Today is Monday, September 14th, 2026
The forecast is lots of sun for the start of the week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will all be sunny with highs between 75 and 80 degrees, before chances of rain on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Overall, it looks like another pleasant week of weather.
On this day in 1899, an UWS real estate broker named Henry Bliss had the unfortunate distinction of becoming the first person on record to die in an automobile accident in the United States. A day earlier day, while stepping from a southbound trolley on Central Park West at West 74th Street, 69-year-old Bliss was struck by a taxi and fell to the pavement. He was taken to Roosevelt Hospital (now Mount Sinai West) with head and chest injuries, and died the next morning. The driver of the taxi was arrested and charged with manslaughter, but was acquitted on the grounds that Bliss’s death was not caused by malice or negligence. (The driver claimed a large truck had been blocking the right side of the street, forcing him to swerve toward the trolley.) In 1999, a century after Bliss’s death, his great-grandddaughter laid roses at the site as a memorial plaque was dedicated. It reads:
Here at West 74th Street and Central Park West, Henry H. Bliss dismounted from a streetcar and was struck and knocked unconscious by an automobile on the evening of September 13, 1899. When Mr. Bliss, a New York real estate man, died the next morning from his injuries, he became the first recorded motor vehicle fatality in the Western Hemisphere. This sign was erected to remember Mr. Bliss on the centennial of his untimely death and to promote safety on our streets and highways.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
News Roundup
Compiled by Gus Saltonstall
A new Friedmans location is slated to open on the Upper West Side after a real estate deal closed last week.
The Friedmans ownership group, which also owns Pastrami Queen, has purchased a retail co-op unit at 541-555 Amsterdam Avenue, between West 86th and 87th streets, where they are planning to open another Friedmans outpost in the neighborhood, according to Lee & Associates NYC, the commercial real estate company behind the deal.
Specifically, the new Friedmans will open at 551 Amsterdam Avenue, most recently home to The Granola Bar, which closed in January of this year.
“The new owners will occupy an existing vacant restaurant space at the property, where they plan to open a new Friedmans Restaurant location tailored to appeal to the Upper West Side neighborhood,” Lee & Associates NYC wrote in a news release. The timeline for the opening remains unclear.
The new owners purchased the 5,000-square-foot retail space for $4.35 million, according to the real estate company.
The other news element of the real estate purchase is that Friedmans now owns the co-op in which Barney Greengrass, a famous UWS institution, is located, as well as Hudson & Charles, the butcher shop.
“Both businesses [Barney Greengrass and Hudson & Charles] will remain in place following the sale,” Lee & Associates NYC wrote in its news release about the sale.
The Rag will report when we get more information about the new Friedmans opening.
A man was rushed to the hospital Friday on the Upper West Side after being hit by a falling tree branch near the American Museum of Natural History, according to FDNY and CBS.
The incident took place around 2 p.m. at Central Park West and West 77th Street, FDNY said. A witness told CBS that the injured man was selling hot dogs at the location.
It is unclear what caused the tree branch to fall or the condition of the man.
You can watch CBS’ video report — HERE.
Last week, former Upper West Side Assemblymember Scott Stringer, who also served as Manhattan Borough President and Comptroller, spoke with City & State about the neighborhood and Manhattan politics.
“The West Side electorate puts you through your paces,” Stringer answered when asked how the Upper West Side prepares you for higher office. “When I got elected to the Assembly in 1992, I remember being in Albany, as a young freshman legislator, I’m writing my newsletter, and another freshman came up to me and said, ‘I saw your newsletter. How come there were few pictures and all of this copy? Who reads this stuff?’ And I go, ‘My constituents don’t send me postcards on an issue; they send me Ph.D dissertations for me to respond to.'”
Stringer also gave his thoughts on the merging of the Upper West Side and Upper East Side into one Congressional District in 2022, Jack Schlossberg’s recent candidacy, and Darializa Avila Chevalier’s victory over Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the Upper Manhattan congressional race. You can read the full interview — HERE.
ICYMI
Upper West Side Trader Joe’s at 72nd Street Will Reopen on Saturday Morning
Remembering 9/11: From Upper West Side Dad to Daily News Deadline
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Tuesday, Sept 15 7pm-8pm is the Central Park Precinct Community Meeting at the precinct at W.86th St Transverse. It is a great opportunity to speak to the CP Police and the CP Conservancy about the e-vehicles, pedicabs, amazon e- trucks that are in the park.