Mailboxes and late night noise

Reader readback — All in a day’s work; it’s part of the job. In the last issue I observed what I thought was funny, a “Mailman/postal worker wheeling an empty mail cart to a street mailbox to mail a bunch of letters.” Well, reader extraordinaire, “Alan Mr. Flacks,” disabused moi of the “funny” notion by providing an historical (not hysterical) explanation. Here goes: “Years ago (around the time of Ted Weiss’s death), the post office stopped collections from the mailboxes inside multiple dwellings. That is to say, no collectors like those who collected mail from the street collection boxes. Instead, the delivery carriers now take the mail from the house collection boxes in residential and commercial buildings and may carry the mailed items back to their p.o. station OR deposit them in a street collection box. What does this most often do? Delay the mail one day. You deposit a letter in your building’s collection box inside; it’s taken out and put in a street collection box which is collected the next day.” So now we know — and for those who may not — Ted Weiss, who died in 1992, held the congressional seat now held by Congressman Jerrold Nadler.

Noisy rich — The late night noise coming from what was supposed to be a “top-tier” restaurant is the basis of a legal wrangle between the residents of The Beekman, a top-tier co-op at East 63rd Street and Park Avenue, and its restaurant tenant Vaucluse. Venue to the rich and famous, Vaucluse converted half of its restaurant space into Omar’s Club in March 2018, without prior notice, according to The Beekman. In the lawsuit, filed in NY County Supreme Court, as reported in the Patch, the conversion is a violation of Vaucluse’s “contractual obligation to operate only a top-tier restaurant,” as is the noise and vibrations coming into residential apartments late at night which interferes with the residents’ “quality of life and the building’s reputation.” Sounds (pun intended) like noise may be good for Vaucluse’s bottom line, but not for the residents’. Unless there’s an agreement, a gavel will make the final sound. Or there will be a resounding appeals process through courts of NY. Sounding off costs.

Strange pairing — The bus stop at Hudson and Horatio Streets is odd. No, make that dangerous. Within the boundaries of the bus stop, there’s a parking garage. Yes, where cars are driving in and driving out of the parking garage as you stand and wait for the bus, get on and off the bus, or just pass by. It’s just so so obvious? Is there something I’ve missed?