re roughly there.

Caitlin: OK, we've got the distribution but what about the content -- what's your process there?
Hedy:  Four times a year, about six weeks in advance of publication, I send out an email to contributors in which the article lineup, assignments, and deadline are specified. That email is based both on what we historically print in a particular issue (such as the recurring annual events) as well as any current issues of importance (the gingko tree assault, for example). A group of faithful writers submit their articles, which are then lightly edited; this takes several hours, and I am grateful now to be working with Amy Edelman who has come out the gate very strong in this copy-editing role!  Ads that Jane Hopkins collects and all the articles are sent to the designer, Bradley Spear, who then does a preliminary layout. I review the layout and provide feedback about placement and prioritization. Brad makes changes and returns revised layouts for review. With some luck, only minor tinkering remains. Some issues (like the last one of 2017) require more back and forth until the layout is set. Content is proofread, and corrections are provided to Brad who makes corrections and returns a final proof for review. Brad sends the graphic file to Best Copy for printing. And then we start the delivery process above.

Caitlin: What we in the community get out of the newsletter is intangible: first and foremost, its very existence fosters a sense of community. What do you get out of your involvement with the newsletter?
Hedy: I get to shape the content of what is the primary public face of the organization. I believe that the organization’s role in the community is an important one, and therefore making its functions and initiatives known to residents in a way that reflects our efforts accurately and positively is critical. Although there are many residents who are here and have been here for many years, there’s also a lot of turnover. Providing a sense of perspective, which I can do because I’ve been here a long time, is part of what we want to communicate.

Caitlin: It seems you’ve been looking to train someone to take over for quite a while. Do you think you’ll ever succeed, and if not will this 47-year-old institution of a newsletter vanish?
Hedy: It’s possible. There could come a time when I just have to say that’s it. But for as long as I have an associate who will take care of the nuts and bolts of editing and proofreading, I’m happy to oversee it, keeping an eye on the issues of importance to the organization and assigning articles accordingly.

Caitlin: I know that Ginger Leif, a former editor from the earliest days, performed a colossal labor of love by archiving print issues going back to the very first issue (Thank you, Ginger!). These are now part of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group’s files at the Bloomingdale library branch. Have you ever looked at that collection and felt part of the long continuum of time – that we are all impermanent?
Hedy: I haven’t been over to see the archive. I have my personal collection, so I’m aware how fat the folder has grown. I do feel part of the continuum of the neighborhood, especially as I got to know Cherie Tredanari and Ted and Aysa Berger, who were founders of the organization. I feel as if I accepted a baton from them (Cherie ran Halloween, I took it over from her). And I’m concerned, as I know you are, that the next generation of baton recipients doesn’t seem to have identified itself. With the trend toward two working parents, there just isn’t as much time for volunteerism, and since there’s no pressing issue in the neighborhood for residents to rally around (such as crime or drug dealing, as there once was), I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency to get involved. Although I’m very aware that we’re all very temporary, I prefer to focus on what sort of imprint, if only a subtle one, I can leave while I’m here.

Caitlin:  I keep thinking that connecting via technology has supplanted the need for hyperlocal community. But as technology becomes more and more dehumanizing, people will turn back to the local bricks and mortar community right under their noses. There’s so much benefit in it. That’s the lesson I learned from both the Block Association and BAiP. Which reminds me!  Without the newsletter, BAiP would not have taken off as quickly as it did nine years ago. Because of their communications networks two block associations were able to get word out efficiently to all neighbors in five square blocks about BAiP’s creation. The infrastructure of the block associations and their newsletters jumpstarted BAiP. We need to put that on the balance sheet of under "newsletter successes."
Hedy: I couldn't agree more!

Caitlin: I think it’s pretty obvious that we share the love of living in Bloomingdale.
Hedy: Oh, yes, I’ve loved living here. It’s quiet without being isolated. We aren’t swarmed with foot traffic en route to an attraction or institution. People, if they’re inclined, get to know one another, whether because they do the alternate side shuffle, have children, walk a dog, or hang out at the diner. I used to say, especially when Oppenheimer and the Green Farm were here, that I could walk from my building to 96th Street to shop for Thanksgiving and return with everything I needed even though I’d left my wallet at home. I think it’s still pretty true, but maybe not as much.

Caitlin: A village.
That’s a good place to stop because I know that the Annual Meeting on March 22 will focus on the street-level retail crisis. It sure would be nice if every landlord would make a good faith effort to have the shops on our streets occupied by commercial tenants and usher back in the law of supply and demand, and perhaps a new era of local retail. Thank goodness for the shops we still have -- and for their support of the newsletter. And thank you and your team for bringing it to us four times a year.  There's plainly a great amount of volunteer sweat equity and TLC involved.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history. To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.

