Looks like this BigBelly trash can at 71st needs a bigger belly. Photo by Joeanna Sayler.
August 13, 2018 Weather: Stormy, with a high of 80 degrees.
Notices:
Concerts, movies, free exercise classes and more local events are on our calendar.
Sir Ben Kingsley will be on the UWS tonight for the premiere of Operation Finale at the JCC.
If you want to vote in this year’s primaries, register by August 19. To vote in the primaries, you have to choose a party (independents can’t vote in primaries in NYC.) Here’s the site.
News:
Helicopter noise is ruining Shakespeare in the Park, says Congressman Jerry Nadler and Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. “Nadler has been pushing for years to ban tourist choppers entirely from Manhattan, but now he’s also focusing his ire on the tempest over the park. ‘Shakespeare in the Park is a New York institution. It’s a major focus of tourism, economic development and culture in New York. So why would we allow a couple of helicopters to disrupt that?’ he asked. ‘We urge the FAA to act without delay.'”
A sinkhole that opened on 101st and Manhattan Avenue has been frustrating residents, who say the city has been slow to fix it. “The sinkhole measures roughly 15 by 7 feet in size, and nearly 4 feet in depth, consuming an entire side of Manhattan Avenue.”
Wholeheartedly support the banning of helicopters over the city. Besides ruining Shakespeare in the Park as Congressman Nadler points it, they routinely ruin the Shakespeare in my mind as I engage in my contemplative daily walk along the Hudson in Riverside Park. One recent morning, for example, I was in the middle of a stirring mental rendition of the Chorus’s speech (Henry V, prologue to Act I) when an obnoxious helicopter (a big ‘ol tandem rotor job in fact) flew overhead and ruined everything and I had to start over.
Was that a police helicopter assisting in looking for someone suspected of a crime? Or was it the ‘semi-regular’ emergency helicopter that flies patients to Mt. Sinai from New Jersey hospitals?
Just curious to see who disturbed your mental renditions, with which one should never walk under a known busy helicopter path by the Hudson.
“I {too} engage in my contemplative daily walk along the Hudson in Riverside Park.”
About a year ago, I phoned in a Complaint to 311. After about 20 minutes of explaining how the operator should route my Complaint, I left it to them.” NO CORRECTIVE ACTION TAKEN.
At this point, between spending inordinate amounts of time with everyone from Citibank executives regarding their shoddy security and meetings with Precinct Captains about the dearth of enforcement, I kind of think these problems are growing at a rate faster than they can be corrected.
Is this the experience of others these days?
Dannyboy,
What about the positive side?
for one, you have a precinct Captain who is willing to meet with you privately and listen to your viewpoints. given the way things used to be, this is pretty incredible.
Re: “A sinkhole … has been frustrating residents, who say the city has been slow to fix it.”
The city SLOW TO FIX SOMETHING? 😳
Especially something ABOVE 96TH STREET?? 😳😳
We are shocked, SHOCKED !!
There’s another sink hole at 111 and riverside park just at the entrance to the park that has been ignored basically all summer. Patch work was finally done a month ago and now it is gaping again and getting bigger with every rainfall. The mud at the top of the park between 113-111 is also a disaster. Does no one care?
UWS people are so complacent these days. Why? Probably because they know they’re screwed politically. It seems our local politicians have no power to do much of anything to improve our quality of life any longer.
It’s all about the tourist industry and the real estate developers making a killing no matter what.
61 million tourists last year. Why do they even come to NY?
Overflowing garbage bins. Deafening helicopter noice… Just two aspects of the ever increasing dump this city is turning into. Shame.
I agree 100%. Why is it that the city is falling apart? For the past two years (or more) the city has been in a downward spiral. Garbage spilling out of receptacles (which the sanitation department seems to be ignoring), random garbage on the sidewalks, homeless everywhere. Was just up in beautiful, clean Boston. Taxi cab driver asked where I was from. First thing he said when I said New York? “Everyone is falling out of love with New York.” Why, I asked? “It’s dirty.”
Things are not as bad as San Francisco or Seattle – thankfully – but just a few years ago we had a relatively clean city. Why has this happened?
Re: “…the ever increasing dump this city is turning into.”
REALLY! a D-U-M-P?
