A block association kick-off which will go down in history...

The Mulberry Street Block Association, the nascent neighborhood and business improvement association of Manhattan's Little Italy, kicked-off Friday early evening with a meeting which will go down in history. 

The first nod to history was the heat: it was one of the hottest late Junes ever, part of an historic heat-dome driven heat wave descending over the MidWest and now Northeast.  Manhattan was a sultry 92F, which, while it's been forecast for a week, the intense reality of which somehow took everyone by surprise.  Il Cortile, the destination Mulberry Street restaurant's floral bouquets were drinking almost as much cool water as the guests (who, truth be told, were imbibing a bit more creatively). 

A who's who of Little Italy, Chinatown, and lower Manhattan community leaders and power brokers were represented at the group's inaugural gathering. Just 6 months since its inception and announcement by founder Jon Giacobbe, Little Italy's rising nextgen community leadership, business and political know-how impresario, the Mulberry Street Block Association (MSBA) has emerged as the brain-trust of modern, forward thinking leadership and vision for the neighborhood, representing best practices in governance, policy, diversity, inclusion, and collaborative community engagement of more stakeholders and parts of the community than have been seen together in the neighborhood before. 

Attendees included:

Robbie Block, representing Industrial areas foundation

Community Police Relations Foundation representatives sent by Al Eskanazy, Founding Chairman, CEO

Many Little Italy merchants /business owners of gift stores, restaurants and Red sauce studios leadership group.

Dr. Thomas K. Chan, Co-Chair of the Greater Chinatown Civic Coalition, the BID organization.

Ed & Amy Cuccia, representing Chinatown BID and City Councilman Chris Martys advisory board.

Landlords representing ownership of buildings on Mulberry Street, Chinatown, and NOLITA.

Robbie Block, Manhattan community organizer of the Industrial Areas Foundation, spoke of community strategies and visions for the two neighborhoods, inspiring debate on agenda setting and process. Several vision issues and projects were contemplated, including working together in partnership.

One of the most impassioned presentations of the evening was from Dr Thomas Chan, who provided a thoughtful analysis of why and how the Congestion Pricing Plan failed on a pragmatic, policy, and political level, and whats needed to fix it.  Elizabeth Chan, Jon Giacobbe and Dr. Chan played major roles in the recent policy decision on the subject by Governor Hochul. 

Another historic first: a significant part of the crowd was from adjacent Chinatown and reflected the reality of intermingling of the two leading ethnic communities: Chinese Americans in Little Italy, and Italian Americans in Chinatown, not infrequently in mixed families.  

It was emphatically observed that Little Italy, Chinatown, and Nolita are more than neighbors, with increasingly mingled communities, economies, and prospects.  Their neighborhood economies, it was observed, are driven by restaurants and tourism, and whats good for the goose is also good for the peking duck.  

On that note, perhaps the most pioneering vision of the evening was presented by MSBA partner Adam Rosenberg, founder of a new popup venture launching to serve its first customer: Little Italy.  It was born out of a conversation just three months ago, in which Giacobbe shared his most vexing challenge: how to preserve the cultures of Little Italy, Chinatown -- any historic destination neighborhood -- in a retail vacancy drought.  Rosenberg conceived and Giacobbe first recognized the import of what seemed at the time a simple acorn of an idea, but, via partnership with the MSBA rapidly sprouted and looks increasingly like something important and new.  Partnering with MSBA in Little Italy, the popup startup will provide neighborhoods with strategy, organization, and management of popups and related cultural programming to support local culture, economy, and identity.  Those in the know about retail and real estate gave a standing ovation -- and their cards.  In just three months, this vision via MSBAs partnership has inspired hope and even hushed excitement among urban policy leaders, political candidates, community boards, BIDs, landlords, and retailers in a field in which impending doom has followed gloom for the past several years. 

Closing amid general acclaim and congratulations, Giacobbe exhorted the crowd to share news of and from the group with their friends, ask questions, learn more, share what’s on your mind, get involved.

Look forward to seeing you there…