By Caitlin Hawke

From the vaults of our September 2001 newsletter comes the piece at the bottom of this post by Jock Davenport hinting at the origins of the group we all know and love today as the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group (then known as the Park West Village Neighborhood History Group, a old pamphlet for which you'll find here). The group's antecedents, of course, hark back to the Old Community -- which refers to the neighbors who lived in the two blocks of 98th and 99th Streets between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West from 1905-1951.

To explicate two cycles of racist real estate history, below (and here for those of you reading this in an email subscription) are excellent videos by Jim Epstein that tell stories about these blocks. The first video focuses on Philip Payton, Jr., a savvy investor who bought prime properties which he marketed to African Americans in the spirit of desegregation (and profit).  It was Payton who, in 1905, bought up these two blocks and began renting to black families, leading whites to move away.

For 50 years, an African American community including many known musicians and writers flourished until the houses on those blocks were razed as part of the NYC's Manhattantown project which took them by eminent domain to catalyze the so-called "urban renewal" of the 1950s sought by Robert Moses. This then paved the way to develop Park West Village while ravaging the well-knit 50-year old community of African Americans.

It's not the first time I've posted the second video below by Jim Epstein (again here for email subscribers), but it's well worth sharing again.

Remarkably, the ties of what came to be known as the "Old Community" -- the neighbors who lost their homes in this chapter of racially-motivated development -- live on today. In the second video above, you'll meet Jim Torain who was one of the neighbors to lose his boyhood home in 1951.  Pained, he persisted and continued to be rooted there -- in mind if not in body -- for another 60 years. To grossly understate it: that's not nothing. 

Sadly, Jim Torain died on December 29th. He would have been about 75 years old, I am guessing. Jim worked long and hard for the preservation of the memory of the Old Community. He was featured in this New York Times article. Dan Wakin also wrote a piece that attests to Jim Torain's deep knowledge of the many cultural figures, such as the black dance historian Joe Nash, who lived there. Each fall with Marietta Bussey, Jim organized regular reunions for the former neighbors.

When she entered the fight at an improbably late hour to save Grand Central Terminal, Jackie Kennedy said: "I think that if we don't care about our past, we can't have very much hope for our future." 

Clearly, Jim Torain would agree. My friend and one of our neighborhood's leading history preservationists, Win Armstrong, reminded me that the NYPL Schomburg Center houses a photo collection of the Old Community that Jim donated.

I am grateful that the story of 98th and 99th Street is not lost. There is much to be learned from the racist response to the arrival of the neighbors who would become the Old Community and from the racist events that brutally forced them out. Lessons about human nature. About market forces. About displacement and inhumanity. About persistence and memory. The Torain legacy to our neighborhood is unquantifiable, and this post is dedicated to him and to the efforts of all neighbors who value the act of preserving and sharing history. 

With sympathies to Jim Torain's sister and daughter and with thanks eternal to Jim himself  -- for bearing the torch of the Great Before.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

I've been holding back on a trove of old newsletter pieces from the print archives for lack of time. My recent interview with Hedy Campbell (coming soon) inspired me to start getting them up.

So, today, I have a vault piece from the September 2006 issue of the BA newsletter.  Hard to believe that our beautiful Horn & Hardart building on the SE corner of Broadway and W. 104th Street had yet to receive landmark status just 12 years ago.  But after cries from the community and preservationists to "Save the Automat!" that designation came on January 30, 2007.  Better late than never.

For pictures of it over the years see my Throwback posts here (1930), here (1942), and here (1980).

And to dig into the weeds of the history and architectural details of the automat building, you can download the Landmarks Preservation Commission report here.

Lagniappes at bottom (remember to click on the blog post title to view the video on the blog if you are reading this in an email subscription).  Look closely at the first one because ours appears!

Note to readers who subscribe by email:  Our content management system for this blog is a little balky.  I am reposting this piece on the newsletter since the top paragraph was left out of the version that appeared in your inboxes.

