Morningside Heights Residents Build Their Neighborhood’s Future in New Workshops

It was a sunny, cool spring day for Open Plans’ first Building Blocks visioning workshop, in collaboration with the West 111th Street Block Association, hosted at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. Peacocks, a staple of their grounds, were nowhere to be seen – but more on that later. We were there to talk about the streets and sidewalks of West 111th Street in Morningside Heights.

Over the past year or so, we have been preparing for this workshop, the formal launch of the Building Blocks pilot with West 111th Street. In collaboration with the block association, we have secured letters of support from Borough President Mark Levine and Council Member Shaun Abreu, presented several times to Community Board 9 and had many conversations with neighbors about how they feel about the block. As the Director of Advocacy and Organizing, I have been coordinating with the elected officials, partaking in block association meetings, and supporting where needed.  

Open Plans conceived of Building Blocks several years ago as a method to facilitate small group conversations with neighbors. Most New Yorkers want to have a say in how their neighborhood looks or operates, but they’re not empowered to do that. Community boards are the traditional places for community input, but we saw that too often, they were not the safe, inclusive environments  needed for true dialogue. Block associations or neighborhood groups may have the interest but perhaps not the technical knowledge or time to engage. This is where Open Plans comes in. With the Building Blocks program, we aim to bring people together, share knowledge, spark inspiration, and provide the resources for community members to make shared decisions that impact their neighborhood’s streets, sidewalks, and public spaces. 

Thursday was showtime to kick off the Building Block process. Together with Street Plans (who provides years of expertise on leading community discussion and creating people-centered streets), we gathered neighbors at the Diocesean House of Saint John the Divine. The discussion focused on how residents  want their streets and sidewalks to look, feel, and function. We explored the good, the not-so-good, and the potential solutions. We learned about the space Mario cares for as his “front yard,” the space Cary cleans up every day, and why Doug would love to see the Green Street at 110th connected to the People’s Garden. 

The first event is finished, but this process is far from over. Next, we are going to conduct user counts to see how many people use West 111th Street  during certain hours of the day. This will include delivery services like FedEx, people biking, people walking down the street, and local businesses, and others. Street Plans will  take all of the information we gathered and merge it with the discussion points from our first event to begin to organize the feedback into visuals.  Our second workshop will present these materials to neighbors and facilitate a new round of feedback. We’re excited to continue working with this dedicated community and seeing their streets transform in their own visions! Stay tuned for more information this spring.

Learn more about our Building Blocks program and how you can create this positive, neighbor-led change in your corner of New York.

Oh, and Saint John the Divine said more peacocks might be on the way!

Jackson Chabot is Open Plans’ Director of Advocacy and Organizing.