PATCH

By Miranda Levingston

The neighborhood is getting its first Business Improvement District, which will fund street safety and beautification.

EAST HARLEM, NY — There's going to be a new Business Improvement District in Manhattan along East 125th Street to support the small businesses lining the corridor between Fifth Avenue and Second Avenue.

Following a unanimous City Council vote to approve a new Business Improvement District at the end of May, first reported by Crain's New York Business, the vote will now go to the mayor's desk to be signed, before being approved by the New York State Comptroller.

The Business Improvement District will be entirely operational by January 2026, with an annual budget of $750,000. The budget could increase to $1 million after three years with a board vote.

For the uninitiated, a Business Improvement District, known as a BID, is a designated area where property owners are charged a fee that goes toward sanitation and public safety, as well as programs to promote local businesses.

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS

By Nick Garber

A unanimous City Council vote established the East 125th Street BID as the 77th such organization in the city, helping East Harlem shed its status as the last Manhattan community district without a BID of its own.

East 125th Street, the fast-developing corridor whose growth has coincided with persistent crime and sanitation issues, now has a new distinction: New York’s newest business improvement district.

A unanimous City Council vote on Wednesday established the East 125th Street BID as the 77th such organization in the city, helping East Harlem shed its status as the last Manhattan community district without a BID of its own. Community leaders who have pushed for it since 2021 hope that the better-funded BID will help them step up efforts to clean up neighborhood streets and make them welcoming for residents and businesses.

The time seems ripe to organize businesses and landlords along the corridor. East Harlem has experienced a building boom since a 2017 rezoning, and the planned construction of the Second Avenue Subway extension, which will terminate on East 125th and Lexington Avenue, is all but certain to incentivize more development. Just this month, city and state officials unveiled plans to permit a 684-unit apartment tower atop the subway’s future terminus.

“It started from a community level, of small businesses and residents just wanting to see better for the neighborhood,” said Carey King, director of the nonprofit Uptown Grand Central, which spearheaded the effort and runs street-cleaning programs similar to what the BID will perform. “And it ends up putting us in a better position when these big things come in, that we need to have a unified voice on.”

PATCH

By Miranda Levingston

Come for the booths full of good food and gifts, and stay for the Puerto Rican music parade and jazz set.

HARLEM, NY — Uptowners looking for a place to partake in seasonal joy or do some last-minute holiday shopping are in luck: the Harlem Night Market at La Marqueta is returning for one last time at the Park Avenue Viaduct this weekend.

The market, which will run this Saturday from 3-7 p.m. at El Barrio's historic market space, will feature local food vendors, and artisans selling perfect gifts galore.

This weekend's market will also feature a dance floor, with live DJ sets from Uptown Vinyl Supreme and Stormin' Norman, along with one of those 360 video photo booths that are all the rage.

Since it's the Winter Solstice on Saturday — the longest, darkest night of the year — the market will also be going extra hard, with a traditional Puerto Rican parranda starting at 4 p.m. from Los Pleneros de la 21, followed by a jazz jam with Blue Note saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins.

According to the market's organizers, there will also be oversized golf carts (!) and craft workshops from Harlem Needle Arts and Urban Garden Center.

PATCH

By Nicole Rosenthal

East Harlem is Manhattan's only district without a BID, which would promote safety, cleanliness and responsible development, officials say.

EAST HARLEM, NY - East Harlem residents and business owners are rallying together to create a business improvement district in the neighborhood, which is Manhattan’s only community district without one already in place, officials say.

Spearheaded by East Harlem nonprofit Uptown Grand Central, the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), Deputy Council Speaker Diana Ayala and local business owners, tenants and community leaders, the East Harlem BID is planned for East 125th Street and would work to promote safety, beautification and “culturally responsible” development in the area, the groups told Patch.

A BID is a joint public-private partnership where property owners pay an assessment that is used to provide services in a given district. There are 70-plus BIDs across New York City to date.

“Much-needed services” including district marketing, community programming, sanitation, streetscape design and overall commercial and cultural health of the East 125th Street corridor are all part of the BID’s core mission.

“Ultimately, the goal is for Uptown Grand Central and the BID to work together to deliver sustainable services to the district,” said Carey King, director of Uptown Grand Central, a nonprofit which has worked for over a decade in East Harlem to clean streets, underwrite public art, sponsor community events, showcase small businesses, and improve public safety and sanitation. "The addition of the resources of a BID will ensure consistency and help us make these services more robust.”

HARLEM WORLD MAGAZINE

Plans are underway to form a BID on East 125th Street, a diverse corridor with a rich cultural history, outstanding intermodal transit connectivity, and a growing population.

It is the terminus of the proposed Second Avenue Subway and has seen significant residential development over the past decade.

With the support of the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and Deputy Council Speaker Diana Ayala, local nonprofit Uptown Grand Central and a steering committee of area property owners, small business owners, tenants, community and nonprofit leaders have been working over the past year and a half to form East Harlem’s first-ever Business Improvement District (BID). A BID is a public/private partnership where property owners within a defined set of boundaries pay an assessment that is used to provide supplemental services in the district. Currently, there are 70-plus BIDs across New York City.

