Why are you assuming it’s dog poop? Perhaps one of our mentally ill shelter friends or street vagrants left it there. In San Francisco they have a big problem with human waste on the street. Your beloved NY Times wrote about it. Perhaps this issue is now a UWS problem as well.
Steve
8 years ago
Stop looking at your phone while walking. You impede others by swerving, walking slowly and not paying attention to those around you. You are a hazard and are acting selfishly. If you need to check your phone pull over to the curb or out of the way of the flow of traffic.
I bet you aren’t so important that you have to walk with your head in your phone. Step aside and don’t be so selfish. The world will continue even if you disconnect for a few moments.
neighbor
8 years ago
Every other block now has a young African man on his phone, selling bags/hats/iPad covers/scarves etc. Who are they? How did they get their permits? Anybody knows?
Remember what happened just after Rudy came into office? He cut the leashes of law enforcement and told us to “go get ’em”. Which we did, with much joy I might add. Almost overnight….ALL the Senegalese hawkers disappeared. You know why? Because we went after their boss, a certain Chinese businessman who literally imported all those vendors, assuming that he didn’t have to pay their return tickets.
Well, we took down Mr. Chinese businessman, seized all his bank accounts, all his property…everything he had and sent all the Senegalese vendors home.
I suspect that another businessman has decided to start back up this lucrative enterprise assuming that de buffoonio won’t do a thing to stop them.
I remember a lot of those from the 80’s. Selling knock-off Gucci, Hermes, Cartier, etc. wares.
jezbel
8 years ago
Coming home from dinner after an evening out with visiting family and passed by no less than 4 homeless people camped out for the night on Amsterdam between 77th and 76th St. Each one with their own private box and one with a privacy umbrella. Somebody please alert the media, the police and the mayor’s office. This is freaking insane. Just like the late 1970’s.
Coming home from my dinner that cost $200 I saw several people who had just paid millions of dollars to live in tiny apartments just so they could complain about other people living in cardboard boxes on the street. Each one lives in an apartment the size of a small box, and they even have privacy shields on their windows which they call “curtains.” Somebody please alert the media, the police, the mayor, and the NY Post. This is freaking insane, it’s just like 2014!
Leave them alone, they aren’t hurting anyone. If your only complaint is you have to look at people who’ve fallen on hard times on the way home from dinner, then I think the problem is with you.
On a practical note, if anyone feels threatened or concerned about public safety then call 911 or 311. I’ve called twice for mentally erratic people (like, yelling and throwing trash cans around) who I was guessing were homeless. Bloomberg years, by the way.
Sorry Claire, but homeless encampments are a major contributor to a decline in the quality of life for our neighborhood. Many of these poor souls act out, commit petty crimes, leave behind refuse, and urinate and defacate in public places. While having compassion for the down and out is a noble cause, turning a blind eye and pretending that they don’t exist does not help them or our neighborhood.
Agreed. I live in the 80s. Within the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that a “tent” setup (made of large blue tarps) has appeared under the new scaffolding on Broadway near Staples/Westsider Books. The tent/shelter only pops up at night, and it is completely enclosed so you cannot see who might be hiding inside. As a single woman who leaves for work very early in the morning, it makes me uncomfortable to walk past this shelter without knowing who might be hiding inside, especially the pitbull who seems to “live” there along with his or her owner.
I do wonder what is going on with that building, though. All the businesses have been closed for years, and the scaffolding has been there forever. I’m sure it’s a sorely needed shelter for the area homeless, but what led this building to fall into such a state and stay there?
I know someone who works for a successful company who has been trying to rent the space, or at least part of the space. City permits have been the holdup, it has been months, they are still trying but aren’t sure it is going to happen. I live near there and the empty space frustrates me out more than the people sleeping under it. It should be hard enough to start a brick and mortar business in NYC that not every jackass with a notion can do it, but not so hard that there is very little incentive to even try.
The alignment of your post would suggest that it was made in reply to Claire. I have to wonder, however, whether the rather ebullient agreement you expressed was perhaps intended for jezbel’s words?
For in a different thread, you characterized those who would hold the likes of CitiBank accountable for complicity in moral as well as legal crimes that have brought misery to countless numbers of people as, “Preening and Prancing Populists”. I wonder how you would reconcile that with effusively praising Claire’s rather condescending castigation of jezbel. You find no moralistic “preening” in the latter, yet have such harsh words for those who oppose the likes of CitiBank? Really?
Re: “yet have such harsh words for those who oppose the likes of CitiBank? Really?”
YUP! REALLY REALLY!!
Because hating CITIbike just because the bikes carry the name CITI (perfectly appropriate, since CITIBANK helped fund the program) is actually rather ASININE and RIDICULOUS !
But, then again, it is typical of a certain species of UWS “libruls” whose self-appointed mission is to issue holier-than-thou statements attacking ANYTHING that sounds like normal everyday democratic capitalism as well as decrying “Income Inequality (boo-hoo).
Hey, you who oppose “Income Inequality”, try either or both of these solutions:
(a) Help BRING BACK UNIONS;
(b) and/or give away YOUR salary to those suffering Income Inequality!
Ooops, on second though item (b) is a bad idea. Libruls want to spend only OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY!!
AC
8 years ago
79 Street Station (Northbound) is in major NEED of an additional stairway for egress!
The city is accommodating developers and builders with permits to build but the infrastructure is being overlooked.
Try getting in or out of the south side of the 72nd street 1/2/3 stop during rush hour. I dare you. At least someone didn’t leave a huge pile of poop in the middle of your narrow stairwell.
You’re a rookie Upper West Sider. I remember when the only entrance/exit at 72nd street was the one you reference. It was indeed a dangerous place. But the closing of B’way at Verdi Square and the construction of the North entrance in 2002 has alleviated much of the congestion.
The poop? with all the homeless in that area, you’re lucky it was only one stairwell. Good luck Dale!
lisa
8 years ago
Regarding the homeless, a few things…
Other cities are also grappling with this. Hard to believe but actually the situation in San Francisco and LA is worse than NYC. Really.
It has not been clearly reported in the media, but the emergence of K2, a synthetic marijuana, is the major reason for the increase in homeless on the street. K2 causes psychosis among other things. It is also cheap so use has exploded. K2 is also a problem in other cities whether Austin Texas or Chicago etc.
