Upper West Side Parent

“Pretty words like ‘inclusion’ mean ugly realities like quotas.” — Thomas Sowell

@souporsonic_ The subway is a great place to read. The ride is never bumpy, although of course there are starts and stops. If you do it often enough you don't even notice anymore.

@walterkirn Honest question, which Girard fans think UBI will work?

So all these Renee Girard fans still believe that UBI will work. Will it turn off envy? No. It might easily turn it up -- over the smallest things.

@JoyceCarolOates The ultra wealthy are not aligned with any particular party. Some support Democrats & some support Republicans. The real question is why unpopular policies that benefit the rich, like high levels of immigration (legal or illegal) & forever wars keep prevailing.

OK. it is just disheartening to hear these declarations so often, that are beyond reproachful & uttered with an air of finality. it is probably pointless to recall that US voters did elect Obama--(though likely, they would not now)--& surely that suggests that the country is not irremediably racist. beyond the issue of race, it just seems that the US is in the grips of a minority that has captured power through the longterm efforts of the ultra-wealthy aligned with the ultra-conservative. in this, "race" is the bait for many voters who, if propaganda were only differently framed, would be voting against the empowerment of the wealthy & not in its favor. chiding Americans continually for being racists, or citizens of a country that once supported slavery, is certainly of questionable value in 2026 when we need to face a considerable challenge in upcoming months & may not have the leadership.

@BoylanRoger @cringe_handle A more recent view: maps.app.goo.gl/LL3QFLCb9uihZP…

@UWS_Parent @cringe_handle You could be right. My compass is out of whack.

Manhattan skyline, 1950s.

@cringe_handle @BoylanRoger Looks like the shot was taken from Governors Island.

@BoylanRoger where was this picture take from?

My guess is that the big corps with offices on Park just north of Grand Central are happy with a new park outside their offices as a delivery bike corridor. What's frustrating is that all of these changes are sold as public benefits & not concessions to big businesses, which is what they really are.

@UWS_Parent @MarkLevineNYC @maymalik It was an attractive, larger median in the days of the Model T. Car ownership grew dramatically during the 1910' and 1920s. In 1915, 10% of households drove a car, it was 75% by 1930.

Park Ave. got its name because a century ago it had a literal park in the median. Now, at last, the park is coming back (from E.46th to E.57th). With reduction of two lanes of traffic, there will be wider sidewalks, an urban forrest in the median, benches, space for cultural programming, potentially a bike lane etc. There are two final designs and you can vote on which you prefer. Take the survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/parkavenuevi…

@AFineBlogger @MarkLevineNYC @maymalik 🎯 As I understand, when the median was it park prior to the 1920s it went all the way to 97th but they won't subject the very wealthy who live on Park Ave to an unwanted park & less convenient vehicle access.

@UWS_Parent @MarkLevineNYC @maymalik Because they know it would be a non-starter with the residents?

@AFineBlogger @MarkLevineNYC The MTA is supposedly broke too, which is why we got congestion pricing in Manhattan, right? I don't understand why the City & the MTA keep taking on expensive initiatives when they're already in severe deficit, but it can't go on forever.

@UWS_Parent @MarkLevineNYC MTA is paying a fortune for the project $1.7 Billion to rebuild the train shed roof from 43rd to 57th. The DOT would be the icing on top. There is no official estimate from DOT, but it would likely be $100 Million +.

@AFineBlogger @MarkLevineNYC @maymalik If this is such an improvement, why are they only doing this on the commercial part of Park Avenue & not extend it all the way up to 97th Street, through the luxury residential real estate corridor?

@UWS_Parent @MarkLevineNYC @maymalik 100%

@AFineBlogger @MarkLevineNYC Is DOT paying for this or MTA? I thought the MTA owns the railroad tracks that Park Ave is built over.

@MarkLevineNYC Also, how does DOT have a limitless budget during a budget crisis?

@AFineBlogger @MarkLevineNYC @maymalik The bike lanes aren't for bicycling enthusiasts. They're private roads for delivery app companies.

@MarkLevineNYC @maymalik Let's face it, you will be going with design #2 and dedicate 50% of the available space to the 3% that bike. We know how this works.

@EmmaHitchcocked @MarkLevineNYC I'm genuinely curious about what the residents of Park Avenue want. The street is already closed to buses & trucks (except for local deliveries). Do they really need a park in the middle of the road? What's the increased congestion gonna do for traffic, noise, & pollution?

@MarkLevineNYC Just admit you’re trying to take people’s cars away. There’s no way that widening the center will allow 3 lanes on each side still. Especially since the city seems hellbent on making two way bike lanes on every street. The left just continues their assault on the middle class.

@MarkLevineNYC Park Avenue got it's name because real estate developers were trying to convince rich people to buy expensive homes alongside busy railroad tracks. I don't care either way about the new park, because I don't live there. What do the local residents want?

@WilliamsNietzs3 @roddreher Sure, there's more but the more is often enabled by tech. We've also broken down communities. We don't live near our families or socialize in person as much, because of tech.

@roddreher Meh. At best, this is a facile explanation. Sure, technology has an impact on social life, but not to this degree. There is a lot more going on.

This is POWERFUL!

@roddreher The problem isn't letting tech rip. It's impossible to hold back technological advancement, especially now that the US is no longer the global hegemon. What we need to do is recognize that tech businesses have incentives that are in some cases anti-social & regulate them.

@Hebro_Steele I believe that racism still exists. But the actions of specific people in a specific place isn't necessarily reflective of beliefs & social norms as a whole. Modern racist policies that lean opposite to historic racist policies just perpetuates the problem.

I’ve been called the n-word and bullied for being deaf. My house was tp’ed for months when I was in junior high, n—-deaf mute written on the lawn in toilet paper. Those were ugly acts by individuals that ended in fist fights. But the real racism, the systemic racism, came from the left and still does. So I don’t share the same perspective as French.

You're making this too complicated. Radicals hijacked the Dem primary that no one pays attention to or votes in & nominated Mamdani. Then most NYers just voted for the Dem nominee like they always do. It also helped that he promised to freeze stabilized rents. Cuomo, the moderate Dem, tried to stop it by running as an independent but failed because he's hated by so many voters who've lived here a long time.

How did Mamdani even win in New York? @EmmaJoNYC explains what she's seen: “It’s third-world immigrants and millennial yuppies who didn’t get the life that they were promised when they took out 6 figures of debt to go to University. They never got their high-paying job or the lifestyle that they thought would correspond with that job. They’re really resentful, and because they didn’t get that stuff, they had to tear apart Park Avenue and tear apart Fifth Avenue because those people have it."

@BorisBerenberg @tednotlasso Well yes, there is the whole privately paid for free stuff scene if you are resourceful enough to find the events. You can surf gallery shows, talks in corporate conference rooms, and left over catering at colleges - but you don't need to live in Manhattan for that.

@tednotlasso @UWS_Parent We have a whole “free art + wine” scene called gallery crawls.

hot take: manhattan is relatively affordable outside of its main bottleneck - rent - if you're willing to forego the luxury layer its functional layer is very low-cost: public transport (big one), coffee, pizza, delis, free parks + museums + events most people want luxury tho