Today is Monday, September 21st, 2026
You’ll want to keep an umbrella with you this week; the forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies and the possibility of drizzle or showers every day through Thursday. Today’s high of 68 is also the week’s high; the mercury for the rest of the workweek isn’t expected to rise above 65.
On this day in 2008, the Yankees played their final home game in the old Yankee Stadium, aka the House that Ruth Built, beating the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3.) Fans will find a nostalgic (and fact-filled) account of the game, and the ceremonies that took place before and after it — HERE.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Here’s the UWS Dish, which normally runs on Mondays, will run on Tuesday this week, in honor of Yom Kippur.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation is conducting a survey on residents’ grocery-shopping habits, challenges and priorities, as part of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promise to establish public grocery stores in all five boroughs. Take the survey — HERE.
Autumn officially starts tomorrow, and to mark the occasion, here’s the link to the Central Park Conservancy’s annual Fall Foliage Tracker. The leaves in the park haven’t started changing yet, but when they do, you’ll find the best places to see them — HERE.
News Roundup
Compiled by Laura Muha
One of the city’s most popular Halloween traditions appears to have become a victim of its own success, at least temporarily: The pumpkin flotilla on the Harlem Meer has been cancelled for 2026, because the event setup can no longer safely handle the thousands of people who show up, Time Out New York reported.
“But the cancellation may not mean the final voyage for the floating pumpkins,” the publication added. “The [Central Park] Conservancy is reportedly spending the year exploring a new Halloween event for the northern end of the park — one that can welcome larger crowds and offer more ways for the community to participate.”
The Conservancy has sponsored the pumpkin flotilla each October for more than 30 years. Pumpkins hand carved by residents were fitted with waterproof LED lights and placed on floats, which were towed across the meer at dusk. “The effect was equal parts enchanting and wonderfully weird: a small fleet of glowing gourds bobbing across the water next to the shoreline’s autumn leaves,” Time Out wrote.
Read the full story — HERE.
When the 51st season of the CBS reality show Survivor premieres on Wednesday, keep an eye out for one of the neighborhood’s own: UWSer Mike Pinsky will be among 21 contestants competing for the $1 million prize — an experience that, he told The New York Times last week was “not for the faint of heart.”
“There’s no opportunity to turn it off,” Pinsky, 32, said in an interview, which ran in The Times’ sports newsletter The Athletic. “You are in the game, always. As long as you’re out there, you’re playing the game. When you’re sleeping, you’re playing the game. When you wake up, you’re playing the game. When you have two seconds to go to the bathroom — and, by the way, there’s no bathroom — you’re still playing the game.”
Survivor, now in its 51st season, pits contestants against each other in a series of challenges designed to test their physical and mental endurance in an isolated location — in this case, Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands. With each round, contestants are progressively eliminated, until only two or three remain; the contestants who were eliminated then vote for the winner.
Competing on the show was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, said Pinsky, who in his “real” life is the New York Yankees’ assistant manager of baseball operations. He told The Athletic that he’s been watching Survivor since he was 8, and has seen every episode; growing up in Manhattan, he said, he and his friends would make up challenges on a make-believe island, and would vote each other off. His marriage proposal to his high school sweetheart even involved a Survivor catchphrase. (She said yes.)
The upcoming season was filmed earlier this year, and while Pinsky was able to discuss his experience in general in interviews, a confidentiality agreement with the network means he can’t go into specifics — or disclose the outcome to anyone — until the show has aired. That includes his bosses in the Yankees’ front office, who’ll be watching along with everyone else.
“We’re all basically going to get our popcorn out and watch this thing play out,” Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman told The Athletic. “We’ve got no idea what’s going to happen.”
The new season of Survivor premiers Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CBS. Read the Times story — HERE, and see a Major League Baseball release about Pinsky’s Survivor experience — HERE.
UWS eateries Barney Greengrass and Tom’s Restaurant are among 30 city restaurants highlighted in a new book by husband-and-wife architectural photographers James and Karla Murray.
Counter Culture: New York City’s Greatest Diners and Luncheonettes, was published by Penguin-Random House last week.
In an interview with Gothamist, Karla Murray said the couple’s goal was to “highlight these places and bring light to them,” because the diners “need customers more than anything.” In fact, four of the diners that the couple photographed for the book closed before it was published.
“It breaks our heart,” said Karla Murray, adding, “We wish [the book] could have come out sooner.”
The couple has previously published books on the city’s storefronts, its neon signage, and its bars. Read the full story — HERE.
