Today is Monday, July 20th, 2026
The forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 82 — a big improvement over last week, when the temperatures were sweltering and the sky was hazy with the smoke from Canadian wildfires. The rest of the week also should be fairly comfortable, with highs in the upper 70s to mid 80s; the only rain in the forecast is tomorrow, when there’s a possibility of a stray thunderstorm.
On this date in 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong opened the hatch of Apollo 11’s lunar landing module, climbed down a ladder and became the first person ever to set foot on the surface of the moon. “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind,” he told the world over a staticky audio transmission. The word “a” in that famous quote is in parentheses in the official NASA transcript, because it’s not clear whether he actually said it (as he’d intended to do) or forgot it in the excitement of the moment. Scientific analyses of the tape over the years have come to differing conclusions.
Notices:
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
Calling all cooks (and creative non-cooks)! Do you have a favorite family recipe? If so, we’d love to know about it, and also about the story behind it. Our inspiration: Yvonne Vávra’s June 27 column about a mysterious grocery list, in which she wistfully said that she wished the neighborhood had a community cookbook like the East Village’s, filled with the recipes that UWSers can’t live without. “I want our Upper West Side apple cakes that have been in our families for generations, and I want them now!” she wrote. “I’d even try your potatoes and fat in honor of our culinary heritage.” Judging from the enthusiastic responses in the comments section, you agreed with her — and suggested the Rag ought to take a stab at putting something together. We thought that was a terrific idea — perhaps not a cookbook right away, but at least the possibility of a cooking column to see where it takes us. If you’d like to contribute, send us your recipe (info@wsr.com) tell us why it has a place on your table, and we’ll take it from there. (No recipes from copyrighted cookbooks please, unless you’ve made it your own and clearly identify the original source.)
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 Wednesday with a free outdoor screening at the park’s Great Hill, which stretches from 103rd to 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, 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 on Friday, July 31. More information — HERE.
Please consider donating to the Rag! As we’ve noted on a couple of different occasions recently, the Rag is in a period of transition, as we seek non-profit status. We know we’ve had our hand out a lot lately, but your contribution really do help; they go to pay our writers while our non-profit paperwork winds its way through the bureaucracy. If you’d like to support us, the link is — HERE.
News Roundup
Compiled by Laura Muha
Jacob Soboroff, senior political correspondent for MS NOW, recently paid a visit to the UWS for a segment of “Prediction Markets,” a regular feature in which he asks random people to make predictions about current events.
In the past, he’s canvassed shoppers at the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles, and attendees at the opening of the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago; this time his destination was the 97th Street Greenmarket on Amsterdam Avenue, where he asked shoppers, among other things, who would win the Maine senatorial race, whether Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny would get more Emmy nominations — and what they thought President Trump would slap his name on next.
“New Yorkers never, ever disappoint,” said Soboroff, who called the segment “one of my favorite Prediction Markets yet.”
Watch it (and see what UWSers predicted) — HERE.
Thirty years ago last Friday, TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the South Shore of Long Island, killing all 230 passengers and crew members on board.
Among them was UWSer Lois Van Epps, whose friends — including actor Joe Mantegna — remembered her on NY1 on the anniversary of her death.
“I’m not sure I’d be an actor today if she hadn’t been part of my life,” said Mantegna, who met Van Epps in the 1960s when he was a student at an Illinois high school where she was teaching. She encouraged him to pursue acting after seeing him audition for a student production of “West Side Story.” “[H]er encouragement and support … in terms of what I was pursuing, had a huge impact on me continuing on and joining the drama department at that school [and going] on to the junior college,” he told the station.
Van Epps, who was en route to France to visit friends when she died, lived on the UWS but commuted daily to Edgemont High School in Scarsdale, where she taught English and drama.
Susan Barniker, a French teacher who carpooled with Van Epps, said that going to work, they never dawdled, but coming home, Van Epps liked to indulge her sense of adventure by taking back roads. “[S]he would get off one of the bridges and wander through the areas of northern New York. I saw things I had never seen before.”
Fellow English teacher Hannah Hyle told NY1 that when she thinks of Van Epps, she thinks of “happy things.”
“It’s not just what you’ve lost, it’s what you’ve had,” she said. “And … we had a lot of good times.”
