Today is Monday, July 27th, 2026
The forecast calls for a humid day with afternoon thunderstorms and a high of 83. More thunderstorms tomorrow and Wednesday, with a high both days of 77, then a mix of clouds and sun for Thursday and Friday, with temperatures climbing back into the mid-80s. A possibility of showers on Friday.
On this day in 1940, cartoon character Bugs Bunny made his official debut, in an approximately eight-minute film titled “A Wild Hare.” The cartoon is considered to have broken new ground, both because of Bugs’ irreverent, smart-Alec personality and because of its novel pacing, which blended wit and physical comedy. It was nominated for an Academy Award, though it did not win. See it — HERE. (Though it’s labeled Episode 5, it is actually the first one featuring Bugs.)
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
The documentary Wild Inside, which tells the story of Flaco the owl‘s escape from the Central Park Zoo and subsequent year of freedom, premieres this Wednesday, July 29, with a free outdoor screening at the park’s Great Hill, which stretches from West 103rd to West 107th streets. Bring a blanket — it’s lawn seating — and “doors” open at 7:30 p.m., with the screening itself beginning at 9 p.m. Rain date is Thursday, July 30, and if outdoor movies aren’t your thing, you’ll be able to see it at Manhattan’s IFC Center in Greenwich Village beginning on Friday, July 31. More information — HERE.
News Roundup
Compiled by Laura Muha
The jogger who was critically injured when she was hit by an electric bike in Central Park on July 7 has emerged from a medically induced coma and managed to say a few words, but her “full recovery is still far from assured,” the Daily News reported.
Brandi Wiltse, 31, the jogger’s niece, told the paper that her aunt — identified in the media only as “Jean” to protect her privacy — has not yet been able to respond to simple commands, such as requests to wave or give a thumbs up, and that sometimes she’s able to say her name, while other times is unable to speak.
“For the type of traumatic brain injury she received, it’s very common that it’s gonna take a while, that she’s gonna be groggy,” the publication quoted Wiltse as saying.
The paper reported that Jean’s situation is further complicated because she recently was laid off from her marketing job, “and to save money had been forgoing her health insurance.” A GoFundMe started on her behalf has raised nearly $30,000 — well over its target goal of $18,000 — with many of the contributions coming from “total strangers,” Wiltse said, adding that the funds will be used to help pay the rent on Jean’s Upper West Side apartment so she won’t be homeless when she gets out of the hospital, and to bring her mother and stepfather from Georgia to New York to help care for her. Any money left over will help to pay for what is likely to be her ongoing medical care and rehabilitation.
Witnesses said that the cyclist, who was not publicly identified, was going the wrong direction on the park’s loop at the time he hit Jean, who was in the jogging lane. Wiltse told the Daily News that the family hopes the NYPD will conduct a full investigation of the accident, and that, if the cyclist is found to have violated any traffic laws, he will be held accountable.
Read the full story — HERE.
The New York City Housing Authority plans to renovate a cluster of historic brownstones that it owns on the Upper West Side, and as part of the process, will turn management of the buildings over to a private company, City Limits reported.
The residents of the 236 units, spread between 36 brownstones on West 89th, 90th, 91st and 93rd Streets, will likely have to move out during the renovations, and they told City Limits they were anxious about what that would entail and where they would be housed during the process.
However, the publication added, “Residents … are well aware of their aging buildings’ issues: in 2019, some of them went without gas for nearly a year, and ceilings in three tenants’ apartments partially collapsed in 2023.”
The public-private partnership being proposed for the brownstones has already been implemented at some other NYCHA buildings and “[is] part of a larger effort, called the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together or PACT program, through which NYCHA taps private companies to manage buildings and converts the properties to a different federal housing program,” City Limits reported. “It’s one of the only ways, officials say, to access badly needed repair money, since Congress has underfunded traditional Section 9 public housing for decades.”
Read the full story — HERE.
The owner of four shops named Tal Bagels on the Upper East Side is speaking out to make sure that residents know his shops have no affiliation with the UWS bagel shop of the same name, which was closed by the health department last week because of a staggering 157 violations.
“Ami Halon, who owns the mini-chain [on the Upper East Side], spoke up this week to make sure no one confused his four locations with the shuttered store behind that stomach-turning report,” reported the website East Side Feed. It noted that Halon did once own the UWS bagel shop, but sold it to its current owners more than 20 years ago.
Halon currently owns four Tal Bagels locations on the Upper East Side: Two on Lexington Avenue (at East 83rd and 88th streets); one on East 86th Street (between First and Second avenues) and one on First Avenue near 21st Street.
