Monday, April 22, 2024
Sunny. High 60 degrees.
It’s Earth Day. The theme this year is “Planet vs. Plastics,” highlighting the negative effects plastic pollution has on both human and environmental health.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Passover begins at sundown on Monday, April 22, and ends on April 30.
A verdict is expected in the trial of NYPD officer Salvatore Provenzano this Thursday, after closing arguments in the case were heard last week. The officer is accused of misdemeanor assault for allegedly punching a man being escorted from the Apple Store in Lincoln Square in October, 2021. Provenzano waived his right to a jury trial, and the verdict is at the discretion of Judge Maxwell Wiley.
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
The recently enacted state budget will officially include Sammy’s Law, which will give New York City the ability to lower its speed limit to 20 MPH on the majority of streets in the five boroughs.
The current default speed limit within the city is 25 MPH.
The Upper West Side is connected to the bill as local elected officials Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal sponsored Sammy’s Law, which they first introduced almost four years ago.
The bill is named after 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein, who was hit and killed by a car near his Brooklyn home in 2012.
“Sammy’s Law is a game changer for street safety because it will finally allow New York City to set its own speed limits,” Hoylman-Sigal said in a news release. “In 2020, I introduced this common-sense traffic safety legislation in memory of Sammy Cohen Eckstein, a young man who was fatally struck by a speeding driver just months before his thirteenth birthday.”
Since the loss of her son, Amy Cohen has advocated tirelessly for more street safety in the city, according to The Times.
Brooklyn to the Upper West Side is an inconceivable commute to many, but what about North Carolina to the Upper West Side?
Cosmetologist and super-commuter Kaitlin Jay recently told the New York Post about her 600-mile journey from her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, to her job at a hair salon on West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue.
Six days a month, Jay takes a cab to the Charlotte airport, an hour and a half flight to New York, a bus into Manhattan, and then a train to the Scott J. Aveda Salon on the Upper West Side.
“I moved to Charlotte to be closer to my boyfriend and enjoy a slower pace of life,” Jay, 30, told The Post. “But I didn’t want to leave the city and my clients for good.”
She spends just under $1,000 a month on the travel and renting a room from a friend when she’s in the city, which she says is more affordable than keeping an apartment in the Big Apple.
You can watch her full North-Carolina-to-Upper-West-Side journey below.
@kaitlinjay_ Come supercommute to NYC with me to do some hair! 💁🏼♀️ I lived in NYC for 10 years and recently moved to Charlotte, NC, but I still commute back every other week to work! #grwm #supercommuter #nychairstylist #charlottehair ♬ original sound – Kaitlin J
“People Watching” is an official New York City pastime, and a writer from The Cut recently put together a guide for the best places to do it.
“Many people I know have hobbies. Some have picked up birdwatching, others love oil painting or knitting. Me? I’m a born and raised New Yorker,” Upper West Sider Sophie Vershbow writes. “My hobby? People watching. Why? I have always relished being alone in a crowd while the city swirls around me. If sitting in the right spot, five minutes of people watching in New York City will provide more entertainment than anything that will pop up on your phone.”
She goes on to offer a list of the best places for the activity, which includes Central Park, your stoop, the stairs of The Met, and Rockaway Beach.
Aside from Central and Riverside Park, are there any reader suggestions on the best places to people watch on the Upper West Side? Let us know in the comments.
You can check out the Cut guide — HERE.
A beloved Upper West Side deli recently got a shoutout from ABC 7 and anchor Robin Roberts for 30 years of business in the neighborhood.
“As a New Yorker, you’ve got your favorite spot, and mine is Giacomo’s,” Roberts said. “If you want the best coffee in town, you go see Joe, Sylvia, and Tabitha.”
Giacamo’s has served customers on the UWS for three decades near the corner of West 72nd Street and West End Avenue. The store is run by owner Joe Aguilera, and also serves up sandwiches, soups, bagels, pastries, and more.
“We feel that we’ve allowed customers to make friends among themselves, people sit outside, they learn each others names, we help with some of the homeless in the neighborhood who are regulars, it’s a sense of community,” Aguilera said. “I’m in the people business, I just happen to sell food.”
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Sammy’s Law is a great start to making our city safer. Now we need more speed cameras so the law is actually enforced.
