UPPER WEST SIDE NOW ARY
Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010
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States Block Needle Exchange Despite multiple federally funded studies showing that access to sterile syringes makes injection drug addiction less deadly without increasing use, needle exchange has remained a political battleground. Page 2
nia Cookies (whose Village locations are mainstays with NYU students) debuted its new store at 405 Amsterdam Ave. Well-reviewed Chinese restaurant Grand Sichuan recently opened a branch on 75th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Lobster roll emporium Luke’s Lobster opened Dec. 17 at 426 Amsterdam Ave. The Yard, a wine bar and casual restaurant, recently opened on Freedom Place and 68th Street. Nearby, the Gracefully food market at 65th and West End Avenue opened this month. West Lake Palace opened in the former Silk Road Palace location at Amsterdam and 81st Street. Other recent openings are colonizing parts of the neighborhood underserved by retail. A Brooklyn Industries store opened its doors recently on 99th Street and Broadway, a stretch better known for diners than trendy fashions. It joins a new Urban Outfitters clothing store on the block. And across the street, on the east side of Broadway between 99th and 100th Streets, plans are afoot to transform the former Metro Theater into
Resident With Incredible Memory an upper west side resident is among six americans with “superior autobiographical memory,” a condition that allows them to remember almost every day of their lives. louise owen, 37, was Page 3
Ex-Riding School Gets New Tenant the former claremont riding academy on 89th street will soon become part of the stephen gaynor school. the school, for children with learning disabilities, will next year place about 30 children in preschool classes. Page 3
Adults Conquer Fear of Bikes with the cost of gasoline rising dramatically and people becoming increasingly sensitive to the size of their carbon footprints, more and more riders are dustin years. and more and more adults are Page 4
The Upper West Side has felt economic hard times with ‘For Rent’ signs popping up all over the neighborhood. cent flourish of businesses on the Upper West Side “reflects both the fact that New York was not as hard hit as some other areas by the economic downturn,” and, as such, the area is able to right itself relatively quickly. The Upper West Side has felt economic hard times with ‘For Rent’ signs popping up all over the neighborhood. Along with OTB branches across the city, the Off-Track Betting parlor on West 72nd street, between Columbus and Amsterdam, recently closed. But other parts of the Upper West Side are seeing a definite surge. In particular, Currie noted that the area between 100th and 116 th streets “seems to be picking up.” One new restaurant Currie enjoys is Buca, an Italian place, on 103rd street between Amsterdam and Broadway. Buca uses local and organic ingredients in their dishes whenever possible and its location is small but was jammed with customers one recent afternoon. Amsterdam Avenue around 72nd Street is also seeing a spate of activity. Around Thanksgiving, the retail warm-cookies-and-milk-joint Insom-
a shopping destination. The art deco Metro Theater closed in 2005 after more than seventy years running. Until recently, the Metro’s space has remained empty as one commercial project plan after another commercial project plan continued to fall through. Upper West Side resident Michael Oliva recently started the Metro Theater Project which is trying to raise money to transform the building into an arts, education and retail space. He envisions the future Metro as being what it once was— not the adult film site it became during the 1970s and 80s—but a place for the diverse residents of the neighborhood to gather and interact with one another. According to the Metro Theater Project’s website, the Metro when it reopens (as the Metro Art Center) plans to “provide a fun and exciting outlet for community nightlife that is safe and inclusive to an ethnically and financially diverse audience of neighborhood residents”. It future Metro Art Center will be a “community-driven effort,” the site says“, with an emphasis on involvement and contributive diversity”.
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IN THE NEWS
By Erica Block hen Spanish chef Jesús Núñez was seeking a spot to open his New York restaurant Graffit, everyone told him the Upper West Side was not the right area. “People don’t come to the Upper West Side to have dinner,” Núñez said he was told. “They go downtown.” But Núñez found the perfect space for his restaurant on 69th street and decided to defy the naysayers, opening on Dec. 12. “I could go to a neighborhood where all the other restaurants are, yes,” Núñez said. “But if I come to the Upper West Side, I’ll be more special because, here, there is no restaurant like mine.” Núñez is joining a mini boom of Upper West Side restaurant and store openings. From cookie shops to a planned retail building on Broadway, the area is seeing a surge in retail activity that has some observers optimistic the neighborhood is regaining it’s verve after several years of decline. Janet Currie, an economics professor at Columbia University and Upper West Side resident, said that the re-
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“All The Neighborhood News”
Surge In New Stores Breathes Life Into UWS And Defies Gloomy Trend
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Ring In The New Year Without Leaving UWS why venture from the neighborhood when the upper west side offers so many great ways to spend new year’s Eve? here are some ideas:
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he New Year’s Eve Concert for Peace at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine will feature the lighting of thousands of candles, $60. Gov’t Mule plays the Beacon Theatre for “2 Nights of Peace & Mule.” Four-course prix fixe menu and champagne toast for $175 at Dovetail. New York Road Runners jog through Central Park to ring in the New Year. Fivehour premium open bar, hors d’oeuvres and DJ at the Empire Hotel for $125. Fatty Crab offers a $75 dinner including a glass of champagne and one hour of all-you-can-eat crab. The Gilfords play Prohibition with a midnight champagne toast, and a live broadcast of the Times Square ball drop for $125. Sistermonk plays the Thalia Cafe at Symphony Space, free. Stay home with an ounce of Zabar’s Desietra Ossetra caviar for $120. Open bar and unlimited food at the Sunburnt Calf for $100. Bistro Ten 18 offers a four-course menu for $85 with an optional wine pairing for $45. VIP tickets for $100 will get you new york city Ballet’s sara a bottle of champagne, two bottles of premium mearns dances in george liquor, and a selection of appetizers per table for Balanchine’s the nut$100 at Village Pourhouse. The New York cracker on new year’s Eve City Ballet at Lincoln Center performs George at lincoln center Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, tickets $250. Photo: Paul Kolnik
FormEr Bounty huntEr Carl Tanner is making his DEBut at thE mEtropolitan opEra with a singing rolE in puccini’s la Fanciulla DEl wEst. Page 3
Home Is Where The Art Is there there isn’t enough room in the galleries in manhattan for many artists to show their work. these space limitations have led artists to expand the doors, of those of friends or sponsors, to the public and displaying artwork in their homes. Page 6
The Green Fairy Returns
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Researchers Seek Antibiotic Alternatives
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