Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Things You Might Not Know About Washington Heights Unless You Live There...


If you need to get into a locked building on Shabbos, try the code "Agudah" on the lock box. 80% of the time that'll work.

If "Agudah" isn't the code, try "613" (see Mike in Midwood's post on this). That'll take care of another 15%......

Your own superintendant never does anything, but for a small fee, the other building's super will help you out......

The best place for singles to meet is Key Food on Thursday nights. (Guys, even if you do know how to choose a good melon, look flustered and a nice young lady just might approach you.....)

The worst place to find a good melon is Key Food.

If you Google Map 90 Bennett Avenue, 10033 - click on "Street View" and turn around 180 degrees, you will see Ronnie sitting on the steps of Shul. If you pass Ronnie, he'll say "Good Shabbos". If you ask how he's doing, he'll say "Boruch Hashem". If you commend him on his good work, he'll tell you he's a "Mitzvah Boy". Ronnie is definitely one of the Tzadikei Umos Ha'Olam (one last little known Ronnie fact: When he's done with shul and school, he goes and reads to children in the hospital).

The only parking spaces available after 4 pm are illegal ones.

All illegal parking spaces are filled by Hatzoloh members' cars by 6 pm.


This is an "interactive" post. Feel free to add your own.......

31 comments:

efrex said...

* On Bennett Avenue alone, you can catch a shabbat morning shacharit minyan every half-hour between 6:30 and 9:00

* Between 10:30 and 11:30 at night, the uptown A train carries about half of the chorus members of each Broadway musical

* Apartments have really high ceilings, but bedrooms have next to no closet space; apparently, WH was colonized by giant nudists (further proof to this theory: building boilers were apparently salvaged from trans-Atlantic liners, so that the average temperature of a Heights apartment in winter hovers around 80 degrees)

* Hills. We got us some serious hills.

* Ft. Tryon Park remains the best kept secret in the city.

* You will never ever ever be able to get the "Mr. Softee" theme out of your head

* We're the only place in the world where the yekkes daven mincha later than the chassidishe shteibel.

* Depending on which shul you daven at, you might be an "old-timer" if you've been living in the neighborhood for more than six months or a "newcomer" if you've been there for less than 40 years.

Anonymous said...

Efrex,

Great additions!

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

interesting post, I've never been to Washington Heights, not sure where it is even? But I've heard about it. My neighbor that has 12 kids is from there, and her parents and sister still live there, and they occasionally go to visit.

harry-er than them all said...

agreed with ft tryon park.

and that picture makes WH look really pretty. thats sneaky of you

FBB said...

There are 130 steps in the picture on this post.

There are 131 steps in the picture on this post.

There are 128 steps in the picture on this post.

It's different every time, depending HOW you count it.

G6 said...

FBB -

It also depends on when you counted them....
They renovated them a few years back and the total changed.
The graffiti has also been removed and it is actually *prettier* now.

I debated whether or not to mention Ft. Tryon Park in the post. You are all right that I should have. Perhaps I'll do a separate photoessay one day about the park [perhaps including an expose about what goes on at the flagpole ;)]

Staying Afloat said...

A double apartment can make a beautiful home.

I second Mr. Softee- my husband still hums it occasionally, and we moved out 10 years ago. But his version goes, "Da da da da da da da da let's go kill Mr. Softee". (He went to YU before we moved to the Breuers side).

If you go to the top of Ft. Tryon park on a windy day, you should put pins in your shaitel.

efrex said...

G6: Until the photoessay, you can always content yourself with Jim Dwyer's video postcard; a bit too "artsy" for my taste, but with some lovely shots. Exposé-worthy stuff happening at the flagpole? Sheesh, all I ever did was have a few snowball fights there... how come I'm always the last to know about the interesting dish?

Staying Afloat: you want a wind tunnel, try going into Belfer Hall in September. A double apartment can make a beautiful home, but they're not exactly affordable right now (I could be paying a half-million-dollar mortgage for the rent I was offered for a 1 + 2 bedroom apartment two years ago)

a couple more to add to the list:

* You can daven with (simultaneously!) multiple talmidim muvhakim of R' Yosef Soleveitchik, multiple grandsons of R' Yosef Breuer, at least one great-grandson of the Meitchiter Illui, and somehow Moshiach doesn't come (probably because yutzes like myself are too busy chalishing to daven properly)

* If you're under a certain age, you don't need to refer to your full building address; just give a number ("56," "42," "182," "729") and people will know where to go.

