Photo by Bette Kerr.
August 3, 2015 Weather: Sunny, with a high of 81 degrees.
Notices:
Check out our calendar for this week. It’s got more than 60 events on it, from free concerts, readings and films, to outdoor theater and fitness events. (One correction: we initially had the Naumberg Bandshell concert listed for the wrong date.)
On Tuesday starting at 6, police will be holding National Night Out Against Crime at various spots in the neighborhood. Check our calendar for the specifics. There won’t be community council meetings this month, so use this opportunity to meet officers and discuss concerns.
Lincoln Center will host a September 11 tribute by the Buglisi Dance Theater once again this year. See images from the performance a couple of years ago. “The tribute will take place Friday September 11, beginning at 8:15 AM and concluding at 8:46 AM, the moment when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.”
Anyone missing a black cat? “Sunday Night @11:45 pm, UWS spotted a smallish black cat run across Columbus Ave at 79th street and into the park behind the Museum of Natural History, by the side entrance to the Rose Center. The cat dashed into the bushes and did not respond to my call.”
News:
An unnamed Upper West Sider wrote in to the Times this weekend asking what to do about a drunk, belligerent super. The address wasn’t listed. Ronda Kaysen writes: “Whether or not he is on the clock, your superintendent should not be getting into fights or passing out in front of the building.” Good advice!
Councilman Mark Levine joined the push for a new protected bike lane on Amsterdam Avenue, writing a letter to the Department of Transportation.
A man robbed the Chase branch at 76th and Columbus on Saturday, demanding (and receiving) cash from the teller. “He was wearing a gray sweat shirt whose hood was pulled over his head, dark-colored sunglasses and a goatee.”
Tenants sued an HDFC coop at 13-19 W. 106th St. say board members have been running the building into the ground, racking up debts even as they pay themselves handsome salaries.
Crain’s got some more info on the old CNN clock, which is more high-tech than the old one. “The sign is more modern than the previous version, which consisted of a stationary placard of the CNN logo above a smaller digital display that projected the time and temperature…A spokesman for SL Green said that CNN’s lease for the sign had expired, but declined to comment further. It’s not clear how much SL Green spent to install the digital billboard or how much it expects to earn from it.”
If you have a drunk belligerent super, as with any job they can be easily fired. Our super was a total jerk and screamed at tenants, as well as other unbelievable stuff not worth getting into, basically because he felt he was above the law and could do anything to any tenant. A written complaint to your board can begin the proceedings to have them fired. It was the best move for the building and in the end we ended up with a much much better super.
We did the same a few years ago. Unfortunately this super was beloved by the board member (for whom he did a lot of extra work in some of their apartments). Document the problem, get the support of your neighbors and replace him. Getting a good replacement might take a couple of candidates though, we had a couple of guys that didn’t work out after a probationary period but then found an excellent replacement.
Interesting new format The Rag is using for breaking the bad news. Sprinkling it in between innocuous and meaningless items.
Sounds like you’re going to be staring your own blog? I can’t wait! You should call it “Sunny Side Up”, or some such.
You know, because you’re such a ray of light in a darkened world.
That is indeed what “Off Duty”s unapologetic dissent is here: a welcome, invigorating change from the deeply entrenched, reflexive, ethnomasochist, doctrinaire, Cultural Marxist* orthodoxy that dominates both this site as well as the geographical area it represents.
I note that “dirk” has repeatedly accused “Off Duty” of being a troll. In light of that, as well as any number of other comments about OD that dirk has made, one has to wonder why he continues to respond to OD at all.
On June 8th, dirk made a particularly instructive post in which he made the following statements about “Off Duty”.
( https://www.westsiderag.com/2015/06/08/central-park-robbery-suspect-arrested-as-another-mugging-is-reported#comment-269261 )
The irony of these statements should be self-evident.
Dirk’s repeated responses to Off-Duty say more about dirk than than they do about Off Duty.
*I use “Cultural Marxism” as shorthand for a set of views and positions, primary among which are the following: ethnomasochist, suicidal immigration policy and racial fallacies, fantasies and fictions; assertion of a concocted “right” to the murder of the unborn and partially-born; and ebullient, preening championing of the “LGBTQ” agenda. There is much to be said about each but alas, the exigencies of the forum and the limits of the moderator’s toleration of dissent do not permit me to elaborate.
I agree with you, “Independant”! There’s nothing quite like Off Duty’s particular brand of welcome, invigorating comments. Let’s enjoy, again, one of his “best of” contributions and celebrate his thoughtful musings:
June 5, 2015 at 6:22 pm
Off Duty says:
“We should be seeing more and more suicides and attempts as obola’s economy goes further and further into the pit of depression, and as people’s worlds fall apart economically and socially. All the great liberal experiments are about to dissolve.
You’ve aborted your babies, so who is gonna look after you in your old age?
You’ve “liberated” yourselves into divorce, homosexuality and “feminism”, so loneliness will now be your reward.
You’ve allowed corrupt politicians to export your economy, inflate the currency, destroy your Constitution and leave open the borders so illegal aliens can come pouring in and TAKE the fruits of your labors.
You’ve “dumbed-down” your school systems so much that companies have to look overseas for qualified employees.
So who could be better than mayor de buffoonio in charge right now?”
Hate to tell you this, but if your super is in the union (32BJ), you can’t just get rid of him, especially if it’s a rental building. The union has a whole process of arbitration and it can take months. I say this from experience. I’ve seen it happen in different buildings on the upper Westside. If he does something illegal or creates a dangerous situation in the building then you have more leverage. My friend lives in a prewar co-op and one of the doormen was caught doing coke on the job & they couldn’t fire him for months. The union has a long appeals process.
I had a super who was letting himself into my apt to do plumbing repairs while I was at work, then demanded that I pay for them, when I knew nothing about it. My intercom was connected to another tenant’s buzzer and he wouldn’t fix it for months and he told me I was crazy and imagining things. He was drunk all the time and sitting outside on the steps in his underwear. One morning I saw him on the fire escape looking in my bedroom window, and I finally broke my lease and the management didn’t charge me and even refunded my deposit because I threatened to sue. I have friends living in my old neighborhood and the super is still there. That’s not even the worse problem that I’ve encountered with a super or building employee, but as someone already pointed out, the union protects them.
I hate the tell you this Elizabeth but your friends building was safer with a coked up doorman. He/she was hyper alert and ultra aware of the all people coming and going 🙂
High temp is around 10 degrees off.
Freudian slip?
A man robbed the Chase branch at 76th and Columbus on Saturday… wondering if the Rag could obtain some current crime stats. Seems like DeBlasio’s Quality of Life improvements are really working for the criminals…
https://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/crime_statistics.shtml
Some crimes are up, some are down. Overall crime is still down, though murders are up.