What's New on West 75th

January 2 2012: W75BA Charitable Gifts

W75BA received these thank yous from West Side Campaign Against Hunger and the West Side Preservation Society..

January 2012: SHAME ON CHASE BANK

Because of Chase's greed, we have moved our account to TD Bank. Chase charges $18/month to hold our account. That amounted to about 20 percent of our small holdings. They were unwilling to waive the fee. Shame on you, Chase, for not supporting the small nonprofits in your back yard.

Temporary Boiler

For those of you who have been asking, this is a temporary boiler providing heat to 101 West 75th Street.

October 19: W75BA President Dee Rieber Receives WESTY Award

The WESTY (West Side Spirit Thanks You) Awards recognize the special contributions of individuals to the West Side community. Recipients include organizational and civic leaders who work specifically within the neighborhood and West Side residents who make special contributions to the greater New York City community.

W75BA President Dee Rieber will be honored with a WESTY this year for her strong leadership of W75BA and for spearheading a "super block" coalition of over 80 community groups, from 34th to 116th Streets, Fifth Avenue to the Hudson River.

See has been instrumental in our success; through her dedicated leadership W75BA has become an outstanding community organization. We congratulate her!

WESTY winners — 20 annually — are determined by the West Side Spirit editorial board from submitted recommendations and receive a crystal apple inscribed with their names, the year, and what their award is. This years WESTY honorees are:

West Sider of the Year - Scott Stringer
Charity - Phyllis Gunther
Clergy - Rev. Greg Johnson
Clergy - Rev. Marion Gambardella
Community Builders - Eileen O'Connor
Community Builders - Batya Lewton
Community Builders - Joel Kupferman
Community Builders - Victor Gonzalez
Neighborhood Association Award - Melissa Elstein
Neighborhood Association Award - Dee Rieber
Culture - Andrew Ackerman
Educators - Noah Gothbaum
Educators - Rachel Dahill-Fuchel
Entrepreneur - Ivan Jourdain
Entrepreneur - Ellen, Bruce & Steve Stark
Healthcare Pros - Dr. Petros Levounis
Healthcare Pros - Dr. Myint Si
Real Estate - Jason Haber
Culinary Award - Tim Sullivan
Bravest and Finest - Detective Domenick Vassallo

October 6: New Entrance to Astor Apartments

The new entrance to the Astor Apartments at 235 West 75…disappointing at best. (cursor over image to see what's been lost; read earlier report below)

October 3: We're losing trees on W75!

The tree on the left was removed today to make way for a ConEd transformer (cursor over image to see the empty bed).

With an assist from Gale Brewer, we will be getting new trees for all our barren treebeds in compensation. Plans are in the making to install a bench or planter in the empty tree bed. The other tree is scheduled to be destroyed!

See letter below to Scott Stringer. W75BA has reached out to Gale Brewer's office and Linda Rosenthal's office as well! We'll keep everyone updated as we try to save these trees.

Stay tuned!

From: Robert Cabrera
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 10:50 PM
URGENT: Trees in Jeopardy @ 75th Street & Columbus Avenue

September 13
Beacon Paint and Hardware and Eastern Mountain Sports Join Forces
5th Semi-Annual Mailbox Cleanup and Painting

Dan Rieber, Bruce Stark, Alan Ando	Kreemah of EMS.	Tanner Rich of EMS

August & September: Change on Broadway

Demolition on Broadway, 76th to 77th Streets. Farewell, Manhattan Diner. (Cursor over image to see lost shops on Broadway) Fairway was not the only Broadway store shut down by Hurricane Irene. Happily, Irene was not the horror for our neighborhood that many expected

August 25: Eastern Mountain Sports GRAND OPENING

We had a wonderful meeting this morning with the marketing manager for Eastern Mountain Sports! WOW!! A company that actually cares about supporting the communities concerns! We say "Welcome to the Neighborhood". Visit the new EMS store at 76th and Broadway in early September

July 13: W75BA Spearheads Super Block

W75BA was front page news recently in The West Side Spirit:

Super Block Association Tackles West Side Issues

By Megan Finnegan

A neighborhood like the Upper West Side has no dearth of community groups, but a handful of residents have noticed one thing that’s missing: a super block association. While they don’t have any formal title yet, the small group has begun meeting to fulfill its still amorphous mission of uniting the block associations of the Upper West Side.

“We really felt there was a need to link up with other groups that are doing what we are doing, for the purpose of sharing information, strengthening our organization and building community,” said one of the group’s founders, Dee Rieber, a real estate agent and president of the West 75th Street Block Association, which covers the street from Central Park to the Hudson.

Read full article

Beautification Awards 2011

Buildings that have won 2011 Beautification Awards for their outstanding street gardens:

9 West 75 10 West 75 20 West 75 33 West 75 40 West 75 51 West 75 54 West 75

Papparella Mughlai 115 West 75 119 West 75 123 West 75 136 West 75 156 West 75

232 West 75 234 West 75 250 West 75 254 West 75 304 West 75 309 West 75 323 West 75

Look for the awards in their lovely treebed gardens.

CONGRATULATIONS, ALL!

June : Astor Apartments W75 entrance demolished

The historic columns on the façade of 235 West 75th Street that were demolished earlier this week were carted away this afternoon.

This distinguished, prewar, gray-brick apartment building was designed in 1901 by Clinton & Russell, the architects also of the great Apthorp apartment building three blocks to the north on Broadway.

When the scaffolding went up on June 2, we called the offices of NYS Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and NYC Councilmember Gale Brewer to ask if there was a legal permit for work to be done that would change this distinctive façade. As of June 17 we had not received a reliable answer. It is not clear from the Department of Buildings website that a permit was issued for this work. As many of you know, this block is calendared to be landmarked.

Columns distinguish entrance to Astor Apartments Scaffolding signals imminent change Columns removed

Research has revealed that the owners had a permit to replace the façade prior to the landmark calendaring. Not much we can do about that. Both Gale Brewer and Linda Rosenthal’s offices have stayed on top of this issue.

Caran Property Management is aware of our concerns and somewhat sympathetic. Part of their plan is to make the entrance compliant with ADA regulations. This will include a sliding glass door at the entrance. Lauren Schuster from Linda Rosenthal’s office is in communication with Caran Property Management to secure the plans for this new entrance. When those are secured we will share them with everyone. Needless to say, the manner in which this was accomplished by the owner and management left many community members in shock.

It is clear that owners who do not live in our community are “out of touch” with and don’t really care about neighborhood sentiment.

New tree guards installed

On Planting Day (May 14), in partnership with Curb Allure (www.curballure.com) we achieved our 2011 goal of installing at least two new tree guards on our W75 corridor. Thanks to member Scot Steinberg for the referral to Curb Allure, a new company that specializes in modular, adaptable, sturdy tree and garden fencing well suited to our challenging urban environment. (Cursor over image for during and after photos. IE Explorer users may have to set permission.)

DON'T HONK Signs installed at West End