B Train Suspended; Manhattanville Gentrifies; Rag-iversary

Posted on January 3, 2022 at 12:04 pm by Carol Tannenhauser

On the Hudson River, brave kayakers greet the New Year near the foggy West Side Highway (around 67 – 66th). Photo by Lese Dunton, at 5pm on 1/1/22.

January 3, 2022 Weather: Chance of snow, with a high of 29 degrees.

Notices:
Our calendar has lots of local events!

News:
On Monday, “B Train service is suspended in Brooklyn, Manhattan and The Bronx,” AMNY reported. “Consider alternate routes and allow for additional travel time. In Brooklyn, take the Q train. In the Bronx, take the D train. In Manhattan, take the C and D trains.” The reason for the shutdown is “crew shortages.”

“Desmond M. Tutu, the cleric who used his pulpit and spirited oratory to help bring down apartheid in South Africa and then became the leading advocate of peaceful reconciliation under Black majority rule, died on Sunday in Cape Town. He was 90,” The New York Times reported. The tribute went on to explore the concept of “restorative justice,” which Archbishop Tutu championed, using an example familiar to Upper West Siders. “…take the case of Amy Cooper, a white woman who falsely claimed to the police that an amateur bird-watcher, Chris Cooper, who is Black, had threatened her. After a public outcry, she was fired from her job. Although she received some form of restorative justice, an even better approach would have been her keeping her job while her employer demanded that she read and study more about race, Black masculinity, white privilege and social injustice. The loss of her job as an act of retributive justice left all these structural issues aside and merely shamed her without transforming her or using her circumstances to throw light on similar cases.”

A man was pulled out of the Hudson River on Thursday around noon near West 93rd Street and Riverside Park by the NYPD Harbor Unit and the FDNY, a spokesperson told Patch. “The man was still alive and taken to the 79th Street Boat Basin, before getting transported to St. Luke’s Hospital, NYPD said.” No word on his condition.

“It’s starting to feel like the Upper West Side,” The Uptowner observed about Manhattanville (122nd-135th Streets), as a result of “gentrification.” It didn’t feel like a compliment. “[Columbia University’s] expansion into Manhattanville reflects and intensifies the neighborhood’s transition: it’s becoming whiter, richer and more educated. Crime is decreasing and rents increasing, generating a mixed reaction from local residents and business owners.”

There are photographs of Era, the 20-story condominium going up at 251 West 91st Street, in NYYimby. “…the reinforced concrete superstructure will yield 57 residences and features a dramatic set of stepped cantilevering setbacks on its northern elevation.” Neighbors weren’t happy with the “aesthetics” at first. Let us know what you think now.

“Department of Transportation contractors somehow managed to misspell “MPH” — the acronym for “miles per hour” — eight times along Avenue B last week, the New York Post reported.

@NYC_DOT heya the new speed limit notifications on recently re-paved Avenue B read “20 MHP”(note the inversion)!!!! I kid you not. @evgrieve

— oedipa maas Ⓥ (@oedipa_maas) December 18, 2021

This isn’t the first time DOT has been associated with a spelling error. “In 2003, an Upper West Side street was labeled “SCOOOL XING.”

Finally, Jay Sears moved from the Upper West Side in 2001 to Rye, New York, 31 miles northeast of the city. In 2006, Sears started MyRye.com, which is a hyper-local news site for his community. “I found the creation of MyRye.com a way to be close to and celebrate our community,” Sears wrote in a 2022 New Year’s message to his readers. He made us realize that we had let West Side Rag’s 10th anniversary pass unnoticed. The Rag was started in May, 2011, with the awareness that the Upper West Side needed a fresh local news site. We also knew the neighborhood was filled with talented people who could track down and write good news stories and features. It has worked out.

So, here’s to 10 years — and now nearly 11 — of The Rag. As one commenter recently wrote, “Long may it wave!”