The young homeless people on the street, often with dogs, are people from out of town. They are called “crusties.” They had been coming to Union Square/East Village for years, but around 2009, started coming up to the UWS. (They tend to go to places where there are “younger” people and Trader Joe’s is one such destination) The “word” has gotten out and now there are more. “Crusties” are also in cities throughout the US.
As for homeless families in the shelter system, this population really exploded during the Bloomberg years due to NYC’s changing real estate/demographic scene (luxury).
I would add that I was shocked to learn that my kids who are in NYC’s top public high schools have classmates who are in homeless shelters with their families. You’d be surprised how many working families are in homeless shelters.
True. LA has over 50,000 homeless adults and there are encampments everywhere. What you are upset about is a basic fact of life in LA and SF. It is much much worse. Its shockingly worse. And the crusties are all over America. Thankfully winter is coming. Perhaps these folks will go into sheltets or leave for LA. Maybe we should tell these people about LA. No winter and apparently you can legally sleep on the sidewalk from 9pm to 6am. Weed is practically legal and there are
no prison or shelter beds. Ship em to LA or SF. Please.
Re: “this population really exploded during the Bloomberg years….”
Check your facts! Yes, Bloomberg DID end some sort of homeless subsidy program, BUT he did it as a result of the state’s cutting off funding to the city for it.
Of course, the truth flies-in-the-face of the usual New-Progressive twaddle, namely that a cold-hearted billionaire mayor was anti-homeless and that the current warm-n’-fuzzy administration is much more caring.
Sure, if you want to believe that!
So why has the homeless population GROWN so much under BdB’s “leadership”??
I think part of the problem with homeless is that there are fewer shelters. Another problem can be that people are priced out of apts with nowhere to go.
While I may or may not agree with you, why does your response have to have this tone? If you were actually speaking with this person face to face, would you respond this way?
Of course, the truth flies-in-the-face of the usual New-Progressive twaddle,
If only you would (or even could) begin to realize how many other areas the same could be said for. (At least one of which I dare not even so much as mention, or I would risk my post never seeing the light of day*.) Areas in which, according to all indications, you are no less guilty of being blinded by the very same type of propaganda and disinformation as any of those whom I have seen you lash out for that very failure.
Of course, one who has been effectively indoctrinated does not recognize that he has been indoctrinated. That much is axiomatic. And such an individual is likely to react rather vehemently, with fierce denial, to the suggestion that he has been indoctrinated.
(*This, despite the fact that the posts of mine on the topic-in-question that were rejected were, from any objective perspective, notably less provocative and offensive than any number of other posts of mine that were approved. Perhaps one day, I will elaborate somewhere, such as at a blog or the like, perhaps one that I will start.)
@ Independent – Very well said. Do you think any of your opposition on these boards heard?
Well of course they didn’t. Between their denial and their sanctimony, they have sealed themselves up tightly in their echo chambers, and curse the light.
More drama. It’s hard to take it seriously. Surely there is some conservative who participates here who can write clearly and objectively. Maybe it’s time for that person to step forward.
It’s really no surprise to see why certain GOP candidates are doing so well in this pre-election season.
Independent – are you aware that your posts are often unreadable?
In general, a concisely made point free of excess emotion and hysteria is more effective.
There has been a lot of recent media reporting on k2 but the drug that is the real problem is heroin. It is cheaper and more available here than elsewhere in the country, and it is drawing in unfortunate addicts from all over. Heroin has turned the area around penn station into a zombie nightmare late at night.
Sherman
8 years ago
When are NYC politicians going to show some courage and overturn all the rent control and rent regulation laws once and for all?
Everybody knows these laws are a disaster and hurting far more people than they help. Unfortunately, no politician has the political guts to take on the deadbeats whose cheap rents are being subsidized by everyone else.
Sorry Sherman but I happen to think rent stabilization is still Very Much needed!!! And is certainly Not a disaster!!!! Hope it stays for a very long time!!!!!!!!
Hi Sherman,
Just to mention that I (and my family) live in a nice coop but I completely support rent regulation, rent stabilization – and the few remaining rent controlled apartments typically inhabited by the elderly.
Not to catalogue all the reasons, but I will discuss one – rent stabilization helps maintain community stability and civic commitment, and reduces transience.
The East Village is an example of a neighborhood that has been greatly transformed over the past decade – and in my opinion, not for the better. NYU dorm/housing and luxury development (including many pied a terre) have replaced long-time stable residents. Small buildings are being sold to new investors who clearly seek to make money and thus find unscrupulous ways to force out rent stabilized residents. In many ways the area feels like a frat house with folks seeking to drink and hook up – on weekends the sidewalks outside of bars are littered with vomit and trash.
Transients – even affluent ones – have little interest in the viability of a community, little interest in matters such as trash, parks, schools etc. NYC’s success, particularly in the so-called “bad 1970s”, has in large part been due to the strength of its neighborhoods.
What I do not support, by the way, is subsidy for luxury real estate such as the subsidies from us taxpayers for buildings such as One57, the “billionaires” building!
I live in a coop too. My building used to be a rental before it turned coop in the 1980s. There are still plenty of renters left from the old days and these apartments are rent stabilized.
On my floor lives a woman, probably mid 70s, who lives in a 3 bedroom apt by herself (she’s widowed). She pays around $1,500 a month for this place. (Trust me, this womAn is far from destitute). Meanwhile, there are young professionals in the area who might pay 3 times that price to be crammed into a studio.
For this woman to have lived decades in such a giant apt for such a laughably low price is hardly fair or an efficient use of resources. This effects me directly because the coop keeps raising my monthly fees to pay for repairs. Her rent, of course, can’t be touched.
Every college freshman who takes Economics 101 does a case study in NYC rent control and the disastrous results of it.
NYC’s rent laws hurt far more people than they help. It’s not even a seriously debatable topic.
I agree that the rent regulations should be phased out. They benefit a select few at the expense of everyone else. Price controls are not the answer to NYC’s housing problem. Increasing the available supply of housing is.
To those who say “only doctors, lawyers, and bankers” would be able to live in NYC without rent regulations, I would point out that the regulated units have no income requirements except when the unit reaches $2700 per month. And then the max household income is 200k. Most cities do not have rent regulations, and miraculously people do find places to live.
