Sure looks like a chance of rain to me. Photo from Saturday by Scott Matthews.
July 20, 2015 Weather: Partly cloudy with chance of afternoon showers or thunderstorms. High of 92 degrees.
We’re going to try to restart a feature we had for the first couple of years of this website, the morning bulletin. The bulletin is the perfect way to get a sense of what’s up in the neighborhood first thing in the morning, and it allows us to publish news or notices that may not warrant a longer story. We need photos for this feature, so please send shots of the neighborhood to info@westsiderag.com. (For now, the bulletin will run on Mondays, but we may expand again to the entire week.)
Notices:
Check out our calendar for this week. It includes a free concert at Central Park’s Naumberg Bandshell and lots more free and cheap events. Tonight there’s a community meeting about parks.
A successful Kickstarter campaign will pay for art students and local young people to restore a mural on 92nd street.
Here are some hot-weather tips from NYPD for pet owners.
Noble laureate Joseph Stiglitz will be speaking to the Ansonia Independent Democrats on July 29 at 7:30. Sign up to attend here.
Antigona, a flamenco version of Antigone, will play at West-Park Presbyterian starting on Tuesday. “Greek tragedy and flamenco, it turns out, are well matched, both dealing with grief and defiance on an unashamedly grand scale,” says the New Yorker.
There’s a new iPhone app for volunteering in New York. “Basically you can plug in your interests and availability and get served opportunities in your area.” Learn more here.
News:
President Obama took a casual stroll with his daughter — and a phalanx of Secret Service agents — through Central Park on Saturday morning. It’s apparently been a dream of his since he became president: “The thing that you miss most when you’re president — extraordinary privilege, and really nice plane and all kinds of stuff — but suddenly, not only have you lost your anonymity, but your capacity to just wander around and go into a bookstore, or go to a coffee shop or walk through Central Park,” Obama said at a fundraiser in 2012. “I just desperately want to take a walk through Central Park again, and just remember what that feels like.”
New Yorkers aren’t likely to smell the odd maple syrup-like odor from New Jersey anymore. The North Bergen factory that made the fruit odors is closing. “In 2009, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg pegged the Hudson County-based Frutarom as the source of a sweet, maple syrup-like smell that would occasionally waft over to parts of Manhattan. Officials at the time deemed that the odor was from fenugreek seeds, often used in artificial flavorings.”
An officer from the 24th precinct was assaulted while off-duty in the Bronx last week. Police arrested 21-year-old Samuel Thornton for the crime. “The off-duty officer was getting into her car to go to work when police say Thornton snatched a gold chain from her neck. Authorities say she reached into her bag, but he grabbed it and punched her in the face before running off.”
Check out a slide show of Sunday’s triathlon, which wove through the UWS.
I will miss the maple-syrup-like odor. I associate it with my walk uptown
in Riverside Park.
As for news: I needed to use a parking garage last night. I miss living in a less crowded neighborhood.
Another free concert at Naumberg Bandshell is Columbia Summer Winds on Saturday 7/25 at 1pm: https://www.columbiasummerwinds.org/2015/
Great idea with the morning bulletins! It’s wonderful to know what’s happening in the neighborhood.
Keep up the good work!
Hi!
My family is new to the uws and love coming here for all the comings and goings in the neighborhood.
I was wondering if anyone knew what the odor is on CPW that kind of smells like a spice? Idk of its coming from a type of tree but it almost smells like a strong cinnamon gum.
Stay cool in the heat 🙂
NYCfam, it’s clove scented herbicide (see reply to Maria in error).
I experienced a power drop around 3:15 the afternoon of Monday, July 20. (I’m at 74th/Amsterdam.) I understand a few neighbors had the same experience. Does anyone know what caused this?
Maria, you’re probably smelling the clove oil based herbicide used in Central Park. I work in CP and this is a common question.
I’m guessing you are a newbie here. That sudden power drop is not uncommon during super-hot days. It’s ConEd’s way of backing off the voltage a bit to avoid a major overload and power blackout. (Scroll down a bit on this site to learn what that has meant in previous years.) Help us all out … keep the AC on low and postpone ironing, laundry, dishwasher and other heavy electrical use.
P.S. Good advice about not overloading the lines — although I don’t have a dishwasher and conserve energy with my A/C and postpone heavy use for cooler days. After all, who really regrets not vacuuming on a hot day???
Thanks for the reply. However, I’ve lived on the UWS for 35 years. Thanks for the comment, though. Just wondering if others experienced it — seems like friends who did were in a 2-block area, but not sure.