MORNING BULLETIN: TELEPAN’S NEW JOB, DIVERSITY HISTORY, BIG BUILDING SALE
Residents on West 69th Street prepare for Halloween.
October 31, 2016 Weather: Sunny, with a high of 55 degrees.
Notices:
Free concerts and many more local events are on our calendar. We’ve also listed lots of Halloween events here.
Remember, you have until noon to enter our pumpkin-carving contest!
News:
After closing Telepan, Bill Telepan is cooking again, at Oceana in Times Square. Read an interview with him: “Listen, I just want a job for the next 15 years and to cook and make people happy. I hopefully have found that home.”
There’s some fascinating historical context for the contentious school rezoning battle going on today. The city first tried to diversify PS 199 and PS 191 in the 1960’s, but it didn’t work out. “The pairing, Times declared in 1965, was ‘the boldest and most controversial step taken in the city school system’s history to improve racial balance.’ But the proposal instantly set off protest among the Upper West Side’s white families, many of whom threatened to resuscitate a public school boycott that had brought the nation’s largest school system to a standstill earlier in 1964.”
Six rental buildings — five on the UWS and one in Morningside Heights — are on the market for $125 million total. “If sold separately, the individual asking prices are: $48 million for three contiguous buildings at 3143-3149 Broadway; $36 million for 500 Cathedral Parkway; $29 million for 111 West 104th Street; and $12 million for 242 West 109th Street, the brokers said.”
New York publishers have helped the Goddard Riverside book fair for 30 years. “Supporting partners are numerous, including Barnes & Noble, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster. Writers as diverse as Maya Angelou, Robert Caro, Mary Higgins Clark, and Jeffrey Toobin have taken part in readings and private fund-raising dinners hosted by publishers in conjunction with the book fair, with all proceeds sent to Goddard Riverside.” This year’s Book Fair runs from Nov. 19 to 20, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 593 Columbus Ave.
Classifieds:
Amazing Commercial Studio Space Available to Rent to Health Care Professional. Location: West 54/55th. Type of Rental: Hourly, Weekly, Monthly or Annual Lease. For more information and to view the space, contact Jason @ 646-573-9724 or email to Info@silverstarsfit.com.
To list a classified ad, contact ads@westsiderag.com.
Re: “Six rental buildings — five on the UWS and one in Morningside Heights — are on the market”
there must be some authority representing the community that is engaged in the evaluation of the impact of these sales.
or not
Dannyboy, why should there be an “authority” to evaluate the sale of an individual’s or business’s sale of their property? Doesn’t someone have the right to sell their property to a willing buyer?
not a divine right.
there are responsibilities attached: environmental, social…
Unless they are changing the building, there will be no environmental impact, and any major changes would require approval by DOB.
And as long as rent controlled/stabilized tenants are allowed to continue their leases, there are no social impacts.
Despite all of the laws in NYC that might make one think otherwise, we do live in a capitalist country.
No, there aren’t. There is still such a thing as private property in the USA, and yes that includes NYC.
The sale of these buildings is a private matter for the current owners. If anyone else has a beef about what becomes of them that firecracker can be lit later.
I live in the United States still. I can make my beef when I choose. Sorry you gave that right up.
What’s your email address? I’ll email you for your approval when I decide to sell my apartment. Do you also have authority to approve my stock trades? It would be convenient to have a one stop shop.
Nathan, just post every thing that you would like reviewed here. Thanks for your openness.
Goddard Riverside Book Fair is such a local gem! So much fun to show up, browse and shop.
How about giving the dates for the Book Fair? Also everyone should know that it there is no entrance fee. All the books are brand new first runs at half price! Can you tell I am a fan of this great UWS event?
The event was on 10/26. This was 5 days ago.
Nov. 19-20.
Oh that’s great. The link in the story takes you to a page where they mention it is earlier.
Excellent interview with Bill Telepan. Thanks for the link.
John Oliver did an interesting segment on his show last night about student diversity in schools. He mentioned that southern states have the most diversity and that New York State has the most segregation, mostly because of New York City.
What’s also interesting (at least to me) is that Oliver tapes his show a few short blocks from PS 191 (at the CBS Broadcast Center on 11th Ave & 57th St) and is probably unaware of the turmoil in his own backyard on this issue.
I grew up on Long Island. My high school was virtually all white (maybe a smattering of Asians).
I once read that 90% of black Long Island kids attend schools that are over 90% black. In other words, public schools in LI are – by accident or design – extremely segregated by race.