I wouldn’t call them deadbeats, but it is a simple economic fact that rent controls only make a housing crisis worse. There’s a reason every city that has them is unaffordable
I would love to see a rational, just system replace it – say, a voucher program, paid for by higher taxes on all, including tenants – but how likely is it that those who currently benefit from the system will make a sacrifice for their fellow man?
Actually it’s only a fact in certain situations. It is mostly theoretical really but whatever! The consensus of rent control opponents is that if the controls went away the market would correct itself and everyone would be better off because price ceilings are bad blah blah blah and they would not have to “subsidize” those people that benefit. Only that that actually won’t happen…not in NYC that is. The person paying $3,500 a month today with rent control will pay $3,500 a month tomorrow without rent control. So since that price they pay won’t change it comes down to just hating on those that they feel are getting a benefit they don’t deserve. The opponents of rent control should just stop trying to use the economics and price ceilings are bad, and just be honest that you hate somebody getting something you are not.
1000x this. It would bring real costs to light instead of hiding them in the morass of the rent regulation system. I’m guessing, however, that about 95% of currently regulated tenants would not be in favor of giving up any special treatment they receive in order to help their fellow humans (based on the ones I know currently in such an apartment who are the most entitled upper middle class people I know)
Yeah, lets make sure that Manhattan and the Upper West Side especially is populated only by lawyers, doctors, and finance people ,those who have been smart enough to get into professions that pay! Everyone else who thinks they have the right to live around here are deadbeats, as long as their professions don’t give them the wherewhithal to afford market rate. Glamorous movie stars and pop musicians and such are welcome—-success pays.
All the people who keep the city going can commute from Staten Island or other “poor” enclaves even further out. And if I can’t get one of these deadbeats to come in from the boondocks and teach guitar lessons to my daughter at a discount because rent is so low in the deadbeat boondocks, I will just hire Taylor Swift. I’m sure whatever she charges is worth it, quality costs money.
This is from the Urban Institute, a pretty liberal group. An excerpt from the article:
“The conclusion seems to be that rent stabilization doesn’t do a good job of protecting its intended beneficiaries—poor or vulnerable renters—because the targeting of the benefits is very haphazard. A study of rent stabilization in Cambridge, for example, concluded that “the poor, the elderly, and families—the three major groups targeted for benefits of rent control—were no more likely to be found in controlled than uncontrolled units.” And, as noted earlier, those in uncontrolled units tend to pay higher rents, so they are actually hurt by rent control.
Given the current research, there seems to be little one can say in favor of rent control.”
And by the way, nobody has a “right” to rent a home in any one particular place.
I would like to add that Paul Krugman – badly a right wing ideologue – wrote an editorial in the NY Times a few years back calling NYC’s rent control laws a disaster.
Paul Krugman is an economist who lives in the world of theories and financial spreadsheets. Like meteorologists, they are using models and patterns and guesswork. But when a meteorologist makes a mistake we get wet, or cold, or too hot…when an economist makes a mistake it usually isn’t realized until later on down the road, and the result is not one but many rainy days. If you ever listen to an economist explain why a prediction they made didn’t come to fruition they make excuse after excuse. Well real people don’t live inside a model or a spreadsheet.
@Steven… Of Course people have the “right” to rent an apt. in one particular place. Don’t be ridiculous! Maybe you should go back to wherever you came from!
do they? Do you have the right to go rent an apartment at the Dakota? or the Apthorp? or in central London or Paris if you can’t write the check for it? I want to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume your comment was a sarcastic one.
Wow @ “nobody wants you here”. Tell us what you really think? The courage it must take to state those comments in an online comments section. Guarantee you wouldn’t say that to someone in person. What a DB!
excellent point, Bob. the idea that market rate tenants subsidize rent stabilized tenants is a myth. it is not a zero sum game, where the lower rents for some are paid for by the higher rents for others.
and in fact we are conducting an economic experiment on the West Side as to what happens when rent stabilized apartments disappear. we have lost tens of thousands of rent-stabilized units in the last 10 years. according to the free-market crowd, this should result in market rate rents coming DOWN. but nothing of the sort has happened. in fact, they have skyrocketed. why? because SUPPLY of UWS apartments is limited. standard supply/demand curves simply don’t apply.
if you wanted INCREASED SUPPLY to bring down rents, then you would have to throw out all zoning laws. even then, it might not be possible, due to costs of construction.
if you want to talk about subsidies, let’s talk about the REAL subsidy to housing: the mortgage interest deduction, which tends to subsidize upper middle class and wealthy condo and co-op owners, not rent stabilized tenants.
It takes more than doctors, lawyers and finance to keep a city going. New York is our city too, it’s not Beverly Hills, it’s a thriving city with people from all walks of life. If you suddenly stopped rent subsidization and rent control, there would be a mass exodus and the city would turn into the kind of enclave you wish for. But it would still need all of those people who could no longer live here, and they would probably still need it. So they would have nightmarish long public transport commutes for crap jobs that you’d have to subsidize, presumably.
And the rents wouldn’t go down either, they would go up even more, because what’s driving them has more to do with the fact that a small percentage of people have the money to pay ridiculous rents and then complain that they are subsidizing the ones without that ability. So what exactly would you be subsidizing then?
I actually saw a report this week (Gothamist? now I can’t remember) about Bushwick rents going down because of a 25% increase in units available for rent. So, apparently NYC is NOT the one exception to supply and demand laws that some bill it to be.
Rent regulation and rent control are long overdue for reform.
But at least some form of these laws is necessary, if not critical, to many people and families.
Mend it, don’t end it.
Everybody knows these laws are a disaster and hurting far more people than they help.
Please elaborate. I am eager to see how you could possibly support such dramatic claims.
New York is not an ordinary real estate market. Those who work and have families here must compete with mega-wealthy investors and playboys from all over the world, for extremely limited space. How many other cities have the same dynamic at-play, at least to the extent that it is here?
If you can’t afford it, don’t live here. Otherwise it’s socialism.
Sean
8 years ago
The entrance to the park at 72nd St and Central Park West is a mess. It has turned into a mini Times Square or Columbus Circle with all the pedicabs. Please clean this up.
Richard
8 years ago
To all the parents pushing children in strollers:
– these are not battering rams to be used to push your way through crowded streets. Although it’s very considerate to use your child as the front edge of such battering ram so as to not injure yourself.
