Chatter at the Citizens Committee for New York City Gala
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Amanda Gordon and intern Johanna Smith recorded interviews, speeches, and the din of the party at the Citizens Committee for New York City gala on Monday, February 4. Following are excerpts.
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New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham at work, and being honored by a Citizens Committee for New York City founder, Osborn Elliott.
The president of Hunter College, Jennifer Raab, on what happens when you’re in Bill Cunningham’s column.
The commissioner of Parks & Recreation, Adrian Benepe, on the history of Citizens Committee for New York City and honorees Karen Cohen and Karen Washington.
Honoree Karen Washington, the founder of La Familia Verde, on her work and where she grew up.
Honoree Peter Gelb, the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, on living near work.
Writer Calvin Trillin and two friends discuss life on the Upper West Side and in the Village.
The president and chief executive of Pitney Bowes, Murray Martin, on living in Wilton, Conn.
The commissioner of Parks & Recreation, Adrian Benepe, on what he does instead of brunch on the weekends.
The NYPD Emerald Society Pipes & Drums procession.
The president of the Citizens Committee for New York City, Peter Kostmayer
Remarks from the podium
Let me just spend a brief minute talking about our work. Last year Citizens Committee for New York City underwent a six-month strategic plan with the generosity of the Robin Hood Foundation, which funded McKinsey & Company to do this work. At the end of the six month strategic planning period, McKinsey said to us two things: First of all, keep doing what you’ve been doing for 35 years, giving small grants to small groups all over the city to do good work in their neighborhoods, and to build a civic infrastructure and the public life of a great city. But they also said, why don’t you try something else? Why don’t you take three neighborhoods and focus more time and more money and more resources there? And then they said, in typical McKinsey fashion, why don’t you hire someone who’ll do nothing else but measure the outcome and tell you if what you’re doing is working or not. Those neighborhoods are Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Far Rockaway in Queens, and Park Hill in Staten Island, three great neighborhoods filled with great New Yorkers committed to their neighborhoods.
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Ladies and gentlemen, this work is deceptively simple. In Park Hill, for example, we’re working to organize pickup basketball games between the young men of Liberia and the Ivory Coast and the newest police recruits in that neighborhood. We connected the people in that neighborhood to farmers in upstate New York who brought in fresh produce and started a green market.
