Monday, September 25, 2023
More rain ☹️ High 60 degrees.
Summer officially turned to fall on September 23.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Yom Kippur, in the Hebrew Year 5784, began Sunday at sundown and ends Monday at nightfall.
The Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group and Columbus Amsterdam BID will co-host an illustrated talk by architectural and urban historian Alexander Wood on Wednesday, September 27, about the technological changes that transformed construction in New York City.
UWS News
By Gus Saltonstall
The local news family in New York City is a small one, and one of the very best publications serving the five boroughs could use a hand. THE CITY is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, digital news site that delivers daily local journalism to New Yorkers on a variety of topics, including education, the economy, transportation, housing, the environment, and public safety. It’s smart and well written and shares its content freely with other publications. The Rag often republishes stories from THE CITY relevant to the Upper West Side.
Now, as reported in Semafor, despite increased circulation, THE CITY has been caught in the philanthropic crunch. Grants and donations are way down, leading to a joint decision by management and staff to cut the staff’s work hours by 20% across the board, to avoid layoffs and provide access to unemployment funds. That seems a fitting solution for a publication known for its hard-hitting news and clarifying “explainers” — that signs its newsletters “Love.” Let’s show THE CITY some love, and donate HERE.
In a bit of neighborhood pride, an Upper West Side eatery was recently named among the best restaurants in the United States by The New York Times. Last week, The Times included Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi on its annual list of the 50 best restaurants in the country.
The American-Caribbean eatery, located at 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, opened roughly a year ago, and has quickly collected a list of stellar reviews and praise. The restaurant is led by Onwuachi, who has run eateries in Washington, D.C., and California, and also competed in the popular TV show “Top Chef.”
Onwuachi was previously named the “Rising Star Chef of the Year” by the James Beard Awards.
“…the menu.. pays sincere and doting attention to oxtails, egusi soup, Cosmic Brownies and other foods that don’t usually make it into expensive restaurants in New York.” The New York Times food critic, Pete Wells, wrote about the UWS eatery, stating there is…”suspicion that Tatiana is that very rare creature, an important restaurant that knows how to party.”
Good luck getting a reservation.
It might not be as exciting as spotting a rare bird or butterfly, but a special monarch did go fluttering through Central Park last week. Prince William, the heir to the British throne, went for a jog in the iconic Manhattan green space on September 19th.
William was in town to attend the Earthshot Prize Annual Innovation Summit, where he helped hand out prize money to 15 finalists honored for their environmental initiatives.
“I decided to join the hordes of New Yorkers during their morning routine,” William told the New York Post about his Central Park jog. “It was wonderful waking up in New York on a sunny morning rather than the rain we had yesterday.”
William’s New York City trip also included pulling oysters from the Hudson River and talking with the United Nations Secretary General. (Thanks to Gretchen.)
Dozens of orchestra members of the New York City Ballet took to the streets last week to rally in front of Lincoln Center for changes to their contract and healthcare. The rally, which took place Tuesday, the same day that the ballet company opened its 75th season, followed months of unsuccessful negotiations with leadership.
“Our players in the New York City Ballet orchestra need to feed their families,” Sara Cutler, a harpist who is also the president of Local 802, which represents the orchestra’s union, told Gothamist. “They need to give their families health care. That’s it!”
The musicians were furloughed during the COVID-19 pandemic, from June 2020 to September 2021 — at which point they returned to an agreed-upon 15% pay cut.
The musician’s union “has chosen to launch an aggressive public relations campaign that includes many inaccurate and misleading statements,” the New York City Ballet told Gothamist.
The musicians added that, while they understood the pay cut in 2021, since then, ticket prices have gone up and patrons have returned — but their wages have remained stagnant.
Fittingly, the musicians played “For the Love of Money” by The O’Jays during Tuesday’s upper West Side protest. “After the protest wound down, the musicians headed into the theater to perform in “Jewels,” Gothamist reported.
Mayor Eric Adams was stationed outside of Gray’s Papaya last week, but the talking point wasn’t well-priced hot dogs — it was the war on rats and how it connects to trash.
Adams, along with New York City Sanitation Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch, announced a proposed rule stating that all commercial trash must be in a secure, lidded container beginning on March 1, 2024. The proposal follows an announcement earlier in the summer of an expansion of containerization rules aimed at getting black trash bags off sidewalks.