– there is NO f’in excuse for you to rush across a busy street against the light with a child in a stroller. None!
– i know we all have busy lives, but seriously taking a double wide into a crowded store is just obnoxious.
Rant over!
Yes, I often see mothers run across a red light pushing a stroller. It not only makes me cringe, but also wonder how else, each day, she places her child in danger.
However, I have never, never witnessed anyone ramming a stroller into others. What makes me nervous about strollers is 1) very often seeing a child’s foot dangling out of the footrest onto the sidewalk. I visualize a broken ankle. Also, (2) blanket corners dragging on the filthy sidewalks, and toys and bottles falling out, with the nanny placing them back on the baby’s lap where they risk ending up in the child’s mouth. (Maybe nannies need to wear a sign: “If you see me mistreating or neglecting this child, please call 212-______.”)
What disarmingly charms me is Baby with elbows on food tray and a little cell phone in the middle.
(Maybe nannies need to wear a sign: “If you see me mistreating or neglecting this child, please call 212-______.”)
Why only nannies? You began your post with an example of mothers recklessly placing their children in danger.
I wonder, do you ever confront such adults and say anything to them when you encounter such behaviors?
Personally, I have many times seen adults (presumably parents) with children, crossing against the light, jaywalking, even through traffic.
Within the past day or two, I saw a woman with two children on scooters, neither of them wearing a helmet. (Both unambiguously appeared to be well under the age of fourteen, as per below.)
Another point about helmets for bicycling, scootering and skating: Apparently, here in New York City at least, the law only requires that these be worn by those who are under the age of fourteen. What is the rationale behind this? How does it make sense?
First, as far as the relevant physics (and the implications thereof) are concerned, there is little, if any, real difference between individuals below the age of fourteen and individuals above the age of fourteen in this regard. Furthermore, we do not allow individuals of fourteen to drive, smoke, drink alcohol, vote or serve in the armed forces. Neither, at this age, do we consider individuals capable of granting informed consent for participation in sexual activities. So how does it make sense to consider one capable, at the tender age of fourteen, of making an informed decision to place themselves at the significantly increased risk of serious and even fatal bodily harm that bicycling, scootering or skating without the protection of a helmet brings?
Richard you had me until the double stroller comment as I too get annoyed by anyone walking along the street like they own it or running across the road on a red to the sound of cars tooting, not just those with a stroller.
I always try and remind myself that I am seeing a moment in the day for that person. So for the mom seemingly pushing the stroller aggressively, maybe she has just dealt with a toddler meltdown, maybe she is struggling to juggle work with being a mom. Who knows! Sorry Mark but I don’t think they all have miserable lives and are getting back at people.
I have 2 young children and I use a double stroller. I too need to buy food, drink and other items like everyone else and just like everyone else the time at which I buy these items may be at the same time a store is busy. What is the big deal?
I have bad days. Lots of people have rough moments. I don’t ram to not people when things are difficult. Sorry but women pushing strollers into other people seems to be a common phenomenon.
That reminds me…Several months ago, while riding the 1 train, I witnessed a boy, whose age I would place anywhere from roughly thirteen to fifteen, duck under a turnstile. Several factors caused me to find this incident of successful fare evasion by a minor particularly remarkable and even shocking. These were as follows.
1.) A man, who appeared to have been the boy’s father or guardian, was accompanying the boy.
2.) Neither individual, as far as I could see, exhibited any signs of poverty or a disturbed mental state. The dress and personal hygiene of both of them appeared perfectly normal and healthy.
3.) The boy and the man accompanying him acted with complete nonchalance.
(Note that I say, “they”, because the man, by all indications, was fully aware of the boy’s criminal act and therefore would have been complicit in it. This would be true even if this man were merely an adult accompanying the minor and all the more true if, as clearly would appear to have been the case, this man was in fact the minor’s father or guardian.)
4.) The racial identity of both the boy and the man accompanying him: unambiguously Caucasian, which is against the relevant statistical odds here.
I don’t see fare-jumping. It’s more common in midtown, maybe.
Once I was at Union Square; a man with a family told me to open the entrance door for him and showed me an i.d. I looked at the i.d. and, after showing some hesitance, opened the gate.
The moment I did that, a plain-clothes cop stopped the man.
I agree with you Richard. It’s amazing how aggressive young mothers often are when they have strollers. I generally assume they have miserable lives and use this opportunity to “get back at the world”.
Well, Mark, not everyone can be expected to be the exemplar that you appear to be when it comes to feeling content and fulfilled with one’s self and the world and showing consideration and acceptance of others. Perhaps some grace toward those less enlightened than you would be in order.
cj Berk
8 years ago
I’m still wondering-maybe someone can help with an answer. On 72nd& West End NE corner on the side of the deli–there are dirty “Learning Annex”paper boxes which fill up with garbage. There are no more Learning Annex magazines-why aren’t these boxes
removed? The other night we saw a sizable RAT
Rummaging around in one of them. Nice,right?
This seems so easy to solve-sanitation dept should just take them away.
So anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of this seemingly easy problem?
Thanks
You can access “311 Complaint” online (or call them). I have done both, and my experience in both cases was that they really do take action. You will get a confirmation number, in case you need to follow up.
Perhaps you could try the following?:
311
Notify City Councilperson Helen Rosenthal
Alert West Side Spirit newspaper and suggest they do an article on this?
Independent
8 years ago
OPEN THREAD WEDNESDAY: FALL DAYS
Posted on September 16, 2015
Not so fast there…Fall begins on September 23rd, at 08:22 UTC– no less than eight days and just under seven hours from the date and time, as stamped, of the creation of this “Open Thread”. Summer will be over soon enough, no need to rush it.
Verdi Square is a mess.
Please please please pick up your dog poop!!
Why are you assuming it’s dog poop? Perhaps one of our mentally ill shelter friends or street vagrants left it there. In San Francisco they have a big problem with human waste on the street. Your beloved NY Times wrote about it. Perhaps this issue is now a UWS problem as well.
Stop looking at your phone while walking. You impede others by swerving, walking slowly and not paying attention to those around you. You are a hazard and are acting selfishly. If you need to check your phone pull over to the curb or out of the way of the flow of traffic.
Sigh. Guilty. It’s work, I swear! But I know how annoying it is.
