Monday, September 23, 2024
Cloudy. High 71 degrees.
There are a few pockets of possible rain in the forecast, but it looks like it will be another nice week of weather.
Yesterday was the autumnal equinox, the first day of fall.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
The acorns in Central Park appear unusually large this year, and are falling like hail, so keep an eye out. The acorns can also be slippery to walk on, especially on hills.
Once every three to five years, something called a “mast year” takes place, where trees produce a surplus of food, including acorns, due to specific weather patterns. You can read more about it — HERE.
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
Lucine Amara, a longtime soprano at the Metropolitan Opera and an Upper West Sider for more than 60 years, died on September 6 at the age of 99, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Amara performed with the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center for more than four decades.
“Until last month, Ms. Amara had lived in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that she purchased in the late 1950s in part because of its location several blocks from the Met,” the Washington Post wrote. “When standby duty called, she could hightail it to the opera house, throw on a costume and take the stage within minutes, a living embodiment of the dictum that the show must go on.”
Amara, the daughter of Armenian immigrants, made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1950, and would go on to sing with the Met 748 times. She performed in many leading roles, but was possibly best known for her ability to step in at a moment’s notice for a performer who could not make a show, the Post described.
In 1976, after a period without landing roles, Amara filed a complaint against the Met accusing the opera house of age discrimination, which eventually led to her return to the stage in 1980. She would go on to retire 11 years later in 1991.
You can read more about Amara’s life — HERE.
In 2022, Upper West Sider Matthew Mahrer was one of two men arrested in connection to an antisemitic terrorist plot. As West Side Rag reported at the time, Mahrer, along with Christopher Brown, was arrested on November 18, 2022, for possessing a firearm as part of a planned terror attack on the New York Jewish community.
Last week, District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that Brown had pleaded guilty to the charges, and would soon begin a 10-year prison sentence. Bragg also stated that the case against Mahrer, who lives on West 94th Street, “remains open and pending.”
Mahrer is Jewish and has multiple family members who survived the Holocaust. Gilbert Bayonne, Mahrer’s attorney, told the West Side Spirit last week that his client has not entered a plea nor has he been charged with terrorist offenses.
“In an interview with the Forward, Susan and Michael Mahrer, parents of Matthew Mahrer, said their son has learning disabilities and [is] a high functioning autistic [who] has had bouts of homelessness. He reportedly met the driver while both were homeless, according to prosecutors,” the Spirit wrote.
At the time of the incident, Brown and Mahrer had dropped off a backpack at the Upper West Side apartment where Mahrer lives with his parents, containing a Glock 17 firearm, a 30-round magazine, and a band with a swastika on it, former Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
Mahrer has been free on bail and is due back in court on October 23. You can read more — HERE.
On Friday, police released photos of a man wanted for attacking a teenager last week in Central Park with a chemical substance, the NYPD said.
A 17-year-old boy was riding his bike in Central Park near Wollman Rink around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, when he collided with a man riding a Citi Bike, the NYPD said. The collision sparked an argument and the man hopped off his electric bike and shoved the teenager to the ground, spraying him in the face with an unknown chemical, police said.
The man then fled on the bike within the park, NYPD added.
You can read more about the incident on the Daily News’ website.
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Re: bike collision.
Recently saw two Citibikers collide on the East Side.
It was a weekend, no cars on the street.
One (20 something) went through a red light and the wrong way.
After they collided, the older Citibker tried to hit the younger – he ducked and bicycled away.
Rest in peace, Ms. Amara!
In other words, the City continues to be plagued with people who are hot tempered and mentally ill … and don’t care about proper rules of the road. A real mess …
(Also, you should probably change that headline to “anti-semitic terrorist plot”, since it was against Jews, not carried out by Jews…)
@Sam Katz, while it does occur, you’re blowing it way out of proportion, don’t ya think? A city of 10 million people is going to have conflict, no? Long ago, you didn’t hear about these things, but now we have the internet, and every incident instantly spreads like wildfire, as does the hysterical comments. Perspective is important.
““Until last month, Ms. Amara had lived in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that she purchased in the late 1950s in part because of its location several blocks from the Met,” the Washington Post wrote”
The Met Opera only moved to Lincoln Center in 1966. Before that it was at Broadway and 39th Street, so NOT on the UWS.
Ms Amaza did not have an apartment near the Met in the 1950s, or until the mid 1960s.
She also lived in a building that did not go co-op until the 1980s. She lived above Kossars (my friend lives in the building).
Similarly, she did not perform with the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center for more than four decades, as she retired in 1991, just two and a half decades since the opening of the Met in Lincoln Center. Part of those four decades was at the old House.
That too.