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Our Initiatives

Community Engagement

We give local residents a voice and ensure their views are heard by policy makers, business owners and partner organizations. We conduct neighborhood surveys, encourage engagement and, inform and educate the community on important local issues. 

Please take our 2025 community survey and share your thoughts about how we can help make the East Village a better place to live, work, and play! We’d love to hear from you and your friends!

Food Insecurity

During the height of the pandemic, the East Village Community Coalition became deeply involved in mutual aid efforts to address food insecurity. Stewarding community fridges and pantries, mobilizing neighbors and local businesses to share excess food, and coordinating volunteer-led food rescue operations across the neighborhood.

Building on this work, the EVCC has embraced food insecurity as a core initiative. We are expanding our efforts to ensure that surplus food is rescued and redistributed to those in our community who face food insecurity, or who may be unable to shop or cook for themselves.

Today, the EVCC facilitates monthly gatherings that bring together previously siloed local stakeholders working toward food justice. These meetings foster collaboration, share resources, and connect volunteers across a vibrant local network from faith-based organizations hosting pantries and soup kitchens to grassroots groups rescuing and redistributing food that would otherwise go to waste.

Through connection, collaboration, and action, the EVCC is building a stronger, more equitable East Village where no neighbor goes hungry and no good food is thrown away.

Sustainability

There are many ways to protect the future of our neighborhood, while enjoying it as much as possible today. Our walkable, tree-lined streets and community gardens are one of the reasons people love the East Village. Open Streets, better public transportation and expanded recycling and composting programs are a few things we champion in order to protect the East Village for generations to come. 

See current sustainability issues impacting the East Village

Retail Diversity

Independent shops and services are an essential part of life in the East Village. From culturally symbolic restaurants to independent bookstores, kooky vintage shops to holistic pet stores, our merchants are the lifeblood of the neighborhood and are a reflection of historic roots of our community. 

The EVCC continues to press for any and all measures to support the small businesses that keep our neighborhood vibrant, diverse and magnetic.

Explore our interactive directory of local independent shops and services. 

Or, dig deeper into important issues on Retail Diversity.

Neighborhood Preservation 

Many of our neighborhood’s historic buildings have incredible stories to tell. We help preserve and protect our streetscape by working with local partners, city and state officials and policy makers, as well as residents and business leaders on zoning, landmark designation and the creation and expansion of Historic Districts. 

Check out our Neighborhood Resources and stay tuned for more interactive ways to explore our Historic Districts and Landmarks!

News

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Oswald Ottendorfer at 200

Join us for a virtual program on the bicentennial of the birth of Oswald Ottendorfer (1826-1900), the visionary publisher and philanthropist who raised the profile of New York City’s Little Germany and advocated for reforms in the treatment of its German immigrants. 

6pm Thu Feb 26 Register now!

Events, Front page, newsflash, Preservation  —  February 24th, 2026
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The Death and Life of Gentrification

Celebrate the release of Japonica Brown-Saracino’s latest book, The Death and Life of Gentrification: A New Map of a Persistent Idea, at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space. The author will trace the roots of the term gentrification, how it has adapted over the years, and its growth into the cultural phenomenon it is today.

6-9pm Wed Feb 11 at MoRUS, 155 Avenue C, RSVP on Eventbrite.

Community Interest, Events, Featured, Front page, newsflash, Retail Diversity  —  January 30th, 2026
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Tompkins Square Park Mini-Pool Reno

The mini-pool at Tompkins Square Park is in poor condition, and will be reconstructed with state funds as a larger in-ground pool. NYC Parks is soliciting community input on use of the pool area and adjacent courts. Most residents who attended the meeting asked that there be as little change as possible to the adjacent courts and exercise area. These comments were heard by parks and the design team, but there is still time to give your input.

Leave your comments on NYC Parks’ website by Fri Feb 13.

Community Interest, Events, Featured, Front page, newsflash, Sustainability  —  January 30th, 2026

Engage. Inspire. Preserve.

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