I bet you aren’t so important that you have to walk with your head in your phone. Step aside and don’t be so selfish. The world will continue even if you disconnect for a few moments.
Every other block now has a young African man on his phone, selling bags/hats/iPad covers/scarves etc. Who are they? How did they get their permits? Anybody knows?
Remember what happened just after Rudy came into office? He cut the leashes of law enforcement and told us to “go get ’em”. Which we did, with much joy I might add. Almost overnight….ALL the Senegalese hawkers disappeared. You know why? Because we went after their boss, a certain Chinese businessman who literally imported all those vendors, assuming that he didn’t have to pay their return tickets.
Well, we took down Mr. Chinese businessman, seized all his bank accounts, all his property…everything he had and sent all the Senegalese vendors home.
I suspect that another businessman has decided to start back up this lucrative enterprise assuming that de buffoonio won’t do a thing to stop them.
I remember a lot of those from the 80’s. Selling knock-off Gucci, Hermes, Cartier, etc. wares.
Coming home from dinner after an evening out with visiting family and passed by no less than 4 homeless people camped out for the night on Amsterdam between 77th and 76th St. Each one with their own private box and one with a privacy umbrella. Somebody please alert the media, the police and the mayor’s office. This is freaking insane. Just like the late 1970’s.
Coming home from my dinner that cost $200 I saw several people who had just paid millions of dollars to live in tiny apartments just so they could complain about other people living in cardboard boxes on the street. Each one lives in an apartment the size of a small box, and they even have privacy shields on their windows which they call “curtains.” Somebody please alert the media, the police, the mayor, and the NY Post. This is freaking insane, it’s just like 2014!
Leave them alone, they aren’t hurting anyone. If your only complaint is you have to look at people who’ve fallen on hard times on the way home from dinner, then I think the problem is with you.
If you feel that way then why are they on the street and not sleeping on your couch or in your bed?
Thank you for saying this so well Claire.
On a practical note, if anyone feels threatened or concerned about public safety then call 911 or 311. I’ve called twice for mentally erratic people (like, yelling and throwing trash cans around) who I was guessing were homeless. Bloomberg years, by the way.
Sorry Claire, but homeless encampments are a major contributor to a decline in the quality of life for our neighborhood. Many of these poor souls act out, commit petty crimes, leave behind refuse, and urinate and defacate in public places. While having compassion for the down and out is a noble cause, turning a blind eye and pretending that they don’t exist does not help them or our neighborhood.
Agreed. I live in the 80s. Within the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that a “tent” setup (made of large blue tarps) has appeared under the new scaffolding on Broadway near Staples/Westsider Books. The tent/shelter only pops up at night, and it is completely enclosed so you cannot see who might be hiding inside. As a single woman who leaves for work very early in the morning, it makes me uncomfortable to walk past this shelter without knowing who might be hiding inside, especially the pitbull who seems to “live” there along with his or her owner.
@ Claire – You make the case for up and down arrows. In particular, you need to know how absurd your comment comes across.
I do wonder what is going on with that building, though. All the businesses have been closed for years, and the scaffolding has been there forever. I’m sure it’s a sorely needed shelter for the area homeless, but what led this building to fall into such a state and stay there?
I know someone who works for a successful company who has been trying to rent the space, or at least part of the space. City permits have been the holdup, it has been months, they are still trying but aren’t sure it is going to happen. I live near there and the empty space frustrates me out more than the people sleeping under it. It should be hard enough to start a brick and mortar business in NYC that not every jackass with a notion can do it, but not so hard that there is very little incentive to even try.
DEFINITELY !!
Thanks for daring to say this.
The alignment of your post would suggest that it was made in reply to Claire. I have to wonder, however, whether the rather ebullient agreement you expressed was perhaps intended for jezbel’s words?
For in a different thread, you characterized those who would hold the likes of CitiBank accountable for complicity in moral as well as legal crimes that have brought misery to countless numbers of people as, “Preening and Prancing Populists”. I wonder how you would reconcile that with effusively praising Claire’s rather condescending castigation of jezbel. You find no moralistic “preening” in the latter, yet have such harsh words for those who oppose the likes of CitiBank? Really?
Re: “yet have such harsh words for those who oppose the likes of CitiBank? Really?”
YUP! REALLY REALLY!!
Because hating CITIbike just because the bikes carry the name CITI (perfectly appropriate, since CITIBANK helped fund the program) is actually rather ASININE and RIDICULOUS !
But, then again, it is typical of a certain species of UWS “libruls” whose self-appointed mission is to issue holier-than-thou statements attacking ANYTHING that sounds like normal everyday democratic capitalism as well as decrying “Income Inequality (boo-hoo).
Hey, you who oppose “Income Inequality”, try either or both of these solutions:
(a) Help BRING BACK UNIONS;
(b) and/or give away YOUR salary to those suffering Income Inequality!
Ooops, on second though item (b) is a bad idea. Libruls want to spend only OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY!!
79 Street Station (Northbound) is in major NEED of an additional stairway for egress!
The city is accommodating developers and builders with permits to build but the infrastructure is being overlooked.
Can’t developers be required to solve the problem as a condition of building in your area?
Try getting in or out of the south side of the 72nd street 1/2/3 stop during rush hour. I dare you. At least someone didn’t leave a huge pile of poop in the middle of your narrow stairwell.
You’re a rookie Upper West Sider. I remember when the only entrance/exit at 72nd street was the one you reference. It was indeed a dangerous place. But the closing of B’way at Verdi Square and the construction of the North entrance in 2002 has alleviated much of the congestion.
The poop? with all the homeless in that area, you’re lucky it was only one stairwell. Good luck Dale!
Regarding the homeless, a few things…
Other cities are also grappling with this. Hard to believe but actually the situation in San Francisco and LA is worse than NYC. Really.
It has not been clearly reported in the media, but the emergence of K2, a synthetic marijuana, is the major reason for the increase in homeless on the street. K2 causes psychosis among other things. It is also cheap so use has exploded. K2 is also a problem in other cities whether Austin Texas or Chicago etc.
The young homeless people on the street, often with dogs, are people from out of town. They are called “crusties.” They had been coming to Union Square/East Village for years, but around 2009, started coming up to the UWS. (They tend to go to places where there are “younger” people and Trader Joe’s is one such destination) The “word” has gotten out and now there are more. “Crusties” are also in cities throughout the US.
