Beginnings

In the late 1960s, when street crime in NYC was 24/7, beleaguered residents on West 75th Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive joined in the block association movement to make our neighborhood safer because the city seemed powerless to do the job. The West 75th Street Block Association was established after a meeting held in the home of Joan Franklin, a 300-block homeowner.

• Our first project: the purchase and installation of the powerful sodium street lamps that still light our way home at night. We raised the money from tenants by going door-to-door (there were no co-ops here then), and by holding bake sales in front of D'Agostino's on Broadway (Fairway today).
• We also purchased a lot of trees and we planted the tree beds. We built iron pipe guards for them designed by Ed Moras, an architect who lived at #250. Residents adopted the tree bed gardens, caring for the flowering plants that brightened the street.
• In the 1970s, we joined forces with the West 76th Street group to shut down the crime-ridden West Side Towers. It's now the Astor Apartments. Then it was the largest and worst of the city's single room occupancy hotels.
  
  The Towers managers were dubbed "Fagins in a chamber of horrors" by Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz, "spreading sickness, death and despair" among community residents. In a years-long campaign, our neighboring block associations fought alongside state and city government officials to end the horrors and relocate those tenants who were also victims of the criminal inhabitants.
  
  Read more about this saga in NY Times coverage: "State Moves to Clean Up Single-Room Chamber of Horrors on West Side" (1972); "76th St Hotel Managers Termed 'Fagins' by State" (1974); "The Conversion of an Incredible 'Chamber of Horrors'" (1977).

Getting to know one another

From working together, we knew everyone on our street. Well-attended monthly meetings at Collegiate Church boasted boldface-name speakers addressing serious issues. Then, as neighborhood safety increased, we lightened up.

• We showed B movies that were never seen in the revival houses (or on television). Charlie Chan was a big favorite.
• We had game nights, when we played Scrabble, Monopoly, bridge, gin rummy, more.
• On one particularly antic evening, some of us read radio scripts aloud while others created sound effects or background music on the piano. The rest just giggled. We not only felt safer; we had become friends.

• We hosted potluck suppers and brunches on the street, the tables laden with delectable dishes. Soft drinks were chilled in trash cans filled with ice from The Bike Stop, our convivial gay bar near Broadway.
• In the summer, weekly volley ball drew crowds to the 300 block, which was closed to traffic for games.
• Annual holiday parties were held at #322, which was then a halfway house for young people in psychiatric care. They offered us a great kitchen, a piano, and plenty of room for a crowd.
  
  Malvin M. Franklin (1889 - 1981)
  A colorful neighbor

In the early 1970s, Mal Franklin, a West 75th Street songwriter and musician. enthralled us into the small hours at our holiday parties. After parking his cigar on the grand piano, he thumped out old honky-tonk tunes that were new to us, and sang special material songs he'd written for Floradora girl Evelyn Nesbit Thaw—the Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (www.prairieghosts.com/thaw.html) and George Burns (including the often performed "The Baby Song")

.In 1914, Mal had been one of 90 charter members of ASCAP, and in 1970 he was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. Mal's first piano rolls were released in September 1913 and his last around 1918. Listen to Mal playing his tune "Elephant Rag" on You Tube .

In his 80s, Mal could still be heard playing rags at Bill's Gay Nineties, a Prohibition-era speakeasy opened by former jockey Bill Hardy in a five-story townhouse at 57 East 54th Street. (In November 2011, the Gay Nineties filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.)

For a biography of Mal Franklin: ragpiano.com/comps/franklin

A new start

Gentrification changed the raffish character of the West Side. Buildings went co-op; friends moved off the block; the association in its first incarnation faded away.

Until 1998, when homeowner Ben Gums, determined to restore the neighborliness on West 75th that he'd only heard about, gave a jump start to the current block association. When Ben moved to North Dakota, Joan Franklin, a homeowner on West 75th Street for more than four decades, took over. Her sudden death in August 2007 saddened us all. (W75BA obituary)

Joan had hosted the formative meeting of the association in the late 1960s, and during her presidency her landmarked home became a focal point for many of our social events.

With unflagging energy and droll good humor, Joan made the rounds of community meetings: the 20th Precinct Community Council, Landmark West!, Federation of West Side Block Associations among them, voicing the concerns of our street and reporting back to us on the issues. She reinstated the block association newsletter that keeps us up to date on what's happening in the neighborhood and gives public recognition to the individual efforts of our neighbors.

At a celebration of Joan Franklin's life in November 2007, Dee Rieber stepped up to take on the job of leading the association, which for decades has given vitality to our West 75th Street community. W75BA continues to grow with Dee and a dedicated leadership team at the helm.

We have —

• launched the website
• achieved the installation of our first curb extension
• produced a promotional flyer
• maintained a schedule of meetings and events
• increased our paid membership
• installed two new treeguards (in partnership with Curb Allure)
• published the Neighbor-to-Neighbor Business Directory
• achieved installation of NO HONK signs from the city at WEA and W75 intersection

Top