Category:

Seen in the Neighborhood

10/31/2019

Chanson de Prévert

By Caitlin Hawke

I can't think of fall without thinking of the beautiful love song "Autumn Leaves," of Jacques Prévert, and those who followed -- Yves Montand, Barbara, et oui, Serge Gainsbourg. Known in French as "Les Feuilles Mortes," it's an oft-covered song. I'm thinking of Sinatra, Streisand, Piaf, Clapton, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, and Robert Zimmerman. I told you the list of those who've fallen under its spell is long.

Lagniappes at the end of the post. But before we get there, I have two beauties -- photos shot by neighbors of not-quite-feuilles-mortes, still clinging to trees in their technicolor finale.

The first one is by Dee Eolin taken in Central Park's northern ravine area. The bottom photo is by the triple-threat William C. Altham a little closer to home.

Breathe it in, soak it up, feast your eyes. Enjoy Nature is all her glory. Right now. In our tree-filled neighborhood. Autumn leaves? We got 'em.

Central Park on Monday (Credit: Dee Eolin)

Straus Park on Wednesday (Credit: William C. Altham)

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Fall into It

10/3/2019

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Indian Summer Turned Quickly to Fall This Week

By Caitlin Hawke

With two days of humid high eighties weather, little did we know that we were but one cold front away from a definitive blast of fall. Thursday proved that. But it got you in the mood and that's all that counts because the Block Association's Fall Tree Clean Up and Bulb Planting Event has impeccable timing!

Fall out on Saturday morning for a cool two-hour stint of hands-in-soil. You know the drill: Mark Schneiderman and his crew will meet you at 878 West End Avenue with all the fixins'.

Bring the kids and remind them that our Halloween Party and Parade can't be far behind.

Your Block Association has it in spades.

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Got Something to Give Away? Try "What a Bargain"!

9/15/2019

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It's time for the W. 104th Street Yard Sale and Your Donations Count!

By Caitlin Hawke

Our friends over at the West 104th Street Block Association are on a roll. You've seen them raising funds with the split-pot raffle and readying themselves for the extravaganza this Saturday, September 21. Here's a call to neighbors for donations to their "What A Bargain" table, run by Joyce Mann. Those things that seem to precious to throw away but you are tired of looking at? Those things (I am looking at me, now) clogging up your closet for another time, another home, another go round? You know you're never gonna use 'em! Donate them to West 104th Street Block Association to help the organization carry out its community building efforts throughout the year.

And don't forget to stop by and enjoy the yard sale all day Saturday (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) along West 104th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.

To help the "What-A-Bargain" table, here's all you need to know:

Donate to What-A-Bargain, a hot spot at the West 104th Street Yard Sale where shoppers find great deals and make purchases that support our Block Association.

Dig into your cabinets and pull out:

•   Jewelry
•   Handbags or wallets
•   Toys
•   Charming bric-a-brac
•   Unopened personal care products
•   Ceramics/pottery
•   Musical instruments
•   Bicycles
•   Complete games and puzzles

(Please do not contribute the following: clothing of any kind, heavily used pots, pans, and glassware; outdated electronics; items missing pieces; or things like used coffee mugs because in the past Joyce says these haven't sold and will end up in the landfill.)

To donate, please contact Joyce directly to let her know what you have and to arrange a drop off time before September 19. She'll give you all the information you need:

Email: joycemann2@gmail.com
Phone: 212-721-6341
Cell: 516-238-4609

Don't have anything to donate? Come check out the yard sale and find a bargain just for yourself -- another way to help our neighboring Block Association. And there are rumors that their bake sale table will be an abbondanza of scrumptiousness.

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An Event from TriBloomingdale: November 7

9/14/2019

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Climate: The Positive Role of NYC Parks with Dan Garodnick

By Caitlin Hawke

On November 7, at 7 p.m., TriBloomingdale's "It's Easy Being Green" group presents the president and CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy, Dan Garodnick. Dan will speak about the importance of parks in the bigger outlook on climate. But the parks, like our beloved Riverside Park, are also vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and Dan will dive into that as well. You will find details below. Space will be limited, so RSVP quickly to ItsEasyBeingGreen.UWS@gmail.com.

