Join Friends of St. Nicholas Park members, neighbors and Parks officials as we discuss community involvement in the park and continue to ride the momentum gained during the first meeting.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 17 from 7-9 p.m. at the Hamilton Grange. It is located at 414 West 141st Street, between Convent Avenue and St. Nicholas Avenue.

Your enthusiasm and contributions will be greatly appreciated!

Our April Coffee Bark and Clean-Up is scheduled for Saturday, April 6th from 9am-12 noon at St. Nick’s Dog Run. Come to the Dog Run and celebrate Spring with free coffee and donuts while helping woodchip the park and clean the area. Socialize with fellow dog owners and discuss issues and ideas on concerning St. Nicholas Park and St. Nick’s Dog Run.

Our Coffee Barks take place the first Saturday of every month from 9am-11am at the St. Nick’s Dog Run.

The St. Nick’s Dog Run is located in the middle of St. Nicholas Park between 136th and 137th streets. If you are interested in volunteering for the Coffee Bark, contact us at info@stnicholaspark.org

Dozens of families converged on the 135th Street Plaza last Saturday for fun and games, an egg hunt and a visit from the Easter Bunny! Below are some photos.

Special thanks to our event producer Kim DeBerry!

Additional thanks to our volunteers who came out and supported her:

Exciting news that one of our members has come through to produce this year’s Annual Easter Festival. This year will feature music, arts and crafts, an Easter egg hunt, and a visit from the Easter Bunny! The activities take place at the St. Nicholas Park Plaza at 135th Street and St. Nicholas Ave. This event is fun for all ages!

We do need volunteers for face painting, helping with the egg hunt, and a few more for the arts and crafts tables. If interested please email Kim Deberry at kim.deberry@gmail.com

Hope to see you there!

Dear Friends!

We have great news to share, New York City Parks Department, New York City Partnership for Parks and the Friends of St. Nicholas Park will be holding a community park planning meeting on Tuesday, March 12th from 7pm-9pm at St. Marks United Methodist Church at 49 – 55 Edgecombe Ave. (West 137th Street & St. Nicholas Ave.).

This meeting’s purpose is to plan events for St. Nicholas park in 2013. We need some great ideas and volunteers to help us make St. Nicholas Park better than ever!

Please RSVP by emailing Seth Jones at Seth.Jones@parks.nyc.gov

Thank you and let us know if you have any questions in the comments.

Friends of St. Nicholas Park

This May marks a very exciting time for New York City. After two delays in 2012, the city will launch a massive bike share program through its corporate sponsor Citibank. Many cities have already implemented successful bike share programs. It stands to be the largest bike share in the nation with more stations and more members than any other city. Exciting! A whole new mode of mass transit at our disposal!

CitiBike has announced where its first phase of bike stations will be and to no surprise most are downtown and midtown. And there are dozens within a few blocks of each other (see image below). Obviously, CitiBike and Alta (who will be running the Bike Share program) wants to pilot the program before expanding further uptown and that includes the Upper East and Upper West Sides.

On their website, CitiBike talks about planning for the other areas:

“Detailed site selection and planning work continues for Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Prospect Heights and Crown Heights (Brooklyn community districts 6, 8 and 9), the Upper West and East Sides (Manhattan districts 8 and 7) and Sunnyside (Queens district 2).”

So after the above areas get their bike stations just about everyone in Manhattan and Brooklyn will have stations. A glaring omission - Uptown (Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood).

Uptown is THE most logical area for CitiBike share programs. Too many residents rely on expensive car services to get to out of the way places when running quick errands. Many uptowners take short subways rides to the Upper West Side where more stores and services are located.

We should and will accept this program with open arms. Here are some of our station suggestions (and their reasoning) below. These are only a few station / area ideas.

1. Columbia University: Many of the Columbia University community would benefit from commuting down to midtown from the main campus to go out, research at New York Public Library, etc. Also, this station could be used by medical students commuting by bike to Columbia University School of Medicine in Washington Heights.

