Monday, November 13, 2023
Sunny. High 49 degrees.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Veterans Day took place on Saturday, November 11, but because the holiday fell on a weekend this year, some are observing it on Monday, November 13.
Goddard Riverside is hosting a winter coat drive on Thursday, November 16, at 6 p.m. The drop-off location is the Joan of Arc School at 154 West 93rd Street. The goal is to collect 1,000 new or unwanted coats, hats, and gloves for the less fortunate. For more information, you can contact Chantel Roberson at croberson@goddard.org.
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
A spat broke out last week between actor Tony Danza and an Upper West Side resident walking her dog in the neighborhood, the New York Post reported.
“Tony Danza, stop being an a**hole,” a woman reportedly said about the “Taxi” actor after the two almost collided while she was walking her dog.
A source for the Post said that Danza and the woman were walking at one another, when he moved to avoid her dog, but the woman didn’t do enough to get out of the way and the actor had to jump to get over the dog.
Words were then exchanged, the Post reported. The article also referred to the Upper West Side as a “posh neighborhood.”
Danza has previously made Upper West Side news through multiple surprise appearances singing outside of Manny’s Bistro on Columbus Avenue near West 71st Street. You can read more about the local pooch brouhaha on the New York Post’s website — HERE.
A seven-story mansion on Riverside Drive formerly owned by a convicted fraudster just cut its asking price by $10 million, as first reported by Curbed.
The piece of real estate might still be out of most people’s price range, as the townhouse at 25 Riverside Drive, on the corner of West 75th Street, will now cost you a staggering $55 million instead of the previous $65 million, a listing shows.
The building belongs to a trust connected to the family of Dina Reis, an art dealer and socialite who pleaded guilty in 2011 to fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The recently renovated home is 12,000 square feet, with eight bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, two half bathrooms, 70 windows, outdoor terraces on four floors, three kitchens, six fireplaces, and an elevator to all seven floors.
Here’s a video tour of the $55 million home.
It is a bit farther uptown, but a set of monkey statues created by 20th-century urban planner Robert Moses has been removed from a playground in Riverside Park following backlash over their possibly racially motivated design, reported the Columbia Spectator.
The monkey statues, which were built within the iron trellises of the Ten Mile River Playground near West 148th Street, were removed recently by the Parks Department after Shiloh Frederick called out the design on TikTok earlier this year.
“The monkeys at Ten Mile River are painted black and have what could be interpreted as shackles around their wrists,” Frederick wrote in her post. “It’s also hard to believe that a man as intentional as Robert Moses only coincidentally put monkeys in a Harlem playground.”
The point was made that similar Moses-designed monkey statues exist at the River Run Playground near West 83rd Street on the Upper West Side, but Frederick added that they are “distinctly different,” as they are neither painted black nor had “what could be “interpreted as shackles around their wrists.”
You can read more about the removal of the monkey statues on the Columbia Spectator’s website — HERE.
Ed Park, an Upper West Sider and celebrated author, recently published his second novel through Random House. His real local claim to fame, though, is as the photographer and tipster of one of the West Side Rag’s most loved articles — “UWS Mysteries: How Did This Couch End Up In This Tree?”
The 56-word story from 2019 explained that a couch had been lodged 20 feet up in the branches of a tree on West 95th Street near Amsterdam Avenue, with no obvious explanation.
On November 2, the New York Times reviewed Park’s new novel — “Same Bed Different Dreams,” which critic Hamilton Cain glowingly began with — “the rare sophomore novel that has the wild, freewheeling ambition of a debut.”
Part of the novel takes place on the Upper West Side and he wrote the book while living in the neighborhood.
You can check out the novel for yourself — HERE.
To receive WSR’s free email newsletter, click here.
I doubt that the “spat” was the result of any action by Mr. Danza. Anyone living on the UWS is exposed to the constant rude and illegal behavior of dog owners on a daily basis whether on the streets or in the parks. In addition, to allowing their dogs to urinate and defecate wherever they please whether on buildings, cars or just right in the middle of the sidewalk, they also seem to be blissfully unaware of their surroundings on busy sidewalks often with leashes stretched across the entire sidewalk width. For many decades post Fran Lee Dog owners in NYC were responsible. The pandemic changed that with a complete lack of any enforcement.
Dogs on sidewalks are nothing compared to e-vehicles, e-scooters, and e-skateboards careening on sidewalks everywhere. And how about those toddlers zooming up and down with zero parental supervision yet traveling at speeds sufficient to mow down an adult?
