Monday, December 18, 2023
Rainy. High 60 degrees.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
The Winter Solstice is on Thursday, December 21, when the sun will set at 4:31 p.m. That will be the shortest day of the year. In a happy spin, though, that means the days will only grow longer from then on.
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
A housing lottery recently opened for rent-stabilized apartments in an amenity-rich building on the Upper West Side.
The lottery is for homes in a brand-new building at 266 West 96th Street, between West End Avenue and Broadway. The building comes with a gym, outdoor terrace, children’s playroom, and spa. The window to apply for the lottery will remain open until February 16, 2024.
But what about the cost?
Eligible incomes to enter the stabilized-apartment lottery range from $40,526 to $198,250. The building has studios, one bedrooms, and two bedrooms available.
“These homes cater to varied needs, while sunlit interiors and premium plank flooring evoke a warm, welcoming ambiance,” reads a description for the apartments.
You can visit the link to see the specific income eligibility for each-sized apartment — HERE.
December 18 is the 25th anniversary of the premier of “You’ve Got Mail,” the beloved romantic comedy featuring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks set on the Upper West Side.
Untapped Cities recently put together a list of the different film locations that took place within the neighborhood.
The list unfortunately is made up of mostly shuttered shops, including the old Maya Schaper’s Cheese and Antiques shop near West 69th Street and Columbus Avenue, a Barney’s at the corner of Broadway and West 66th Street, the old H&H Bagels on West 80th Street, and most famously, the currently closed Cafe Lalo on West 83rd Street.
You can check out the full list for yourself — HERE.
An Upper West Side secondary-street naming took place last week to officially dub the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 94th Street, “DiDi Ford Way.” Ford spent nearly 50 years working at the River Park Nursery School, which is located on the same block.
She was the first African-American woman to teach at the school, and eventually became its director. She started working at the school in 1969, and continued to volunteer following her retirement in 2012.
Community Board 7 unanimously voted in May 2023 to approve a resolution for Ford’s secondary-street naming, and the process moved quickly from there.
“She supported and strengthened the women-run school by dedicating her life to enriching her students and the community at large with her imaginative lessons and teaching children to love each other, and to be proud and respectful of all cultures,” Councilmember Gale Brewer — who was in attendance for the ceremony — said about the longtime educator.
Here’s Barbara Litt’s piece posted in the Rag earlier this year about Ford’s legacy, and the process Litt helped lead to make the street naming happen: Who Doesn’t Remember a Favorite Teacher?
A budget watchdog for the city recently estimated that it will cost $6 billion to $7.8 billion to take care of the city’s migrants over the next two years, which is up to $4.8 billion less than what Mayor Eric Adams forecast at the end of the summer, as reported by Gothamist.
The projection was delivered by the Independent Budget Office, and differed significantly from the mayor’s estimate of $10.8 billion over the next two years to care for the influx of migrants.
The process for next year’s budget is ramping up as we head into the new year, and Adams has already announced expected cuts to libraries, schools and police. He’s emphasized that more services will have to be cut to properly handle the steady flow of migrants into the five boroughs.
Gothamist provides a breakdown of how this new estimate by the city watchdog might change the conversation. You can read it — HERE.
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The migrant crisis continues to be ignored and we are going to be paying for it for a long time. It is sad that this has become a New York City problem and not a national problem. There are too many of them here to accommodate. And I am not saying this as a nimby – I am happy to help many of them. But we are overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, unemployment remains low and there are other places in America that are desperate for America. There are warehouses that need employees and infrastructure projects that need laborers. and I think many of these migrants would be happy to do the work. And they could be housed more easily in those places. But no one is making those connections. And New York City keeps paying for it.
It is and has been a national problem. Red states got fed up with places like NYC pretending to be compassionate and caring. They sent migrants here to even things up a bit so New Yorkers can see what a crisis the migrant problem is. The difference is other places don’t spend billions on overpriced filthy hotels, laundry service, food and god only knows what. Remember when Adams was literally welcoming migrants when they got off buses? He is not doing it now.
This is inaccurate. Of the border states, California and New Mexico have been reliably blue and Arizona is currently blue. That leaves Texas as the sole red state complaining, not states plural, but state singular.
The GOP has used immigration as an issue to rile up its votes for years. They used it in 2016 and they are using it now. It has nothing to do with a red state fed up with places like NYC pretending to be compassionate and caring. They sent migrants up here to create chaos, stoke fear, and rile up their voters because abortion is a losing issue for them.
