Monday, November 25, 2024
Sunny. High 52 degrees.
There is more rain expected this week, with showers forecast for Tuesday and Thursday.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Thanksgiving is on Thursday, and Black Friday is on Friday.
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
An Upper West Side teenager is making it her mission to combat ageism in the world of theater.
Bailee Stein, 16, recently started a program called Stage Exchange, which brings together teenagers and senior citizens to create connections and perform shows, as first reported by Gothamist.
“I noticed that, often, older adults are considered ‘too old’ and teens are considered ‘too young’ to perform seriously,” Stein told Gothamist. “It’s crucial for these two groups to have their singing, acting, or musical voices heard again.”
“The program helps build confidence in teens and older adults,” she added to the publication.
The group includes teenagers from LaGuardia High School, along with multiple professional actors and musicians, including Paul Adam Schaefer, who performed in Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera,” and Charlie Zang, the artistic staff pianist at the Juilliard extension program and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, Gothamist reported.
You can read more about it — HERE.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, a longtime Upper West Sider, is selling a pair of apartments in the neighborhood.
Ackman, who is the founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, recently listed two units within the Beresford building on West 81st Street and Central Park West for $19.9 million, as Curbed first reported.
The two eighth-floor apartments are adjacent to one another, and 8F has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a gas fireplace, a breakfast nook with Central Park views, marble bathrooms, and more. The 8E apartment has similar dimensions, but is in need of added renovations.
Ackman purchased the two apartments in the nearly 100-year-old building in 2017 for $22 million. Other current and past residents of the Beresford include Jerry Seinfeld, John McEnroe, Patty Smyth, Diana Ross, and Diane Sawyer.
Ackman has a net worth of $8.9 billion, according to Forbes.
He won’t be completely leaving the Upper West Side, though, as he still has a penthouse apartment on West 77th Street. Ackman appeared in front of Community Board 7 multiple times in 2021 to get a glass box exstension on the top of the 77th Street building, which was eventually approved.
You can read more about his most recent local real estate dealings — HERE.
In other local real estate news, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the former publisher and chairman of the New York Times, is moving to Morningside Heights, as first reported by Curbed.
Sulzberger Jr. recently paid $2.45 million for a two-bedroom apartment at Claremont Hall, which is a recently constructed luxury development on Claremont Avenue near West 122nd Street.
Sulzberger Jr, who served as the publisher of The New York Times from 1992 to 2017, sold a penthouse last month on West 71st Street for $7 million.
You can read more — HERE.
On a lawn adjacent to Sheep Meadow in Central Park, there is a tiny fire hydrant.
It might not actually be tiny, but possibly just buried in the dirt.
Either way, the out of place nature of it catches the eye every time.
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Thank you, Gus, for the photo of the little fire hydrant, heavy with rust and green patina, standing staunch and soldierly and solitary among the fallen leaves. It sets the mind to wondering and imagining.
And here I thought that the “vertically challenged” fire hydrant was a nod to “vertically challenged” pooches in the park who prefer a hydrant to a bench leg. … 😉 But yep, it be cute!
It’s buried in the dirt. Even a regular fire hydrant when you see one on the street, most of it is underground:
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/p2thkt/the_true_length_of_a_fire_hydrant/
Kudos to Bailee Stein for launching Stage Exchange, and recognizing the talent of people of all ages.
I’m speechless to know that Mr. Sulzberger bought an apartment in Morningside Heights. I have lived in my apartment for over 47 years, and love it, but up where he will be living, there are few, if any grocery stores. On the other hand, I suspect, he doesn’t do his own food shopping.