Today is Monday, March 30, 2026
The bad news: There’s at least a little rain in the forecast for every day this week. The good news is that it will at least be warmer, with a high of 65 today and temperatures climbing into the upper 70s tomorrow and Wednesday.
On this date in 1870, the 15th Amendment officially became part of the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the federal and state governments from denying or abridging any person’s right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Two weeks ago, we noted in this space that the UWS’s Tarr-Coyne Wild West playground was a finalist in USA Today’s Readers’ Choice Awards for the 10 best public playgrounds in the country. At the time, it was No. 19 (out of 20 finalists), but now, with seven days left to vote, it’s climbed in the rankings and currently is hovering at No. 11. If you want to help push it into the top 10, you can vote for it (once a day, in fact!) between now and the time balloting closes at noon next Monday. The link to vote is — HERE. Winners will be announced on April 15.
Residents inconvenienced by the ongoing closure of Columbia University’s College Walk can now apply for campus access if they live in the geographic area bounded by West 135th Street on the north; West 103rd Street on the south; Riverside Drive on the West, and Convent Avenue/Morningside Drive/Columbus Avenue on the east. To register, fill out the form — HERE; once the university receives it, you’ll receive information on next steps. The university closed its campus to the public for safety reasons after protests broke out in response to the October 7th, 2023 terror attack by Hamas.
News Roundup
Compiled by Laura Muha
A Portland, Oregon, real estate firm surveyed 3,000 real estate agents across the country to determine the most beautiful places at this time of year — places “that truly come to life when spring rolls in,” according to Matin Real Estate’s blog.
And the winner was — drum roll, please! — our very own Central Park West, which came in first out of 145 noteworthy locations.
“Topping the rankings, Central Park West comes alive in late March and early April when cherry blossoms and magnolias transform the western edge of Central Park,” reported Matin. “Runners, families, and visitors gather beneath the flowering canopy, while the pre-war apartment buildings along the avenue provide a stately backdrop. After winter, the park feels reborn, and few places in the city match this blend of natural beauty and architectural grandeur.”
We couldn’t agree more! Read the full story and see the rest of the rankings — HERE.
A conversation outside an UWS pizzeria earlier this month between a Jewish cantor from Pittsburgh and a young man who’d been listening in on a Talmud discussion has become the subject of a gentle Passover essay about the lessons that can be learned from everyday encounters.
“Of all the places I expected to meet Elijah the Prophet, the corner of 92nd Street and Broadway on Manhattan’s Upper West Side would not have been my first guess,”
Jacobson, who uses they/them pronouns, said they were in town at the beginning of March for the Hadar Institute’s Rabbinic Yeshiva Intensive, which brings together Jewish clergy from across the country to take a deep dive into the Torah and Talmud. Because the weather was beautiful, Jacobson and their study partner — a rabbi from Syracuse — decided to work outside, at a table at a nearby pizzeria.
“About 20 minutes [later] … just as we began reading a passage from the Jerusalem Talmud, we heard a hesitant voice beside us,” wrote Jacobson. “‘Excuse me,’ a young man said. ‘I’m so sorry to bother you. But I was wondering what you were studying … and whether I might be able to join you?'”
We’ll leave what unfolded next to the essay, which we don’t want to spoil. But suffice to say Jacobson felt they learned as much from the visitor as the visitor may have learned from them.
“Soon, Jews around the world will open their doors at the Passover seder to welcome Elijah the Prophet, the mysterious herald of redemption,” Jacobson reflected in the essay. “Tradition teaches that Elijah appears unexpectedly, in ordinary places, reminding us that a better world is still possible.”
Read the full essay — HERE.
The concrete wall that separates Lincoln Center from Amsterdam Avenue has long been a neighborhood sore spot — a reminder of the many Black and Latino residents displaced by the center’s construction in 1959, not to mention the separation between occupants of the nearby Amsterdam Houses from the New Yorkers (some with much higher incomes) who attend performances at the elite center.
