Photo by Ed Yourdon.
October 5, 2012 Weather: Sunny, High of 79 Degrees.
Notices:
Events today include a bunch of free films as part of the New York Film Festival starting at 10 a.m., a showing of the classic movie Unforgiven, and free music. On our calendar.
We hear from a resident on West 84th Street that the block’s legendary mosquitoes are back “ever since we turned off the air conditioning.” Read more about the bloodsuckers and the city’s attempts to eradicate them here and let us know if you’re getting bitten.
We’ve gotten some great responses to our “Old Jews Telling Jokes” contest and will post them shortly and ask you to vote. Please do!
If you want to vote in primaries next year, you need to choose a party by Oct. 12. “People who register to vote after Oct. 12 — because they are not currently registered, or are registered in another state — are not affected by the deadline,” says the Times. Learn more here. And download aregistartion form here. Thanks to City Council candidate Ken Biberaj for the heads up.
News:
Casey Tolan at the Columbia Spectator delves into an issue we’ve been hearing about and writing on for the past few months: is the law imposing big fines for housing tourists in apartment buildings causing landlords to turn the buildings into homeless shelters to make more cash? “[Councilwoman Gale] Brewer said that neither tourists nor homeless people should live in buildings that are intended for permanent residents. ‘We are going to try to make sure they’re not there,’ Brewer said. ‘Those units are supposed to be used for permanent housing.'” Some local residents are urging Brewer and others to file suit against the city over the 95th Street shelters, but she says “if a lawsuit is filed that she thinks is winnable.” (Columbia Spectator)
Christopher Gray calls Broadway between 83rd and 84th Streets “an off-tune architectural jug band” in his Streetscape column about the block. (NY Times)
A fire at Robert DeNiro’s apartment on 69th Street a couple of months ago may have been caused by the security cameras or intercom system, not lint in the dryer as was initially reported. (Daily News)
The converted chapel at 455 Central Park West, “perhaps the quirkiest unit in a building with a colorful history as a cancer hospital-turned-nursing home-turned residences,” sold for $8 million, half the original ask. (The Real Deal via Curbed)
The city is considering amending certain business regulations to make them less onerous. Cse in point: an Upper West Side newsstand operator who was fined for having a sign that slightly too small. (NY Post)
I live on West 72nd Street and I’m being eaten alive my mosquitoes. I know West 84th Street has it bad but it’s a problem everywhere.
I am having some mosquito issues myself. But I must say, better mosquitos than more homeless shelters, glad the media is staying on this failed homeless policy which is stripping our neighborhood of permanent affordable housing, replacing it with homeless shelters flooding the area with people who have no stake in the community. The City is BROKE, how can it afford $3K/mos per head on Riverside Drive? I am thinking of applying for shelter there, I would love to live across from the park (but can’t afford it)! That would be worth putting up with the nasty mosquitoes…
Mosquitoes are definitely back. I’m killing several per day and still getting bitten. Youngest son has welts all over legs and arms, even with spray.
DDT.
Yup. On 84th Street. In agony from the swollen, itchy welts. So miserable.