“Every one of our locations holds a current Grade A rating from the NYC Department of Health. Food safety and cleanliness are core to how we operate, every single day,” Halon wrote on his Instagram feed. “We understand the confusion given the shared name, and we appreciate our customers reaching out. If you have any questions, our team is always happy to help.”
Read the story — HERE and see Halon’s Instagram feed — HERE.
In Other UWS News:
- WABC did a piece on a New York Road Runners program that teams up volunteer coaches with high school girls to help them train for a 5K in Central Park. See it — HERE.
- Habitat Magazine did a short piece on 200 Riverside Boulevard, which chose to retrofit instead of replace its boiler system in order to meet the city’s new carbon emissions standards — an issue many buildings are grappling with. Details on what it involved are — HERE.
- One of the apartments featured in the “On the Market” section of The New York Times this week is a 684-square-foot, one-bedroom on West End Avenue (between 102nd and 103rd streets). See it — HERE.
- Fox News was in Central Park last Sunday, where a crowd of 50,000 was viewing the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain; see the crowd’s reaction to Spain’s victory — 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.)
Night at the Museum: UWS Artist Patricia J. Wynne Transmits Life to the Page
UWS Shed Watch: Behind This Church’s Scaffolding, a 129-Year-Old Neighborhood Roof Is Being Restored
Bill Ackman’s Foundation Buys a Pair of UWS Buildings for $260M to Create Brain Research Center
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Perhaps Elizabeth Smith, head of the “non-profit” Central Park Conservancy can donate her $1.2 MILLION salary to defray the medical and rehab costs for Ms. Wiltse.
Our family has contributed to the GoFundMe for Ms. Wiltse.
I’d appreciate it if bicycle lobby Transportation Alternatives -Open Plans leadership would contribute
Yes you are correct ,those are two other groups that should absolutely be donating large sums. This woman’s bills and rehab are going to be much more that what they are asking for on gofund me.
Why do New Yorkers put up with this is totally beyond me. I miss safe Manhattan streets when I did not have to look around constantly.
We “put up with it” because we have no choice. I’ve complained to elected officials, to no avail. On this issue, they are not representing their constituency. And Mayor Mamdani shows no signs of wanting to fix this issue.
We have always had to “look around constantly” for our safety. We just were not looking for e-bikes and wayward deliveristas.
I think the Central Park Conservancy does a great job. I remember the park in the 1970s, so I’ll always tip my hat to the people that turned the park around. However, I like to be forward thinking and the biking issue clearly needs to be fixed in the park and in the city. The story on the pedestrian being hit by the biker resulted in over 180 comments. Clearly a hot topic. We can all do better.
CP in the 70s was a functional park. Sheep Meadow was home to huge soccer, football and other ganes. When it was closed to be reseeded, it was never supposed to be fenced off or have those activities limited in one of the parks largest undermined open spaces. The fence never came down and the obly allowed a tivitues are getting skin cancer or throwing a Frisbee
Schaeffer/Dr Pepper was an incredible cultural event in the park. Far surpassing what they destroyed Mother Goose playground for. Never brought back after the Trump Wollman fix.
Just two examples of the Conservancy serving the donor class not the citizens and hiw CP was actually better in the 70s.
Absolute nonsense. There are places you can play games in the park. It’s nice to have some places where you can just have a quiet picnic on the grass. And speaking of grass, the great lawn was a dust bowl before the conservancy took charge. The park is far prettier and nicer now.
As long as you realize you are voicing one person’s opinion–one which could very well be in a small minority.
For instance, I much prefer the Sheep Meadow today and think it’s glorious.
I miss Schaeffer/Dr. Pepper, but still believe the Park is far more comfortable, pleasurable, inviting, well-maintained and safer today than it was in the 70s or 80s.
I don’t know. I was out in the park during this beautiful weekend, and it was absolutely amazing. So many fun things going on, sounds like you should get outside more often
I’m convinced the constant complainers on here don’t actually get outside of their apartments and experience any of the fun events that are constantly happening on the UWS
I’m also convinced of this.
Just the opposite. The critical comments here come from adults who actually live in the real world and are paying attention to their surroundings.
Right… if you listen to them or read the NYPost you would believe the streets are an apocalyptic hellscape, businesses are failing left and right, no one goes to Open Streets but somehow also the crowds are too loud, the World Cup parties were a total disaster, taking the subway is an insanely risky proposition.
But none of that is true, while nothing in life is perfect, the problems the UWS has are manageable and NYC remains the best city in the country by a long shot.
Actual subway and bus rider here – my family is on the subway and/or bus every day.
