June, 2006 Newsletter #203
President’s Letter
The Con Edison issue continues on. The East Midtown Coalition for Sensible Development (“EMCSD”) remains our valiant and steadfast friend in this matter. The EMCSD, its board and its steering committee work tirelessly and are ever vigilant concerning all that is taking place on this issue. In recent months, the developer has finally shown proposed plans for what it hopes to do on the Con Edison properties. What has been shown thus far is almost the worst possible scenario for Tudor City with enormous buildings to our immediate south and east placed as close as possible to us on the Con Edison properties. They propose a purported public park to be surrounded by their massive monoliths resulting in a largely private amenity rather than a usable public open space. Their plans have minimal community oriented retail, no school relief and do not restore the demapped city streets to the city grid. All of the foregoing may sound bleak, but turnout at the City Planning meetings discussing the proposal has been very good, so we are ever hopeful that a decent plan will eventually be adopted. Zoning changes are required for the developer to do what it proposes, so they can not just force the city to do what they want. Much rests on how the Mayor’s office will react to the proposed development.
The Robert Moses playground issue looks like it might be gone at least for now. The U.N. appears to think that Robert Moses is no longer an option for assisting in their renovation plans. The city appears to still be interested through the UNDC, so this issue could come back at any time.
TCA Annual Meeting
The Tudor City Association’s Annual meeting at which a new executive committee will be elected will be held Thursday, June 29, at 7:00 p.m. in the Manor fitness center. Please come and bring a friend. You’ll need to be or become a member to vote. It’s the best forum for keeping up to date on what’s happening in the community or air a grievance.
TCA Thanks the Executive Committee
The Tudor City Association would like to thank the members of the executive committee for their service for the year ending with the June 29th annual meeting. We give special thanks to the four officers, George Brown, president; Diane Kopyscianski, vice president; William Moran, secretary; Mary Fanelli, treasurer. In alphabetical order, members are:
Bill Baltz Roland Peracca
Charles Beardsley Cindy Riley
Betsy Bittman Susan Stamps-Griffin
Sherry Halpern Brian K. Thompson
Nancy Isenberger Jim Thompson
Paige Judge Marie Zacher
Susan Kirwan
Many thanks are deserved for their ongoing service and support.
17th Precinct Honors TCA, Police and Community Groups
The Tudor City Association has once again received an award for community service from the 17th Precinct Community Council. TCA president George Brown accepted the award June 2 at the annual banquet held at St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, 34th St. and Second Ave.
Several other community associations and Community Board 6 also received awards. Awards were also given for outstanding police work.
Church of the Covenant Revival
The lovely little community church, Church of the Covenant, nestled between Crowne Plaza Hotel and the Woodstock, held its 1st Blessing of the Animals celebration on Sunday, December 11, 2005. The sanctuary was filled with people and their beloved pets on this festive occasion.
The service was so heartwarming that Channel 11 News, deemed it newsworthy enough to include the service in their evening news. Several organizations that help animals (ASPCA / Bide-A-Wee) will benefit from money raised by the event.
People were greeted with a live nativity scene as they entered a full sanctuary. The nativity scene included lifelong Tudor City residents, April Sandmeyer and her daughter, Maya Christina Caballero, serving as The Virgin Mary and an attendant, respectfully. Church member, April Sandmeyer, had first attended the church as a toddler.
After a welcoming statement from Rev. Oliver and poem reading by Rev. Grandgeorge, all joined in singing Christmas hymns followed by a prayer from ret. NYPD Chaplain Rev. Bill Kalaidjian. The service concluded with all visitors and their pets receiving a personal blessing from one of the attending clergy. Blessed were both living animals and pictures and ashes of the beloved pets who had served their owners in the past.
A touching moment was when the Chaplain of Ronald McDonald House, had the stuffed animals that he uses to comfort terminally ill children residing at the house, blessed.
The NYPD was very supportive of the event as they sent representatives from the Bomb Sniffing squad as well as two horses and riders from the Mounted Police squad.
The blessing ceremony was a good opportunity for neighbors to socialize with and meet each other.
Did you know?
TCA spends $3,600 per year paying to clean the city staircases leading down to 42nd Street as well as 42nd Street from those staircases down to 1st Avenue.
A Little About TCA
The Tudor City Association is one of the East Side’s longest active civic groups. It lobbies local governments on quality of life issues, development questions and problems involving traffic, sanitation, zoning, children, the playgrounds and other things that affect life in this beautiful landmarked community.
