Monday, September 30, 2024
Cloudy. High 74 degrees.
It appears that the rain is leaving with the weekend, as there is no precipitation forecast for the coming seven days.
Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish New Year, begins sundown on Wednesday. The Hindu holiday Navratri also starts on Thursday.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Alice’s Tea Cup, off the corner of West 73rd Street and Columbus Avenue, will be offering free scones on Tuesday. The scone giveaway will correspond with the tea shop’s first day of an expanded breakfast menu and an earlier opening hour.
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
A birth control plan is coming to the New York City rat population in the name of Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl.
Upper West Side and Morningside Heights City Councilmember Shaun Abreu sponsored a bill that passed last Thursday, which will deploy rat contraception in certain areas of the city for a pilot program beginning later this year.
The bill, dubbed “Flaco’s Law,” is aimed at mitigating the risk of rodenticides on other animals living in New York City, including birds. Flaco, who died after flying into a building on the Upper West Side, had rat poison in his blood at the time of his death.
If the pilot program proves successful, the rat contraception measures will be taken across the city. The bill will put special contraceptive pellets called ContraPest in rat-accessible containers in the pilot areas, and then throughout the five boroughs.
“This is a victory for urban wildlife who deserve a city that doesn’t poison them to death,” Lights Out Coalition, a group dedicated to preserving NYC’s wildlife, wrote on social media. “Let’s usher in non-toxic, effective rat control.”
You can read more about the bill — HERE.
New renderings were revealed last week of a luxury residential building going up on the Upper West Side.
The Henry is currently under construction at 211 West 84th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. It will be an 18-story building with 45 units, a commercial space, and a parking garage. The property is designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, and developed by the Naftali Group.
For those who recognize the address and the Naftali Group name, the project previously made headlines after a lone tenant, Ahmet Nejat Ozsu, refused to accept a buyout to move out of the former building at the address, stalling the construction project and resulting in multiple lawsuits.
Last summer, the holdout tenant finally accepted a buyout and left the building.
You can check out the renderings of the new building — HERE.
The indictment of Mayor Eric Adams is not an Upper West Side-specific story, but one that affects all New Yorkers. If there is a local angle to the story as the days go by, we will cover it. For those who may rely on West Side Rag for the majority of their news, here is a quick update on where the situation stands coming out of the weekend.
Adams pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges relating to exchanging political favors for campaign cash and travel gifts. He faces five counts of bribery, wire fraud, and soliciting illegal contributions from foreign donors.
The mayor has stated multiple times since his indictment that he will not resign, including at a Bronx church on Sunday, when he told onlookers — “I’m not going to resign, I’m going to reign.”
The mayor is due back in court on Wednesday, in front of Judge Dale Ho, who will preside over the case. Adams’ attorney, Alex Spiro, told reporters that he will file a motion to dismiss the case at the appearance. A list of Spiro’s former clients includes Elon Musk, Robert Craft, and Aaron Hernandez.
If convicted on all five counts, Adams would face up to 45 years in prison.
You can read more about the mayor’s legal proceedings — HERE.
Finally, police are asking for help in identifying a group of suspects wanted for a string of robberies in Manhattan, including on the Upper West Side.
On August 5, a 64-year-old woman was standing on the corner of 65th Street and West End Avenue, when two men snuck up behind her on a motorized scooter, police said last week. The men grabbed a necklace from around her neck and pushed her to the ground, before fleeing on their scooters, NYPD added.
The woman was taken to Mount Sinai West in stable condition, police said.
The group is also wanted in connection to two other robberies in Midtown where bandits used scooters or electric bikes when grabbing necklaces from women, police said.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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It’s not up to Adams to ‘reign’ – he’s the mayor
(and not a very good one even before all the corruption charges), he is not king of NYC. Can’t wait till he’s gone and we can start to undo the damage.
I hope the victim is ok and sorry this happened to her.
Not to be snarky – but another illustration of how bikes/e-bikes/mopeds have worsened daily life in NYC for pedestrians.
Manhattan used to be lovely for pedestrians
The new building looks beautiful.
Just what we don’t need – another money-stuffed building for the rich. Yuck. The former building and the smaller brownstones behind it were just fine – neighborly buildings, in a neighborhood, not this monstrosity they are putting for the rich. that begins to hep turn Broadway into Millionaires row (aka 59 St).
Yes, that’s exactly what *we* need. Broadway will be fine, thank you very much.
The building that was taken down was far more beautiful by far. What a waste.
When I lived nearby and my father’s hardware store was at 511 Amsterdam Avenue We parked our car in the Garage building that existed here. The center building on the block wa an old DC Generating structure. That was the story unil I departed e area in 1963. I applaud the beauty of the new apartment building!
Reign? Like a king? Euw
The Henry’s 45 units of housing will replace (if I recall correctly) 60-plus units of (much more affordable) housing.
And I’m sure those 45 new residents will be among the first to rail against the homeless on our streets.
But at least there’s a bocci court, right?
Comparing the number of units is meaningless. More important is how many occupants the new building will house compared to the previous building. Families cannot raise children in the City due to small outdated apartments.
100% this. The city has a dire housing shortage across the board, but it’s particularly acute for 3+ bedroom apartments. Just look at the prices. We need larger units if we want to do more than pay lip service to families staying in the city.
Also, the reason the prior units were cheaper was because the building was over a century old and the apartments were, as Boris notes, outdated. Should we freeze the housing stock in place? Obviously not, that’s insane.
Actually, Rosh Hashanah begins Wednesday evening. Chabad says to light candles at 6:17 pm on Wednesday.
Our mistake, updated!
We have to get the scooters and mopeds off the streets. I am sure the perps have long rap sheets.
Lets get rid of the bike lanes. They are mostly used by motorized bikes and scooters not the intended bicycles.
Scooters and mopeds are here in NYC to deliver meals to newbies who’ve moved here to work and seldom leave their apartments ! You don’t want them to starve do you? They ain’t going anywhere! This is the new New York! Boring but true! Welcome to the city that never sleeps..!?
Goodness people. This city was Chinese delivery capital 35 years ago. Don’t act like it’s something new – there’s just more places doing delivery now.. oh and I pedal in bike lanes and don’t rob people. In fact I would hazard a guess that muggers aren’t using them either
35 years ago there WERE no electric bikes and motorized scooters going haywire, ignoring traffic rules and putting pedestrians in dire danger. Things are NOT what they used to be. Sadly, neither are many people.
As a matter of fact, I don’t care if they starve. Lives are being endangered or lost due to the insane number scooters, mopeds and bicycle riders who NEVER obey traffic rules. How about going shopping once a week and COOKING??Hello?
Trying to figure out how a family of four will shop just once a week and get all that food home in your scenario.
It’s also mildly offensive to be dictated to about shopping and cooking. Not everyone fits your overly idealistic view. I neither know how to cook anything beyond the basics nor enjoy shopping for and preparing food. Nor do I find it an efficient use of my time which is limited. Ordering in gives me the opportunity to choose from many types of cuisine that I could not prepare on the spot.