Today is Labor Day, Monday, September 7th, 2026
Summer 2026 looks like it’s going to wrap up on a high note, at least when it comes to the weather: Today’s forecast calls for mostly sunny skies, with a high of 78 degrees — perfect weather for end-of-summer celebrations. The rest of the week looks pretty good, too: Mostly sunny tomorrow and Wednesday, with highs in the low 80s, then back into the upper 70s for Thursday and Friday, with a possibility of a thunderstorm on Thursday.
On this date in 1914, the New York Post Office — later renamed the James A. Farley Post Office after FDR’s former postmaster general — opened its doors on Eighth Avenue; at its heyday, it operated 24 hours per day, seven days per week. (Opening hours were cut back during the 2009 recession.) Today, the building’s facade remains, and a much-reduced post office continues to operate there, but what was once the mail-sorting area is now criss-crossed by thousands of passengers boarding Amtrak trains each day, and all 730,000 square feet of the office space is leased by Meta.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Tomorrow at 4:30 p.m., the Center at West Park presents a summit on women in sports leadership, including a networking cocktail party; a panel discussion featuring female athletes; the New York premier of the documentary Mighty Mary about the first all-women’s sailing crew to compete in the America’s Cup; and a post-screening discussion with director Mary Mazzio and what the center is calling “other special guests.” The summit will be held at St. Paul & St. Andrew Church, 263 West 86th Street. Tickets are available — HERE.
News Roundup
Compiled by Laura Muha
The St. James Gate bar may be gone, but it has not been forgotten. In a video posted to YouTube last week, regulars discuss their memories of the popular Irish pub and describe what it meant to them.
“St. James Gate has an aura that invites and then it holds you,” says one woman in an interview apparently filmed shortly before the pub closed two years ago. “All the staff are Irish and they hold you. This is a home.”
The pub, located at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 81st Street, opened in 2008 and closed in 2024 for reasons that were not made public. “It was just a brief moment of magic in the time space continuum that made something that may never happen again, but it was just perfect the way it was,” another regular tells filmmakers in the video
The film was created by Tipo Studio, a commercial studio that describes its mission as “crafting modern digital media with soul.”
“The film is a small tribute to the pub, the people who filled it, and the memories that still live on,” the filmmakers state in a description of the video on their YouTube channel. “It’s about a pub that felt like home to so many, and the emptiness that lingers when a place like that is gone.”
To many Upper West Siders, the name “Extell” brings up images of ultra-tall skyscrapers, and the controversies that often surround them. But there’s a real person behind the development company, and he was the subject of a profile published last week by The Real Deal.
Under the headline, “What’s Gary Barnett’s next big move?” author Rich Bockmann looked at what appears to be a more conciliatory approach of late on the part of the developer, who once drew ire for including what was dubbed by the West Side Rag a “poor door” — a separate entrance for residents of rent-stabilized units — in one of his projects. Although there is no requirement that he include such units in the Extell tower going up on the former ABC site on West 66th Street, Barnett has offered to do so anyway.
It remains unclear, though, how many of the building’s units will be made affordable, and how affordable will defined.
“Would I do it on my own if I didn’t have some ulterior motives? No, I wouldn’t,” Barnett is quoted in the piece as saying. “What I’m getting out of it really … is just peace. I’m not interested in a fight.”
What Bockman calls “Barnett’s new Zen outlook” comes on the cusp of the developer’s 70th birthday.
“But he doesn’t appear to have a succession plan in place,” Bockman wrote. “Barnett has at least 10 children, but none of them seem to have ever worked at Extell or have any involvement in the business.”
Read the full profile — HERE.
Pressure on Columbia University to reopen its campus to the public is ramping up, The New York Times reported last week, with the city recently filing paperwork in State Supreme Court stating that it supports a reopening.
The letter, signed by New York City Law Department Assistant Council Rachel Moston, states that the administration has changed its legal position on a class action lawsuit filed last year against the university by residents and community groups objecting to the ongoing the closure of the campus. Under Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, the city took no position on the campus closure.
“City Respondents with to advise the Court of a change of position in this matter,” the letter reads. “City Respondents withdraw the portion of the City’s papers that took no position on the opening of the walkway through the Columbia University Campus to the public. The City supports reopening of the walkway.”
Dave Robinson, president of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition, called the city’s change of position “a welcome development.”
“This shift in position by the mayor will provide needed momentum to the growing movement of students, faculty and neighbors to open the gates,” he told the Times. The coalition is planning a protest on Tuesday, the first day of fall-semester classes.
The university began closing the gates intermittently in response to campus protests after the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel. They have been closed full-time since April 2024.
A university spokeswoman told the Times that Columbia could not comment on pending litigation.
Read the full story — HERE and read the letter filed with the court — HERE.
It seems like we’re writing about carriage horses almost every week in this newsletter, and today is no exception, due to yet another incident in Central Park last week.
According to amNY, a 17-year-old Percheron named Snowman tripped and fell in the late evening on Saturday, August 29th, and video circulating on social media shows him struggling to get to his feet. (He eventually succeeded.)
Groups pushing the city to pass legislation banning horse-drawn carriages immediately jumped on the incident.
“This horse could have caused another fatality had he collapsed while carrying passengers,” Edita Birnkrant, executive director of the animal advocacy group New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets. “The public deserves a real explanation about the condition of the horse and what steps are being taken to ensure the horses’ safety and health. We demand an immediate investigation by relevant authorities, and the City Council must pass Romanch’s Law as soon as possible to end this dangerous, outdated industry before the next preventable catastrophe.”
Romanch’s Law, named after 18-year-old tourist Romanch Mahajan, who died after falling from a carriage in Central Park in May, would ban horse-drawn carriages in the city.
But a spokesman for the union representing carriage industry said Snowman became “antsy and impatient” because he hadn’t had many rides that night. “He stepped up and down the curb and tripped,” the spokesperson told amNY. “Following protocol, he was unhitched so he could more easily get up, re-hitched and taken back to the stable,” where he was examined by a veterinarian and found to be uninjured.
Read the full story — HERE.
In Other UWS News
- The week of August 17th was another busy week for the UWS’s luxury real-estate market, Patch reported, with a five-bedroom, four-bath co-op topping the sales with a closing price of $6,495,000. See the full list — HERE.
- On September 11, 2001, Education Week deputy managing editor Kevin Bushweller was trailing a teacher at Fiorello LaGuardia High School for a story; recently, he reflected the scene at the school that day. Watch his conversation with EdWeek managing editor Sean Cavanaugh — HERE.
- Central Park will be going to the dogs this fall — at least artistically, Art News reported in an article about a dozen canine by artist Camille Henrot that will go on display in the park this Wednesday. Read about the exhibition (which runs through next August) — HERE.
ICYMI
I’ll Be Sorry When the UWS Construction Crew Next Door Bids Adios
Beloved Upper West Side Broadway Farms Fishmonger Passes Away
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