Street fairs are back! This one was on Amsterdam Avenue this weekend.
June 7, 2021 Weather: Humid and partly cloudy, with a high of 88 degrees.
Notices:
Our calendar has local and virtual events.
New York’s rent relief program is now accepting applications. The City news website has a guide for tenants and landlords.
News:
There were two recent subway slashings in the area, the New York Post reported. First, around 8 p.m. on Thursday, two men got into a dispute on the platform of the Central Park North-110th Street station. Hours later, on a 3 train nearing the West 96th Street station, “a transgender man and his female partner were slashed during a fight with a felon who hurled homophobic slurs at the pair on a Manhattan train early Friday…The alleged slasher bolted from the station after the assault, but was quickly busted by cops, with charges still pending by the afternoon.”
Ground is being broken for one Upper West Side project, while another prepares for demolition, YIMBY reported. “Excavation has begun at 1841 Broadway, the site of a 24-story residential building…which will rise from a corner site at the intersection of Broadway and West 60th Street, just north of Columbus Circle and the southwestern corner of Central Park.” And, “Demolition preparations have begun at 266 West 96th Street, the site of a 23-story residential building…planned to yield 171 apartments, with 91 regular-sized homes and 80 micro units marketed to seniors ranging from 290 to 340 square feet each. Sixty-eight apartments would be allocated toward permanent affordable housing, while all residents would be provided free amenity access that includes a health club. The site is located between Broadway and West End Avenue.”
Should “public-facing building employees,” like doormen and concierges, be mandated to get the vaccine? “So far…the biggest pushback against a mandate is coming not from individual doormen but from their union. Most doormen in New York are members of SEIU 32BJ, which represents 35,000 residential-building workers throughout the Northeast. Although 32BJ has been encouraging its members to get the vaccine through information sessions and seminars, it’s against any mandate. ‘We’re trying to figure out a way to meet the perfectly reasonable desire to have employees vaccinated,’ Carolina Gonzalez, a union spokesperson, told Curbed. ‘I understand why people would feel more comfortable with a staff that is vaccinated, but that is not something that is accounted for in any way in the contract of these workers.’”
Stephen Ross, who gained local notoriety when he hosted a fundraiser for Donald Trump in the Hamptons in the summer of 2019, has acquired Magnolia Bakery, which has two locations on the Upper West Side, the Wall Street Journal reported. “The venture-capital firm co-founded by developer Stephen Ross, a key figure behind the Hudson Yards development, and entrepreneur Matt Higgins has acquired the bakery chain from owner Steve Abrams and his fellow investors in a deal that closed earlier this year…Magnolia Bakery rose to prominence in the 2000s, when it appeared on the ‘Sex and the City’ HBO series and on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ Since then, the chain has grown to encompass more than 25 locations across the U.S. and overseas.”
Also, there was quite a stir on 92nd Street on Sunday after a car burst into flames across from the Trader Joe’s line:
.@westsiderag @iLoveTheUWS several people have called 9-1-1 and the @FDNY is on the scene! pic.twitter.com/WxsR7MkkU4
— Taryn It Up!! (@TarynItUpNY) June 6, 2021
Wish that new building providing affordable housing for seniors was twice as tall so it could provide twice as much affordable housing for seniors! Why do we place any limits at all on good developments like these that provide new, affordable housing for the neighborhood?
They may not own air rights.
The city should create more air rights and give them to projects like this.
You cannot create air rights. There is only one sky. If it’s sold already to the neighbors to stop building, than it’s sold.
I always thought Magnolia was way overrated, and now there is even less reason to go into a store crowded with lemmings.
Agreed. I’ll stay away.
you show ’em
Awesome, maybe the lines at Magnolia will be eliminated from the cancel culture sheep fleeing.
People have been choosing to not buy from businesses that do or support things they disagree with for centuries. That’s not cancel culture – that’s the free market.
Baaaaa!
I think it’s important to note that one of these knife attacks was not random. One of the victims was the person originally in possession of the knife and he threatened the man with it when he made homophobic slurs. It was then grabbed away from him and used against him. Self-defense is important but things can go very wrong :(. Looking forward to trans people being able to live their lives in peace!
If you deal with the public, on a daily basis and basically all the time you are working, you get vaccinated. You don’t want to be vaccinated? Fine. Find another job.
I have no tolerance for either healthcare workers (IN A HOSPITAL or nursing home where you could easily infect others) or others in public service NOT getting vaccination. This is a public health issue. And yes, keep wearing a mask. Too much asymptomatic transmission still happening.
And yes, if companies can have dress codes, hair style rules, etc., they can require vaccinations.
Unless you have a proveable reason that you would be put at risk (meds you take, infusions you are getting, etc.) by a vaccination, no exceptions. Don’t like it? Work elsewhere
Hi, Irena. You are absolutely correct. Vaccination, and full masking covering the nose, MUST BE REQUIRED for healthcare workers, including cleanng staff, and “public-facing employees.” That includes hotels, airbnb-type venues, and the tourists. SEIU 32BJ, companies, and building managements have to be part of the non-contagion process. We all have to understand that we Will not achieve more normal functioning with the current recalcitrance.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think that vaccines are still theoretically under Emergency Use Authorization, so that makes it harder to fully mandate them. Once that comes off, it gets a lot easier and then I agree with you. I’m not sure when this will actually happen.
