Cameramen outside James Gandolfini’s funeral at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Thursday. Photo by Scott Matthews.

Check out some recent stories about an attempted rape, a lawsuit and lots of other issues in the neighborhood from the past week.

Saul Alvarez was arrested and charged with attempted rape for allegedly grabbing a woman from behind, putting his hand over her mouth and trying to drag her off a path in Central Park on Friday night. The attack occurred around 106th street near the Lasker Pool at 10:45 p.m. on Friday. The woman was able to call for help, and the attacker ran off. Police later found Alvarez using the woman’s description. She was treated for a cut on her face. (Daily News)

A building on West 65th street, half of which is now occupied by students at Touro College, is embroiled in quite a controversy.  “Touro College had planned to make one of two elevators at its upper West Side apartment building a “Shabbat” elevator that would automatically stop at every floor in the six story building from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday, as a way to circumvent the Orthodox law barring observers from operating electric switches on Shabbat… In court papers, Touro said the delays would be minor — at most 1 minute, 23 seconds — and accused the tenants association of setting a ‘discriminatory and anti-Semitic tone’ by suggesting the students are young and should be able to climb the stairs on the Sabbath.” Meanwhile, some residents say the college has turned a residential building into a dorm, against the building’s certificate of occupancy. (Daily News)

The travails of a member of an Upper West Side condo board. (Habitat) This article was apparently removed from the Habitat website.

Residents in a building adjacent to the Astor Hotel on 106th and Central Park West say smoke is pouring relentlessly into their building from a pipe at the hotel. The city and the hotel haven’t done enough to stop it, they claim. (CBS)

Local Attorney Ronn Blitzer won Jewish Week’s funniest Jewish comedian contest. Here’s his joke about being single on the Upper West Side. “I love the sense of community,” he began. “I hate that everyone’s obsessed with getting married. Every week another friend of mine is getting married. My single friends are always talking about getting married…asking me when I’m getting married. The only people who don’t bug me about getting married are the women I go out with. Two hours with me they’re like ‘eh … you shouldn’t get married.” (Jewish Week)

There was a big water fight this weekend on the Great Lawn. Next time, can someone invite us? (NY1)

Are these baby raccoons on 89th and Columbus in trouble??? No, just sleeping adorably. (NY Times)

Technical difficulties forced the Central Park Conservancy to cancel a “Central Park for Sale” digital contest. “The campaign is supposed to allow anyone to purchase a plot of land on a ‘virtual Great Lawn.’ This virtual Great Lawn has no connection to the real Great Lawn in Central Park, save for the name. It’s just an online social networking game, the Central Park equivalent of Farmville, if you will.” (Observer)

Parents at the Upper East Side school chosen for possible demolition and redevelopment (instead of 2 UWS schools, which will not be demolished) are now fighting the plan. (Daily News)

The 17-year-old driving the SUV that killed 4-year-old Ariel Russo was given $25,000 bail, to the dismay of Russo’s family. (NY Post)