Photo by Lea.
January 17, 2013 Weather: Cloudy, High of 41 Degrees.
Notices:
Free yoga, and a free Lincoln Center big band concert tonight on our calendar.
Apologies: we flubbed the date in our story about a fundraiser for the general manager of The Underground. It’s happening on Sunday, not Saturday. Also, the press release had the wrong zip code to send donations. It’s been fixed.
News:
We hear that the building at 330 West 86th Street has sold for $6.75 million to W. Financial Fund L.P. and has already undergone some renovations. It is apparently vacant and has 10 market-rate apartments. That building was supposed to be torn down and replaced by a skinny luxury building, but after a decade-long fight the plan was killed. Activists tell us that they “remain alert” for more changes at the site.
Changes on the East side of Amsterdam Avenue between 78th and 79th Streets sparked controversy in the past few years, as numerous retail tenants were forced out by higher rents. Now the retail spaces at 383-391 Amsterdam Avenue have been sold for $12.2 million. “With strong rents and a diverse tenant base, this property was a tremendous investment for the buyer on one of the Upper West Side’s prime retail corridors,” said Massey Knakal First Vice President of Sales Guthrie Garvin…The current tenants are photography studio Classic Kids, Bagels and Co, ice cream shop Emack and Bolio, NOI Café, kids clothing store Stoopher and Boots, and Apthorp Cleaners.” Could their rents go up again? (Observer)
“The Fortuna Realty Group sold the multifamily buildings located at 215 W. 108th St. and 210 W. 109th St. in New York, NY to Tri Properties LLC for $14 million, or about $311,000 per unit… The 17,710-square-foot property on 108th St. was built in 1925 and totals 23 one- and three-bedroom apartments. The 15,944-square-foot property on 109th St. was built in 1910 and totals 22 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.” (Costar Group)
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey said Obamacare is akin to “fascism.” He reportedly said: “Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it, and that’s what’s happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms.” I heard from one Upper West Sider who wants to boycott the high-end supermarket, but I’d bet you 100 pounds of organic beef that it’s not gonna happen. (Slate)
I am now more likely to shop at Whole Foods. It’s seldom I hear something so reasonable on the UWS.
Obamacare quandary:
“What this whole failure before launch exposes is that incentives matter and that government does not fully comprehend that simple fact. Creating a system where people are forced to purchase a product by penalizing them if they don’t — and the penalty is cheaper than buying the product — it’s odd that they would just now realize that people will pay the penalty.
After all, Obamacare forces insurance companies to insure those with pre-existing conditions, so you only have to buy health care when you need it. It makes little sense to purchase health care when you can go the cheaper route of purchasing only when you need it.”
http://netrightdaily.com/2013/01/obamacare-is-already-running-into-major-problems/
How to game the system at the expense of your neighbors, family and fellow citizens in 109 words by NikFrom NYC.
Disturbing on so many levels… .
Gaming the system? Nik is just obeying the Obama rules! Other than that, Wally, you must have way too much time on your hands if you’re counting words! Are you sure it wasn’t 110?
And I’m sure that all of you folks who think Obamacare is so freaking wonderful will be the first to complain when it really hits next year and your insurance premiums go thru the roof! Unless of course, you’re working for one of Obama’s banks and they’re paying for it. But gee, maybe they’ll even increase your contribution to pay the extra cost.
If what we are looking at when we consider the pharmaceutical industry’s control of health care in the US, then what else is it but fascism? One of the many tails wagging the US Government.
“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” – Benito Mussolini.
I will certainly boycott Whole Foods. We have Fairway and Trader Joe’s. I have no need to patronize a chain which has a CEO who thinks the President is a fascist for creating Affordable Health Care.
Goodbye, Whole Foods.
Mhole Foods’ Mackey might know how to run a supermarket chain, but he sure is a total failure at understanding what the word fascism really means. When he is through counting his money and finished with his closed-minded right wing tantrums, he might want to look up the word in a dictionary. I have never shopped in his overpriced, overhyped WH stores and I never will enter them. He also should do some studying about Hitler,
Whoa! I don’t think CEO Mackey is calling the Prez a fascist, but referring to a D.D.E. version of the military/industrial complex: the H.M.O./Pharmaceutical complex. [It seems “everyone” is fighting their drug plan providers or H.M.O. on some level, which makes them (the people) real Americans!] We need a real national health care programme with possibly Medicare for all and the single-payer option for sure.
Here we go again. I love Emack & Bolio’s ice cream; but I bet it’s gone soon like almost all of the small shops that made Amsterdam Avenue such a fun place to live and to shop.
Wonder what will move into those spaces — another Duane Reade or another bank. Wow!! Just what we need.