By Caitlin Hawke

The Fall 2017 issue of the Block Association's newsletter is now "live" online.  You can get to the table of contents by way of this link and click through to articles of interest.  It takes a small but powerful army to accomplish this quarterly endeavor.  The writers mostly have bylines and may be known to you. But too invisible is the field marshal, Hedy Campbell. It wouldn't exist without her. She is the editor with Jacob Gross co-piloting as associate editor, and, trust me, they toil.  Brad Spear does the considerable lift on graphic design.  He, too, toils.  The three of them deserve an ovation.  Incredibly there must be 25 others who contribute to each issue, either as regular columnists or feature writers.  If you like what you read, savor it as a very special, all-volunteer produced, labor of love for this community.  An in admiration, don't forget to re-up your Block Association membership!

As you've read in past blog posts, this newsletter has been going strong since 1971.  The inaugural issue and pieces from many issues since are highlighted in a regular blog feature called "One from the Vault" which you can get to by clicking that link under "Categories" at right (if you are reading this post online) or by clicking here if you receive blog posts directly to your email.

By the way, I have a big backlog to do on the blog, I realize.  But do know that more treasures from the vault, more Throwback Thursdays: Bloomingdale Edition, and more It's Elemental features are all coming.  But by trickle not by flood.

But back to the Fall 2017 newsletter. I wanted to draw your attention to a piece on BAiP's "Blooming Hour" written by Bob Neuman, which was erroneously credited to me in the print version and corrected here. It is Bob's writing and voice, not at all mine, despite that the Blooming Hour is near and dear to my heart as a key social gathering we run in the activities sector of Bloomingdale Aging in Place.

The whole newsletter is worth your giving it a once over. For example, I'd also point you to the piece on Hosteling International NYC because together with the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group, they have a great program coming up on October 4th at 6:30 p.m. on the history of the landmarked building at 891 Amsterdam Avenue and on the hostel itself. I'll try to post a reminder nearer the date.

Check out the current issue because there's much more on Fall Tree Well Clean Up Day (Oct. 14), National Night Out, business news, calls for your participation and art endeavors by talented neighbors.  If you are in the catchment of the Block Association, you should have received your print copy this past week, hot off the press.

Happy reading!

By Caitlin Hawke

The Fall 2017 issue of the Block Association's newsletter is now "live" online.  You can get to the table of contents by way of this link and click through to articles of interest.  It takes a small but powerful army to accomplish this quarterly endeavor.  The writers mostly have bylines and may be known to you. But too invisible is the field marshal, Hedy Campbell. It wouldn't exist without her. She is the editor with Jacob Gross co-piloting as associate editor, and, trust me, they toil.  Brad Spear does the considerable lift on graphic design.  He, too, toils.  The three of them deserve an ovation.  Incredibly there must be 25 others who contribute to each issue, either as regular columnists or feature writers.  If you like what you read, savor it as a very special, all-volunteer produced, labor of love for this community.  An in admiration, don't forget to re-up your Block Association membership!

As you've read in past blog posts, this newsletter has been going strong since 1971.  The inaugural issue and pieces from many issues since are highlighted in a regular blog feature called "One from the Vault" which you can get to by clicking that link under "Categories" at right (if you are reading this post online) or by clicking here if you receive blog posts directly to your email.

By the way, I have a big backlog to do on the blog, I realize.  But do know that more treasures from the vault, more Throwback Thursdays: Bloomingdale Edition, and more It's Elemental features are all coming.  But by trickle not by flood.

But back to the Fall 2017 newsletter. I wanted to draw your attention to a piece on BAiP's "Blooming Hour" written by Bob Neuman, which was erroneously credited to me in the print version and corrected here. It is Bob's writing and voice, not at all mine, despite that the Blooming Hour is near and dear to my heart as a key social gathering we run in the activities sector of Bloomingdale Aging in Place.

The whole newsletter is worth your giving it a once over. For example, I'd also point you to the piece on Hosteling International NYC because together with the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group, they have a great program coming up on October 4th at 6:30 p.m. on the history of the landmarked building at 891 Amsterdam Avenue and on the hostel itself. I'll try to post a reminder nearer the date.


Check out the current issue because there's much more on Fall Tree Well Clean Up Day (Oct. 14), National Night Out, business news, calls for your participation and art endeavors by talented neighbors.  If you are in the catchment of the Block Association, you should have received your print copy this past week, hot off the press.

Happy reading!

By Caitlin Hawke

I was trained as an archeologist, only I dug in limestone caves of Southwest France for 100,000 year old human fossils.  But it doesn't matter!  A find is a find and the euphoria is the same.

