West 46th Street Block Association, Inc.

June 7, 2005/ Hartley House at 413 West 46th Street

Sep 06, 2005

1. Welcome and Introduction
2. Guest Speaker: Ana P. Semedo, HDFC Tenant Organizer, Housing Conservation Coordinators [500 West 52nd St. 4th Floor, New York, NY 10019, (212) 541-5996]
3. Guest Speaker: Gary Bagley , Capstone Project for Master of Public Administration Program at Baruch College, introduced his colleagues Jane Heaphy , Latrella Penny Kathryn Smith-McGlynn and their project that is due on July 1st. In planning for 2005, the West 46th Street Block Association (the Block Association) established the goal of creating a disaster preparedness plan and disseminating information to residents. While the Block Association can take on the distribution of disaster preparedness literature, there is no system in place to ensure their use. The goal of the Baruch Capstone Project is to help the Block Association bridge the gap that exists between the information available through OEM and neighborhood residents?’ ability to take action based on that information. To do so, a three-phase emergency preparedness plan will be created for the Block Association. Each phase will culminate in an event in which neighborhood residents will participate and through which they will become better prepared for certain emergencies. The goal of Phase One of this project is to recruit a minimum of 10 Building Captains to attend a September 24, 2005 Building Captain Training co-hosted by OEM and the Empowerment Institute. In order to reach this goal, an information session will be held in August for potential Building Captains.
4. Reading of the Minutes of Prior Meeting- One edit was requested: June Stern requested her name be removed as the communication chair. The May minutes were approved with this change.
5. Reports of Officers
5.1. President?’s Report
5.1.1. Report of Internet site (http://www.west46streetblockassociation.org) activity through May 31st: 227 visits to entire site, 105 home page, 19 calendar, 26 newsletter
5.1.2. Future speakers: Possibly August- Mary Follett- Hartley House [413 West 46th Street, 212 246-9885, http://www.hartleyhouse.org] The group preferred to keep a meeting scheduled for July instead of canceling the July meeting.
5.2. Vice President?’s Report
5.2.1. Status of Bulletin Boards: Christine reported that John from the Galaxy Restaurant gave us permission to hang a bulletin board on the exterior of the restaurant facing 46th Street. Christina will seek permission from the next tenant at the Southeast corner of 46th Street at Tenth Avenue. June expressed an interest in creating an eye-catching background for the boards.
5.2.2. Plant Sale: Christina led a plant sale on Sunday, June 5th and received $250 in revenue.
5.3. Treasurer?’s Report
5.3.1. Darrick reported that the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival (Saturday & Sunday, May 14 & 15, 2005, 11 am - 7 pm, 37th to 57th Streets) was a great success.
5.4. Secretary?’s Report (in position?’s absence, President will address any matters)
6. Reports of Standing and Ad Hoc Committees
6.1. Ivan Shapiro House (Watty Strouss, chair)- Watty reported that the group met this evening at the Ivan Shapiro House and several residents have moved on to independent living. The facility is at full census.
6.2. Membership (Allison Tupper, chair)- We have 27 members.
6.3. Parks & Recreation (Christina Boers, chair)- Christina reported we have a fence installed around the Alexandra Palmer Memorial Garden
6.3.1. Ninth Avenue International Food Festival- thank you to the following business supported the Block Association:
1. Amy's Bread 2. B . Smith Restaurant Group 3. Barbetta's Restaurant
4. Becco 5. Brazil Brazil Churrascaria 6. Broadway Joe?’s Steakhouse
7. Cara Mia 8. Chelsea Grill 9. Da Rosina Ristorante Italiano
10. Danny's Grand Sea Palace 11. Firebird 12. Galaxy Caf?©
13. Hourglass Tavern 14. Joe Allen 15. La Rivista Palatine
16. Le Rivage 17. Les Sans Culottes Set 18. Mercury Bar
19. Meson Sevilla Restaurant 20. O'Flaherty's Ale House 21. Orchid
22. Pomaire 23. Queen of Sheba 24. Swing 46
25. Vita 26. Zen Palate 27. Other Commitments
28. Clinton 510 Owners HDFC 29. Ninth Avenue Association of New York, Inc. 30. Basilica
31. Breeze 32. DC Comics 33. Flik International Corp., Marsh & McLennan Companies
34. Hartley House 35. Hayashi 36. Ocha
37. Olieng 38. St. Clements Church 39. Tartare
40. Yum Yum Bankok

6.3.2. Annual Wine & Cheese Party- scheduled for Friday, June 17th at 6:30pm.
6.4. Midtown North Community Council (meets every third Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at Fountain House)- we have not attended recent meetings.
7. Unfinished Business
7.1. Sandwich boards addressed with Times Square Alliance?’s Eighth Avenue Advisory Committee and CB4- we agreed not to further pursue this.
7.2. Status of getting approval for amending name of playground- Watty reported that we are waiting to hear from the Chief of Staff for the Manhattan Borough Parks Department.
7.3. Status of introduction to Eddie Dean, JMED Holdings (owners of former Sound Factory)- Darrick is still pursuing a meeting with JMED and is optimistic that one will take place since he is now in touch with Eddie Dean.
7.4. Status of access to labor for leveling of tree grates from Midtown Community Court and Samaritan Village Veteran?’s Program- Christina and Watty are planning on contacting these organizations.
7.5. Status of addressing graffiti at recording studio
8. New Business
8.1. 300 West 46th Street- a complaint was made about the frequent parties held in the courtyard. David Korman agreed to look into this.
8.2. Darrick moved that all new business be tabled until he next meeting because we were going over our stated meeting duration of one hour and 30 minutes.
9. Public Announcements
10. Adjournment