Organization Details:

The East Village Community Coalition (EVCC) works to recognize, sustain, and support the built and cultural character of the East Village. This character includes a diverse population, low-rise, human scale blocks and affordable buildings with historic and architectural significance; a multitude of community gardens; indigenous stores and businesses; and the neighborhood's history and ongoing tradition as a haven for those seeking freedom to express artistic, creative and social concerns.

Description and/or History:
Get Local! Neighborhood Campaign

Our neighborhood is changing at an alarming rate. More and more families who have lived here for generations are being forced out. Our local artists and shops are unable to afford to stay, and in their absence, chain stores are taking over. Every year we see more treasured historic buildings torn down to build luxury condos and the unique built character and fabric of this neighborhood goes down with them.

The East Village Community Coalition was moved to action by these changes, worried that if we failed to respond quickly and decisively, the characters, shops, and local haunts that make our neighborhood what it is would be lost. In response, the EVCC developed a Get Local! campaign. More than a catchy slogan, our goal of getting local is a state of mind we want all East Villagers to embrace. The EVCC is committed to building community awareness and pride through the programs it operates underneath the Get Local! umbrella.

Pedal Power: Kids Art Bike Ride for the Lower East Side

The East Village Community Coalition recognizes that the only way to ensure the neighborhood's future is to reach the younger generations. In 2007 the EVCC launched Pedal Power: Kids Art Bike Ride for the Lower East Side as a first step in engaging and educating the young people living in the East Village and Lower East Side neighborhoods.

The art bike parade was an enormous success. Nearly two hundred children participated and more than one thousand spectators witnessed the parade as kids cycled, scooted and strolled through the East Village. Local children were taught the importance of alternative transportation and the positive impact it has on the environment of their community. Participants heard from many local elected officials about the importance of community and preserving the neighborhood we love. Speakers entertained the crowd with stories of how our beloved community gardens were created, and what our neighborhood used to look like.

The EVCC brought many experienced co-sponsors into the planning and execution of such a large and important community event. Transportation Alternatives, Bike New York and Recycle a Bicycle, all non profits focused on bike safety and the rights of bicyclists, donated bikes, and helmets, and coordinated bike safety workshops and the ride volunteers. Neighborhood organizations like Good Old Lower East Side, the Lower East Side Girls Club and the Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association brought their members to our art bike workshops as well as the parade, and spread the word through the community. The New York City Housing Authority hosted art bike workshops in their community centers and brought many of their local kids to the parade, and the Department of Transportation showed up on parade day with their free helmet program so that all riders were safe.

The parade garnered enormous community support. One parent wrote “Thank you so much for organizing the event!!! I know I speak for the folks who were beaming around me as well.” she went on to identify herself as “a neighborhood homesteader deeply committed to the East Village community.” We received scores of emails, phone calls and letters similar to this one, thanking us for creating an event that brought neighbors together, and reminded kids of all ages how special this place is.

In 2008 we are planning an even bigger, better bike parade. Building off of our success last year, we intend to double the number of art bike workshops held before the parade. The EVCC would also like to see more community voices participate in the planning process, and will work to ensure that local kids of all ages can influence the second annual parade. We also intend to build off of successful partnerships last year with the New York City Housing Authority and the Department of Transportation to elicit sponsorship and fiscal support from city agencies.

In years to come the EVCC and other co-sponsoring organizations hope to see this parade grow into a full day festival, celebrating biking, youth, and the incredible neighborhood we live in.

Local Shopping Initiative

In 2006 the East Village Community Coalition launched our guide to local independent shopping in the East Village. The guide was created to challenge our neighbors to put their money where their home is by supporting local retailers.

The second edition of the guide was released in November 2007 with an increased publication and an updated listing of local shops compiled by a team of dedicated Get Local! volunteers in the summer of 2007. The guide is an example of the great community effort that goes in to all of our projects. Our volunteers went door-to-door canvassing all the shops between Avenue D and Second Avenue, Houston and 14th Street to ensure that we had the most up to date and accurate information about the independently owned shops in the East Village.

