About Us

History of Battery Park City Seniors

The seeds for the current Senior group were sowed back in 1990, when a group of women living at Gateway Plaza, led by Ruth Nesbith, created a group called “Neighbor to Neighbor.” Everyone involved lived at Gateway Plaza with its promise of affordable living. This core group would get together for informational presentations, a book group and exercise at the Gateway Plaza gym, among other activities. In addition, the pool at Albany Street offered water aerobics sponsored by Bob Townley.

After 9/11, some seniors found themselves staying together at hotels and the sense of community and the need for a place for seniors to congregate began to surface again. Co-founders Edith Chevat and Ruth Meyers looked at existing senior centers in the area, but they felt more like nursing homes. So they looked at model senior programs in other cities and asked for help from the City’s Department of Aging and the offices of City Councilmember Alan Gerson and Borough President Scott Stringer. Felice Cohen organized a survey of every tenant at Gateway to see how many seniors (those 62 and over) lived there and what types of activities they wanted. After much negotiation, they secured the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy’s Community room on West Thames Street as a meeting place on Monday and Friday mornings.

The group continued to grow and flourish. Ruth Ohman became secretary; there were officers back then. They continued to self-lead exercise groups and every once in awhile they secured money to hire experts to teach sessions such as the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, dramatic improvisation and art history lectures. Every year they held a pot luck around the Christmas holidays, inviting friends and relatives. Tom Goodkind, our neighbor musician, handed out song sheets and everyone joined him in singing.

Time passed and Ruth Ohman took the lead. She added much more to the senior group, representing us in the larger community and on Community Board 1. Sadly, Ruth passed away in October of 2016. A new leadership group , five individuals formed a Steering Committee to continue communications and develop programming.

The Battery Park City Authority gives the group meeting space on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, which are used for fitness classes, lectures and other programming. In addition to space at 6 River Terrace, a newer community space at 200 Rector Place (Liberty Court) is available for the senior group. Funding has been provided by NYC's Department of Aging, through the office of our local councilmember.

In addition, Manhattan Youth has long offered swimming and yoga for seniors at their center on Warren Street. NYPresbyterian Medical offers health talks on a variety of topics.

The Steering Committee is assisted by others who volunteer their time for specific events.. And volunteers are always appreciated, just email us at bpcseniors@gmail.com.