The local paper for the Upper er East Side
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THE BEAUTY OF THE GODS: TIBETAN ART AT THE ASIA SOCIETY < P.13
WEEK OF MARCH
20 2014
NYPRESS.COM
OurTownEastSide @OurTownNYC
In Brief
TWO SIDES MEET ON TRASH PROJECT, BUT NEITHER BUDGES
MOSKOWITZ’S HALFMILLION-DOLLAR PAYCHECK With the city and the Success Academy charter schools locked in an ongoing legal battle, attention has inevitably turned to the two public faces of the fight -- and to their salaries. In a much-discussed piece last week, the Times reported that Eva Moskowitz, the head of the Success chain, makes $485,000 a year -- more than double what schools Chancellor Carmen Farina pulls in to run the the NYC school system, which has 1 million students. The Success schools, which operate rent-free, are locked in a battle with Mayor de Blasio, who moved to block three of the schools from co-locating in New York public schools. Moskowitz is fighting to reinstate them.
WASTE TRANSFER STATION Little progress is cited in meeting between administration and East side officials BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
UPPER EAST SIDE Representatives of elected officials on the Upper East Side met with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration late last week to discuss the city’s plan to build a marine transfer station on East 91st Street -- but neither side seemed to move much. According to someone briefed on the meeting, the administration presented initiatives it would undertake to mitigate the impact of the station – known locally as “the dump” – but its position that construction should go ahead remained largely unchanged. Details of the mitigation efforts weren’t immediately available. By contrast, nearly every other elected official and community group on the East Side is opposed to the project, citing environmental concerns, fears about how the station would fare in another hurricane, and the fact that school children play at the nearby Asphalt Green recreational area.
The pothole on the Upper East Side that snagged Louise Grunwald. Photo by Daniel Fitzsimmons
THE POTHOLE AND THE SOCIALITE POTHOLES The winter has been brutal for the roadways, as well. BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
Three weeks ago Louise Grunwald fell into a pothole on the East Side and fractured her ankle. “It was noon on a beautiful day, I guess I wasn’t paying attention,” said Grunwald, an Upper East Side
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socialite who was married to the diplomat and former Time managing editor Henry Anatole Grunwald. Three days later she was telling the story to friends over dinner at her home on East 70th Street. Among her guests: Amanda “Binky” Urban, the literary agent who has represented authors like Cormac McCarthy and Brett Easton Ellis. “The next morning she was walking to work and she fell into a different pothole,” said Grunwald. “I sent her to the same doctor, she had an X-
ray, and ironically she had the same fracture.” Both potholes happen to be on the Upper East Side, but the problem is everywhere. And while potholes have always been a constant of city life, particularly after a brutal winter, their spread has fed a perception, particularly on the East Side, that some city services have frayed in the transition from mayors Bloomberg to de Blasio. “I was born in New York, there’s always been
THE CITY’S AGING INFRASTRUCTURE The gas explosion in East Harlem focused attention on a NYC infrastructure that is literally crumbling beneath us. A report from the Center for an Urban Future notes that many of the city’s roads, bridges, and subways are more than a halfcentury old. Utility systems are even worseoff. The report says that more than 1,000 miles of New York City water mains are more than 100 years old, “leading to frequent and disruptive breaks,” and more than 160 bridges were built a century ago or longer.
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