W42ST Daily — 9/19/2020
Happy New Year! I’m away this weekend with friends and last night we celebrated the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana.
Before we could sit down to the table, our phones started to buzz with the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Marti Gould Cummings spoke for many: “Devastated and heartbroken to hear that Justice Ginsburg has passed. Thank you RBG for always leading with moral clarity and doing what is right and just. We must vote like our lives depend on it.”
Ruth Franklin said in a tweet: “According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness.”
Our friend, Chelsey Hill used her illustration skills to give us a memory of RBG. RIP.
For some reason, the W42ST stories this week featured many animals — from rescued cats to a T.Rex, to oversize dogs.
Last Saturday, we reported on how FDNY rescued a cat from a fire on 10th Avenue. The cat was resuscitated by EMS and there was a happy ending when a delighted owner was reunited with his pet. Great pics from our on-the-spot reader Cera Zittlow.
On Sunday we looked back on the 6 month anniversary of the pandemic lockdown (and our daily newsletter) in a picture story. This fabulous image of a summer storm by Katie Finzi was just one of the amazing reader pictures featured.
At the start of the week, Ruth found a psychic message from her past.
During the week, we’ve been publishing our lists of the best bars, places to eat, coffee shops, and retail stores – these are the places voted the neighborhood’s best, by locals who love them.
We asked you to share your West Side Story. We want to recreate the vibrant, people-focussed essence of the magazine. What’s your story? Would you like to be featured in this newsletter and on our website? Just answer some questions, tell us your five Hell’s Kitchen happy places, and you could take the W42ST spotlight for a day. Share your story here…
STAN, the T. Rex, has joined King Nyani, the gorilla, as supersize additions to the neighborhood. Then on Friday, we gained 6 oversized dogs on Broadway to keep us company. There might not be any more tourists, but we’ve got plenty of mammals!
The director of “My Cousin Vinnie”, Jonathan Lynn, is selling his Hell’s Kitchen condo at The Hit Factory. Real estate hi-tech lets you take a 360 degree tour, examine the bookshelves, check out the art, but you cannot open the closets (yet!).
Hell’s Kitchen is getting some more retail. Olde Good Things is opening on W52nd St between 8/9th on October 2. They got a big welcome from other local stores.
“We’ve been fans of Olde Good Things for years,” enthused Enrique Crame from Fine & Dandy. “In Matt’s years managing Broadway theaters he used to visit to source old door handles and finials and other random things impossible to find. A few years ago we scored a teapot from the Waldorf Astoria there. It’s exciting to have them in the neighborhood. But equally exciting to see a business open while so many close around us!”
Ruth signed off with ten little ways to help small, local businesses survive COVID.
Finally, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer has compiled a go-to list of where you can go when you’ve got to go! We give you the list of where to pee in NYC!
WHAT WE’RE READING
Could help be at hand for post-COVID NYC? Really…
NYC’s unemployment rate is twice the national average – here’s why.
A coronavirus relief fund for NYC’s small theaters has been launched by New York Stage Alliance. Donate…
The clock’s ticking for NYPD’s tow pound – and it could prove expensive. Fine…
