Photo by Barbara Migdal.
August 17, 2015 Weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 93 degrees.
Notices:
Check out our calendar for this week. From a free hip-hop dance show to a string music festival, there are a ton of exciting local events.
This is the last week to to see Shakespeare’s Cymbeline at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, and the reviews it’s gotten have been mixed. The Times’ Charles Isherwood was mostly negative, while Deadline’s Jeremy Gerard sang its praises: “A production as wonderful as the one that director Daniel Sullivan has assembled for the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park challenges us to suspend overthinking and simply to luxuriate in the charms of an off-center romantic comedy whose twin triumphs of love and forgiveness override logic, and to just enjoy the damned picnic.”
If you’re looking for a local book club, here’s one.
News:
A Wall Street Journal story had more info on laundromats getting priced out of the neighborhood and the city. Locals have been fretting about this issue recently. The story talked about Laundry Room Plus, the laundromat on 85th and Columbus that closed recently. Some neighbors started a petition to keep it in the area, but it was no use. Check out the rent: “For laundromats nationwide, the average annual cost a square foot is about $17, he said. The asking price for Laundry Room Plus’s space was $165 a square foot, or $25,000 a month, which is approximately double what the laundromat was paying, said Michael Azarian, of real-estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, who represented the property owner.” On the UWS there are 38 laundromats, or one for every 5,502 residents, making laundromats particularly rare here. On the Lower East Side they are even more rare, though, at 1 for every 60,978.
The facade of a building on 74th street crumbled off on Tuesday: “The heads of passing pedestrians shot skyward by 61 W. 74th St. between Central Park West and Columbus Ave. at 9:40 a.m. when the facade from the sixth floor crumbled and fell to the ground.” No one was reported injured.
Tenants at Independence House on West 94th street, a Mitchell-Lama development, are upset about their landlord’s proposal to hike rents by 40%. “A spokeswoman for the Maine-based owner noted that the building is in need of repairs, and said the additional rent will cover rising maintenance and operating costs…Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer noted in a letter to the citythat 76% of the building’s units are designated for seniors and asked the city agency to hold off its approval of the rent increase before the tenant association’s accountant reviews the paperwork.”
The Notices are upbeat.
The News…not so much.
I spoke with one of the workers of a laundromat in the area and he said his family closed one place because the landlord wanted to raise the rent about $4,000 more per month. So he said at that rate the only way to make up the difference would have been to eliminate all self-service as that doesn’t make much money for them. The money is in the drop-off service and even those rates would need to be raised. If we really think about laundromats they really don’t get an influx of new clientele that would be a game-changer so it is easy to calculate the finances and see why they close rather than pay higher rates.
Also, he mentioned if he raised the price of self-service on the machines, people tend to “overload” machines to save on having to use a 2nd or 3rd machine. So their net gain from those people are less than when prices were lower.
Lowe’s open this a.m.
I was surprised at its extensive selection of large appliances; we live in such small quarters. But, I guess, they know their market: They based part of their decisions, I read somewhere, on what our zip codes ordered from their website.
There’s a lot of contractors’ supplies — hardware, bathroom and kitchen cabinets and fixture, lighting, paneling, etc. It is nothing like either Gracious Homes or Bed Bath & Beyond. I noticed recently that Gracious Homes — in anticipation of the competition, I would guess — had evolved more into the high-end “softer” goods, like linen, curtains, etc.
Lowe’s says that they can get anything that a customer wants from their website into their store by the next day.
Thank you for the quick review of the store. From what I saw outside I saw grills and large scale construction items. A lot of those things I doubt contractors will buy in the city unless they are pricing them at a lower rate like in NJ or parts of LI. I am sure Lowes will adjust to the consumer market in the area better in short time.
As you say, Lucien, they will have to adjust to the market. But it seems that they targeted their market from website research.
Except for items such as cleaning supplies, a small selection of area rugs, some storage bins, gardening products, etc., it appears to aim at contractors who perform work in this area. There are always new buildings and a *lot* of private home renovations here.
