Monday, June 2, 2025
Mostly sunny. High 74 degrees.
Summer’s official arrival is still a few weeks away, but we’re expected to get a preview this week, with daytime temperatures in the 80s on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Today is National I Love My Dentist Day, and, in a bit of (presumably unintended) irony, it’s also National Rocky Road Day, as well as the anniversary of some historically significant events:
- On June 2, 1886, Grover Cleveland became the first – and to date the only – president to marry in a ceremony held in the White House, tying the knot with Frances Folsom, 27 years his junior and the daughter of his former law partner.
- On June 2, 1935, Yankees legend Babe Ruth hung up his jersey after 22 seasons, 10 World Series, and 714 home runs.
- On June 2, 1953, an estimated 27 million people around the world watched as Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey in the first-ever coronation ceremony to be televised.
Upper West Side News
By Laura Muha
The West Side Little League Hawks made history last week when a team in its 10-and-under division beat Inwood in a nail-biter of an extra inning to win the Memorial Day Weekend Championship. It’s believed to be the first time a West Side team has won the annual tournament, which pits teams from Manhattan and the Bronx against one another in a series of games over the long holiday weekend, Debbie Kling, president of West Side Little League, told the Rag.
“It was very dramatic,” Kling said of the team’s 7-6 victory. “The kids were thrilled!”
The Hawks, a co-ed team of 9 and 10 year olds coached by Jeff Jack, Daniel Frankenstein, Alan Roemer, and Brian Ogilvie, went undefeated in four playoff rounds that began May 23. They then faced off against Inwood for the championship, which was played on Memorial Day at Con Ed Field in Alphabet City. At the end of the sixth inning, the two teams were tied, forcing a rare seventh inning; a game in the 10-and-under division is typically only six innings. The Hawks were down by one run at the bottom of the extra inning, but a last-minute hit at the end of the inning brought the game to an immediate close, with victory for the Hawks.
Watch a video of the team clinching the championship — HERE.
Over the years, City Councilmember Gale Brewer has spent thousands of dollars out of her own pocket to help immigrant workers pay for dental care, the New York Post reported.
The revelation came during an executive budget hearing for fiscal year 2026, in which Brewer urged the city to do a better job helping immigrants to understand the free health benefits to which they’re entitled (city hospitals are required by law to treat emergency patients regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay).
“Those guys you see driving those mobile e-bikes, they all have [city-funded health insurance] … but they don’t know what to do with it,” Brewer told Acting Health Commissioner Michelle Morse during the hearing.
At another point, Brewer brought up the fact that many of them also have dental issues, the treatment of which she has personally helped to subsidize. “I’m already out $8,000-$10,000 on the dental,” she said, later explaining that she has helped to pay for root canals, fillings and other dental procedures for asylum seekers she knows personally.
“I’ve been doing this kind of stuff for years, especially helping younger people,” Brewer told the Post.
But longtime Upper West Side activist Maria Danzilo, who unsuccessfully challenged Brewer for her City Council seat in 2021, told the Post that Brewer needs to turn her attention to her own constituents. “What is she doing about the healthcare needs of her community?” Danzilo demanded. “Plenty of New Yorkers also lack medical coverage.”
Read/watch the full story — HERE.
The owner of two pit bulls that mauled a chihuahua named Penny on Columbus Avenue last month previously had been ordered by the city to keep them muzzled and on tight leashes — and had been issued two $1,000 summonses for failure to comply, CBS News reported last week. The order, by the city’s Department of Health, was issued March 5 in response to a January attack in Central Park by the same dogs that left a blind 17-year-old Shih Tzu dead.
However, the city apparently never followed up on the summonses; if officials had, “this never would have happened to Penny, because he [owner of the pit bulls] would have been in violation. And under that misdemeanor, his dogs could have been seized, without question,” Penny’s co-owner Lauren Claus told the station.
After the attack, hundreds of people showed up at an UWS community meeting demanding action; however, city officials said the owners can’t be charged because dogs are considered property under state law. In response, State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Woodhaven) introduced legislation dubbed “Penny’s Law” that would hold owners responsible for negligent handling of aggressive dogs.
The Department of Health told CBS that its investigation is ongoing. Penny, who underwent two hours of emergency surgery after the attack to close multiple gashes, is continuing to recuperate at home.
Read/watch the full story — HERE.
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GO HAWKS⚾️
Gale Brewer did you personally pay or take it out of your office budget?
The owner of the attack dog should be arrested for Criminal Mischief, felony.
Leave it to MAGA zombie Maria Danzillo to rain on a nice parade. Good for Brewer if that’s what she wants to spend her personal money on. What has Maria to ever done to help anyone besides herself.
Was it her personal money, or her campaign’s money?
Danzillo is far from MAGA. She is a moderate, common-sense Democrat. I wish more people like her ran for office. Calling everyone to the right of super progressive “MAGA” is rude, insulting, and enables the true MAGA crazies.
I don’t totally disagree with you on questioning why Danzillo felt the need to comment on this. But I will defend her in general.
Amazing – I can say something positive and negative about a person in the same post. I wish more people were capable of not racing to extremes…
I mean, plenty of asylum seekers are in our community – the families in the shelters for asylum seeking families, they are members of our community, even if it is not for long.
However. There is the fact that plenty of people don’t have jobs that have insurance. And plenty have insurance but the insurance doesn’t cover much
I agree with Danzillo. Our own community needs help with dental care. The only reason Brewer helped the migrants and not her own constituents is because the latter doesn’t do anything for her resume.
