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Seen & Heard: Updates on Two Restaurants
••• I was starting to get concerned about two restaurants that went before Community Board 1 last September. There’s been no sign of progress at the Wayfarer, in the former Dean’s space at 349 Greenwich. “We have no update on this property,” was the response from the rep when I asked for an update. So the concern remains.
••• The second is Sushi Tatsu, the high-end sushi restaurant and whiskey bar at 175 Franklin. Says restaurateur Jean Dupuy: “The project is still on, a bit delayed though as it is common in NYC ! Fall 2016.”
••• Press release: “The New York State Comptroller’s Office is conducting a survey on noise in New York City neighborhoods and would like you to take the survey.” I focused on commuter buses (they sound like jets when they accelerate); sirens (no need to be so piercing); the incessant beep-beep-beep of vehicles backing up or cherry pickers moving around; and helicopters. Construction noise is annoying but it comes and goes. Vehicle noise occurs every single day.
••• From an outraged parent: “I was walking my kids to school and found this truck and these firefighters’ cars parked on the sidewalk outside Spruce Street School. This is ridiculous. Why should parents and kids have to share the sidewalk with vehicles outside a school? With the new parking ramp driveway opening right by the school, this street is getting dangerous. Truck and cars on the sidewalk makes it worse and is ridiculous.”
••• Work has started in earnest on the west side of the Verizon Building (now a Sabey data center called Intergate Manhattan) at 375 Pearl. Rendering of how it’ll look when it’s done.
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While I agree the fire station and hospital abuse that side walk, the Spruce Street school parents are absolutely the worst. They whine about every little thing that happens around the school.
Can we talk about how the school is the root cause of the traffic clusterF on that block? Every morning Anne/Fulton/William becomes a straight up parking lot because there are 10+ school buses just parked on Anne Street. Who sends their kid to school on a bus in the city? Put them on the subway!
Those “10+” buses aren’t all for Spruce, John – although yes a handful of kids are bused to and from the school, especially those in the special needs school also housed in Spruce (Only a monster would suggest they ride the subway alone). And yeah, NYC school parents are the worst, and I say that as one myself; but worse than them, any day, are neurotic NYers without kids who complain about the schools, or traffic. Wah Wah. Don’t own a car. Enjoy sleeping past 7 am on the weekends. Worry about things like ‘friends” while they’re still important. We’ll continue to take your tax money until your inevitable move to Maplewood.
I actually live in 8 Spruce and really don’t mind the school. We never hear them and it’s really great urban planning. I also don’t mind paying taxes for your brats to get a subpar public education in NYC.
But I am fortunate enough to have a car in the city and I look forward to parking it below 8 Spruce when the garage opens (whether you give me death stares or not). You chose to have a kid in the city and that comes with a certain level of danger. They’ve already put a cross guard and stoplights there. Things aren’t going to be perfect in NYC for you and your precious subordinates….but perhaps they might be in Maplewood.
John, you will get no argument that Manhattan parents are the whiniest lot in the city. If it was not this, it would be something else.
WITH THAT SAID, Spruce Street is for K-6. That serves kids from roughly 4 to 12 years old. Your “solution” to put a 4 year-old on the subway and let him/her find their way to and from school everyday is absolutely ludicrous and positions you as markedly more absurd than any whiny parent.
haha oops. right….minor point there :)
Spruce is our zoned school and my son is applying to PreK there. Naturally I am very concerned about the pedestrian safety there. Are there crossing guards there around school drop off/pick up hours?
Nope; seen a crossing guard maybe once. Also, the trucks parking on the sidewalks are visibly breaking the subway grates. Only a matter of time until they fall through, but UPS etc have deep pockets. No one’s ticketed much, either, despite the $$ windfall if there was daily ticketing, though, because I’m guessing the NYPD doesn’t like ticketing vehicles that might belong to ambulance and firefighter staff.
Wrong. Crossing guard there every single morning.
Speaking of updates, do we know anything about all the vacancies in the block that houses the Duane Reade on Greenwich? I couldn’t remember what all used to be there, so I looked at Google Streetview. In Sept. 2014 it shows we had a french restaurant, pizza place, nail salon, dry cleaners, and deli, all of which have since closed, and none of which have been replaced. I don’t understand why a landlord would prefer to have nearly an entire block of unoccupied space rather than just lower the rent? Is there some sort of planned redevelopment of that block? It sure seems economically irrational to me, especially since the storefronts aren’t exactly lookers that would attract anything too high-end…
The owner’s plans remain a mystery. There was talk of making it all more upscale and changing the storefronts so that they come out to the edge of the building—i.e., getting rid of the overhang.