The Upper East Side Community Corner

In October, victory was won for some Yorkville residents of the East 70’s and East 80’s who use the post office at 1483 York Avenue, otherwise known as Cherokee Station. Back in the summer, the USPS toyed with the idea of closing the Post Office and moving the services centered there to another location, in an attempt to consolidate Post Offices due to a $7 billion deficit caused by low revenue and decreasing mail volume. At the time, there were more than 3,000 offices under review nationally, including 14 throughout the city, and 5 in Manhattan. The USPS considered moving services to Gracie Station, Lenox Hill Station and Yorkville Station, and even Roosevelt Island. Under the USPS proposal, residents would have been forced to travel at least half a mile from the original Cherokee station, and perhaps a river away! Keeping Cherokee station is especially important to our community because many of our senior citizens rely upon its services; they would be severely inconvenienced by having to travel further to the post office.Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney has been instrumental to the development of Cherokee station. Back in 1994, Congresswoman Maloney successfully advocated for expansion of Cherokee station. She secured a space twice the size of the former station, with seven full service windows and 800 more boxes, resulting in a total of 1,000 boxes at the station.Back in the summer, the community rallied to keep the post office open. The East 79th Street Neighborhood Association collected almost 1500 signatures on a petition to keep the post office open. Several elected officials, including Carolyn Maloney, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Liz Krueger, State Assembly Members Micah Kellner and Jonathan Bing, City Council Members Jessica Lappin and Dan Garodnick, joined together and wrote a letter urging the USPS to save Cherokee Station. At the end of November, the USPS announced that it would not close Cherokee Station. Congresswoman Maloney proclaimed, “Since New Yorkers can’t walk on water, I am delighted that the Postal Services won’t be closing the Cherokee Station and moving its operations across the East River.”This is just one example of how residents of the Upper East Side, paired with our elected officials, can work for the best of the community. What other issues are you advocating in the community that you’d like to bring to the attention of this blog and the community?

Ooooh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is sooo delightful! Living on the Upper East Side for now 6 years, I had never known some of the charming hidden treasures that our community holds close to heart. You see, I had this preconceived notion that in order to entertain or “be cool” it was imperative that I put my little booty into a yellow cab or make the 6 block trek in my high heels over to the subway and make the journey down town. Friends in town? Lets meet at this hard to get in place on avenue A. Dinner date? Fabulous little place in Soho. Parents in town? Great family style nook in Nolita…You get the point.However, lately, it has been well, cold. Quite frankly with this economy who wants to incorporate $40 in cabs into the night of entertaining? Even worse who wants to wait and wait for that 4 or 5 express train to come and then hear, “All express trains are running on the local track and with limited service”. I can definitely tell you that I for sure do not want to hear this as it is 20 degrees on the platform. Recently in an effort to save money, body heat and valuable night time, I started looking at some of the bars and dinner places here within the Upper East Side, and began to explore other alternate places to meet up with friends and family or go out for my treasured date night with my husband. The results have been unbelievable! I cant even begin to think about the money I have spent hauling it down town or the shoes ruined making that long journey over to the subway to wait and then end up being late!My entertainment explorations were put to a test this past weekend. Originally, I had plans to head south and meet up with friends that were coming in from the ‘burbs and wanted a “swank” night out in the city. Out of habit I thought, perfect, there is this great place in Gramercy with a fireplace and where you can reserve a table for drinks. Phone number in mid dial, I stopped, paused and reassessed the situation. They also are cigar smokers and I immediately remembered one of the very few almost unknown places in the city that allows patrons to smoke inside. Yes, inside.Lo and behold, the place that still allows you to smoke is, no not downtown…. but uptown, on the lovely Upper East Side. Lexington Bar and Books on 73rd and Lexington is one of the very few bars within NYC that still allows you to smoke cigars inside. Your friends will be impressed with this classy find and little known fact all the while having great conversation in an appropriately filled dimly lit loungey space holding either a delicious glass of wine, cold beer or a concoction of your choice. Even better on these cold nights mosey on over to the fireplace and carry your laughs and talks while being warm!Who would have thought that a great and rare find could be found in the baby stroller filled, dog walking enclave that is our community. Entertaining is a blast but doesn’t mean that we northern Manhattanites have to venture down south to show friends, family even ourselves a cool night out on the town.Lexington Bar and Books is just one of the many little finds to be found and depending on your evening outlook or entertainment purposes there is something to be ventured to on the Upper East Side.

It's about time this project is actually getting off the ground. It's been eight years in the works but Community Board 8 got one step closer to finishing the Andrew Haswell Green Park when it approved the final phase of the project last week. Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20100222/upper-east-side/upper-east-side-riverfront-park-gets-final-green-light#ixzz0gVIyqS9O