NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani headed up to the Highbridge Gardens housing complex in the Bronx to announce his plans to dismantle as much of the 400 miles of scaffolding and sidewalk barns that continue to cover the city sidewalks. Matthew McDermott for NY Post It’s all getting nailed down Excuse me. I’m about to cry.
I love New York, live in New York, born in New York, educated in New York, married in New York, work in this greatest metropolis on the continent.
We’re zooming to the moon. Great, but why? How about first fixing New York? Zooming bicycles that hit pedestrians? Taxes only Elon can pay? Prices so high that coffee and bread equate with gold? Rents only Zero Crapdammy who doesn’t pay can afford?
Latest misery? Scaffolding. Mandated is roofs to be repaired, examined, fixed. Result? Inability to drive, move or inch crosstown. A narrow street — now just an alley of building materials, cranes. Alternate side? Racks of Citi Bikes. Nobody moves. If Methuselah was on Lex he’d still be waiting to go West.
You’ve heard this before: People are in poverty, homeless, jobless, ill, aged, no doctors, less nurses, higher prices, fewer stores. I know that. Excuse me sounding selfish, but IT has invaded my life. My home. My job. My ability to survive. My nerves.
Machinery, scaffolding, hard hat strangers hanging outside my windows. Peering at me. My dog barking madly. ALL my windows boarded up. Summer’s coming. So, no light, no air. Limited privacy. Also ceaseless banging and hammering.
I understand this is needed. I also understand I’m slowly losing my mind because this won’t be over in two weeks. Two years plus is what I’m hearing. Ugh. And you can quote me.
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Strangers in jeans, tees, helmets, masks, shoe coverings — marching through a private home. Wielding jackhammers and heavy-duty equipment they predict walls might crumble, mirrors crack, wooden floors separate.
Possessions stowed away carefully. So carefully that in this torment I can no longer locate what I need. I can barely set these words down because wires to computers, printers, phones and the etcetera of life have been affected.
One worker said to me: “VIPs like you are very finicky. You’ll never find anything if you don’t get up and look for it.” Summoning my abundance of warmth I snapped: “Look, pal, I stopped making rounds when I was 25.”
LOCAL political clubs still draw leaders. Legal news from the Lexington Democratic Club: Judge Kate Waterman-Marshall is running for a seat in November. Candidates for Nadler’s seat seen out and about were George Conway, Laura Dunn, Assemblyman Alex Bores. Also on hand NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
At one West Side meeting NYS Attorney General Tish James got a rousing reception. She and congressional candidate Conway talked animatedly (maybe about their upcoming primaries).
Nowruz, a Persian holiday, was celebrated this year in NY Supreme Court. Justice Sabrina Kraus, of Iranian descent, said: “Persian New Year celebrates spring renewal and the triumph of light over darkness. We are grateful for an opportunity to highlight our culture and share our journeys as Iranian Americans.”
It’s holidays — Christian, Jewish, Muslim. I’ll be off tomorrow and Monday. So if I can find my computer, my notes, my telephones, my housekeeper and my sanity, I’ll happily be back with you this coming Tuesday. Oh and by the way . . . these very able workers are to quit working 4 o’clock. So, don’t anyone ever dare ask me what happens around 3:10.
Oy. Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