TCA purchased new benches for the sidewalks outside the Greens, contributes funding to the Tudor City Greens, the East Midtown Coalition for Sensible Development and the Doe Fund, helped procure new trees for our streets, plants flowers in the 43rd Street cul-de-sac and placed holiday wreaths on the 42nd St. bridge. The annual street fair is also a TCA effort, as are the volunteer clean-ups of Parks Dept. playgrounds in our neighborhood. Join today. Fees are annual. All you have to do is fill out the coupon below and send it in with your check.
Do You Remember When?
Some Tudor City residents might remember the old days when Fred French, published a monthly magazine called the Tudor City View. It usually contained about 25 pages with articles of interest about Tudor City. The cover usually contained a picture of a Tudor City scene. In reviewing an old copy, dated January, 1969, it was of interest to note advertisements for the Tudor City grocery and Meat Market, which is now the Tudor Farms, and wherein the following items were listed:
Groceries
Campbells Tomato Soup 2 cans $ 0.20
Fab Soap Powder 0.33
Lipton Tea Bags 0.69
Frozen Foods
Snowkist Frozen Peas 0.19
Snowkist Frozen Cooked Squash 0.19
Of course, rents in those day were about $200 a month for a furnished one bedroom apartment. How times have changed!
Curb Appeal
Placement and pickup of Tudor City’s garbage has improved!
We can all thank former candidate for City Council Patrick Murphy and Sanitation’s John Adair for establishing a working relationship that benefits all Tudor City.
Following a February 2005 survey showing bagged garbage present on the streets of Tudor City an average of 138 hours each week, the Department of Sanitation responded with a commitment for ongoing improvement. Starting in October the three weekly collection times moved to first or second routing slots each morning.
This one change has drastically reduced the hours bagged garbage sits curbside.
Tom Higgins, President of Prospect Tower has given his leadership to bringing the garbage collection issues before the Association of Building Presidents. With the President’s and building staff’s support in connection with Sanitation’s efforts, we are hopeful the hours bagged garbage sits for collection in 2006 will be less than six hours a week.
- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please enroll me as a member of The Tudor City Association, Inc.
Name: _____________________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________
Phone: _____________________________________________________
___Royal Society $100 ___ Herald Society $50
___Guild Society $25 ___ Tudor Rose Society $15
Make check payable to: Tudor City Association Inc.
Send check to: Tudor City Association Inc.
5 Tudor City Place, #5E
New York, NY 10017
The Con Edison issue continues on. The East Midtown Coalition for Sensible Development (“EMCSD”) remains our valiant and steadfast friend in this matter. The EMCSD, its board and its steering committee work tirelessly and are ever vigilant concerning all that is taking place on this issue. In recent months, the developer has finally shown proposed plans for what it hopes to do on the Con Edison properties. What has been shown thus far is almost the worst possible scenario for Tudor City with enormous buildings to our immediate south and east placed as close as possible to us on the Con Edison properties. They propose a purported public park to be surrounded by their massive monoliths resulting in a largely private amenity rather than a usable public open space. Their plans have minimal community oriented retail, no school relief and do not restore the demapped city streets to the city grid. All of the foregoing may sound bleak, but turnout at the City Planning meetings discussing the proposal has been very good, so we are ever hopeful that a decent plan will eventually be adopted. Zoning changes are required for the developer to do what it proposes, so they can not just force the city to do what they want. Much rests on how the Mayor’s office will react to the proposed development.
The Robert Moses playground issue looks like it might be gone at least for now. The U.N. appears to think that Robert Moses is no longer an option for assisting in their renovation plans. The city appears to still be interested through the UNDC, so this issue could come back at any time.
TCA Annual Meeting
The Tudor City Association’s Annual meeting at which a new executive committee will be elected will be held Thursday, June 29, at 7:00 p.m. in the Manor fitness center. Please come and bring a friend. You’ll need to be or become a member to vote. It’s the best forum for keeping up to date on what’s happening in the community or air a grievance.
TCA Thanks the Executive Committee
The Tudor City Association would like to thank the members of the executive committee for their service for the year ending with the June 29th annual meeting. We give special thanks to the four officers, George Brown, president; Diane Kopyscianski, vice president; William Moran, secretary; Mary Fanelli, treasurer. In alphabetical order, members are:
Bill Baltz Roland Peracca
Charles Beardsley Cindy Riley
Betsy Bittman Susan Stamps-Griffin
Sherry Halpern Brian K. Thompson
Nancy Isenberger Jim Thompson
Paige Judge Marie Zacher
Susan Kirwan
Many thanks are deserved for their ongoing service and support.
