Photo by Aaron Adler

The Upper East Side is a popular destination and a treasured community for those who live here, making it a prime destination in recent years for the city’s burgeoning fleet of food trucks and street vendors. Community Board 8 recently sponsored a survey of the area and found a total of 179 vendors. On certain blocks, like on 68th Street between Park and 3rd Avenues, fruit and food vendors crowd the sidewalks, sometimes with four or five carts in a row.

“We’ve been observing a proliferation of vendors, and it has been very disturbing to the community,” said Michele Birnbaum, the chair of the Community Board Vendor Task Force Committee. “We know vendors work very hard; they have long hours in cold weather and hot weather. But there’s a quality of life issue in the community.”

The vendors themselves, however, have not noticed an increase in vendors. Kadio Haci, who has a fruit stand on 68th Street and 3rd Avenue, and works 18-hour days, says that he has been at his stand for almost 20 years, and most of the same vendors have been around as well. In fact, he says, business has been slowly dropping off by 25 percent, so if anything, he notices less vendors than usual.

“You know with the economy, not as many people are out,” said Haci. “People like us because we are selling healthy fruit and we sell it cheaply.”

But the concerns are not just with sheer numbers, says Birnbaum. The community has also been dealing with vendors who park illegally all day and do not follow police or health regulations.

“These are the concerns: the stands are unsightly and there’s a visual blight to the community,” said Birnbaum. “Between that, the unsanitary conditions and the general non-compliance, it’s quite a mess out there.”

The survey, administered by an intern and graduate student at Hunter College, found in December and January, 33 trucks parked illegally, and at least 20 vendors in violation of other regulations like blocking hydrants and tree pits, and tables exceeding the maximum length of eight feet. Birnbaum said that they have been working with the 19th precinct to hand out tickets, and make sure the vendors are complying with the law.

But Husnu Gul, who has a fruit stand a few blocks over from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said that he tries to follow the law, but often cannot keep up with what it illegal and what is not. He admits to parking his truck illegally all day in front of his fruit stand, but says he has to do that to keep his wares fresh all day.

“My main problem is the police keep changing their minds about the regulations. It used to be you could have a 10-foot table, now it’s eight. But sometimes they say six,” says Gul. “We have gotten close to $10,000 in tickets in the past couple of years.”

Tony Hernandez, who sells hotdogs on 68th Street and Lexington Avenue says that he has heard of other vendors in the area not being extremely clean.

“Whenever they come to check me, I have everything clean. I’ve never had a problem,” he said. “What am I supposed to do about the complaints? Everybody needs to make a living.”

But some say that food vendors, even the ones that follow regulations, are negatively affecting the community; local businesses say that they suffer as well.

“They affect our business,” said Kevin Ma, the manager at a C-Town grocery store on East 89th Street. “They sell fruits and vegetables, but who knows the quality. They sell it cheap because they don’t have rent.”

As for solutions, Birnbaum said that in recent years, the Vendor Task Force Committee has recommended standardized street furniture for all vendors, as well as restricting the number of vendors on the streets, but none of these measures can take effect unless the City Council adopts them.

As a child, everyone is taught to look both ways before crossing the street. But for certain people, looking isn’t always an option.

“As you can see—those of you who can see me—I am vertically challenged,” Milagros Franco said from her electric wheelchair. “With large crowds of people, I can’t see the crosswalk signs. People block my way because they forget I’m there.”

Whether they’re vision-impaired or confined to a wheelchair, some New Yorkers need assistance navigating crowded intersections. And last week, they came from across the city to the Upper East Side to make their voices heard.

Last Wednesday, blind and disabled activists dominated the public session portion of Community Board 8’s full board meeting, repeatedly speaking up about the need for audible pedestrian signals at busy crosswalks in the neighborhood. Their testimonies came in response to the community board’s December meeting, where plans to install the devices were rejected by several residents who expressed concerns that they would waste money and create noise pollution.

“It is a matter of basic dignity for the independence of people who are blind and visually impaired. I know there are some people who say, ‘Well, just find someone to help you across the street,’”

Charles Gourgey explained to the crowd. “Those days are gone. We are now in an age where people with disabilities are more independent than ever and deserve the respect and treatment as equals, and not as other or inferior.”