TriBloomingdale's "It's Easy Being Green" group began a few months ago as the brainchild of neighbors Christine Campbell and Sharon Waskow to bring neighbors together each month to take action on climate change. It is one of several opportunities to engage with neighbors in the TriBloomingdale initiative which was begun in 2014 as a simple concept: take one great neighborhood -- Bloomingdale -- with lots of community-minded neighbors. Add three anchor community organizations -- BAiP, West 104th Street Block Assocation and West 102nd & 103rd Streets Block Association. And you get TriBloomingdale. The idea behind the three organizations joining forces from time to time was to bring a broader group of neighbors together to pursue common interests. We've always collaborated loosely on neighborhood events like the Halloween parade or the two annual yard sales. And BAiP owes its creation to leaders from both block associations and their members back around 2008. So it is natural to pool efforts so that members can find ways of getting to know each other.

In addition to this climate group, TriBloomingdale offers the following:

• TriBloomingdale Sunday morning brisk walking group where members walk at a very brisk pace.

• TriBloomingdale SciFi reading group on third Thursdays where members enjoy favorite classics by writers like Robert A. Heinlein, Terry Pratchett and John Scalzi.

• TriBloomingdale Networking in the Neighborhood on first Friday mornings for Bloomingdale's sole proprietors who work from home and want to enlarge their nearby resources and build their businesses.

If you wish to lead an activity within this tri-organizational initiative or would like to receive more information about any of these activities, please email Caitlin Hawke: chawke@bloominplace.org.

Come out and try TriBloomingdale!

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Bloomingdale by Name

5/21/2019

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Bloomingdale by Nature

By Caitlin Hawke

April 20th was Spring Planting Day in these parts. Since then, you may have noticed the shipshape tree wells popping with impatiens and marigolds, begonias and petunias. Thanks once again go to the green team of the Block Association, to all the members who came out and to Mother Nature her own self.

Read more in the June newsletters due on newsstands in a few short weeks. In the meantime, enjoy the bloomage!

h/t to Hedy Campbell for the photo.

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Got Any Grass?

5/20/2019

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I Kid You Not: It's Going to Be a Goat Morning

By Caitlin Hawke

Move over Summer Solstice. Hang on Manhattanhenge. Today is the launch of Goatham! And it all starts at 11 a.m. in Riverside Park at the level of W. 120th Street.

The plan? From the official website: "Riverside Park will host a herd of goats starting today, May 21, 2019. They will roam a two-acre area — within a fenced enclosure — located between approximately 119th to 125th Streets, feasting all the while.

Throughout the season, the goats will continuously consume the weeds all the way down to the roots, which stunts the plants’ normal growth trajectory by making them start all over — only to be eaten again. After a few months, the plants’ ability to grow will have been weakened, and perhaps eliminated altogether."

What could possibly be baaaad? It isn't nanny of my business, but it's a bleating shame it didn't happen sooner.

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Reminder: Get Your Bloom On

4/18/2019

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Come Out on Saturday, April 20 for Spring Planting Day

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Get Your Hands Dirty on Saturday, April 20!

4/13/2019

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Spring Planting Day is Almost Here

By Caitlin Hawke

I love the Spring and Fall block association events to beautify our tree wells, even if I don't have mulch of a green thumb. Neighbor Mark Schneiderman and the Block Association ecology team are soil good at planning this event, they've got everything covered. All you, your kids and your favorite neighbor have to do is turnip! Saturday, April 20, 10:30 a.m. until it's all done. Meet in front of 878 West End Avenue and spade some time on a gift that will keep on giving. The event is open perennial neighbor. Shy because you are new to the block and don't know anyone? Be bulb and come solo! We'll get you connected quickly.

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The Story of Why 'Memory' Persists

4/7/2019

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April 13 from Noon to 3 p.m. is Friends of Straus Park Memorial Day

Model extraordinaire Audrey Munson posed for this Straus Park sculpture 'Memory'

By Caitlin Hawke

Some know her as Audrey. Some as Memory. She lies in suspended contemplation of those who perished on the Titanic, including Bloomingdalers and notable New Yorkers of their day, Ida and Isidor Straus.

The group named Friends of Straus Park invites you out to contemplate along with her on Saturday, April 13th. Details and a lot more of this history may be found in the flyer below.

I've written previously about Straus Park here, here and here. So brush up on your Bloomingdale, and, on April 13, come on out to the trivium where beauty lies in memory: Broadway, West End Avenue and W. 106th St.

