It’s rare to have a grand closing celebration, but that’s what happened Friday. Check out that and other local news from the past week below.
Workers, locals and activists celebrated in the snow on Friday to mark the closing of Saigon Grill, the Vietnamese restaurant on 90th street, which opponents said was a sweatshop. The picture above is courtesy of Wendy Cheung of the Chinese Staff and Workers Association. The sign above the door was taken down the next day, Ken Lupano tells us. (NY Times)
An 11-room Beresford apartment just hit the market for $24 million. It’s “basically like living in an actual castle on Central Park West.” (Curbed)
Parts at the Manhattan School for Children on West 93rd street created an 18,000 book library in the school, which previously had no library at all. (DNAinfo)
Local auxiliary cop Ron Maxwell dresses in drag every week for the Rocky Horror Picture Show. “When the pre-movie dance party began, Mr. Maxwell galloped into the fray and let loose. After his first number, ‘Dammit Janet,’ he changed seamlessly from the tux into a tan jacket outfit, then a lab coat, then a blue robe, then fishnets for the floor-show finale.” (NY Times)
Yoselyn Ortega, the nanny accused of murdering two children in their home on West 75th street last year, had her first public court appearance on Friday. “Ortega, who slashed herself after the alleged attack and bears a thick scar on her throat, was in court for just two minutes as Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro expressed impatience at how long it is taking for her to be psychologically evaluated.” She’s due back in court next month. (NY1 and NY Post)
The centerpiece of Christine Quinn’s “affordable housing” plan for New York is a tax subsidy for developers. Mayor Bloomberg rejected a version of the same plan a couple of years ago because it was “an unacceptably generous giveaway to the real estate industry.” (NY Times)
West End Avenue is filled with beautiful Roman brick. (NY Times)
Read about the rustic wood structures in Central Park. (Conservancy)
Court eviction notice dated March 4 was observed taped to the door of Saigon Grill on Sunday afternoon.
SIGNAGE IS ALL TAKEN DOWN FROM SAIGON GRILL….LIKE IT NEVER EXISTED