Monday, July 31, 2023
Generally clear. High 82 degrees.
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Rag Times
By Carol Tannenhauser
Last weekend, I got an email from a friend with the subject line: “WSR in a book :)”
“Just fyi,” she wrote, “I’m reading this book at the moment, ‘Feral City’, and look which fabulous publication I’m stumbling upon
🤩”
I remember that story well. I had interviewed the above-mentioned “neighborhood woman” because someone tipped us off that she had moved into the city in August, 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when half-a-million other people had moved out. The “rent-stabilized” aspect of her story was a bonus — and went viral, holding the number-one-all-time-most-views spot on the WSR hit parade (230,225), until Yoko Ono moved out of The Dakota in March of 2023 (253,967).
Movement into and out of our city seems to be one way that we measure its health and allure. “Neighborhood woman” was a victory for New York, celebrating its energy and abundance of human nature.
I contacted her this past weekend — her name is Maureen Cross — as I have periodically in the years since the story, to see how her choices played out. Is she still here? How is she doing and feeling now? Here is her unedited response:
“I will never leave UWS! My quality of life is too high here to do that. This morning I went swimming in the Hudson and this afternoon I’ll walk 1 block to see Oppenheimer. This evening I’ll walk my dogs over to the updated Museum of Natural History park and run into people I know. Tomorrow I’ll go to the Farmers Market there and bring my composting. The egg lady there is fantastic as well as the apple guys.
It’s beyond beautiful here with our river and parks. Grocery stores everywhere.
My parking garage is on my street with super nice guys. I needed a new printer last week and I walked to Shine Electronics. They ordered it, delivered it and set it up for me.
I got the best haircut of my life with Nina at Excellence Barbershop recently for a very reasonable price. I got great summer clothes at Unique Boutique.
I bought a new fan at Basics Plus hardware store and they put it together for me. Emma there is the epitome of customer service. New Fed Ex on Bway took care of a recent project for me. Chase Bank always helpful and informed. Same with Staples, Zabars, Gristedes, 82nd St. Grocery. 24 Hour Fruit Stand guy so friendly. Vitamin Connection guy comes out to give my dogs treats. Post Office so convenient. Waiting for Fire Station guys to come back after their renovation. I have lived a lot of places and it is the best place for dogs. They come everywhere with me.
Excellent home day care they go to.
That’s my experience! I could not live this life anywhere else.
Don’t read the news. It makes you cynical. Except UWS rag of course.
There you go. I could go on.
Maureen”
Have a great week!
Thanks to Yvonne Vavra for the tip.
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I’m very happy for Maureen Cross and the fact that she enjoys our neighborhood. However, I expected that WSR will publish something like that after several crime incidents. “Don’t read the news, they make you cynical?” I thought adults have enough analytical thinking to correctly process information. Glad that Maureen has her dogs, it is safer that way., we don’t need to see another woman assaulted.
Just to add – I absolutely love UWS. Wishing for better safety or public order shouldn’t be viewed as “hatred” for the neighborhood as some commentators mentioned. I want our neighborhood be better, they want to stifle the opposing views and let the decline continue. So it is a big question then who loves the neighborhood more.
Re: The News. “analytical thinking to correctly process information”.
Rough estimate of approximately 25 to 35% of the American population thinks the 2020 elections was “stolen” 2.5 years later.
I read it not recently here in WSR that a lot of people think Al Gore victory was stolen.
There always be people like that. Doesn’t mean the news should be tailored for them.
>>”I read it not recently here in WSR that a lot of people think Al Gore victory was stolen.”
Reading it in the WSR comment section is not considered news or “facts”. All kinds of misinformation get through on the internet.
Gore conceded because FL’s – 500 hanging chad’s lost to GWB. Gore won the popular vote by 0.5 million. Hillary won by almost 3 million in 2016.
The WSR does a good job reporting hyper local street level crimes. Billions are also lost to white collar fraud each year in the US. Yes, doctors and lawyers.
https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/
It’s much easier to find stories about which CVS got ripped off in the UWS. It’s harder to find all the small scale Bernie Madoffs who might be your next door neighbor.
George Bush II Was elected by the Supreme Court. Don’t try and compare the facts of what happened to Gore and the lies Trump is selling.
I love the UWS.
Exactly. There is a difference between saying the election was stolen because of the treatment of a technicality where the facts were not in question but were up for interpretation versus saying it was stolen and then making up facts (aka lies) to back up the assertion.
‘Adults have enough analytical thinking to process information correctly’
This is wishful thinking unfortunately – are you sure you’ve been reading the news?
