Free Movie Tickets for UWS
According to a heads up from Council Member Gale Brewer’s office, Upper West Side residents can score free tickets to see the forthcoming film “New Year’s Eve” in early December. The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting has coordinated the free ticket offer to compensate the neighborhood for the inconveniences caused by the movie’s filming there. The picturesque brownstone lined streets have always beckoned Hollywood – last month the same offer came from the movie “Tower Heist,” and literary buffs might be hoping to get a similar deal when the Jonathan Safran Foer novel turned Tom Hanks film “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” comes to theaters – so it’s nice for the studios to acknowledge that the film crews blocking streets and taking up precious parking spots interrupt the day-to-day goings on of the Upper West Side. Read more
City Gives Out Free Bike Helmets
The DOT loves your skull! This Saturday, the Department of Transportation is giving away free bike helmets from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Columbus Avenue between West 87th and 88th Streets. While they last, the DOT will give out one helmet per person, for kids and adults. Each person must be fitted and sign a waiver (parents must be present to sign the waiver for kids under 18). The event is in partnership with Council Member Gale Brewer, the NYPD and Upper West Side Streets Renaissance. Check out nyc.gov/dot for more info.
Residents Resist Duane Reade Sign
The sign that has residents lit up. Photo by Andrew Schwartz
A flashy electric billboard over the entrance to the new Duane Reade on W. 72nd St. has raised ire among local residents and elected officials. City Council Member Gale Brewer’s office has been receiving complaints about what one person living on the street called a “stoner raver light show” atmosphere that they claim the brightly lit sign has created on the residential street.
HOUSING WORKS PREVIEW SALE
Housing Works’ Upper West Side location will hold a spring preview sale Saturday, March 10, 5 p.m.–8 p.m., at 306 Columbus Ave. The thrift shop will be selling new inventory for the spring season at reduced prices. Entry is $10, free to Housing Works members, and proceeds benefit homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.
A Moskowitz Political Primer
By Josh Rogers
There are no permanent friends in politics, just current allies, as the saying goes, and Eva Moskowitz is living proof.
Hype Fuels Charter Fight
The truth behind Eva’s Moskowitz’s battle to open an UWS charter school
By Josh Rogers
An Upper West Side father whose child was zoned out of P.S. 87 told Eva Moskowitz he was “shocked” when he heard the loud chanting against the charter school she hopes to open in the neighborhood. “It was like a civil rights movement,” he said.
Second Annual Business Survey Shows Signs of Life on West Side
Business isn’t booming yet, but commerce on the Upper West Side is definitely experiencing a comeback. That’s the consensus emerging from local business leaders and the conclusion indicated by West Side Spirit’s second business survey, conducted almost exactly a year after the first.
The methodology this year was the same: Feb. 22, West Side Spirit canvassed Broadway, Amsterdam and Columbus avenues from West 59th to 110th streets, counting all the ground-floor, on-the-avenue businesses. Read more
