Good morning and happy weekend. I’m looking out the window (finally) to see light clouds that will clear by mid-afternoon. Temperatures today are in the mid-50s, but on Sunday they will plunge back to a high of 40 degrees. I’m glad to be back in Hell’s Kitchen after five months — and a walk along Pier 84 and dinner at Empanada Mama last night helped with my re-entry to the neighborhood. Have a great weekend…
Hell’s Kitchen has been known as Clinton, Midtown West, and even Mid-West — but the 1910 arrests of six female election “poll watchers” led to the area being nicknamed “Suffragette Slope”. Read more… and share with friends #WomensHistoryMonth
Here’s the rest of the news around the neighborhood this week…
Three years ago this week, I pressed send on W42ST’s first daily newsletter as COVID came to call. Much has changed — but I’m so happy that from the initial few hundred who subscribed, we are now enjoyed by over 7,000 readers every day. Thank you for your readership and support over these three years!
W42ST’s Sarah Beling joined fellow curious straphangers, seen-it-all New Yorkers, veteran MTA workers and those completely unaware of the change on a weekend quest to find the elusive, newly-released blue and gold R211 ‘A’ Train subway car. Read more…
Paul Ford has lived in Hell’s Kitchen since the 1970s and played piano for Broadway shows for over 40 years, with Stephen Sondheim declaring him the “indefatigable master of the musical theatre”. Read his West Side Story…
Is Hell’s Kitchen becoming a tropical paradise? A new rooftop watering hole could be about to join underground speakeasy The Friki Tiki in the landmark Film Center Building, cementing 9th Avenue and W44th as a multi-level beachy bar crawl destination. Read more…
Evelyn Yang is a Hell’s Kitchen mom and activist who has lived in the neighborhood for 18 years. As a leading member of the “Yang Gang”, she’s supported husband Andrew in his campaigns for the nomination to become Democratic nominee for President of the United States and to become New York Mayor. Read Evelyn’s West Side Story…
Hell’s Kitchen’s own Manhattan Neighborhood Network this week opened a brand new media center where you can stay up to date on the latest production technology or learn the ropes from scratch — and W42ST got an exclusive first look at the future-forward facility on the site of the former Legacy Recording Studios. Read more…
Activist and community advocate Sabrina Reveron arrived in New York with her dog Scooby-Doo in 2015. Since then, she has made Hell’s Kitchen her home and focused on local issues with Manhattan Community Board 4. Sabrina told us her West Side Story — and introduced us to some of her favorite places. Read more…
Such a New York moment… You’re wandering around CVS and you bump into John Legend! Thanks to iAN Llano for sending us this picture from the beauty aisle at the pharmacy on W40th St and Broadway.
Magnitude will be “the largest gay nightclub on the east coast”, according to the owners. This week they agreed to a scaled-down capacity and to drop rooftop plans for the 11th Avenue venue as it moved closer to getting its license. Read more…
Chad R MacDonald’s West Side Story involves acting, magic tricks, balloon sculpture, robocalls — and the Hell’s Kitchen Rangers. Read more…
A year ago, when beloved Hell’s Kitchen eatery Laly Restaurant closed, owner Ibis Lara struck a deal with a nearby deli to continue to serve her amazing Dominican food. We popped in to see how Ibis was doing yesterday. Read more…
Christian John Wikane spends most of this time interviewing stars (from Sir Paul McCartney to André De Shields). This week, we turned the tables and asked him the questions this time. Here’s his West Side Story…
What we’ve been reading
Grand Central Madison has the same issue as Moynihan Station — passengers sitting on the floor. (WSJ)
Is Hudson Yards as green as it seems? (City Limits)
The NYPD is now arresting more people for major crimes than at any time since Rudy Giuliani was mayor. (City and State)
Jessica Tisch explains why being the sanitation commissioner is a dream job — rats and all! (The Harvard Gazette)
Stephen Sondheim’s final musical will premiere at Hudson Yards. (Variety)
Freeze Frame
Last fall, we bought the website Manhattan Sideways from Betsy Bober Polivy. Betsy has walked every sidestreet in the city from 1st to 155th Street over the past 12 years. We will re-launch the site in early April — but today we wanted to give our loyal W42ST readers a sneak preview of the new site — sideways.nyc
We are still in the test phase — and have a lot of updates still to make — but please explore and give us your feedback/suggestions by hitting reply. The good news is that Betsy will continue as Editor at Large to walk the streets and make these amazing discoveries of small businesses. You can sign up at the bottom of any page for Sideways’ new daily newsletter that will be published every afternoon from April 4.
Happy birthday today to Shana Farr — and tomorrow to Bobby McGuire, Tom Zuback and Danielle Unterman.
