Year: 2013

Upper West Siders have quite a few ways to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Absolute Bagels, the bagel spot at 108th and Broadway considered by many to be the best on the Upper West Side, was shut down by the health department this week, and it's been doing a pretty good job hiding it. The reason behind Absolute Bagels' closing was initially a bit ...

Upper West Side restaurants are expanding their menus and a new spot is close to opening. The Smith, the new restaurant on 64th and Broadway (pictured above), will open for breakfast for the first time on Monday at 7:30 a.m. It will serve breakfast from Monday through Friday. The menu ...

Saigon Grill, the Vietnamese restaurant on 90th and Amsterdam, was shuttered by the health department and will be closed until Tuesday. An inspector found all sorts of nasty critters creeping around during an inspection on Wednesday and closed the place down after a reinspection. Saigon Grill has a complicated past: ...

The new four-story Lincoln Square Synagogue on 68th Street and Amsterdam Avenue is complete, replacing the squat spaceship-looking synagogue down the block. The new synagogue cost $50 million, with $20 million coming from an anonymous donor and $20 million more from American Continental Property, the developer that plans to build ...

January 18, 2013 Weather: Partly Cloudy, High of 32 Degrees.

Upper West Siders complain a lot about banks, because frankly we have a ton of them here. People say the banks strip character from the neighborhood, and their well-lit but empty spaces are dead at night, leaving holes in the otherwise lively streetscape. But TD Bank's new 4,000-square-foot location at ...

January 17, 2013 Weather: Cloudy, High of 41 Degrees.

By Shannon Ayala A senior center at 120 West 76th Street called Club 76 could close within months after the city decided not to fund it anymore. “As of June we’re dead,” said Stu Lahn, a volunteer with Friends of Club 76, which includes club members and supporters, "which will ...

Nicholas Cimato, the general manager and talent booker for The Underground on 107th Street, was in a car accident on Christmas Day that killed his brother and left him in critical condition. The Hudson Warehouse theater group and The Underground are holding a fundraiser for him on Sunday starting at ...

January 16, 2013 Weather: Rain, High of 38 Degrees.

Il Cibreo, an Italian restaurant on 2888 Broadway between 112th and 113th that lasted about a year and a half closed this week to make way for a new concept: Mexican food! A new restaurant called Amigos is expected to open in the same spot on Friday, offering mid-priced Mexican ...

January 15, 2013 Weather: Cloudy, High of 42 Degrees.

A woman named Tracy Harper went missing on January 7, according to a notice posted in the neighborhood. She was last seen on 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, and was wearing a grey pea coat. If you've seen her, contact the police at 1-800-677-TIPS or call the detective listed above.

In recent days two local businesses have closed suddenly -- one because of a fire and one for unclear reasons.

Late last year, the city proposed moving Innovative Diploma Plus High School, a high school for older transfer students, out of the old Brandeis High School on 84th Street, and into a building in Washington Heights. The plan would make more room for charter elementary school Upper West Success Academy, ...

January 14, 2013 Weather: Mostly Cloudy, High of 55 Degrees.

A fire broke out at 875 Amsterdam Avenue between 102nd and 103rd Street on Sunday night, and multiple people were carted away in stretchers, witnesses told us. The fire started shortly before 7 p.m., according to traffic on the police scanner. It appears from the photos above and below that ...

By Melissa Cooper Red-tailed hawks seem to be everywhere I walk these January days. We tend to think of winter as a quiet, even a quiescent, time for the natural world. And so it is for many plants and animals. But for others, including NYC’s Red-tailed hawks, mid-winter actually signals ...

January 11, 2013 Weather: Showers, High of 45 Degrees.