W50S NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
Our Work
From active advocacy to lasting achievements — here’s how the W50s Neighborhood Association is making a difference.
Ongoing Efforts
The issues the W50s Neighborhood Association is actively working on — from sign enforcement and scaffolding accountability to historic preservation and safe streets.
The Ameritania Issue
The Association is leading a documented enforcement campaign against the illegal LED advertising sign at 230 West 54th Street. Two published investigations and a full public document archive are available on the campaign page. Visit the campaign page.
Scaffolding Accountability
The Association is investigating the decade-old sidewalk sheds that have become permanent fixtures across the neighborhood, starting with the Wyoming at 55th and 7th. Read Ten Years of Temporary for the full story.
Development
The Association led the coalition to save and repurpose 1710 Broadway after the Landmarks Preservation Commission declined to protect it. Board member Suzanne Johnson organized support from the Borough President, elected officials, preservation groups, and labor organizations. The building was demolished and a supertall hotel now stands in its place, and the fight it sparked continues to shape our work on development.
Historic Preservation
The Association continues to pursue landmark designations for the historically significant buildings of the West 50s, building on the five designations our members have already won, and monitoring renovations that could affect buildings’ future eligibility.
Street and Pedestrian Safety
The Association works with the Midtown North Precinct, Community Board 5, and elected officials on safe streets, sidewalks, and intersections for everyone who lives in and moves through the neighborhood, including concerns raised by the growth of e-vehicle traffic.
Quality of Life
The Association works on the everyday conditions that shape life on our blocks: sanitation and trash, noise, signage and lighting, green space, and the state of our sidewalks and streets. When an issue needs sustained pressure, we document it and campaign on it.
Past Achievements
A record of what the West 50s Neighborhood Association has accomplished over the years — from landmark building designations to the creation of 6½ Avenue. Proof that organized neighbors can change their community.
Quieting the Overnight Loading Dock
After residents of West 55th Street documented months of overnight truck idling, the Association sent the hotel operator a letter built on the city’s own 311 data. Within hours, the hotel committed in writing to ending overnight deliveries between midnight and 5 AM, with permanent signage posted at the dock.
Full story coming to the site soon.
Historic Preservation — Landmark Designations
From its inception, the Association has been dedicated to obtaining landmark designation from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission for over 20 historically and architecturally important buildings in our neighborhood. We have researched the architectural history of every building on West 56th, West 55th, and West 54th Streets and submitted testimony and documentation to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for evaluation.
We have successfully achieved landmark status for five buildings.
Creation of 6½ Avenue
There is exactly one fractional avenue in New York City, and this neighborhood helped invent it. In the 1980s, Community Board 5 negotiated the through-block passages between Sixth and Seventh Avenues one tower at a time. In 2011 the association took up a proposal from Friends of Privately Owned Public Space to connect them into a single named walk, and in 2012 the Department of Transportation made it official with crosswalks, stop signs, and street signs reading 6 1/2 AV, from West 51st to West 57th Street. Advocates are now working to make the corridor permanent and extend it south, and we support them.
Read the full story: The Half Avenue
Want to be part of the effort?
Join your neighbors in advocating for the West 50s. No dues. No obligations.