City Comptroller John Liu presents Rob Byrnes with an award for his service to the district at East Midtown Partnership’s annual meeting in December. Photo courtesy of EMP.

East Midtown Partnership is on a mission to make East Midtown a better place. One of 67 Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in New York City, the partnership funds beautification projects, sanitation, park maintenance and other programs beneficial to the East Midtown district, which covers most blocks between East 49th and 63rd streets and Madison and Second avenues. The partnership recently held its 10th annual meeting to celebrate its accomplishments over the past year. Now, the BID is looking forward to new programs and services that it intends to launch in 2013.

“This is going to be the year we take our marketing and beautification initiatives to the next level,” said Rob Byrnes, president of East Midtown Partnership since it began in 2002. His hope is to strengthen the local community by continuing to build business relationships between East Midtown retailers and commercial tenants, and to make East Midtown a more attractive place for people to work, shop and visit.

Byrnes was particularly excited about the partnership’s work at Tramway Plaza. The small park on Second Avenue, the district’s only accessible public space, was infested with rats last year, so East Midtown Partnership hired an exterminator and worked with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and other groups to put lids on trash cans and change trash liners several times a day. The exterminator recently called Byrnes to report that the rat population had been reduced from 38 active burrows to zero active burrows.

“We want to make [Tramway Plaza] something people want to go to, not walk over to Third Avenue to avoid,” Byrnes said earlier at the annual meeting, emphasizing that keeping the rat population in check would require constant monitoring. “We only have one park, and we’re in there for the long haul.”

In the coming year, Byrnes said, he hopes to organize concerts in the park, and perhaps public art exhibitions. Currently East Midtown Partnership is working to arrange a Friends of Tramway Park public volunteer group to run the park and its future activities.

Two other projects the partnership is pursuing are an East Midtown dining passport and bookings for the partnership’s new conference room. The passport, which will be free, will provide discounts and special offers at participating restaurants in the district to help build customer bases. The conference room—in Byrnes’ words, a “community room”—is a renovated and expanded space at the partnership’s Third Avenue office that can now be used to host Community Board meetings, police precinct meetings and other community functions.

East Midtown Partnership, like all city BIDs, receives its funding from a mandatory tax on all commercial property in the district. New York City’s BIDs invest $100 million into community programs and services annually, and East Midtown Partnership operates on a budget of a little over $2 million.

Part of that revenue in 2012 went to installing recycling bins for newspapers across the district—a project that Byrnes called “the epitome of what we’re supposed to be doing as a business improvement district” and hopes will become a model for the rest of the city—and to holding networking events to encourage residents and commercial owners to buy local. “Everything you need is in East Midtown,” Byrnes said, quoting the partnership’s marketing strategy.

The BID also funds the district’s sanitation, security and homeless outreach programs. At the partnership’s annual meeting, George McDonald, founder and CEO of the Doe Fund, a nonprofit transitional work service, praised the partnership for its assistance. “What a wonderful public-private partnership it is that we have here,” he said. “You go one step beyond what your purpose is as business folks, to add this extra element of helping people at the bottom of our economic ladder grab a hold of that first rung.”

Visit the East Midtown Partnership website, eastmidtown.org, for news about the neighborhood and upcoming projects.

Swindler of UES Woman Indicted

Philip Leopold, who is charged with grand larceny, forgery, falsifying business records and several other charges, was indicted this week for stealing over $1.6 million from an 85-year-old Upper East Side woman who is nearly blind, has hearing problems and other health issues. Leopold, who is 76, first met his victim about 40 years ago, and he began helping her with her finances, writing out checks for her to sign to pay for her household expenses. In 2002, he convinced her to open a trust and name him and the Bank of New York as trustees, and he gradually began siphoning money into that account until it held $2 million by 2003. He began writing fraudulent checks to himself and forged letters to the bank, requesting transfers into his own accounts. According to court documents, Leopold used the stolen funds to pay for a myriad of expenses, from everyday household goods to several life insurance polices for him and his daughter. He spent $63,000 on storage units in Manhattan and used $882,000 to pay off his personal credit cards. Perhaps most appallingly, he spent over half a million dollars at ShopNBC, a television and online shopping site. He bought thousands of items through home shopping channels, including jewelry, electronics, figurines, coin collections, kitchen supplies and a “multi-color fog maker.” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement that the actions the defendant stands accused of are “sadly, not uncommon,” and he encourages anyone who is a victim of or suspects someone they know to be a victim of elder abuse to call the DA’s hotline at 212-335-9007.

Historic Walking Tour

Preservation advocacy group Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts is leading a walking tour of the Carnegie Hill Historic District next Saturday, May 12. The walk will meander through the East 80s and 90s, with tour leader Bernie Cohen pointing out the sights along the way. The district, which was designated in 1974 and expanded in 1993, is the second largest on the Upper East Side and contains within its boundaries many rows of townhouses, freestanding residences and apartment buildings. The area was named for industrialist Andrew Carnegie, whose mansion on Fifth Avenue and East 91st Street now houses the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Participants should meet at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and East 86th Street at 1 p.m. Advance payment ($15, $10 for members) is required; call 212-535-2526 or visit www.friends-ues.org/events to purchase tickets.

City Planning to Unveil East Midtown Rezoning

The Department of City Planning will be presenting the results of its East Midtown Zoning Study to Community Board 6 this week. The department is expected to present a plan for rezoning that would create an increase of available commercial space by 20 to 30 percent. The “upzoning” would encourage buildings to be made taller (current zoning does not place a cap on height) in order to gain this space increase and also create ways for newer and more modern structures to be built in the area. The region affected would be between East 39th and 59th Streets, between Third and Fifth Avenues. Mayor Bloomberg has made it clear that he wants to see the region revamped and able to attract new business, especially technology companies; he has said that the city should make sure it is doing all it can to attract business to the area. Some neighborhood groups, including the Turtle Bay Association, are wary of the city making fast changes and will be watching the process closely, as will real estate interest groups who support changes that allow for more development.

Mayfair Block Party

The Church of the Holy Trinity, which is known locally as the “dog-friendly church,” is holding a free community block party this Saturday, May 5, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Animal companions are welcome, and there will be special activities for cats, dogs and other pets. There will be toys and treats for sale, a silent auction to win a custom portrait of a pooch, pet horoscopes and training tips. For humans, there will be a health care booth with a doctor and physician’s assistants on hand to check blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels. Kids can play in the bouncy castles, get their faces painted to match their canine companions and participate in crafts. There will also be food from the nearby Genesis Restaurant for sale, as well as beer and wine. The French Cookin’ Blues Band will be supplying the musical vibes for the event. East 88th Street between First and Second Avenues.

Women in Arts Celebrated

The Czech Center and Composers Concordance Records are hosting an evening of art and music by women, “Ladies First,” on Friday, May 18. The opening reception will feature a video installation with interviews of prominent female artists, many of whom will be in attendance at the event. The chamber music concert to follow will feature world premiere works as well as Czech composer Antonin Dvořák’s themes. Audience members can meet the musicians and artists at the after-party. The event runs from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Bohemian National Hall, 321 E. 73rd St. Suggested donation $20, RSVP at ladiesfirstnyc.eventbrite.com.