Today is Monday, June 1st, 2026
Today’s forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with the possibility of showers this afternoon and a high of 72; tomorrow should be much the same. But the second half of the workweek will be both warmer and sunnier, with temperatures expected to hit a high of 87 on Friday.
On this day in 1925, future Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig stepped in for Yankees teammate Wally Pipp at first base, in a game that was notable only in retrospect: It was the first of what would turn out to be 2,130 consecutive games in which Gehrig played. (The last one was April 30, 1939.) His record wouldn’t be broken until 1995, when Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles played his 2,131st.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Community Board 7 meets tomorrow, June 2, at 6:30 p.m. in the Thalia Theater at Symphony Space (Broadway at West 95th Street). On the agenda: The proposed 72nd Street redesign, which includes a two-way bike lane on the cross-town thoroughfare; a vote is possible. Community members are invited to present testimony on the proposal, with a two-minute limit, but the board notes that the meeting is expected to be extremely crowded, and doors will be shut once the space reaches capacity.
- Sign up to present live testimony — HERE.
- Submit written testimony — HERE.
- To attend the meeting via Zoom, click HERE for the agenda; the Zoom link is at the top.
The New York Blood Center has declared a “blood emergency”; donations were down by 15% last month, and the center currently has less than a two-day supply available. Information on how and where to give blood is — HERE, and information on hosting a blood drive is — HERE.
Interested in learning how to protect the neighborhood’s trees? From 5:30 to 7 p.m. next Monday, June 8, Trees New York will teach tree stewardship skills in partnership with City Councilmember Gale Brewer’s office. Register and get information on where to meet — HERE.
Please join the Rag staff in wishing our Dish columnist, Abigael Sidi, all the best as she leaves us after a year and a half of mouth-watering (and entertaining) reviews, and prepares to head to college in the fall. Her last column runs today, but Here’s the UWS Dish will (of course) continue; we’ll be announcing our new Dish columnist shortly!
News Roundup
Compiled by Laura Muha
Vox is entering the bug business—for the summer, at least. The publication recently announced a project to try and discover one of the “hundreds, if not thousands” of yet-unknown species of flies, wasps, and other insects that scientists believe are living in Central Park as well as other parts of New York City.
“It’s a goal we understand to be both attainable and useful: Documenting the world’s biodiversity is essential to any argument and effort to protect it,” wrote Benji Jones, Vox’s senior environmental reporter. “And to be clear, protecting insects is among the most self-serving acts humans can partake in, given the role bugs play in pollinating our foods, cleaning up our feces, and feeding other wildlife.”
The project involves setting up tent-like structures known as Malaise traps in Central Park and in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The traps are designed to capture flying insects no bigger than a quarter. “Bugs that fly into the trap are funneled into a jar of ethanol, where they’re killed and preserved,” the article explained, stressing that the traps are designed to filter out such insects as butterflies, dragonflies, and spiders, “and we’ll monitor them throughout the summer to make sure that is indeed the case.”
Emily Hartop, an entomologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who is involved in the project, said the traps’ impact on the overall insect population is minor; in fact, she added, it’s such trapping that’s helped reveal the global decline in insects.
The traps will be in use in the parks during June, July, and August. Read the full story — HERE.
Last year at this time, we wrote about the formation of a new Ranger Corps in Central Park — an eight-member team clad in green uniforms, who were stationed throughout the park’s 843 acres seven days a week, charged with providing its 40 million visitors with what Conservancy CEO and President Betsy Smith called “a steady, supportive, and visible human presence.”
Now, with a year under their belts, the original eight-member team has grown to 12; they’ve launched a bike patrol; and addressed 30,000 quality-of-life issues, including 17,000 cases of unleashed dogs, 2,000 vendor violations, and 300 events that were being held without permits, amNY reported last week. In the past year, rangers also have conducted more than 2,100 wellness checks for the homeless, helping to connect them with city agencies to help connect individuals with services and support.