Of New York City’s roughly 12,500 intersections, only 48 have an audible pedestrian signal, which can be either beeps or verbal messages to announce when it is safe to walk. The New York City Department of Transportation is now required to install 25 new audible pedestrian signal units each year, and proposed locations on the Upper East Side include 72nd, 79th, 86th and 96th streets.
Following the eight speakers, Chair Nicholas Viest reminded the audience that the community board does not control whether audible pedestrian signal devices actually get installed.

“We don’t have real power,” he began. “Well, we have power in the sense that we can advise the city government or the state government, but this is an advisory role—that’s important for everyone to know.”

Despite the serious tone, and in some instances, tearful speeches, overall, the group of activists was pleased with the meeting, Afterwards, a community board member thanked them for bringing awareness to the issue, and in general, the activists felt better understood.

“I feel like [the meeting] was a really positive situation,” said Gabriela Amari, who also spoke at the hearing. “We weren’t out there to attack. We just needed to get out there and educate the board as to how important these signals are.”

One of the residential buildings that would be demolished to make way for the proposed facility.

Representatives from New York Presbyterian Hospital presented their preliminary plans for a new medical care facility to Community Board 8 (CB8) last week to request more space for the facility than the city’s limits allow for the area. The proposed facility would be constructed on York Avenue between East 68th and 69th streets, replacing two residential buildings that currently stand on the block.

The hospital wants to construct a 15-story, 341-foot building to house an ambulatory care center (344,412 square feet) and a maternity hospital (224,389 square feet). Present regulations would require the building to taper off at its higher floors to allow for more open air space, but the representatives claimed that these restrictions would compromise the quality of the care that the new facility is intended to provide.

On a diagram of a typical floor plan, the representatives showed that most floors would contain 12 operating rooms and 36 “prep and recovery” rooms—a design that fills the building’s entire footprint, with no space for reductions at upper levels. This 1:3 ratio, they said, is crucial to maintain a steady rotation and to allow patients to remain in the same room for the duration of their stay. They also said that the co-location of operating and recovery rooms on the same floor is necessary to minimize patient transportation.

The new ambulatory care center would house endoscopy procedures, ambulatory surgery, diagnostic imaging, gastroenterology and radiation oncology and infusion.

The new maternity hospital, which would contain all of New York Presbyterian’s maternity services, would provide neonatal care units and private rooms for expectant and recent mothers. According to the representatives, the building would free up space on the hospital’s main campus to accommodate more inpatients.

“It is all very linked,” said Sharon Greenberger, New York Presbyterian’s senior vice president for facilities development and engineering, on the new facility’s connection to the rest of the hospital’s facilities along York Avenue between East 68th and 71st streets. “We are a teaching hospital, and we are very interested in making sure that there is a relationship between our various academic buildings.”

CB8 approved the request, but had significant reservations. In a lengthy question-and-answer period, board members expressed concerns about traffic caused by the facility, its design and the loss of housing that residents of the location’s current 270 apartments would suffer.

Representatives stressed that the facility’s design, which appeared generic and gray in the presentation’s renderings, were preliminary, and that the final building would be aesthetically unique. They also said that the facility would enable cars to enter and exit on multiple streets, but many board members argued that there would still be congestion in the already-busy area, especially during construction.

Residentially, Greenberger said that the hospital was working with the displaced tenants to find housing at the hospital’s other properties. She noted that many of the current buildings’ tenants are staff and fellows of the hospital, and would not have difficulty finding new homes.

One resident in the audience, however, claimed that rent-regulated tenants were being cheated. “They’re not offering the equivalent of what people have,” said a woman who declined to give her first name to the press. She claimed that this is the second time she has been unwillingly relocated in the neighborhood in 10 years.

“Yes, it’s an institutional area, but some people have lived in that area for 45 years, and went to high school [in the area],” she said. “It has become an institutional area, which means that more and more people are being displaced, like myself—people who are seniors who are getting less. I’d like to feel like you are addressing this, because it is very disruptive to people.”

When Greenberg assured her that the hospital and its real-estate department would work with her to ensure that she is relocated to fair housing, she responded, “We have been working together. It’s not working very well.”

