Hi,

This week we put the final touches on our Merchant Survey we conducted this spring. (Read the full report) Some findings were entirely unsurprising for those familiar with East 125th street: Merchants pointed to loitering, crime and dirty sidewalks as one of the major impediments they faced. 

However, we did gather some valuable data that gave us new insight. For example, roughly half of the merchants we surveyed requested help using social media and a large number of the merchants did not actively use Yelp, despite Yelp being a leading site for the tech-saavy to find businesses to shop at. We also found that stores were the busiest in December and NHEMA has plans to help make some marketing materials so that we can make sure that customers in East Harlem get deals at stores in that month which keep them shopping local. This is just a taste of some of the findings in the report, so if you are interested, be sure to read the full report.

In other news, with fall just around the corner, NHEMA is working to plan our Weekend Walks. Hosted in two Saturdays (September 12th and October 10th), this innovative partnership with DOT will close down two blocks to street traffic and transform them into a public space filled with music, dancing and stalls for local businesses. If you want to get involved with your community group or promote your business, please fill out a form and send it to weekendwalks@nhema.com.