Residents Regroup for a New Mission: Make FiDi a Better Neighborhood
Some of the founding members of the Financial District Neighborhood Association. From left: Sarah El Batanouny, Sienam Lulla, Luis Vazquez, Andrea Kanter, Patrick Kennell, Paul Proulx and Denise Courter. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
About a dozen Financial District residents, many veterans of a battle they lost against the city two years ago, have regrouped for a new, more positive mission.
Calling themselves the Financial District Neighborhood Association, they are recruiting fellow residents to join them in what their president, Patrick Kennell, says is an effort to “focus on things small and large that we can do to make the neighborhood better.”
Kennell, president of his co-op board at 80 John St., helped lead an organized resistance against the city’s siting of a probation office at 66 John St. Charging that it would bring crime and other problems to the neighborhood, and claiming that the city had bypassed required reviews, the residents banded together to speak out at Community Board 1 meetings and, unsuccessfully, sue to reverse the city’s decision.
Having once organized themselves, Kennell said, it would be a waste for his neighbors to lose the “information infrastructure” that they had gained around their cause.
“We said one thing we could use is a neighborhood association,” noted Kennell, who has since become a member of CB1. “Rather than having a place for complaints, how about having a place where we can have some ideas about ways to make the neighborhood even better.”
Kennel and others say they envision possible sidewalk cleanings and tree plantings, block parties and advocacy for improved city services. But their main goal now is to bring other residents into the fold and solicit ideas for their fledgling organization. At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 11, they will host an hour-long “neighborhood town hall” at the Pine Street School, 25 Pine St.
“With the new retail and the schools and the restaurants and the theaters, with all that activity also will come some problems,” said Luis Vazquez, who is a booster for the neighborhood through his FiDi Fan Page. “We thought it would be good to have an organization that advocated for positive change in the neighborhood—how to deal with issues that every neighborhood has to deal with.”
Denise Courter, founder of the blog FiDi Families and another member of the association, recalled a school zoning battle in 2010 when there was no network of Financial District parents, so they had little voice at the zoning meetings. “I could bring maybe two parents with me and that was about it,” she said. “Whereas other folks in Tribeca had banded together years ago and they were a well-oiled machine. It’s admirable what they have been able to do, but they had to start from somewhere.”
The fight over 66 John Street became that start for this group, and now they are preparing to be the organized voice for their growing neighborhood. “It’s the power of numbers,” said association member Sarah El Batanouny, “that’s the only way to get things done.”