taken for a ride

EAST SIDE OBSERVER

BY ARLENE KAYATT

De-riding — Port Authority Bus Terminal. No phone. App-less. Alas, no way to reach Uber, Lyft, Via or any other app driver. Option: yellow cab. Walk right up to the expanse from 42nd to 40th Streets on Eighth Avenue immediately outside the terminal where you will generally, in the later evening, find a caravan of at least 15-20 empty cabs with driver at the wheel. You would think he or she was waiting for a passenger. Instead, when a would-be passenger walks up to a yellow cab, he or she is met by a “facilitator” inquiring about where they are going: “Destination, please.” Aren’t taxi drivers — or their proxies — prohibited from asking that question? Isn’t one supposed to be able to just walk up to a yellow cab, get in, and be driven to their destination? With all of the sturm und drang surrounding taxis and their archenemy competitors, it’s hard to imagine that all of those cabs would just stand empty instead of taking riders to their destination. Hard to be sympathetic to yellow cabbies if they’re not doing what they have to do to earn a living — like picking up passengers — so they (or the cab owner) can pay down those medallions.

Call ahead — If you’ve been going to a restaurant that’s been around for six decades, it’s not unusual that you would arrange to meet a friend there without calling to find out if they are still in business. Well, think again. Two friends arranged to meet at the Lenox Hill Grill in the East 70s on Lexington Avenue in mid-August only to find the diner had closed earlier in the month leaving a note in the window explaining that, due to “imminent construction in the building,” they were going out of business. The demise of the venerable diner was in the making when, in 2017, the landlord filed plans with the city’s Building Department to alter and enlarge the four-story building to a six-story building and to add eight more apartments. Diner not included.

Not all closings are equal — And not all restaurant closings are forever. On a late August Monday afternoon, I got a series of phone calls and texts from an East Sider leaving frantic messages: “Barney Greengrass is closed. Barney Greengrass is closed. Gone. Cannot cannot believe it.” Accompanied by a tearful emoji in the text. The voice mail had him struggling for breathe. By the time the umpteenth and final message came through, he was all calmed down — “Relieved. Relieved. It’s Monday. A sign in the window says that Barney Greengrass closes every Monday. They are still in business.” Close call.

Reader readback — After noting that Council Member Ben Kallos’s constituent newsletters described himself as a “Reform Democrat,” East Side Observer inquired into the difference between a “Reform” and a “Progressive” Democrat. Republican and Conservative responses were that “Socialistic replaces Progressive” and that “Reform means Liberal.” Comes the Democrat response from all-things-politics maven Alan Flacks. His lightly edited explanation: The Reform Movement is dead. Young people who join regularly organized Democratic Party clubs do not even know what Reform means or why there is a need for them/it. Clubs that use the word “independent” in their name are no longer independent of Tammany Hall or the county organization.