This month, Sommer Omar shares her thoughts on working with both the Tribeca community and the local organizations that ensure the spirit of our neighborhood is sustained into the future.

CFDC: What is your connection to Tribeca?

SO: I’m the new State Committee member representing Tribeca. This little-known volunteer role is largely what you make of it. I’ve been proud to bring a “bread and roses” approach to the job. My hope is to meaningfully improve life and create affordable opportunities for community enjoyment. For example, I helped get a new bench installed at the bus stop on the corner of Greenwich and Warren Street after hearing that seniors in the neighborhood needed more seating to catch their breath. I also organized “The 1,000 Cans Project” at the farmer’s market to collect non-perishable food for The Bowery Mission. Finally, in June, I was thrilled to host Tribeca’s first “Longest Table” with CFDC at Tribeca Park. We brought people together from across the neighborhood for a no-charge community potluck and had the Church Street Choir perform for us. Credit for creating such a lovely space goes entirely to Julie and Morgan at Friends of TriBeCa Park.  

CFDC: How has Tribeca changed since your time here?

SO: If ever there was a place that embodied the spirit of the more pioneering set in Tribeca, it was Duane Park Patisserie. This is where I found my village of friends and community. Madeleine turned the Patisserie into a neighborhood institution. There will undoubtedly be a Duane-Park-Patisserie shaped hole in the neighborhood in the wake of the shop’s closure this month. But there has been one constant here in the neighborhood that contoured my family’s story. When my mom first emigrated from Alexandria, Egypt to New York, no college would accredit her Egyptian high school diploma except for BMCC CUNY, so she commuted to Tribeca from Greenpoint, Brooklyn and earned enough credits there to ultimately earn a college degree.

CFDC: How would you describe the Tribeca community?

SO: When I was campaigning for State Committee, I spent hours outside the local Whole Foods, at school pick-ups and drop offs at P.S. 234, and at the greenmarket on Greenwich Street. It was a study in dismantling the myth of the cranky New Yorker. This is a neighborhood filled with people who will sign a petition, take a flyer, stop to talk local politics, and linger at the clothing donation bin on Greenwich Street. It’s in those seemingly fleeting moments that you make a community, and I hope that we continue that habit of warmth.

CFDC: What are your thoughts on super tall tower developments in the neighborhood?

SO: One thing nearly all New Yorkers agree on is that housing is wildly unaffordable, and there is painful irony in the absence of affordable homes in a city saturated with wealth. Here in Tribeca, you can see this disparity displayed on one site on Greenwich Street. Independence Plaza is a former Mitchell Llama development. We stopped building those types of affordable housing developments decades ago and have not done anything since then approaching that level of practical and moral ambition. Instead, we are facing a proposed tower development adjacent to Independence Plaza that would offer uniformly unaffordable luxury housing. We have the resources to reclaim the legacy of Mitchell Llama developments and adapt them to today’s needs. My hope is that we find our way back to that more ambitious approach to development.

CFDC: How do you envision Tribeca changing in the next few years?

SO: Change is never a product of serendipity. If you look at how some of this neighborhood’s jewels came about, you’ll see the fingerprints of people who were unrelenting in making this neighborhood as special as it is. Activists muscled their way to create Washington Market Park, develop Bogardus Plaza, and ensure basic housing stability for senior tenants at IPN (SCRIE and DRIE). The list goes on. Now, I can see others carrying that baton forward for the years to come. Washington Market Park is now carefully maintained. Barnett Newman Triangle is a more active and verdant greenspace. The Tribeca Alliance is attracting and protecting small businesses here downtown. The CFDC team is also working on a vision for a more affordable Tribeca. So, I think Tribeca is in good hands.

CFDC: Is there a final thought that you’d like to share?

SO: I want to give a shout out to the enterprising team at CFDC for pulling together the Tribeca Chronicles series! I’ve been reading the different profiles since it started, and it’s a wonderful way to get to know the people behind this lovely community.

Photo by Linda Buongermino