“In its first year, the ranger program has demonstrated the value of a consistent, on-the-ground, uniformed presence that helps address the many conditions that arise in a park of this scale and complexity,” Smith told the publication. “The Central Park Ranger Corps has become a critical part of the conservancy’s approach to managing the daily operations of Central Park.”
Read more — HERE.
NY1 headed to P.S. 145 last week to do a story on Studio in a School, an UWS nonprofit that sends artists into classrooms across the city to work with students on creative projects they might not otherwise have the chance to do because of funding cuts.
“The arts tends to be the first thing that goes when budgets are cut, and that’s sort of why Studio in a School exists,” artist Nina Berinstein told the station as her students cut buildings out of construction paper and pasted them into collages to create their ideal city blocks.
Berinstein, who is in her second year at P.S. 145, said working with the students is the best part of the job. ““It’s so refreshing to be around young creative energy. There is so much unbridled joy. There’s a lot of joy in here. There’s a lot of risk-taking. There’s a lot of confidence that is sometimes hard to find in adults. It’s really contagious to be around that kind of energy.”
She’s not the only one happy about the arts program. “I like how it just makes our creativity bigger,” one student told the station.
Read/watch the story — HERE.
An UWS restaurant has been named one of the 50 best in North America by chefs, restaurateurs, food journalists, and other industry experts, who voted based on their own top dining experiences.
Tatiana, the Afro-Caribbean restaurant tucked inside David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, was No. 39 on the list, and the only one on the Upper West Side. Twelve other New York City restaurants also were named by the awards group, North America’s 50 Best Restaurants.
“A fine-dining spot without the associated stiffness, Tatiana is cool, contemporary and unapologetically high-energy,” the group said in awarding the designation. “Matching the unbridled joy of its dishes, there’s a convivial, almost party-like atmosphere that’s hard to resist, with a playlist of hip-hop and R&B wafting through the air as diners pass plates and sip cocktails.”
The restaurant is named after chef Kwame Onwuachi’s older sister, and its menu is what its website calls “a tapestry of New York City cuisines,” influenced by his family’s Caribbean and Nigerian roots, and the Italian and Chinese cuisines of the Bronx of his childhood.
North America’s 50 Best is a subdivision of the global brand “World’s 50 Best Restaurants,” which develops its lists based on “experiences collated from 300 expert voters – a balanced mix of chefs, restaurateurs, food and beverage journalists, educators and well-travelled gourmets,” according to the organization. “Unlike other awards, there is no cost for entry, shortlisting or attendance. … Voters are simply asked to name their eight best restaurant experiences of any kind, across a two-year polling period.”
Read more about what the group had to say about Tatiana — HERE, and see the other NYC restaurants on the list — HERE.
In other UWS News
- House Beautiful recently did a piece on Taryn Delanie Smith, an UWS native (and Miss New York 2022), who decamped last year for Orange County to renovate an old farmhouse with her husband. Read about her post-UWS life — HERE.
- New York YIMBY recently ran an update on the renovations at Manhattan New York Temple, 125 Columbus Avenue, which began in March 2024. Read it — HERE.
- The New York Times recently took an in-depth look at the SUV crash that claimed the lives of an UWS doorman and the father of triplets at West 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue last month. Read it — HERE.
- The Daily News profiled Michael Saint-Hilaire, the father of triplets, who was killed in the above-mentioned crash. Read the story — HERE.
- Reuters had a photographer at last week’s Memorial Day wreath-laying at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument; see the photos — HERE.
- CBS News recently highlighted the Collegiate School in its “Today in History” segment; at nearly 400 years old, Collegiate is the oldest private school in the country. Watch it — HERE.
ICYMI
Here are a few stories we think are worth a look if you missed them last week — or a second look if you saw them. (Note that our comments stay open for six days after publication, so you may not be able to comment on all of them.)
Joan Baez Comes Back to the Upper West Side: She Needed a Place to Stay, So I Offered Her a Room
Mini Soccer Field Coming to Unused Parking Lot in Central Park for the World Cup
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