One year ago, on Nov. 1, 2006, the BID's Clean Team swept into action. Armed with brooms, buckets, litter bags, shovels, paint brushes and power washers and easily identified by blue uniforms with the distinctive Flatiron Partnership logo, the team has become one of the most visible manifestations of the BID's efforts during its first year of existence.

To date, the members of the team have accomplished the following:

• Filled more than 155,000 trash bags.
• Collected 3.8 million pounds of garbage.
• Handled an average of 400 trash bags a day during winter and 550 bags daily during summer.
• Painted more than 600 fixtures, including mailboxes, traffic lights, lampposts and fire hydrants.
• Serviced nearly 150 New York City trash receptacles throughout the district, in addition to 116 custom BID receptacles.
• Removed graffiti from fixtures, grates, and external walls.

They are on the job seven days a week, in fair weather and foul, a Clean Team that works hard to keep the Flatiron district looking good.

When one thinks of New York City and birds, perhaps the only feathered creatures that come to mind are pigeons and loons. In fact, there are more than 350 species of birds in town, from mute swans to screech owls, and most of them live in the City's 12,000 acres of wetlands, forests and grasslands.

When it comes to saving and protecting them, that's the mission of NYC Audubon, which is headquartered in the heart of the Flatiron district, at 71 West 23rd Street.

NYC Audubon describes itself as "a grassroots community that works for the protection of wild birds and habitat in the five boroughs, improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers." It boasts an active group of volunteers and is always looking for new ones. Currently, it is seeking people to assist with office coverage, complete special research projects related to conservation issues and to provide support for special events.

Volunteer opportunities range from rescuing injured birds as part of Project Safe Flight to writing content for the organization's newsletter, The Urban Audubon, and its children's publication, Look Around New York City. Volunteers who are bi-lingual in English and Spanish are needed to translate NYC Audubon material and to co-lead bird tours.

Those interested should call 212-691-7483, or e-mail volunteer@nycaudubon.org.

Used cooking oil from New York City restaurants is moving out of the frying pan and into the fuel can.

Through the auspices of RWA Resource Recovery, a non-profit agency that started work last December, waste cooking oil is finding new life as biodiesel fuel, which is fuel made from vegetable and animal resources. It can be used in any diesel engine without modification and is said to burn 78 percent cleaner than petroleum diesel.

RWA Resource Recovery picks up the waste cooking oil from food service businesses in the City, on demand and at no cost to them. Participating clients enjoy fully licensed and insured pickup services that guarantee compliance with the City's regulations for disposing of waste cooking oil.

RWA Resource Recovery is a service of The Doe Fund's Ready, Willing & Able Community Improvement Project supplemental sanitation service. Through October, the program has serviced 340 food establishments and collected 140,000 gallons of waste oil in calendar 2007.

For additional information, restaurants seeking the service can call 212-283-0986 or visit RWA's website.

Before joining the Flatiron Partnership's Public Safety Team in June 2007, Sam Ortiz, a 31-year-old Brooklyn native, had worked at various security jobs since the beginning of 1996, work that has taken him throughout the five boroughs as well as Long Island, Westchester and parts of Connecticut. Sam had also served as a volunteer Auxiliary Policeman from the time he reached the minimum age of 17 until last year, mostly with the 83rd Precinct in Brooklyn's Bushwick section. His work has resulted in a thick stack of commendations and awards, many for his nights as an Auxiliary, in addition to Citations of Public Safety from the New York State Assembly and the New York City Council. He takes immense pride in them and keeps them neatly assembled in a binder, each protected by an acetate sleeve and each a testimony to the conscientious way he approaches his job.

"I like client contact," he says, "and I like having an effect on the neighborhood. I get to know the people who work here: superintendents, janitors, property managers, store managers, even the people in the subway token booths. I know all the street vendors. They are my eyes and ears. They help me know what's going on. I make friends with the traffic agents and the police. We're a community and we all work together."

After attending the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where he studied painting and the visual arts, Sam went to Kingsborough Community College's School of Continuing Education for courses in computers and word processors. His artwork these days is devoted to making drawings for children and donating them to one of his favorite charities: the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island.

Sam, who continues to live in Brooklyn, loves kids and he and his wife, Sabrina, have two daughters, Samantha, 3, and Samara, 1. A third daughter is expected this month and the Ortizes already have a name picked out for her. Not surprisingly, it too begins with the letter S: Sarah Marie.

The 69th Regiment Armory - that massive red-brick fortress on Lexington Avenue between East 25th and East 26th Streets - is steeped in history that is much more than military.

Since its completion in 1906, the Armory has been as much of a home to the visual arts as it has to one of the most storied fighting units in U.S. history. It has also been the home court of the New York Knicks basketball team in the late 1940s on nights when Madison Square Garden was unavailable; a tennis center; a fashion runway; and a homeless shelter. It has also been the site of such disparate events as Playboy magazine's 50th birthday party and, in the days immediately following 9/11, a place where friends and relatives of the missing gathered to post pictures of their loved ones and lend support to one another.

