MORNING BULLETIN: BOOK CULTURE EXPANSION, MIDDLE SCHOOL SEGREGATION, ‘FORGOTTEN’ BROWNSTONES

The West Side Community Garden on 89th held an opera last week.

May 15, 2017 Weather: Partly cloudy, with a high of 66 degrees.

Notices:
There are several free concerts and more local events on our calendar.

Here’s a sneak peak at the big yard sale on 103rd Street this Saturday.

News:
UWS independent book store Book Culture is opening s branch in Long Island City. “The store will be located next to The Hayden, a 50-story residential tower that Rockrose opened earlier this year. It will be the only book shop in Long Island City, with the closest one being the Astoria Bookshop in Astoria. Book Culture is leasing its space from Rockrose. Rockrose chief executive Justin Elghanayan said that his company would discount the rent until the book store turned a profit, according to the New York Times.” This is presumably good news for the health of the UWS branches too.

The Community Education Council is looking at how to better integrate local middle schools. “In elementary school, students are assigned to schools based on where they live, but in District 3 and several others districts across the city, students can apply to different middle schools across the district. Yet, despite that freedom, the middle schools in District 3 remain deeply divided along racial and socioeconomic lines. ”

NYCHA’s “forgotten” UWS brownstones are in need of repair. “We are the forgotten brownstones of NYCHA. We are 36 buildings between 89th and 93rd streets,” said Tibbs. “We are the last to receive services.”

Renting an apartment without a doorman isn’t the bargain it once was; in fact, no-doorman apartment rents are hitting records. “While new luxury apartments with doormen — and other extras, like pools and gyms — are proliferating and landlords are cutting deals to get them filled, renters who seek more affordable havens have been driving up demand for older, basic units, for which the supply is more fixed.”

Some local apartment buildings changed hands. “FBE Limited has bought a package of four Upper West Side residential buildings for $51.9 million. The deal, which was announced by Eastern Consolidated, covers a portfolio of six-story elevator buildings at 60-68 West 107th Street. The seller was Suehar Associates.”

Exotic animals have some dicey medical issues, but the Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine on Columbus Avenue is there for them. “A rabbit was brought in for a dental issue, but during the exam, its eyes began jerking back and forth, a condition called nystagmus. Then it started running around in circles on the treatment table.”

State police have been ramping up ticketing, including on the West Side Highway. “State Police officers doled out 14,542 summonses to New York City motorists in the first four months of this year — an astonishing 759 percent increase from all of last year, when they scribbled just 1,692, records show.”

A mom explained how she decided to send her daughter to PS 145 on 105th Street even though her neighbor told the Times it was “malpractice.” The principal was impressive. “She talked about how class sizes were intentionally kept small, and how she used a discretionary budget to have a long term substitute as a second teacher in the already small classrooms. She talked about continuing education for teachers. She said all the teachers knew all the students.”

Newsday has some ideas on how to fix voting in New York.