“Swimming in the Hudson”?!?!
OY!
Readers want to know more! Hoping follow up is en route :).
And congratulations to Maureen for finding her bliss and describing so many places and people (or similar figures and spots) that make so many of us happy. I hope it works for her through many phases of her life.
“ Don’t read the news. It makes you cynical”? Ignorance is bliss, as they say.
What will be surprising to many is how many people move into the UWS during late 2020 and early 2021. Once prices dropped and landlords began giving incentives like no broker fees and one month free, brokerages on the UWS started being inundated with inquiries for apartments. MANY were white and or educated people from Harlem and Washington Heights who always wanted to live on the UWS but couldn’t afford to do it until COVID. MANY were also white and or educated people from other gentrifying neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens such as Bed Stuy, Bushwick, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Park Slope, Crown Heights or Astoria. There was also an influx of people from Hell’s Kitchen looking to move to the UWS. I’d say about 60% even 65% of the clientele at certain UWS brokerages that focus on rentals consisted of those looking to move TO the UWS from other neighborhoods where rents were cheaper before COVID. The other 35% to maybe 40% were UWS residents taking advantage of the situation to get a bigger space for themselves including a home office.
I have a friend who is a broker that does Manhattan rentals and told me the most amount of commission they ever made in 20 years doing rentals on the UWS was in the Fall of 2020, in a no broker fee market.
A recent NYT real estate article illustrates the trend of affluent remote workers to move to Manhattan. Plus affluent retirees and affluent who want a Manhattan pied a terre:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/31/realestate/renters-bay-area-nyc-move.html
Yes it seemed that way – and remote work further allowed “young educated” people (especially tech) to move to NYC from across the country.
Some newly arrived relatives keep reiterating how they and their friends love NYC because they can 1) get drunk and not need to drive and 2) order in food anytime and all the time.
Bloomberg’s vision of a luxury urban playground for the young and wealthy.
As a fourth generation Manhattanite, in my family’s experience, things have worsened – particularly loss of neighborhood stores like Laytners, continual reduction in bus service, having to dodge Citibikers etc, the rise of luxury real estate which has encompassed what was a middle class neighborhood….
Jeremiah Moss, the author of Feral City, wrote an incredible book Vanishing New York.
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/vanishing-new-york-jeremiah-moss?variant=32207516860450
Jeremiah Moss is a treasure! But I did see him on a panel discussion of 2020 city life and his tone was a little off… I get what he was saying that for him the pandemic was a pause on the hyper gentrification and corporatization of NYC and I think that’s the case Feral City is making (I have it but haven’t gotten to it yet), but at the panel he was like “It was great! I connected with my neighbors” and the other speakers were like “We were scared for our/ family’s lives and isolated and people died”, it was a weird panel
Amen to this wonderful essay!
Yes, crime and dirt are bad. But the proximity of so much to love is amazing, and I love the neighborhood feel of my little area of the UWS.
I’ve contemplated moving but realize I would be bored senseless almost anywhere else. I would hate living in a non-urban environment.
Yes. Yes. Yes. I agree. With all of the above (other than the swimming in the Hudson. Not quite brave enough for that yet. Also, where??
Aren’t the NYC-hater comments fascinating? Literally moments after any WSR story notes something positive about the UWS, these people have spotted it and re-issued a slew of the same old complaints, almost verbatim. The characteristic style and grammatical fingerprints of these comments lead us to suspect that at least some of them may be the same person.
We can’t help but wonder what on earth keeps this person in the city. There’s a whole big country out there! Go find your place and your people! None of us who love the city are under any illusion that it’s perfect, but it is certainly not enriched by fair-weather friends who can’t spend even one minute in appreciation of the treasure that is the UWS.
The newer moderate residents care just as much about the UWS as the old school liberals do, just in a different way.
She’s so right. Now I want to move back to the city.
Swimming in the Hudson? Where??!!
I could not think of living anywhere else. I have tennis, and pickleball a 15 min walk from my apartment. The theater and Lincoln Center are just a few stops on the subway. Composting and farmer’s market are convenient, And you never know what you will see around the corner. Such a vibrant and electric place to live,
>>” And you never know what you will see around the corner. ”
So true. These sucker punched women didn’t see it either
I’d like to know where in The Hudson you can swim.
They do it for the triathalon.
Love this – couldn’t have said it better myself and yes Nina is top-notch with the hair, hands down.
Maureen is spot on about everything. Right on!
Where can one swim in the Hudson?