By Rob Schron
I started out as a journalist — I was reportedly the youngest editor of a daily newspaper in the U.S. in Saugerties, N.Y., after serving in the Navy during the Korean “conflict” from 1951 to 1956 — and have decided to finish my career doing the same thing. Except for the aforementioned stints, I’ve lived about 86 of my 91 years on the Upper West Side. Now, I thought, might be as good a time as ever to express some opinions and observations about what is going on in New York City and our neighborhood.
If the city needs money – which it undoubtedly does – it need look no further than West End Avenue and Riverside Drive where motorcycles, scooters and electric bikes continuously ignore red lights and speed through pedestrian crossings at a rate too frequent to count. How about licensing them and, perhaps more importantly, set up speed traps? Seems to me the city is missing out on two potential sources of revenue — license fees and fines. And did I mention the possibility of minimizing the hazard these vehicles cause pedestrians?
What price blueberries? They appear to rise and fall in price as fast as the stock market and, for years now, they haven’t been very good. One thing I’ve discovered: the street vendors sell them sometimes at half the price of the brick-and-mortar food stores – and they’re often just as good (if they’re any good to begin with).
I used to enjoy Saturday Night Live, but it has become a bastion of low-class humor with an emphasis on private-parts jokes (which aren’t even funny to begin with). If ever an alleged TV entertainment show needed an overhaul, SNL is it. Amazing to me how Lorne Michaels gets away with allowing such sophomoric jokes because he must be close to being a senior citizen by now (and should know better).
The most under-appreciated people in the city may be the food delivery guys on the Upper West Side who are also probably under tipped as well. Tips for these workers (which are likely their main source of income) should never be based on the percentage of the cost of the meal you ordered, but the fact you didn’t have to cook it and leave your home to get it. A minimum of $3.00 should cover any order under $15.00 and no less than $5.00 should cover anything over that amount. For checks over $25.00, think between $5.00 and $10.00. And if the delivery is made in bad weather, a few extra bucks would not only be deserved but welcome as well.
Have to give a “hats off” to Fresh Direct for its role during the pandemic. It not only had a website that offered virtually everything you could want in terms of food and beverage (and even wine), they were competitively priced and, more importantly, delivered pretty much whatever you wanted or needed to your building in most cases within 24 hours. For senior citizens, this was a great resource and with the closing of a number of UWS markets and bodegas, allowed them some degree of normalcy in fulfilling their needs. It couldn’t hurt if they offered seniors a discount by the way.
I hardly check my Facebook account but when I do I can’t believe the number of cats and dogs my “friends” have, and the frequency with which they share their loved ones’ photos. Maybe that’s why I hardly check my Facebook account.
I often wonder why TV newscast anchors think they need to laugh a lot and exchange pleasantries with one another when the world around them always appears in turmoil? The crowd on the desk of Channel 7 can be particularly annoying. Report the news and stop the banter, people.
The proliferation of coffee shops in the neighborhood is a welcome sight. And, for many, those offering vegan pastries and drinks with plant-based milk appear to have found a rather widespread audience. Surprisingly, some of the pastries available are as good or better than what you might expect. If you’re skeptical, try the Plant Shed on Columbus Avenue and 87th Street.
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Isn’t the majority of the Rag’s comment section Grumbling Geezers? Seems redundant as a column.
Also don’t get the disconnect here: Hating on e-bikes but loving delivery people. I love the people, too, but hate the driving behavior. And perhaps even more so the lack of traffic enforcement by the police.
the City had given OUR STREETS to the
delivery bikes? Causing unsafe streets
Doesn’t seem right. What happened to Safety First? An old and antiquated concept????????
Your first sentence made me chuckle. It’s so true!
People of all ages are unhappy about bicyclists who menace pedestrians – bicyclists who go through red lights, go the wrong way, ignore bike lanes
Don’t grumble about the dirt bikes and mopeds. Ban them. Get them off the streets. They are horrible. They are dangerous. They are deadly. They are destroying the community and the city.
Today a bunch of ebikes or mopeds or whatever were rounded up and confiscated by police from a group of (probably) new neighbors on Broadway at 68th…. They were presumably driving without licenses or using un-registered vehicles, possibly doing the usual ignoring of red lights, driving the wrong way, riding on sidewalks, etc etc. The members of the group targeted were not taken away, but stood around afterwards clearly EXTREMELY miffed that this had happened. Hands waving, voices screeching with lots of onlookers. It was a show. No humility, appreciation for the law, etc. I could say so many more things….
