The Municipal Art Society of New York

On May 12, 2012, MAS will host the 6th annual MAS Livable Neighborhoods Training. Since its inception, Livable Neighborhoods has trained over 700 community board members, community planners and neighborhood activists on how to advocate and affect change in their community. To register for Livable Neighborhoods, click here.

We asked Noelle Marcus, a Livable Neighborhoods Training participant in the spring of 2011, about her experience with Livable Neighborhoods, and how the training has helped her get involved in her neighborhood. Continue Reading>>

Last month, nearly one hundred people participated in the Livable Neighborhoods Training program hosted by MAS and the Center for Community Planning & Development at Hunter College. Participants turned out on a beautiful day to learn how to better engage in land use decisions in their neighborhoods. First-time and returning attendees described the panels as “eye-opening,” “informative,” and “incredibly useful.”
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On Saturday November 13th, Pratt students and local residents came together for an afternoon of training on local planning issues. Hosted by MAS, in collaboration with Pratt Institute’s Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development, this semi-annual Livable Neighborhoods training provides incoming students and area residents with an opportunity to connect and learn how to participate more effectively in New York City’s planning process. Continue Reading>>

Join community board members, city planners, land use lawyers, real estate developers, elected officials, community activists, and others interested in New York City’s land use process this Wednesday, July 21, 2010, for a one-day conference, Land Use and Local Voices: Is the City’s Land Use Process in Need of Reform? The conference, sponsored by MAS and Manhattan Community Board 1, will explore various perspectives on New York City’s land use process and consider proposals to improve it.  Architects, lawyers, and planners are eligible to receive professional continuing education credits.  Visit MAS.org/landuse for more information.

Registration 8:30 am; Conference 9 am – 4 pm.
Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, 3 Spruce Street (east of Park Row, near the corner of Gold Street)
FREE. Reservations Required: Register Online or call 212 935-2075 Continue Reading>>

On Saturday, May 8, nearly 150 New Yorkers attended the fourth annual Livable Neighborhoods Training Program (LNP) at Hunter College. The LNP was created to provide communities with the knowledge, tools, and training needed to strengthen neighborhood decision-making and transform local vision into effective plans. Since its inception in 2007, it has served more than 600 New Yorkers.

This year’s program was especially exciting as we reached new constituents from communities throughout the five boroughs, with Queens and the Bronx being more strongly represented than in previous years, thanks, in part, to assistance from the offices of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., and Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall. Participants took part in a full day of training in topics including community organizing, affordable housing, and planning for parks and open space. Check out the slide show above to learn more about the day’s training program and to learn more about the courses offered, click here. Continue Reading>>

The following interview is the first in a series focusing on how the MAS Planning Center’s Livable Neighborhoods Program (LNP) has helped New Yorkers tackle planning-related challenges in their neighborhoods head-on. Since 2007, the LNP has provided resources and training to nearly 400 New Yorkers. Learn more about it and upcoming training sessions here.

Donnelly Marks (pictured) is a professional photographer who decided to become more involved in her community (Astoria, Queens), in 2002. As part of the Norwood Neighborhood Association (NNA), Donnelly quickly learned that “…pictures were a very useful tool; helpful when making a presentation to the community board, the press, City Council, etc.” Donnelly uses pictures to document areas of concern and to highlight achievements on her neighborhood association’s website. In October of last year, she attended the Livable Neighborhoods Program (LNP) training at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, taking workshops in Historic Preservation and Using Maps and Data.

What made you want to devote a Saturday afternoon to learning more about neighborhood planning?
Juan Camilo Osorio from MAS attended our community board meeting (Astoria CB1) last fall. Our son made comments in the meeting and afterwards Juan told us about the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) workshop and Livable Neighborhood workshops. The program name alone “Livable Neighborhood” says it all. When Juan Camilo explained the LNP workshop offered a chance to learn from planning, preservation and GIS experts in a professional and friendly setting, how could anyone resist? Continue Reading>>

Last month, Chinatown’s neighborhood advocates placed a strong vote of confidence in the power of proactive community planning. The Chinatown Working Group — comprising over 40 community-based organizations and three community boards — has been meeting for over a year to hash out the issues that matter most to the people who live, work, and go to school in the neighborhood. The MAS Planning Center provided support to the Working Group process early on by providing area maps and timely information on community-initiated planning.

The group voted to pursue a 197-a plan—one of the City’s most comprehensive planning tools. Named for the section of the City’s Charter that enables them, 197-a plans provide a way to capture a community vision and translate that vision into policies and strategies. (You can view summaries of all of the City’s adopted 197-a plans here.) The Chinatown Working Group has already begun work identifying themes and principles that will guide their work over the coming year. Continue Reading>>

In a cramped meeting room in Washington Heights, a high school student scurries to set up a laptop and projector. Searching for a free surface in an already packed room, she makes her best effort to connect cords and load her presentation quickly before the committee chairperson calls to order the community board meeting, the student’s very first. The student, Nicole Lugo, is one of over thirty students who have been selected to work at their community board as part of the MAS Planning Center’s CITI Youth program. Across the city, students like Nicole are attending their local community board meetings—projecting maps and creating presentations that correspond to the items being discussed. Continue Reading>>

Last Saturday, MAS, the Pratt Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE), and the Pratt Institute Planning Student Association sponsored the Livable Neighborhoods Program at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Students of Pratt and other city universities, joined members of the local community for a half-day of training sessions focused on the public’s role in New York’s planning decisions.