The look of the guide is as unique and artistic as the neighborhood that inspired it. Workshop, NYC, an up and coming graphic design group, donated the layout and design of the guide. The EVCC worked with many printing companies to find a way to create the guide with the least environmental impact. Each guide is printed on FSC certified paper with soy ink.

Since the launch of the second edition, guides have been flying off the shelves of the stores, cafes and neighborhood haunts where they were placed. Shoppers and shop owners alike are grateful for such an easy to use guide to independent shopping in the East Village. This success has even caught the eye of local media. In January 2008 The Villager did a cover story on the Get Local! campaign, and our efforts were the focus of several neighborhood based blogs in early 2008.

The EVCC hopes to make 2008 an even bigger year for the local shopping initiative. We are partnering with the Pratt Center for Community Development to create a neighborhood study of local businesses, and of zoning laws that might help us more effectively protect and preserve the independent spirit of East Village retailers. Additionally, we aim to increase the number of guides we publish in 2008 and to lower the overall cost of the initiative through ad sales in the guide. Most importantly though, we aim to involve even more community voices in the creation of the guide, utilizing the expertise and experience of local shop keepers in our outreach and organizing efforts, and engaging our neighbors in discussions of why it is so critical for our community to Get Local!

Conclusion

In order to continue to support and sustain the community we love, we need your help. The East Village is fortunate to have such committed and invested politicians representing it. Your historic support of our organization has been an invaluable asset in our growth and success. We now need to ask for a deeper commitment from your office to ensure that we can continue or work preserving and protecting this neighborhood. Attached please find a copy of the budgets for both of our Get Local! campaign programs to give you a sense of the resources necessary to continue our work. Your support is vital to our success and to ensuring that this neighborhood remains a historic and cultural treasure trove for generations to come.

Established in 2004 to save Old PS64 an historic school building and community cultural institution. The EVCC successfully fought to get the building landmarked and continues to work to return the building to community control.
Since 2004, the EVCC diversified its programming. The organization is engaged in many projects encouraging East Village residents to Get Local! and stay that way. Our Get Local! campaign is moving in to its third year, promoting shopping and thinking locally in the East Village. Our campaign to build a sustainable neighborhood kicked off in October 2007 with the First Annual Kids Art Bike Ride for the Lower East Side. We are continuing the work we started in 2007 to identify and landmark historic buildings and districts in the East Village.
In October, 2007 the EVCC launched a green campaign highlighting the need for City support of alternative forms of transportation with Pedal Power: Kids Art Bike Ride for the Lower East Side, a children's bike parade. Additionally the EVCC is spearheading a campaign to create additional historic districts in the East Village to preserve and protect our neighborhood's precious streetscapes and historic churches like St. Brigid's. The EVCC also works closely with the LES Gauchos, a youth baseball team in the neighborhood helping them to raise funds and continue to offer kids the opportunity to play in our neighborhood.

The East Village Community Coalition has a proven history of working in coalition with other community organizations. In response to local a rezoning plan from the Department of City Planning, the EVCC brought together a coalition of neighborhood stake holders including representatives from Good Old Lower East Side, The Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association, Cooper Square Committee and the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association among others. This coalition created a ten-point plan in response to the DCP zoning proposal and continues to be an important force in asserting community voice.

Additionally the EVCC belongs to several other coalitions of neighborhood organizations and professional experts, such as the Pratt Center for Community Development, focusing on issues of historic preservation, and community needs.

Contact person: Kurt Cavanaugh, Program Director, (212) 979-2344, (email)

Address:

227 E 3rd St New York, NY 10009 (See a map)

Directions:

e 3rd btw. Avenue B and C   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: F at 2nd Ave,   Walk distance (in minutes): 7