UWS ZIP Home To 'Trump Towers' Has Borough's Top Coronavirus Rate

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — New testing data released by the city Monday shows that a ZIP code on the Upper West Side has the highest coronavirus positivity rate in Manhattan.

The data, which shows COVID-19 testing results for every New York City ZIP code between Oct. 31 and Nov. 6, shows a citywide increase in the percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive, fueling fears that a second wave may be imminent — or has already arrived.

On the Upper West Side, the highest positivity rate was in 10069, where 3.15 percent of tests came back positive during that week — the most of any Manhattan ZIP code. While this rate is no doubt high, the 10069 ZIP code is one of the smallest in the city, and the 3.15 percent rate comes from nine out of 286 people testing positive.

The ZIP code goes from roughly West 59th to 72nd Streets, from the West Side of West End Avenue through Riverside Boulevard, into Riverside Park.

The area is most likely best known for the set of buildings known as the Trump Towers.

President Donald Trump bought the stretch of then abandoned rail yards near the Hudson River in 1985, and originally wanted to create a building complex called "Trump City," according to The New York Times.

That plan never fully came together, but six luxury apartments towers did go up between West 59th and 72nd Streets with the name "Trump" painted in gold onto the front.

The buildings created a wall that anybody entering New York City from the West Side Highway couldn't miss.

After Trump was elected president in 2016, the tenants of those respective buildings decided to remove his name from all six of the buildings.

Here is the COVID-19 testing data in the four ZIP codes that make up the Upper West Side between Oct. 31 and Nov. 6. While the rates remain comparatively low to the city's current 2.36 percent positivity rate, the percentage has ticked up on the UWS as well.

• 10023 — Lincoln Square: 2,179 people tested, 21 new cases, 0.96 percent positivity.
• 10024 — Upper West Side: 2,145 people tested, 29 new cases, 1.35 percent positivity.
• 10025 — Manhattan Valley/Morningside Heights/UWS: 4,238 people tested, 35 new cases, 0.83 percent rate.
• 10069 — Lincoln Square (Riverside): 286 people tested, 9 new cases, 3.15 percent rate.

Combining the four ZIP codes, the average positivity rate on the Upper West Side from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6 was 1.5 percent, and there were a total of 94 new cases.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that the city would resurrect the release of ZIP Code-specific COVID-19 data. The city had stopped publishing it to avoid confusion with the state's geographically-based color-coded "zones."

De Blasio said worrying signs that the coronavirus is reasserting itself prompted officials to bring back the ZIP Code data, with some tweaks, to help inform New Yorkers.

The current daily citywide positivity rate stands at 2.36 percent and 2.21 percent over a seven-day average. Both numbers represent unfortunate milestones for the city — for months, the city's positivity rate stayed below 2 percent.

Patch reporter Nick Garber contributed to this report.