CB8’s approval of the request came on the condition that the hospital routinely check in with the board to report the project’s progress. The approval will help the hospital gain actual permission to proceed with the project when it applies to the Board of Standards for a variance on the city’s floor-area ratio limits.

The hospital hopes to start demolition for the new facility next summer. The 42-month construction process would begin in 2014.

Community-Minded Rhythm: Julie Rulyak, executive director of the Turtle Bay Music School, leads a music workshop during Kips Bay Day at the Plaza on July 21. The Plaza, located on the service road between 30th and 33rd Street on the east side of 2nd Ave., hosted various activities, including croquet, Citi Bike demonstrations, live music and pet adoption.

CB8 Slams 583 Park Application
In the latest development of the ongoing battle between the event venue 583 Park and some of its Upper East Side neighbors, Community Board 8 voted to disapprove the venue’s beer and wine license application last week.

583 Park is located in the Third Church of Christ Scientist’s historic building on Park Avenue and East 63rd Street, part of the reason neighbors contend it doesn’t belong in their residential community. They say that the church, which still holds services there and leases the space to 583 Park, using the money to fund its $400,000 operating budget plus costly repairs, is overshadowed by the lavish and loud events held by clients of 583 Park.

The venue’s operators, the Rose Group, downgraded their hopes of obtaining a permanent liquor license after the State Liquor Authority (SLA) rejected their application. Complicated litigation surrounding the liquor license and intense community opposition led the SLA to also stop issuing one-time permits to outside caterers, a common practice in the event industry, for events at 583 Park.

The Rose Group has stated that they will likely take a financial hit by sticking to beer and wine and skipping the booze, but that they could still get by, accommodating more charity events and fewer weddings. They also made it clear that if they’re not able to serve alcohol of any kind, they’ll have to pull out of their lease.

While that’s exactly the outcome some residents are rooting for, the Community Board and the people it serves have little sway over the granting of a beer and wine license, a fact that was barely addressed at the hours-long meeting. A beer and wine license application is not subject to the 200-foot rule, which prohibits a full liquor license at an establishment within 200 feet of a church or school, or the 500-foot rule, which assumes that an application will not be granted if there is another establishment with an on-premises liquor license within 500 feet unless it is in the public interest. In fact, the SLA states that community opposition is not grounds for denying a beer and wine license.

Board member and Street Life Committee co-chair Cos Spagnoletti likened it to a driver’s license, presumed issued unless something egregious, like a felony record, prevents it. But that fact didn’t diminish some residents’ and board members’ fervor in calling for the demise of 583 Park.

The previous week, the Street Life Committee rejected the application and, despite a substitute motion offered by board member Jonathan Horn to approve it with caveats (restricting loading and unloading times, not allowing limos and black cars to idle outside, nixing flashy exterior lighting, limiting the capacity for events, among a long list of other stipulations the Rose Group had agreed to), the Board still voted to reject the application.

Some neighbors appeared to be feeling victorious when the vote count was tallied, but it remains to be seen if the SLA will follow suit with the Board’s rejection or follow the law and let 583 Park continue hosting and pouring for their paying customers.

Garbage Dump Gets Go-Ahead
Earlier this week, the mayor’s office confirmed that the city had received the permits from the Army Corps of Engineers allowing the construction of the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station (MTS) to start. The Upper East Side waste transfer site has been defunct for years, but was resurrected by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Solid Waste Management Plan and could be operational again, with major renovations, by 2015, according to the city, now that they have obtained the requisite federal permits.

But local opponents, residents as well as politicians, say that they won’t stop fighting the MTS.

“I am disappointed by the [Army Corps’] decision to grant a permit for a project that will harm the habitat for East River fish, have a significant negative impact on the health and quality of life in a densely residential neighborhood and make the waterfront much less accessible in the East 90s,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a statement, citing the Environmental Protection Agency’s concerns that the city’s mitigation plan doesn’t do enough to protect fish and wildlife.

Assembly Member Micah Kellner, who launched a lawsuit against the city several weeks ago to stop the MTS, also said he was disappointed, but vowed to continue pushing back through the courts.