Read/watch the full story — HERE.
Editorials from not one, but two mainstream news sites are pushing back against a law to ban horse-drawn carriages, which currently is being considered by the City Council.
The New York Post editorial called such a ban “true cruelty,” for both the drivers and the horses themselves. “The idea that forcefully-retired equines will live out peaceful lives at pastoral sanctuaries is pure ‘fantasy,'” the editorial said, quoting a veterinarian who testified on the bill at a hearing last week.
Meanwhile, amNY’s editorial writers urged the City Council not to rush into the ban, but to first explore all options.
Both editorials appeared last week after the City Council’s Health Committee heard public testimony on the bill, named Romanch’s Law after 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, who died after falling from a carriage in Central Park in May. The bill would ban carriage horses, but also includes a provision to help “retrain” the drivers for other work.
The Post wrote that the testimony by the teen’s family was heart-wrenching. But, the editorial pointed out, the teen’s death was the only one in the industry’s 160-year history, compared to 133 deaths who have died in e-bike accidents since 2019. “New York City sees other deadly accidents all the time — without prompting a rush to outright ban cars, construction work or e-bikes. And the testimony from those in the industry — the ones who’d lose their livelihoods, not to mention, in all likelihood, their horses — was powerful, too.”
amNY, meanwhile, brought up another bill introduced by City Council Member James Gennaro, which would not ban horse-drawn carriages, but which would impose stricter regulations on the industry, including mandating that horses be tied to hitching posts when not in transit.
“We think that the City Council ought to seriously consider giving Gennaro’s bill a shot, as a one-last-chance measure for the horse carriage industry,” the publication’s editorial board wrote. “At the same time, we also believe the Council should simultaneously test an idea previously pitched in the horse carriage debate: replacing horse-drawn rides with electric replicas of classic vehicles to chauffeur tourists through the park.”
Read the Post op-ed — HERE and the amNY op-ed — HERE.
In Other UWS News
- Patch reports that it was another good week for the UWS luxury real estate market, with seven deals closing at over $4 million. Details of the top sales are — HERE.
- Speaking of luxury real estate: DesignMilk.com, a lifestyle and design site, featured the remodel of an UWS penthouse that required all the large custom pieces to be lifted to the top floor by crane because the building’s elevators were too small for them. See the results of the remodel — HERE.
- Tom Cruise was supposed to be the guest of honor at a showing of The Odyssey at the AMC Lincoln Square last week, but he missed it after a thunderstorm disrupted his travel plans. By the time he got there the movie was over — so he got the theater to give him a special screening — and invited AMC employees to join him, Entertainment Tonight reported. Read about 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.)
People From all Over Are Traveling to the Upper West Side to Watch a Movie: Here’s Why
‘Stranger Things’ Star Leads Acting Lesson for UWS Elementary School: Watch It
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NYPost editorial confirms that keeping the carriage horses is the right wing position. It’s time to get rid of them.
No one is quite understanding, that a horse without a job is a horse sent to slaughter. That is the saddest reality of this situation. There are very very few horse “retirement” facilities in this country because keeping horses feed is ver expensive. Much less vet upkeep. These horses actually have a job – maybe it isn’t in the countryside – but they are cared for fed & loved.
People forget that aspect of horses – they think it is simple to just put a horse somewhere in a field. Doesn’t work like that. Thousands of horses are shipped to Mexico for slaughter when they have no purpose and no one able to handle the financial responsibilities for their care.
It is one thing to slowly phase out carriages in the park but to just pull the plug without realizing the reality of horse care – is short sighted as well as just a gesture just to make people feel virtually better,
Ridiculous. We are talking about 200 horses, this is not an industrial scale issue.
This is the only thoughtful response that I’ve ever read about this issue. These horses were bred to work. It’s not based in reality to think that these horses will be sent to a farm and frolic in fields all day long if they aren’t working. Sure, a few may go to a sanctuary, but most of them will be slaughtered. Horses are incredibly expensive and they can live for 20 years.
I think that phasing out the horse carriages is a viable option. Cap the number at what it is now and when the horses retire, don’t replace them. This would also give the employees of the horse carriage industry time to find other means of employment.