Then WHY all the new and architecturally awesome construction…
1) paralleling the High Line in Chelsea;
2) in Hudson Yards;
3) at West End & W.57th + Waterside Square;
4) in mid-town along 57th St
5) in the vicinity of Grand Central;
and lots more
NOT to mention our world-class museums, Broadway & Off-Broadway theater; Central Park, Washington Sq. Park, Hudson River Park, and just the incredible vibrancy of Manhattan.
Those sixty-one million tourists contribute a lot of money to the City’s economy and tax revenues. Have you considered what the consequences would be were it to be eliminated?
Turning into? Please! I had been visiting NYC for over 20 years before I moved here 5 year ago and it was a “dump” (your term not mine) then and now! Long term residents seem to have short memories. NYC has never been a clean or quiet city and yet it’s still the best city on the planet.
Jerry Nadler is spot on. Until we achieve a total ban on helicopters the theatre should be an official
no-fly zone. Why is this so damned hard?
Thank you J.Sayler! If my camera wasn’t broken, I would have submitted that trash can as well as corner of 73rd/Bway, the 50 bicycles chained to scaffolding on Amsterdam/70-71st, the derelicts hanging out in front of Pinkberry, the bookseller lounging and eating with tarps hiding all his possessions etc etc. We could go on. There’s much more. Having recently been in parts of Mumbai I can attest ..all we need are some cows wandering around to complete the Third World atmosphere on the UWS. I spoke to Sgt.Kelly of the 20th precinct. Avoid him if you can. He dismissed these problems with “have a nice night” over and over like the recording you get when you call them. A very rude unprofessional man. I then spoke to the new police captain…he was great very responsive.I told him Sgt.Kelly was surly, rude, and nasty. Why bring him out to greet people? He needs a desk job.So in conclusion, we have a dirty, scary mess here and no one can help. The young cashier at Pinkberry was nervous and afraid to close up and leave. Business was not good for a hot night and she wanted to go home. The 20th came and told her “there’s nothing we can do”. Goodnight. Can someone explain this? if the police won’t help, is it up to us to clear the streets, clean up the garbage, help the shop owners? Soon every storefront will be empty and who can blame them.
Interesting comments. A few weeks ago on a warm Sunday afternoon I went to Riverside to sit and read. I gave up after about 20 mins because of noisy helicopters. I timed them at about 1 every 5 mins before I went home. It would be great if something could be done.
72nd and 96th street 1/2/3 stations are a dirty mess ( especially on sundays) . People dont seem to care where they throw their waste. I also dont understand why we dont have a cleaning task force that is on contstant patrol..
Why doesn’t someone empty that trash can?
A $200 per hour helicopter with just a couple of passengers ruining the theatre experience of hundreds of people who waited in line for six hours for free tickets. Once again, the elite and wealthy tromp all over poor and average citizens. Not unlike empty skyscrapers casting shadows on our parks so foreign oligarchs have a secret place to hide their assets, or billionaire hoteliers fighting people who want to make a few bucks renting out their apartment while they are away.
Re: “A $200 per hour helicopter …ruining the theatre experience of hundreds of people….”
1). The helicopters crossing over mid-Central Park are NOT tourist helicopters; they are much larger, probably corporate machines.
2) They move FAST, average speed 150+ m.p.h., so their “noise footprint” comes and goes very quickly;
3) They do NOT linger or hover; if a “chopper” is hovering it’s probably NYPD;
4) And there are never more than one or two per night, if that many. It’s certainly NOT like the bad-old days at CCNY’s fabled Lewisohn Stadium’s outdoor concerts, interrupted every few minutes by yet another airliner on approach to La Guardia.
But, of course, none of this matters to the adherents of The New Populism.
I’ve become a Hudson Warehouse (in Riverside Park) fan and have noticed that it’s almost impossible to hear the actors on Sunday night (when the Hamptons helicopters are in full force). I feel badly for the actors and the audience but am not sure there’s a solution.
Ban tourist helicopters entirely?
Have Congressman Nadler or any of the others who support such an extreme measure never taken a helicopter tour in their lives’? What if an appreciable number of the Congressman’s constituents were to depend upon that very industry for their livelihood?
Perhaps the audio of the outdoor plays, concerts, etc. could be transmitted over a Bluetooth signal or the like? Doing that would presumably allow each member of the audience to enjoy clear, uninterrupted audio of the event-in-progress via noise-cancelling headphones/earphones.
Like watching television, but outdoors.