The wall will be coming down as part of a $335 million construction project that begins at the arts center this spring. But the project’s completion is still a couple of years away, and in the meantime a construction fence has gone up in front of the wall. But not just any construction fence: This one will host a 6,000-square-foot mural designed and painted by neighborhood artists.
The goal is to “empower the community. Give a voice to the community and to the people who really make this area,” artist Vanessa Alvarez explained to Eyewitness News, which visited a workshop held at the center last week for community members working on the mural. It is being painted in panels, which will later be assembled on the fence, and the sections include many images of historical figures from the pre-Lincoln Center neighborhood, called San Juan Hill.
Read/watch the full story — HERE.
A non-profit that builds affordable housing for seniors broke ground last week on a long-planned project that will replace a vacant city-owned parking garage on West 108th Street.
The 12-story building, developed by the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, will contain 84 studios and one-bedroom apartments, about half of which will be reserved for seniors who were formerly homeless and are dealing with mental health or substance-abuse issues. Tenants will pay no more than 30 percent of their Section 8 vouchers in rent every month.
“New York City is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis, and for older adults, the need is especially urgent,” said Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who attended the groundbreaking. “By transforming an underutilized site into deeply affordable, supportive housing, this development will help ensure that older New Yorkers can remain in the neighborhoods they call home with dignity, stability, and access to care.”
The building, located at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 108th Street, will join another senior building that opened several years ago on the same block. No timeline for the construction has yet been given.
Read the full story — HERE.
The widow of actor Tony Randall is selling her four-bedroom apartment overlooking Lincoln Center for $9.45 million, the real estate site Mansion Global reports.
Heather Randall moved into the 19th-floor unit with the couple’s two children after her husband’s death in 2004. “My children were both already on their way to being artists, and I thought, ‘What a great place for them to grow up with the energy of Lincoln Center coming right in,’” she told the publication.
Originally owned by Sen. George Mitchell and his wife, the apartment started out as two adjacent units, but the couple combined them with the help of one of their friends: famed architect Robert A.M. Stern.
It features floor-to-ceiling windows, a kitchen with a high-top bar, a gallery hallway and an outdoor terrace that faces Lincoln Center. “I can sit on my terrace and hear opening nights of the opera here,” Randall told Mansion Global. “It’s so spectacular.”
Tony Randall was a television actor best known for playing Felix Unger in the 1970s television show “The Odd Couple.”
Read about the apartment and see photos — HERE.
In Other UWS News
- Last week, the New York Times’ Affording New York series featured an UWSer who’s found ways to survive in the neighborhood on $36,000 a year. (We wrote about it here.) This week, the same series is spotlighting an UWS couple with a young son, who earn considerably more — $500,000 — but are trying to live frugally so they can afford a larger apartment. Read about it — HERE.
- Patch ran a piece last week looking at who’s endorsing whom in the race for the New York State Assembly seat being vacated by Micah Lasher (who is running for Congress). Read it — HERE.
- Police are looking for a man who punched a 21-year-old woman in the face at the 59th Street-Columbus Circle subway station last week. Read about it — HERE.
- Joanne, the UWS trattoria owned by Lady Gaga’s father, recently announced an “emerging artist showcase” on Thursday nights, and Highway 81 Revisited, a music-news site, paid a visit. Read about it — HERE.
- A man living in an uptown homeless shelter was convicted of attempting to rape a sunbather in Central Park in 2024. Read about it — HERE.
- Streetsblog, a site that covers transportation and advocates for alternatives to private automobiles, recently took a look at City Councilmember Gale Brewer’s position on bike lanes in Central Park and found her (mostly) supportive. Read the full story — HERE.
ICYMI
Some of the Best Dishes and Meals I’ve Had on the Upper West Side in the Past Year
Why Does the Name Leslie Appear on the UWS Harry Shoe’s Building?
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Mrs. Randall isn’t the only one trying to get out of that building for the years that construction that the mega high rise going up on the ABC property will consume only to end up with less light in their apartments.