This is ALL TOO MUCH. Worrying about being hit at ever corner by one of these vehicles is exhausting. Someone needs to create and execute some CLEAR regulations here – why is this so difficult???
I’ve recently crossed the line into geezerhood. So much about our world is not what they told us back in the early 60s to expect when they said “the Atomic Age” and “the Age of Progress” would bring us flourishing adult lives. Yes, my life has flourished substantially. And NYC is in better shape than it was in 1975 when I returned to it.
Yet… among the drivers of “chaos” as described by Susan recently on another thread, I’ll mention the consequences of our being the only American municipality obligated to provide free housing and food to anyone from anywhere in the world who shows up and asks. How many migrants will the rest of us (many of us immigrants) have to support? 70,000? half a million? 900 million? There is no principled ceiling.
We have to get rid of the 1981 court decision, the City’s “consent”, and the subsequent City Council expansions of free services to all needy incomers. It is unjust and a recipe for fiscal and city disaster. That was then, this is now.
Thank you neighbor 785 for bringing up the irresponsible decision to burden tax payers by mandating that NYC provide housing, food and other services to any needy person from anywhere regardless of the numbers and/or the available resources. To say that this policy lacks strategic thinking is an understatement. If we are going to provide such expensive services, why not limit them to US citizens and our fellow New Yorkers in need up to the point our resources permit? That way we can do what we can for each other and our city in a rational manner.
Enjoyed your article,
SNL was the funniest with Gildna Radner
However, I’m going to ask my fellow West Siders to do something quite radical here….
PLEASE support our restaurants!
BUT – stop using delivery and pick up the food yourself.
I will not use delivery for restaurants anymore.
I am sick and tired and fed up with the delivery guys riding on the sidewalk, riding the wrong way, and running every single red light.
I will continue to call my elected officials and asked that these delivery bikes be licensed and that they would be more police to pull them over and give tickets and confiscate the bikes.
Give tickets you say?
What will that do?
In the long term, absolutely nothing, as we have no system left except get a desk ticket and never show up.
But in the SHORT term, it slows them down from delivering the food, and they lose $.
If you have to spend 15 minutes talking to a police officer, and giving them your ID, and then waiting…. as they write up a ticket, you might lose your incentive to keep running those red lights as there are CONSEQUENCES.
In the interim, I will walk to pick up my food and continue to call my elected officials.
Gale Brewer
563 Columbus Ave
Phone: 212-873-0282
People order their food in for a variety of reasons and nobody , including Gale Brewer, should tell them otherwise.
We also pick up.
Restaurants seem to appreciate
I stopped taking delivery, too. We enjoy going to the restaurants, and I like shopping in person and seeing what I will wind up buying.
Cathy, you make many good suggestions. I assume you know about the group E-Vehicle Safety Alliance. They seem well organized and have gotten attention from some electeds.
Yes, it is an amazing group. Thank you so much for mentioning that.
This article made me terribly homesick for the UWS <3
ditto
Thank you Mr. Schron for a very entertaining column. As one slightly younger gezzer to another, I agree with you observations and even thought the same thing about the price fluctuation of blueberries as you. I hope to hear from you in the future.
Speaking of pastries, I recently discovered that there are outstanding ones at the cafe at Barnes & Noble on Broadway. (Also their selection of books is amazing.)
Excellent outlet for select (grumpy) geezers, and this reader encourages any/all other grumblers to join the party. Here’s to more cheer in other parts 😉
Blueberries go down in price, except at farmers markets, in the summer, because they come from farms in NJ.
Fresh Direct is causing significant traffic congestion. It regularly turns Broadway southbound into a one lane “street”. It’s probably worse than Amazon. Both delivery services can either leave the City or make a moderate effort to obey the laws.
When I lived in a building with my windows on a courtyard facing the street, Fresh Direct trucks would park right next to that courtyard. The drivers would leave the truck and its refrigeration running while it took them forever to make the deliveries. This would happen several times a day. For me working at home, the racket was extremely disturbing.
neighbor,
Just curious, how many trucks, and how many traffic lanes were they taking? I’ve seen three of both on Broadway, albeit one of the lanes is a non-standing zone that lots of truck use for standing.