Also agree. As a middle income person who went without health insurance for nearly three years because I simply could not afford it. The fact that the system prioritizes undocumented immigrants over tax paying constituents is insane.
Summonses like these should be searchable on the DOH website; in fact all aggressive dog summonses should be posted daily, with pictures and/or locations. Instead we get a very FBI-sounding “an investigation is ongoing.” I hate the lack of transparency in NYC government.
I generally don’t advocate for vigilante justice, but these pit bull owners sound absolutely miserable. As I understand it, people know where they live. Upper West Siders tend to like to protest, and I have seen many protests over much more trivial things than this. How about protesting outside their home (peacefully)?
Congratulations to the Hawks team, coaches and parents! As an UWSLL parent from a couple of decades ago some of my favorite memories on the UWS are of watching my son and his teams play in our local parks. Thanks for posting the video and well done on the victory!
Way to go Hawks! As a parent with multiple children participating with West Side Little League, I love the work that they do. For an all-volunteer organization, I think they provide better instruction and field more competitive teams than most of the “for-pay” baseball organizations out there (and for a fraction of the cost).
They have a solid recreational league and their travel program (in both softball and baseball) is underrated! The 10u team won this tournament, the 12u team lost in the finals (and won this tournament last year), they’ve had multiple teams win various age brackets in the Tri-Metro league and they have had multiple teams in the recent past win the District Tournament, the Sectional Tournament and the State Tournament (all part of the Little League World Series) and had one team make it all the way to the regional round of the same tournament a couple of years ago. The Hawks 17u team just won a tournament this past weekend in South Jersey and they faced teams from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and the Delaware/MD area.
Really proud of our local little league organization!
Gale Brewer paying for illegal ailiens’ dental work. Oh! The irony.
Re the vicious life-threatening dogs– we need to clarify whether the failure to confiscate these dangerous animals and hold the owners responsible is a failure of police policy, or municipal laws, or state laws, and then enact either a change in law, or a change in police policy. It is irresponsible of city leaders and the police to refuse to act on the clear and present danger that these dogs represent.
I have experienced the indolent reaction of NYPD when calling to report a young man letting an un-neutered 140-lb mastiff and an even larger un-neutered presa canario run off leash in a park area with a group of nursery school children walking nearby, and other small dogs on leashes in the area (The children WERE leashed together.) The danger these dogs represented makes me shudder with anger to this day.
I understand that the police have a difficult job and don’t want to be roped in to animal control, but the belligerent, do-nothing response of the officers dispatched on that day was pure professional negligence. We need to support the NYPD, but also hold them accountable.
Anyone who spends public money on illegal immigrants should be arrested, the only exception is medical emergency.
As said above, asylum seekers are not illegal immigrants until they have at least had a final word from their hearings. And Gale did not spend public funds on illegal immigrants. They’re her personal funds, and she should be applauded for it. Maybe you should consider reading the post before you make comments on it.
Why do people always refer to the asylum seekers as “illegal immigrants?” They are not actually illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants sneak over the border and avoid the authorities. They find their way beyond the border and stay under the radar. The people we are referring to present themselves to the authorities as soon as possible after crossing the border because they are requesting asylum. Which is legal. They are then in the country legally, but usually without work authorization, while their asylum applications are processed. They are not illegal immigrants. The way to clear out the shelters and all of the government support is to get their cases processed quickly. If they are granted asylum, they can then get a job. If they are not, they have to leave the country. Only if they stay after that will they actually be illegal immigrants. It’s not their fault that we don’t have enough immigration judges to process the applications in a timely manner. And it wasn’t helped when “DOGE” released many immigration judges who were newly hired.
Brewer, if you were alluding to her, spent her own money, as clearly stated in the story above. In contrast, an example of spending PUBLIC funds on something questionable would be https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/02/cuomo-legal-war-sexual-harassment-accusers-19-million/ .
It’s her personal money
One thousand each is nothing- it should have been much more. The fact that those dogs killed another dog and then attacked penny should be grounds for euthanasia. This is sickening.
It is just so sad that the earlier (pre-Penny) victim of the pit bulls made it to 17 – a fine age for a dog – only to go in such a horrible way, savaged by a terrifying giant. Big sympathy to the bereaved human owner. And – when $1000 summonses and muzzle-and-leash orders are put out, there MUST be follow up! The risk of dangerous re-offense (to human or animal) is very high. Doesn’t the city have an animal control officer or some law enforcement to follow up on such a draconian order? Those can’t be happening every day. Good grief. Muzzles are the answer. Good for everyone.
Euthanasia for the dogs or the owners? I would bet the owners trained the dogs to be the way they are. Dogs are not innately this way; they are trained/conditioned to be attackers/killers. And don’t start with me about “pit bulls.”
Gooooooooooo Hawks!
Words cannot express my anger at dog owners who raise their dogs to be dangerous and then don’t even manage them. Owning a large dog, of ANY breed, is a serious responsibility. Raising one (two, in this case!) carelessly so that it will eventually injure other dogs or people and then have to be euthanized is utter cruelty to the community and to the dog(s) in question.
I work for myself and pay my taxes and I’m here legally. Bit I don’t have Dental because I can’t afford it. Will Gale Brewer pay for my dental? One of her constituents that’s working hard to pay taxes and live here?
Go Hawks! In fact, last year’s 11U Hawks (now 12U) won their age bracket last year, beating North Riverdale in 9 innings, and they made it to the championship this year only to lose to Peter Stuyvesant.