Monday, May 27, 2024
Rain. High 71 degrees.
There is a chance of rain for the majority of the day, but most likely in the afternoon and evening.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Monday is Memorial Day. Saturday is the first day of Pride Month.
The first Manhattanhenge sunset of 2024 — when the sun is aligned perfectly with the east-west streets on the Manhattan street grid — will be this Tuesday, May 28, at 8:13 p.m (half sun), and full sun on Wednesday, May 29, at 8:12 p.m. The second Manhattanhenge will occur on Friday, July 12, at 8:20 p.m. (full sun), and half sun on Saturday, July 13, at 8:21 p.m. The American Museum of Natural History offers more information on why Manhattanhenge happens and where to experience it best — HERE. (“Find a spot as far east as possible that still has views of New Jersey across the Hudson River.”)
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
A new Disney movie opens on Friday that tells the story of Gertrude Ederle, an Olympic gold medalist swimmer, who was the first woman to successfully swim across the English Channel, and also happens to have been an Upper West Sider.
Ederle won a Gold Medal at the Paris 1924 Olympics, and in 1926, became the first woman to swim across the English Channel — departing from Camp Gris Nez, France, and arriving in Kent, England 14 hours later.
On Friday, “Young Woman and the Sea” debuts in theaters across the United States to tell the story of Ederle’s historic swim, which was also two hours faster than any man who had swum the distance.
Ederle was raised on the Upper West Side by German immigrants. She grew up in an apartment at 108 Amsterdam Avenue, between West 64th and 65th streets, above her father’s butcher shop.
She learned how to swim at the family’s summer home in New Jersey.
In her honor, a fitness center near West 60th Street between West End and Amsterdam Avenues is named the Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center.
She died in 2003 at 98 years old.
Here’s a Daily News article about the filming of the story, and you can watch the trailer below.
The New York Times interviewed Upper West Sider Rafael Rodriguez to see how he spends his Sundays as a New York City librarian.
Each Sunday, the Times spends the day with a New York City resident to see how they spend their day and prepare for the week ahead. Rodriguez was in the spotlight for this week’s rendition — “How a Horror-Loving Librarian Spends His Sundays”.
Rodriguez is a librarian and circulation supervisor at the New York Society Library on the Upper East Side, which is one of the few libraries in the city that is open on Sundays. He takes the crosstown bus at West 81st Street through Central Park to get to work.
“Members come in looking for a particular book but can only tell me part of a title or what they think the author’s name is,” Rodriguez told the New York Times. “Finding what they are looking for requires detective work. It’s the ultimate reward to find something a member is trying to locate.”
Rodriguez lives in his childhood home on the Upper West Side with his parents Rafael and Pilar.
You can check out the complete story on the Times’ website — HERE.
There were free cookies available on the Upper West Side this weekend, but under unwanted circumstances.
There was an unconfirmed gas leak at Levain Bakery on Amsterdam Avenue between West 76th and 77th streets, which caused the business to fully evacuate, an eyewitness told West Side Rag.
In response, employees from Levain decided to dish out free cookies to the relocated customers on the sidewalk.
Hopefully there won’t ever be a second evacuation of the popular bakery, and we’ll keep an eye out for any changes in the line’s direction.
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I hope it wasn’t a gas leak…as many of us know, it can take years to fix a gas leak.
Libraries should be open when people aren’t working. That means Sundays. If they need to cut hours, they should close during the workday, during the week. Guess why this isn’t happening? Two words: library union.
Two words: Eric Adams’ budget cuts. Sorry, that’s four words.
The Society Library is a private institution. I thought the reason NYPL branches are closed on Sunday was because of Adams’ budget cuts not because of the union. What’s your proof that the union is the agent behind Sunday library closures? I suggest you join those who want a different and better mayor and not Adams.
Even before Adams’ budget cuts only a handful of libraries were open on Sundays. Every Library should be open on Sunday. This would especially help people who are Shomer Shabbos.
Speaking unofficially as an NYPL employee, the reason why NYPL libraries are closed on Sundays is purely money. There were selected branches open prior to Adams’s budget cuts, but now those are closed as well. If more branches were to open, there would need to be more money to pay staff.
Is that true for the Brooklyn PL as well?
Adding: the city is paying huge amounts of money to house and pay for migrants while cutting things like libraries.
As a member of the New York Society Library, the city’s oldest library (founded in 1754) I should make it clear that it is not part of the New York public library system, but a subscription library to which members pay an annual fee that’s worth every cent. The reference area is open to the public but the rest of the building — reading rooms, work spaces, stacks, children’s library, etc., are limited to members. There is an extensive program of readings, workshops and classes, all geared to readers, writers and families. It’s a beautiful facility, and staff like Rafael Rodriguez help make it a welcoming one. And yes, it’s open on Sundays. https://www.nysoclib.org/
ETA: The word “Society” in the name doesn’t refer to snobbish “high society” but to the name of the group that founded it.
The New York Society Library has an excellent collection. If you love to read, get a membership to the library. It’s well worth it.
I do not have a day off. Weird line, WSR… is your version of the upper west side the land where everyone has off on federal holidays? that’s not reality.
Roger, today is a federal holiday and is a day off for many.
Clearly not everyone has this day off. I hope you have another day off this week that you can enjoy.
Reply to Neighbor 785:
These are two separate and unrelated issues, relying on separate budget lines.
Separate, granted. Unrelated, you need to argue for that.
Some people will stub their toe and say it was the migrants’ fault.
And your point is? You are denying that we taxpayers are footing the bill for many expenses of thousands of migrants?
Re NYT and Daily News articles – please give a ‘heads up’ re Paywall.
Appreciate
Shout out to the former West 59th Street Rec Center in the (modernized) lovely City Of New York Public Baths building on West 60th, now the Gertrude Ederle Rec Center and a gem of a resource for physical fitness and fun. And what a great choice for re-naming: I looked up Gertrude Ederle when I joined as I was curious about the new name. What a remarkable woman and athlete! A great Upper West Sider to celebrate – only 5’5” but with shoulders and stamina strong enough to beat the record of men who had swum the English Channel in 1926 (as well as other Olympic and world swimming records). Plus, she got a ticket-tape parade. (All info courtesy of Wikipedia).
Maybe I’m just an over-cautious sissy, but if I left a store after smelling gas, I don’t think I’d be hanging around outside in hope of getting a free cookie. Remember the 2015 gas explosion that leveled half a block in the East Village, killing two people and injuring dozens more? A friend’s building was left uninhabitable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_East_Village_gas_explosion
I dunno. Those are really, really good cookies.
Do you think a cookie from Levain would be an adequate last meal?