“We’ve declared that rats are Public Enemy Number One — but we’re not stopping there; we’re also going after the black trash bags that litter our streets, aiding and abetting rodents,” Adams said. Rat sightings are down 20 percent this summer compared to 2022, and down 45 percent in the city’s special Rat Mitigation Zones, according to the mayor’s office.
Gray’s Papaya was lauded for its trash control on the busy West 72nd Street corner.
Did you know that some landlords set a weight limit for prospective tenants? Luckily, though, not for the human kind. It’s big dogs that are the targets of rejection when seeking New York City rentals, as one couple found out the hard way when they and their two great danes were turned down by 27 landlords.
“Probably the most fraught setting for big dogs in city apartments is the elevator,” The New York Times reported.
“For Kathleen Klech, who lives on the Upper West Side, teaching her 120-pound cane corso, Buttercup, to sit immediately upon entering the elevator was essential for preventing unneighborly conduct.
Otherwise, “she’ll put her nose in your grocery bag and eat your steak,” Ms. Klech, 65, said. “But I’ve had dachshunds who did that, too..”
That’s it for now. For those fasting, 6:48 p.m. is sundown. To all, have a great week!
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I would be delighted to run into Buttercup anywhere she and her sniffing nose may happen to find themselves!
Same!
And if I ate steak I would share it with her!
Big dogs, little dogs….bad behavior by dogs is generally the fault of bad owners who just won’t accept that certain behaviors need to be curbed and that your neighbors shouldn’t have to live with your dog. I’ve actually had a dog owner tell me that dog urine doesn’t smell as a reason why I should have no problem with his dog urinating in the hall way. This occurred at the same time one could both smell the urine and see the way in which it bleaches the carpet. I love dogs but they just don’t belong on New York apartments.
Of course they do. I had a German Shepherd mix — 80 pounds — in my studio and he lived for 16 years and 2-1/2 months. He was obedience trained off and on lead. He never peed anywhere he wasn’t supposed to. When he lost bladder control at the very end of his life he wore a diaper. He was much beloved in the hood and all over NYC — he was a pet therapist for the Animal Medical Center for more than 13 years. He outlived some of his “patients” at Goldwater Memorial Hospital. The Commanding Officer of the 20 Precinct had his photo on his desk when Cody died. So did the guards at Lincoln Center. The Love Drug Store, formerly on the corner of 62 and Broadway, put a big photo of Cody in the window for months after he died. He was a big, beautiful love bug. The only dog that ever bit me in NYC was a tiny little rat-like thing. Sorry that you have lousy neighbors, but that has nothing to do with the rest of us. By the way, leash laws in the inner cities account for dogs living longer in the City than they do in the country, where they get hit by cars.
Sorry for your loss, Sam. I love big dogs and I think as long as they are given a lot of exercise, they can do very well in an apt because they rarely bark. It’s the smaller dogs that have the constant awful barking.
Thanks for the news about The City.(pun intended!)
Donated.
In total agreement about The City. I’ve been a monthly contributor for a couple of years. I consider it the equivalent of a subscription.
I love this format!
We are very lucky to have nonprofit newsrooms in this city, especially since the NYT decided it was provincial to cover the local affairs of its hometown too much. But they can’t exist without support!
Thank you Gus for this well-written and informative newsletter. Lots of interesting and relevant pieces of information here! I know you are fairly new at the job, and I wanted to let you know that work like this is very much appreciated.
Two problems with big dogs: 1) they take up elevator space and prevent the people who pay rent or own & pay maintenance have to wait to use the elevator(s).
2)Many of us are allergic to dogs which means that we react to the dander that they shed and which can get on our clothes.
And there is no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog. A small dog in an elevator might not be a problem but I large dog –well may touch the allergic person and shed dander on their clothes.
Tatiana may be a wonderful restaurant and I would like to eat there, but it isn’t exactly what I think of as the inclusivity that Lincoln Center has been pushing. They want the local under-representative residents to use LC, but I don’t think that a high-end restaurant, no matter how good, is what comes to mind.
Thanks, Gus!
Set up a $5 monthly donation to The City… thank you for letting us know they need help. It’s a resource fully worth supporting