“[The decision] was not unexpected and is far from the final word on the matter,” said Kellner in an email. “Nothing has changed as far as I am concerned. My lawsuit is proceeding and I am confident that when we have our day in court on Aug. 17, we will finally put this ill-conceived Marine Transfer Station to rest.”

The lawsuit alleges that the city hasn’t properly amended its environmental impact statement for the project to reflect the increased daily intake of trash that the facility would process.

While the lawsuit proceeds—and others may crop up, sources say—the city may continue with its plan to start construction but will also have to worry about funding a project that is expected to cost $245 million.

Fire Injures Firefighters and UES Woman
A fire rampaged through an Upper East Side building on Saturday night, injuring six firefighters and one resident, NY1 reported. The fire started around 10:45 p.m. in a grocery store at East 88th Street and Third Avenue. One woman found collapsed on the stairs was taken to the hospital for treatment. Fire officials told NY1 that the fire was in the walls of the building and was difficult to contain. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

New York-Presbyterian Hospital Plans Expansion
The Upper East Side hospital brought plans to build a new facility to the Community Board last week. The hospital will turn two older residential buildings it owns on York Avenue between East 68th and 69th streets into a 15-story facility.

Sharon Greenberg, vice president for facility development and management, explained to the Board and the public in attendance that the plans are preliminary, but that they have an idea of what the building will look like and what functions it will serve. There will be an ambulatory care center as well as maternity care at the new building. It is planned to increase capacity for New York-Presbyterian as well as reduce wait times for procedures by utilizing more high-tech, less invasive outpatient procedures. Greenberg assured the Board that the hospital will provide alternative housing to the residents of the current building, including equivalent rent-regulated units for those tenants who are now under rent regulation, well before construction is slated to begin in 2014.

The church where 583 Park holds events. Photo by Jonathan Springer.

Last week, nearly 200 people from the Upper East Side showed up at a Community Board street life committee meeting to debate the fate of a church/event space on Park Avenue. The embattled 583 Park operates as an upscale event space out of the Third Church of Christ Scientist on Park Avenue and East 63rd Street. The Rose Group, which operates 583 Park, has been leasing the space since 2006, hosting lavish weddings, large charity events and functions like fashion shows for designer Oscar de la Renta. Over the years, it has become a favored spot for many event planners and a sore spot for many neighbors.

Some local residents complain that the noise, traffic, lights and crowds generated by events at 583 Park—about 100 a year—are too much for their quiet neighborhood. The Rose Group counters that without their 20-year lease, which requires $250,000 in annual rent plus 10 percent of the revenue from their events, the church would not be financially able to remain in their landmarked building.

The battle has worked its way through several court cases and has come to rest most recently on the approval of a beer and wine license for 583 Park, the subject of which caused intense debate at the meeting.

Residents spoke of double-parked cars and the clatter of loading and unloading for major events at the space. Employees of the Rose Group and 583 Park summoned letters of support from their high-profile clients and from neighbors who don’t have any qualms with the events.
After several complicated court battles, the SLA will no longer grant individual single-event licenses to caterers at 583 Park, which is how they’ve been operating for the past few years. Now they’re hoping for a beer and wine license, which they say will still limit their business, but without which they would potentially have to close.

That would be good news to several board members who expressed their disapproval of 583 Park.

“This is definitely an invasion of our neighborhood and the use of our sidewalk streets in a residential neighborhood,” said board member Michelle Birnbaum.

Other board members cited the long history of complaints from the community as reason enough to deny the application. Many characterized the operation as out of character with the neighborhood, but some said that the bustle of activity is to be expected anywhere in Manhattan.

“There are huge disruptions in this community, this direct area, outside of this church,” said board member Jonathan Horn, citing the multiple film shoots that go on every year as well as the summer street closures and maintenance of the Park Avenue malls.

“We live in New York City; even in a residential area, there are disruptions,” Horn said. He cited the fact that 311 complaints are way down, which the Rose Group touted as an improvement and opponents said was not a clear indication of their ire, as they had simply given up on calling, as proof that the situation has gotten better over the years.