It is not ok to have open streets on a bus route and force buses to be detoured,
What about parades and road races? Especially high security parades, where it can be impossible to get where you need to go without walking at least half a mile out of your way. And the marathon, when it is simply impossible to get across Central Park on foot.
It’s not impossible at all. There are numerous places in the park where you can go under the loop roadway where the runners are. One of them is right behind the Met Museum –I have often crossed the park from the upper west side to the Met Museum while the marathon is going on.
Yes there seem to be more events that impact bus access.
Here, here!
It’s understandable for the uniformed fox news types to fall for anti-NYC propaganda from outside of the state. It is astounding UWS residents are so isolated that they fall for it too and deny the reality of their surroundings
None of the people, I imagine, from the 1970s, are still working on the park. It did not have 1.2 million to pay someone back then. I bet they were all volunteers in the 1970s. They should still be volunteers. It is now clearly pay to play.
I don’t pay a dime and I use the park everyday. And do tell me what you think the park would look like if only volunteers worked on the park and provided planting and repairs of infrastructure, etc. come join us in the real world! The water’s fine!
There are hundreds of volunteers in Central Park and I’m one of them. All of the work in the park could not get done without the volunteers. The Central Park Conservancy does a tremendous job. They even help out other NYC parks.
All of those brown stones should be sold and converted to market rate apartments otherwise they will continue to deteriorate.
The fact that roughly 50% of the units in NYC are rent stabilized / controlled is insane. The city reduces stock by turning so much land into “historic districts”, restricting construction, and then removing all profit from half the existing units naturally resulting in under investment. And instead of learning, we hire a socialist. Let the market work!
The market will not provide housing that most New Yorkers can afford.
That being said, rent stabilized and rent controlled apartments should be means tested, even if they inherited it from their grandparents and their family has been in it since 1794 or something.
Agreed.
The article highlights a 60 year old man who has been living in the same brownstone apartment since he was a baby.
This is taxpayer funded housing for a below market rental.
Situations like this underscore NYC’s dysfunctional rental situation and why housing is so expensive for the rest of us.
Agreed. For the money they get for those brownstones in a prime location, they can buy/build many more apartments in cheaper locations.
I am not saying this to be NIMBY (I don’t live particularly close to this location). I am saying this to be practical, use tax payer dollars efficiently, and best address the city’s horrible housing shortage. For example, I am fine with some of the taller towers near there as it is silly to tear them down and I’m guessing they can’t be converted to market rate as there likely wouldn’t be much demand. A converted brownstone, on the other hand, could generate huge amounts of money.
Yeah, these brownstones doesn’t seem like the most cost effective way to provide subsidized housing. Really they should be razed and redeveloped into a taller / denser building.
Ugh, no. Personally, I like our city to have some character, history and beauty
Here’s the thing: they’re not building brownstones anymore. Buildings like that are part of NYC’s culture and history and should be preserved whenever possible. I do agree that it makes sense to sell these and use the funds to build more practical affordable housing.
Oof no.
So the cyclist was (1) going the wrong way, and (2) was in the pedestrian lane and not the bike lane. Pretty clear he broke the law.
Yes. I don’t understand how the police could let him go without charging him with anything. Not even a ticket. Outrageous.
Separately – if you get laid off, apply for Medicaid! I’ve done it in exactly those circumstances. I realize it may be going away but my understanding is it’s available through at least the end of the year.
The police weren’t there at the time, I think, and it’s not clear that they know who did it. I’m all for cycling, it’s one of my preferred means of transport, but not that kind of outrageous flaunting of all the rules for sharing the road in the park.
That being said, pedestrians definitely violate the traffic rules all the time too (myself included). And while they (we) do check for cars before crossing against the light, lots of folks really don’t notice bikes and randomly walk in front of them when the bike has the right of way. I see it all the time when I’m cycling.
And then there’s the car I saw blatantly running a red light in the middle of the day today! Fortunately that doesn’t happen as often.
Also, depending on when Aunt Jean got laid off she might still be able to get onnCobra. You have 60 days from when your coverage expired (likely the end of ths last month you worked) to get it retroactively
The change of NYCHA Management is long overdue. They don’t have a money problem, they have a people problem. The WSUR Management and the workers are unqualified and laxed. The building super sits in their office dressed in cabana wear instead of being in uniform and visiting the properties addressing issues and checking on the work of caretakers and maintenance workers. Management’s laziness has allowed the properties to go into disrepair and created hazardous health issues like black mold to develop. Good riddance to them. Hopefully HUD gets more involved.
