Monday Bulletin: UWS Man Dies After Mentally Ill Man Pushes Him Down Subway Steps; The Rise and Fall of the City’s Public Restrooms; Who’s that Guy on the Horse in Central Park?; UWS Apartment Once Owned by Legendary Dance Instructor on the Market for $5.65 Million

Today is May 11th, 2026

The forecast calls for morning showers with a high of 62 degrees, and Wednesday’s forecast is essentially the same. The rest of the week, expect mostly sunny skies with temperatures in the low to mid-60s.

On this day in 1975, 50,000 people thronged the Sheep Meadow in Central Park for a rally celebrating the end of the Vietnam War — an event the New York Times described as “a joyous all-day carnival of songs and speeches in the perfect sunshine.” Organized by singer-songwriter Phil Ochs, it featured performers including Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Patti Smith, Peter Yarrow, and others. See clips — HERE. Baez’s set list (the only one readily available) is — HERE.

Notices

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News Roundup

Compiled by Laura Muha

Mayor Zohran Mamdani  has ordered an investigation into how Bellevue Hospital handles psychiatric evaluations, after a retired Upper West Side special education teacher was pushed down a subway staircase by a man who had been released from the hospital only hours earlier; the teacher later died of his injuries.

Officers responding to a 911 call at the No. 1 subway station in Chelsea at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday said they found 76-year-old Ross Falzone, who lived on West 85th Street, unconscious and unresponsive and rushed him to Bellevue, where he was pronounced dead at 3 a.m. Friday. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a fractured spine, and a broken rib, officials said.

Shortly thereafter, they arrested Rhamell Burke, 32, who had been picked up once already that day by police outside the 17th Precinct stationhouse on the East Side, where, they said, he had been acting erratically. As officers approached him, he brandished a stick at them, they said.

An officer was able to defuse the situation, and Burke was transported to Bellevue for a psychiatric evaluation but was released shortly afterward. Five hours later, police said, he apparently shoved Falzone to his death in an unprovoked attack.

The mayor said the Bellevue review will also include a broader review of psychiatric evaluation and discharge protocols across the public hospital system. “New Yorkers deserve answers. That is why I’ve directed NYC Health + Hospitals to conduct both an immediate investigation on what steps should have been taken to prevent this tragedy and a comprehensive review of their psychiatric evaluation and discharge protocols,” Mamdani said.

Falzone’s sister, Donna Falzone, told ABC News that her brother was a retired special education teacher, and held a doctoral degree from Columbia University.

“There’s no amount of anger that we can express, and shock,” she said. “I mean, to get a call like that at 4 in the morning, you know, just, you know, to find out your brother’s minding his own business, three witnesses, and push down the steps and left for dead.”

Police said Falzone’s death is being investigated as a homicide.

Read/watch the full story — HERE.

The history blog Ephemeral New York recently took a look at what it calls “the rise and fall” of public rest rooms in the city, and one of the stars of the piece was the UWS’s own former “comfort station” on the Broadway median strip just north of 96th Street.

The building — a granite cube with Romanesque trim — is still there, but a sign on the building identifies it as the property of “Broadway Malls,” and if the toilets still exist, they’re no longer accessible to the public they were built to serve.

The blog details the construction of public bathrooms starting at the turn of the last century, when “[t]he need for public privies in the rapidly expanding metropolis was a constant topic in newspapers of the era,” and ramping up further during the Depression, when the city used federal Works Progress Administration funds to build public parks and the rest rooms necessary to serve them.

The blog also links to a 2021 report by the city comptroller. Titled “Discomfort Stations,” it delves into the “unseemly condition” of the public restrooms that do still exist, “repelling children, families, seniors, and everyday New Yorkers, rather than providing relief.” The report also notes that New York has 16 public restrooms per 100,000 residents, putting it in “an embarrassing” 93rd place compared to the nation’s 100 largest cities. (St. Paul, Minn., for instance, has 210 public restrooms per 100,000 residents, and Cincinnati has 125.)

Read the full story and access the comptroller’s report — HERE.

Quick: Who’s the guy on the horse in the photo above (or at left, depending on what platform you’re using to read this story)?

If you have no idea, you’re not alone; Central Park is full of monuments that many of us walk past daily, either without noticing them or, if we do notice, not recognizing the person they’re honoring, points out the arts website Splice.com, which recently ran an article on the history of some of the lesser-known statues in Central Park.

Though there are a few better-known figures in the piece —  Sir Walter Scott, for instance, and poet Robert Burns, both located on the Literary Walk — the piece also delves into people like the guy on the horse, who, in case you’re wondering, is King Ladislaus Jagiello.

“King who?” wrote the author of the piece, Kevin Walsh, the editor of Forgotten New York.  “Ladislaus Jagiello, grand duke of Lithuania, became king of Poland in 1386; his reign is regarded as a revival of learning and literature in eastern Europe as it slowly emerged from the dark ages.”

The statue came to New York as part of the Polish pavilion at the first NYC World’s Fair, according to the article, and was later gifted to the city. It has been in its present site near the Turtle Pond since 1945.

Read the full story — HERE.

The real estate website 6sqft recently featured the UWS studio/apartment once owned by the legendary dance instructor Raoul Gelabert, which is currently on the market for $5.65 million.

But that’s not “studio” as in “an apartment with no bedrooms” — it’s studio as in “dance,” a 2,800-square-foot space in which  the Cuban-born Gelabert both lived and trained generations of dancers, including many members of the Joffrey Ballet.

After his death in 2019, the apartment, located at 257 West 86th Street, was purchased for $1.7 million by architect Morgan Rolantz and his wife, who completely remodeled and updated it, creating a three-bedroom unit with zoned air conditioning, a gallery, a chef’s kitchen and a media room.

Gelabert was the author of the textbook “Anatomy for the Dancer” and also was one of the pioneers of kinesiotherapy for dancers, an injury prevention method that focuses on correct technique.

Read the full story and see photos — HERE. Before-and-after photos — HERE.

Last week, we wrote about the mounted NYPD officer who was promoted after he and his horse chased down an alleged purse snatcher on the UWS.

This week, we call your attention to an interview that former officer — now Detective — Kyle McLaughlin gave to amNY about the incident, his promotion, and what they both mean for his 23-year-old horse, Kelly.

“Kelly’s one of the smallest horses in the unit, but he’s got the biggest heart, and he’s a mush with everyone,” said McLaughlin, who will remain with the mounted unit. “But at the end of the day, don’t challenge him, because he will step up to the plate.”

Read the full story — HERE.

In Other UWS News