“I find that very indicative of the fact that the Rose Group, whatever the problems at the beginning, that they’ve acknowledged—and I would say that I personally saw, initially, issues where they were taking over the streets, the sidewalks—they have done their best to fit in and accommodate,” he said.

The criteria for a beer and wine license is much less stringent than for a full liquor license. According to the State Liquor Authority, “Community opposition alone is not sufficient to disapprove an application” that isn’t subject to the 500-foot rule (which this application is not). The SLA may take the community board’s objections, if the full board votes down the application, into consideration, but they aren’t bound to follow it.

“If we say no, they walk out of here and they go to the SLA and they take their chances,” said board member Barry Schneider. “However, if here the community board uses its wisdom to say, ‘Let’s say yes but with conditions, with stipulations that they will have to adhere to,’ if they get their beer and wine license, then they will be held to a higher authority than the community board; they will be held to the SLA.”

The committee voted against the approval of the license for 583 Park, though not unanimously. The issue will reach a final full board vote on Wednesday, July 18.

EAST SIDE LAWMAKERS PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF PREGNANT WORKERS
Last week, Upper East Side Rep. Carolyn Maloney joined three Democratic co-sponsors in introducing new federal legislation that would protect pregnant women against unfair job discrimination.

Maloney joined fellow New York City Rep. Jerrold Nadler and two others in presenting the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The bill is supported by 119 advocacy groups from across the nation and has 63 original cosigners. The law would require employers to give reasonable working accommodations for pregnant women and prevent employers from forcing these women onto leave, paid or not, when a reasonable adjustment can be made to their workload.
The bill will also relinquish hiring discrimination toward women who are pregnant and in need of certain accommodations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.

“Women need to work during pregnancy and must not be penalized in the workplace for choosing to have a child,” Maloney said. “The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act will give women the tools they need to fight ‘maternal profiling’ on the job.”

The bill follows the introduction of a similar measure at the state level from State Sen. Liz Krueger.
“When pregnant women cannot be provided reasonable accommodations at their workplace, they lose wages and opportunities for advancement, their newborns are disadvantaged and both their employers and the economy as a whole suffer unnecessary losses,” Krueger said.

The sponsors of the national bill cite recent examples of pregnant women losing their jobs after asking for minor accommodations, like carrying a water bottle or help with certain physical tasks, as the impetus for creating the protections.

UES RAPIST CONVICTED
Last summer, the Upper East Side was terrorized by several different perpetrators of sexual assaults, and early last week, a man arrested for two of those crimes pleaded guilty to rape and sexual abuse.

Jason Quinones, 22, who was 21 at the time of the attacks, admitted to raping a woman in her East 90th Street home last August. He climbed through the window of her ground floor apartment at 4:30 a.m. while she slept, grabbed her cell phone to keep her from calling the police and raped her.

Quinones was arrested several days later based on DNA evidence left at the scene, and was later charged with another sexual assault that had taken place in July on East 83rd Street. He told prosecutors that he approached his first victim from behind in her building and forced her into her apartment, where he pushed her onto a couch and sexually abused her.

District Attorney Cyrus Vance admonished Quinones for committing “atrocious sex crimes.”

“In both cases, he saw a chance to sexually assault a woman while she was vulnerable, and both times, he took it,” Vance said.

Quinones is scheduled to be sentenced June 20 and could face up to 25 years for the class B felony rape conviction, as well as up to 7 years for the sexual abuse conviction.

MORE DELAYS FOR EAST SIDE ACCESS
The Long Island Railroad is subject to delays and shuttle use, but if customers want to make use of the proposed Grand Central Terminal, they will have to invest in time travel.

Last week, MTA chairman Joe Lhota explained that the tunnel may not be completed until 2019—six years after the proposed completion date. An official from the MTA stated that construction is underway around the active tracks in Sunnyside, Queens, where Amtrak, LIRR and NJ Transit operate trains.

Lhota said the engineers and workers who are tunneling underground in Queens have encountered serious issues that will set back the construction of the connection.

The project was originally supposed to be finished in 2013, but a change in contractors, loose ground in Queens and aneed to keep trains running to meet the demands of a traveling workforce have repeatedly pushed back the completion date.