“Every one of our locations holds a current Grade A rating from the NYC Department of Health.” – Tal Bagel UWS had an A rating too.
Not surprised. The UWS Tal Bagels always seemed dirty and not maintained.
Oh, I didn’t notice – I actually really liked their bagels. I don’t think I want to see what all was wrong there!
I know opinions run,… a little hot in this comment section here on bikes. The thing that comes to mind when I see those comments is Alexander Portnoy’s mother complaining about Alex eating *hamburgers*, which she says with the same inflection she’d say “Hitler.” But in this case, *bicycles*, not *hamburgers*.
Anyway, the case of Jean’s life-changing grievous crash injury is clearly one where decently vigorous enforcement of the traffic and park rules that *we already have* would be greatly protective and preventative. Am all in favor of that.
The sheer quantity of enforcement personnel necessary for this makes the suggestion as close to meaningless as it gets.
Unless criminal court summonses are issued, or e-bikes are registered and insured? Accountability is nonexistent.
So you’re saying that we lack enforcement resources, therefore should… add more rules (about licensing/registration of e-bikes?) so that we have… even more rules to enforce?
Targeted and prioritized enforcement of the rules we have is more than sufficient here. Yes pull over bikes or ebikes going wrong way or in the pedestrian lane or both. Going across a red light on CPW in a top of the T situation with no lrght of way violated? Let it slide.
My opinion on the bike situation runs “hot” because I’ve been struck twice by ebikes, one who hit me from behind as I walking on the sidewalk. The rider didn’t even stop to see if he had killed me. He was gone by the time I was able to get up from the sidewalk after bashing my head on the ground.
And again, vigorous enforcement of the rules *we already have* would have prevented that.
Spanish Youth Chorus at West Side Community Garden Monday 6pm. https://www.westsidecommunitygarden.org/event/concert-youth-chorus-from-spain/
“…if the cyclist is found to have violated any traffic laws, he will be held accountable.”
Am I the only one who finds this disturbing? So it’s not a “law” that one has to travel in the proper direction on the road? It’s only a “guideline?” (Or some other mealy-mouthed word?).
Even if no criminal charges are or can be filed, there is a civil lawsuit here, and I hope it is pursued when she is able to do so.
Re the brownstones, there is a law on the books that states that, if a landlord MUST remove a tenant temporarily to effect repairs, the landlord is LEGALLY REQUIRED to find an “equal” alternative living space for that tenant or tenants. So I d— well hope they obey the law and find these people adequate, comfortable alternatives during the renovation period.
Rider could absolutely have been cited for traffic law violations.
Nypd (even the park precinct) doesn’t tend to issue citations like this for road rule breaking that they didn’t personally witness
It’s not about ‘tend’. The law prevents summonsing based on witness accounts.
Who knew there were so many beautiful brownstones just sitting deteriorating off Central Park West in the 80’s and 90’s. These should be renovated and sold.
Unfortunately it’s painfully obvious to all those who walk by
As an avid user of the Great Lawn since 1967, I can attest that the Deparment of Parks did a much better job at maintaining and caring for the Lawn. Back in the day, when it would drizzle or rain, Dept. of Parks was quick to bring manpower and sod to ensure the softball fields were able to be used. Nowadays, if it drizzles on a Saturday , , , the fields are closed on Sunday. Meanwhile they charge us an arm and a leg for the permits. I’ve come to the conclusion that the central park conservancy has become just like City Hall – an agency created to keep family and friends of the politically connected employed.
Central Park in the 1970s. Your memory is way off. https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/just-how-bad-was-central-park-in-the-1970s/
Lol, It was known as the dust bowl in the ’70s. I’m sorry your memory is so faulty
This park is THE most well maintained urban park I’ve ever seen in my life. And that’s coming from someone who has lived in a dozen different states and cities. It never ceases to amaze me both how incredible it is, and how much complaining certain entitled locals do about it.
If you sell a business particularly a restaurant and the name without imposing consistent quality standards then this is the risk you take. When a company like McDonald’s sells off a new franchise they inspect itregularly to make sure it’s meeting certain standards. You can’t just sell it and then forget about it, it’s still your name.
Central Park Conservancy CEO Betsy Smith’s million dollar a year salary should enable her to contribute. After all her silence on the subject makes her complicit in this woman’s suffering.
why is it our great City cannot make safety decisions? How many more of these
horrible accidents must happen before you
can see clearly ALL motorized bikes must
be banned from the Park immediately!!
NOW!!
Re Tal Bagels on Broadway betw 91st and 90th: they were open this morning. Customers were inside eating and placing orders.