As for homeless families in the shelter system, this population really exploded during the Bloomberg years due to NYC’s changing real estate/demographic scene (luxury).
I would add that I was shocked to learn that my kids who are in NYC’s top public high schools have classmates who are in homeless shelters with their families. You’d be surprised how many working families are in homeless shelters.
True. LA has over 50,000 homeless adults and there are encampments everywhere. What you are upset about is a basic fact of life in LA and SF. It is much much worse. Its shockingly worse. And the crusties are all over America. Thankfully winter is coming. Perhaps these folks will go into sheltets or leave for LA. Maybe we should tell these people about LA. No winter and apparently you can legally sleep on the sidewalk from 9pm to 6am. Weed is practically legal and there are
no prison or shelter beds. Ship em to LA or SF. Please.
Lisa seems to be well-informed and is making substantive points… not just flaming other people or appealing to emotion.
The rise of the homeless population has little to do with “changing demographics” or the rise of luxury housing under Bloomberg.
Unfortunately, there’s a whole subculture of people out there who simply can’t get their act together.
Re: “this population really exploded during the Bloomberg years….”
Check your facts! Yes, Bloomberg DID end some sort of homeless subsidy program, BUT he did it as a result of the state’s cutting off funding to the city for it.
Of course, the truth flies-in-the-face of the usual New-Progressive twaddle, namely that a cold-hearted billionaire mayor was anti-homeless and that the current warm-n’-fuzzy administration is much more caring.
Sure, if you want to believe that!
So why has the homeless population GROWN so much under BdB’s “leadership”??
I think part of the problem with homeless is that there are fewer shelters. Another problem can be that people are priced out of apts with nowhere to go.
While I may or may not agree with you, why does your response have to have this tone? If you were actually speaking with this person face to face, would you respond this way?
If only you would (or even could) begin to realize how many other areas the same could be said for. (At least one of which I dare not even so much as mention, or I would risk my post never seeing the light of day*.) Areas in which, according to all indications, you are no less guilty of being blinded by the very same type of propaganda and disinformation as any of those whom I have seen you lash out for that very failure.
Of course, one who has been effectively indoctrinated does not recognize that he has been indoctrinated. That much is axiomatic. And such an individual is likely to react rather vehemently, with fierce denial, to the suggestion that he has been indoctrinated.
(*This, despite the fact that the posts of mine on the topic-in-question that were rejected were, from any objective perspective, notably less provocative and offensive than any number of other posts of mine that were approved. Perhaps one day, I will elaborate somewhere, such as at a blog or the like, perhaps one that I will start.)
@ Independent – Very well said. Do you think any of your opposition on these boards heard?
Well of course they didn’t. Between their denial and their sanctimony, they have sealed themselves up tightly in their echo chambers, and curse the light.
Thanks, O.D.
More drama. It’s hard to take it seriously. Surely there is some conservative who participates here who can write clearly and objectively. Maybe it’s time for that person to step forward.
It’s really no surprise to see why certain GOP candidates are doing so well in this pre-election season.
Independent – are you aware that your posts are often unreadable?
In general, a concisely made point free of excess emotion and hysteria is more effective.
You make my head hurtie
There has been a lot of recent media reporting on k2 but the drug that is the real problem is heroin. It is cheaper and more available here than elsewhere in the country, and it is drawing in unfortunate addicts from all over. Heroin has turned the area around penn station into a zombie nightmare late at night.
When are NYC politicians going to show some courage and overturn all the rent control and rent regulation laws once and for all?
Everybody knows these laws are a disaster and hurting far more people than they help. Unfortunately, no politician has the political guts to take on the deadbeats whose cheap rents are being subsidized by everyone else.
Sorry Sherman but I happen to think rent stabilization is still Very Much needed!!! And is certainly Not a disaster!!!! Hope it stays for a very long time!!!!!!!!
Hi Sherman,
Just to mention that I (and my family) live in a nice coop but I completely support rent regulation, rent stabilization – and the few remaining rent controlled apartments typically inhabited by the elderly.
Not to catalogue all the reasons, but I will discuss one – rent stabilization helps maintain community stability and civic commitment, and reduces transience.
The East Village is an example of a neighborhood that has been greatly transformed over the past decade – and in my opinion, not for the better. NYU dorm/housing and luxury development (including many pied a terre) have replaced long-time stable residents. Small buildings are being sold to new investors who clearly seek to make money and thus find unscrupulous ways to force out rent stabilized residents. In many ways the area feels like a frat house with folks seeking to drink and hook up – on weekends the sidewalks outside of bars are littered with vomit and trash.
Transients – even affluent ones – have little interest in the viability of a community, little interest in matters such as trash, parks, schools etc. NYC’s success, particularly in the so-called “bad 1970s”, has in large part been due to the strength of its neighborhoods.
What I do not support, by the way, is subsidy for luxury real estate such as the subsidies from us taxpayers for buildings such as One57, the “billionaires” building!
I live in a coop too. My building used to be a rental before it turned coop in the 1980s. There are still plenty of renters left from the old days and these apartments are rent stabilized.
On my floor lives a woman, probably mid 70s, who lives in a 3 bedroom apt by herself (she’s widowed). She pays around $1,500 a month for this place. (Trust me, this womAn is far from destitute). Meanwhile, there are young professionals in the area who might pay 3 times that price to be crammed into a studio.
For this woman to have lived decades in such a giant apt for such a laughably low price is hardly fair or an efficient use of resources. This effects me directly because the coop keeps raising my monthly fees to pay for repairs. Her rent, of course, can’t be touched.
Every college freshman who takes Economics 101 does a case study in NYC rent control and the disastrous results of it.
NYC’s rent laws hurt far more people than they help. It’s not even a seriously debatable topic.
I agree that the rent regulations should be phased out. They benefit a select few at the expense of everyone else. Price controls are not the answer to NYC’s housing problem. Increasing the available supply of housing is.
To those who say “only doctors, lawyers, and bankers” would be able to live in NYC without rent regulations, I would point out that the regulated units have no income requirements except when the unit reaches $2700 per month. And then the max household income is 200k. Most cities do not have rent regulations, and miraculously people do find places to live.
