Here’s What’s Happening This Week In & Around Chelsea

CB4’s Chelsea Land Use Committee Meets / NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher’s Free Tax Filing Service, March 18 & 27 / 13th Precinct Community Council Meets / West Side Community Fund Grant Applications: New Deadline is March 22  / Manhattan Community Board 4’s Informational Forum on Casinos & Gambling / The 10th Precinct Sector C Build the Block Meeting / A View From Today: Contemporary Landscapes by Denise Adler, Kathleen Gefell, & Ken Nelson / Bingo Night / 

Manhattan Community Board 4’s Chelsea Land Use Committee: Monday, March 18, 6:30pm Online & In-Person | Agenda Item #1 sees the NYC Dept. of Sanitation updating the Chelsea Land Use (CLU) Committee on construction work at 128 West 17th Street. That address is very familiar to CB4, the City of New York, area electeds, local preservationists, and author/historian Eric K. Washington–whose curiosity and coalition-building were instrumental in the years-long effort to secure landmark status for the building. With that goal achieved in 2023, Washington and others continue to advocate for a repurposing that recognizes its use as a segregated school for African Americans from the Civil War to post-Reconstruction years. Learn more by clicking here, here, here, and here for CCNews’ coverage of the matter. Elsewhere on the CLU’s agenda, the committee will discuss the NYC Dept. of City Planning’s Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan. Also up for discussion: The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission’s proposed amendments of Rules on Roadbed and Sidewalk Cafes. To attend via phone, call 646-518-9805. When prompted for the Webinar ID, enter 420 721 312. To attend in person, go to Pier 57 (25 11th Ave. at W. 15th St.). To attend online, register for the Zoom meeting by clicking here.

NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher’s Free Tax Filing Service: March 18 & 27, 10am-6pm | See the below flyer for details. To register for this by-appointment-only service, click here. 

The 13th Precinct Community Council: Tuesday, March 19, 6pm at the 13th Precinct (230 E. 21st St.) | Held on the third Tuesday of the month—sans July, August, and December—the 13th Precinct Community Council provides a forum where the public can interact with police officers, detectives, and top leadership from the precinct tasked with protecting and serving a southern portion of Midtown Manhattan that includes swaths of easternmost Chelsea. Council President Serge Harnett moderates, fielding questions from attendees, as answered by top 13th Precinct leadership. Got questions? Submit them in writing before the meeting, via email, to Detective Vincent Arlotta (vincent.arlotta@nypd.org). These questions will be answered first. To visit the 13th Precinct online, click here.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: West Side Community Fund Grant Applications Accepted Through Friday, March 22 | The West Side Community Fund (WSCF) is a consortium of companies based on the west side of Manhattan who’ve found a common cause in their committent to financially support worthy initiatives based in Chelsea, Hudson Yards, and Hell’s Kitchen. Since its founding in 2018, WSCF has distributed over $925,000 in grants. Eligible applicants for their bi-annual grant program include neighborhood organizations, block and tenants’ associations, nonprofits, city agencies, schools, health clinics, NYCHA projects, police-community programs, religious institutions, and homeless facilities, as well as individuals who deliver services, such as teachers. WSCF grants prioritize projects serving youth, seniors, unhoused individuals, and disabled residents. The applicant as well as their proposed initiatives must be based in Chelsea, Hudson Yards, or Hell’s Kitchen; the applicant’s total annual budget must be below $15 Million; and grants cannot fund religious or partisan activities, nor programs that promote any form of discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or disability. Applications are due by Friday, March 22 (an extension of the original March 15 deadline), and grant recipients will be announced in mid to late April. For more information—and to apply—visit westsidecommunityfund.org. To access our coverage of a celebration acknowledging 2023’s grantees, click here.

Informational Forum on Casinos & Gaming: Tuesday, March 19, 6:30pm Online via Zoom and In-Person at Fountain House (425 W. 47th St.) | Casinos (yes, as in plural, i.e. more than one!) could be coming to Manhattan if big-monied interests get their way by being given permission to get you in front of a table or slot machine–and get your money. Gambling is a sucker’s game where the house wins in the end and some of your neighbors will end up bankrupt addicts who lose everything by thinking one more dealt card or go at the slot machine is going to make them a winner. Hold on. Is that true? Is that fair? Maybe these would-be casino owners are just well-meaning job creators who want you to eat all the shrimp cocktail you can and take in a show in the main room whose cast of talented hoofers and crooners are Broadway-level talented… or, at the least, cruise ship-level talented. And hey, isn’t that worth bringing casino gambling to Gotham? Find out the nuances and truisms behind the notion of what we’d get in return for taking the casino gaming gamble, at this Informational Forum presented by Manhattan Community Board 4–a vetting entity so invested in making sure the limited available land left in Chelsea & Hell’s Kitchen is put to good use, they actually have these things called the Chelsea Land Use committee and the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen Land Use committee! But that, as they say, is a topic for another time. As for the topic on the (craps?) table for March 19, see the below flyer for further information. Register to attend the Informational Forum by clicking here. To learn more about CB4, click here to visit their website.

Thursday, March 28 5pm: The 10th Precinct Sector C Build the Block Meeting at 5pm at Manhattan Plaza (400 W. 43rd St.) | NCOs, or Neighborhood Coordination Officers, host this quarterly meeting addressing crime and quality of life matters for the 10th Precinct’s Sector C (W. 29th St. to W. 43rd St., 9th Ave. to the Hudson). For more info, see the below screenshot taken from the event’s web listing. To access the 10th Precinct’s nyc.gov page, click here.

A View From Today: Contemporary Landscapes by Denise Adler, Kathleen Gefell, & Ken Nelson / Free / On view through April 18 at Hudson Guild’s Guild Gallery II (119 Ninth Ave.) | Curated by Denise Jones Adler, this show brings together three artists whose approaches to landscape painting are fresh and singular. Viewing Hours: Tues. through Fri., 10am to 5pm; Sat., April 13, 1pm-4pm; and by appointment (call 212-760-9837). For more info on the exhibit, see the below flyer and/or click here to visit its destination on the Hudson Guild website.

—event listings compiled by Scott Stiffler

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