Community Board 8’s parks committee unanimously passed two motions last week to maintain and upgrade distinct portions of Central Park which have suffered in recent years.

The Central Park Conservancy brought forth a proposal to conserve and beautify Grand Army Plaza, a popular tourist attraction at 5th Ave and 59th Street. Grand Army Plaza houses the Sherman monument which, according to Conservancy members, is currently in rough shape.

The proposal, in place to move forward this spring, will include several components. The Sherman monument will be conserved and re-gilded. Missing trees in the area will be replanted — a double tree line formation is to replace a single row — and Bradford Pear trees will be replaced by London planetrees, which are more sustainable and have looser canopies for easier pruning and improved view.

The new tree formation is intended to create a better sculptural backdrop to the monument. The rooting zone will also be ameliorated.

Pavement in the plaza will also be fixed to allow for improved appearance and greater accessibility, including leveling out of uneven gradation.

Conservancy representatives and Community Board 8 members agreed that better attentiveness is needed to keeping the plaza looking cleaner in the future. One Conservancy member noted horse-drawn carriages in the area allow for a self-perpetuating ecosystem where pigeon and rat populations flourish because of dropped horse feed. This has been an ongoing issue, he explained. The unique area’s overall maintenance is also affected by drainage and the subway which runs underneath it.

The Conservancy said it plans to replicate what was historically done with the plaza but using improved technology.

The committee also passed a motion to reconstruct the East 79th Street playground, geared toward young children, just south of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Conservancy plans to build on the playground’s current layout, which allows it to be integrated into the local landscape. They pointed out the play equipment currently in use is mismatched to the age range — two to five years old — which uses the park. In recent years, new regulations have denoted what play equipment is appropriate for what age range, measures which were not in place when the play area was built.

New plans for the playground going forward will maximize user accessibility and provide sustainable structures and landscape. Additionally, all equipment will be accessible to users with mobility problems. All play implements will meet American Disability Association (ADA) standards.

The fence currently surrounding the play area, which creates a harsh contrast between the playground and surrounding vegetation, will be moved back and modulated for better integration into the landscape, while complete security will be maintained within the playground.

Mostly I push “Yes” on my keyboard all the time to support liberal progressive causes from the comfort of my swivel office-chair. My advocacy for human and animal rights has largely consisted of signing “Yes, I agree.” “Yes, I stand with you!” on such petitions.

In the past two years, there have been 18 accidents involving horse-drawn carriages, many injuries and several deaths. So why is it so hard to end this archaic form of so-called amusement? The carriage industry has a strong union which, along with stubborn politicians including Christine Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg, says the carriage rides are good for the all-important tourism industry. But, of course, it is also a form of animal cruelty.

NYClass, an animal advocacy organization (the acronym stands for New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets), has proposed a plan that is tourist-friendly, helps carriage drivers keep their jobs, and uses clean energy. It suggests these horses be humanely retired and replaced with vintage electric cars. Makes sense to me.

In December, I met NYClass and fellow protesters at 59th Street and Sixth Avenue. The Trump-lined street was teeming with tourists interested in carriage rides through the park. While we protested by holding signs and posters of horses down from accidents, I was taunted, mocked and cursed out by an angry horse driver.

“Oh, the poor horseys,” he called out to me. That alone was a bit shocking, but he continued by calling me a crude name for female genitalia. Really? Did he just call me that? Who does that? Feeling helpless and provoked like a 12-year-old being bullied, I retorted by giving him the finger. The fortysomething, amply built man then challenged me with what he thought was a clincher of a question.

“Name me three breeds of horses—go ahead, name me three breeds of horses!” he yelled. I shouted back, “No, I can’t, but can you tell me the names of the last three horses that died while pulling tourists?” Again he replied, “Oh, the poor horseys!”

By then, rip-roaring mad, I called him a different body part and walked away. I am not proud of this. I probably should have been more mature and controlled.

Well, you don’t have to put yourself at risk of being cursed out by a carriage driver, although it was instructive to join the fight. If you would like to help put an end to this abusive practice, check out NYClass’s website, www.ny-class.org, and push “Yes, I support retiring the horse-drawn carriages and replacing them with humane, sustainable electric vintage-replica tour cars proposed in the NYC Council bill, Intro 86A.”