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Seen in the Neighborhood

2/4/2019

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The New Curb Appeal of Central Park's Strangers' Gate

Before: Strangers' Gate obscured by parked cars

By Caitlin Hawke

Ok, for folks who park on the street, this post might get your Irish up. It entails the eventual loss of three parking spaces on Central Park West.

That's the bad news. But the good news is that what I am about to report is a story of grassroots efforts to increase safety and improve aesthetics of "Strangers' Gate" -- the W. 106th Street portal to Central Park.

Thanks to neighbors' efforts, in particular to transportation advocate Peter Frishauf with help from Henry Rinehart, in mid-January Community Board 7 passed a resolution to improve access to this entrance to Central Park by opening the curb and prohibiting parking immediately outside it. Department of Transportation signage should be updated soon so that the approach will look like the photo below instead of the view in the photo above.

This will protect pedestrians who flow through Strangers' Gate, affording them better visibility of traffic on Central Park West and giving drivers a much better chance of seeing exiting and entering park goers.

I love the name of this gate and was vaguely aware that many of the park's entrances bear names. In fact, there are twenty named gates. Each honors a special population of New York City in an early nod to the fact that this vast green space was to be 'the People's Park.' You might have been entering the park at W. 100th Street all these years and not have realized that that is Boys' Gate. Of course, anyone can go through it. But if you want to use Girls' Gate, you're going to have to go clear around to E. 102nd Street. Or you can pop down to the Dakota and enter through Women's Gate.

The key to the 20 gates is below.

The bitter irony of naming the gates for different NYC populations is that in creating Central Park, land was taken by eminent domain, and the African-American neighborhood known as Seneca Village was demolished in 1857. You won't see a Seneca Gate on the list below, but the rich history of Seneca Village is becoming better known.

The story has been told in recent plays and films, by creative writers, historians and archeologists. I will be posting more about it over the month of February. But while thinking about our newly visible Strangers' Gate, I wanted to pause and think about those who are largely invisible, those who were dispossessed of their homes, whose community was razed, and whose story was mostly lost -- all in the push to create a park that is a stranger to none of us.

Choose any of these 20 gates and enter this urban sanctuary with a thought toward Seneca Village on your way in.

After: Strangers' Gate without parked cars

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Seeing Red

11/7/2018

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Seen in the Neighborhood - Memory in All Her Glory

Memory as festooned by the very gifted floral flash pioneer Lewis Miller of Urban Stems

By Caitlin Hawke

On a day when a random act of kindness might make all the difference, I give you this pop-up piece of human goodness. If you don't know about Flower Flash by this incredibly generous artist who, it must also be said, has a flair for great PR, it might brighten both your actual and virtual lives to learn more.

Flower-manipulator extraordinaire Lewis Miller made his way to the neighborhood shortly after resident gardener, Joseph Arbo, placed a wreath in the flower bed in memory of the hate crime in Pittsburgh. Two people on parallel trajectories of decency whose paths fused.

Hang in there, siblings of this valley of flowers known as Bloomingdale. Hang in there.

Community is what makes us strong when we are challenged. 'Memory' and Straus Park stand as witnesses to this truth.

h/t to Terence Hanrahan for the picture below and the notice of these happenings at our local trivium.

Standing in solidarity with Pittsburgh, Joseph Arbo placed a wreath in Straus Park.

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Swap 'til You Drop

10/25/2018

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Decluttering to Reclutter: It's the Great Ansche Chesed Share and Shop

By Caitlin Hawke

Here at the Block Association, we love a good green activity.

Under the "reuse" part of "reduce, reuse, recycle," this free Housewares Share N "Shop" is an opportunity to recycle any gently used housewares or to take anything you want home for free.

It all happens this Sunday, October 28, at 251 West 100th Street between West End Avenue and Broadway. All pertinent information is in the flyer below. But know that you don't have to bring something to take something. In addition to setting housewares free and back into the universe, it's a great chance to recycle used eyeglasses, batteries, CFC bulbs and more. Just don't bring any books or clothing because the organizers draw the line there.

Hat tip to Ansche Chesed's Greening Committee, the sponsor of this event, for giving me another reason to winnow. I'm coming. Crockpot, yogurt maker, fondue set -- all firmly in hand.

