THE NYC FOOD POLICY CENTER

By Ashley Rafalow

We caught up with Carey King, Project Director at New Harlem East Merchants Association, to learn more about NHEMA’s mission, core programs and food-related initiatives:

THE NEW YORK TIMES

By Nicholas Casey & Al Baker

About a week ago, 125th Street in East Harlem had been the site of a sprawling homeless population that converged between Park and Lexington Avenues to pass the afternoons, often deep in the haze of cheap drugs.

Activistas, personas de la comunidad y una artista hispana se unieron para combatir juntos la delincuencia y la marihuana sintética que afecta tanto ese sector.

TELEMUNDO

By Luis Alejandro Medina

NYC ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

PRESS RELEASE

NYCEDC is uniting community stakeholders, business and property owners, and public agencies around a shared vision and implementation strategy that transforms public space and improves walkability around this important uptown transit hub.

NYC DEPARTMENT OF SMALL BUSINESS SERVICES

PRESS RELEASE

$1.5 Million Awarded to 48 Community-Based Organizations To Help Fund Commercial Revitalization Projects in Low to Moderate-Income Neighborhoods In All Five Boroughs
 

New York City — The Department of Small Business Services (SBS) today announced the 48 recipients of $1.5 million in Avenue NYC funding for Fiscal Year 2016. Avenue NYC is a competitive grant program that provides funding for economic development and non-profit community-based organizations to implement commercial revitalization efforts in low and moderate-income neighborhoods across the five boroughs.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

By Frank Green

This probably isn’t what they mean when they talk about the greening of New York.

NYC DEPARTMENT OF SMALL BUSINESS SERVICES

PRESS RELEASE

$1.4 Million Awarded to 39 Economic Development Organizations To Help Fund Commercial Revitalization Projects in Low to Moderate-Income Neighborhoods Across NYC

New York City – The Department of Small Business Services today announced the 39 recipients of $1.4 million in Avenue NYC funding for FY15. Avenue NYC is a competitive grant program that provides funding for non-profit economic development organizations to implement commercial revitalization activities in the low and moderate-income districts they serve. Avenue NYC also offers a number of capacity building initiatives to support the efforts of organization staff and Board Members throughout the City.  Capacity building trainings include topics such as financial management, program evaluation, fundraising and strategic planning. In FY14, organizations that received Avenue NYC funding attracted 53 new businesses to their corridors, recruited 355 new merchants to new and existing merchants associations, and improved 12 storefront facades.
 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

By Jan Ransom

The city is looking to lift up a seedy East Harlem stretch that has long seemed to suffer from terminal malaise.

The sketchy, poorly lit intersection under the Metro-North Railroad viaduct at E. 125th St. and Park Ave. appeared to have been forgotten in the midst of Harlem’s renaissance, but now it’s been slated for a serious makeover.

DNA INFO

By Jeff Mays

HARLEM — The merchant association that is using homeless people to help clean the streets of El Barrio won a $100,000 grant from the city Department of Small Business Services Wednesday to help turn the area near the Metro-North station into an "Uptown Grand Central."

Kwanza Smith, executive director of the New Harlem East Merchants Association, said the money will be used to fund the group's collaboration with the Association of Community Employment Programs for the Homeless. A group of 6 to 8 men will clean between Fifth and Second avenues, between 124th and 126th streets Monday through Friday.
 

NYC DEPARTMENT OF SMALL BUSINESS SERVICES

PRESS RELEASE

Neighborhood Challenge Encourages Business Improvement Districts and Local Development Corporations to Strengthen Neighborhoods Through Creative and Innovative Initiatives

SBS Commissioner Robert W. Walsh announced the six winners of the Neighborhood Challenge during an awards breakfast held at the Roosevelt House in Manhattan. Launched in September 2013, Neighborhood Challenge is a competitive grant initiative designed to encourage Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Local Development Corporations (LDCs), Merchant Associations, and other local economic development organizations to find innovative ways to improve services, generate economic activity, and attract more jobs and investment to their local commercial corridors. Grants ranging up to $100,000 were awarded to organizations that presented the most creative and impactful economic development and revitalization projects.