Since 1981, CIVITAS has worked to improve the livability and character of the Upper East Side and East Harlem neighborhoods. We count on your membership support to continue to serve you and the future residents of our community in improving streets, public space, and environmental quality. Please renew your membership or become a member today by visiting our website.
You can help make the East River Esplanade a truly enjoyable park where the community can appreciate the waterfront. We don’t need to have West Side envy over the Hudson River waterfront.
It continues to be up to all of us with other community partners to push for improving the Esplanade park and to encourage the City to create a more ambitious long-term vision for our stretch of waterfront. We are especially eager for your help to build on CIVITAS’s Reimagining the Waterfront initiative to improve the East River Esplanade from 63rd to 125th Streets.Our design ideas competition and companion exhibition were well received, generating ideas and drawing international attention to the state of the park. CIVITAS is focused on the next phase to zero in on specific areas for exciting upgrades and programming. Over 200,000 people live within a short walk of our waterfront in areas that have among the lowest open space per person in the city. With improved access and better design, the waterfront could be a great park—please help to make this possible with your contribution.
Did you know that the Upper East Side has poor air quality resulting from high levels of sulfur dioxide? East Harlem has among the lowest recycling rates in NYC. Education is the answer to both of these issues, and CIVITAS is stepping in to fill gaps in awareness.
This air pollution results from the burning of No. 6 heating oil. Through community meetings and door-to-door outreach, CIVITAS has reached hundreds of residents, co-op board officers and apartment building managers to educate them about switching heating oil to improve our air quality. Similarly, we’re organizing outreach to increase recycling awareness and educate residents about available training and support for building staff. We are also working on programming in schools to educate children and teens about recycling and the city’s initiatives.
Do you want community-driven land use policies for your neighborhood? Care about the state of trees and sidewalks in your neighborhood?
Thanks to your support, we’ve been able to provide the technical analysis necessary for therezoning plan for 60 blocks in East Harlem, including the blighted upper Park Avenue corridor.Passage of this rezoning, which is being considered by the NYC Department of City Planning, will help ensure that changes benefit the neighborhood and reflect community priorities. This builds on our earlier successful efforts that resulted in a major rezoning in 2003.
We’re also working with residents and community groups to advocate for best planning outcomes for our neighborhood. Our efforts are focused on developing visionary strategies for growth, development, streetscapes and parks access.
You may wish to learn more and engage further with the issues CIVITAS works on by joining us at one of the high-level panel discussions we are jointly presenting with the National Academy on December 4, and January 8, 2014. We are excited to bring our core themes to an even larger audience and into dialogue with artists, thought leaders, and policy makers. We very much hope to see you there! Admission will be free for our members.
In other news, we are so pleased to wish our outgoing executive director, Hunter Armstrong, all the very best as he has accepted an exciting new role with a national non-profit. We thank Hunter for his outstanding service to our community. Deputy director Lauren O’Toole, who has worked closely with Hunter for some time, will be interim executive director.
Please help CIVITAS this year by joining or renewing your current membership. Thank you very much.
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P.S. Your support makes a very real difference - CIVITAS is the only community-based non-profit working on these issues in both the Upper East Side and East Harlem, and we can’t do it without your help. Please join or renew your current membership at our website.
P.P.S. We hope you enjoy reading our newsletter; please contribute today so that we can continue sending this to you! And don’t forget to join us at the National Academy – free admission to the panel discussions for CIVITAS members.
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