Really? Can you point us to any peer-reviewed studies that prove that reducing speed by 5 mph would contribute to “making our city safer”? And yes, we do need more enforcement (not just of speed limits but of all traffic infractions by both cars and two-wheeled vehicles), but I’m far from convinced that a 5 mph reduction will do anything but get everyone where there going a bit later.
For a driver vs pedestrian collision, the physics of getting hit by a 1+ ton car mean that small reductions in vehicle speed improve the survival rate substantially.
Not to mention slower speeds give drivers more time to react to pedestrians.
Sammy’s Law – Not for roads with 3 or more lanes of traffic in one direction (ie Columbus Ave).
Enforcing our current speed laws would eliminate the need for Sammy’s law — which won’t be enforced either. Laws without enforcement are just window dressing.
Unenforced law changes are merely political theatre.
Thanks, Gus. Excellent reporting as always. Commuting from NC, honoring Giacomo’s, everything!
New York is killing itself with all these anti commuter, anti-visitor, anti-tourist laws and taxes.
Don’t know where you’re getting that from. Apparently NY is still so attractive a destination that someone is willing to commute here from several states away multiple times per month.
But you all don’t want commuters commuting here. Let’s face it.
And pretty soon all those commuters will be parking on the UWS thanks to the new congestion pricing!
For people watching, try the park around the American Museum of Natural History.
Don’t you get it?
We don’t want you parking around our museum. We don’t want any cars parking..
Gee, didn’t realize it was necessary to own a car to access the AMNH and its park. For years I’ve been naively taking the subway or bus. When did this take effect?
Are we allowed to walk there to people watch?
Driving speed in Manhattan should be 10/15 miles an hour!
I have an house upstate New York and you’re driving through my town….It’s 15 miles an hour. And when passing a school, it’s 10 miles an hour The first five blocks and the last five blocks where the school is standing.
No where Upstate is it 15 miles except maybe in front of a school. It is usually 35 in most places.
NYPD officer Salvatore Provenzano – What a travesty of justice it is that this NYC Police Officer is being prosecuted for doing his job, locking up bad guys, by a District Attorney that refuses to prosecute the criminals. Judge Maxwell Wiley do the right thing dismiss this case and lecture the District Attorney for waisting the court’s time.
The irony of the 20 MPH speed limit is that even if you get cars to do 20 MPH, the e-bikes, mopeds, scooters and every other motorized people mover will continue to speed over 20 MPH and pay no attention to laws.
Does anyone know what’s going on with the additional public library budget cuts proposed by Adams?
Here’s the NYPL letter signing page:
https://www.nypl.org/speakout
I would really like to hear one year that our mayor is announcing funding increases to our libraries rather than threatening cuts.
It’s very easy to sit back and be a naysayer regarding Sammy’s Law. The fact is, something had to be done with the number of accidents happening on the streets of Manhattan. My admiration & respect goes to Sammy’s mother for trying prevent any other parent and child from such a tragic vehicular accident that ended in Sammy’s death. The five mile reduction in speed might be the difference in somebody’s life.
Instead of it being a car, it will be more likely to be a moped, scooter, e-bike or ghost car.
NYC will need to add speed limit signs.
They will need to add 25mph signs to Columbus and Amsterdam to be compliant.
You mean 15 to 20mph signs. Yes, DOT is adding more… it takes time to have the new signs printed from the manufacturer.
No I mean 25 mph signs
Columbus and Amsterdam will continue to be 25mph.
The default will be 20mph.
Congrats to Giacamo’s! Best coffee on the UWS (in my humble opinion) and a great staff. And as a little league coach, a tip of the hat to Joe for his years and years of coaching and service to West Side Little League – our very own little league here on the Upper West Side.
Here’s to another 30 years!
Everything at Giacomo is great, starting with the people. If I’m not mistaken, Joe started at the old Balducci’s, downtown. They knew a lot about wonderful food, and just having nothing, however simple, that doesn’t taste wonderful. A true favorite, a community gem, from the bench to the slaw/chilli/coffee/sandwiches, to the little league.
The best coffee on the UWS? Oh man, that’s something worth investigating. I’ll stop by tomorrow morning on my way to see the cherry blossoms and see just how good it really is. Who knew?
Now I will have to try them on my way to watch my kids’ West Side Soccer League games!