The Morningside Area Alliance

The Morningside Area Alliance is the institutional descendant of Morningside Heights Inc, the famous 1950's effort, headed by David Rockefeller, which redeveloped the northern part of Morningside Heights into Morningside Gardens, a fine high-rise development in a park-like setting on 122nd St. The Alliance's members are the major academic, religious and other institutions of the neighborhood. The Morningside Area Alliance sponsors community security patrols, both on foot and in cars, and other projects, including the Claremont Youth Center. Their offices can be reached at (212) 749-1570 and the Community Patrol at 222-7121. Below is their community office at Amsterdam Avenue and 121st St. and one of their patrol cars.

The Jewish Theological Seminary has this to say:

"When you arrive at the area between 114th and 116th Streets on Amsterdam Avenue, you may find the new tree-lined streets a welcome relief. They are a project of the Morningside Area Alliance. If you go to the public schools in the area, be sure to inquire about the tutoring and enrichment programs that are in the works for PS 36, an early childhood school, and PS 165, an elementary school. You might want to explore the Claremont Youth Center, created in the 1970's to provide space for recreational, educational and cultural activities for the area youth. Providing after-school, evening and Saturday programs, in addition to summer camp and SAT tutoring, the youth center hasbeen used by over eight hundred area children each year. Fine arts and multi-media programs may soon comprise a new facet of the activities offered at the Claremont Youth Center.

"In its newest effort, the alliance has turned its sights on tourism. Morningside Heights, a natural tourist stop with so many historic and cultural sites, too often claims the status of a well-kept secret. MAA has begun a campaign to celebrate the area, attracting visitors with a self-guided walking tour,including a brochure, a map and a poster of the area.

"This is a community with all kinds of resources and all kinds of needs. The Morningside Area Alliance, under the leadership of Ann McIver, helps put these together, contributing to the greater good of the community," commented JTS vice chancellor and chief administrative officer Rabbi Michael B. Greenbaum, one of the Seminary's representatives to MAA and a member of itsexecutive committee. He continued, "And through the tourism program, the alliance is helping member institutions say to tourists and to the community, 'Our gates are open for you to come in and see who we are. We don't just occupy space here. We are part of this vibrant and dynamic community.'"

Other Local Links | Home