Street gatherings bring neighbors joy in Manhattan

Steve Grillo, who lives on a blocked-off street in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, is a walking advertisement touting his West Side community. “Everybody’s a good person,” he says. Grillo co-owned a pizzeria there in 2009 and “that’s when I fell in love with the neighborhood.”

There was no hanging out with friends on the streets most of March and April, but by the end of May, “the neighbors,” as Grillo calls them, turned out to support the owners of corner bars and restaurants. “It’s ‘Cheers’ but in Hell’s Kitchen,” he says referencing the popular 1980s sitcom.

There were takeout food orders and drinks were mixed at the door. A crowd gathered, which brought the police, who said they couldn’t be there. Following that, police placed a barricade, on occasion, to block traffic and allow for street mingling. An impromptu block party formed with police in attendance to monitor.

Since the end of May, barricade or no barricade, the neighbors come out and line the side street sidewalks. On a recent Saturday, Grillo hosted a wedding reception beneath a canopy outside his apartment after the ceremony was held on his building’s roof. The newlyweds were neighbors who’d planned to be married at West Point on the D-Day anniversary, but that was scrubbed due to the pandemic.

He says this camaraderie wasn’t part of the neighborhood vibe before COVID-19 hit New York City so hard and the killing of George Floyd convulsed the country.

“Good people find good people. The pandemic has made us bond even more.”