The Flatiron Partnership is a sponsor of the 13th Precinct's National Night Out, to be held on Tuesday, August 7, from 5:00PM to 8:00PM in the playground at JHS 104, Second Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets.

The event will feature representatives from the NYPD demonstrating the various tools and equipment they use. There will be entertainment, free food, and gifts; an area of the playground will be set aside for children's games and activities.

Now in its 24th year, National Night Out continues to be successful in promoting involvement in crime and drug prevention activities and strengthening police-community relations.

The Corporate Emergency Access System (CEAS), a program of the NYC Office of Emergency Management, is a pre-event credentialing system that can provide essential employees access to restricted areas following a disaster or serious emergency.

After a disaster takes place, it is crucial for businesses to continue work and resume essential operations. By enrolling your company in the CEAS program, employees will be given a secure identification card that the police have been instructed to recognize. From rescuing valuable assets left behind in an emergency to sustaining core IT functions, businesses should have a sound emergency plan in place, and the CEAS program provides that opportunity.

Companies can enroll their employees online by visiting the CEAS website.

When Michel Melendez refers to herself as "the only sister in the band of brothers," she isn't talking about her biological family. She's talking about the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership's Safety Team, where she's one of two supervisors and the only woman in the group.

"We're family," she says, talking about her colleagues. "Out there, we're all relying on one another."

Michel, a 29-year-old native New Yorker who has lived in Manhattan all her life, is a seasoned security professional. Except for her very first job after she finished school, Michel has been "working security." It's taken her from the inside of office complexes in the Times Square and Lincoln Center areas to residential buildings that range from subsidized housing in the Bronx to a Trump highrise on the Upper West Side, where she was second in command.

Patrolling the Flatiron district has its advantages: "It enables me to move around a little more. One advantage is that you do get a lot of contact with a lot of different people. Another," she adds, laughing, "is that I lost some weight."

Michel is also a writer who wants to produce scripts for movies or television. She's currently working on a drama about rock musicians in Greenwich Village in the 1980s.

"That was an awesome time. The clothes . . . the music . . . the fluorescent colors and outrageous hair styles. I was just a kid," she says, and her face lights up. "But I remember it well."

On Monday nights, Taj Lounge provides free salsa lessons. Salsa Night begins with a free open bar from 5:00PM to 6:00PM and free salsa lessons staring at 6:30PM. Live Salsa DJ Henry Knowles hosts the party.

Dinner reservations for Taj Lounge, which is located at 48 West 21st Street, can be made from the Flatiron Dining Directory on the BID website.

Mad. Sq. Reads, the Madison Square Park Conservancy's free series of summer readings by notable authors, concludes for the season on Thursday, August 9, at 6:30PM with a program in praise of dogs.

Author Mark Doty will read from his book Dog Years: A Memoir.

Be sure to bring your dog to the reading; doggy treats will be provided.

If you want to make new friends, become a mentor, acquire new skills, gain professional development opportunities through training and make meaningful contributions to the lives of young girls, the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York would like to hear from you.

Headquartered in the BID district at 43 West 23rd Street, the Council seeks volunteers to help meet its mission of fostering the growth of girls, ages 4 to 17.

Volunteers must meet Girl Scouts of the USA membership standards; be registered as members of the Girl Scouts of the USA through the Council; be current on annual membership dues; and agree to abide by the policies, principles, mission, values and goals of the Girl Scouts of the USA and of the Council.

To volunteer, send an e-mail to webmem@girlscoutsnyc.org with your name, address, telephone number and any comments or questions, or call the Volunteer Department at 212-645-4000, ext. 244.

William Jenkins Worth may be the only person of note buried in the middle of Broadway. The spot is marked by a 51-foot granite obelisk that spears the sky where Fifth Avenue, Broadway and 25th Street intersect. It is north of the Flatiron Building, adjacent to Madison Square Park.

The Worth Monument was dedicated in 1857 - exactly 150 years ago - making it the second-oldest major monument in a New York City park. (The statue of George Washington in Union Square Park was dedicated a year earlier.) Designed by James Goodwin Batterson, the founder of Travelers Insurance Company, it is the final resting place of a military man who distinguished himself during three wars and also served as commandant of the corps at West Point. Major General Worth, a native of Hudson, N.Y., who originally thought he might become a merchant in Albany, served during the War of 1812, the Seminole Wars and the Mexican War.

The monument itself rests on a base surrounded by an ornamental cast-iron fence whose pickets are replicas of Worth's Congressional Sword of Honor, an award predating the Congressional Medal of Honor, which wasn't introduced until the Civil War. In 1941, a black marble service building went up on the north side of the monument to house the main water valves of the Catskill Aqueduct, a function it no longer serves.

When Worth died of cholera in 1849, he was temporarily interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. On Nov. 25, 1857 - a date commemorated as Evacuation Day, the day British troops left New York during the Revolutionary War - a processional that included 6,500 soldiers escorted Worth's remains to the Flatiron district. A relic box was placed in the monument's cornerstone. Its contents include copies of all the city's newspapers, a Colt revolver, an article about George Washington and two copper pennies from 1787 and 1812. Although Worth namesakes include Fort Worth, Tex.; Worth Street in Manhattan, and the former Worth telephone exchange, there is probably no truth to the story that the inclusion of the pennies gave rise to the expression "putting in your two cent's worth."

Learn more about the Worth Monument and the rich history of the Flatiron neighborhood every Sunday on the BID's free Discover Flatiron walking tours.

The Flatiron Partnership is coordinating a district-wide tree-planting initiative through the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation's Street Tree program, which plants trees free-of-charge, on sidewalks in front of homes, apartment buildings and businesses throughout the City.

Any property owner may request a street tree by submitting this form.

For more information, contact the BID office at 212.741.2323 or by email at info@flatironbid.org.

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership is now sponsoring free walking tours of the historic Flatiron district every Sunday.

Join our experienced guides on a 90-minute journey through this vibrant neighborhood, viewing some of the City's most notable landmarks, including the New York Life Insurance building, the MetLife Tower, the Appellate Courthouse and the famous Flatiron Building.

Time:
Every Sunday at 11:00AM.

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

• 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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• February 2007
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• December 2006