Gramercy group helps protect cops from COVID
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
The Gramercy Park Block Association
teamed up with NYC Makes PPE to
distribute personal protective equipment
for Manhattan’s police precincts.
Since its inception in 1994, the Gramercy
Park Block Association has been dedicated
to public safety, crime prevention, historic
preservation, and quality-of-life. In March,
Gramercy Park Block Association President
and Gramercy Park Trustee Arlene Harrison
got a call from a Gramercy Park
resident whose husband, Guan Yang, is
involved in NYC Makes PPE.
“We send out a newsletter every week
and she wanted to see if we could write
about what NYC Makes PPE was doing
and try to fundraise for them,” said Harrison.
“We decided to fi nd a way to work
with them and give them a wider approach.”
By the time Harrison and Yang spoke
about the partnership, NYC Makes PPE
had already produced more than 20,000
pieces of PPE for hospitals, frontline
workers. Harrison pulled some strings
to get NYC Makes PPE connected to the
NYPD’s 13th Precinct and Gramercy Park
Block Association was able to raise $1,000
for NYC Makes PPE. After NYC Makes
PPE made 300 units for the precinct, the
PHOTO COURTESY OF GRAMERCY PARK BLOCK ASSOCIATION
Officers from the 7th Precinct thank Gramercy Park Block Association and
NYC Makes PPE for donation.
police chief there asked if it were possible
for the organization to make PPE for more
of Manhattan’s precincts.
In that time period, production at NYC
Makes PPE began to skyrocket. According
to Yang, NYC Makes PPE shifted from 3D
printing to injection molding, which is used
to produce many things that are made of
plastic in the industry.
City opens 13 more miles of streets to New
Yorkers during Memorial Day weekend
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Streets around the Village, Chelsea, Gramercy, SoHo
and Hell’s Kitchen closed on May 23 as part of the
city’s revived Open Streets program.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday that 13 more
miles of street space would be closed off to cars as of
May 23 to give more New Yorkers the chance to celebrate
Memorial Day outside of their homes and under the sun
while keeping socially distant during the novel coronavirus
pandemic.
The newest Open Streets in Manhattan are as follows:
• Avenue B between East 6th and East 14th Streets
• Front Street between Beekman Street and Peck Slip
• Greenwich Street between Canal and Spring Streets
• Irving Place between East 16th and East 20th Streets
• Jones Street between Bleecker and West 4th Streets
• MacDougal Street between West 4th and West 8th
Streets
• University Place between West 4th and West 13th
Streets
• Little West 12th Street between 9th avenue and
Washington Street
• West 13th Street between 9th Avenue and Washington
Street
• West 21st Street between 9th and 10th Avenues
• West 22nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues
• West 51st Street between 9th and 10th Avenues
“NYC Makes PPE got together with
a donor and we started to mass-produce
design models and molds,” said Yang.
“With the move to injection molding, what
would have taken months is now moving
a lot quicker.”
NYC Makes PPE aims to help frontline
workers, including those in places that you
might not immediately consider because
• West 103rd Street between Broadway and Riverside
Drive
• West 117th Street between Morningside and 5th
Avenues
• West 138th Street between Lenox Avenue and Adam
Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard
In March, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he
would open 100 miles of streets to pedestrians and cyclists
after initially resisting calls to do so from elected offi cials
and transportation activist groups like Transportation
Alternatives and Bike New York and deeming his small
late-March pilot program a failure. The open street plan
would also include temporary bike lanes and expanded
sidewalks, de Blasio said.
De Blasio eventually came to an agreement with City
Council Speaker Corey Johnson to open 40 of those miles
in May with the remaining miles to be opened over the
following months. The fi rst seven of those 40 miles were
closed off to cars on May 1. Twelve more miles street
space and nine miles of protected bike lanes were opened
on May 13 bring the total mileage of up open streets 32
not including the nine miles of new temporary bike lanes.
Nearly nine out of the 13 miles of street space to open
Saturday will be managed by local police precincts and 1.8
miles will be managed by local business groups. Despite
previous statements that the open streets plan would focus
on thoroughfares near parks, only 2.7 of Saturday’s to-beopened
street space are near a city park.
they aren’t in health care, so working to
produce PPE for the NYPD precincts made
sense to Yang.
“We get a lot of requests from places
where you wouldn’t necessarily think of
as frontline workers, like nursing homes,
daycares, homeless shelters,” said Yang.
“The need at local precincts is there. They
need protection for themselves.”
NYC Makes PPE and the Gramercy Park
Block Association distributed 2,800 face
shields to ten Precincts in Patrol Borough
Manhattan South, from 59th St to Battery
Park, and Emergency Service Truck #1.
Each Precinct sent the following message
to the organizations:
“We extend our deepest appreciation for
the generosity shown by the Gramercy Park
Block Association, its President Arlene
Harrison, and NYC Makes PPE for donating
protective face shields, which will help
keep our offi cers safe. Special thanks to
the GPBA for their long history of support
for the NYPD!”
For more information about the
Gramercy Park Block Association, visit
gramercyparkblockassociation.org. For
more information about NYC Makes PPE,
visit nycmakesppe.com. To volunteer or
donate to NYC Makes PPE, you can visit
their website.
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
Residents now have open streets in the fie boroughs,
including this one in Park Slope next to
Prospect Park, including here on Prospect Park
West.
“This now means that we have more miles of operational
open streets, organized, protected, enforced, we
now have more than any place in this nation,” said de
Blasio during Friday’s daily novel coronavirus press conference.
“I should say because we have found a model that
works and it’s very, very gratifying to see how everyone
has worked together and it’s something that people can
enjoy and we are going to keep building on it throughout
this crisis.”
Schneps Media May 28, 2020 3
/gramercyparkblockassociation.org
/nycmakesppe.com