I’m an early-bird, Lucien, and I always encounter scores of contractors at the 58-59th Street Home Depot, around 7:30 a.m., whenever I shop there. So, Lowe’s will open at 6:00 or 6:30 a.m. to capitalize on that.
Maybe there’s no need for contractors to lug materials from NJ. I would imagine that the prices are same at all locations(??)
The neighborhood laundromat concept is the past. These days you either have a machine in your own unit or in your building or you use concierge services to send it out. It is not just the rent. It is also changing needs.
My building is over 100 years old and the pipes cannot support in unit washing machines because when they drain they send a lot of water down the stack at once. Several years ago a tenant bribed the super to turn a blind eye to the installation of a washer in his unit and when he ran it the first time it blew open the drain pipes in the four units in the line below him.
Ouch — too bad the super wasn’t a plumber…if the neighbor had the washer empty into a slop sink or similar set up before going into the building pipes, it might not have happened.
“Concierge services”? Hoo-hah!
Actually, I think the whole concept of “laundry” is only one short step from “the past”, as you put it. Why not just dispose of your clothes after you’ve worn them, and just buy new ones?
Voila, problem solved!
Agreed. I’m no fashion maven, but most of the clothing I see on people around here should have been disposed of years ago.
I agree. But then the UWS really isn’t at the forefront of fashion. There is a certain uniform here. I do think fashion is heading more and more each day to the concept of disposable. Before the dawn of the laundromat, I think people washed out their clothes in a sink. Perhaps everyone living in a Rent Stabilized apartment could get together and form along with a credit union of choice, a laundromat, supermarket, copy center co-op? This would be the much anticipated return to the 1970s that everyone has been touting in the comments here on this blog.
Why? Is the clothing badly-worn? Stained? Does it no longer fit the people wearing it due to change in weight on their part?
Or are you suggesting that people throw away perfectly functional, clean clothing just because it doesn’t align with the latest fads in vanity and frivolity?
“Maven, a Yiddish word meaning accumulator of knowledge, was originally started as an attempt to simplify the build processes in the Jakarta Turbine project.”
or
“A maven (also mavin) is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from Hebrew, meaning “one who understands”, based on an accumulation of knowledge.”
??????
Someone should tell all the landlords this.
I hate to inform you Sean but there are a lot of buildings without laundry facilities. And many tenants who can’t afford them in their apts. nor can afford to live in buildings that have them. So we need to accommodate!!!
The Post explains that “The neighborhood laundromat concept is the past.”, BUT that is due to rising rents.
People still soil clothing and linens. The laundromat is where many clean them.
Here’s a subject that even this hard-nosed, political Conservative can agree on with whining UWS liberals…..Manhattan landlords, (in particular), are very cold-blooded in their greed and are indifferent to the economics of the middle-class. In spite of my political minority status on the UWS, I have always liked the diversity and conveniences of the neighborhood.
Today? The pressure on laundromats, shoe repairs, book stores, bakeries, restaurants, etc. is making these very enterprises which attract the wealthy, the new Do-Do birds. Don’t the landlords see that they are undermining the very neighborhood dynamics which make their properties so appealing?
@ mark & uws-err – Oh STOP already. I get it….you loons don’t like me. Look at your own whines!
It is not your fate to be liked here, Off-Duty. As said, I admire your courage, though I agree with you maybe only 50% of the time.
You can get a larger picture of what you face via the link that I’m including.
As a preview, begin by fast-forwarding to 43:55 through 47:25.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdbSP_Ramvs
Why do people who suggest that others are whining always sound like they are whining?
Why do people who suggest that people who suggest that others are whining always sound like they are whining always sound like they are whining?
(OK, I don’t really think so, and I liked the comment too. But I couldn’t resist.)
Nicely put.
Here is a comment, Off-Duty, written on July 23 in the Openings and Closings write-up, that should answer your question:
It’s simple, really. The demographics of the neighborhood have changed so that fewer (and fewer and fewer) people do their own laundry, while more and more get their nails done professionally.
Looked at differently, once his or her manicure is done, he or she ain’t gonna wreck it on a washing machine.
