Monday, April 28, 2025
Sunny. High 72 degrees.
Warm weather will continue this week, with most days getting into the 70s, before a slightly chillier weekend. Rain is forecast for Friday.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
May begins on Thursday.
In this rendition of Upper West Side lost and found, a local lost a college ring last week somewhere between West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. It is a gold-colored ring with a rectangular black stone, which has a Douglass fir tree engraved on it. If you happen to find it, please email info@westsiderag.com
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
Last year, the super of an Upper West Side co-op building was cleaning out its basement, when he made an unexpected discovery among the old air conditioners, carpets, and cans of paint, as first reported by The New York Times.
An old tin can with the label: “Remains of Willy Ley. Cremated June 26, 1969.”
The super brought the item to the building’s co-op president Dawn Nadeau.
“We needed to handle the remains as respectfully as possible,” Nadeau told the Times. “So I set out trying to figure who this was and who it belonged to.”
While no internal building records showed anybody of the name ever living at the Upper West Side address, a Google search of the name brought an unexpected surprise.
Ley was a famed science writer of his time, who had been dubbed “the prophet of the space age,” and advised Walt Disney on the building of his space attractions.
Ley was born in Germany in 1906 and was fascinated by the possibility of space travel from an early age. He wrote his first book on the topic at the age of 20, established the “Society for Space Travel,” which looked to spread the idea that space travel was within reach for humanity, and became a prominent science writer.
He fled Nazi Germany and ended up in Queens, where he became a go-to expert for journalists looking to speak about space exploration as the race to the moon sped up.
“In a very real sense, Willy Ley helped introduce the notion of space travel to the American public,” The New York Times wrote.
In the summer of 1969, Ley was preparing to travel to Houston to be NASA’s guest during the launch of Apollo 11, when he died of a heart attack in Queens.
Today, Ley has no living descendants and it remains unclear how his ashes ended up in the basement of the Upper West Side building. Nadeau, the president of that building’s co-op board, along with her daughters, has continued to look for the best way to honor the man.
And then the answer came to them from a science magazine that they had reached out to.
“Popular Mechanics thinks it would be fitting and proper to honor this great man by scattering his ashes on the moon,” the response read.
“When I read that, I knew we had to somehow get him into space,” Ms. Nadeau told the Times. “Mr. Ley, after years in the basement, should spend the rest of eternity among the stars.”
The family is now in the process of attempting to make that happen.
You can read the full story, “He Was a Prophet of Space Travel. His Ashes Were Found in a Basement” — HERE.
A bicyclist died last week after striking a school bus on the Upper West Side, police said on Friday.
Around 4 p.m. on April 24, a bicyclist was traveling east on West 70th Street and West End Avenue, when he struck the backside of a parked school bus, police said. Medics rushed the man to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, where he died, NYPD added.
The man was later identified as Stewart Cohen, 74, who lived in the Flatiron District, according to police.
It is unclear as of Sunday what precipitated his collision with the school bus.
Cohen’s death was one of two fatal traffic collisions to take place on the Upper West Side last week, as Patrice Brooks, 57, was hit and killed by a van on 86th Street and Broadway on Wednesday, as WSR previously reported.
Upper West Side cat owners take a bow.
A recent study from the publication Harlem World declared the Upper West Side one of the five most cat-friendly neighborhoods in New York City.
To determine the top nabes, Harlem World analyzed the number of registered cats in each borough, the neighborhoods with the most pet-friendly apartments, the number of vets per square mile, the local trap-neuter return programs, and average apartment sizes.
With those factors weighted, the Upper West Side, along with Brooklyn Heights, Astoria, Queens, Riverdale, Bronx and the entire borough of Staten Island were named as the best for cats.
“The Upper West Side boasts one of the highest concentrations of veterinary clinics in NYC,” Harlem World wrote. “Many apartments allow multiple cats, and some pet owners even train their pets to walk on a leash in Central Park.”
It is not the first time that the subject of a cat on a leash in the neighborhood has come up.
This is so upper-west-side-ish to walk with a cat on a leash pic.twitter.com/9K63LqUbxF
— 🌈 ivanksk (@ivanksk1) October 5, 2024
You can check out the full report — HERE.
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Biker hitting a stopped school bus, was it an ebike or a pedaled bike? It’s hard to see how someone pedaling could do that, let alone do it hard enough to result in a fatal injury.
