The El Dorado hawks on Central Park West. Photo by rbs10025.
People fight tooth-and-nail to live on the Upper West Side. Sometimes they fight tooth and nail over their dogs too. That and other news from the past week is in our bulletin this week.
After their dogs got into a scuffle in Central Park, Jeffrey Drogin and Ralph Wachtel got into a brawl of their own. Drogin had just pulled Wachtel’s Dalmatian off of his German short-haired pointer. “That’s when the wily Wachtel morphed into a pit bull, Drogin said, furiously punching him in the face, head and back and breaking one of his teeth. ‘He just cold-cocked me and pummeled me,’ Drogin said. ‘I was holding his dog, so I was defenseless.'” And now a judge gets to hear all about it. (Daily News)
Real estate investment firm The Orbach Group just bought 3 buildings on 107th street with 178 rent-stabilized units for about $70 million from Dermot Company. The landlord is clearly excited to turn those rent-stabilized units into market-rate apartments. “The three apartment buildings — 210, 220, and 230 West 107th Street — are located between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway and include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, with market rents that The Orbach Group said will range between $2,400 and $5,000 per month.” (Observer and Crain’s)
A Community Board committee approved a plan to remove parking spots on 106th street at the entrance to Central Park and replace them with a bus stop. The parking spots will be moved one block North. “Getting rid of cars there really improves the sight line for bikers seeing each other, for everybody,” said Klari Neuwelt, the co-chair for the parks committee. (DNAinfo)
The NYPD is finally beginning to investigate non-fatal (or near-fatal) collisions between cars and pedestrians and cyclists. It’s also going to describe crashes as “collisions,” instead of “accidents.”(NY Times)
The city is planning to spend $2.5 million to give Riverside Park South a makeover, as we reported last week. A recent site tour elicited numerous proposals for how to spend the money: “The ideas were flowing, with proposals ranging from resurfacing the basketball courts, adding a rock climbing wall and creating a batting cage for the area’s Little League teams. Community Board 7 member Ken Coughlin recommended creating a wider space between bike riders and other path users to avoid collisions and congestion — common park complaints. Board member Mel Wymore said he worries that the cost of the recommended improvements could outpace the budget.” (DNAinfo)
Here’s a nice slideshow of some very old playground photos in Central Park. (Central Park Conservancy)
The City Council is now supporting plans to use speed cameras to catch speeding drivers. (NY1)
The Council is also rolling back some public disclosure laws on campaign finance spending. (New York World)
Dogs and bicycles in the same post? Throw in a bit on strollers and we’ve got an UWS menace trifecta!
(Disclosure, I’m a dog lover. But it seems like every clash and snipe in our neighborhood is about dogs, bicycles, or strollers and who is being inconsiderate to whom.)
The playground photos are great! A wooden sliding pond! Imagine the splinters…
Yet another group of buildings with “affordable housing on UWS. Wow!! So much for low and middle income on UWS.