By Scott Etkin and Lisa Kava
Silver Mirror, a “facial bar,” has signage up at 2305 Broadway (between West 83rd and 84th streets). Silver Mirror offers a variety of facials, such as anti-aging, seasonal hydrating, hyperpigmentation, and men’s specialty facials. They range from 30 to 50 minutes. Other treatments include exfoliation services, such as dermaplaning and hydradermabrasion. Silver Mirror has locations in Washington, D.C., Miami, and four shops in New York City (Upper East Side, Bryant Park, Flatiron, and Chelsea). They sell their own brand of skin care products. The UWS location was most recently Epilogue Books, a pop-up used bookstore. (Thanks to Ian for the tip.)
West Side Democrats is opening a temporary campaign office at 552 Columbus (between West 86th and 87th streets), which will remain there through the primary election in June. An opening event on May 4th will feature appearances by local officials and West Side Democrat-endorsed candidates, including Scott Stringer for mayor and Alvin Bragg for Manhattan district attorney. The organization will be doing phone banking and tabling at farmers’ markets, among other campaign activities. “The Upper West Side has the highest voter turnout in the city and we have the largest proportion of high propensity voters. So we’re going to be working to take our borough-wide and city-wide candidates over the finish line,” said John Wahlmeier, district leader for the 67th assembly district. Wahlmeier said the group is endorsing Stringer for mayor because during his time as the city’s comptroller, he used city-owned land for housing and defended rent-stabilized tenants. “[Stringer] has a proven track record of protecting affordability in the city,” said Wahlmeier.
Cell Phone Repair (CPR), a company that fixes damaged smartphones, computers, tablets, and game consoles, has signage up at 176 West 72nd Street (between Amsterdam and Columbus). Common cell phone repairs, like screen replacements and battery swaps, can often be completed the same day in under an hour, according to the company’s website. CPR has many locations across the US and Canada, including seven already open in New York City and New Jersey. CPR is backed by Assurant, an insurance company for electronics and connected devices. In 2022, New York State passed a “right to repair” law, which requires electronics manufacturers to make diagnostics and repair information available to third-party companies. The space used to be a convenience store and, before that, Grandaisy Bakery, which closed in 2017.
Bagels & Cream, a cafe, opened on April 13th at 924 Amsterdam (between West 105th and 106th streets). In addition to bagels, the cafe serves coffee, omelettes and eggs, danishes, muffins, and croissants, a representative told West Side Rag. They are open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. They also have a location in the Bronx. (Thanks to Stacy for the tip.)
Playa Bowls, the açai bowl, smoothie, and juice shop at 105 West 72nd Street (between Amsterdam and Columbus), reopened on April 20th after being closed for six months because of a fire in the building. It has resumed to its regular hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday to Saturday and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. Playa Bowls has many franchise locations in NYC, including two on the Upper West Side (at 84th Street and Broadway and 110th Street and Broadway).
Wells Fargo opened a new bank branch at 2275 Broadway (southwest corner of West 82nd Street) on March 31st. At an opening event on April 29th, Wells Fargo announced that it is making a $125,000 grant to the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Storefront Improvement Program, which supports brick-and-mortar businesses in various neighborhoods, including the Upper West Side. This work can include façade renovations to storefronts, such as removing graffiti or changing the exterior lights. “Small businesses are core to the vibrancy of commercial corridors,” said Krissy Moore, a Wells Fargo executive of community impact. “They bring jobs, goods and services, and stability to neighborhoods and Wells Fargo is dedicated to making meaningful investments to help them succeed.” The space used to be a branch of Santander Bank.
Teso Mini, a Japanese convenience store, opened on April 18th at 2764 Broadway (between West 106th and 107th streets). It carries Asian candy, snacks, beverages, pantry items, beauty products, and other household goods. There is another Teso Mini in Chinatown. The Teso Group opened its first Japanese-inspired store in Queens in 2018, and it now has stores under different brands across the US. The space used to be a GameStop. (Thanks to Henry and Jennifer for the tips.)
