Today is Monday, December 8th, 2025
Today’s forecast calls for a mix of clouds and sun, with a high of 31 degrees.
It should warm up slightly later in the week, with highs on Wednesday hitting 43, with the possibility of rain.
Forty-five years ago today, John Lennon was shot as he and his wife Yoko Ono walked through the archway of the Dakota after a recording session; he was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital about a half hour later. His killer, Mark David Chapman, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison; Chapman was denied parole for the 14th time earlier this fall.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
The city’s Landmark Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing tomorrow afternoon on West-Park Presbyterian Church’s request to revoke its landmark status and sell its building to a developer. The hearing is expected to start around 1:30, but participants should plan to arrive at least a half hour earlier. Community Board 7 has recommended against the revocation, but the commission will make the final decision. The meeting will be livestreamed on the commission’s YouTube Channel, and participants also can log in via Zoom.
More information on the hearing is — HERE. Links to the YouTube livestream and Zoom are — HERE. And if you need a refresher on the issues, check out this backgrounder story by NYCity News Service — HERE.
Working your way through your holiday gift list? The city’s Department of Small Business Services wants you to shop local, and the group has put together an interactive map to help. It’s searchable by product, and in addition to pinpointing the location of hundreds of shops, it links to their websites wherever possible. Find the map — HERE.
The Department of Sanitation is now on its winter schedule, with beefed-up staffing overnight in case of snowstorms. But since overnight personnel have to stay busy even when there’s no snow in the forecast, they’re often deployed to clean streets and collect trash. That means that your trash may be picked up earlier than usual; the department recommends you put items out by midnight the night before scheduled pickup so as not to miss the truck.
News Roundup
Compiled by Laura Muha
One Block UWS, the volunteer initiative founded during the pandemic to keep UWS streets clean, is closing after more than five years, largely thanks to new city guidelines for street-garbage pickup by anyone other than sanitation-department employees.
Under the new rules, anyone bagging street trash must either leave it inside approved, locked containers, which cost between $10,000 and $30,000 apiece, or transport it to a sanitation department facility, the closest one being at 57th Street and 11th Avenue. “What was I supposed to do? Put this in an Uber?” founder Ann Cutbill Lenane told I Love the Upper West Side. The department’s new rules are related to its rat-mitigation strategy.
The group, which started as a volunteer initiative, grew to include a handful of employees hired through the Association for Community Empowerment (ACE), which provides employment and training for people who are formerly or currently homeless. But keeping it going took a lot of effort on Lenane’s part, and the sanitation department rules were the final straw.
Currently, the program employs two people, Jackie and Ramon, who have become familiar faces on the UWS in their green One Block T-shirts. Lenane said Jackie is being transferred by ACE to clean streets in another area of the city, and Ramon will be working at tth Vintage Boutique on West 25th Street. But both will be making less money in their new jobs than they have been with One Block, so Lenane said she had one last ask of the community:
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently did a roundup of the best places to get the great sufganiyot — Hanukkah doughnuts — in the city this year, and UWS bakeries took the cake — or perhaps more accurately, the doughnut — grabbing five of the 15 top spots.
Dating back to 16th-century Europe, sufganiyot (singular: sufganiyah) are round, pillowy fried balls of dough, typically filled with jelly or custard and dusted with powdered sugar — “a greasy and delicious holiday staple that reminds us of the miracle of the holiday — how one day’s worth of oil for the Temple menorah lasted for eight nights,” as the Jewish Telegrapic Agency put it.
But in recent years, many bakeries have begun riffing on the classic; for instance, Breads Bakery (1890 Broadway) is offering mango- and pistachio-filled sufganiyot this Hanukkah season; By the Way Bakery (2440 Broadway), whose products are gluten- and dairy-free and kosher, is offering doughnuts that are baked, not fried; Modern Bread & Bagel (472 Columbus Avenue) also has gluten-free, kosher brioche sufganiyot filled with chocolate ganache or raspberry jam; Orwashers (440 Amsterdam Avenue) has sufganiyot with fillings that include chocolate-raspberry and chocolate-cherry-apricot; and the kosher grocery Six60One (661 Amsterdam Avenue), is selling sufganiyot with caramel filling or chocolate glaze with sprinkles.