You are darn right. In lefty San Francisco you cannot walk on any neighborhood sidewalk without having to hop over dog “stuff”! It is horrible!
You got it completely backwards! Fran Lee was the woman responsible for the pooper scooper laws in NYC! OMG — people — you really need to think before you post. I knew Fran, she was the aunt of one of my friends. Here is her obit in the NY Times!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/nyregion/20lee.html
Many (most?) dog-walkers look at their phones while walking, oblivious to both anyone else who is around or what their dog is doing.
I doubt this is particularly true of dog-walkers. Look around & you’ll see that many (most?) plain-old walkers on the street are staring at their phones & “oblivious both to anyone else who is around” and to dog-walkers!
Oh fun. Another dog rant.
I wonder how many people who are so infuriated at sharing space with dogs would benefit from the affection and companionship a dog can provide.
There are plenty of “blissfully unaware” people on the sidewalks. Some are with dogs. Most are without.
Relax. Rub a puppy’s belly. You’ll feel better.
Can we not agree that some dog owners are irresponsible and some pedestrians are careless?
Pedestrians always, always have the right of way!
Not when they are congregated on a crowded sidewalk with baby carriages and not realizing they are blocking other pedestrians. I had a large dog always tethered tightly to my side, and he was obedience trained. If someone has to jump over a dog, you can be sure the dog walker was at fault.
There’s no such thing as ‘obedience training’; just a thing to dupe dog-nuts out of cash.
I am sorry you have had such bad experiences with dogs and neglectful owners. That said, my experience has been the opposite. They are wonderful creatures . You may also want to consider that neighborhoods with more dogs and dogwalkers have lower level of crime. https://news.osu.edu/more-dogs-in-the-neighborhood-often-means-less-crime/
You are upside down, The problem is not the dogs!!! If you read the comment it is complaining about the people who walk the dogs, not the dogs.
I don’t think Bill was disputing the fact that dogs are wonderful creatures. I also love dogs, but Bill’s comment is spot on – while dogs are wonderful, many of their owners are rude and entitled. I see the described behavior daily, it is odd you deny it exists.
Are you suggesting that people without dogs are rarely “rude and entitled”? Do you deny that they exist?
Further, in a sit down deli-restaurant the other day, a large dog (on a leash) was brought inside. I pointed it out to the cashier who wanted NOTHING to do with the scofflaw. I find that as infuriating as the small dog I stepped on under the circumstances you describe—crowded sidewalk, long leash, absence of social responsibility.
You must be really fun at parties, Billy
great post bill! you seem like a real fun dude!
Sounds like the rude woman was at fault, not Tony Danza.
The WSR, famed incubator for the Manhattan literary scene!
The monkey statues: boy, you really got to WANT to be offended to take offense at these statutes. Another example of a hammer seeing everything a nail.
Robert Moses was an avowed racist. there is lots of evidence of that.
Supposedly he built the highway overpasses unusually low on the Southern State, Wantaugh, and other parkways leading to Jones Beach. The idea was to keep Blacks, who would arrive in buses, from making their way to Long Island beaches.
There is a historical dispute as to whether this was, indeed, the reason. But there is little dispute that Moses was a racist.
I would recommend looking into the history a little before dismissing the assertion.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/10/robert-moses-saga-racist-parkway-bridges/
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/05/887386869/how-transportation-racism-shaped-america
I think Robert Moses had more on his plate than intentionally including monkeys in a trellis statue to denigrate black people. The Conservancy should investigate to determine who actually designed the trellis and what was the motive to include monkeys. Were any other animals included?
Watch her TikToks … she’s a wonderful young lady who wanted to do a series educating herself on the history of NYC (with help from the Powerbroker) and the monkey statues indeed were shocking and jarring … I’m not a POC but you don’t need to be to witness racist tropes
It’s not a racist trope at all to call children’s “monkey bars ” — a climbing object — “monkey bars.” Monkeys hang from trees, and climb things. Maybe paint them orange or some other bright color so they are not offensive or so that people don’t think this is all about them? If you think of race when you see monkeys, then the person with the tunnel vision is the problem, not the sculpture, not monkeys, and not Robert Moses, who had other issues, but it’s just plain obnoxious already to see everything as an insult.
Handcuffs on their wrists?
Wasn’t Riverside in the West 140s still a predominantly Jewish area when this playground was built?