ICYMI: The Davis Center, a seasonal pool, ice rink, and recreation space at the north end of Central Park (next to the Harlem Meer) opened this past weekend. The $160-million project, which includes the indoor/outdoor facility and renovations to the surrounding pathways, replaces Lasker Rink and Pool. Currently, the outdoor space is covered with a turf field that hosts programming for the public, such as yoga and fitness classes for seniors ($5 per person). In the summer, the field will be removed and the space converted to a larger-than-Olympic-size pool.
The Openings & Closings column wouldn’t be possible without our many tipsters: thank you! Anyone can send tips about openings and closings in the neighborhood to info@westsiderag.com.
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Why did West Side Democrats endorse a creep when there are at least three other progressive candidates who aren’t creeps?
Yes, I’m an Upper West Sider voting for Zohran Mamdani , and I am so disappointed to hear this about the West Side Democrats . Zohran has so many excellent platform ideas to help New Yorkers help each other, and he is polling far in advance of the other candidates and ready to beat Cuomo.
Excellent platform ideas? Like the city running grocery stores?
The problem with Mamdani (as well as some of the other candidates)is that, as nice as they may be, their experience is hopelessly “light.” Mamdani has solely been a member of the City Council – for a mere 3.5 years. That does not give him the broader experience or expertise needed to govern the most difficult-to-govern city in the U.S. A platform of good policy ideas is not enough. (And as we know, some of every candidates’ policy ideas will not make it to fruition.) We are talking about managing one of the most sprawling bureaucracies in the country; possibly second only to D.C. itself.
I cannot bring myself to vote for someone with so little comparative experience, no matter how nice s/he is and no matter how good his/her policy ideas may be.
Since a ranked-choice ballot will be used, though, Mamdani might yet be worth keeping in mind as a #2 or #3, yes?
Not in a million years
For you, of course, but I was addressing Alterman.
Decided yet between Adams and Cuomo, have you?
Zohran Mamdani is a New York State Assemblymember – not on the city council – please learn more about him so you can understand how he would support all of us! With rent freezes, green spaces and green jobs, social work support for mental health needs to create true safety in the city, and more. That’s the city I want to live in.
Do you know how much “social work support for mental health needs” we already have? Literally billions of dollars worth. The city’s Homeless Services budget is $4B annually. We need someone who can manage that budget correctly, not just throw more poorly managed taxpayer money at problems.
All wonderful ideas. And they will be paid by whom? I seriously like all this, but you have to perform a lot of ungrateful and tedious tasks just to get to these initiatives. Otherwise it is nothing but pandering to the virtue signallers who are eager to spend somebody else’s money while enjoying rent stabilized apartments.
He’s actually a State Assembly member, which is worse. He knows less about the City than a Council Member would and it’s officially a part-time job. You get a staff of maybe five people and a budget for a district office.
Cuomo is only winning because of poor opposition like Mamdani. I’m no fan of Cuomo but would hold my nose and vote for him 100 times versus Mamdani, an inexperienced, 34yo, nepo-baby, who’s never had real job and who would get completely rolled by the Council, Albany, Trump, the unions — everyone basically that you have to bargain with as Mayor. All while he’s giving away taxpayer dollars and hating Israel. No thanks.
This is far from the worst of his issues but Andrew Cuomo is a far more clear-cut case of “nepo baby” than Mamdani, in a political context.
If Cuomo is “winning,” it is on name recognition and his “voice of reason” while the president as telling people to inject bleach and take horse medications.
But people seem to want to forget that Cuomo was primarily responsible for mishandling the nursing home element of the pandemic, leading to the (possibly preventable) deaths of over 6,000 seniors; that he shut down the Moreland Commission – which HE instituted – when it turned out that he, himself, was going to be named in it; and that he is a steamrolling, unethical dynast. And that’s just for starters.
