Today is Monday, April 6th, 2026
The forecast calls for a breezy, partly sunny day with the possibility of late-day showers and a high of 57. The rest of the week should be dry, and temperatures will hover in the low 50s until Friday, when they’re expected to climb to the mid-60s.
On this day in 1917, the United States officially entered World War I. By the time the conflict ended 19 months later, an estimated 16.5 million people (including civilians) were dead, among them 116,500 Americans.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
If you’re inspired by the photo above and looking for the best places in Central Park to see cherry blossoms, check out the Conservancy’s cherry blossom tracker — HERE.
News Roundup
Compiled by Laura Muha
If you’re looking for a three-bedroom apartment to rent in New York City, you’d better have very deep pockets. A data analysis by real estate developer Sam Eshagoff of West Egg Development shows that rents for so-called “family apartments” have risen 7 percent across the board in the first quarter of 2026. And in some “prime areas,” including the UWS, they’ve gone up as much as 40 percent.
“Family apartments are in crisis,” Eshagoff wrote in an X post that had nearly 170,000 views last week.
At the end of 2025, the median monthly rent for a three-bedroom apartment in Lincoln Square, on the southern end of the neighborhood, was $10,250; in the first quarter of 2026, it jumped to $14,750, an increase of nearly 44 percent, Eshagoff told the New York Post.
“Yes, we are seeing real strength in the three-bedroom segment, but it’s being driven by a very specific imbalance,” agreed appraiser Jonathan Miller, of StreetMatrix. He told the Post there’s long been a shortage of family-sized rentals and demand has increased recently because people are prioritizing space and long-term livability. “When you have that kind of mismatch, even incremental demand can push rents higher very quickly,” he said.
Read the full story — HERE.
In other real-estate news: An historic Upper West Side barrel-front townhouse, built in 1886 by architect William J. Merrit and gut-renovated in 2022, recently went on the market for nearly $15 million.
Located at 238 West 74th Street, the five-story home features two elevators; a basement spa featuring a pool, hot tub and wet bar; a steel floating staircase; a dining room that seats 10; and a private third-floor suite with a fireplace and a terrace overlooking the 34-foot back yard, reports the real-estate website Mansion Global.
The site said that the sellers bought the five-bedroom property in 2012 for $8.8 million. “Despite its historic exterior, it’s entirely contemporary on the inside, following a renovation by the sellers,” who were not named, said Mansion Global.
Read the full story and see photos — HERE.
An orange-and-white cat led would-be rescuers on a merry chase through the treetops of Central Park last week before finally being captured and taken in by a rescue group.
“Wildlife lovers first noticed Mr Kitty hanging in the foliage Monday and raised alarms that he may be stuck or injured,” reported the New York Post. “It soon became clear that the orange beast was simply house hunting and had no intentions of coming down.”
Early in the cat’s treetop sojourn, a member of the Central Park Conservancy’s tree care team climbed up, grabbed it, and rappelled back down with it — but as soon as the two reached the ground, the cat dashed back up another tree that was nearby.
“The orange cutie … is now living in his third tree since Monday,” reported the Post at the time.
JP Borum, an animal lover whose name might be familiar to readers of this newsletter — she rescued Mei Mei the parakeet last fall — began checking on the cat multiple times per day, worried that a predator such as a coyote or a hawk might snatch the cat before it could be rescued.
“Hawks don’t normally go for cats, but there are now four hawk nests with females sitting on eggs … so the male is hunting for two. And that means they might get something bigger than usual, larger, like a cat,” Borum told the Post. “Three hours ago, one was circling literally right here. He came over and was literally overhead doing tight circles.”
Fortunately, the story has a happy ending: On Wednesday evening, arborist Rob Gillies, who traveled from New Jersey to help out, finally nabbed the cat and turned him over to the rescue organization Big Apple Cats, who named him JP in Borum’s honor.
The cat – who was clearly domesticated — was treated by a veterinarian for abrasions on his paw pads, which also were covered with a sticky tar-like substance that had to be removed. While his paws heal, he’s being cared for by Big Apple Cats; then he’ll go to a foster home and, eventually, be put up for adoption.
Read the Post story — HERE and see the cat happily cavorting with a catnip toy on Big Apple Cat’s Instagram page — HERE.
In Other UWS News
- Five years after legislators in Albany voted to legalize the sale of cannabis, the state’s 600th cannabis shop has opened right here on the UWS, reports amNewYork. Read the story. — HERE.
- The Tablet, the newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn, reported on 40 women who turned out for the “Holy Girl Walk”: a three-mile, 90-minute stroll through Central Park while reciting the Rosary together through a megaphone. Organizer Isabella Orlando told the paper her intention was to encourage participants “to just slow down and be present with one another.” She said she hopes to hold more in the future. Read the story — HERE.
ICYMI
Member of Panel That Will Decide Fate of Three UWS Schools: ‘It Clearly Wasn’t Enough Time’
Flaco Is Honored by the World Owl Hall of Fame and Gets an UWS Memorial
UWS Broadway Farm Grocery Store to Reopen Under New Ownership: Workers Say
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
The very last thing needed in Central Park is 40 people on a megaphone reciting anything. It’s a beautiful, quiet space for people to read, walk, daydream, think, chat, play sports, enjoy nature, etc. Central Park is the neighborhood’s perfect refuge to escape the city’s noise. Only the most self absorbed would believe pounding out their megaphone-enhanced recitation throughout the park is a good idea in such a space.