Christmas at the Dakota, photo by Avi.
December 14, 2011 Weather: Mostly Sunny, High of 47 Degrees.
Notices:
Upper West Sider William Anderson is once again holding a meetup for folks who work from home today at The Dead Poet Bar on Amsterdam between 81st and 82nd Street starting at 2 p.m. He will have a Jose Reyes bobblehead doll with him so you can recognize him.
News:
George and Ira Gershwin’s old penthouse apartment at 33 Riverside Drive overlooking the 79th Street boat basin is on the market for $2.5 million. (Curbed)
Upper West Siders are starting to speak out against the imminent arrival of Sugar & Plumm Purveyors of Yumm, a candy store slated for the corner of 78th street and Amsterdam Avenue. Opponents think it’s garish and too suburban, and a damn shame that it is replacing five small businesses. They hope at the very least that the business changes the barber-shop-esque poles that are planned for the outside of the store. It’s expected to open this spring. One Upper West Sider started a website at stopsugarandplumm.com. (DNAinfo and our tipster Tovah)
A new law targets illegal hotels, which have drawn lots of complaints on the Upper West Side. The law says you can’t rent out rooms in apartment buildings or other multiple dwelling units for overnight stays. Two Upper West Side building owners just lost a suit trying to block the law. (The Real Deal and DNAinfo)
It now appears that Mamajuana Cafe, the new Dominican spot on Amsterdam and 88th Street that we mentioned on our map of 25 new openings and closings, will open Friday. (Zagat)
The New York Times has been referring to Central Park horse carriages as “hansom cabs” since 1985, but they’re not because hansom cabs have two wheels. They just realized the error and corrected it. (NY Times)
Here’s the thing about Sugar & Plumm–it’s NOT replacing five small businesses. Those places closed a year ago, and there have been shuttered, empty, depressing storefronts on an entire block since then. Sugar & Plumm is replacing THAT, which seems like a good thing. But some people will complain about anything.
These whiners need to get a life….and I bet a few of them are some local competitors
Well, the landlord raised rents on the block where Sugar & Plumm was located, and that probably led to some of these small businesses closing. Unfortunate, but what are we supposed to do now, just have an empty hole there? The landlord might have had perfectly legitimate reasons for raising the rents, and I’m not surprised that places like a stationery store, independent butcher or eyeglasses place would have problems meeting that rent. Sugar & Plumm looks like a nice place. It looks like it’ll have a bathroom you wouldn’t worry about catching the plague from. And it looks like it’ll be well-lit. Have you ever walked by a string of “small businesses” at night? It’s not very reassuring to walk by five or six steel gates at 11pm.