Minerva Bernardino Greenstreet

What was here before?
Tenth Avenue above West 59th Street was renamed Amsterdam Avenue in 1890, in an effort by local businesses seeking to boost property values. The new name distanced them from the street’s “Death Avenue” moniker in lower Manhattan due to the number of dangerous street-level train crossings. The avenue transitioned to only north-bound traffic up to West 110th Street by 1951. 

How did this site become a greenstreet?
In 2006, this greenspace was built as a traffic calming measure. Extended into Amsterdam Avenue, it was intended to indicate that southbound traffic above West 110th Street could not continue, as the avenue transitioned to a one-way street. A low iron fence surrounds the triangle’s center planting bed and trees. The same year, NYC Parks named this site after Minerva Bernardino, the former United Nations Ambassador representing the Dominican Republic.

The Greenstreets program, a joint project of NYC Parks and the NYC Department of Transportation, began in 1986 and was revived in 1994 with the goal to convert paved street properties, such as triangles and malls, into green spaces.

Who is this greenstreet named for?
Ambassador and feminist Minerva Bernardino (1907-1998) was one of only four women to sign the United Nations Charter in 1945. She represented the Dominican Republic at the first U.N. General Assembly and dedicated her adult life to the advancement of women and children.

Born in the province of El Seibo in the Dominican Republic on May 7, 1907, Bernardino was orphaned at age 15, but continued her studies and worked towards a career in civil service. Her involvement in the advancement of women’s rights began at age 22 when she joined “Accion Feminista Dominicana.” In 1933, after protesting the restrictive divorce laws under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, Bernardino was forced to flee to the United States. She returned home in 1942, only after the Dominican Republic’s constitution had been changed to provide rights to women, including the right to vote.

On April 25, 1945, representatives from 50 countries gathered in San Francisco, California to draft the U.N. Charter. Bernardino ensured that the document included language supporting equal rights for men and women. In 1948, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, she advocated for inclusive language, using the phrase “free human beings” in place of “free men” in its preamble.

She also helped include provisions for women in the Charter of the Organization of American States. She was a major force behind the creation of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and served as the first woman Vice President of the U.N. Economic and Social Council.

Representing the Dominican Republic at the U.N. until 1971, she then served as its representative to the Netherlands until 1976. Bernardino died on August 28, 1998 in the Dominican Republic.