Powers’s Bodega Cats Bill Will Fall to New City Council to Enact into Law

It’s a pet’s world/cats—We speak here of cats, then dogs. Literally, not of the showers we’ve come to know idiomatically as “raining cats and dogs,” but the four-legged felines who live in our homes, hearts, bodegas, and the shops of NY. Think about it. As Keith Powers leaves the City Council, he leaves behind proposed legislation that includes updating the city’s health code to officially legalize cats being in bodegas, creating a registration and free vaccination program, and providing for bodegas getting certified to keep cats.

While Powers’s proposed legislation refers to “bodega” cats, it also covers cats who live in the shops of New York. And Shop Cats of New York, by Tamar Arslanian/Photography by Andrew Marttila, has been revised and expanded, and is a look into the world of shops that make and have made their shop home to a cat. There’s Meyers of Kenwick in the West Village, home to Grace, and Japan Market Inc. of Chinatown, home to Bobo. Those are just two of more than 40 shop cats that we meet in Shop Cats of New York. You’ll love and appreciate Arslanian’s short stories about the shop cats, the shops’ owners or employees and Marttila’s wonderful cat photography. It’s a feel-good book.

It’s a pet’s world/dogs—There are picky people who get what they want. And picky pooches will undoubtedly get what they want at Just Food for Dogs (JFFD). Founded by Shawn Buckley in 2010 with a simple mission: He wanted to “do right by dogs” by cooking fresh, human-grade food, and opened the “first open-to-the-public kitchen for dogs so people could literally see the food being made.”

And how are the recipes created? An in-house veterinary team develops the recipes. The team includes board-certified specialists (e.g., nutrition, toxicology, dermatology). They also produce veterinary-support diets in partnership with vets. And what makes them different, sets them apart? Science and research. The brand has invested in university-led research on fresh, whole-food diets; their findings about digestibility and contaminants found in some processed feeds. Peer-reviewed work has also examined health markers and microbiome changes in dogs fed human-grade, lightly cooked diets associated with Just Food For Dogs.

Just Food for Dogs has stand-alone shops on the UES at 1325 Third Ave., and on the UWS at 2025 Broadway. In addition to these two kitchens, JFFD has more stand-alone locations with in-store pantries inside Petco locations across the city. At the UES location, I’ve seen chalkboards this summer promoting various flavors of “pupsicles.” I haven’t seen them, but I’d bet they come in a cup or a digestible ‘stick’ a la the popsicles of memory.

Demolition derby: Realtors are having, and will be having, a literal blast as residential and commercial buildings come tumbling down for new buildings and commercial spaces. On the chopping block, as reported in East Side Feed, will be the demolition of the southeast corner of 79th and Lexington: 150-154 E. 79th St. and 1131 and 1135 Lex. And 1133 Lex is scheduled to close in June of 2026. Probably all will be included in the luxury condo set to rise.

Another demolition derby is scheduled for the 300 block of East 77th Street, where multifamily buildings are set to be demolished.

A block intact—It’s not a particularly pretty street—two garages, a check-cashing store, a downstairs spa, an upstairs consignment shop, old apartment buildings. And that’s only part of the block on East 87th Street between Third and Lex.

Bocado restaurant’s on the north corner of Lex. Barnes & Noble’s on the same corner on Third. There’s Eli’s on the south corner of Lex and Starbucks on the south corner of Third. In between is a boutique hotel, a new cookie shop, two luxury high rises, Doyle’s auction. Notably, B&N is in the Agora building, which was built back in the early part of the last century. It’s a street that has the aura of a NY gone bye-bye. Could a demolition derby be in the block’s future?