Monday sunrise! Photo by Mark.
December 27, 2021 Weather: Chance of snow, with a high of 36 degrees.
Notices:
Our calendar has lots of local events!
News:
“COVID-19 is spreading across New York City at a faster rate than at any other point during the pandemic, including the deadly first wave between March-April 2020 that brought the city to a virtual standstill,” AMNY reported. “Yet the current situation is not nearly as grave as it was then. Hospitalizations and deaths, while trending upward, are holding steadily lower, according to the latest data from the city’s Health Department. Omicron is causing numerous breakthrough infections among vaccinated New Yorkers, but the vast majority of these cases are proving to be mild because of the vaccines they previously received.”
The Covid wave led to cancellations of many performances, including performances of a holiday classic at Lincoln Center, The Nutcracker, the Times reported. “The company has worked hard to bring back the holiday favorite under difficult circumstances. It turned to a cast of dancers 12 and older — it typically casts younger, smaller children as its angels, soldiers and mice, and for its party scene — since only children of those ages were eligible for vaccinations when rehearsals began in the fall.” They hope to resume on Dec. 28.
In a rare honor for a non New Yorker, the intersection of West 95th Street and Riverside Drive will be renamed “Shimon Peres Place,” according to the Jerusalem Post. “Peres, who died in 2016, served three times as Israel’s prime minister in addition to serving as president of the country from 2007 to 2014. In 1949, he and his wife Sonia and their young daughter moved to an apartment on the corner of West 95th Street and Riverside while Peres studied at New York University and the New School.”
Wildlife is thriving in NYC, according to CNN, and it isn’t an accident. “The upsurge in wildlife is a byproduct of extensive environmental advocacy and federal legislation aimed at protecting natural habitats. The creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 along with federal legislation, like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, made huge strides for cleaning up cities like New York and controlling pollution….In 2015, [New York City’s branch of the Audubon Society] logged 4,264 birds of 55 different species in Central Park. Five years later in 2020, Central Park’s numbers increased by nearly 50% to 6,357 birds of 59 different species.”
Extra! Read all about it! Hoylman intros bill to support local newspapers https://t.co/WRtZ23aGDe pic.twitter.com/MFGBLCZhQT
— The Village Sun (@TheVillageSun) December 22, 2021
Check out the publications featured (above) in a mailing by local State Senator Brad Hoylman, who introduced a bill to bolster small news outlets, as explained by the Village Sun online news site.
https://twitter.com/rachelbros/status/1473126660996308998?s=21
Not just a New Yorker, Rachel, an Upper West Sider. Rats are us. But you gotta learn how to complain! Season 4 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, in which Brosnahan stars as an UWS housewife turned stand-up comic, starts on February 18th. “It’s 1960 and change is in the air. Looking to hone her act, Midge finds a gig with total creative freedom. But her commitment to her craft – and the places it takes her – creates a rift between her and the family and friends around her,” Digital Spy reported, with lots of details, including that “potential love interest Lenny Bruce will be coming back to the stand-up scene.”
Finally, there is still time to sign up for the New York Road Runner’s Midnight Run in Central Park. “With a countdown to midnight beginning at 11:59 p.m., this four-mile run will start at the stroke of midnight with a fireworks show to accompany the start of the race and of 2022.” Details are here.
Happy New Year! See you in 2022!
So 70 years ago, Shimon Peres lived on W. 95th Street for five minutes and now we are naming it after him? OK?
I guess there just aren’t enough deserving New Yorkers or even Americans. Makes me wonder who gave this the green light.
Peres lived on West 95th Street. He also won a Nobel Prize.
That’s why this street was named after him.
+1 – Find an actual New Yorker to name this street after. rediculous
Hey,
Fidel Castro lived on west 125th street for 6 minutes in the 1960’s.
Lets change the street’s name to Fidel Castro little Havana street.
Are you seriously comparing Shimon Peres to Fidel Castro???? Please tell me you didn’t actually mean to compare a Jewish leader and Nobel Prize winner to a communist dictator.
SMH –
I meant it as a joke.
Get it?!
Why exactly are people upset that one street is named after Shimon Peres? There are many Israelis and their families living on the UWS.
There is LaGuardia street in Tel Aviv. So. Why not exchange the honor
Who decides such nonsense?
I doubt the people living
there voted to name their street after a foreign leader.
I’d like to begin a campaign to co-name all of Amsterdam Ave., from 59th to 193rd. for Harry Belafonte, a life-long NYer who’s played an enormously important part in the cultural & political history of our City & Nation, & who is (thankfully) still alive to enjoy the honor. Amsterdam stretches the length of the Upper West Side through Harlem — the latter, his birthplace, the former his home for most, if not all, his adult life. Co-naming it for him would be a fitting, symbolic tribute to his strong connection to both neighborhoods, and to the beloved stature of a great, native NYer.
I say name a street he lives on after him. And 193rd isnt Harlem anymore. It isnt even Washington Heights. And if James Baldwin doesn’t get 100 blocks, Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, why Belafonte?
And sorry. In Washington Heights there are streets named for Dominican leaders. Not every named street is named for long term New Yorkers
I appreciate the sentiment but an entire avenue is a bit much. No one has had an honor of that magnitude in Manhattan since Madison Avenue was created almost 200 years ago and named for the former president. It would start a cascading effect that would dilute the intent.
Another day I might notice others news – but, for real, a real wet dead rat in an actual in-use apartment toilet??? Is this true? I have been asleep for the past week but I did not know this could for real happen. Please help. Old building? Basement?
I am curious as to how many streets in the city are named after women as opposed to men. I’m kind of tired of women being overlooked all the time as with the statues in Central Park.
Well…there’s “Mrs. Ponsie B. Hillman Way” at the NW corner of Columbus Ave. / W. 71st Street. Mrs. Hillman was a NYC educator and later an elected UFT office-holder.
Then there’s always the generic “Maiden Lane” dating back to Lower Manhattan’s earliest days as “Nieuw Amsterdam.
And there are books, like “Naming New York” which might reveal more.
How official are these names that cost the taxpayers money and provide no value?
We live on Miles Davis Way (77th between West End and Riverside) If someone sends a letter (how quaint) to my W. 77th Street address but substitutes Miles Davis Way would it get to me?
Thanks for the rat-in-toilet news (NOT!!!)…
Well, at least there were no photos… on the other hand, I have a much too vivid imagination.
I would invoke the standard social media response to this news: Pics or it didn’t happen. I have lived on the UWS since early 1974 — have never had a rat (or any other creature) in my toilet(s); nor have I ever heard of anyone who has, until today. Publicity stunt, much?
Maybe we ought to sell the rights to rename streets. Obviously you could not have duplications.