SoHo Alliance

If you live anywhere in lower Manhattan, no doubt you have heard about the Envision SoHo/NoHo planning process, which aims “to examine key land use and zoning issues in the two neighborhoods and seek community input to develop strategies to both honor SoHo/NoHo’s history and ensure the continued vitality of the neighborhoods.” SoHo is historically an artists’ neighborhood, so one would assume “community input” includes input from artists, but this is not the case. There are no artists in the Process Advisory Group that is to "help develop recommendations to inform the future of SoHo and NoHo." This must change if the planning process is to be legitimate.

Sean Sweeney, Director of the SoHo Alliance, recently shared his fabulous collection of postcards from SoHo restaurants with me (he is an avid postcard collector). Some of the restaurants are long gone, some recently gone, some still hanging on. I thought this would be a great way to close out the year. Tune in next month for a deeper dive into some of our favorite eateries. Cheers, bon appétit, and see you in 2019!

If you haven’t heard yet, SoHo has a new “neighborhood improvement” group, an all-volunteer-run nonprofit called CleanUpSoHo dedicated to keeping SoHo streets clean. I, for one, have seen a huge improvement lately.