And if you do decide to join them on their next outing, they have a calendar full of events. Hey, you may meet Kathy Najimy or Alec Baldwin or Lea Michele or Miley Cyrus’ sister Noah, or any number of stars who also think this industry is just downright mean.

This pedestrian death is especially relevant in the wake of the city’s fight to increase bike lanes across Manhattan.

LULEMON TEMPORARY STORE APPEARS ON 3RD AVENUE
Lululemon Athletica, a popular Canadian yoga and sports apparel store, will be opening a small pop-up for four months across the street from its flagship store on Third Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets.

The flagship store will remain closed for renovations during this time. But with the new pop-up, Upper East Siders will be able to stay in shape in style.

“Exercising and staying in good shape are inherent to the character of the Upper East Side lifestyle,” says Joseph Aquino, executive vice president of Douglas Elliman’s Retail Group that handled the transaction. “This brand resonates with people here.”

The temporary shop is replacing a Uniqlo store.

MIDTOWN LIBRARY SET FOR MAJOR RENOVATIONS
The New York Public Library’s main branch is getting a very expensive makeover. The work will begin this summer in a renovation worth $300 million. The project will create a multi-level atrium complete with views of Bryant Park inside the Fifth Avenue landmark.

The plan stirred up some controversy when it was initially proposed that millions of books be moved into storage. But no worries, bibliophiles: The New York Public Library changed course in their latest plan, stating that 3.3 million of the original library’s 4.5 million research volumes will remain in the building while the rest are placed in storage.

Despite fewer books, library president Tony Marx calls the renovation “the greatest that this building has seen in its history.”

Construction will begin this summer, and is expected to be completed by 2018. The library will remain open.

NYPD LAUNCHES NEW APP
New Yorkers can feel a little bit safer on New York City streets with the newly released NYPD free iPhone and iPad application. The app features “Wanted” sections to view breaking news, wanted posters, crime and NYPD videos, and the NYPD Facebook page. You can also look up crime statistics and precinct boundaries, as well as submit crime tips. There’s even a section with information on how to join the Police Department. The NYPD hopes that the app will allow for faster and easier public information. Now residents from all walks of life can help fight crime on the go.

CITY PARKING RATES TO INCREASE
It’s not such a happy new year for New York City’s motorists. Starting Friday, Jan. 25, the Department of Transportation will be increasing parking meter rates south of 96th Street in Manhattan. The new rate is $3.50 an hour, or 50 cents for 8:34 minutes. That’s up from $3 an hour. By the end of January, all single-space parking meters will be replaced by muni-meters citywide. There is a silver lining, though: Be glad you don’t live in Chicago, where hourly rates soared to $6.50.

‘PIPPI’ PUPPET SHOW RETURNS TO CENTRAL PARK
The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater is bringing back its 2007 hit puppet version of Pippi Longstocking, Pippi. The show premiered on Tuesday and features more than two-dozen marionettes. Award-winning playwright Zakiyyah Alexander brings this fun-loving children’s classic to the stage, where audience members can laugh along as the imaginative freckled redhead overcomes bullies and burglars with her friends. Busy this winter? Not to worry—the show will run until June. The Marionette Theater is located near West 79th Street in Central Park. Tickets costs $8 for adults and $5 for kids under 12. Reservations required. Visit the City Parks Foundation website, www.cityparksfoundation.org, for tickets and showtimes.

DISAPPEARING SCOOTER
An Upper East Side resident’s scooter disappeared on Friday when she parked it along Central Park. The 46-year-old arrived at West 64th Street around 8 p.m., then left the vehicle, a red Yamaha Vino, on the street to go about her business in the city. When she returned, the vehicle was gone. She reported the missing scooter to the police, but no nearby security cameras were available to give any clues to the theft.