I wouldn’t call them deadbeats, but it is a simple economic fact that rent controls only make a housing crisis worse. There’s a reason every city that has them is unaffordable
I would love to see a rational, just system replace it – say, a voucher program, paid for by higher taxes on all, including tenants – but how likely is it that those who currently benefit from the system will make a sacrifice for their fellow man?
Actually it’s only a fact in certain situations. It is mostly theoretical really but whatever! The consensus of rent control opponents is that if the controls went away the market would correct itself and everyone would be better off because price ceilings are bad blah blah blah and they would not have to “subsidize” those people that benefit. Only that that actually won’t happen…not in NYC that is. The person paying $3,500 a month today with rent control will pay $3,500 a month tomorrow without rent control. So since that price they pay won’t change it comes down to just hating on those that they feel are getting a benefit they don’t deserve. The opponents of rent control should just stop trying to use the economics and price ceilings are bad, and just be honest that you hate somebody getting something you are not.
1000x this. It would bring real costs to light instead of hiding them in the morass of the rent regulation system. I’m guessing, however, that about 95% of currently regulated tenants would not be in favor of giving up any special treatment they receive in order to help their fellow humans (based on the ones I know currently in such an apartment who are the most entitled upper middle class people I know)
Yeah, lets make sure that Manhattan and the Upper West Side especially is populated only by lawyers, doctors, and finance people ,those who have been smart enough to get into professions that pay! Everyone else who thinks they have the right to live around here are deadbeats, as long as their professions don’t give them the wherewhithal to afford market rate. Glamorous movie stars and pop musicians and such are welcome—-success pays.
All the people who keep the city going can commute from Staten Island or other “poor” enclaves even further out. And if I can’t get one of these deadbeats to come in from the boondocks and teach guitar lessons to my daughter at a discount because rent is so low in the deadbeat boondocks, I will just hire Taylor Swift. I’m sure whatever she charges is worth it, quality costs money.
You might want to take a look at this:
https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/rent-control-good-policy
This is from the Urban Institute, a pretty liberal group. An excerpt from the article:
“The conclusion seems to be that rent stabilization doesn’t do a good job of protecting its intended beneficiaries—poor or vulnerable renters—because the targeting of the benefits is very haphazard. A study of rent stabilization in Cambridge, for example, concluded that “the poor, the elderly, and families—the three major groups targeted for benefits of rent control—were no more likely to be found in controlled than uncontrolled units.” And, as noted earlier, those in uncontrolled units tend to pay higher rents, so they are actually hurt by rent control.
Given the current research, there seems to be little one can say in favor of rent control.”
And by the way, nobody has a “right” to rent a home in any one particular place.
I would like to add that Paul Krugman – badly a right wing ideologue – wrote an editorial in the NY Times a few years back calling NYC’s rent control laws a disaster.
Paul Krugman is an economist who lives in the world of theories and financial spreadsheets. Like meteorologists, they are using models and patterns and guesswork. But when a meteorologist makes a mistake we get wet, or cold, or too hot…when an economist makes a mistake it usually isn’t realized until later on down the road, and the result is not one but many rainy days. If you ever listen to an economist explain why a prediction they made didn’t come to fruition they make excuse after excuse. Well real people don’t live inside a model or a spreadsheet.
@Steven… Of Course people have the “right” to rent an apt. in one particular place. Don’t be ridiculous! Maybe you should go back to wherever you came from!
do they? Do you have the right to go rent an apartment at the Dakota? or the Apthorp? or in central London or Paris if you can’t write the check for it? I want to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume your comment was a sarcastic one.
You’ve read my mind.
There are plenty of cheap places to live in Staten Island. Go live there. Nobody wants you here.
Why should I be subsidizing a lifestyle you can’t afford?
Do I have a right to move to Beverly Hills, complain I can’t afford to live there then insist that everyone subsidize my lifestyle?
Wow @ “nobody wants you here”. Tell us what you really think? The courage it must take to state those comments in an online comments section. Guarantee you wouldn’t say that to someone in person. What a DB!
How exactly are you subsidizing rent stabilized or rent controlled apartments?
excellent point, Bob. the idea that market rate tenants subsidize rent stabilized tenants is a myth. it is not a zero sum game, where the lower rents for some are paid for by the higher rents for others.
and in fact we are conducting an economic experiment on the West Side as to what happens when rent stabilized apartments disappear. we have lost tens of thousands of rent-stabilized units in the last 10 years. according to the free-market crowd, this should result in market rate rents coming DOWN. but nothing of the sort has happened. in fact, they have skyrocketed. why? because SUPPLY of UWS apartments is limited. standard supply/demand curves simply don’t apply.
if you wanted INCREASED SUPPLY to bring down rents, then you would have to throw out all zoning laws. even then, it might not be possible, due to costs of construction.
if you want to talk about subsidies, let’s talk about the REAL subsidy to housing: the mortgage interest deduction, which tends to subsidize upper middle class and wealthy condo and co-op owners, not rent stabilized tenants.
It takes more than doctors, lawyers and finance to keep a city going. New York is our city too, it’s not Beverly Hills, it’s a thriving city with people from all walks of life. If you suddenly stopped rent subsidization and rent control, there would be a mass exodus and the city would turn into the kind of enclave you wish for. But it would still need all of those people who could no longer live here, and they would probably still need it. So they would have nightmarish long public transport commutes for crap jobs that you’d have to subsidize, presumably.
And the rents wouldn’t go down either, they would go up even more, because what’s driving them has more to do with the fact that a small percentage of people have the money to pay ridiculous rents and then complain that they are subsidizing the ones without that ability. So what exactly would you be subsidizing then?
I actually saw a report this week (Gothamist? now I can’t remember) about Bushwick rents going down because of a 25% increase in units available for rent. So, apparently NYC is NOT the one exception to supply and demand laws that some bill it to be.
Rent regulation and rent control are long overdue for reform.
But at least some form of these laws is necessary, if not critical, to many people and families.
Mend it, don’t end it.
Please elaborate. I am eager to see how you could possibly support such dramatic claims.
New York is not an ordinary real estate market. Those who work and have families here must compete with mega-wealthy investors and playboys from all over the world, for extremely limited space. How many other cities have the same dynamic at-play, at least to the extent that it is here?
If you can’t afford it, don’t live here. Otherwise it’s socialism.