I had that exact same thrill when, at Hedy Campbell's suggestion, I headed over to the Bloomingdale library branch and leafed through old printed editions of the Block Association's newsletters.  Curated and preserved by neighborhood gem and resident B.A. archivist, Ginger Lief, and somewhat at the behest of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group's Win Armstrong I am guessing, the archive has wonder upon wonder which I'll be unearthing here for the next while.  But no better place to start than Volume I, Number I of the newsletter in its entirety.  I realize that the photos below will be hard to read so a downloadable pdf is also included here.

Things changes. Things stay the same. Neighbors age, others move in. Friends move "up". And Bloomingdale goes round and round in the Cirle Game that Joni Mitchell sang about: "We can't return we can only look behind from where we came. And go round and round and round in the circle game."

And this Block Association has moved 46 times round the seasons.  And as you'll see from the half-century 0ld content of this issues pages, we're all captives here on the carousel of time.

With my thanks and respect to several women who love our history enough to allow me to find this treasure with nearly no effort at all: Ginger and Win and probably to Hedda too, this one's for you!

And to the founders of this block association, where'er you walk, thank you for the legacy of this association. Long may the painted ponies you left behind continue to go up and down.

To see the lagniappe video below if you are receiving blog posts directly to your email, go to the blog.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of Block Association newsletters for the benefit of new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read other pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.

Remember the Easy-Bake Oven that operated on the wattage of a lightbulb and actually baked your treat? Well, the output of this A/C was the cooling equivalent of baking with a lightbulb.  Eventually, if I didn't move around and if I sheeted off the back half of my beloved first studio to keep the "cool" air contained, I could bring the temperature down just enough to sit there and not drip...while I watched my cache from the Movie Place.

Ok, so back to my point. Gary Dennis, who came to own the Movie Place, as many neighbors well know, and who grew up around here, was driven by his film obsession to commemorate the old residence of the boy who would become Bloomingdale's biggest Hollywood legend, Humphrey Bogart.  Bogie's childhood home is 245 West 103rd Street.  And there, thanks to Gary, you can see the plaque.

Below, a September 2006 Block Association newsletter article -- one from the vault -- by David Reich tells the whole tale of the commemoration.  David shared the color photo at the bottom of this post.

The whole affair makes me want to whistle a cheer.  You know how to whistle, don't cha?

(Remember, to see embedded videos if you are receiving these posts by email, you have to click on the title of the post above and view in your browser.)

By Caitlin Hawke

The Foster Mansion sat on the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and W. 102nd Street prior to the construction of what is now 300 Riverside Drive.

Thanks to an old Block Association newsletter, I can tell you something more about this beauty in a post that is a mash-up of "One from the Vault" and "Throwback Thursday."

Ginger Lief, a valued neighborhood archive-lover and historian presented information about the home here in our 2002 newsletter:

[For some forty years],  a fine residence stood on the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and W. 102nd Street.  It was built from 1887 to 1888 for William F. Foster who lived there with his wife, Bertha. The architect of the brick mansion was Halstead Parker Fowler (1859-1911).  It was demolished in 1922 and replaced by today’s fourteen story and basement apartment building for which the architect was George Frederick Pelham (1866- 1937). Our early neighborhood home builder, Foster, was born in Taunton, England, October 11, 1841, and came to America in 1856. He invented the Foster glove fastening which he introduced to New York City in 1876, and then went on to develop a large and successful business.  Earlier, he was in the glove business in Chicago but was financially ruined there by the fire of 1871.  Foster died from cancer at the age of 54 at his Riverside Drive home on December 3, 1895.”

A big h/t to Ginger for that history. Another h/t to neighbor Gary Dennis who flagged the building in our Fall newsletter here where you'll also see links to Gary's history blogs.

And now for the Throwback photo (taken according to Gary just before the mansion was demolished in 1922), I give you the Foster mansion which sat squarely in the Block Association's catchment just 130 years ago. You can see it in the upper left corner of the 1891 Bromley map below.

By Caitlin Hawke

This year marks the 15th since the horrors of 9/11.  I find it hard to believe in every way. 

Months ago, while leafing through archived newsletters, I came across one from September 2001. On the front page (reproduced below), the Block Association's newsletter editors poignantly acknowledged what had just transpired. Presumably that box was added just as the newsletter was going to press.

Seeing it brought back a flood of memories, mostly of the surreality the city was going through and of the mourning.  There was an impromptu gathering at the Firemen's Memorial on W. 100th Street and Riverside Drive, recently renovated, I recall. That must have been on the Friday evening following black Tuesday.  But I could be wrong.  There, I remember a sea of candles and flowers surrounding the memorial.  Incredulous neighbors huddled together.  We didn't know then that there was more to come with the terrorizing anthrax attacks -- prolonged and destabilizing.  In hindsight, it all seems insurmountable.  But then think of all the similar tragedies that have come since, in unending succession, constantly challenging people to surmount the insurmountable.