UNFAIR FIGHT
A group of young girls ganged up on a woman outside her West 66th Street workplace last week to rob her. The woman walked out of her office at 5 p.m. on Friday and was approached by four strangers. One of the young girls began to accost her, then launched into an attack, punching her head and body. The other three girls quickly joined the melee. One grabbed the woman’s purse during the assault, then the four fled toward Columbus Avenue. The woman was left bruised and with cuts, but reported no serious injuries. Her purse contained a yellow metal ring, numerous credit cards and her passport.

GRAND LARCENY
Over $250,000 was stolen from a West 64th Street resident after she gave her personal information to a fake credit card worker. The theft began last month when the woman, 57, received a call from a stranger who claimed to work for American Express. The stranger told the woman the credit card company needed her personal identification number, and she gave it to the caller. The woman recently checked her bank account and realized that over a quarter of a million dollars was missing, charged throughout the month to expenses in the city and out of state.

DRUG BUST WITH A CHASE
Two young men were busted during a drug deal on Wednesday, Nov. 14, but one tried to get away. Cops saw the 24- and 25-year-olds exchanging marijuana and money on a street corner along West 59th Street at around 5 p.m. The officers approached the men and began to arrest them, but the 25-year-old lashed out, kicking his arresting officer in the shin and punching him in the head, then fleeing into oncoming traffic as the officer recovered. The cops on the scene could not pursue the perp, but he was apprehended just down the road by other officers as he attempted to escape.

The Maine Monument at Merchants' Gate in Central Park Photo by Aaron Adler

On its “Donations” web page, Central Park accepts gifts of five set amounts, from $20 to $500. A sixth option, “other,” also lets donors choose their own amount: $25, say, if $20 is just not quite enough—or, as in John Paulson’s case, $100 million.

The New York-based hedge fund manager announced this sizable gift to the Central Park Conservancy on Tuesday, Oct. 23, in the park by Bethesda Fountain. According to the conservancy, the gift is the largest donation to any park ever.

Paulson, 56, is a Queens native who has a long family history with Central Park, where his grandparents went on their first date and his mother took him to play as a child, he mentioned in his announcement. He lives just steps away from the park now, with an overhead view from his Fifth Avenue townhouse.

“Walking through the park in different seasons, it kept coming back that, in my mind, Central Park is the most deserving of all of New York’s cultural institutions,” he said. “I wanted the amount to make a difference. The park is very large, and its endowment is relatively small.”

“Small” is, indeed, a relative claim, and it has drawn some criticism from park advocates in the past two weeks. According to Bloomberg, New York City devoted $338 million this year to its 29,000-acre park system, less than 0.5 percent of its annual $68.5 billion operating budget and $42 million less than last year. Central Park’s $144 million endowment, however, still makes it one of the best-financed parks of its size in the world, with resources for extensive maintenance and public outreach projects. Advocates claim that many other parks in the city—like Bronx’s Pelham Bay, which has the three times Central Park’s acreage and a single full-time maintenance employee, as pointed out by the New York Times—could benefit more than Central Park from increased funds.

Nonetheless, locals who frequent the park are excited about the changes to Manhattan’s backyard that Paulson’s donation promises to bring, including restoration of the North Woods and landscaping in the park’s southwest corner around its busiest entrance, Merchants’ Gate.

“I hope they improve the trails,” said a dog walker outside the park. “More trails in general, really, would be good.”

A biker joked that all that money could be used to build a whole new road around the park just for cyclists.

“It’s the best park in the world,” said a jogger stretching by Merchants’ Gate, “and [the donation] is going to make it better. I’m looking forward to whatever’s to come.”

Central Park Conservancy has announced that half of Paulson’s donation will go to the park’s endowment for maintenance, and the other half will go directly to capital improvements. Dena Libner, the conservancy’s public relations manager, confirmed that the money still would be devoted to long-term and sustainable improvement projects even in light of the extensive tree damage the park suffered from last week’s storm.

Central Park Conservancy CEO Doug Blonsky followed Paulson’s announcement in October by describing the park as a vital contributor to New Yorkers’ quality of life and to the city’s economic health. Thanks to Paulson, he said, “The cycles of decline and restoration that this park has suffered for so long will be broken forever.”

