On the Hudson River, brave kayakers greet the New Year near the foggy West Side Highway (around 67 – 66th). Photo by Lese Dunton, at 5pm on 1/1/22.
January 3, 2022 Weather: Chance of snow, with a high of 29 degrees.
Notices:
Our calendar has lots of local events!
News:
On Monday, “B Train service is suspended in Brooklyn, Manhattan and The Bronx,” AMNY reported. “Consider alternate routes and allow for additional travel time. In Brooklyn, take the Q train. In the Bronx, take the D train. In Manhattan, take the C and D trains.” The reason for the shutdown is “crew shortages.”
“Desmond M. Tutu, the cleric who used his pulpit and spirited oratory to help bring down apartheid in South Africa and then became the leading advocate of peaceful reconciliation under Black majority rule, died on Sunday in Cape Town. He was 90,” The New York Times reported. The tribute went on to explore the concept of “restorative justice,” which Archbishop Tutu championed, using an example familiar to Upper West Siders. “…take the case of Amy Cooper, a white woman who falsely claimed to the police that an amateur bird-watcher, Chris Cooper, who is Black, had threatened her. After a public outcry, she was fired from her job. Although she received some form of restorative justice, an even better approach would have been her keeping her job while her employer demanded that she read and study more about race, Black masculinity, white privilege and social injustice. The loss of her job as an act of retributive justice left all these structural issues aside and merely shamed her without transforming her or using her circumstances to throw light on similar cases.”
A man was pulled out of the Hudson River on Thursday around noon near West 93rd Street and Riverside Park by the NYPD Harbor Unit and the FDNY, a spokesperson told Patch. “The man was still alive and taken to the 79th Street Boat Basin, before getting transported to St. Luke’s Hospital, NYPD said.” No word on his condition.
“It’s starting to feel like the Upper West Side,” The Uptowner observed about Manhattanville (122nd-135th Streets), as a result of “gentrification.” It didn’t feel like a compliment. “[Columbia University’s] expansion into Manhattanville reflects and intensifies the neighborhood’s transition: it’s becoming whiter, richer and more educated. Crime is decreasing and rents increasing, generating a mixed reaction from local residents and business owners.”
There are photographs of Era, the 20-story condominium going up at 251 West 91st Street, in NYYimby. “…the reinforced concrete superstructure will yield 57 residences and features a dramatic set of stepped cantilevering setbacks on its northern elevation.” Neighbors weren’t happy with the “aesthetics” at first. Let us know what you think now.
“Department of Transportation contractors somehow managed to misspell “MPH” — the acronym for “miles per hour” — eight times along Avenue B last week, the New York Post reported.
@NYC_DOT heya the new speed limit notifications on recently re-paved Avenue B read “20 MHP”(note the inversion)!!!! I kid you not. @evgrieve
— oedipa maas Ⓥ (@oedipa_maas) December 18, 2021
This isn’t the first time DOT has been associated with a spelling error. “In 2003, an Upper West Side street was labeled “SCOOOL XING.”
Finally, Jay Sears moved from the Upper West Side in 2001 to Rye, New York, 31 miles northeast of the city. In 2006, Sears started MyRye.com, which is a hyper-local news site for his community. “I found the creation of MyRye.com a way to be close to and celebrate our community,” Sears wrote in a 2022 New Year’s message to his readers. He made us realize that we had let West Side Rag’s 10th anniversary pass unnoticed. The Rag was started in May, 2011, with the awareness that the Upper West Side needed a fresh local news site. We also knew the neighborhood was filled with talented people who could track down and write good news stories and features. It has worked out.
So, here’s to 10 years — and now nearly 11 — of The Rag. As one commenter recently wrote, “Long may it wave!”
Lipstick on a pig doesn’t make it any less a pig. Building on 91st & Bdway is still ugly.
And terrifying.
I have no idea how anyone could live in the cantilevered section.
Or under it.
The Era is still ugly.
Congrats to WSR on the anniversary. Your only competitor in terms of quality is EV Grieve.
haters gonna hate. Era looks just fine.
ERA looks good to me. UWS desperately needs more housing, so much more, please.
More housing but not at these prices! The cheapest is almost $3,000,000 for a 2 bedroom and the penthouse is $12,000,000.
Supply – demand. The more $12mm penthouses we have for sale, the further their price falls from $12mm. Ergo, we need more:)
A permanent memorial to NY’s twisted zoning and air rights laws.
As usual for UWS there were legal challenges to this building. Don’t believe things worked out well on that front.
https://www.georgejanes.com/newgjsite/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/251_W_91st_zoning_challenge_gmja.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/realestate/cantilever-skyscraper.html
People need to face the fact, because it is a fact that city needs new housing. To that end developers will explore all avenues open to them if it leads to a profitable outcome.
Of course if NYC didn’t have such a byzantine and convoluted zoning system things might be more transparent. That and or you might end up with less jarring new buildings.
As zoning rules stand now property along main avenues almost requires half or three quarters of new construction a high rise, while balance of block remains low.
Much of this also has to do with system of air rights as well.
It must be a nightmare to see your neighborhood filling up with more educated residents.
And fewer criminals to boot.
Thanks for the Rag. I was an early “stringer” and support everything you have done. I remember the 2nd (??) anniversary, when [you] took all five (??) of us for burgers at Five Napkin as a celebration of all our volunteer efforts. And look now, a major news service. Job well done !!
Congratulations on your anniversary! Thank you for the invaluable public service you provide to those of us who live here — and to those outside who envy us for living here.
You carved out a unique, local niche and then filled it professionally, with both substance and interest. Not an easy mix to carry off at all, let alone as well has you have done. The fact that you are looked to and cited by other news services is testament to your reliability.
Thank you! Keep up the good work — and here’s to the next ten years (at least)!
I was disheartened to hear Amy Cooper on Bari Weiss’ podcast say that she still feels like she had no other choice but to call the police like she did. Especially after the DA dropped the charges because she went to counseling and learned her lesson…
Why wouldn’t the DA drop her charges? These days, pretty much the entire gamut of violent crimes, short of murder and rape, results in no charges – without any proof of “lesson learned.”
I live next door to the nightmare that is the ERA, and I can’t wait for it to be finished, having lived through the demolition, then the blasting and the concrete pouring and all the inconvenience of our little building being treated like an little storage shed. Take a look at the gutters on Broadway and the side streets in the area and see all the little styrofoam pellets that have been spewed into the air, and which are no doubt now in the storm drains and rivers and parks. And it is so ugly.
I absolutely love the West Side Rag, even though I moved to 138 Street 12 years ago. I read it before my personal e-mail. It brings a great deal of pleasure always. Thank you for all you do! Happy anniversary!
Long live the Rag! I’m new to the city and discovered this lovely site during October 2020. Nice to get to know the city virtually during the pandemic – thank you for all of the great work!
I live in Columbus OH, and the first thing I turn to each morning is the West Side Rag. Have never lived in NYC, just spent weekends there, each one filled with many little wonderful incidents. Your photos and stories make it seem as if I were walking through your neighborhood. Thank you.
The Rag is fantastic–interesting, fun,informative– serious when it needs to be and light-hearted when it doesn’t. Congrats to everyone involved and especially to its extraordinary editor.
Just wanted to join the fan club, as a life-long UWS resident (minus a five year move to Miami Beach that we don’t really talk about, but that’s where I was when you started) this news site is a delight and a fantastic resource, and I look forward to the digest in my in-box. Here’s to many more!