“Over the last 18 months a dedicated and diverse group of civically minded residents, business leaders, not-for-profits, property owners, elected officials and city agencies have rolled up their sleeves and created a blueprint for the  East 125th Street BID,” said Melody Capote, Executive Director of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute and Steering Committee Co-chair. “We have created a community-focused and inclusive plan to empower our community, beautify our streets and improve the quality of life for residents, visitors, business owners and everyone who come to East 125th Street.”

CRAIN’S

By Nick Garber

One of the last Manhattan neighborhoods without a business improvement district will soon shed that status: a coalition of nonprofits, storeowners, residents and real estate developers have banded together in an effort to form a BID along a bustling but troubled stretch of East 125th Street.

The proposal to launch an East 125th Street BID, shared exclusively with Crain’s, comes as the corridor faces a wave of new development and the arrival of the next leg of the Second Avenue subway in the next decade. But East 125th Street has also struggled in recent years with increasingly visible drug use and unsanitary conditions, which some residents attribute to the high concentration of facilities that treat substance abuse and mental health issues.

“Everybody wants to see this area feel less chaotic, more healthy, more clean,” said Carey King, director of the nonprofit Uptown Grand Central, which is spearheading the BID effort. The city’s Small Business Services Department, which oversees BIDs, approached King’s group about two years ago and suggested they get the ball rolling.

The proposed BID covers about 20 blocks between East 124th and 128th streets, bounded by Second and Fifth avenues—bordering the existing 125th Street BID in Central Harlem. It will need approval by the City Council, likely next year, and its chances seem good, since the effort is supported by local member Diana Ayala.

HARLEM WORLD MAGAZINE

This summer, head Uptown with the family for a diversity of dining options — plus a welcoming schedule of weekend fun — at the Open Streets in El Barrio.

Every weekend through Labor Day, the Open Streets at Restaurant Row and the Open Streets at La Marqueta are programmed with street furniture for outdoor dining, games and sidewalk chalk, plus water play when the temps are high. Each street also features a daily schedule of Storytime in partnership with Harlem4Kids, Craft Time with local artisans and Live Music featuring sounds ranging from jazz to Latin to funk and more.

PATCH

By Gus Sultonstall

Storytelling sessions, wine tastings, craft times, live music, and movie nights are all part of the activities on two blocks in East Harlem.

EAST HARLEM, NY — A two-block stretch in East Harlem known as "Restaurant Row" has a full slate of activities throughout the summer.

The Open Streets section on 100th and 101st and Lexington Avenue has outdoor dining, live music, activities for kids, and once a month movie nights.

The Open Streets is organized and run by Uptown Grand Central, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming sections of East Harlem into a thriving area that puts advocacy into actions through collaborations with community shareholders.

Here's what to know about all the upcoming activities going on at "Restaurant Row."

The city now has a “central point person” to oversee its public spaces, including parks, plazas and car-free streets.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

By Winnie Hu

The overhead lights in the back of a public plaza in East Harlem, mounted on a rusty viaduct that supports the Metro-North Railroad, were not working.

And Carey King was panicking.

Ms. King, who runs the plaza as the director of Uptown Grand Central, a nonprofit group formed by local merchants, was getting ready to reopen that section in the spring of 2021 after two years of construction to make it nicer. It was so dark that neighbors stayed away. Drug addicts shot up in the shadows and others found hidden corners to urinate and defecate.

When Ms. King tried to get the lights turned on, the Metro-North Railroad, which is operated by the state, said they were not its lights. She went to the city’s Department of Transportation, only to be told to check with Metro-North.

After months of going back and forth with different agencies, she finally got city transportation officials to take ownership of the lights.

“It’s a bad joke: How long does it take to change a light bulb?” Ms. King said.

These are the kinds of prickly, bureaucratic issues that await New York’s first-ever chief public realm officer — a role that was created by Mayor Eric Adams to improve how the city uses and manages its public spaces, including parks, plazas and streets.

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that East Harlem will receive $10 million in funding as the New York City region winner of the sixth round of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Each of the state's 10 economic development regions will be awarded $10 million during this sixth round, which will total a $100 million state commitment to help communities boost their economies by transforming downtowns into vibrant neighborhoods.

"The rich culture and history of East Harlem is an incredibly important part of New York City's story," Governor Hochul said. "Through this $10 million investment, we can help the community preserve its heritage and spur economic development within the neighborhood for generations to come. I look forward to seeing East Harlem write the next chapter in its vibrant story."

The DRI serves as a component of the state's economic development policy by transforming downtown neighborhoods into vibrant centers of activity that offer a high quality of life and attract businesses, jobs and economic and housing diversity. Like past DRI rounds, each selected community will develop a strategic plan through a bottom-up, community-based planning process that articulates a vision for the revitalization of its downtown and identifies a list of signature projects that have transformative potential and leverage further private and public investments. The Department of State will then award DRI funds to selected projects with the greatest potential to jumpstart revitalization and realize the community's vision.