SLA HITS EAST SIDE RESTAURANT WHERE  IT HURTS
Local activists are finding creative ways to push back against rogue food delivery cyclists who flout the laws and endanger pedestrians. After the community rallied against the liquor license application for an Upper East Side Chinese restaurant because it allowed its delivery men to ride illegal motorized bikes, the State Liquor Authority denied the establishment’s application.

The New York Post reported on the hearing in Albany last week for Adam’s Chinese Restaurant (which does business as  Vicky’s Cottage) on East 91st Street, noting that this is the first time that the SLA has denied a license based on non-alcohol-related issues. When owner Denny Dong told the SLA that he couldn’t control what his delivery men did after they left the restaurant, they didn’t take kindly to the suggestion that he wasn’t responsible for his own workers.

“What else don’t you have control over, your employees selling to underage people?” an SLA official asked, according to the Post. “If you can’t control your employees, we can’t grant a license.”

Community Board 8 has been trying to get the restaurant to comply with traffic laws and prohibit its deliver workers from reckless driving and riding electric bikes, and members have been mulling ways to convince restaurants that the community is serious about cracking down on dangerous biking—a sentiment that the SLA is clearly backing.

Domenico Minerva

The latest candidate to jump into the race for the Upper East Side’s 5th Council District didn’t count on entering New York City politics. Growing up in a conservative-leaning area of Long Island, raised in a Republican family and living in various cities around the country, Domenico Minerva wasn’t always certain where his liberal, Democratic values would fit.

Minerva’s family moved to Florida when he was in school, and after he graduated from college, he went to Atlanta to work for Morgan Stanley. When the stock market nosedived, he took some time off to help his sister and nephews out in Los Angeles, then started thinking about becoming a lawyer. He relocated to San Francisco for a job a law firm and, while there, the political bug finally bit him.

“It’s nice, because [San Francisco]’s a liberal setting, so the values were pretty much in line with everything that I already believed. Everyone is so active and involved with local politics that you can talk to anyone about politics,” Minerva said in a recent interview.

When he began doing just that—talking to everyone around him about local politics—he realized how transformative the process could be.

“That really focused me and got me understanding that one person can make a difference; before that, I was sort of one of those pessimistic non-believers,” Minerva said.

After law school in New Orleans (he lost his apartment there during Hurricane Katrina), he got a job with a securities litigation firm and ended up living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

“When I moved to New York, I knew it was important for me to start getting involved. I’m a lawyer; I have a legal education, which really helps on the policy side,” he said.

He soon found the Lexington Democratic Club, where he served as treasurer and is now a third term president. Minerva is also a member of Community Board 8, and said that during his relatively short time in the neighborhood, his immersion in the local scene has prepared him for the challenges that would face a City Council representative.

“I’ve been very involved. We’ve had very successful forums talking about issues that are facing the Upper East Side specifically or the city generally or the state,” he said.

Minerva shares many similar viewpoints and priorities for the East Side as current Council Member Jessica Lappin, who is likely running for Manhattan borough president in 2013, as well as fellow candidates Benjamin Kallos, also a politically active attorney, and Hill Krishnan, an NYU professor: opposition to the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station (he lives right by the site), a concern for air quality (his wife is about to give birth to their first baby), advocating for more school seats.

He said that he’d like to focus on getting more support for businesses along the Second Avenue Subway construction route and finding creative solutions for building new schools. He would push for better bike lanes and more green taxis, as well as more accountability of restaurants for renegade deliverymen on electric bikes.

Minerva said that it’s still early to be formulating more specific policies, but that he plans on continuing his work with the club and meeting people in the neighborhood to gear up for his campaign.