Read the full story — HERE.
“The Simpsons” writer and producer Al Jean recently listed his three-bedroom UWS apartment in The Normandy, a landmarked co-op building on Riverside Drive, for $8.75 million, according to The Robb Report.
The seven-room apartment features wraparound terraces, two wood burning fireplaces, and views of Riverside Park, the Hudson River, and the George Washington Bridge.
According to The Robb Report, Jean and his wife, Stephanie Gillis, purchased the apartment in 2019 for roughly $6.2 million and made substantial updates, adding a windowed powder room; a new kitchen with a marble-topped central island and an integrated snack bar; and seven built-in lacquer wardrobes in the 17-foot corridor/dressing area that separates the master bedroom (and its wood-burning fireplace) from the rest of the living space.
The apartment also has central air conditioning and a vented laundry.
The Normandy, between West 86th and 87th streets, was designed
It has a full-time doorman, a resident manager, a fitness center, bike storage, private storage, and a landscaped roof deck.
Jean is a writer and producer whose work on early seasons of “The Simpsons” is credited with helping to shape the long-running show. Until recently, he was one of two showrunners — the people with ultimate authority over each episode — but last month he announced on X that he was stepping down from that role. However, he added, he plans to remain involved with “The Simpsons.”
Read the full story and see photos — HERE.
ICYMI
The Disco Ball Causing Problems on West 86th Street: ‘Extremely Disruptive’
Another Bus That Services the UWS to Get Automated Camera Ticketing System
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So sorry to see the end of One Block. A great example of a community focused grass roots initiative. Brought people of all stripes together and did good for the neighborhood. I can only hope the city workers can keep our neighborhood clean with the loss of this support or will the residents just be told to expect less? And does this same rule affect the BIDS and Doe Fund who also pick up trash?
Just one more example of the city arbitrarily imposing its agenda and micro regulating everything we do.
One Block started as a google sheet with volunteers signing up to pick up trash on their block or two. I did it for some months in 2020, but left once the bureaucrats came in.
I hope people and businesses will continue to clean up in from of their buildings.
Thanks for the doughnut info. Please include cross streets when listing addresses. It makes life easier for your readers.
remember when a key to cross-streets was inside every Manhattan phone book? Here’s a variation: https://www.businessinsider.com/formula-to-find-nearest-manhattan-cross-street-2013-6?ref=untappedcities.com
Also handy:
https://www.ny.com/locator/
Google is your friend
What an annoying response.
Thanks. I’m aware that I can google. But it’s nice to have the info handy.
You sound like a really cool person.
cant wait for the supertall to replace that church we need more billionaires to pay tax’s here.
Comments like these seem fake.
They will pay property taxes but not income taxes as they will be in another home, with lower tax rates, more than half the year
So? Fact is the people who buy the ultra high end as second homes won’t be the buyers there, and even if they “only” pay property taxes and provide jobs for building service workers with full benefits?
Something is better than nothing.
The Hannukah donuts (I can never spell the Hebrew word for them) that Bagels and Company have around the holiday are out of this world delicious. I know their spot on York Avenue has them, but I am not sure about their UWS location. You can special order larger quantities if you need to.
The RFP has opened for the Bloomingdale Library development
https://newyorkyimby.com/2025/12/city-opens-rfp-process-to-redevelop-150-160-west-100th-street-on-manhattans-upper-west-side.html
Let’s put an end to the West Park non functioning church scenario, which is wasting taxpayer time and money for no good reason. That building should never have been landmarked to begin with when doing so only added to the financial burden of the non profit owner organization. The decrepit state of the building speaks for itself and should be replaced with something that will contribute to the community. This will go down as one of the biggest fiascos in the LPC’s history.
Exactly. This has been a huge waste of time, money and effort for everyone involved.
Very good doughnut info. Thanks to the Rag and comment contributors.
Re: the One Block piece. I don’t understand – doesn’t the city own many of these rat-proof receptacles? Why can’t the city give One Block employees a master key?
Annie gets it done (or used to)