Please pass it on! The event only works if lots of people give and take so spread the news widely!

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Veni, Vidi, Weed It

10/18/2018

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Block Association Tree-Well Clean Up Day is Done. Weeders, Mulchers: Take a Bow!

By Caitlin Hawke

Thanks go to Celia Knight who sent the photo below of two hearty neighbors on a rainy Saturday. They joined the Block Association team headed by Mark Schneiderman, head of the ecology committee, to weed, clean, plant bulbs and generally beautify our tree wells.

They came. They saw. They mulched. And our trees are all the better for it.

If you are interested in the state of city trees, on October 24, at 6:30 p.m., Parks & Rec is holding a street tree workshop. You'll find the flyer below. I wanted to add a lagniappe from SNL this week, a rap ode to trees. But it truly wasn't ready for prime time. Best line: "You can agree that more trees isn't a bad thing, right though?"

#Truth

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It's Time to Give a Little Sugar to Our Trees and Our Kids

10/10/2018

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Two Block Association Events Not to Be Missed!

By Caitlin Hawke

The Block Association walks the talk when it comes to covering the catchment. First in the Spring, you can beautify the tree wells with annuals and get a good workout in your knees, quads and back. Then come May, you can enjoy W. 103rd Street at the ever wonderful street fair, yard sale, bazaar, fest -- or what ever you wish to call it.

As Fall rolls in, the BA goes back to the planting of bulbs and neatening of tree wells, followed in quick succession by the Halloween Parade and Solstice Caroling.

All year long on second Tuesdays at 8 p.m. you have the chance to come to the monthly board meetings which are held at 306 W. 102nd Street. You can bring your questions or just come to see how things are done and offer your help.

This weekend is your chance to give a little sugar to our trees. And I don't know about you, but after the last few weeks, I am ready to think and act locally.

The BA is calling all new neighbors, kids, green-thumbed or not. The tidying and planting will run from 10 a.m. til it's done around noon. All the info you need is below and if you still have questions, email: trees@w102-103blockassn.org.

Then hold onto your hats because 0ctober 31 is blowing in quickly. That's the day we give sugar to our kids, big and small. My observation is that the adults lean in almost as much as the young'uns. If you want to lend a hand, email Jane at halloween@w102-103blockassn.org.

Check out the galleries from past years like Ghoul's Gold here and Goblin It Up here. If that doesn't sell you on turning out at 6 p.m. on W. 102nd and West End, maybe the home-baked goodies or cider will. I am resurrecting the Great Pumpkin Interview with Saxton Freymann here -- a blog favorite.

For more information, you can read the most recent edition of the BA newsletter here.

See you on the streets of the catchment! Lagniappe from erstwhile Bloomingdaler Nina Simone below. If you are reading this in an email subscription, you'll have to click on the blog post title to view the video.

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Calling All Vendors: Spaces to Sell Your Wares Available Now!

9/15/2018

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Save Saturday September 29 and Turn Out on West 104th Street and West End

By Caitlin Hawke

Two weeks from today, on Saturday, September 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., West 104th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue becomes the best place to be. Our yard sale was rained out earlier this year, but our neighbors over on 104th are hard at work making offerings to weather gods and booking vendors for this annual event.

It's a great way to turn your unwanted household items into gold while someone goes off happy to give your junque a new life in a happy home. If you don't live on the block, a vendor space will set you back $60 and a space is big enough to split with a friend. All the details may be found here.

Once you are done vending on 104th, don't throw the rest of it away! Discover (and thank me later for telling you now) the fabulous freecycling (freegan) community of trashnothing.com. Part cult, part utopia, part distribution of resources, trashnothing.com is an electronic bulletin board where you can put up "haves" or "wants" for quite literally anything. Trim your book collection, winnow your pots and pans, give away kid items and clothes. Or post an "ask" for a crockpot, a curling iron, an electric drill. You will be amazed by how this community comes through. And it's all in the name of not letting anything go to waste ever again. The New York City group has 64,000 members. Read the boards to get the hang of it, sign in, and get started decluttering today!

Only catch is that everything changes hands completely free.

See you in two weeks on 104th Street!

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Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

5/16/2018

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In the Beginning...

By Caitlin Hawke

This year's Block Association's Spring Planting Day got me thinking (click the link to see the gallery if you missed it). Where and when did this tradition all begin?