The entrance to the park at 72nd St and Central Park West is a mess. It has turned into a mini Times Square or Columbus Circle with all the pedicabs. Please clean this up.
To all the parents pushing children in strollers:
– these are not battering rams to be used to push your way through crowded streets. Although it’s very considerate to use your child as the front edge of such battering ram so as to not injure yourself.
– there is NO f’in excuse for you to rush across a busy street against the light with a child in a stroller. None!
– i know we all have busy lives, but seriously taking a double wide into a crowded store is just obnoxious.
Rant over!
Yes, I often see mothers run across a red light pushing a stroller. It not only makes me cringe, but also wonder how else, each day, she places her child in danger.
However, I have never, never witnessed anyone ramming a stroller into others. What makes me nervous about strollers is 1) very often seeing a child’s foot dangling out of the footrest onto the sidewalk. I visualize a broken ankle. Also, (2) blanket corners dragging on the filthy sidewalks, and toys and bottles falling out, with the nanny placing them back on the baby’s lap where they risk ending up in the child’s mouth. (Maybe nannies need to wear a sign: “If you see me mistreating or neglecting this child, please call 212-______.”)
What disarmingly charms me is Baby with elbows on food tray and a little cell phone in the middle.
Why only nannies? You began your post with an example of mothers recklessly placing their children in danger.
I wonder, do you ever confront such adults and say anything to them when you encounter such behaviors?
Personally, I have many times seen adults (presumably parents) with children, crossing against the light, jaywalking, even through traffic.
Within the past day or two, I saw a woman with two children on scooters, neither of them wearing a helmet. (Both unambiguously appeared to be well under the age of fourteen, as per below.)
Another point about helmets for bicycling, scootering and skating: Apparently, here in New York City at least, the law only requires that these be worn by those who are under the age of fourteen. What is the rationale behind this? How does it make sense?
First, as far as the relevant physics (and the implications thereof) are concerned, there is little, if any, real difference between individuals below the age of fourteen and individuals above the age of fourteen in this regard. Furthermore, we do not allow individuals of fourteen to drive, smoke, drink alcohol, vote or serve in the armed forces. Neither, at this age, do we consider individuals capable of granting informed consent for participation in sexual activities. So how does it make sense to consider one capable, at the tender age of fourteen, of making an informed decision to place themselves at the significantly increased risk of serious and even fatal bodily harm that bicycling, scootering or skating without the protection of a helmet brings?
Richard you had me until the double stroller comment as I too get annoyed by anyone walking along the street like they own it or running across the road on a red to the sound of cars tooting, not just those with a stroller.
I always try and remind myself that I am seeing a moment in the day for that person. So for the mom seemingly pushing the stroller aggressively, maybe she has just dealt with a toddler meltdown, maybe she is struggling to juggle work with being a mom. Who knows! Sorry Mark but I don’t think they all have miserable lives and are getting back at people.
I have 2 young children and I use a double stroller. I too need to buy food, drink and other items like everyone else and just like everyone else the time at which I buy these items may be at the same time a store is busy. What is the big deal?
I have bad days. Lots of people have rough moments. I don’t ram to not people when things are difficult. Sorry but women pushing strollers into other people seems to be a common phenomenon.
I have seen a father in a grocery store (who looked well-to-do) stuff yogurt containers into the folded canopy of his little boy’s stroller.
So, strollers can be multi-use items.
That reminds me…Several months ago, while riding the 1 train, I witnessed a boy, whose age I would place anywhere from roughly thirteen to fifteen, duck under a turnstile. Several factors caused me to find this incident of successful fare evasion by a minor particularly remarkable and even shocking. These were as follows.
1.) A man, who appeared to have been the boy’s father or guardian, was accompanying the boy.
2.) Neither individual, as far as I could see, exhibited any signs of poverty or a disturbed mental state. The dress and personal hygiene of both of them appeared perfectly normal and healthy.
3.) The boy and the man accompanying him acted with complete nonchalance.
(Note that I say, “they”, because the man, by all indications, was fully aware of the boy’s criminal act and therefore would have been complicit in it. This would be true even if this man were merely an adult accompanying the minor and all the more true if, as clearly would appear to have been the case, this man was in fact the minor’s father or guardian.)
4.) The racial identity of both the boy and the man accompanying him: unambiguously Caucasian, which is against the relevant statistical odds here.
I don’t see fare-jumping. It’s more common in midtown, maybe.
Once I was at Union Square; a man with a family told me to open the entrance door for him and showed me an i.d. I looked at the i.d. and, after showing some hesitance, opened the gate.
The moment I did that, a plain-clothes cop stopped the man.
Thank God I had looked hesitate!
The son did it on a dare from his dad, perhaps?
I agree with you Richard. It’s amazing how aggressive young mothers often are when they have strollers. I generally assume they have miserable lives and use this opportunity to “get back at the world”.
Well, Mark, not everyone can be expected to be the exemplar that you appear to be when it comes to feeling content and fulfilled with one’s self and the world and showing consideration and acceptance of others. Perhaps some grace toward those less enlightened than you would be in order.
I’m still wondering-maybe someone can help with an answer. On 72nd& West End NE corner on the side of the deli–there are dirty “Learning Annex”paper boxes which fill up with garbage. There are no more Learning Annex magazines-why aren’t these boxes
removed? The other night we saw a sizable RAT
Rummaging around in one of them. Nice,right?
This seems so easy to solve-sanitation dept should just take them away.
So anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of this seemingly easy problem?
Thanks
CJ, I should have included the “311 Complaint” online address for you. For “Dirty Sidewalks” (the closest option), it is:
https://www1.nyc.gov/apps/311universalintake/form.htm?serviceName=DSNY+Dirty+Sidewalk
Your next step would be to fill in the description.
You can access “311 Complaint” online (or call them). I have done both, and my experience in both cases was that they really do take action. You will get a confirmation number, in case you need to follow up.
Important issue.
Perhaps you could try the following?:
311
Notify City Councilperson Helen Rosenthal
Alert West Side Spirit newspaper and suggest they do an article on this?
Not so fast there…Fall begins on September 23rd, at 08:22 UTC– no less than eight days and just under seven hours from the date and time, as stamped, of the creation of this “Open Thread”. Summer will be over soon enough, no need to rush it.
but the Thread goes on…
…long enough and it’ll need to be renamed:
“WINTER DAYS”