Good morning and Happy Saturday. We’ve got a sporting Sunday planned. First, we’ll be watching the New York City Triathlon at Pier 96 (that’s at W56th Street — take away 40 to find the street location of any pier) and then on to England vs Italy in the Euro Championships Football (soccer) Final at 3pm. What are you up to?
There are destined to be 10 titles in this summer’s free Bryant Park Movie Nights lineup — but some of those revealed so far have a distinctly Broadway feel. Have you any suggestions for other movies. One of the favorites that we watched there was The Shining. More details here…
The voting in the Democratic primaries for New York City Mayor was finally announced this week. However, the actual vote for Mayor is in November. Eric Adams is on the ballot alongside Curtis Sliwa — but what do you know about Flores, Pepitone, Mateo, Francis, Rojas…?
Here’s what’s been happening in Hell’s Kitchen this week…
President Carter and his wife celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary on Wednesday. The Carters are the longest-married presidential couple in American history. Since leaving the Oval Office in 1981, he’s often said that his most important decision in life was falling for Eleanor Rosalynn Smith in 1945 and marrying her the following summer. “My biggest secret is to marry the right person if you want to have a long-lasting marriage,” the 39th President said.
In 1984, Hell’s Kitchen was still not a neighborhood that could be considered presidential. But in the September of that year, just three years after he had left The White House, President Carter arrived on W40th Street, not for a state dinner or high-powered negotiations, but to sleep on the floor of a church. More here…
Broadway star Telly Leung left Hell’s Kitchen over two weeks ago to head to Japan. This week, he left the confines of his apartment in Tokyo for the first time after a strict 14 day quarantine. “No walks, not trips to the store. The producers make grocery runs and garbage disposal trips for us. I’ve not been outside this apartment for 14 days,” said Telly. More here…
On Tuesday afternoon, Governor Andrew Cuomo chose John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Hell’s Kitchen to “commence a border war” to stop New York’s gun violence crisis. It’s worth listening to his speech and checking out the support on Twitter from families who have been victims of gun crime. More here…
Following on from our conversation with Telly Leung in Tokyo, we chatted to Kilty Reidy in Sydney. When Kilty left Hell’s Kitchen in December, New York was spiking and Australia seemed to have built a wall to keep out COVID. Fast forward to July and Come From Away is in the second week of a three-week shutdown. The country’s vaccination rate is the lowest of all OECD countries. Read more…
SPONSORED POST
Javits Center’s mass vaccination site closed yesterday — a victim of its own success, as the focus shifts to boosting COVID shot rates in communities with low take-up. The conference center will return to its normal duties. It was recently announced that the New York International Auto Show will return to Javits this summer, taking place from August 20-29. More details here…
My phone buzzed on Wednesday morning with readers sending me pictures of the buses arriving at the Skyline Hotel to take residents back to congregate shelters. I took a couple of trips over to record the scenes but wondered what to write, what to share, what to publish? For every resident causing their Hell’s Kitchen neighbors public safety and quality of life issues, there were 5-10 grateful residents quietly enjoying the months of having personal space, a home away from dormitory life.
If you want a perspective on how the hotels (not run by the city) worked for some during the pandemic — read this. If you want to understand why those with mental health issues did not get the help they deserved — read this — it was not about lack of money.
Just before 6:30pm, my phone buzzed again with a Citizen App alert (oh, how I hate that app!). I took one last trip to 725 10th Avenue, the Skyline Hotel. I bumped into a friend, she’d seen a shirtless guy loaded into a police car handcuffed. I watched as EMS attended to a fellow resident with blood streaming down his face. He was saying: “but he’s my friend!”
Hell’s Kitchen is relieved that these hotels will return to serving much-needed tourists. We will all be grateful for the slowdown in police activity and the loss of the real feeling of threat. However, let’s not forget that everyone just moved to another part of New York City. The problem of the homeless in the greatest city in the world has not gone away. We agree with Luke Tani’s words, which we shared on Instagram.
Did you survive (and dry out from) Tropical Storm Elsa’s heavy rain? Central Park recorded 1.56 inches of rain in an hour, only the eighth time since hourly record-keeping began in 1943 that the city has received more than an inch and a half of rain in that short length of time.
When we spoke to Subway Creatures’ founder Rick McGuire in May last year, we discussed the subway as being a barometer of normality. His aggregation of New Yorkers’ videos of the subway floods is an unfortunate sign that the city is BACK!
In the never-ending news cycle, it’s hard to keep up with what Governor Cuomo is doing. We spotted this Tweet from Stephen Nessen, WNYC’s Transportation Reporter. Apparently, the MTA quietly came out of a 4-year State of Emergency at the end of last month!
Following on from that, next week you have the opportunity to have your say on Governor Cuomo’s grand plans for Manhattan Midtown West and Penn Station. Time to replace that eye roll with attending a Town Hall!
What we’ve been reading
Outdoor dining is to continue in New York for another year. (Eater)
Trash hauler in court for running up charges at The Hustler Club. (New York Post)
Aloft Hotel is taking shape opposite the Javits Center. (New York Yimby)
Rehearsals get underway on W42nd Street. (CBS)
Reminiscing about New York without tourists… (New York Times)
Freeze Frame
Our friend Clark Chung reopens November 19 again today at 11am. The shop was closed at the end of May when a car ran into the storefront. We miss Clark in Hell’s Kitchen — but please go say “hi” if you are on the Lower East Side this weekend.
Happy Birthday to Antonia Donato and Paul Devlin.