Yet, the town I grew up in is fiercely “liberal”.
This just shows that it’s very easy to be liberal and progressive and pro-diversity when you live in an all white bubble.
This is the paradox now facing all these liberal PS 199 parents.
thanks for your note because as a foreigner, i don’t hear much anecdotal evidence from the trenches, and have no experience myself. your note is not something i read in the news.
Yeah and most people who attend Lincoln Center are unaware that there is public housing right there behind the campus.
This changed. Used to be a wall around Lincoln Center separating it from the hood.
Now that more whites live in the neighborhood they took the wall down.
A quick Google search shows that he has a one year old. So will baby Oliver be showing up at PS 191 in four years so that John Oliver practices what he preaches? Or better yet, at a school in Harlem or the South Bronx? My guess is Trinity or Bronxville Elementary School.
He *works* near 191.
Does he *live* there too??
Cato Kaelin,
Please stop being so literal – I was using 191 as an example, and cited other examples as well. I likely could figure out where he lives but don’t usually engage in stalking. My point is that I would like to see him practice what he preaches and send his child to a diverse school. I am a very big fan of his and tend to agree with most of his shows.
As annoying and upsetting that I find this whole Hudson River biking vs Everyone Else discussion, I have to comment after receiving a second notice of lies from Transportation Alternatives and their cult members:
“The nation’s most successful cycle path, the Hudson River Greenway, could be facing permanent changes on the Upper West Side…”
Now, the path is a “cycle path”. When did that happen? Who killed off all the walkers, joggers, skate-boarders, carriage-pushers, stroller-pushers and bench-sitters?
This is why it is too annoying to listen to these people.
No one killed them off. It is a cycle path as well as a walking path. And a very successful cycle path at that. From Wikipedia:
The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is a foreshoreway for walking or cycling, 32 miles (51 km) long, around the island of Manhattan. The largest portions are operated by the New York City Department of Parks. It is separated from motor traffic, and many sections also separate pedestrians from cyclists.
“…and many sections also separate pedestrians from cyclists.”
I LOVE this idea!
As a cyclist, trust me that the cyclists prefer that too, and it is separated for the most part south of the 72st ballfields. The problem is not enough real estate.
And what I find ironic is that the path above 96st is really that – an asphalt ribbon with a ludicrous line painted on it to somehow divide traffic. It makes the portion we’re arguing over look like a boulevard.
Actually I meant the part above Riverbank St Park at 145 st.
It is a “successful” bike path because I and others are too afraid to walk there. Too many near misses and speeding bikers.
Wow. $3000/month at 3149 Broadway. Look it up on Google Maps. I used to hang out at Thrifty’s Supermarket when I was a kid and I see it is still called Thrifty’s. This would have been in the early 1960s. It was owned by Izzie and his wife (I forget her name). They had a son who attended City College (for free back then) and he used to help out. All the employees were Jewish too, there was Manny, the head cashier, Hymie, the produce manager, and Julius, the grocery manager. Goyim lids like me and Hispanics delivered groceries and did odd jobs. They got held up frequently. Rent was cheap in those buildings which were then inhabited by some Irish and more often Hispanic families. They were considered slums and undesirable because they fronted the elevated #1 train. Oh well, college students don’t mind that stuff. They are the best tenants, they don’t complain and move out after college, or when they get married. Helps raise the rents.
let’s get it together: the book fair GALA, mentioned in the article the link takes you to, was on oct 26. the book fair BASH, is the opening nite ceremony, to be held on nov 18. the ACTUAL book fair will be nov 19 & 20, like it says above.
I like reading the West Side Rag because it keeps me posted on what is happening in “the hood.”
Happy to hear about Telepan opening elsewhere. It was a big loss for the upper west side.
As far as the school issue, we do not have school age children. However, we feel bad for the people who moved to 165, 185, and 205 because of the school. Tomorrow is the 4th revision. They only announced it today, which is really unfair. Unfortunately we have Philharmonic tickets and can’t go. Why didn’t they let people know ahead of time? Why didn’t they give at least a weeks notice. They don’t want people to show up!!!! That is obvious.
Is the expectation that the three contiguous buildings will be torn down and replaced by yet another luxury building?
Purely anecdotal but seems like a marked increase in number of apartments being used as pied a terre by affluent non-New Yorkers.
Jm,
See Thread #1. Seems that the majority of Commenters are all for it.
Let the Market Rule Baby!