Monday, April 15, 2024
Sunny. High 77 degrees.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Monday is tax day. If you haven’t applied for an extension, April 15 is the last day to file.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 81st Anniversary Ceremony will be held Friday, April 19, in Riverside Park.
This ceremony has taken place, rain or shine, at “Der Shteyn” (The Stone) in the park, near the West 83rd Street entrance, for the last 77 years. It will begin at 2 p.m.. You can read West Side Rag’s coverage of last year’s event — HERE. (Thanks to Jeff French Segall for the reminder.)
Upper West Side News
By West Side Rag
After years of complaints over construction noise and debris, a townhouse at 48-50 West 69th Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West, hit the market recently with a staggering $85 million asking price, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Two buildings at those addresses were bought by a French businessman and his wife in 2011 for $24.5 million. The buildings were demolished in 2018 and replaced by one larger combined property.
A petition created by neighbors in 2019 complained that “The people who live on both West 69th Street and West 68th Street awaken each morning to the jolting sounds and vibrations of jackhammers digging deeper into the center of the earth like thunderous meteor showers hitting the land.” The same year, the New York Times penned an article about the project titled — “That Noise? The Rich Neighbors Digging a Basement Pool in Their $100 Million Brownstone.”
The newly completed eight-story townhouse has five bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, a limestone floating staircase, fireplaces, a 55-foot indoor lap pool, and a wraparound terrace, according to a listing.
If sold at its current $85 million price tag, it would be one of the most expensive New York City townhouses ever.
You can read more about the property — HERE.
The New York Times profiled City Councilmember Gale Brewer’s fierce battle to shut down Zaza Waza, an unlicensed smoke shop doing business 200 feet from her Upper West Side office.
The Rag last month reported a survey by Brewer’s office that identified 53 stores in the neighborhood selling marijuana without a license. At that point, Zaza Waza was playing cat-and-mouse with authorities who shut the store and padlocked it – only to find the next day that the padlock had been sawed off and the store reopened.
The ongoing saga, said the Times, has involved police, “nearly a dozen other government agencies, trash bags filled with confiscated edibles, a couple of padlocks and what must have been a pretty good saw.” Also involved, of course, is Brewer, who called it “like a Fellini movie.”
Read the Times story here.
On another front, Brewer is speaking out against a new move by Mayor Eric Adams’s administration requiring elected officials to fill out a form when they want a response from a city agency.
The mayor’s team announced earlier this month a new two-page “elected officials engagement form” that politicians are supposed to complete to take part in a variety of engagements with city officials, including meetings with commissioners, meetings with senior staff, requests to attend events, official letter correspondence, and more, as reported by THE CITY. The requests will all go through the mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, THE CITY added.
The move was met by immediate pushback from members of the City Council, including Brewer.
“I’m not filling out any form,” she told reporters at City Hall on Tuesday. Brewer added that she’s worked under mayors since Ed Koch in the 1970s and has “never heard of a centralized intake process for contacting government officials,” THE CITY reported.
The mayor’s office insists the policy is needed for greater efficiency. “This administration is working every day to deliver on our vision for a better New York by protecting public safety, rebuilding our economy, and making this city more livable,” a spokesperson from the mayor’s office said in a statement.
You can read more — HERE.
“Newly renovated Central Park Boathouse is an absolute shipwreck – with rotten service and inedible food,” blared a New York Post headline last week.
Ouch.
The Boathouse’s elegant dining room, closed for 18 months, reopened last month under new management: Legends Hospitality, which oversees concessions at Yankee Stadium. Details on why the Post’s writer trashed the beloved restaurant’s new incarnation are here.
If you’ve been to the Boathouse since the reopening and have some firsthand thoughts on the food and service, let us know in comments.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here.
Oh, so Gale Brewer doesn’t want a smoke and weed shop next to her office. Well, none of the rest of us want one either!
Tim- what is your point?
Legends is not known for good food or service. They should have gone with one of the local New York State companies.
Re Zaza Waza: “The ongoing saga, said the Times, has involved police, ‘nearly a dozen other government agencies’,..”
The above showcases a big part of the problem. Agencies are kicking the can onto each others’ parking lots, all unwilling to tackle the problem of unlicensed weed shops.
Two weed shops have recently opened nr 100th St and Manhattan Ave. Is either one licensed to sell weed?
No.
My family went to the kiosk at the boathouse last Thursday and the food was not good.
So why are Gale and the Landmarks Commission unable to block this massive luxury combined townhouse (probably taking 20+ units off the market) but any new apartment building gets drowned in years of public comment?
How were 20+ units taken off the market? I haven’t read anywhere that either of the two townhouses were multiple unit dwellings prior to their being demolished.
Neither Gale Brewer nor the LPC should block property owners from legally doing what they want with their property. Nothing will promote the flight of capital from NY more than taking away property rights.
The LPC doesn’t care. It hasn’t cared for a very long time.
No affordable housing at the $85 million dollar brownstone development. Why do we expect new developments to contribute 20% or more of their space to subsidized housing while these brownstones for billionaires contribute nothing?
There is no requirement or law that new housing provide 20% of their units as “affordable”.
New rental buildings can negotiate to provide a certain number of below market units in exchange for 421-A tax breaks (which I believe is a wasteful and counterproductive policy but I don’t mean to digress). Developers might also agree to provide these units to make construction approval more palatable to the community.
However, there is no requirement for below market housing.
Right.
Elected officials keep discussing need for more development for affordable housing.
But they never acknowledge all the housing lost and no mention of preserving housing….
In this example, brownstones that likely had apartments became a single “family” acquisition .
Even worse the owners never even lived there and wasted tons of resources on renovation.