I did some digging and found an interesting piece in the NYT that seems to explain pieces of our history I'd never heard. Specifically, that our Block Association began in 1967 on West 103rd Street with a planting and beautification initiative. West 102nd Street was rolled in quickly and about four years later, the Block Association as we know it formally launched, as can be seen in our first newsletter in 1971 here.

Going back all the way to June 25, 1967, 51 years ago, the Times article below recounts how four local mothers had recently come together, mailed out letters to neighbors asking for funds for the improvement of West 103rd Street between Riverside and Broadway, and collected $1201 to buy London plane trees -- the then-favorite trees for our streets because it "grows fast and withstands city pollution."

So there you have it in a nutshell. Our Block Association's raison d'etre: the planting of trees to improve our environment. It's just second nature to the B.A. Hence the twice-yearly tradition of beautifying tree wells, of gently coaxing residents out to assist, of collecting funds to make it possible, and of liaising with the city to keep the greening going when a tree is lost or maimed.

In retrospect, it's pretty great that by the 1971 inaugural issue of the B.A. newsletter, the association already boasted 400 contributing members and had raised enough dough to plant 45 trees! Not too shabby at all.

So when you are walking around enjoying the leafing-out season, consider any tree that looks about 50 years old, and whisper an ode of gratitude to that founding crew -- starting with those four moms -- who planted and planted and planted. They made this such a beautiful neighborhood. And many continue today in their spirit, also thanks to the groundwork they laid in establishing the W. 102-103 Streets Block Association.

If you haven't stepped out or up to help the Block Association this year, it isn't too late. You can join anytime right here.

1967-6-25_block_assn_history_nyt_113440134.pdf
File Size:	233 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Because the image below is a little blurry, I am including a pdf file above that you should be able to click on and download.

Live in the neighborhood and enjoy these occasional blog posts? Spread the word by telling a friend or neighbor to subscribe. There's a lot more in store!

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Seen in the Neighborhood

4/29/2018

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Memory's Glory

By Caitlin Hawke

Thanks go to neighbor David Ochoa for his technicolor take on "Memory" in Straus Park this past weekend and to the gardeners who maintain this jewel box. (For some history on the park, click here.) And to Mother Nature herself for the glory of Spring. Is it me or does Spring's dazzle take you by surprise every time? It's like you know it's going to be pretty, but then each year it's even better than you remember.

I haven't enhanced the picture below but I did play around with it in various filters. You may be seeing more of it down the road. Quite a shot. Thanks, David!

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Spring Sundays' Dulcet Sounds from Riverside Park

4/28/2018

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Riverside Park Conservancy Spring 2018 Overlook Concerts

By Caitlin Hawke

You may have caught last Sunday's "French Cookin' Blues Band" gig at the overlook on the promenade level of Riverside Park (at the equivalent of 116th Street a bit south of the tennis courts). And cook they did.

There are two more chances to catch a gig
in this series:

Sunday, April 29, 2 p.m.
Columbia Wind Ensemble, Jason Noble, Leader
"A big band of 50 brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments plays rousing music from the Renaissance to the present."

Sunday, May 6, at 2 p.m.
Manhattan School of Music Jazz Quintet
"These fine musicians play the best of jazz standards in their own incomparable style."

Riverside Park is the gift that gives every day. It's trees and blooms are popping. It's playfields are abustle. The tennis players are back in force. The conservancy's website has a calendar with many offerings like Tai Chi, exercise, storytime, birding and more. And of course there's the swing-a-ring lot. (A prior post featured images here).

What, I ask, is not to love? Except maybe the white noise of the highway.

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Oyez! Oyez! Oh Yeah!

4/27/2018

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Calling All Vendors for Our May 19 Block Party

By Caitlin Hawke

Have you secured your vendor's table at our May 19 Block Party yet? All the information you need is right here. If you are a resident of the Block Association's catchment, it's just $50 for a spot from which you can turn your no-longer-needed possessions into rent money or a couple of dinners on the town.

If you are like me, you love the haggle. You love the circle-game of old things finding new life in the twinkle of a stranger's eye. You love the cash. You love the feeling of community. And you love the idea of winnowing your cupboards and drawers.