Yes, it was, or quite mixed, as Marian Anderson lived at 150th, along with Senator Javits, and there was a major Orthodox synagogue on 149th Street, along with a small one just east of Broadway.
I like dogs – I owned one as a child in suburbia. But I find that there are way too many inconsiderate dog owners around here. Particularly when two dogs start playing together and completely block the whole sidewalk. Or when an dog owner lets their leash extend really far when there are lots of people are around.
It is all about being self-aware and considerate. If there is no one nearby, do what you want. But if you see others approaching, show some consideration. I’m glad your dog is happy to see another dog – keep them on a tight leash until others walk by, or move to a less crowded area. Let the dog know Who’s the Boss (pardon my pun).
I also saw a kid step in a big pile of dog poop in a grassy area in the park this weekend – fortunately not my own child. Though I have also unscientifically noticed a lot of people cleaning up after their dogs lately – I don’t know why people’s dogs are inspired to poop when I am walking by but I appreciate people handling it appropriately!
Young people all too frequently bring their dogs of any size into grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, anywhere they go, pretending they are “service dogs,” even though it is illegal, because they want to be confronted, they want to demonstrate how entitled they are. Horrible people are all over.
Just wait until it snows. I guess the unwritten dog owner rule is; if there is snow on the ground, it’s okay to not pick up after your dog.
When the snow melts, the sidewalks become a minefield of puppy bombs.
I have to admit, as a Poop Manager myself, I find this practice does seem to be on the increase — & is still inexplicable.
It is part of our community’s acceptance of graffiti, trash and shoplifting. I don’t think this is a good trend. When standards slip, petty crime goes up. Yes I am a proponent of the “broken windows” school of policing.
If WSR permits…
For a project I’d doing, wondering if readers might weigh in?
“Bill” posted concerns about dog poop/pee in various areas. (This is not a new or uncommon concern – for example City Council Member Julie Menin has a new clean streets message initiative)
“uwsguy” and “pete” seem to have a different opinion and made remarks about “Bill”.
Questions:
Is it inevitable that we criticize others rather just expressing differences in opinion?
Do we routinely require 100% compliance with our beliefs? (For example, possibly Bill, uwsguy and pete share music preferences or all volunteer for voting rights – but diverging on the issue of dog poop results in condemnation?)
Would certainly be curious about reader thoughts here
Can’t imagine what kind of “project” this is that takes such loaded questions as its jumping-off point. Is it inevitable? Well, almost nothing’s inevitable. Do we require 100% compliance? Who on earth is going to say that yes, they require 100% compliance? When you state your queries in such extreme ways, there is no useful way for readers to engage in a dialogue.
I will simplify this. Dogs are wonderful creatures. Some – but very few – dog owners/parents are inconsiderate. Tony Danza is a wonderful Upper West Sider who ran into one of those inconsiderate dog owners. He reacted as many New Yorkers might. End of non-story. (if there’s any story it is that Tony Danza is a friendly face on the upper West side. Gracious to just about anyone he encounters. Supports local merchants regularly – and as noted here has even taken his new career as a crooner on to Columbus Ave. A pretty good NY story.)
Sounds to me like all he did was jump over the dog instead of asking the owner/dog to move, and the dog owner took offense for no reason, which she should NOT have.
I don’t know what happened but I am siding the Mr. Danza! Lol!!
All kidding aside, I have encountered SOME dog walkers who have a certain demeanor regarding proximity to their dogs, making the canines look like members of a more intelligent species. 🙂
SOME dog owners need to be more considerate and/or chillout about their beautiful, precious companions.
The Parks Department decides what color to paint things in a playground. The camels at the playground at 100th Street and Amsterdam for example have been all sorts of colors — blue, gray, peach — in recent years. The monkeys likely were not originally or always painted black. So this does not seem to have anything to do with Robert Moses.
Wasn’t just the color but the fact that they were in shackles … it was done by Moses … click the link and if you can watch the videos it’s very disheartening … lovely to see the Parks Dept respond so swiftly
And monkeys are not “in shackles” in labs all over the world today? Caged as well in zoos? Along w/ dozens of other animals that we use as products of entertainment & food?
Those retractable leashes should not be legal in NYC. You have no control over your dog if it’s eight, ten, twelve or twenty feet away from you. Really smart and responsible dog owners use short nylon or leather leashes because they understand that, for the safety of their own animals at the very least, they must have control over their dogs at all times. Where is the greater social good? Keeping dogs under control and safe or allowing them to run back and forth over public sidewalks?