I am glad Mamdani has chosen to take on Cuomo directly so quickly, but as you suggest, Mamdani’s “light” resume is not enough to warrant his governance of the most difficult city in the country.
I will not vote for Cuomo (any more than I would vote for E. Adams). And I think the other candidates need to do two contradictory things simultaneously: (i) clearly identify their own platforms (and what gives them the experience, etc. to govern this city) so they can separate themselves from the pack, and (ii) collectively go after Cuomo with the facts of his governance – specifically including the ugly ones.
and THIS is why Dems are losing. Too good to vote for someone they have issues with even though that person is 1000% better than the GOP alternative. And no he is not responsible for the deaths. We were slammed by a pandemic no one had all the facts to.
Why would Cuomo have required “all” the facts to have made more responsible decisions back then? Others had access to the same information but made better choices.
I take issue with your “1000% better” claim only to the extent that I believe it’s an underestimate.
What about Zellnor Myrie?
Another quite respectable option, imho. That’s the problem with the Democratic field: too many well-qualified candidates, in contrast to the Republicans’ too few (or none, actually).
This is the same as saying “I think the endorsee is a creep”.
(I don’t even have any idea who the person is)
I love Silver Mirror! Great facials.
You lost me at Scott Stringer. He is perfectly fine and I will have him on my list but he would get steamrolled by Trump and seems to be constantly changing his positions.
Not excited about Bragg either but there isn’t much alternative.
There is a great alternative. Maud Maron is runnung on the Republican line.
Yes, I’m voting for Maud!! Common sense and accountability.
Accountability? Is she or isn’t she with Moms for Liberty? Has she made up her mind about that yet?
Hard pass. Maud Maron is supported by the anti LGBTQ, book banning group, Moms for Liberty.
But that’s why we like her. The pendulum swung too far left. Time to return to a more common sense approach.
Maud Maron is pro LGB. Do your homework.
But not the T – she has been anti-trans. That is not what we want for NYC.
Why do you think Scott would be “steamrolled” by Drumpf? I happen to think quite the opposite; that Scott (in fact, likely most of the Democratic nominees) would “hold his own” against Drumpf. It is practically a prerequisite for ANY candidate running for mayor. As well, please explain what you mean by “constantly changing his positions.” I have not seen this in the over 30 years that I have been voting for him.
I have supported Scott since he became my Assembly member in 1993 when his mentor, Jerry Nadler, left that office and went to Congress. And I have done so because Scott has been an effective, responsive and thoughtful leader. I supported him for Borough President, and then Comptroller, for the same reasons.
In fact, we have in Scott the first “Hillary-level” candidate for mayor: someone whose knowledge, experience, expertise and integrity make him far more prepared to actually govern the most difficult city in the country than any of the other candidates – many of whom I like, many of whom have good ideas, but simply don’t have the breadth of knowledge and experience, or the gravitas, needed to govern this city.
Scott has been and will continue to be my first choice for any office for which he runs – including mayor.
I disagree with you but appreciate your thoughtful response – thank you.
Stringer has no passion or fire. You can’t beat Trump as a nerdy technocrat (I am a nerdy technocrat so that is not a total insult, but I’m not running for mayor). You need energy, passion, street smarts. Stringer doesn’t come across that way at all.
He has pivoted all across the map during his career. He was moderate for a while, then moved far to the left. Last cycle he was more in line with the progressives. His whole life seems like a calculated effort to win political office run by opinion polls. Looks like you could use a cupcake?
That being said, as I noted, we could do a lot worse and he will be on my list. Partially because the candidates are all awful. I will likely end up holding my nose and voting for Cuomo. I wish Garcia would have run again. Or Tisch would run for the first time. Or we could bring Bloomberg back.
I agree. I would vote for Tisch or Bloomberg in a heartbeat but since they are not running, Cuomo, reluctantly.
Vote better or get the same/worse.