If you don't want to vend, hawk or huckster, why not just tell all your friends with overbrimming closets that this is an occasion to be seized! For folks outside the catchment, the fee is $70.

Click on the Block Party tab on our website for an FAQ and all the deets.

And don't forget to save the date and come noodle down the street. There's deals to be had and treasures to be unearthed.

It's my favorite Block Party tradition.

(Click here to see the lagniappe video below if you are reading this via email subscription).

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Everything's Coming Up Roses and Daffodils!

4/26/2018

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Nothing Stopped Them 'Til They Were Through

By Caitlin Hawke

Blow a kiss. Take a bow!

I am looking at you Mark Schneiderman (coordinator), Michael Stearns, St. Luke's, Tina, all you neighbors who lugged, mulched, dug, tidied, planted, watered, crouched, knelt, and helpfully applauded from the sidelines.

All hail the Block Association's eco committee and your beautiful results.

Our tree wells, as shot by Celia Knight below, are ready for the throngs to come pouring through for our Block Party on May 19. (Did you reserve your table yet, vendors?).

At far bottom is a Merman lagniappe from 1961 with cameos by Lenny Bernstein and Old Blue eyes. (Remember to click on the blog title or here if you are receiving this directly in your email box.)

BEFORE

AFTER

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Reminder: Saturday is Spring Planting Day

4/19/2018

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Come Join Us! Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

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Save the Date: April 21 is Spring Planting Day

4/14/2018

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Showers, Flowers, Browsers

By Caitlin Hawke

Saturday, April 21 is the Block Association's annual day to come out and plant your heart out. You'll find the details in the poster below. As I've said before: you'll be a good kind of tired when it's all said and done.

Kids, bring your folks. And folks, bring your kids. It's all in the neighborhood, and it's good (so-so) clean fun as you'll see in the past galleries here and here.

If you need additional information, email trees@w102-103blockassn.org.

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She Was Unsinkable

4/11/2018

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Remembering the Tragedy of the Titanic 106 Years Later

By Caitlin Hawke

This Saturday, the Friends of Straus Park will hold a remembrance for the victims of the April 15, 1912, sinking of the Titanic. The flyer below gives the details; everyone is welcome to attend.

You've gone by Straus Park hundreds of times. We forget how the community came together to beautify this triangle and dedicate it to the memory of Ida and Isador Straus (co-owner of Macy's) who were aboard the RMS Titanic when she went down.

I've written in prior posts about how the triangle was first named for Philip Schuyler in 1900. Just fifteen years later, the park was dedicated to the memory of this local couple, who perished aboard the Titanic. (I wrote about that dedication here in a post with beautiful "Throwback Thursday" pictures.)

Since then, the park has of course been home to our resident statue of Audrey Munson, the sculptor's muse extraordinaire. Munson posed for the allegorical sculpture of "Memory" by Henry Augustus Lukeman. "Memory" is uncommonly photogenic as memorials go.

Fast forward a century and the park is our neighborhood respite seated at the trivium of Bloomingdale. Dramatic in snow and exuberant in spring, it's a haven for workers, neighbors, children and parents, bus drivers, and other passersby. As Manhattan pocket parks go, to my mind, it's second only to Gramercy Park. And you don't need a key!

Last May, I was walking through and came upon the beautifiers in hortico flagrante, so I grabbed my camera. The shots in the gallery below were some of the images I captured, and all around the border of the part, people were perched on benches enjoying that one particularly fine day.

From icebergs spring allium where Memory now persists. Safe in her haven, she sleepily points us back to the unsinkable great ship that went down and those who lost their lives 106 years ago.

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Seen (and Heard) in the Neighborhood

3/24/2018

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MTA Calming Your Way

Bloomingdale's very own vale of flowers by Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa

By Caitlin Hawke

With all the talk about various coming MTA station closures for "digital upgrades" on the B and C line, I am reminded that some of us lived through the IRT station upgrades at 103rd (2004) and 96th Streets (2010)--and survived to tell the story. Yes, I am grateful for those investments -- more capital than digital. And yes, they took forever.

Let me take you back. Remember the new but miscalculated staircase on the west side of Broadway exiting the 103rd Street station? Each step seemingly a different height, walking up or down it was something of a funhouse ride or some bad Candid Camera prank -- only the risk was smashing your nose on the way up, or far worse on the way down! They sure did fix it in a flash. And at 96th, remember how prior to the renovation we used an underpass to get to the platform? It's not that long ago and how quickly we forget. Even with my pathological nostalgia, I can't say I miss that.

