Upper East Side News

The Week in Review

Upper West Side Locals 'Ambushed' by Homeless Housing, Pols Say

With groups of homeless adults now arriving for emergency shelter at 316 and 330 West 95th Street as part of an emergency measure by the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), Upper West Side elected officials are scrambling to halt the move, which could bring up to 400 homeless adults into the two buildings.  The first handful of homeless residents moved in last night, joining a community of permanent low-income residents who are increasingly nervous about their new neighbors. Many current residents who returned home from work last night to find NYPD officers stationed outside their doors and in cars surrounding the building and felt alarmed at the perceived need for extra security.  Read More

Pale Male's Baby Hawks Can't Come Home Until Rat Poison is Removed

Pale Male's two baby hawks have almost fully recovered from a bout of rat poisoning last month, but animal rescuers refuse to send them back to their home in Central Park because the area is still filled with rat poison.  Cathy Horvath, whose volunteer animal rescue organization WINORR-Wildlife In Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation is treating the famous offspring of the red-tailed hawk, said the park is too dangerous for the young birds because of the ongoing use of rodenticides at nearby institutions including the Central Park Boathouse and the American Museum of Natural History, as first reported by DNAinfo.com New York.  Read More

Upper West Side Madness

For years, the Upper West Side of Manhattan has been the site of a war between the forces of gentrification and the social-services industry. In July, for example, the neighborhood saw two murders over consecutive weekends in homeless shelters in the West Nineties. Now comes an organization called Aguila, which is in the process of moving 400 homeless people into a building that it has rented on West 95th Street, where the homeless will be housed alongside existing residents. On August 7, the office of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer held a rally to oppose the plan. Though the rally was welcome news, it was disturbingly reminiscent of a 2011 controversy over a similar plan to convert a building called the Alexander, on 94th Street, into a 200-person shelter. The Alexander plan seems to have been abandoned—a victory for Upper West Side residents—but the repetition shows how such proposals will keep popping up until politicians confront some real problems with New York’s treatment of troubled populations.  Read More

Cops Seek Man Who Tried to Kidnap Girl on Upper West Side

Police are hunting for a man who tried to snatch a young girl off the streets of the Upper West Side last month.  The suspect, who is 40- to 50-years-old and around 170 pounds, allegedly tried to grab the 11-year-old victim by the arm on West 61st Street and Amsterdam Avenue at 4:45 p.m. on July 31.  When the girl tried to pull away from the man, he pulled her back toward him. But she was eventually able to break away and the man fled, police said.  Read More

UWS church sued over unholy racket

They’re holy rock ’n’ rollers.  An Upper West Side church that rents out its hall to partygoers is shaking, rattling and rolling the million-dollar apartments next door, according to a lawsuit filed by the neighbors.  The revelers at St. Volodymyr Cathedral’s hall blast music “so intense it literally rattles the windows and causes vibrations in the walls” of the co-ops at 172 W. 82nd St., according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.  Read More