G6 said...

Efrex -

Nice piece, but I actually prefer the park in the spring and the summer.
First the overabundance of daffodils wherever you walk and wherever you look, followed soon after by a profusion of colorful flowers so artfully planted throughout the park so as to look completely natural.

Regarding the flagpole, my comment was somewhat in jest - the "goings on" there predate you. (Go ask your parents, lol....). Back in the days where it was acceptable for shidduchim to come about in natural ways, that's where the boys and girls met on Shabbos afternoons. Of course now, everything is scripted, right down to what the girl and boy say to each other and what the "right" answers are... (A must read is ProfK's post on the subject this week).

Anonymous said...

Apartments have really high ceilings

... and narrow hallways. That means that even moderately athletic kids can use their hands and feet to "climb" the walls, all the way up, and then wait for their mother to walk by with a load of laundry, and suddenly drop down scaring the living daylights out of her!

Mark

Louisa said...

VIM's is the best pharmacy in the WHOLE WORLD. They sell literally everything besides food that you could probably ever want.

Louisa said...

ooh, I almost forgot - BIGGEST population of out-of-work Julliard grads in the city...

Anonymous said...

The awe-inspiring experience of the choir.

Baked Lecho Dodi said...

Rabbi Schwab zl was NOT Rav Breuer's z'l Son-in-law.

G6 said...

BLD -

To quote Ronald Reagan's famous political catchphrase, "There you go again...."

Do you mind telling the class what you are talking about??!?!?!

P.S. How many time do I have to tell you NOT to eat the berries that fall off the trees in WH?

efrex said...

G6: Actually, BLD is pretty ok on this one: there seems to be a somewhat common misconception that R' Schwab was R' Breuer's son-in-law (I heard a fairly prominent professor up the block make the mistake in his class, which surprised me considerably).

*horrified look* boys and girls meeting in public?! My parents would never know from such things! (Why, yes, you can get the Verrazano Bridge along with the Brooklyn...) Seriously, though, Don't get me started on the contemporary shidduch stuff...

Mark: You did that too?! All this time I thought I was the only one... *sigh*

G6 said...

Efrex -

I am stunned.

FBB -

Never let it be said that I skimp on research for the blog. I've investigated the topic and this is the final official count on the steps...
Pre-reconstruction - 131 steps
Post – reconstruction - 130 steps

Anonymous said...

*You will be asked for Tzeddakah from an obviously non-Jewish fellow on your way out of the subway (A train - 184th ) on weekdays.

*Take strolls through the neighborhood (especially in spring and summer months) on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings AT YOUR OWN RISK. Garbage pickup is Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. 'Nuff said.

Anonymous said...

Addition to previous:

*Walk by 69 Bennett Ave. in the fall AT YOUR OWN RISK. At that location stands a female ginkgo tree. 'Nuff said.

Baked Ledho Dodi said...

BLD has actually heard this myth about RS being RB's son-in-law his entire life.

frumcollegegirl said...

something about the Heights that very few know about...somewhere on Fort Washington there is a lampost with my DNA on it...17 years ago i banged into one and split my chin open...

i remember my sister and i used to climb over those little fence things next to the sidewalk and walk in there...

most of my memories are very blurred-i was really young when we moved

Anonymous said...

...You know you live in the heights when you goto the back of 100 Bennett at 4 PM on a shabbos and the whole community is out there with their kids.

...You know you live in the heights when you're davening mariv at the 10:30 PM Dombrov minyan, and you hear a double tone in surround sound- then half the shul runs out to take the Hatzolah Call.

-N (the summer roommate)

Anonymous said...

The highest point in Manahattan is in Washington Heights, in Bennett Park, on one of the rocks - there is a plaque to mark the location.

G6 said...

Good One Anonymous -
How many of us remember going there with the kindergarten for reading time (mumbledy mumble) years ago....?

harry-er than them all said...

from when i was a kid...two bags full of candy on simchas torah.

Anonymous said...

anon- I hope you know you are in the heights because you should know where you are on shabbos, not because you end up in the back of a building with all the neighborhood kids...

Something Different said...

JSB- you should add never been to Washington heights to your list. :-p

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YW said...

Ha-ha I like the super one, I had two things done by two other supers.

YW said...

I wonder how outside Schul will look like with the new trees in front I hope it won't take away to much from the socializing space after Davening.

YW said...

Bld first introduced the myth here.