Unfortunately, there are too many people in this country who will not do something if they are told to do something, even if it helps others – they think they are being independent, I think they are being selfish jerks. Shockingly, most of them voted for Trump.
Delta Airlines is mandating vaccination for all new hires. Current employees are at or over 60% vaccination rate.
Musical Hamilton along with various colleges, universities and other businesses across country are mandating vaccination.
I would accept your invitation to correct you, but you have to give me something to work with. The things you have claimed here are so bizarre that no one knows where to start.
But I’ll take a stab. Trump:
a. organized, funded and managed the remarkable development and production of the vaccine, and
b. urged people to get vaccinated.
Putting the vaccine refusals on him is just hysteria.
You seriously need a reality check. Trump had absolutely nothing to do with Pfizer’s development of the vaccine. They were solely funded overseas. He did absolutely nothing that any other president wouldn’t have done, as far as R & D or funding. He knew a pandemic was looming in January 2020 and was CAUGHT ON TAPE discussing it with journalist Bernstein, and he mocked it well until hundreds of thousands were DEAD. He mocked social distancing and mask wearing and it’s all on TAPE. It is ALL on him, and no amount of pretending we didn’t ALL live through his pushing of other drugs and mocking the virus live and in real time and recorded is just folly. His minions of screaming supporters stormed Capitols in several states, threatened Governors, and it’d part of the historical (and FBI) record. Trying to salvage his reputation with this virus now is ridiculous. Unless someone has really, really, really bad short term memory, he will be considered a “leader” who blew it badly.
Trump did help get the vaccine made but you are giving him too much credit. And he did get vaccinated. He could be much more vocal in encouraging people to follow his lead to get vaccinated.
And it is pretty obvious that the intersection between those not getting vaccinated and Trump supporters is very large. This admittedly is not totally his fault, but he could definitely be helping the situation. Because these people blindly follow everything he says, such as his baseless belief that the election was stolen.
I would love to see everyone who can get vaccinated do it. I would love to have all building employees vaccinated. And there are excellent public health reasons to require it. But equating mandated dress codes with getting a vaccination? Not quite the same thing.
I am on the Board of my condo building. We had this discussion because some doormen/porters are not vaccinated (they volunteered the information, we did not ask). We also got a legal opinion to see if we could mandate vaccinations. No such luck. Nothing we can do at this point.
If hospitals and other healthcare setting in NYS can mandate nurses along with other employees to get flu vaccinations, am not sure why a condo building couldn’t do same for employees with covid.
Federal government long ago stated employers could mandate covid vaccination for employees. This long as the do not violate federal or state laws regarding discrimination.
https://gross-shuman.com/updates/blog/article:can-employers-make-employees-get-vaccinated/
https://nysba.org/covid-19-vaccinations-can-private-sector-employers-require-employees-to-be-vaccinated/
Producers of musical “Hamilton” are requiring actors and others backstage to be vaccinated.
So friend of DJT’s buys a small chain bakery that specializes in cupcakes, which had already been sold by the founder years ago.
What could go wrong?
Is the affordable housing time limited?
For example, on;y the length of the tax abatement (20-25 years) and then reverting to market?
Or is it permanent affordable housing?
Permanent.
Developer is using city owned land (former subway substation) for this project. Thus city had leeway to call more shots.
https://newyorkyimby.com/2019/11/rendering-revealed-for-266-west-96th-street-on-the-upper-west-side.html
Not sure what a political commentary on the new owner of Magnolia cupcakes has to do with anything other than reaching out go cancel culture, once again. Proving nothing. As we walk around NYC and the UWS, surrounded by an increase in crime, homeless and our public safety is now at risk, we need to be mindful of is that elections have consequences, as we approach this coming November. Who owns a favorite cupcake bakery I speculate is at the very bottom of everyone’s focus.
Hard core anti-Trumper here, but I agree that Ross holding a fund raiser for Trump is not relevant to him buying the bakery. I’m not sure why it needed to be included.
While you’re at it, you might want to mention that he owns the Miami Dolphins. Or that unlike Trump he has donated a fortune to various charities.
Vulture capitalist eats bakery……..video at 8. But Seriously according to reports Ross sucked up billions of tax payer money for his billionaire mall on the Hudson. He has put together a pac to protect the rights of the downtroddened billionaires, developers and lobbyists in the City. His pac is seeking to capture the entire government of the City to protect billionaire rights and fight for obscenely expensive housing to make sure no billionaire need to homeless. He’s such a “freedom” fighter.
I’ll miss Magnolia Bakery. So why did he buy leases? Cash rich accounts! He wanted a cup cake and couldn’t control himself?
Anyone know what kind of car caught fire? My friend’s Range Rover just burst into flames recently. I keep hearing this is not unusual!!!! Yikes
Looks like a Subaru.
Why is it okay to require kids to be vaccinated in order to attend school, but not okay to require people in certain jobs to get Covid vaccinations? They’re mostly brainwashed by their malignant hero, Trump.
Well, Trump did get the vaccine and urged his followers to do so.