The Flatiron Partnership and Common Ground Community invite you to a performance of the New Amsterdam Singers at the Prince George Ballroom on April 19th. The concert begins at 7:00PM and a reception will follow.

The event is free, with a $10 suggested donation to support Common Ground's innovative programs to help solve homelessness.

The Prince George Ballroom is located at 15 East 27th Street between 5th and Madison Avenues.

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership will be the Community Honoree at Housing & Services Inc's (HSI) Road Home Benefit Gala on Thursday, May 3rd, at 6:30PM at the Grand Hyatt Park Avenue. HSI owns and manages the Kenmore Hall residence on 23rd Street.

This annual benefit supports HSI's mission to develop affordable housing for the lowest income groups, to manage affordable housing, to provide development expertise to other nonprofit organizations, and to advocate for public policies that will strengthen and preserve affordable housing.

For more information or to purchase tickets for the event, contact Jessica Ziegler at (212) 252-9377.

Due to the success of the Partnership's Discover Flatiron Holiday Walking Tour series in December, the BID will be sponsoring free weekly walking tours of the Flatiron district beginning in late April.

Tours will take visitors on an historic journey through the neighborhood, viewing some of the most notable buildings in the city, including the New York Life Insurance building, the MetLife tower, the Appellate Courthouse and the famous Flatiron building.

Further information about the tour program will be available on the Partnership website in the coming weeks.

Sebabi Bawa, who has been with the Partnership since the Clean Streets program was launched in November, spent 20 years in the army of the Togolese Republic of West Africa, a long, narrow country just east of Ghana. He was fortunate enough to emerge intact and with a smile on his face.

Early last year, Sebabi, then 47, was granted a visa to the United States and a green card, documents that he considers to be as precious as gold. Sebabi was able to take his family with him and they have now settled in the Bronx.

As part of the Flatiron “Clean Team,” Sebabi works from 7:00AM to 3:00PM and is off on Mondays. He is fluent in French, the official language of his homeland, and is learning English at Bronx Community College during his time off.

It’s tax time again and more than 450 Baruch College students will help prepare your taxes free of charge.

Now in its 16th year, the Baruch tax program has helped thousands of New Yorkers, many of them elderly or immigrants with limited English language skills, complete the filing process painlessly.

Working through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, all of the student volunteers have been trained and certified by the IRS.

Service will be provided on a first-come first-serve basis at Baruch's Library and Technology Building at 151 E. 25th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues. Student volunteers will be on-hand from 10:00AM to 8:00PM from Tuesdays to Thursdays and from 10:00AM to 6:00PM on Fridays through the New York State filing deadline of Tuesday, April 17.

The 2007 season of Mad. Sq. Art, the Madison Square Park Conservancy's public arts program, launched on the first day off spring with Panoramic Echoes, a sound sculpture created by Bill Fontana, an internationally recognized innovator in the field of sound art.

Panoramic Echoes will be projected into the Park from speakers located on rooftops of surrounding historic buildings.

The bells at the top of the Tower, which have been silent for more than five years, are tolling again as part of this sound sculpture.

The sounds of Panoramic Echoes can be experienced throughout the Park from 10:00AM to 6:00PM daily through May 1st.

The Flatiron neighborhood is a popular spot for filming, and now your business can benefit.

Through the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting's "Made in NY" Discount Card program, businesses can offer discounts to the dozens of movie and television crews that film in the district each year.

Participating businesses must agree to offer a flat 10% discount (minimum) to valid cardholders on goods and services. The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting will include your web address, contact information and a blurb about your business on the agency’s website; productions distribute cards to cast and crew for use throughout production time.

The Alexander String Quartet (ASQ) is performing two evenings of the Beethoven String Quartet Cycle at Baruch College on April 23rd and April 27th at 7:00PM.

ASQ's concert at Baruch last spring was selected as a Top Ten Favorite of 2006 by the New York Times classical music critic, Anthony Tommasini, who called it "a special privilege to hear the dynamic Alexander performances in Baruch College’s intimate 176-seat auditorium. Seldom have these anguished, playful, ironic and masterly works seemed so profoundly personal."

The Baruch Performing Arts Center is located at 55 Lexington Avenue. Tickets are $25 and are available at the Baruch box office or online at TicketCentral.

The Children’s Aid Society, headquartered in the Flatiron district, is actively seeking individuals who desire to make a positive impact in the lives of children and families. Whether you’re working, retired, a student, or a parent, they have volunteer opportunities that will fit your schedule.

Information sessions for new volunteers are held several times a week. For more information and a description of opportunities available, visit The Children's Aid Society's Volunteer webpage.

Eretz is the Hebrew word for “land.” It is also the name of a new store that opened in January at 10 East 23rd Street, between Madison Avenue and Broadway, offering women’s shoes, boots and handbags priced at $40 and up.

What helped lure Eretz to the neighborhood were the changing demographics, said manager Joseph Payami. “There are a lot of young people,” he said. “And more money.”

Being directly across from Madison Square Park is also an attraction, Payami added, “especially in the warmer weather, when the Shake Shack is open and there are more tourists in the area.”

The Appellate Division Courthouse, a jewel-box in marble on the corner of 25th Street and Madison Avenue, is open to visitors Monday through Friday from 8:30AM to 5:00PM.

The court hosts over 3,000 appeals and more than 7,000 motions a year, making it one of the busiest appellate courts in the United States. The main work of the Court involves appeals from the Supreme Court, the Surrogate's Court, and the Family Court in New York and Bronx Counties. It is one of the most important courts in New York State and has enormous significance to the legal community.

Built in 1900, the building is best known for its unique blending of art and architecture, a major principle of the Beaux Arts movement. On the outside, there are approximately 30 figures by 16 sculptors, the most sculptors to work on a single building in the United States.

On the inside, 10 famous artists created murals for the main hall and the courtroom. The main hall has an ornate coffered ceiling, a bronze and glass chandelier, Siena marble walls divided by Corinthian pilasters and massive, original, Herter Brothers furniture. The murals depict legal themes. The courtroom has a stained glass dome set into the gilded coffered ceiling. As in the main hall, there are spectacular marble walls, murals, and original furniture.

The exterior of the courthouse was designated a New York City Landmark in 1966, and the interior in 1981. The courthouse is also listed in the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places.

Recent News Coverage

• 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

• Hero Officer Returns to His Beat
• BID Launches Sanitation Program
• Jennifer Brown Appointed Executive Director
• Flatiron Partnership BID Launched

Newsletters

• March 2007
• February 2007
• January 2007
• December 2006

Emails

• "Discover Flatiron" Holiday Calendar
• Tree Lighting Event
• Walking Tours
• Launch Postcard