Earlier in the summer, a foundation funded by billionaire Bill Ackman purchased a pair of buildings on West End Avenue where he plans to create a brain research center. At the time, he mentioned that he also was in the process of acquiring an additional 120,000-square-foot space on 66th Street, which houses a studio used by Saturday Night Live.
Ackman didn’t give any further information on how he planned to use that space until last week, when he spoke publicly about his plans at the Fast Company Innovation Festival.
“Don’t tell Saturday Night Live yet, but we’re going to tear that down,” Fast Company quoted Ackman as saying from the stage. “They’ll probably do an episode about me when we tear down the building.”
Ackman’s interest in brain research is prompted by his 26-year-old daughter, who suffered a brain hemorrhage earlier this year.
Read the full story — HERE.
In Other UWS News
- The owners of the carriage horse that collapsed and died in Central Park after munching on Japanese yew have filed a legal notice accusing the city and Central Park Conservancy of negligence for planting the highly toxic bushes along the carriage horse routes without posting proper warnings; the notice is a precursor to a lawsuit, amNY reported. Read the full story — HERE.
- The history blog Ephemeral New York recently ran an article about the smallest home ever to stand on Riverside Drive– an oddly modern (and long-gone) prefab cube that stood at the corner of West 107th Street in the 1930s and 1940s, and was once occupied by Thomas Dewey — then a prosecutor and later governor of New York. Read about it — HERE.
- Conde Nast Traveler recently ran a short review of Carmine’s, the UWS restaurant/institution. Read what the publication had to say — HERE.
- Children’s book author Tish Rabe recently appeared on Spectrum TV to discuss her new book Central Park You Can See is the Best Place to Be, a rhyming book that explores the park through the eyes of a family of squirrels. Watch the interview — HERE.
- The New York Post recently wrote about a new trend among NYC students, who are ditching designer clothes in favor of thrifted items. The story isn’t UWS specific, but it’s fun. Read it — HERE.
ICYMI
Limited-Edition WSR Print Newspapers Are at an UWS Coffee Shop: Can You Find Them?
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There is no way to access the grocery survey from the link provided. It appears to be a NYCEDC problem, though, not a WSR problem.
It worked.
I submitted the survey solely to make the point that it’s unfair to tax stores and use that money to set up competition that undercuts them.
And for the life of me I can’t undnerstand why that point isn’t being emphasized.
It worked for me.
Me too
Central Park Conservancy needs to be expelled from the park.
If that were to happen, what shape do you think the Park would be in in a year or two? The Parks Dept. simply does not have the resources, personnel or, frankly, interest, in caring for NYC’s parks the way they need to be.
Sorry, but the Conservancy has every right to plant whatever they want, wherever they want, as long as it is not dangerous to humans. They are not responsible for the H&C industry or the proper training of the horses. In fact, it is obvious that the building of the Park preceded the addition of the commerciaol horse & carriage trade there, so the Park comes first.
If the H&C industry doesn’t want its horses dying from eating potentially harmful plants, then it is up to the DRIVERS to make sure the horses don’t go near them. In fact, it is up to the drivers to make sure the horses don’t eat ANTHING in the Park, since that is why they have feed bags.
Just as it is likely the driver’s fault that a horse was recently injured when it tripped up on the sidewalk because the driver was not paying attention, it was the driver’s lack of control of his/her horse that ALLOWED it to eat the harmful plant.
But that is NOT the Conservancy’s fault. And this is yet just one more reason to end this unnecessary, harmful anachronism: get rid of the H&C industry – NOW!
There is a duty to inform when a result was so foreseeable.
Was it planted or growing naturally? That would make a difference.
there are many animals in the park such as squirrels and chipmunks which could be poisoned also. no reason to plant unhealthy plants!
Japanese yew is extremely toxic to humans too. Granted you and I are unlikely to eat any but a toddler might.
Pinsky has George Costanza’s job at the Yankees and he’s always dreaming of being on Survivor? Takes all kinds to make a world, I guess!
Will he, like George, go out in a blaze of incompetence?
First, my deepest sympathies to Bill Ackman and his family for what happened to his daughter. It is truly tragic. The fact that he has chosen to put his resources into brain research that could help so many other people is incredibly admirable.
Re: Counter Culture: New York’s Greatest Diners and Luncheonettes
Calling Barney Greengrass a ‘diner’ or a ‘luncheonette’ is like calling
the Atlantic Ocean a mud puddle.
I am very confused
I thought there was only to be 5 stores, 1 per borough? And I thought they weren’t supposed to compete with the local bodegas and Korean delis?
Tom’s Restaurant-are you kidding me?? The worst food and inept cook I have ever had in all of NYC..