Besides: Laundry?? ee-eWWWW! That’s for *peasants* to do.
———————-
(WSR: Please let me know whether I should include the name of the poster for the pasted comment above.)
D.R., i think you gave it away with: “Here is a comment…written on July 23 in the Openings and Closings write-up”.
The Secret’s out
Didn’t mean for it to be secret, Dannyboy.
It needed authentication for anyone wanting to verify it.
Naah. Better to leave it anonymous.
Re: ““The heads of passing pedestrians shot skyward by 61 W. 74th St….”
O.M.G. !!!
And that’s from The Daily News, not from some Web-based sad-excuse-for-journalism!
Their HEADS shot skywards?? NOT their EYES??? And when, exactly, did their HEADS return, and how were the heads re-attached to the headless necks?
Of course, it’s not just the tabloids. Here’s a candidate for ‘World’s Most Confusing Headline’ from today’s NY Times:
Man Piloting
Small Plane
Dies in Crash
On Railway
That sound you hear is Adolph Ochs spinning in his coffin!
I think (and this might even exist already) someone could build an Uber-like app that allows for cleaners to have a pick-up service. They could offer their own pricing to be competitive. It won’t be cheaper than doing your own laundry but it would be cheaper than drop-offs at place that have rents they have to cover.
There is actually something like that, called Juliette. You schedule a pickup through the app and they pick up from your door, or from your doorman, by 10 pm and return your laundry by 6 am the next morning. I think the pricing is pretty reasonable. While they do have to manage transportation, delivery costs, etc., they are also not paying UWS rents so maybe it evens out a bit. I can’t speak to how it compares to self service laundromats but have to assume it’s more expensive. (We do still rely heavily on the machines in our building and only use Juliette occasionally when there is a particular time crunch or something.) My condolences to those who don’t have laundry rooms. This is a real quality of life issue.
Nice idea, but the place doing the laundering will still have rent to pay (granted, not Broadway-storefront rent). It will also have to cover the costs of pick-up and delivery, including salaries and benefits for the drivers, gas, maintenance for the truck, and so forth. Whatever savings there might be on rent will be more than made up by the costs of running a pick-up-and-delivery service.
In short, it will likely be expensive, yet another luxury-level service, not a substitute for the do-it-yourself prior generations have done.
Bye bye, middle class!
Try to imagine people living without doormen, some actually do.
The laundromat problem is worse than usual, because so many buildings that have laundry facilities have had their gas shut off by Con Ed for the foreseeable future while leaks are fixed and re-inspected. It’s a multi-month process, and it’s swelling the ranks of laundromat users. We need them now more than ever.
My building is a preWar just off Bway in the mis 70’s. Our gas was shut off in April, just after the blast downtown which killed several people. Since then they tried an illegal hook-up to provide tenents with heat and hot water and then they got busted. Con Ed shut them down yet again, now we have a temporary boiler-in-a-truck parked out front till further notice. The building opted to seal-off the gas for cooking and gave all their tenents new upgraded electric oven/stove combos. But the building’s laundry room remains closed because all the large dryers were gas heated. Some of us have a small electric washer/dryer in our apartments.
What about the washing machines, though? Assuming they do not use any gas (which, by all indications, would appear to be a very safe assumption), why not leave access to them open? (Such was my exact question when, in my building, I discovered that the entire laundry room had been closed-off solely on the basis of the dryers being out-of-order.)
How would people dry their laundry, you ask? If nothing else, it could be hung to dry.[1] (As it is now, it appears the tenants are the ones being hung to dry.)
Do any local laundromats allow use of their dryers only?
NOTES:
[1] During cold weather, at least, when indoor heating is in use, hanging laundry to dry often provides an additional benefit of adding humidity to excessively dry air. This can also be the case in hot weather, when heavy use of air-conditioning also can leave the indoor air too dry.
Most laudromats are hip to that.
Actually, no – they only want clean clothes in their dryers, and if the clothes are not washed on site, there is no guarantee.
