Ok, so this is my own nosy neighbor: I saw on the Bogardus Instagram that a thing called the Grandma Stand had popped up in the plaza in November. I sent Friends of Bogardus Plaza chair Tory Weil a note: “It’s an idea by a guy who has this advice stand that he brings all over the city with different grandmas,” Tory said in November. “I usually get annoyed when people set up in the plaza without permission, but seeing that it was the Wednesday after the election and they were only there for an hour I let it go and embraced it.”

So this has to be one of the more quirky NYC happenings. It started in 2013. An Upper Westsider named Mike Matthews had a grandmother living in Seattle, who at that point was in her mid-90s and was no longer travelling to see him in New York. “She had too much love and empathy for just our family,” he explains on his IG page. So he bought an 80-pound lemonade stand on Etsy and set it up on various UWS street corners with Grandma Eileen on FaceTime on his computer. He devised a weekly prompt to get the conversation flowing (one recent one: “What experience shaped who you are?”). Folks loved it.

When Eileen died in 2018 at age 102, Matthews retired the stand.

Fast forward to August 2024, and he decided it was time to bring it back. He devised a lighter, more portable stand, painted it purple — his grandmother’s favorite color — and enlisted the help of live grandmas to yes, dole out advice, but mostly listen. He has a rotation of six right now, some in person and some virtual. Each week he offers a different prompt, “to get right into the meaty stuff!”

And he is seeking more grandmas. “Qualifications include: good at listening, asking questions and possessing empathy. Just send me a DM if you know someone.”

 

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