Photo of the Tugboat Race on the Hudson this weekend by Bette Kerr.
Check out excerpts of some stories about the neighborhood that were published in other media outlets over the past week.
John McEnroe has sold his apartment in the Beresford on Central Park West for $3.1 million.”The property, a one-bedroom apartment with a dining room, a wide living room and two full bathrooms, came on the market in April and went into contract one month later, according to StreetEasy.” (The Real Deal)
Even as tennis’ bad boy leaves the Beresford, a famous hawk and his mate have taken up residence at the historic building. “Pale Male and Lola [his new mate] have flown the coop and left their nest on Fifth Avenue. The 14-year-old red-tailed hawk and his mate have new digs on the 24th floor of the Beresford Apartments on the Upper West Side” (Correction: Sadly, Lola is deceased.) (NY1)
After asking $31 million a few years ago, the owners of the Schinasi Mansion at 107th and Riverside sold it for $14 million. (Still enough to fill a swimming pool with $1 bills!) The new owner is a “New York businessman” who used to live abroad. Any guesses? (Curbed)
Central Park took an animal census last week, to see if the ecology has changed in the past decade. Researchers were excited to find a few bats, which have been disappearing in recent years. “For 24 hours, starting on Monday afternoon, a dozen experts in lichens, spiders, birds, fish, reptiles, mammals and flowering plants fanned out across the park in a so-called bioblitz.” (NY Times, The Atlantic and Urban Hawks)
Gus, the famous Central Park polar bear, died last week at the age of 27?. Here’s a funny take from 1994 on his time in therapy. (NY Times)
Abigail Lino of Manhattan Valley was killed in a hit and run in the Bronx. (DNAinfo)
St. Luke’s Hospital leased out a building on 113th street, which will allow it to be rehabilitated. “In fact the building’s need of electrical work and the presence of lead paint prevented apartments from being leased to families with children under age seven, a set of factors that depressed vacancy to just 35%.” (Crain’s)
A couple was robbed on a recent weekend in Central Park and police sent helicopters. “Police say the robber approached the couple at 79th Street and West Drive and claimed to have a gun.” (NY1)
The NYPD has designated entire mosques as terrorist organizations. “Designating an entire mosque as a terrorism enterprise means that anyone who attends prayer services there is a potential subject of an investigation and fair game for surveillance.” (Associated Press)
The people who race sailboats on the Central Park pond say that the Internet and videogames are making it hard for them to recruit new members. Also, the trees are so big around the pond that they stop the wind. “The sailing was better when we were young.” (Wall Street Journal)
Pale Male and his mate (not Lola, as NY1 calls her; Lola died several years ago) relocated because scaffolding is now covering the nest that Pale Male built and has used for over a decade. See Lincoln Karim’s lates photos of the birds and the building at palemale.com.
You have to admire Pale Male’s familiarity with the upscale real estate market – only the best building’s will do, apparently.
Anyone who has paid attention to the saga of Pale Male for more than a few months knows that the Beresford has long been a favoured perching spot when it is not nesting season, and that sometimes PM and his mate carry sticks there. Lola used to roost at the Beresford at night a sizeable fraction of the year. Go back to about 2007 and you will find the same breathless articles popping up in the news in the summer saying that the hawks have, gasp!, abandoned Fifth Ave and have relocated to the Beresford. But come next winter and spring, they’ll be back at the nest on Fifth.