WOMAN RAPED BY PIZZA BOY FILES LAWSUIT
The 35-year-old victim who accused a pizza delivery boy of raping her last month is suing her alleged attacker, his employer and a number of parties associated with her West 61st Street apartment building.

Caesar Lewis, the 16-year-old delivery boy, reportedly entered the victim’s unlocked apartment around midnight on Sept. 29 after delivering pizza to one of her neighbors. He found the victim in bed with her 7-year-old daughter and raped her with the daughter in the room.

“I have a hard time understanding how a pizza delivery boy can be let upstairs after midnight and roam the halls for over 25 minutes without anyone at the building thinking that something was wrong,” the victim told the New York Post.

The victim’s Manhattan Supreme Court suit, which seeks an unspecified amount of money, names the apartment building’s management, co-op board and on-duty doorman, in addition to Lewis and his employer, Sal’s Pizzeria.

DESPITE BAN, LONGBOARDERS  ‘BOMB’ BROADWAY
A New York State Supreme Court Ruling did not stop a handful of rebellious longboarders from blasting down Broadway last weekend in the Broadway Bomb, an annual skating race from 116th Street to Bowling Green. The race’s organizers failed to secure proper permits for the event from NYPD this year, so the city canceled the event officially, but the organizers encouraged the race’s 2,000 anticipated riders still to bomb Broadway in protest. Around 30 longboarders showed up on Saturday and completed the course, despite roadblocks and warning signs. No one was arrested, according to police.

CENTRAL PARK LAUNCHES WOODLANDS DISCOVERY EXHIBIT
Last Thursday, Central Park debuted “The Wild Garden: Discovering Central Park’s Woodlands,” a new interactive multimedia exhibit that aims to educate visitors about the history and maintenance of the park’s 130 wooded acres.

The exhibit features iPads in all of its sections that display 3D renderings of the park’s icons, such as a stone-by-stone construction of the famous Huddlestone Arch. For children, “Woodland Discovery Kits” are available with binoculars, hand lenses and flora guides.

“The exhibit is a perfect combination of a historic park, nature and modern resources for a truly rich visitor experience,” said president and CEO of the Central Park Conservancy Doug Blonsky in a statement.

He noted that many of the park’s 40 million visitors each year only see its south end, so the exhibit encourages visitors to explore the north end as well. “It’s really what Central Park is all about: making the best of recreation, relaxation and exploration available for free to every single New Yorker,” he said.

The exhibit is run out of the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, located in the middle of the park at 110th Street. The Center operates on seasonal hours.

Frankie Quinney puts the finishing touches on raising the Big Top tent for the Big Apple Circus in Lincoln Center. Tickets go on sale this week for the circus’s all-new, 34th season production, Legendarium!

WEST SIDE HISTORIC DISTRICT APPROVED
Last week, the City Council voted unanimously to officially designate the first extension of the Riverside-West End Historic District, covering West End Avenue and its adjacent side streets from West 79th Street to West 87th Street.

This final move marks the first victory in what preservation advocates hope will be a series of three designations expanding the Upper West Side’s historic districts, eventually covering West End Avenue and the surrounding areas continuously from West 70th Street to West 109th Street.

“West End Avenue is one of the world’s most important ensembles of residential buildings, as architecturally harmonious and perfectly scaled to its spacious boulevard as is Park Avenue,” Council Member Gale Brewer said in a statement praising the vote. “Regrettably, West End’s buildings are being demolished one by one, and replaced with a stylistic hodgepodge of high-rises that endanger the avenue’s architectural character.”

Support for this extension, and the other two pending extensions, has been widespread among elected officials and local preservation enthusiasts. The extensions were proposed to the Landmarks Preservation Commission by the West End Preservation Society. Next up will be the West End-Collegiate Historic District Extension, which covers much of the area between Broadway and Riverside Drive between West 70th and West 79th streets.

