Tag: columns

On the front page of this weekend's New York Times opinion section, columnist Frank Bruni wrote a love letter to the city's transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn. In it, he refuted critics of protected bike lanes -- without talking to a single one of them -- and proceeded to lionize Sadik-Kahn ...

People in the industry will try to tell you that Fashion Week is not all that glamorous, but they’re lying: it is. Not for me necessarily, though

Dearest Upper West Side, You want more, I hear. Word reached me about your average rent hikes, and I’m bummed. Look, I may be playing out of your league, living half a block from Central Park, but you should be fighting for me to stay, especially with the current economy.

By Melissa Cooper No animals are visible on today’s late afternoon dog walk in Riverside Park on the eve of Hurricane Irene’s arrival. Well, actually many animals are out, but only two species: humans and canines.  No wildlife. Not a single bird or squirrel.  Even the cicadas are silent, and ...

The dig, along with other historic documents, has uncovered a middle class village of over 260 people, a thriving community with a school and three churches. Records indicate that two churches were black and one was integrated.

By Harriet Flehinger I’ve been writing an occasional column for two years about what I call “Aging in Action” which is  “Aging In Place” for those of us who really hate to stay still for long periods of time.  There’s a great Yiddish word for this “spilkes” which literally translate ...

It’s another dirty and gritty August in the city, the right time for obscure facts about NYC H2O and our city’s iconic water towers. The towers hold a special place in the hearts of many New Yorkers. Maybe it's a fetish for industrial architecture, or a longing for a time ...

By Maria Gorshin The economy is rallying, plunging, rebounding or in freefall. The news changes moment to moment and each statistic is analyzed to the edge of confusion, madness or maybe just comedy. All the news is good on the one hand yet bad on another but could be worse ...

By Maria Gorshin Is Riverside Park Manhattan’s best park, or is it forever second to New York’s fabled Central Park? The answer depends on whom you ask. But what is certain is that there always seems to be something more to discover about Riverside. It seems everyone has a certain ...

By Malcolm Carter In the course of my open house rounds, I see properties that are listed for as little as $300,000 and as much as many millions, well into the double digits. You might expect me to go gaga (sorry, Lady) over the most expensive ones.  And they obviously ...

By Marjorie Cohen Imagine I.M Pei designing a homeless shelter. Or Frank Lloyd Wright drawing plans for a community center. Not likely. But in the 1880's, when the women who ran the Association for the Relief of Respectable and Indigent Females, needed an architect for the charity home they were ...

By Katie Barry Five years ago, I joined a softball team called the Consenting Adults. They were in their 23rd year of existence, with colorful characters who were writers, psychologists, teachers, and gifted softball players. They gave me a much deeper understanding as to what it means to strike out ...

With the imminent closing of Borders in the Time Warner Center less than a year after the shuttering of the huge Barnes & Noble on 66th Street, the Upper West Side has lost about half of the square feet in the neighborhood devoted to books. But longtime Upper West Siders ...

By Malcolm Carter The owner of a one-bedroom condo on a corner of Broadway in the mid-90s was telling me how he had carefully done his research before setting the asking price for his pied-à-terre in a post-war building with a health club and other amenities. Jeff had looked at ...

By Marjorie Cohen What's the quickest way to get to an English country village? Take the 1, 2 or 3 train to West 96th Street. Exit the train, walk west for half a block on 95th Street, and there it is -- Pomander Walk, one of New York City's best ...

By Maria Gorshin What was it like yesterday at the Landmarks Preservation Commission, where a highly-anticipated public hearing was held for the West End Avenue historic district extension? It could have come down to a long day of Us vs. Them; corporate greed mongers vs. local sentimentalists; The Man in ...

By Maria Gorshin When was the last time you heard the words, "bridge and tunnel"? I’m guessing the term began fading into New York City history at least 10 or 20 years ago. But think back to the days before Manhattan moved to Brooklyn, long before Hoboken was cool, before ...

By Maria Gorshin Ask a neighbor to list the benefits of living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and you are likely to find Central Park, Riverside Park, Zabar’s and Fairway among the Top 10. Look further and you might discover West End Avenue somewhere on that list. While most of ...

By Katie Barry There’s a mannequin from the waist up sitting in my room, wearing an Obama mask, a bright purple wig, and a gaudy orange beach hat with a half-marathon medal and old school Polaroid camera dangling from the neck. Where did I get all this stuff and why ...

By Maria Gorshin Did you know that New York is the birthplace of the bike path? Brooklyn was the first city in the country where citizens could enjoy a sliver of public road for the purpose and pleasure of getting around on two wheels. That was back in 1894. I ...