Leaving the 96th Street Station, I was looking up the other day and once again saw the real-life version of the rendering above. It struck me as a nice touch. Maybe the sculpture has a function, too. (Pigeon abatement?). Quaint and already retro in its non-digital way.

The looped birdsong that goes with these 200 stainless flowers is intended to have a calming effect on riders. On most days, particularly after a post-apocalyptic commute from work, calming's a thing I am grateful for. Getting most of the way home in one piece on public transportation, is another.

With Spring galloping in, we have real looped birdsong starting up. And Hawkes do appreciate the birds.

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Hyper Local Eats: The Cure for All that Kales You

12/31/2017

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Deintoxication at Cool Fresh Juice Bar

By Caitlin Hawke

"We're Not 'National Hangover Service,' N.H.S. Tells U.K. Drinkers"!

After seeing this NYT headline with the accompanying AP picture of the holidaze's dead soldiers (right), I realized the news has been filled with stories of how alcohol consumption has spiked, particularly this past year. Public health reports show that the gender gap in alcohol consumption has women closing in on men. Not good.

Steve Parsons/Press Association, via Associated Press

Normalized by tv (hello "Mad Men"), promoted by the restaurant industry, essential to covering vertiginous commercial rents, and induced by current world events: drinking is plainly on the rise, and it's not just in Britain.

The 'French paradox' pointing to the potential benefits of red wine notwithstanding, alcohol is probably best used in more moderate ways -- and definitely more moderately than the year-end dictates. That's why today, I wanted to celebrate not a hyper-local eat. But a hyper-local drink.

Fresh, frothy kale-apple-carrot-lemon juice from the Cool Fresh Juice Bar. Located in the slice of a shop at 2661 Broadway, just -- perversely -- south of Dunkin' Donuts between W. 101st and 102nd Streets, this micro-juiceteria has been extracting for six years. Not to be confused with the bubble tea shop to the north of DD, CFJB also does Boba. But it does so much more.

They've got hot teas and infusions that would make a toddy jump on the wagon. And they've got smoothies, shakes and bobas a go-go.

What I dip in there for is the following hyper-local eat of the day: a kale-apple-carrot-lemon juice.

Oooh wee! Does this hit the spot. I tell them to go easy on the lemon, but a little citrus foils the sweet of the apple and carrot and sets off the herby kale. I know that people love to throw shade on this leafy green. A friend, let's call him Herr Doktor T, likes to harsh on kale the way Graham Chapman harshed on Spam. That just means more kale for me. Honest to goodness, there's only one way I don't like to eat it and that's sautéed.

Chop it to eat raw like Henry's does for its best salad (that link includes the recipe). Throw it in a fritatta. Or juice it to detox. Kale is scrumptious. Oh, no, you won't hear me rag on kale. And while this juice treat probably clocks in at a small meal's worth of calories, at least it beats the nutritive value of a Unicorn Frappuccino.

Yes, you heard me. That's a thing. Or at least was a thing for a brief hallucinatory moment. Its full name (trademarked, bien sûr) is Unicorm Frappuccino Blended Crème. (I'm guessing that its purveyors cannot legally use the word "cream" when advertising it.) While I am not sure it qualifies as a beverage, it may qualify as entertainment since most of what I know I overheard in a surreal conversation about the Unicornuccino. 'It changes colors!' 'It's sprinkled with pink and blue fairy powders.' Apparently it doubles as a fidget spinner-lava lamp.

OMG. Such is "food" in our day and age. It's enough to drive you to drink!

And drink you should: at Cool Fresh Juice Bar. Stop in and let me know what you order. It's the perfect hyper-local eat to kick off 2018. You can't go wrong with a kale-carrot-apple-lemon juice. It's what the gods drink when they run out of mead. I swear. And if you are attentive, you might even see it change colors.

Happy New Year!

P.S. Cool Fresh Juice Bar is supposedly open 8:30 am til 9 pm for when that hankering hits. It'll set you back $6 for the smaller size, and while less entertaining than a Unicornuccino, it is less than half the price of an aperol grapefruit spritz with smoked jalapeño salt at some wannabe bar. And much more delicious.

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