What strikes me about this newletter piece from the archives is the simple, elegant message on the newsletter's front page.  In it, we have what the French call a "témoin" -- a witness or a telltale -- of what we needed and sought.  It's a window to the past that reminded me that for a moment in New York, all was local -- the way Tip O'Neill meant "all politics is local."  Time stopped and New York belonged just to New Yorkers.  And we comforted each other.

The juxtaposition of this box with the article beneath it about happier news -- the celebration of this organization's 30th anniversary -- is apt in the sense that the block association is and has been a catalyst for community-building.  I did the uncomplicated math: turning 30 in 2001 makes the block association 45 this year.  Wrap your head around that in an era where the lifespan of a new gadget is roughly 24 months, and when Broadway retailers are turning over at a dizzying rate.  But the block association endures.

The organizers of the block association saw fit to mark the 30th by feting our neighborhood history and its preservation. In the 2001 article, neighbor and history buff, Ginger Lief, rolled out an incredible grassroots-driven archive at the New York Public Library, and I know that Win Armstrong was an engine of this effort as well.  It inspires me that neighbors care so much about what came before...and perhaps also about what is still to come and how to shape it for the better.

I don't know when it happened.  Was it the completion of the new WTC tower or the memorial that has become a tourist destination.  Or the advent of the Oculus.  But somehow between the 10th and 15th anniversaries, in my mind 9/11 has folded into that history.  It makes me feel like Rip Van Winkle that we now have neighbors who were in junior high school back on that terrible day who are discovering the story of what so many of us lived through now that New York is their home. 

So, today, memories turn back 15 years. To the lives lost. And to the lives affected.  And to how the challenge soldered our city together.

Thoughts project forward to the next 45 in our neighborhood.  May we never have to share a day like that day in September again.  But if we do, rest assured that the comfort and compassion will flow.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

Jock Davenport strikes again. This time with an article that clocks in at 16 years old. It was Y2K, the year that the CVS -- a third chain drugstore in two square blocks -- was beaten back by a community boycott.  We'd recently lost our Associated Supermarket and had two large drugstores, already.

And now, by 2016, we've dwindled back down to just one mega-drug-mart in our catchment.  As a sign of the times, the new tenants of choice are the urgi-care storefronts.

Speaking of Associated markets, today up in Washington Heights at W. 187th and Fort Washington Avenue, the neighbors just came together and beat back a Walgreens to preserve their beloved and much-needed Associated.  Strangely reminiscent.

In June 2000, Jock asked a lot of questions that a decade and a half later are still relevant.  With the recent landmarking of much of our western catchment, there were still plenty of carve-outs along Broadway.  So the specter of development looms large.

The lessons live on.  And, Jock, to answer your headlining question: Yes, we can!

We know.  Because we did.

And now, one from the vault...originally published in June 2000.

By Caitlin Hawke

Jock Davenport is back. This time it is with a restaurant review from the eve of Y2K, May 1999.  How many times have I thought of this big, Bohemian space and missed it.  It was Jesse Sehla's gift to our neighborhood in the form of a place where you could sit, converse, brood, write, read, play backgammon, and nibble away the hours.  It was the anti-chain coffeehouse which then morphed into a more upscale restaurant briefly.  Read more about it in this one from the vault!

By Caitlin Hawke

Enjoying the hunt that this new blog feature naturally provides, I am struck by the sheer quantity of pieces in our block association's newsletter archives written by former co-chair Jock Davenport.  I am sure this will be the first of many that I post here "from the vault."  Jock headed this block association at a time that was just on the cusp of the corporatification of Broadway.  He was instrumental in facilitating the boycott of the CVS that was to replace the much-appreciated Associated market that, while modest, was a square-dealing grocery that served our community very well prior to the explosion of commercial rents.  You may recall that the boycotters won that battle, successfully fighting back the third (or perhaps fourth) chain drug store to move within a two-block radius.  But the ensuing result proved to be mixed with the passage of time and the continued escalation in retail rents.

I think you will find both prescience and quaintness in this piece from the vault.  Things have changed but I sense feelings have remained the same.  And more than anything, the episode reminded me that neighbors can move mountains together -- in this instance dressed either as a breadstick or celery stalk.  So be it.  You do what you gotta do.

And now your blast from the past. By way of Jock Davenport.