Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program – Meeting 9

On Tuesday, April 2, 2024, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its ninth Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was moderated by Barbara Askins. The focus of this week’s workshop continued to include input from the CPRs to highlight their work in the Harlem community. Presentations given by Jessica Elliott, the Vice Chair of Manhattan Community Board 11, Walter Alexander, member of Manhattan Community Board 9, and Dr. Lena Green, Executive Director of HOPE Center in First Corinthian Baptist Church.

After opening remarks by Barbara Askins, Jessica Elliott introduced the region serviced by Manhattan Community Board 11. CB11M encompasses East Harlem, including areas north of 96th Street and east of 5th Avenue, broken up into eleven sections/committees. Section meetings are held monthly, and the Board also convenes Board-wide meetings. Buildings in the area generally consist of residential units stacked upon retail storefronts, and despite ongoing projects, such as the development of a “green street” for water retention and shoring up the riverside area for protection against rising sea levels, the community is generally dissatisfied. Because of this, the entirely volunteer-run Community Board would like to see greater collaboration between the various districts, stakeholders, and the broader community to better address issues faced by the East Harlem area. One step the Board has taken is to field a community feedback survey, which revealed that the majority of complaints involved public safety, land use, and human services. Using these results, the Board has already taken steps to create programs to address major community concerns, such as producing the East Harlem Earth Day Conference with hopes to raise awareness for environmental justice causes and create a “cascade effect” to more broadly improve the quality of life in the region. The 2nd Annual Earth Day event would take place in a few weeks at the Museum of the City of NY and everyone in the room was invited.

The second presentation of the evening was delivered by Walter Alexander, a member of Manhattan Community Board 9. MCB9 encompasses the area north of 110th Street and west of Morningside Park. Of note regarding the population are the facts that 43.9% are educated, 11.5% are over 65 years of age, 3.8% are unemployed, and 20.2% are impoverished. Similarly to CB11M, MCB9 consists of committee sections, which also include three task forces, and monthly meetings held by all the sections. The three neighborhood districts are Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, and Morningside Heights, and each district hosts a variety of community events. Currently, one project the Community Board is attempting to address is the renovation of the RKO Hamilton Heights Theater, which has fallen into disrepair and remained derelict for some time. Walter discussed his personal connection to the theater, in addition to stating that consultation with engineering students from the City College and Columbia University has begun. Walter also made a point to discuss the issues senior citizens face concerning technology accessibility, both in terms of lacking availability of free wi-fi and tech products, along with gaining an ease of use. In addition, the health center at 125th Street and Amsterdam has been slated for demolition without the expressed consent of the people living in the area. The relocation of services to a nearby area would be very unfortunate, but a reasonable consolation.

For the final CPR presentation of the evening, Dr. Lena Green, Executive Director of The HOPE Center Harlem, introduced her organization and its goals. The HOPE Center is a first-of-its-kind mental health center operating within a church – First Corinthian Baptist Church. It offers a breadth of programs that assist the local community, including church-based counseling, an in-house clinician, and initiatives to address stigma surrounding mental health and personal betterment. The Center operates on a cyclical model of engagement, involving surveys, assessments, and community feedback. To-date the Center’s impact includes a successful suicide prevention program for Latino students sponsored by NIKE and “Snapshot,” a photography program for storytelling in partnership with JHP. Their current challenges include further addressing stigma, housing insecurity, undocumented population members, business impact, substance abuse, and access to funding. Ideally, The HOPE Center would like to see more tech integration in the form of 24 hour availability for things like suicide prevention chat services, safety devices, and translation services. Additionally, Dr. Green expressed concerns regarding the regulation and ownership of data and privacy.

Following the series of CPR presentations, Prof. Brian Smith, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and CS3 Researcher (and frequent attendee at these CPR Workshops), provided a brief update on the state of his research. Incorporating direct feedback received during CPR Workshop sessions, Brian put forth the contents of a paper draft which would use AR technology to enhance the history of Harlem with a variety of education opportunities. Namely, he and his students have been working on ideas to use QR codes on landmarked buildings, providing people with snapshots of that building throughout time and annotating them on a map. As well as the option to indicate buildings that once stood in spots on a map/grid that were historically important but may no longer be standing in modern times. They have also been exploring the possibility of taking photos of buildings in order to animate them or show which shops they contain, inspired by examples of “talking” paintings. He concluded his presentation by reminding the audience of the importance of their contributions to CS3’s mission and asked for ideas regarding how CS3 could help better shape the conversation surrounding emerging AI technologies and their applications.

In the ensuing discussion, the CPRs warmly encouraged Brian and other CS3 researchers to openly acknowledge their conversations with Harlem community members, especially given their previous hesitation to be engaged in such interactive dialog. They also suggested that actual imagery of Harlem be included in the research paper, which would better attach it to each location. The CPRs also agreed that they would be willing to branch out into the community and get more feedback; their unique position allows them to serve as credible messengers between the researchers and the broader Harlem community. Researchers were encouraged to come to CPRs’ organizations and talk to staff and constituents directly, as well. CPRs were likewise suggested to visit certain labs, with Brian offering the opportunity to tour his lab. The final concern of the evening before adjournment was that it would be generally valuable if more CS3 researchers would accept the invitations to attend these CPR workshop sessions to engage with the community as Brian has demonstrated his commitment to do.

CPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.