Elaine Walsh. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

By Paulette Safdieh

Upper East Sider Elaine Walsh remembers the East 86th Street corridor when trains chugged along the Third Avenue El, long before 2nd Avenue Subway construction began. Born and raised on 86th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues, Walsh committed herself to giving back to the neighborhood from a young age.
Today, Walsh co-chairs Community Board 8’s Zoning and Development Committee and runs the East 86th Street Association. Her years of dedication and active involvement within the community earned Walsh an OTTY Award this year.
“I enjoy being involved and I like to see social change—luckily, I’ve seen that happen,” said Walsh. “It’s a good way to live.”
Walsh, 67, remembers her mother being involved in community affairs and school events, an attitude that influenced Walsh as a teenager. She led the student body at St. Vincent Ferrer High School on East 65th Street and was vice president of the student body at the College of White Plains. Walsh continued on to earn a master’s degree in social work and a doctorate in social welfare, both from Fordham University.
For the past 25 years, Walsh has worked as a professor in the Hunter College Department of Urban Affairs. She runs its Public Service Scholar Program to raise money and encourage students to get involved in public service.
“Leadership came naturally to me,” said Walsh. “I enjoy helping people grow, delegating out and seeing people blossom.”
Walsh joined the Community Board 15 years ago, first chairing the Economic Development Committee. She helped jumpstart crime prevention programs in conjunction with the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and helped organize a community task force in 2002. The task force surveyed residents and local businesses and identified a need for a civic group to handle quality of life issues on East 86th Street, which led to the formation of the East 86th Street Association in 2003.
As president of the Association, Walsh works with many community members, neighborhood residents and local businesses. Teri Slater, the Association’s secretary and co-chairperson of Community Board 8’s Zoning and Development Committee feels lucky to be one of them.
“She’s infallible, she doesn’t give up and she’s a fighter—that’s what it takes to be a community advocate,” Slater said. “She has a full-time job but she applies the same hard work, intelligence and strength of character to the community on the Upper East Side.”
Over the last few years, Walsh has led the association to get historic lamps installed down the East 86th Street corridor, fix broken corners, plant trees and clear space for upcoming bike racks. She helped get neighborhood signage replaced and worked with big retailers to maintain decorum on the streets. Walsh now lives on 86th Street with her partner of 30 years, Brenda McGowan.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have good health and live a long time,” said Walsh. “I understand that change takes time, but we’re getting there. We’re making a difference.” 

The dilapidated footbridge passing over the FDR Drive from East 81st Street to Carl Schurz Park has seen better days. Crumbling supports, steep stairs and discolored cement characterize this footpath built in the 1940s.

The bridge is currently under close scrutiny by local Community Board 8 and the Department of Designs and Construction as the entities work toward an estimated $10 million overhaul of the bridge.

The current design calls for a two-block-long ramp, 10 feet wide, which would replace the eroded stairs currently connecting the walk along the water. Another facet of the project is the addition of accessible ramps to replace the stairs on 81st Street that bar access to the promenade to mothers with baby carriages and those in wheelchairs, according to Craig Chin, public information officer of the Department of Design and Construction, which is responsible for the 81st Street bridge.

The design is raising eyebrows among some Upper East Siders who are worried that the reconstructed bridge will have similar issues to the 78th Street bridge just a few blocks south. The recently rebuilt bridge on 78th Street is shared by cyclists and pedestrians, and that has created safety issues, according to some locals.

“Some people fly through here and have no respect for anyone else,” said Michael Thompson, a writer who lives on the Upper East Side. “If I was a mother with a baby carriage, I would feel in danger.”

Community Board 8 has since passed a resolution to post signs on the 78th Street bridge that ask bikers to walk their bikes when crossing the compacted path.

While the Community Board struggles with freewheeling bikers on the 78th Street bridge, they want to make sure the 81st Street bridge doesn’t have the same problems.

“The 81st Street bridge is a barrier-free space,” said Chin. “This means that the bridge is open to use by dog walkers, pedestrians and cyclists.”

Chuck Warren, the co-chair of the CB8 transportation committee, said that the design phase of the 81st Street bridge has been going on for several years. The first design was released in 2008 and the Board did not approve it because it was clunky and “stuck out in an ugly way.”

The Board has yet to take a stance on the current design released by the Department of Construction and Design, according to Nicholas Viest, CB8 chairman.

Warren feels there should be signs posted to raise awareness for bikers that the bridge is shared, telling them to exercise caution when using it.

“The park and bridge should be open to cyclists just so long as they follow the rules and respect pedestrians,” said Jim, a resident of the Upper East Side who declined to give his last name. “If they drive up here at a slower pace, I would have no problems with them.”

The bridge is currently expected to take 18 months to complete.