Making Progress!!!

Our hard work, dedication and commitment to making our neighborhood safer is paying off! Lots of changes coming which I am outlining below. Thanks to everyone who signed the petition and keeps up the cause, especially Mort Greenberg and Lauren Bernstein Pohl for their extraordinary commitment and for creating the webpage on the link attached. Please sign up for the newsletter and help in any way you can. Latest updates (summarized by Mort): "Recently we learned from Janet and Matt that DHS has said they are making changes at the 30th Street Shelter that might benefit the community. Also, there are other city agencies working to support the requests we have been detailing on this page and through 311 and 911. To further propel our concerns and voices (which have been growing without a single live member meeting so far) we are doing the following: 1) Formalizing Third and 33rd so that we can be seen as an "organization". Being viewed as an organization will allow us to be further recognized in the community, invited to CABs, and have political clout as our ranks grow. The name of the organization is Third and 33rd (and Beyond!), or just Third and 33rd for short. 2) To bring Third and 33rd to life we anticipate having a steering committee. We will need people on the steering committee to head up and coordinate various efforts (eg Mainchance, 30th Street Shelter, DHS point of contact, media point of contact, elected officials point of contact, police point of contact, coordinator with PTAs of all local schools, liaison with other local civic groups etc). 3) Visibility: We have both a closed Facebook group for residents, and an external facing website for all to view who we are and what we do. You can add anyone to the Facebook page through a link on the upper right hand corner of our FB page. We are almost at 500 members, and have a goal to get to 2,500+. The URL for our site is now http://3-33.NYC. On the site are links to download the 311 app, email the mayor, and sign the petition Mauro Pennacchia created. 4) Newsletter Sign-Up: While Facebook is our primary forum for communication we now also have a newsletter sign-up at http://www.3-33.nyc/newsletter.html so that we can have a way to communicate with both members of the FB page and non-members. Also, if there are important updates we will both post on the FB page and email out so that you can see if you are not on FB often. 5) Survey: We have a brief survey to capture a little info on this group and issues you are all seeing. As needed we will create more of these...This way we can have some stats to point to and help our outbound story telling. Please take a minute to complete. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3-33 6) Please email us at TEAM@3-33.NYC if you would like to be involved in the organization or have ideas on how we can further formalize these efforts. 7) Once all of this is in place we will have to start attending CABS, police precinct and other local meetings in numbers and meet among our group on a frequent basis." Update from Matt Roberts - Community Board 6 Public Safety committee; Board for the 17th Pct Community Council; Vice President for Quality of Life with the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association "DHS has announced plans to change their clientele at the 30th St facility. They plan to house more employable people who will be less disruptive to the community. Other clients will be relocated to other facilities. It will remain an intake center, but most of the clients who are kept there will have jobs or at least be employable. These changes are expected to be implemented by the end of the year. DHS has also shifted security resources from their building to the surrounding blocks. Some of you have noticed the DHS vans, especially on Saturdays. These are unarmed peace officers looking for clients who are causing problems. Albano Park is an area of focus in our area. Trespasser affidavit program - locations include 350 E 30th St and 200 E 33rd St. No Trespassing signs have been posted and NYPD will monitor these locations. Building owners/property managers can work with the DA's office if they would like to be part of the program. The 13th and 17th Precincts continue to work hard to improve the situation in the area. Dedicated police officers have been assigned to the 30th-36th Street area. As always, please continue to let us know what you are seeing. Call 911 for emergencies and 311 for other issues. Please remember homeless individuals often refuse services several times before they decide to accept any services. You can email me directly at mattroberts@mindspring.com if you have questions or any information to pass along. You can also send questions or concerns to Community Board 6 at office@cbsix.org." Thank you! Mauro Pennacchia