TAVERN ON THE GREEN NEARS FINAL APPROVALS
Crain’s New York Business reported last week that the Emerald Green Group, which signed an agreement with the Parks Department for a 20-year operating license for the former Tavern on the Green restaurant, is one step closer to making a newly revamped dining spot a reality. The contract has been submitted for registration with the comptroller’s office, and a Parks Department spokesperson said the final step was imminent. After the city is finished with the renovation of the space this summer, the Philadelphia-based company is planning to open a new restaurant with 300 seats inside and an additional 300 outdoor seats, Crain’s reports.

FREE FLU SHOTS
Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal is hosting a Free Flu Shot Day, in partnership with Roosevelt Hospital/Continuum Health Partners, at her district office on Tuesday, Oct. 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone aged 50 or older (and especially anyone over 65) is strongly encouraged to get a flu shot. The office is at 230 W. 72nd St., Suite 2F. Appointments are required; please RSVP by calling 212-873-6368 or email rosenthall@assembly.state.ny.us.

OCTOBER 6-28
(Weekends Only) Boo at the Zoo returns to the Bronx Zoo with everything little hearts could ask for this Halloween. On top of annual favorites like the Haunted Habitat Mansion of ghosts and extinct animals and a hayride through the animated Creepy Hollows town, magic shows, an extinction graveyard, intricate pumpkin carvings and costume parades will amp up the eerie fun. bronxzoo.com

OCTOBER 6–31
(Tuesdays-Fridays) The giant sculptures at the New York Botanical Haunted Pumpkin Garden will send delicious chills down little spines. Get more thrills from a spooky parade, a scary puppet show and lessons on creatures of the night. If you visit on the third weekend of the month, you’ll also see master pumpkin carver Ray Villafane at work. nybg.org

OCTOBER 27
Join the New York City Police Museum for a ghoulish good time at its annual Halloween party. Kids can immerse themselves in making slime, decorating trick-or-treat bags and winning giveaways while their parents brush up on trick-or-treating safety skills. Children should come in their best creepy costumes! 11 a.m.- 2 p.m., nycpolicemuseum.org

OCTOBER 27
Get ready for a fun-packed night of ghostly games at Ripley’s Boo-lieve It or Not! Slumber Fest. This eerie overnight experience includes adventures like Ripley’s signature laser beam race and costume contests, as well as snacks, pizza and breakfast. Come prepared with courage and spooky sleepover necessities.
ripleysnewyork.com

OCTOBER 28
It’s time for Central Park’s Halloween Parade and Pumpkin Sail! Don your scariest disguise and strut your stuff, then bring your best carved pumpkin to the city’s largest flotilla. As the day of Halloween fanfare fades into twilight, the sight of glowing, grinning pumpkins bobbing down the lake will raise some goose bumps. centralparknyc.org

OCTOBER 28
Bring the kids costumed up for The Queens County Farm Museum’s Fall Festival, where the family can enjoy sack races, hunt for trinkets in the haystack, dance to country music and fill up with goodies from crafts and food vendors. Tip: Stick around after the fall fest for the kids’ Haunted House that has just the right amount of scare. queensfarm.org

OCTOBER 31
The American Museum of Natural History is dedicating a whopping 30 halls to trick-or-treating, crafts and more at its annual Halloween Sleepover. Costumed kiddies can dance to performances from hit stars and possibly even get the chance to hang with big-screen cartoon characters. (Registration required.) amnh.org

OCTOBER 31
Just because it’s your baby’s first Halloween doesn’t mean he or she can’t partake in spooky fun. For babies 0-12 months and their parents, Mommybites’ Baby’s First Halloween Party presents a Little Maestros performance, light snacks and bonding time with other new moms and dads. Make sure you dress to impress for chance to win costume contest prizes! mommybites.com

ONGOING
Hit up Times Scare’s Dr. Blood Show anytime this month (or this year) for kid-friendly blood, guts and gore as the expert magician cuts off his limbs and saws audience members in half. For tweens and young adults, The Haunt, the city’s only year-round interactive haunted house, is the perfect place to enjoy some hi-tech spooks.
timesscarenyc.com

Zumbluskas previously challenged incumbent Assembly Member Micah Kellner in 2010 and is making another run at him this year. He has been active in politics for many years and currently works for the Department of Transportation as a wireless support specialist, according to his biography. Zumbluskas emphasizes a need for job creation, especially in upstate counties, alternative energy development and drastically reducing the state budget. Known to friends as “the Big Z,” he’s positioning himself as a much-needed newcomer who will not play by traditional Albany rules.

