By Carol Tannenhauser
More than 100 people turned up at Hi-Life Bar & Grill on Amsterdam Avenue and W. 83rd Street on Friday evening to enjoy complimentary hot toddies and the sight of their favorite eatery — “our church,” one regular called it — without a sidewalk shed for the first time in 10 years.
Everyone was happy!
The scaffolding workers who hauled the pipes and wood away, looking forward to the weekend…
Earl and Sara Geer…
And most of all, the crowd!
If you want to understand why sheds and scaffolding stay up for so long, read our special report, The Omnipresence of Scaffolding and Its Impact on City Lives; Why and What Is Being Done?
So happy for Earl, Sarah and Elsa! They are family to us . Wonderful venue on UWS with such a cozy feel and diverse clientele many of which I have built long lasting friendships ❤️😊
So great to see Earl’s smile all afternoon long. Elsa and Sarah too!! Hot Toddies were delicious. Back in The High Life Again. (Steve Winwood song)
Looks good!
I love these headlines! Shed shed. Back in the Hi Lite again.
Well done!
My own building’s façade has been completely obscured by scaffolding since I first saw this building a year ago… and of course it was obscured when I finally moved in 6 months ago… so in reality I’ve never actually seen the building I live in…
But okay, I get it: nobody wants to be abruptly sent to the next world by a hunk of falling masonry, or be in any way responsible for that occurring to someone else.
My beef is when they first start to drill away with their masonry drills (located essentially right next to my head) with that hellacious pounding noise as they attack the building you’re in, as the pounding even shakes the building (or seems to) you’re suddenly aurally hurled out of sleep, like out of a cannon… forever! You don’t know where that sleep went, you can’t find it again & now you’re wandering around in a daze because you’ve only had 3-4 hours of sleep… talking on the phone, listening to music: every activity is impossible! You’re wearing earplugs in both ears, which aren’t very effective, you can’t even hear yourself think!
They’ve been drilling since… was it September? October? It never ends! Never! Okay the beatings stop only the weekends and then Monday looms, and they start up again bright and EARLY.
I’ve prayed for blinding snow, lashing rains thunderous winds but nope: there they are all winter long, at a way too intimate distance from my ears as the building trembles with those sudden truck-loads of world-ending noise.
I’m even criticized for bringing the subject up, it’s evidently bad form: the emails I receive have messages that amount to: DON’T EVEN ASK! It’ll take as long as it takes!
I mean, I moved here because I used to live above a sports bar & quiet was my no. 1 goal & people actually had the nerve to use such phrases as, “pin-drop quiet” to describe this place!
So okay: GET IT DONE! Enough already!
My current thinking, completely unsupported by available facts, is: they must’ve finished this months ago & now they’re only pretending to replace errant masonry: it’s job security.
I mean, was every square inch of this building in disastrous shape when they first started?
During the months they’ve already taken thus far to fix this alleged masonry problem they could have built the entire façade of this building from scratch!
Yet there’s absolutely no sign that I can see or more importantly hear of them reaching any conclusion to this torturous cacophony.
Okay rant over.
Congratulations to Hi-Life and all who live above & within hearing distance of her.
Free therapy at the Quick Check. You have a sense of humor but have you escaped from the poisons of political thought? Voting is a form of hatred.
So you have about nine years to go yet?…..
Ugh!
and sigh…
Try noise cancelling headphones. Not perfect but they muffle the noise somewhat.
Debby-
I have some, but when I put them on & pushed a button they started up with an officious voice commanding me to, I don’t know, connect them to my non-existent cell phone? Anyhow eventually they grew silent… but not silent enough, unfortunately.
Anyway that’s how they earned a rarely sought Place of Dishonor down in the bottom of my closet, underneath those shoes with the holes that no longer fit.
In the Bose 35 box however there are WARNINGS/CAUTIONS in Danish, Dutch, Finnish… ad infinitum. ACHTUNG!
Not a word about what to actually do to actually make use of them.
But I may indeed scour the internet for at least 26 seconds or so until I move on, based solely on the small charge of energy contained in your helpful nudge.
…I plugged it into my desktop a minute or so ago but it’s just staring at me, so this is not promising, although there is a vanishingly small green light.
Thanks though.
yes in this instance tech is your friend
This post officially wins Best WSR post (not official) of 2023, so far. 🙂
Wasn’t there a dive bar on 73rd and Amsterdam called Hi Life? Is this related to that? Loved that place.
There was a dive bar on 73rd and Amsterdam but it was called the P & G, lovingly known as “The Pig”. Was a favorite watering hole for stagehands.
10 years!!!! ??? Insanity. Looks amazing now,