Re: “laundromats getting priced out of the neighborhood and the city. Locals have been fretting….”
Heck, “Locals” are ALWAYS fretting about something. To ‘put Descartes before the horse’, their motto might as well be “Queror, Ergo Sum” (I Fret / complain / whine / grumble; Therefore I Am).
But Laundromat Shmaundromat! If UWS’ers wanted to be REALLY AUTHENTIC they would forego washing machines completely and instead carry their soiled laundry down to the Hudson where, at low tide, they could pound their clothes on the rocks, just as their very-ancestral ancestors might have.
And there’s a really nice little cafe down there which just might begin offering Cafe Paleo to soothe one’s Inner CavePerson after all that pounding.
Access is via steps at W.68th / Riverside Boulevard.
U.R. Welcome!
Your suggestion is to wash laundy in the Hudson River. That is not very helpful.
Yes but it was very cogent.
It’s 2015. These buildings should have laundry. Outside NYC in unit laundry is a given. Having to schlep laundry around is ridiculous. Why do losers have to be accommodated? Why is it anyone elses problem? You wanted a lifetime RS apt with no rent ibuildings -deal with it. Wash the clothes at home and hang them out to dry. If you live a 100 ur old building and pay unbelievably low rent stop complaining. Tired of it.
Sounds like somebody is getting ripped off by their landlord and feels some type of way about it. Just move to Westchester like the rest of the schmoes and take that thinking some place else.
After I hang my clothing out to dry I’ll lend you my rope so you go hang yourself.
Is there some kind of big sale going on at Beacon Wine today?
Yes. They’re selling down inventory before closing to convert the premises to a laundromat.
“Free Wine Delivery to Fire Island, Free Wine Delivery to The Hamptons”
$100 minimum order.
I think you underestimate the amount of buildings without laundry. I am neither RS nor have cheap rent… just an old building with no laundry and a cr*ppy management company. Which was manageable when the laundromat on Columbus was open. Now it’s a pain in the butt to do laundry myself.
Please define who you mean when you refer to “losers”. That is not very neighborly.
it’s just Donald Trump language. it means everyone who is not a billionaire or who worships at the temple of billionaires.
Similar issue in San Francisco relating to the disappearance of laundromats and other core neighborhood services.
There was a recent discussion about SF in a blog article “One Tweet Shows What Silicon Valley Really Thinks of the People It’s Crushing https://mic.com/articles/123311/silicon-valley-white-male-privilege-class-war.
Per the article, “…..Once wealthy startup employees move in with private washing machines and, yes, on-demand laundry apps, they stop patronizing services needed by the locals, many of whom don’t own washer/dryer units and can’t afford a luxury laundry service. And because the startup scene has inflated the price of the local real estate, rents go up, and laundromats — like other services many working-class families depend on — can’t afford to stay. The big irony here: Washio depends on laundry services too. Like many delivery apps, Washio doesn’t create or provide goods — it’s really just a middleman….it just takes your laundry to other laundry facilities….”
will Washio pickup on the UWS?
Really Never thought that a basic thing like a Laundromat would ever be a topic of conversation and on the brink of becoming extinct. What’s next? Water? The air we breathe? the sidewalks we walk? Quite possibly,… in the next 20, 30 years!!! Ah progress! Nothing like it! Ha!, that’s a laugh!
you been hearing talk about water selling? water rationing? water market manipulation?
and air rationing?
sidewalk tolls?
Let’s hear what you’ve heard!
I LOVE THE WEST SIDE RAG, for this reason. I hear it here first…
…and last.
I don’t know why money-launderers don’t go into the self-service laundry business. It seems like a simple business to operate, and a natural for them to clean up money.
They could create, for instance, a shell company, as they do to buy $20 million apartments here. Then, to make sure they devote themselves *exclusively* to self-service, we could award plaques, as a better business bureau sometimes does — maybe call them the “Al Capone Commendation for Self-Service”.
Doing laundry would, of course, damage our manicures, so, afterwards, we could visit (maybe a door or two away) one of the 6 or 7 nails salons on the block.