“For effective government, we must change the way business is conducted in Albany,” Zumbluskas said in his campaign’s mission statement. “We can no longer have a few party leaders in a back room making all the decisions.”

MALONEY AND OTHERS HAIL CORNELL DEVELOPMENT
Last week, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney joined acting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank, Cornell University President David Skorton, Council Member Jessica Lappin and NYC Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky, among others, to herald a groundbreaking announcement about the Cornell-Technion tech campus planned for Roosevelt Island.

The school announced the impending creation of a new United States Department of Commerce “Innovators’ Resource Center,” which will be located right on the future Roosevelt Island campus. The center will allow students and faculty to easily access information on existing patents and file new patent applications, a function that officials hope will be utilized often at the new innovation-focused school. It is the first partnership between the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a university.

“This new center recognizes the fact that high-tech inventors and start-ups need a patent office for the 21st century, when ideas can move at the speed of Google,” Maloney said. “Even though U.S. exports are now at record levels, the speed of change has itself changed: If we hope to remain competitive on the world stage, we should see to it that anyone with an innovative idea can obtain the protection of a patent without being tied up in red tape.”

The center is slated to move to its permanent location in 2017, but for now will be housed at Cornell/Technion’s temporary incubation campus at the Google offices in Chelsea.

WALK IN THE PARK EVENTS
The Central Park Conservancy is teaming up with Madison Avenue footwear retailers to raise money for the park and encourage exercise—and shopping—in the neighborhood. On Saturday, Oct. 13, shoppers who make a purchase at any of the 15 participating stores on Madison Avenue will be entered to win one of 45 free pairs of shoes.

The stores, all between East 57th and 86th streets, include Bally, Barneys New York, Calvin Klein, Charlotte Olympia, CH Carolina Herrera, Devi Kroell, DKNY, Fogal, Galo Shoes, Jimmy Choo, Longchamp, Max Mara, Porsche Design, Stuart Weitzman, and Stubbs & Wootton and will be marked with a special welcome mat.

On Saturday, Oct. 20, at 11 a.m., walkers can sign up for a quarter-mile high-heeled “Walk in the Park,” leaving 67th Street and Madison Avenue, with a $25 donation to the Conservancy. For more information and to register, visit www.centralparknyc.org/walkinthepark.

Free Flu Shots
New York Doctors at 205 Lexington (corner of 32nd Street) is currently giving FREE FLU SHOTS to the community.  (While supplies last!) For more information, call 212-684-4700.

TRIBUTE TO TEDDY
Teddy Roosevelt eyes his next prey from the newly restored murals in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda at the American Museum of Natural History. After two years of conservation treatment, the huge canvases were re-introduced to the public this week.

MTA TO RESUME BLASTING AT EXPLOSION SITE
After a routine detonation became out of control and erupted to the surface of Second Avenue on Aug. 21, the MTA stopped blasting at the site on East 72nd Street until an investigation could be completed. The agency announced last Thursday that it had concluded that investigation and would resume blasting at the site, with a number of safety measures in place.

“We have completed our review of the incident and have implemented a number of corrective actions. From this moment forward, blasting operations will be subject to additional management scrutiny and enhanced safety procedures to ensure that the community and workers are kept safe,” said Michael Horodniceanu, president of MTA Capital Construction, in a statement.

Some of the improvements include a superintendent sign-off on a pre-blast checklist and an additional layer of protective rubber blast mats over the explosives. The MTA has also hired an independent safety consultant, Thacher Associates/Total Safety Consulting, to provide outside monitoring of the contractor at the site.

NEW MEDICAL FACILITIES TO BRING HUNDREDS OF JOBS
Last week, Mayor Bloomberg announced plans for a collaboration between City University of New York and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to construct two new state-of-the-art outpatient cancer care facilities on the Upper East Side.