2. City College/Philip Randolph High School/West 145th Station (at St. Nicholas Ave): Especially since this is mostly a commuter school, it would be great for a CityBike station to be located here at one of the City’s most busiest campuses. Also, this station can be used for students at Philip Randolph High School and tourists visiting various sites uptown like Hamilton Grange, Morris-Jumel Mansion, Harlem Stage or Aaron Davis Hall.

3. Boricua College / Audubon Terrace Area: Another natural setting for students and faculty to use. Also, this area teems with History, including Trinity Cemetery, etc.

4. Columbia University School of Medicine (In Washington Heights): Columbia U and its School of Medicine is almost (we’re getting close) connected via the St. Nicholas Ave bike lane and is a littel less than 3 miles away. Many students need to commute back and forth between the two campuses (as well as professors). Having a bike station located here would be important to its staff too, many of whom come from Harlem.

5. East Harlem / Silverman School of Social Work: Another large student center, where students can commute to other Hunter Campuses in midtown or run errands, etc.

6. Harlem Hospital / Schomberg Center: Many medical interns, staff, and even patients could benefit from having a CitiBike Station right here at Harlem Hospital. Located in Central Harlem and near a subway, bike users can also use bikes when visiting the Schomberg Center down the street.

7. Lenox and 125th Street: So many venues for entertainment and shopping now makes this a destination.

These are only a few ideal places for CitiBike stations uptown. There are dozens more. We really hope that CitiBike is already starting the Uptown planning for this important new transit infrastructure in New York. And if not, hopefully the list above can be a start.

Want to help? Contact both the Department of Transportation and CitiBike and implore them to consider Uptown Manhattan for stations in a Phase 2 rollout.

DOT Bike Share Program:

http://a841-tfpweb.nyc.gov/bikeshare/contact/

CitiBike:

http://www.citibikenyc.com/contact

Players at the St. Nicholas Chess and Backgammon Club are known by their nicknames; Black, at left, and Clayton in a recent match.

An article today featured the winter home of the St. Nicholas Chess and Backgammon Club. Usually these players are found in St. Nicholas Park, near West 141st Street playing during warmer months. Check out the article below:

ALL SEASON PLAY FOR A CHESS CREW IN HARLEM

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/nyregion/chess-in-a-harlem-park-moves-indoors-for-winter.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Rand Scholet takes audiences through a brief introduction of Alexander Hamilton and the importance of the Hamilton Grange in Harlem’s St. Nicholas Park

Above is video of the AHA’s Birthday Celebration for 2013.

The AHA Society has announced the events for this week January 11th-12th.

On January 12th, at the Hamilton Grange, Rand Scholet, President and Founder of The AHA Society, has been invited to speak at the Grange. Come listen to his presentation “Alexander Hamilton: Washington’s Indispensable Founder.”

This begins at 11am on Saturday, Jan 12th at the Hamilton Grange.

Join the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York City Department of Sanitation, and GreeNYC to recycle your Christmas trees on Saturday and Sunday, January 12 and 13, 2013 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Bring your Christmas tree to be recycled into wood chips that will nourish plantings across the city or take home a bag of mulch at some of the locations to use in your backyard or to make a winter bed for a street tree on your block.

Remember to remove all lights and ornaments before bringing the tree to the MulchFest site! Also, you’re encouraged to bring bags to take advantage of the free mulch provided at the locations listed in the link below.

Here’s a list of some of the Harlem park drop-off points:

Riverside Park at West 116th Street & Riverside Drive, West 138th Street & Riverside and West 145th Street & Riverside

William B Washington Garden at 321-325 West 126th Street, between St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

Morningside Park at West 123rd Street & Morningside Avenue

Marcus Garvey Park at West 122nd Street & Madison Avenue

Jackie Robinson Park at West 145th Street & Edgecombe Avenue

For more info and a list of other parks participating in the neighborhood and around the five boroughs: http://www.nycgovparks.org/highlights/festivals/mulchfest