I certainly couldn’t agree more. Flooding considerably one of the smallest states which initially had an overpopulation problem, with more people is just making this place unlivable. Meanwhile budget cuts are yet to come, and beneficial resources are presenting to be a scarcity, creating a crisis for everyone. I really think Mayor Adams made the worst mistake of his life. Consider NYC a sanctuary, sure, but it has to stop when they start kicking homeless people out. Where were the scooters when our homeless were left sleeping in the cold? The open shelters? The food ? Where was it all? This is only leading to the crumbling ripple effect that is inevitable for NYC at this point. It saddens me truly. We will not be able to bare this much longer, that’s for certain.
I bounce between California ad NYC – and you are totally wrong. Californians are fed up, even though we are a blue state, the schools, housing and medical services are over whelmed & bring quality of schools and medical care is falling fast. This isn’t a GOP or Democrat problem, this is an full USA problem. There is no reason Texas should shoulder this burden alone, as well as the other border states. It seems the farther away one lives from the border, the more delusional one becomes on the daily problems, both financially & socially, that these states bare.
Maybe. But I know someone who works with asylum seekers – helping with applicatobs
Many come here because they already have family here and many more come because they heard good things about NYC, about work and housing.
I was addressing OPOD’s false narrative regarding the GOP and migrants. Yes, it’s sad that we seem to be the only ones who care about helping people.
The luxe amenities in such buildings, let alone entrances, are NOT shared with those in stabilized apartments. From what we’ve heard over the years, the treatment of those in the stabilized apartments is very different from that of those paying top dollar. It theoretically benefits people in that they have a place to live, but it’s usually NOT a very neighborly environment.
Why not build a building with all reasonable rates? It could be done, IF somebody wanted to do it. But of course, if you can’t make lots of money, there is no incentive to build or repurpose anything in this city. The lack of affordable housing means this city truly is not for those but either very rich or somehow sharing expenses to meet high cost of housing.
That simply is not true.
Early on there may have been one or two buildings with “poor doors”, but city council shut that down rather quickly.
I defy you to go onto Housing Connect website and find one affordable/low income lottery building that meets what you’ve just said.
By law RS tenants who win these lottery units are entitled to every and anything market rate tenants have. Only question is how much if any fee will be required.
Even then city leans on developers to provide as much free or low cost amenities for “affordable/low income” tenants. This or where fees are high to take bit off rent.
There are several online forums regarding these low income/affordable housing lottery units.
You can learn quite a lot from reading various threads including information totally contrary to what you’ve said from those who actually live in said buildings.
https://www.city-data.com/forum/new-york-city-housing-lottery/
“the currently closed Cafe Lalo”…does this mean there is a chance of it coming back? I don’t think I ever saw a story on what happened there post-pandemic. From the outside, it looks like it’s just closed for renovations but it has been that way for three years now 🙁
At least we still have Riverside Park and Zabar’s!
I hope whoever finally takes over the space keeps that incredible labradorite sink counter in the bathroom, or at least puts it up for sale. Something that beautiful shouldn’t end up in the garbage.
I’d love a detailed story from WSR about what happened to Cafe Lalo.
One of the best moments in You’ve Got Mail is when Meg Ryan and Greg Kinnear go to the movies. As they are walking into the movie house, up the escalator and into the auditorium, the collective audience I’m sitting with gasps, as we realize that the actors are walking into and sitting in the same theatre we are all in….watching You’ve Got Mail. It was a surreal moment.
This has not much to do with local political representatives, but in actuality the individual property/building owners who submit their property to the city for potential consideration to be leased as homeless or migrant shelters. The reimbursement is enormous compared to what it would be to individually rent the apartments or rooms. So it is the property owners seeking the biggest bang for their buck with little regard for the street, the neighborhood or the area as a whole. Good luck fighting this; by the time the info becomes public, contracts, decisions and plans are already in place. Very daunting, to say the least.
In the opening scene, Meg walks past my old building on West End Ave (we lived there when the movie first came out). Blink and you’ll miss it. I still walk my dog all the time in the park where the closing scene takes place.
Why aren’t people with lower incomes allowed into this building? Many a retiree does not have that much income.
Because these lotteries are based on how much the median income is – up to 50% below neighborhood median income. So the minimum rents in Washington Heights are lower than here.