Monday Bulletin: Central Park Tent Hospital Closing, Rent Strike, Barney Greengrass Is Still Kicking
Photo by Michael McDowell.
May 4, 2020 Weather: Partly cloudy, with a high of 70 degrees.
Notices:
Our calendar is full of events you can enjoy from home.
News:
With the USNS Comfort departing last Thursday and the US Army hospital in the Javits Center closed on Friday, the field hospital in Central Park is now scheduled to be dismantled by the second week of May, according to the New York Post. “The 14-tent hospital was built…by the evangelical Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse and designed to relieve an overflow of patients from Mount Sinai’s hospitals. But the worst of the COVID-19 surge has passed, and hospital admissions for the killer bug are down at Mount Sinai’s facilities. There were just 18 patients at the field hospital Thursday.”
A 22-year-old man was found dead inside a stairwell of an apartment building within the Amsterdam Houses, between 61st and 64th Streets and Amsterdam Avenue, on Saturday afternoon, AMNY reported. No name or cause of death was revealed. There is an ongoing investigation.
Students from Columbia University are turning to food banks, the New York Post reported. “One user, Brittany, a 35-year-old Ph.D. candidate at Teachers College at Columbia University, who declined to give her full name, says she started visiting food services at Salem United Methodist Church in Harlem a few weeks ago after her partner lost his bartending job. “I’ve been going two or three times a week for lunch,” she told Side Dish. “The fresh air makes it seem a little less scary.” She’s just one of hundreds of neighborhood newcomers —- including actors, writers, students, musicians and artists -— to have sought help there in the wake of coronavirus layoffs, said Winston Majette, executive director of the Harlem chamber of commerce. “That’s the dynamic in just two weeks,” Majette said.
Iconic UWS restaurant Barney Greengrass at 87th and Amsterdam is hurting, but still serving the Upper West Side, Gothamist reports. And lots of people sheltering elsewhere are clearly craving its famous smoked fish. “Fortunately, the Greengrass family has a long history of shipping smoked fish around the country, and that part of business has seen a nice uptick of late, ‘thanks to many customers who moved from the city to their summer homes,’ Gary said. ‘We have been doing mail order since my grandfather’s days, though back then the shipping labels said ‘if not delivered in three days never mind!!’ I am grateful for the work Fedex has done during this difficult time.'”
Thousands of NYC tenants have kicked off a rent strike for May, Gothamist reports. Lawmakers are also looking at rent relief. “Both tenants and elected officials acknowledge that cancelling rent for financially impacted tenants will likely also entail relief for property owners. According to Queens State Senator Mike Gianaris, the cleanest approach would be through a federal stimulus bill. Neither Trump nor leading congressional Democrats, including Senator Chuck Schumer, have signaled they plan to push for such relief in the next legislative package.”
The Feed the Frontlines effort, which started at UWS spot Tarallucci E Vino, is growing fast, NBC reports. “The charitable organization is now feeding 3,000 people a day. They’ve raised $1.3 million from 6,000 donors, and have delivered 66,000 meals to 35 New York City hospitals.”
The subway is now being shut down for cleaning from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.
As a long time co-op board member, I have a very good handle on the expenses needed to maintain a multi-unit dwelling in NYC. By a large margin, the biggest expense is the taxes we have to pay. All of the maintenance increases for our shareholders in the past 4-5 years are a direct result of increases in the taxes we pay. Not to mention being treated as a profit making enterprise like rental buildings are… which obviously we are not.
If you can afford a co-op you can afford to pay the taxes.
Maybe not big boy. If people keep leaving the city the taxes will continue to go up until more people keep leaving the city. Where do you think that circle is going to go?
Not to your benefit.
Huh? I’d love to hear the logic behind that reasoning.
What a completely moronic thing to say. People living in coops on the UWS are largely middle-class people with jobs and mortgages and kids and college expenses who save money for the occasional vacation and whose tax burden is ridiculously high by all measures. They’re (we’re) not Russian billionaires (who buy condos, by the way, not coops), or whatever you think rich people are. In my small coop building we have retail employees, sales people, one guy with a small business, and two retired couples who worked normal jobs and raised families.
In re: Barney Greengrass: A big thanks to WSR (or maybe Gothamist???) months ago for pointing out their potato latkes. I swung by and … mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Hadn’t even considered that a possibility.
Can they ship them to Detroit?
Barney Greengrass will ship all over the country. Please your order for potato latkes now!
Oops. Place your order.