Monday, January 22, 2024
Partly cloudy. High 36 degrees.
Notices
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Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
Another housing lottery for luxury apartments on the Upper West Side launched last week, this time in a 48-story building within Waterline Square at 21 West End Avenue (60-61).
NYC Housing Connect currently has a waiting list to fill four studios and a one-bedroom apartment, with the eligible-income requirement set between $22,626 and $87,550. Additional vacancies are expected to become available in the coming weeks, and all applications must be mailed in or submitted online by February 12.
Constructed in 2016, the building features such amenities as: 24-hour concierge service; a playroom; a lounge with an outdoor terrace; a gym, yoga room, and boxing studio; and a 60-foot-long indoor pool, and a spa.
Actual rent is not specified and may vary based on the lease terms.
You can find out more about the housing lottery and apply — HERE.
Scott Stringer looks set to run for the city’s highest office again in 2025.
Stringer represented the Upper West Side for 13 years between 1992 and 2005 in the New York State Assembly, before going on to serve as Manhattan borough president and the city’s comptroller. Stringer was an early favorite in the 2021 mayoral election before his campaign was derailed by a sexual misconduct allegation, and a subsequent fifth place finish.
He is now exploring another run for mayor in 2025, as he registered a campaign exploratory committee last week to begin raising funds as he weighs a bid.
Stringer becomes the first high-profile Democrat to appear set on challenging Mayor Eric Adams, as the current mayor continues to deal with the federal investigation into whether his 2021 campaign colluded with a foreign government.
It is rare for a New York City mayor to lose a primary as the incumbent. It has not happened since David Dinkins ousted Edward Koch in 1989.
You can read more about the Stringer developments in the New York Times — HERE.
A penthouse in Central Park Tower, the world’s tallest residential building, has gone into contract for a mindboggling $115 million, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Though not technically on our turf, it’s in our view from everywhere in the neighborhood. The building is located on West 57th street along Billionaires Row, with the recently sold unit taking up the 107th and 108th floors.
The penthouse includes seven bedrooms, eight baths, a home theater, a room for staff, and 12,557 square feet of space. It has views of Central Park, the Hudson River, and the East River. The building itself also features the “world’s tallest private club,” which is located on the 100th floor and has a private bar, restaurant, cigar lounge, and ballroom.
The penthouse was originally listed for $175 million. The identity of the buyer is currently a mystery.
Somehow, this unit is not the most expensive apartment in the building. A triplex at the very top of the property is still for sale at $195 million.
You can find out more about the penthouse sale on Architectural Digest’s website — HERE.
The one-year anniversary of the murder of Maria Hernandez in her apartment at 126 West 83rd Street was on Thursday. The 74-year old grandmother’s violent death shocked the Upper West Side community and two men have since been indicted for murder.
A funeral service was held for Hernandez at the Riverside Memorial Chapel, and there are family photos and memories of her life — HERE.
Stay warm!
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When Solomon Brothers proposed building a tower on the old NY Coliseum site at Columbus Circle, Jackie Onassis led a successful protest to stop it becasue of its impact casting shadows on Central Park. Now we have multiple buildings that cast shadows on the park and that have also destroyed the classic New York skyline. The kicker is that they are not even lived in.
Since previous comment wasn’t printed by WSR will try again.
Protests by Jackie Onassis and others did *NOT* stop building of proposed Solomon Brothers tower. Black Monday (19 October 1987) did initially.
After Black Monday Solomon Bros like other Wall Street firms retrenched and backed out of Coliseum site deal leaving developer Mort Zukerman on his own.
Other shoe dropped when courts sided with Municipal Arts Society in lawsuit alleging city violated zoning rules by approving office tower. Sale of site was subsequently voided and things went back to square one.
Then mayor Koch was furious but a deal to build what is now at site (One Columbus Circle) would not come together until late 1990’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Bank_Center#Plan_selection_and_finalization
What is the classic New York skyline? Sheep Meadow due south, circa 1829?
It’s a living, breathing metropolis. Shadows notwithstanding, you’ll be fine.
In other City news….issue of new City Council law on additional reporting on NYPD interactions and “stops” and Mayor’s veto.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/19/adams-vetoes-law-enforcement-bills-despite-likely-council-override-00136656
Please tell us what Mr. Stringer will do about crime in plain English. Not politician speak. Then we can proceed.
I appreciate his service as comptroller but I fear that he is too much NYC politics as usual and will be a slightly better deBlasio. I’m not a fan of Adams’ either but I am hoping for someone a bit more inspiring, centrist and practical. Any chance Bloomberg can run again? A more kind, humane stop and frisk (because I agree the original was too much) is exactly what this city needs, as well as someone with good business sense.
Stop and Frisk is inherently flawed. There’s no instance of it not being biased.
Not true. I have spoken to countless minority residents of high crime communities who were strongly in favor of it, as long as their were boundaries.
And what is the difference between stop and frisk and TSA at the airport? Not much.
You go into the airport consenting to a security check, going out in public to the corner store or to the post office shouldn’t warrant being stopped by the police. There is no basis for civilians to consent in standard environments. Protection against illegal search and seizure are constitutional rights, plus a federal court ruled that it was an illegal and biased quota system bent on criminalizing black and brown people.
Stop and frisk was never stop and frisk, it was stop, shut your mouth, do what I tell you before I hurt you, and frisk. Go back and listen to the Adrien Schoolcraft recordings, or any of the early iPhone recordings teenagers published in the Village Voice of police officers talking to them on the street while frisking. Really ugly, violent stuff, glad it’s been gone, but Adams is trying to bring it back. NY politics operate on a pendulum.
Stringer was the NYC Comptroller when ThriveNYC was enacted.
This was the mental health initiative started by DeBlasio’s wife. It was mired in corruption and waste and about a billion dollars in funding is unaccounted for.
As Comptroller Stringer should have been on top of this.
Stringer has proven to be an incompetent left wing political hack with a history of sexual harassment allegations against him.
NYC can do better than to make this clown our next mayor.
Scott Stringer epitomizes all that is wrong with NYC politics. Same cast of characters (all long term career politicians) just don’t know when to go.
Term limits was supposed to bring new blood into city government, instead it’s rather like a game of musical chairs. Every four years or so those limited out of one elected office hunt around for another.
Sadly thanks to pathetic levels of voter participation in NYC elections people largely win based upon name recognition rather than merit.
Kathryn Garcia?
She’s pragmatic and a supporter of police reform, she has my vote.
Hoping she runs again but this time with a better support team. Her ads were horrible and didn’t help establish her bona fides.
One has to wonder where humanity has gone. How low can you go to kill an elderly woman, Maria Hernandez, minding, our own business, living alone in her home.
My prayers go out to her family.
My heart is breaking for Maria Fernandez. Nothing will bring her back, but where’s accountability for those who put this criminal into her building? WSR, can you flow up on that?
Also, speaking about accountability, where is Stringer regarding ThriveNYC?
There’s absolutely no fiscal or legal accountability in NYC right now because everything is political.
21 West End Avenue is located between 60th and 61st Streets, not 61st and 62nd.