{"id":351108,"date":"2026-09-19T14:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/351108\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T14:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:12:10","slug":"upper-west-side-unsolicited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/351108\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper West Side, Unsolicited"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photographs by Yvonne V\u00e1vra.<\/p>\n

By Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/p>\n

I know too much. Information just keeps coming in and in and in, and there\u2019s never enough time to process it before the next stimulus comes knocking on my braineroni. So, in hopes of freeing my mind from the overflow, I went on an epic stroll this week. Bad idea. The moment you step outside, you\u2019re diving into a stream of unsolicited information. I know way too much now.<\/p>\n

I know that a woman on 67th Street was on her way to something important, proving from hair to heels that this was absolutely her day. A school bus was begging\u2014begging!\u2014for an engine from this century. A kid in a stroller did not like the overall situation of being outside. And an Amazon worker was on the phone with someone who didn\u2019t seem to understand that no, that\u2019s not what this is about, bro.<\/p>\n

Someone with a honk idling in front of Magnolia Bakery needed someone to do something about something. Two dogs didn\u2019t like the smell of each other. The food at Carrot, between 76th and 77th on Broadway, is, as a sign outside informed me, kid-approved. And pigeons on 78th Street had a very good day, courtesy of a man who scattered enough crumbs on the ground to make sure the rats got some, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"I also know that a lot of buildings are living through trying times, having drills driven into their faces, their feet, or who knows where else. 260 West End Avenue, the corner building at 72nd Street, had nothing less than the rug pulled out from under it. Two-thirds of the sidewalk it leans on had been dug up, with rubble bubbling up from the Upper West Side\u2019s underbelly.<\/p>\n

\"\"There\u2019s more. Someone in a car wanted us to know that Billy Idol\u2019s \u201cDancing With Myself\u201d is a very blastable song, and I agree. The man who arranges the flowers at the deli at 87th Street and Amsterdam has a beautiful smile. And someone apparently took 18 blocks to finish their fries\u2014from the McDonald\u2019s between 95th and 96th Street to the empty box they discarded between 77th and 78th Street on Broadway. Or six blocks, if they came from the McDonald\u2019s at 71st. Which would make more sense. But if they really did need 18 blocks, I hope they\u2019re okay.<\/p>\n

\"\"By the time Runaway Poppy on the corner of Amsterdam and 82nd informed me on a sign that it was almost soup season but they don\u2019t actually sell soup, I knew I knew too much to really know anything anymore.<\/p>\n

If only all things worked as well as the city\u2019s notification system. New York is extraordinarily good at delivering information about what\u2019s going on at all times. No consent, no request, no opting out. And even the most determined Upper West Side minds will probably struggle not to spend at least a little energy processing the stream of input. Like trying to figure out the composition of the stench around the now-closed Barzini\u2019s at 91st and Broadway. It\u2019s either something dying or something coming alive, and I wouldn\u2019t wish either on anyone\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n

\"\"Where can we take a break? Our homes are rarely a refuge, the outside world keeps finding a way in. I knew my neighbor was on vacation because, for two weeks, their smoke didn\u2019t show up in my apartment every day at the usual hours: 9 to 10 p.m., and then again before midnight. There must be a place somewhere where stimuli are so few that we get a chance to digest some of what just happened.<\/p>\n

I turned onto 71st Street because a sign at the corner of West End Avenue promised a Dead End. But what I found was a tiny speck of sidewalk beyond which the street continued toward Riverside Boulevard and all its traffic. And I wondered: Is a dead end still a dead end if it\u2019s not dead for everyone? I guess I\u2019m missing a driver\u2019s perspective. Anyway, my mind felt very alive.<\/p>\n

\"\"I turned around and walked past a little nook that seemed so quiet and unassuming, I was sure the information void would be waiting for me inside. Septuagesimo Uno, on 71st between West End and Broadway, is often called New York City\u2019s smallest park, even if it\u2019s not. In this pocket, jammed between two buildings, I had the choice of staring at a green bush or a concrete wall. Nothing else to tell me, nothing else to ask of me. But then I saw a mouse, and my brain caught fire.<\/p>\n

I guess there\u2019s no way out. It never stops, and we\u2019ll always know a little bit too much about everything \u2026 or so I thought.<\/p>\n

Because I did eventually find the absence of information, and let me tell you, I didn\u2019t like it. Down at the 72nd Street C train station, I sat alone for seemingly forever and would have given anything for the display to work and tell me how long I\u2019d be stuck there with nothing but my need to know what was going on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photographs by Yvonne V\u00e1vra. By Yvonne V\u00e1vra I know too much. Information just keeps coming in and in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-351108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}