17th Precinct Honors TCA, Police and Community Groups
The Tudor City Association has once again received an award for community service from the 17th Precinct Community Council. TCA president George Brown accepted the award June 2 at the annual banquet held at St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, 34th St. and Second Ave.
Several other community associations and Community Board 6 also received awards. Awards were also given for outstanding police work.
Church of the Covenant Revival
The lovely little community church, Church of the Covenant, nestled between Crowne Plaza Hotel and the Woodstock, held its 1st Blessing of the Animals celebration on Sunday, December 11, 2005. The sanctuary was filled with people and their beloved pets on this festive occasion.
The service was so heartwarming that Channel 11 News, deemed it newsworthy enough to include the service in their evening news. Several organizations that help animals (ASPCA / Bide-A-Wee) will benefit from money raised by the event.
People were greeted with a live nativity scene as they entered a full sanctuary. The nativity scene included lifelong Tudor City residents, April Sandmeyer and her daughter, Maya Christina Caballero, serving as The Virgin Mary and an attendant, respectfully. Church member, April Sandmeyer, had first attended the church as a toddler.
After a welcoming statement from Rev. Oliver and poem reading by Rev. Grandgeorge, all joined in singing Christmas hymns followed by a prayer from ret. NYPD Chaplain Rev. Bill Kalaidjian. The service concluded with all visitors and their pets receiving a personal blessing from one of the attending clergy. Blessed were both living animals and pictures and ashes of the beloved pets who had served their owners in the past.
A touching moment was when the Chaplain of Ronald McDonald House, had the stuffed animals that he uses to comfort terminally ill children residing at the house, blessed.
The NYPD was very supportive of the event as they sent representatives from the Bomb Sniffing squad as well as two horses and riders from the Mounted Police squad.
The blessing ceremony was a good opportunity for neighbors to socialize with and meet each other.
Did you know?
TCA spends $3,600 per year paying to clean the city staircases leading down to 42nd Street as well as 42nd Street from those staircases down to 1st Avenue.
A Little About TCA
The Tudor City Association is one of the East Side’s longest active civic groups. It lobbies local governments on quality of life issues, development questions and problems involving traffic, sanitation, zoning, children, the playgrounds and other things that affect life in this beautiful landmarked community.
TCA purchased new benches for the sidewalks outside the Greens, contributes funding to the Tudor City Greens, the East Midtown Coalition for Sensible Development and the Doe Fund, helped procure new trees for our streets, plants flowers in the 43rd Street cul-de-sac and placed holiday wreaths on the 42nd St. bridge. The annual street fair is also a TCA effort, as are the volunteer clean-ups of Parks Dept. playgrounds in our neighborhood. Join today. Fees are annual. All you have to do is fill out the coupon below and send it in with your check.
Do You Remember When?
Some Tudor City residents might remember the old days when Fred French, published a monthly magazine called the Tudor City View. It usually contained about 25 pages with articles of interest about Tudor City. The cover usually contained a picture of a Tudor City scene. In reviewing an old copy, dated January, 1969, it was of interest to note advertisements for the Tudor City grocery and Meat Market, which is now the Tudor Farms, and wherein the following items were listed:
Groceries
Campbells Tomato Soup 2 cans $ 0.20
Fab Soap Powder 0.33
Lipton Tea Bags 0.69
Frozen Foods
Snowkist Frozen Peas 0.19
Snowkist Frozen Cooked Squash 0.19
Of course, rents in those day were about $200 a month for a furnished one bedroom apartment. How times have changed!
Curb Appeal
Placement and pickup of Tudor City’s garbage has improved!
We can all thank former candidate for City Council Patrick Murphy and Sanitation’s John Adair for establishing a working relationship that benefits all Tudor City.
Following a February 2005 survey showing bagged garbage present on the streets of Tudor City an average of 138 hours each week, the Department of Sanitation responded with a commitment for ongoing improvement. Starting in October the three weekly collection times moved to first or second routing slots each morning.
This one change has drastically reduced the hours bagged garbage sits curbside.
Tom Higgins, President of Prospect Tower has given his leadership to bringing the garbage collection issues before the Association of Building Presidents. With the President’s and building staff’s support in connection with Sanitation’s efforts, we are hopeful the hours bagged garbage sits for collection in 2006 will be less than six hours a week.
- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please enroll me as a member of The Tudor City Association, Inc.
Name: _____________________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________
Phone: _____________________________________________________
___Royal Society $100 ___ Herald Society $50
___Guild Society $25 ___ Tudor Rose Society $15
Make check payable to: Tudor City Association Inc.
Send check to: Tudor City Association Inc.
5 Tudor City Place, #5E
New York, NY 10017