Designed by the architectural firm of Hunt & Hunt in 1904, the structure consists of the two standard elements of armory design, an administration building and a vast drill shed, but it was the first armory in New York not to look medieval. It has no turrets or towers or crenellated parapets - all elements of conventional armories - but relies instead on classically inspired design. In 1996, it became a National Historic Landmark. New sheathing atop the drill shed, currently being refinished, and a one-story addition to the administration building in 1929 are the only major changes to its original appearance.

The Armory is the home of the 69th Regiment, one of the Army's most romanticized units. Formed in 1851 by Irish immigrants, it was nicknamed "the Fighting 69th" during the Civil War by a distinguished adversary: Robert E. Lee. It has served with gallantry ever since, in battles from Bull Run to Baghdad, and its story has been a staple of pop culture. The 1940 movie "The Fighting 69th" recounts the exploits of the regiment during World War I, portraying such legendary figures as Father Francis J. Duffy, the regimental chaplain, whose statue stands today in Times Square; Major William "Wild Bill" Donovan, who became the first director of the OSS; and the poet Joyce Kilmer, slain by a sniper in France. Today, the soldiers who train at the Armory are members of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, New York Army National Guard.

Stark reminders of the Armory's military history can be seen in two display cases in the vestibule containing battlefield artifacts. Among them: Civil War ammunition from "Yankees" and "Confederates"; a World War I Prussian helmet; a Japanese Army helmet from World War II; and night-vision binoculars and a black face mask used by insurgents in Iraq.

The Armory achieved worldwide fame in 1913 when it became the site of the International Exhibition of Modern Art, the first major display of contemporary art in this country and one of the most influential events in the history of American art. Some 1,300 pieces were exhibited, giving many Americans their first look at artists such as Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.

It has since become the site of numerous art fairs, antiques shows and a variety of fund-raising luncheons and dinners. Some of the events on tap in the next few weeks are boxing matches on Nov. 1 to raise money for the Police Athletic League, a Council of Fashion Designers of America charity sample sale on Nov. 17-18, and an Artrider holiday crafts fair the weekend of Dec. 1-2.

More than 500 people have taken the BID's free Sunday morning Discover Flatiron walking tours since they were launched on April 29.

Attendees have been treated by the BID's trio of tour guides to the history and behind-the-scenes stories of some of the district's most notable architectural attractions (the Flatiron Building, the New York State Appellate Courthouse, the Met Life Tower); the human dramas that have taken place there (the murder of Stanford White and his notorious affair with "the girl on the red velvet swing"); and the memorable factoid that can bring an area to life (the origin, for example, of the phrase "23 skidoo").

The tours are conducted at 11 a.m. each Sunday by a rotating team of guides. They are Miriam Berman, author of Madison Square: The Park and Its Celebrated Landmarks; Frederick Cookinham, a veteran guide who had led tours for the New-York Historical Society and other institutions; and Mike Kaback, a native New Yorker who has shown people the City for years.

As the Walking Tour program ends its first six months, it has amassed some admirable statistics:

• It has attracted visitors from 86 cities from the U.S. and Canada (not including New York). It has also drawn more than its fair share of New Yorkers, some who live within the Flatiron district itself and who want to learn more about the area.


• To date, visitors have come from 27 states and five Canadian provinces.


• In addition to the U.S. and Canada, 16 other countries have been represented: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Peru, Scotland, South Korea and Sweden.

Tour Meeting Time:
Every Sunday at 11:00AM.

Tour Meeting Place:
The southwest corner of Madison Square Park, at 23rd Street and Broadway, in front of the statue of William Seward.

Recent News Coverage

• Methadone Clients Will Be Told to Dose and Dash
• Methadone Clinics to Keep Closer Watch on Patients
• Drug Clinics to Dismiss Clients Who Get Busted
• Flatiron BID Launches Tree Planting Program
• BID Holds First Annual Meeting
• BID Launches Neighborhood Safety Program
• Annual Meeting Scheduled
• BID Giving Free Walking Tours Through Flatiron District
• BID to Hold Concert to Benefit Homeless
• Local Businesses Head to BID Forums
• BID Unveils New Litter Receptacles
• Clean Team Takes on Snow Removal
• BID Welcomes Citibank to Neighborhood
• BID Makes a Clean Sweep
• Officer Who Cleaned Up Kenmore Named BID's Operations Director
• Long Live the BID
• Jennifer Brown Appointed Executive Director of Flatiron BID
• Manhattan's First New BID in Over Four Years Launched
• New Improvement District Around Madison Square Park
• BID Aims to Clean Up Community
• Flatiron BID Uses Hi-Tech to Track Problem Areas
• Flatiron BID Plans Neighborhood Makeover
• New BID Is Milestone in Flatiron District Revitalization

Press Releases

• BID Conducts First Annual Meeting
• Flatiron BID Launches Public Safety Program
• Discover Flatiron: Free Walking Tours
• Hero Officer Returns to His Beat
• BID Launches Sanitation Program
• Jennifer Brown Appointed Executive Director
• Flatiron Partnership BID Launched

Newsletters

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