I endured 5 years of dust and noise from the 2 buildings (same owner) next to me. The contractor/s did not dust mitigation or noise mitigation for all sorts of exterior brick work. So it ain’t just Fresh Direct making life crap for people who live on lower floors in the back, or front in the FD case.
When I complained that some of the “facade” work was clearly interior building work being done from a scaffold, so “beyond the scope of work” allowed in the permit, the DoB sent out an inspector, who of course found nothing wrong. This was in the summer of 2021, the noise and uncontrolled dust continued for at least another 8 months.
Very, very good. As a veteran-geezer I agree with everything here but would also add Amazon (uh-oh, I hear the gripers saying)_ who saved us, me and my ailing wife, during Covid and beyond. If only we could find a replacement for those plastic tubs that are filled with take-out.
Having denied being in Geezerhood for a long long long time I now freely admit it. I can’t believe I agree with absolutely everything Mr. Schron says…..Fortunately he makes his point in with a civilized somewhat bemused demeanor….. not raging with narcissistic entitlement. So thank you for highlighting these 8 points for us Gizzers and Gizzettes. I’m going to track down Plant Shed sometime next week.
“People of all ages are unhappy about bicyclists who menace pedestrians”. (JAMA). The riding on the sidewalks, through lights and the wrong way on our streets is really beyond the pale and it’s done by deliveristas, Citibike riders and other cyclists. If the police do nothing about it which is exactly what they have been doing, then it won’t stop. In fact, I believe it will escalate.
Everyone bothered by this MUST call their elected leaders meaning council members, assembly members, State Senators and tell them cyclists, particularly e-vehicles MUST BE REGULATED!! Otherwise it won’t happen. The Mayor has no interest in regulation cause he appears to be captured by the biker lobby. He could have done something about this problem months ago. Instead he did nothing while many people were injured.
Instead NYC-EVSA (e-vehicle safety alliance), a community formed organization with plenty of injured pedestrians as members, has met with NYS Assembly members and State Senators to get action. It is the height of irresponsibility that City Hall has done nothing!
And btw, an e-vehicle caught fire today on Broadway and 77th Street while a deliverista was riding it! The flames shot up high as it exploded and the deliverista was lucky he jumped off and didn’t get injured. NYFD came and with difficulty pried the battery off the bike after putting out the fire. The battery was not being charged when it exploded! I repeat, the battery was not being charged when it exploded. Did you know that e-vehicles are welcome in the subway and the buses by the MTA?? They want to say that batteries only explode when they are charging!
Lorne Michaels is a lot more than “close to being a senior citizen” He’s 78 – will be 79 in a few months!
With you all the way, Rob Schron. Great observations , well-executed article, and great suggestions. There’s one “however” — you lost me when you said you don’t like to see posts of your “friends'” cats and dogs on Facebook.
I prefer to see a cat or a dog on Facebook than the endless selfies that people take!
In ‘my day,’ we not only would have been laughed out of school but we would have been laughed out of the city if we sat there taking photos of ourselves and posting them.
Oh yes, and I don’t mind the friendly banter of the newscasters. A shout out to Lonnie Quinn, the meteorologist on CBS!
His enthusiasm for the weather is contagious. I admit to taping the news at 5:00 and 11:00 just to see how much Lonnie enjoys the weather. He’s got me hooked!
This geezer doesn’t like Lonnie. He’s way too intense and acts like a prediction of rain is as exciting as a looming nuclear explosion.
Plus when he was doing segments on the national news, he tripped over his own words every time he was on – and now he’s not doing those anymore.
Give me Janice Huff. Calm, cool, and collected. She gets that weather information is important but not generally earth-shattering.
I figure if you are 91 years old, you are allowed to be grumpy.
Goodness sake, now that crime on the UWS is worse than it’s been since the Flood, we have to contend with sub-par Blueberries! The UWS is going to hell in a shopping basket…
Mr Schron said: “I often wonder why TV newscast anchors think they need to laugh a lot and exchange pleasantries with one another …. ”
To this I add, the time network anchors waste thanking the people in the field that are doing their job, is annoying. Tell the stories and move on. I miss Dan, Walter, Tom, Peter etc. and the news producers that didn’t feel it necessary to thank everyone. Retired broadcast geezer, Greg