By Carol Tannenhauser

It was one of the positive outcomes of the pandemic. In May, 2021, the leaders of a dozen Upper West Side block associations and community groups came together to form the nonprofit Upper West Side Coalition of Block Associations and Community Groups (UWS Coalition).

Just a year later, there are signs of internal strife, as Chris Giordano, one of the group’s founders and first president, pulled his association out of the Coalition this week, along with Eileen Vazquez, president of the storied West 69th Street Block Association, Amy Edelman, of the West 102-103 Block Association, and Cynthia Tibbs, the tenant association president for The West Side Urban Renewal Brownstones (NYCHA), consisting of 36 townhouses between West 89th and 93rd Streets.

The swift departures of these four members suggest that discord may be threatening the solidarity that first brought the groups together to share support and information about the pandemic.

“We benefited greatly from speaking with each other, listening to how different parts of our community were coping,” said Giordano, who is also president of the West 64th-67th Streets Block Association.

A press release at the time the group formed said the Coalition aimed “to help existing block associations thrive and support the creation of new block associations by offering guidance and mentoring to neighbors who may feel daunted by the process.”

Since then, the group has sponsored several virtual community forums on subjects ranging from policing to politics to pot. Each forum drew dozens of Upper West Side residents to hear speakers such as City Council Member Gale Brewer, Borough President Mark Levine, and the commanders of the local police precincts. The latest forum on Wednesday was on the marketing of weed on the Upper West Side, a subject that has been heating up; it went on as planned, though Giordano and the others were absent.

Giordano shared the news of his resignation in a text to the Rag: “The 64-67 Block Association spent considerable time and energy to create the foundation for a diverse and inclusive coalition of community groups committed to creating an open and welcoming environment for all members of the community. Recent events have caused us to lose confidence.”

In a phone interview later Giordano told the Rag that he had helped create the bylaws to make the Coalition “diverse, welcoming, and inclusive.” He said he had invited Cynthia Tibbs to join “because her association met the criteria of any bona fide block association or community group committed to promoting the general good and welfare of the community. We all can learn from Cynthia.”

But when Tibbs was first proposed for membership, “several members pushed back on her in emails,” Chris told the Rag. “And then, during the vote, there was one member in particular who would not vote for her. So, when that all happened, those emails and that vote, I was deeply disturbed. You can draw your own conclusions.” Giordano declined to give more details, such as which Coalition member had declined to support Tibbs.

“It was disgusting,” said Eileen Vazquez, president of the West 69th Street Block Association. “There wasn’t that kind of pushback when we had other groups come to get involved.” Vazquez resigned three days before Giordano did.

“When I first joined the UWS Coalition, I was hopeful that we would represent a variety of neighbors to build leadership and explore issues for the common good of our entire community,” Vazquez wrote in a resignation letter addressed to the board of directors and friends of the Coalition. “Unfortunately, it is my conclusion that this is not going to be the case.” Vazquez said that, like Giordano, she had lost faith in the Coalition’s leadership, “and choose no longer to be associated with this group, and could not in good conscience, encourage other groups to join. I saw what was going on.”

Ironically, when Cynthia Tibbs told her colleagues at NYCHA that she planned to join the Coalition, she also got pushback.

“When I told a few other NYCHA presidents, they were like, ‘Cynthia, you realize everyone on that coalition is white. You’re the only non-white. There’s gotta be a reason they want you in.” Tibbs said her response was “well, maybe they’re trying to get a different mixture. And I do think Chris brought me in as a genuine thing,” she said.

Giordano’s term as coalition president ended in April and he chose not to run again. He was replaced by Steven Anderson, president of the Theodore Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association (81st Street, CPW to Columbus Avenue). Dale Brown, president of the 79th Street Block Association, became vice president.

“Once Chris left the presidency, I was pretty much on my own, treated like an unfavored child that should sit in the corner somewhere and be quiet,” said Tibbs.

Tibbs charged that Anderson and Brown would ignore her when she raised her hand or spoke. She accused Brown of screaming at her in a Zoom meeting. “It got to the point that I started to question, why am I here? Who actually voted for me to be in this coalition? And what was their real purpose for having me here?”

The Rag connected with Anderson by phone Thursday evening. He seemed genuinely surprised to hear of Tibbs’ feelings, and “saddened,” he said. “I had no idea a member of our coalition would even feel this way.”

He spoke of reconciliation. “We’re about bringing people together. And if we need to talk more about how to bring people together, to correct this impression and figure out a way to work together and move forward, then of course we want to do that. We’re just neighbors. We’re neighbors trying to figure it out.”