I agree with OPOE: rank Stringer #1 this time!
(Actually, I did so last time but we got Adams instead. I need your cooperation, people.)
Maude Maron is an excellent alternative for D.A.
Yes, by all means, let’s take a good look at this regressive, Republican racist, bigot, transphobe, COVID-promoter, and Moms for Liberty member/nonmember (depending on the winds), whose first name you helpfully misspell:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Maron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moms_for_Liberty
How *immeasurably* more “excellent” a choice she would be than someone who has, say, successfully prosecuted King Krasnov.
I’m amazed that this post was permitted through the filter. It makes wild accusations through namecalling, citing wikipedia, which is a crowd-sourced site.
Thank you, EricaC and Josie C, for your informative, factual, and — perhaps most importantly — moderator-acceptable comments. Yes, diligently sourced Wikipedia has become a great thorn in the side of the (R) these days (see, e.g., https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-prosecutor-threatens-wikipedia), for guessable reasons. I won’t let that deter me, either.
Or this? https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/01/18/nyc-elected-officials-teachers-protest-right-wing-moms-for-liberty-event-manhattan/
I don’t think Marion objects to being identified as associated with Moms for Liberty or as anti-trans. She seems to revel in it.
Does this work for you? https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/09/04/federal-judge-reinstates-ousted-nyc-school-board-member-maud-maron-cites-free-speech/
Here is Maude speaking at an October 2024 Mom’s for Liberty event. MOL published a 100 pg book ban guide that contained blatant disinformation targeting book titles about black, POC and LGBTQ communities. No thanks.
https://portal.momsforliberty.org/news/summit24-maude-maron/
After reading multiple comments from @ecm always full of anger, name calling, people put downs, infantile labels, etc. I kinda starting liking Trump right now. He doesn’t look half bad in comparison in terms of behavior and decorum. So if that’s your goal @ecm, you are doing a brilliant job!
If you decided to vote for an adjudicated rapist and felon because of “decorum” you were going to vote for a rapist/felon regardless.
It would be sad if you made your decisions about the future of the country based on the rudeness of a poster – and bizarre if you found ecm’s rudeness greater than Trumps. That might suggest that civility is not actually your motivation.
It might at that.
Politely yrs, ecm
I think it was sarcasm.
Flo’s? I don’t think so – but would be interested to hear from Flo if it was. Gertrude’s seems all too serious.
Teso Mini’s fun. Enjoying it.
Me too!
I’m looking forward to a visit to the Davis Center; I hope there’s an exhibit to explain how that lovely turf field for events can become a swimming pool! I can understand a turf field becoming an ice rink, maybe, but a pool? I would love to see a “David MacCauley” drawing of it in profile with the engineering deets!
It would be a great story, no?
I was wondering the same thing, I thought I’d missed something in the original story.
Alvin Bragg for DA? HAHAHAHHAHA yeah no, says this democrat
the new bagel place: needs to cook its bagels a minute or two longer and they definitely needs to find a way to get more poppy seeds on that bagel, I think mine had six seeds on it, and the bagel itself needed to be golden brown not white…..on the positive side, their $6 bacon-egg-cheese is a steal.
In addition to their grant to the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Storefront Improvement Program, kudos should go to Wells Fargo for going the extra mile to create a beautiful retail location at 82nd & Broadway. They did an outstanding job on facade, signage, and entrance. A worthy addition to the neighborhood streetscape that I hope will inspire other businesses who are building or renovating.
Hopefully, Bagels & Cream doesn’t overcook their bagels or omelettes. Too many breakfast eateries absolutely blast their food to hell.
Bragg is endorsed? No wonder we, moderates, are distancing ourselves from the current state of the party.
The Davis Center really is incredible! And I discovered the Loch and the North Woods walking paths from W96th street through the park right up to the Center. Made for a beautiful Spring day!
