Good morning and happy Friday. Wasn’t yesterday fabulous weather? It was great to walk around the neighborhood and see bar windows open, folks eating outside and those winter layers being cast aside. It’s a little cooler today — and the next few mornings we will wake up to temperatures in the 30s, so keep that sweater handy!
The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating after a man was beaten and stabbed by a group of seven youths in Hell’s Kitchen. The suspects made an anti-gay statement before attacking the victim. Surveillance footage of the suspects has been released. Additionally, just five minutes before the stabbing, a group of seven individuals approached a 24-year-old man on W44th Street and punched him in the back of the head without warning. Read more…
He once lived in a refrigerator box on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, but meeting a neighborhood dog and her owner changed Raymond Goynes’ life. “I love the people in this area,” he says. Read Raymond’s West Side Story…
What we’ve been reading
Stories that might be behind a paywall are marked with a 💰
Some neighborhoods have been designated “rat mitigation zones” — but not HK. (Crain’s💰)
Manhattan apartment buyers and sellers cannot agree on price, as sales stall. (CNBC)
How 2,000 green bistro chairs revolutionized Bryant Park. (Gothamist)
West Side club ZZ’s recognizes we’re the #bestside with a $50k joining fee — not sure it’s aimed at the locals! (New York Post)
All that jazz… How New York has captured the age, past and present. (Untapped Cities)
Freeze Frame
Thanks to Shirley Wu for sharing this picture of a visitor to her balcony on W44th Street. “Looks kind of like a falcon but I’m by no means a bird expert. Was thinking your readers might be able to identify it. And yup… the other bird in the shot is a dead pigeon,” said Shirley.
Happy belated birthday to Peter Nicol — and today to Mark DeSimone, Scott Sobol and Kevin Hickman.
