The local paper for the Upper East Side
WEEK OF NOVEMBER - DECEMBER ALL THAT GLITTERS AT THE MET
29-5 2018
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TRUMP TOWER BUS STOP TO RETURN TRANSPORTATION MTA will restore southbound stop removed due to security concerns after 2016 election BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
the treetops, graced with green, safe and secure, designed to literally get students off the street — was back on track. “This is absolutely fantastic news!” said Tom Wrocklage, an executive board member of the school’s PTA, which has campaigned for the rooftop conversion for the past four years. “Right now, our kids have to play on the street, and they’re at great
Since Donald Trump was elected president in the fall of 2016, the area surrounding his Midtown residence — to say nothing of the rest of the country — has experienced severe disruptions. While protests at Trump Tower have ebbed in frequency over the last year, police barricades still line the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue, penning in crowds of gawking tourists. Security checkpoints loom outside the 58-story building, which is staffed by the NYPD and Secret Service around the clock. Traffic is often snarled in the area, due in part to the continued closure of 56th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues. But a small measure of normalcy will soon return to the neighborhood with the restoration of a longstanding Fifth Avenue bus stop, in front of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church between 55th and 56th Streets, which was removed due to security concerns after the 2016 election. By the end of November, southbound M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 and Q32 buses will once again pick up and drop off riders in the shadow of Trump Tower, according to officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the NYC Department of Transportation. The stop’s two-year absence left a gap of more than a third of a mile between stops, forcing passengers to walk to their destinations from as far as 60th Street or 52nd Street. “There are eight blocks without any local bus stops, which of course is
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Upper East Side state Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright (back row center) poses with visiting students from P.S. 290 at her community office on York Avenue. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Seawright’s office
REACHING FOR THE ROOF PLAY SPACES Providing 600 kids at P.S. 290 on the UES with a safer place to play than the street has been the dream of parents for years — but the cost was always prohibitive. Until now. BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
If there is one cardinal rule of municipal construction in New York, it boils down to this: Project costs inevitably go up. Which makes it all the more extraordinary now that the price for a massive retrofit of a public school has gone so dramatically down. The tab for creating a new rooftop play space atop P.S. 290 on East 82nd Street plummeted last month by some $4 million or more. Suddenly, an ambitious if longstalled plan to carve out a classroom-and-recreation area — above
“Nothing must stand in the way of the well-being and growth of our children.” Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright
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“We have to balance the security needs of the city with the ability of people to get around and use their neighborhood ... the situation has improved since November 2016 and this is another example of it continuing to improve.” Council Member Keith Powers
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For two years, buses have bypassed a former stop near Trump Tower due to heightened security in the area. Photo: Michael Garofalo
Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, November 30 – 4:12 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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