With many businesses coming and going of late, I appreciate this column immensely. Have you heard anything about Broadway Farms. The last two times I asked sales people about business, they sadly shook their heads. There’ve been a number of empty shelves of late. Thank you!
Endorsing Stringer and Bragg? Looks like West Side Democrats have not learned their lesson.
Why is everyone ragging on Bragg when he successfully prosecuted Lord Cheeto the Daft?
And for that I thank him.
It gave Trump a platform and proved his point about lawfare.
Well done Alvin.
What did we get out of that “successful” prosecution (of a billionaire for the mis-accounting of $130,000 on the books of a large corporation)? What an amazing 39-felony success, what an amazing societal impact…totally not politically motivated. No crime is too little!
Are we safer on the (now less bankrupt) MTA system? Less corrupt as a city? Fewer recidivists on the streets? Less overtime abuse in the city govt? Did we figure out what happened to $1bn of Thrive nonsense?
Or, if you want to go bigger, did we get an explanation how, of the millions of corporations in the 200 countries across the world, the super-qualified-business-genius Nepo Druggie gets $11mm exactly from a corporation in the country that falls under his Big Guy VP daddy’s portfolio?
You’re quite right, Peter: financial fraud — especially among the billionaire Republican class — should NEVER be subject to prosecution. How Quixotic of someone even to attempt it!
Fortunately for us, Tяump has been hard at work, between golf sessions and trampling the Constitution, in his first 100 days (or has it just been one long Day One?) to eradicate this pernicious practice and indeed to end the war against corruption altogether. Let us all rejoice!
Yeah, sure… that’s what I’m advocating for. NON-prosecution of large financial crimes. Let’s start with insider trading. Please save Pelosi Capital Management – the best-performing hedge fund on the face of planet Earth!
A little outside Bragg’s jurisdiction, that, but no doubt other opportunities will present themselves … at least so long as the rule of law in America is still a thing. [Casts uneasy glance at calendar.]
By the way, https://newrepublic.com/post/193823/trump-tariffs-corruption-insider-trading .
Because not everyone thinks it was a good idea – some because they actually like Trump, others because they think it was strategically foolish, others because they don’t think the law under which he was prosecuted should be used in that way when it has not been used that way before.
And at the same time, his approach to reducing mass incarceration seems to involve acknowledging that he is letting people go for committing things that are, in fact, crimes by downgrading charges and declining to prosecute. Which is something I support for the crimes that are not actually crimes (there is a history of criminalizing social violations for the specific purpose of jailing people, though I don’t think it is as prevalent in NYC as it is in places where chain gangs replaced slave labor), the idea of suggesting that the only way to reduce the number of Black men in jail is to decline to prosecute actual crimes seems racist to me. I’m surprised he has not been called on his thinking for that reason. I would prefer to see greater attention to enforcement against people of all races than intentionally letting people go when there is evidence that they have committed crimes against others. And to the extent he intends to use alternative means of diversion, like treatment for offenders whose crimes derive from drug addiction, I don’t think he has been effective. So despite my own liberal tendencies, I am not a Bragg supporter.
Does anyone know if scaffolding on East side of Broadway between 105 and 104 ever going to come off? It’s hurting businesses under it…
It’s supposed to come down next month!
Bagels & Cream.
Is this the aforementioned “schemer”’place?
yes
I’ve also been wondering about Bway farms. They look like they are getting ready to close. Too bad, IMO.
Would someone please explain how places like Silver Mirror are all over the Westside and yet people complain about the price of eggs as if it’s causing them to be late on paying their rent?
My God…I read the first few comments and I’m lost at the mindset of UWSers. I know it’s heavily liberal Democrat, but Momsani and Alvin Bragg—UWSers clearly set a very low bar. Hopeless!! 😩
Vote Lander! He’s done the work. He’s sane. He’s balanced between moderate and progressive. (Watch, people are going to comment that he’s too progressive and too moderate.) Stringer hasn’t earned the vote.