Paul,
This is very sad.
But it is actually possible for anyone to fall on a sidewalk or street for any reason and if a specific angle/injury result in a fatal injury.
Could happen if one is walking – trip and fall for example.
Or walking down stairs.
Years ago, a child tripped getting off a school bus (not NYC) and hit his head and sadly passed.
Perhaps (and this is of course oure speculation) he had a hesrt attack or aneurysm or seizure or something moments before hitting the bus.
@Paul…have a look at the link included for a glimpse into Mr. Cohen’s extremely active life..he seems to be a snow boarder, avid hiker, biker, hiker..After looking through photo’s that friends posted, it seems like a terrible accident, one that did not seem avoidable for him at that moment.
Possibly the cause of death was head injury, not just from the collision, but then falling and hitting his head on the pavement or curb or perhaps a cardiac event altogether..What a shame.
Hi, No Martoonerville cartoon this week? They always bring a smile to my face.
Yes, it’s there, last article. Yay!
Isaac Asimov lived in the West 60s for many years and rented a small office on West 72nd Street where he did most of his writing. A group of science writers met regularly in the neighborhood. Both Willy Ley and Isaac Asimov were well known in their circle. The Upper West Side was also a haven for many European refugees from the war.
Asimov lived in the 33rd-floor penthouse suite of the Park Ten Apartments, 10 West 66th Street, from April 1975 until his death in April 1992. It had occurred to me on first reading the Ley story that 2 West 67th Street, where the ashes were found, is only one block north — but aside from proximity, I know of nothing linking the two addresses. Perhaps it would pay to scan through some old Cole’s Directories….
Very unfortunate that we have lost all of that culture. The UWS used to be an affordable neighborhood for refugees, artists, and all kinds of people on the margins. But 50 years without any significant growth have, predictably, caused prices to soar and the culture to homogenize around a small group of financial professionals, lawyers, and people supported by their parents money who can afford to outbid everyone else for a limited supply of apartments.
Dr. Asimov actually lived in the Oliver Cromwell (12 W 72nd St.) for a number of years between his two marriages. He discusses his life on the UWS a fair amount in his massive two volume autobiography In Memory Yet Green/In Joy Still Felt.
Yes, he lived there (apt. 3-K) 1970–73, before moving to Park Ten (see above) with his 2nd wife, Janet Jeppson. It was here that he wrote “The Gods Themselves” and quite a few other works.
Patrice Brooks was not hit and killed by a van. She was hit and killed by the driver of a van.
Silly distinction that clarifies nothing.
Actually, the distinction is very important. The van wasn’t driving itself when Patrice was killed.
While standing in the middle of an intersection in the middle of the night. Context matters.
I belive Patrice was a man. No need to rehash this here, go and read all the comments on the original article and comment there if you’d like.
The NY Times article about Willy Ley is incredible, and a tear jerker! To think — …. He really needs to have his ashes scattered on the moon. That would be fitting and marvelous.
Agreed! One fitting spot in particular would be Ley crater — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_(crater) — on the far side.
Willy has been one of my personal heroes since childhood; i.e., for a long time. I collected his books and avidly followed his “For Your Information” columns in “Galaxy” magazine.
Can we talk about the cat on a leash thing? When I’ve seen this, the cat has looked perturbed and uncomfortable. Which makes no sense, because cats love to be outdoors. You would think we’d see cats on leashes all over the place, but we don’t. Why is that/
Because cats are not dogs.
In spite of allowing us to feed them and pay their vet bills, their souls are not domesticated.
For the most part, they resent attempts to force them to walk where we want them to walk.
Or to do anything they are not in the mood to do.
We fool ourselves into thinking we are their masters,
but they know better.
Being on a leash can dampen anyone’s experience. How would you feel being on a leash?!
I would feel like a Puppy of Terra.
So interesting about Mr. Ley, I guess we’ll never know how on earth he got in that basement.
I wouldn’t give up on that hope quite yet. The game is still freshly afoot.
When I lived on West 88th in the 60s, I trained my cat to walk in Riverside Park without a leash.
An old YouTube video of a pig walking a cat.https://youtu.be/JlfWbxZZ7sE?si=uBIBMLXSx8aPgufl