CUI Tosses Bash for Kids

Friendly, not spooky–Some local political rivals and community leaders came together to form a new Halloween trick-or-treat event on Oct. 31. Dubbed the CommunityUnity Initiative (CUI), the group launched their first ever trick-or-treating event at kickoff event along E. 86th Street and other nearby streets in the East 80s. The event evolved over a six month period bringing the community together under one banner thanks to CUI and to Faith Bondy who chaired the event.

The idea for CUI actually began when Howard Teich, long-time community activist and civic leader, and I continued our forever conversation about how to make a difference in the quality of life of the UES. Howard and I go back to the early days of Our Town when its office was on E. 82nd Street off York Ave. and was where locals and beyond came to kvetch, commiserate, or just meet up for local gossip and camaraderie. Complaints abounded–landlords, politicians, methadone clinics, dirty streets, crime, broken traffic lights, plastering notices on lampposts, cleaning up dog poop. You name it. Nothing was overlooked. No one was spared. How to replicate that sense of community today and get things done?

Howard suggested bringing together local residents, electeds, as well as the candidates running for the District 4 City Council seat (which includes the UES) in 2025. Current CD 4 CM Keith Powers is term-limited. Inviting the rival candidates to join CUI was inspired, I thought. It reminded me of Doris Kearns’s “Team of Rivals,” and Lincoln’s selecting three opponents who had previously run against him to serve in his cabinet. It worked. The CD 4 candidates - Faith Bondy, Vanessa Aronson, Ben Wetzler, Rachel Storch, Luke Florczak - all joined, and thanks to Faith Bondy’s chairing CUI’s Halloween committee, co-chaired by Lori Bores (who is not a candidate), CommunityUnity Initiative’s first Annual Halloween Trick-or-Treating Event along 86th Street and in the East 80s, was born. And thanks to our UES electeds for their support–State Senator Liz Krueger, Assembly Members Rebecca Seawright and Alex Bores, City Council Members Keith Powers and Julie Menin.

It was a terrific night. Lori Bores, in flapper costume, and volunteer Emily Hassell handed out the specially printed and designed Halloween bags and buttons. Over 20 merchants signed up to distribute treats–Chick-Fil-A gave CUI 250 cards for free breakfasts, and Shake Shack assisted in accessing the space in the plaza so that we could hand out the bags and buttons and provided hundreds of frozen custard cups to kids in costumes with Luke Florczak and Andrew Fine of the East 86th Street Association handing out the cups to the kids. Vanessa Aronson helped set up and take photos.

At the end of the evening 500 bags and buttons were given out. Howard said that “CommunityUnity Initiative’s Halloween Trick or Treat Community Evening was a great launch event for the UES CommunityUnity Initiative, bringing the community together under one banner. Many people pitched in to carry out the distribution of the specially printed and designed Halloween bags and button, and it was an all volunteer effort of our community. A small stipend was given to our incredible musicians–a great accordionist and his singing partner who gave joyous sound to East 86th Street. It’s something we want to continue on a regular basis, so we are looking for volunteers for bringing music and entertainment on a regular basis to East 86th Street.””

How were you able to do it all in such a short space of time, I asked Faith? She said she was delighted to have chaired the event. “For me, a Halloween event was a no brainer! In my experience Halloween has become an iconic New York City event, especially on the East Side of Manhattan. Block parties have popped up all over. Townhouses and stores are decorated beyond imagination. Myriad local neighborhood associations host events and contests. Not only do children trick-or-treat vertically within their apartment buildings, but they venture from brownstone to brownstone and store to store, picking up treats along the way. It was a perfect way to promote two of the prime goals of the UES CommunityUnity Initiative: (a) fostering and building community and (b) supporting local merchants in the 86th Street Corridor.”

That meant, she explained, “having merchants register and agree to welcome trick-or-treaters, and CUI agreeing to promote those merchants, at no cost, by providing a list of participating merchants to all families when they came to CUI’s central gathering point at the Plaza next to Shake Shack on East 86th Street.”

Summing up, she said, “The event was designed to bring the community and local merchants together in a way that provided families with safe and accessible locations to trick-or-treat, and merchants with potential new customers and everyone came together to make the event a success, bringing joy to our children’s faces, and supporting our local merchants.” Mission accomplished. Same time next year.