Monday Bulletin: The Winners of the West Side Rag Thanksgiving Contest Are…

Monday, November 28, 2022
Partly Cloudy. High 53 degrees.

Notices
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Contest Winners
By Bob Tannenhauser

In last Monday’s Bulletin, we announced a contest to give away some West Side Rag T-shirts and other items. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we asked entrants to name what they were thankful for about the Upper West Side. There were eight required categories: a local small business; a cultural venue or event; a public space or park; a restaurant; a market; a government agency or department; a charitable organization; what you like most about West Side Rag; and any other place, thing or person you appreciate about the neighborhood.

We then devised a cockamamie, but ingenious, system called “Rag Choice Voting,” which assigned a score of five to the top choice in each category; three to the second-place choice; and one for the third-place choice. Then, we calculated the total number of points earned by each entrant and the winner is…Mark Elliott! But, because the results were so close, we decided to award a second-place prize to Amelia Gewirtz, and a third-place prize to Rebecca Reitz.

Mark will be able to choose any three items from our West Side Rag Store. Amelia can choose any two items, and Rebecca, any one item. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who participated! If you didn’t win you can still (shameless commercialism) order some Rag stocking stuffers at the store.

While there were hundreds of answers to sort through, there were clearly several people, places and things that are treasured by locals. The top vote getter in the small business category was, not suprisingly, Zabar’s, with Ivan Pharmacy running a close second. Levain Bakery and Mani Market deserve honorable mentions.

In the cultural venue or event category, Lincoln Center topped the charts, with Symphony Space and the American Museum of Natural History following closely behind. Riverside Park edged out Central Park in the public space or park category, with Verdi Square a distant third. In the restaurant category, there were many mentions, with Cafe Luxembourg, French Roast, and Gennaro’s topping the list.

Zabar’s took top honors again in the market category, with Fairway earning second position, and Trader Joe’s third place. Mani Market also scored well. In the government agency or department category, Gail Brewer’s office was the runaway winner, but the Department of Sanitation, followed by Parks & Recreation also received shoutouts. The NYPD and FDNY received several votes each.

In the charitable organization category, Housing Works and the West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH) shared top honors, DOROT came in close behind, along with Goddard Riverside. Links have been provided in case you are inclined to support them on Giving Tuesday.

The last category was what you like best about the West Side Rag. The winner was Openings and Closings, followed closely by local news, the comments section, and the nature columns (Mews, Pupper, Birding, What’s Blooming).

Bottom line: we found that the Upper West Siders we surveyed have a lot to be thankful for, and more in common than they might have thought.