The city will sell a 66,000-square-foot site at 525 E. 73rd St. for $215 million to the partnership, and MSK will construct a 750,000-square-foot facility designed for innovative outpatient treatment programs. The hospital plans to use the facility to treat lung, head, neck and hematological cancers.

CUNY Hunter College will build an up to 336,000-square-foot Science and Health Professions building on the site as well.

“Thanks to our innovative approach to economic development, today’s announcement is yet another step towards making New York City home to the world’s most talented workforce,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “Not only will these two great institutions play a critical role in creating great jobs in one of the city’s growing industries, but they usher in the innovators and medical advancements of tomorrow.”

The projects are expected to create 3,200 construction jobs and 830 permanent jobs.

TURTLE BAY REJECTS MIDTOWN ANNEX IDEA
President of the Turtle Bay Association William B. Curtis released comments this week that will be presented at a City Planning Commission meeting on Sept. 27, rejecting a city proposal to annex an area of what is now considered Turtle Bay into East Midtown.

“What we cannot accept is any intrusion of Midtown beyond the current eastern boundary. City planning, however, is trying to annex an irregular area lying between Second and Third avenues, and East 43rd and East 45th streets and absorb it into the East Midtown study area. We strenuously object to this,” Curtis said in the statement.

Curtis cited the fact that that area has always been considered part of the East Side, not Midtown, and that the residential character of the area would make any type of Midtown upzoning inappropriate.

ANTIQUES AND ART AT THE ARMORY
Avenue magazine presents Antiques, Art & Design at the Park Avenue Armory this Friday, Sept. 21, through Monday, Sept. 24. The exhibit features over 60 dealers specializing in high quality art and antiques, including French, English, Italian, Swedish and Continental furniture from the 17th century through mid-century modern, fine silver, Russian antiquities and rugs, Tiffany lamps, French Art Nouveau and Art Deco furniture and objects, and many other types of art. Public show hours are 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. each day. Admission is $20. 643 Park Ave. Visit avenueshows.com for more information.

HOYLMAN WINS SENATE PRIMARY
In the 27th district Senate race, attorney and former chair of Community Board 2 Brad Hoylman beat out opponents Tom Greco, a Chelsea bar owner, and Tanika Inlaw, a public school teacher, to win the Democratic nomination. Hoylman, who received a reported 69 percent of the votes, will likely succeed Sen. Tom Duane, who surprised many when he announced he would retire at the end of his current term.

SODA BAN PASSES LAST HURDLE
Last Thursday, the New York City Board of Health approved Mayor Bloomberg’s “soda ban,” which prohibits the sale of soda and other sweetened drinks in any container over 16 ounces.

Bloomberg’s desire to curb the city’s obesity epidemic fueled the measure, which also applies to energy drinks like Gatorade and sweet iced teas. Over half of the city’s adults—and almost half of the city’s public school students—are overweight or obese, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Not surprisingly, vendors of sugary drinks have united to challenge the ban, arguing that it infringes on consumer freedom.

Many nutritionists support the measure, like the eminent Yale University epidemiologist Dr. Kelly Brownell, who told the New York Times, “It completely makes more sense to make the environment healthier rather than to just do pure education.”

While a Times poll found that most New Yorkers were against the law, the Board of Health vote was almost unanimous, with one abstention. Then again, Bloomberg appointed each board member himself.

The ban will take effect March 12, but vendors who break the law will not be fined until mid-June.

CENTRAL PARK RAPE VICTIM STANDS STRONG
The 74-year-old victim of a vicious assault and rape in Central Park last week told the New York Post that she isn’t going to let the horrible incident ruin her park experience.
“I’m not scared. I don’t want to lose that pleasure. I won’t let anything keep me from enjoying the park,” she told the newspaper.

The woman, identified only as an Upper West Side resident, was attacked in broad daylight as she was bird-watching in the park. The alleged rapist snuck up to the woman and assaulted her a few days after she had taken his photo when she caught him masturbating in the Rambles area of the park.

Police caught the suspect, 42-year-old homeless man David Albert Mitchell, as he was walking on the Upper West Side last Thursday. Mitchell reportedly has a long history of violent offenses.