Photo by Ellen Cohen at Friday night’s pre-Marathon fireworks in Central Park.
November 6, 2017 Weather: Rainy in the afternoon, with a high of 65 degrees.
Notices:
“Philosophy Cafe” and more local events are on our calendar.
On Monday, a flight of three U.S. Navy F/A-18 aircraft will fly over the Hudson River, north to the Tappan Zee Bridge, and then reverse course and depart in the vicinity of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The flyover will occur around 12:00 PM, and will fly between 2,500-3,000 feet.
Tuesday is Election Day! Find your polling place here. Here’s our most recent piece on the local City Council race. And here’s a guide to the three ballot questions.
News:
A heartbreaking video shows a group of Argentinian tourists happily bicycling down the Hudson River bike path last Tuesday, in a section that appears to be going through the Upper West Side. Five of them would be killed late that day in a terrorist attack on the path in Tribeca. They were high school friends who had decided to take the trip together.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents in New York state has doubled over last year. Some incidents don’t get included in stats, but are nonetheless very disturbing: “Rachel C. was harassed last Saturday, for instance, as she and her husband walked home from a bar mitzvah at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side. At 96th Street and Broadway — in many ways the heart of the ethnically diverse but also heavily Jewish neighborhood — they were waiting for the stoplight to change when a small dog began nipping at her ankles. Rachel, who asked that her real name not be used, turned around and glared at the dog’s owner. “The woman looked me in the eye and said ‘I can’t stand those rude Upper West Side Jews.’ I took a deep breath, looked back at her and said ‘did you really just say that?’ And she said ‘yes I did.’”
Jean-Georges was dropped to two stars in the Michelin guide. “Michael Ellis, the international director of the Michelin guides, said that several inspectors over a period of time thought they did not have quite the same gastronomic experience, and that the Upper West Side restaurant was not quite at the same level as before.”
Check out some photos of the New York City Marathon.
I can’t imagine why a person who has problems
with Jews would live on the UWS – our neighborhood is sort of an unofficial shetl.
This is the one part of the city where we should actually feel very safe & at home. The lady with the dog & the attitude would be much happier somewhere else!!!
shtetl
I agree with you Iris. I’d like to see the police report on this incident. Will reach out to my contacts at the 2-4.
Disregard , , , just noticed it wasn’t reported. Wish it was. Such incidents, against any ethnicity, should not be tolerated in any parts of our neighborhood!
The article states that the woman “glared” at the woman with the dog.
The woman could have politely told the woman holding the dog that it was nipping her and to pull the dog away. Maybe the woman holding the dog was unaware this was happening, i.e. she might have been looking elsewhere.
I’m Jewish myself and I condemn any form of anti-Semitism and prejudice. But like it or not I believe everyone should consider themselves an ambassador of their respective ethnic group.
If you treat people with disrespect you can expect a nasty – albeit unjustifiable – backlash.
There is a big difference between saying I don’t like rude people and I don’t like rude Jews. Yes, courtesy is important but do not blame the victim or countenance bigotry.
I did not “countenance bigotry”.
I simply said if you act like a jerk you will likely bring out the worst in people.
I am not justifying any form of bigotry. Just saying this is the way things are.
Quite correct, Sherman. You made good points and have nothing to apologize for.
What people need to learn is that there are a lot of dumb, selfish, rude, mean, etc. people in the world. But they are not that way due to their race, religion, height, weight, sexual orientation or anything else. They are that way because that is who they are. So if someone angers you, feel free to snap at them, but leave off the group descriptor. In this example, “I can’t stand rude people” would have perhaps been a more reasonable comment if the woman with the dog was angry.
FYI, your information about the polling places is NOT ACCURATE. Some that used to vote at PS 75 on West End Avenue now vote on 102nd Street. Shame on you!!!!!!
This is the site that NYC Board of Elections directs people to. If it’s giving false information, please send us details at westsiderag@gmail.com. That would be a big story.
WSR
Sounds like a House of Cards episode…
Odds are the site is not wrong.
BOE is always moving sites due to turnout, population and by far because of the disability lawsuits that have been filed against them.
There Election Districts that have been moved in past elections between Primary and General election.
De Blasio is sending translators to the polling places – to “help” people vote. Highly, highly dubious act: people who got themselves to a voting booth are unlikely the lost souls in need of guidance. But using blatantly dubious tactics never stopped De Blasio before. Board of Election voiced it’s objections but then again De Blasio will have his “translators” in the voting booth itself. Thank god for term limits.
This has nothing to do with this particular
blog, but I don’t know where to put this question, so – does anyone remember The Red
Chimmney Restaurant on the corner of Broadway
& 103rd. Street????
I can scarcely believe that “incident” even made the news. People all over this city say mean things to each other every day. Shall we now report on every single one that’s tinged with bigotry? Please advise.
Agree. Even more ridiculous is the idea suggested by one commenter that it warranted involvement by police.
As for the rise in ‘anti-Semitic incidents,’ I also wonder how many are false flags, like the Jewish Israeli man who made numerous bomb threats to synagogues, and the many ‘racist graffiti’ hoaxes so common on college campuses these days.
The bigots remark was not tinged, it was and and out attempt to insult, and express hatred
towards a Jewish person, & an entire group of
people. Why bring Jewish people into an unpleasant incident with a dog??? Address the dog, the incident & not sling arrows. People feel too free to be bigoted and racist!!!
Yet again, we are told that there has been a dramatic increase in ‘hate crimes’ but not a single mention is made of the hundreds of cases of incidents hysterically reported as such, only to subsequently be exposed as hoaxes. (Earlier versions of this comment that I had submitted included the URL of a database of such cases, i.e., fake hate crimes.)
Note that any such mention was similarly conspicuously absent from WSR’s story back in March on the “Hate crime forum” that took place at that time.
What we have here is an unverified account, attributed to an anonymous individual of an alleged incident. Even if everything reported in the story did occur as described (and I am not disputing that it did, only pointing-out that we just cannot know from the info presented here), there may be any number of additional facts and details that may be critical to how one views the incident. Assuming that the woman with the dog actually exists, then I suspect that her account of the incident, were we to hear it, would likely differ considerably from the one presented here.
At any rate, unless the woman with the dog intentionally or recklessly allowed it to attack or threaten the Jewish woman, I do not see an actual crime here. Merely making a nasty remark to a stranger on the street, no matter how rude or hateful, is, last I checked anyway, not illegal. I can sympathize with taking offense and feeling alarmed at the hostility described. As a Jew myself, however, I maintain that reacting in the manner exhibited here is counterproductive; doing so only breeds further resentment and animosity and makes it less likely that truly harmful or threatening incidents, when they do occur, will be taken seriously.