PJ's Studio: February 2024

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Daffodils 5

Walking around the neighborhood lately I can see that some bulbs are starting to come up in the tree pits.

I don’t usually see many crocuses in the area,

so, in all likelihood they are daffodils.

A sure sign of spring!

Oddly enough, we already saw some blooming. Edward guessed that the pipe visible on the right next to them must warm. Sounds like a good guess.

According to my previous daffodil blogs, which read a bit like spring weather reports,

the earliest NYC daffodil appearance in the past decade was on March 11^th

( That was in 2016.)

With temperatures going up to the 50’s and possibly 60’s next week – in February –

we may be able to set a new record.

I’m still a bit bummed about the lack of snow though. ☹

Here are the previous daffodil blogs…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2012/04/embroidery-daffodils.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2012/04/daffodils.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2015/03/daffodils-2.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2016/03/happy-spring-daffodils-3.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2022/04/daffodils-4.html

Cheers!

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Central Park – 2/13/24

Just when I was beginning to think we were going to have yet another snow-free winter, my birthday wish came true.

Central Park got 3.1 inches of snow.

Not as much as I had hoped, and they had predicted 5-8 inches, but still pretty enough to go to the park and play. 😊

It was a wet snow so snowmen activity was visible everywhere. And, the competition was so fierce that people were forced to step up their game.

The Fashionistas were also out, photographers in tow - showing off their best outfits.

In short, everyone was having a great time. I did wonder a bit about the heavy kid presence since it was supposed to be a school day.

But apparently, they tried to go remote and failed! Go NYC!!!

Happy kids. Unhappy adults.

I’m still hoping for an even bigger and prettier snow before the season ends, but the forecast does not look encouraging.

Still, you never know.

Here are some previous blogs of winter in NYC…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2012/01/icicles-in-central-park.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-2011-nycs-snowiest-january-ever.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2014/02/central-park-february-3-2014.html

Cheers!

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Construction Gone Wild – UES edition

When they finally finished the Second Avenue subway in 2017, we figured that after ten very long and noisy years - construction in the neighborhood would finally end.

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2012/06/second-avenue-subway-part-1.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2012/06/2nd-avenue-subway-part-2.html

We were wrong.

I guess we should not have been surprised that the real estate developers would take note of our new found convenience.

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2017/01/72nd-second-subway-station.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2017/01/72-second-subway-station-2.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2017/02/72nd-second-subway-station-3.html

Or maybe we should just blame Leslie Jones for pointing out what a great hood this is…

https://www.google.com/search?q=leslie+jones+ues&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS1022US1022&oq=leslie+jones+ues&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyCQgAEEUYORiABDINCAEQABiGAxiABBiKBdIBCDUzOTNqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:35a1eda9,vid:A-4E9tZNrVw,st:0

A few buildings went up immediately so I didn’t take much note of them. But by the fall I couldn’t help but notice that buildings were popping up like mushrooms.

So, I decided to take a closer look. Here’s a map. X marks our apartment on 74^th & 1^st, and I spotted 11 works in progress within a 12 block radius…

For some reason I cannot fathom, the person delivering this honking big crane to York and 74^th, chose to do so by backing down 74^th street at 3 am on a Sunday morning. I can sleep through lots of traffic noise. But the beeping when a truck backs up sounds just like an alarm clock. I am sure that I am not the only one on the block that they woke up.

Some of the sites are still in the pre-sprouting stage. The one on 1^st & 86^th streets has been fighting with a rent-controlled holdout for years. I heard the developer was trying to use eminent domain. I don’t think that will work since they aren’t a government entity and New Yorkers know how to fight city hall.

I suspect the site on 72 & Second Avenue (also in the nascent stage) may be trying to buy out the other places on the block – including our old apartment on 71^st street, (which is visible on the left.) Meanwhile though I get to enjoy the advertising ghost on the wall of the old tenement building.

The biggest amount of activity is on 3^rd between 74^th and 76^th. It makes perfect sense since they are between the Second Avenue and Lexington Avenue subway lines. Talk about convenience.

The buildings in the 80’s – which are directly across the street from each other - are wrapping up and signs say that they will be finished by Fall 2024.

It would be nice if after these 11 buildings were finished the construction in the hood would stop. But when I took my walk, I could see several blocks where the tenement buildings were being emptied, so there is even more construction on the horizon.