Row houses along 69th in common with nearly every other similar property on UWS and elsewhere in 1800’s were originally built as single family homes. This includes both 48 and 50 West 69th Street.
As fortunes of families and UWS for that matter changed by early 1900’s into middle of century and beyond many once single family row houses, brownstones or even mansions were converted into boarding/rooming houses or chopped up into apartments.
Returning these rowhomes back to single family residences is simply restoring their original function.
What “tons of resources” did the couple waste renovating? Two Town Houses were purchased, torn down, and one built in replacement. If you wanted to build a home for yourself to live in, are you adding affordable housing units? That’s when there’s a tax break exchange.
What was wasted was all the construction, the materials, the fixtures, the furnishings etc – because the new owner will likely have different taste and want a different kitchen, new bathrooms etc.
That is the reality of super-luxury housing.
Because the brownstone billionaires aren’t asking for tax benefits or additional FAR that exceeds the zoning caps from the City.
The claim that developers will provide affordable housing for extra FAR,, tax breaks , or cash from a revamped 421 a plan is cynical rhetoric.
Re: the form – if it’s a proper ticketing system, seems like a step in the right direction from an uneducated observer. Unstructured email chains that get forwarded to random people hoping for an answer is likely how a lot of this work is occurring right now, which is very inefficient in aggregate. Structuring the communications and having an agency be responsible for routing it appropriately provides more accountability/transparency than hoping a random intern in a council member’s office knows the right person in the gov to work with. It’s also a boon to more junior councilmembers, as I’m sure Gale knows the right people to contact but not every office is going to have that knowledge. Overall this makes sense to be but happy to be wrong.
Why would anybody think this is a good spot for an out of place, gluttonous monster townhome? People who do this to NYC clearly have no interest in this city.
It doesn’t feel like a typical UWS thing to me! .. Though who knows what changes have occurred in all those houses going from Broadway to Central Park .. Many mega-rich newbies have been flooding our neighborhood for a while now! In London in the UK it’s normal for foreign billionaires to consistently put swimming pools, movie theaters, garages gyms etc in the basements of their new found, tarted up homes!
A little over the top to call the combination of two narrow townhouses a “gluttonous monster”. You probably wouldn’t even notice its being unusual if you walked by. What’s your idea of a better use for these two properties if they remained as separate buildings?
I was at the restaurant weeks ago. The food and drink were terrific. We even had cake and coffee. Service was a little slow but it was a pleasure sitting and looking at the lake.
Property taxes on that house listed at $15,000.
Now that’s crazy !!
The food at Yankee Stadium sucks. Why did anyone think their restaurant in Central Park would be different?
We had an anniversary celebratory dinner at The Boat House and it was very special in every way. The food was exellent, and the service friendly if a bit slow. We were there at 6:00 and the place quieted down as the evening wore on which was a pleasure. Best of all, was the view of the lake and the apartments beyond o n the west side. In the changing light of sunset it was spectacular. Just beautiful.
I’m thinking of going there for a special occasion. Can you recommend the dishes you liked in case it was hit or miss situation?
We had brunch at The Boathouse 2 weekends ago and our experience was quite the opposite from this review. (Perhaps Karma?) The new decor looks clean, modern and fresh. The new bathrooms are a huge improvement. We were treated very well by all of the staff and service was just the right speed as one wants to linger in that beautiful setting. The food was all delicious, albeit brunch is harder to mess up, but still possible. We plan on returning. Hope we don’t eat my words.
I was at the Boathouse Apr 6 for lunch. The service was impeccable.
The food not so much. My friend liked the crabcake. I didn’t like the French Dip – UGH. But the atmosphere and renovation are great.
There should, however, be separate bathrooms for the Restaurant guests separate from park “goers.” With 2 attendants in the Ladies, it was still dirty and a long wait.
The review on the Boathouse is accurate. It’s always been that way. We stopped gong there about 8 years ago. Better to grab a blanket, a bottle of wine, some cheese/crackers and scout out a spot on the grass along the river.
Drinking in public, outside of the perimeter of a place licensed to sell alcohol, is illegal, incl. Central Park at large. But of course, quality of life laws are ALMOST NEVER enforced in NYC.
Thanks Dad…what was I thinking…
I have been to The Boathouse three times since the opening and have enjoyed the weekend brunch and lunch last week and dinner last night.
The service is incredible and the attention you get from the staff is beloved. The food is excellent.
THE SPICY JUMBO LUMP CRAB & AVOCADO COCKTAIL
👍 love it !
Three excellent dishes –
CHICKEN LIVER PATÉ 18
PICKLED SHALLOTS, WATERCRESS SALAD, GRILLED RUSTIC BREAD
👍 yummy!
For brunch I had…
EGGS BENEDICT
CANADIAN BACON, POACHED EGG, TOASTED ENGLISH MUFFIN, HOLLANDAISE
👍 deliciousness!
SICILIAN SWORDFISH
ARTICHOKES, SUNDRIED TOMATO, CALABRESE OLIVES DF
👍 excellent!
I loved the desserts….
APPLE TARTE TATIN WITH CRÈME FRAICHE
CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE
WHIPPED CREAM
DARK CHOCOLATE POT DE CRÈME
They have a great assortment to choose from with reasonable pricing on their menu for brunch and dinner.
The Sunset view is breathless!
There are 53 illegal smoke shops on the UWS? All opening with fancy signage at the same time. Has anybody followed the money here?
As of this afternoon, Waza Zaza (or Wawa Zawa or whatever it was called) was closed, locked, dark, with a gate down over the window, the name off the canopy, and what looked like a hasty retreat inside. Maybe Brewer’s efforts have had some effect. In which case, thanks!