Launched in 2007, the Livable Neighborhoods Program (LNP) provides New Yorkers with the tools and resources necessary to effectively plan their neighborhoods. GCPE has recognized the value of the program to train incoming students on planning processes in New York City.

For more information on the LNP, visit MAS.org/lnp.

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MAS recently sat down with four young people from the Bronx and Brooklyn who are confronting neighborhood planning challenges head-on. Armed with information, enthusiasm and a supportive network of adults, these young people are taking the lead in addressing critical neighborhood issues.

In Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Caesar Alcaite and Celeste Del Brey (pictured at left) have been working with UPROSE, a community-based environmental justice organization. When they came to UPROSE, neither had much knowledge of environmental justice issues. However, after spending more time at the organization and working with youth organizers, these teens quickly learned that there is a connection between their local environment and their quality of life. Since coming to UPROSE these teens have developed strong leadership skills — reaching out to neighbors to inform them of local environmental concerns; helping middle school students map neighborhood assets and burdens; and leading neighborhood environmental justice tours for city officials, other youth groups, and most recently, a group of 50 Columbia University graduate planning students. Continue Reading>>

Last Monday evening, MAS welcomed Anthony Flint, author of the new book Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City, who gave an engaging lecture on the clash between these two influential figures.

Flint portrays their battle as the ultimate David-and-Goliath story: Jacobs was the quirky “girl from Scranton” who shunned academics and would later turn down an honorary degree from Harvard. Moses was the “master builder” who graduated from Yale, continued his studies at Oxford, and returned from England with an affected English accent. He wielded his power through appointed positions, while she used savvy activism to mobilize the community and to court both the media and up-and-coming politicians like Ed Koch. Continue Reading>>

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There was a time in New York when the appointment of a young person to a community board made the headlines (or close to it). That was back in 1977, when the word “planning” was still a part of the term to describe the 50-member, unsalaried community boards that represent the city’s 59 districts (there were 62 boards in 1977). Current Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is a case in point. His commitment to public service spans three decades. Appointed to Manhattan Community Board 12 (Washington Heights/Inwood) at the age of 16, Stringer learned the value of public participation and community involvement at an early age.

In a 1977 interview with the New York Times, a then-teenaged Stringer already had ideas for his community: “My board could be supportive of after-school programs and at least get a committee going — go into schools and organize activities like escort service for old people, cleaning up the parks and all sorts of things (sic).” Continue Reading>>

The designation of the Prospect Heights Historic District is almost complete. Tomorrow the City Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses will hold a hearing on the designation. With 850 buildings, the district is the largest designated in two decades. It’s also one of the city’s finest unprotected brownstone districts, with blocks of beautiful late-19th and early 20th-century residential buildings (for detailed information, read the LPC’s incredible 488-page designation report). Given the strong support of Council Member Letitia James, we expect the Council to uphold the designation, but MAS will be on hand to urge the Council to affirm the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation.  Read our statement here.

MAS made a video about the process of creating the historic district, featuring Councilmember Letitia James, Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission Robert B. Tierney, historian Francis Morrone, and Gib Veconi of Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council (PHNDC), and showing how we worked with PHNDC to survey the historic buildings and promote the area for designation. The result was not just the designation; the act of engaging residents in the process brought the community together and provided a new sense of neighborhood identity. Continue Reading>>

New York is a young city. With a population of over eight million people, 27 percent are below the age of 19, with 10 percent between the ages of 12 and 19. Young people are an integral part of the fabric of New York, representing more than a quarter of the population in neighborhoods such as the South Bronx, East New York, and Corona. Teens, particularly, make intensive use of the public spaces, businesses, and parks and playgrounds in their own neighborhoods and in neighborhoods where they attend school. Issues critical to the quality of life for young people, such as public safety, public health, and a clean environment are part and parcel of debates over urban planning and development, but youth participation in neighborhood decision-making is rare. The obstacles to their participation are considerable, but not insurmountable. Across the city young people and their adult allies are working together to ensure that young voices are heard. Continue Reading>>

“A renewal effort has to be conceived as a process of building on the inherent social and economic values of the community. Neglecting these values through programs of massive clearance and redevelopment can disrupt an entire community.”

These words could easily have been written by South Bronx activist Yolanda Garcia. In the early 1990s, she founded an organization known as We Stay/Nos Quedamos, and led a movement of residents who wanted to remain in their neighborhood despite the City’s plan to redevelop it with low-density, mixed-income housing.  They created an alternative plan for affordable housing development at Melrose Commons that is still being implemented today.

However, the words above are actually the opening statement of the Cooper Square Alternate Plan, written in 1961 by a group of activists from the Lower East Side, including Frances Goldin. Known as the Cooper Square Committee, they opposed Robert Moses’ urban renewal plan to demolish and redevelop more than 2,500 housing units in their neighborhood.

On July 13, the Municipal Art Society celebrated the kindred spirits of these two community activists by presenting the annual Yolanda Garcia Community Planner (YGCP) Award to Ms. Goldin.  Continue Reading>>