Agreed. Why even consider thinking critically about the issue when it’s so much easier to just oppose whatever the NYPost says.
And yet, I’m sure this is the same type of person that would rail against conservatives who were against a position “just because Obama said it.” Too many people let political parties replace their brains … if they had them to begin with.
Absolutely – doing the opposite of whatever the NYPost is advocating for is usually the right call. Never forget their candidate of choice was corrupt Mayor Adams in 2021
Sadly this is the anti-intellectual tribal world we live in.
How about find someone or multiple someones to take the horses and then ban the industry? Seems simple enough…Kill two birds with one stone. Only it’s horses and they stay living.
See Odyssey in theaters July 17, Christopher Nolan’s maybe not dopey sequel to Tenet. It’s got a horse! Seriously there’s been like 3 articles about it in WSR for some reason.
The carriage drivers union is pulling all the stops, the benefit to them is clear but far better for everyone else to get rid of the carriages
As with most of your comments, this is a classic example of consensus bias.
Far better for everyone to ban eBikes from Central Park. We can ban horse carriages too but if the reason is harm to park visitors it is ridiculous to ban the horses but not the eBikes.
I have ebikes stop when I’m trying to cross far more frequently than the horses do. Also how much excrement do the ebikes spread all over the park?
Far more frequently will never be enough…go back and count the number of people who were run down by ebikes, that’s just a fraction of how many times they didn’t stop!!!
And, horse poop…really?! 🙄
Why would this be your reply when I say we can ban both? My question is wjy did one horse carriage tragedy get the CP Conservancy up in arms while they are silent about eBike accidents?
As an avid cyclist, I agree, although I would allow pedal-assist bikes with 15 mph limiters, such as the Brompton electric.
see the thing is, most of those e-bikes you see are already illegal. probably about half or more. the issue is not banning them, its enforcement of the fact they don’t belong there now. every fat tire ebike you see if already illegal and should not be in the park.
The Gothamist quotes this from the Post: ““New York City sees other deadly accidents all the time — without prompting a rush to outright ban cars, construction work or e-bikes.”
A big difference between the money and power of the interests that oppose any regulation of e-bikes and the interests that support horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. DoorDash et al. have clout with politicians that far exceeds the clout of the carriage drivers’ union.
I normally don’t concur with the NYPost, but where’s the outrage over other tragic deaths, such as noted by e-bikes. Yes, the difference is $$ from outside interests. Reforms and change are needed, but if you don’t ban e-bikes responsible for both deaths and injuries, why ban carriage horses. Yes, as said before, follow the money.
I agree, where’s the outrage over the 205 people killed by cars last year and the 94 people killed so far in 2026? Where’s the call for traffic enforcement that would have saved those lives? Where’s the outrage over all the cars killing people year after year?
Those deaths did not occur in Central Park. Cars are banned. One horse carriage death and they want to ban those. Great. Where is the CP Conservancy’s outrage about the eBike accidents?
Ban them because the horses die!!!!It’s about the horses.
Stef: let’s skip the “what about ism”, it’s not one thing OR the other, banning the carriage horses AND e-bikes is doable. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Correction for the above – Flaco doc premiere on the Great Hill is Wed the 29th at 8:30, according to their site that you link to
If the Post is so worried about the fate of the carriage horses, they should support a ban on any new carriage horses. Let the ones currently working serve out their days, but no new ones can start work. Continually adding new animals into this abuse just because they can’t be retired successfully is ridiculous. Just stop using them at all.
I would prefer an outright ban, but Lizzie’s idea for phasing out the carriage horses seems like the bare minimum we can and should do.
Rag: Please try to secure non-profit designation by December when many Foundations, etc. make their year-end donations.
When I read stories like the one about the penthouse I think about how many people were inconvenienced by the crane blocking the road for a day or days bringing up those deadly dull pieces of furniture. Sure, the city is full of noise and inconvenience, but I wonder if there was even a thought about their neighbors.
Let’s see, first the argument was it was animal cruelty, then it was a safety issue and now it’s a right wing position.
Yes, there are at least three good reasons to ban the carriages (I would also add that it makes the park smell like horse poop.)
The NYPost and amNY are not real newspapers
Because they’re biased?
Are any newspapers unbiased?
Does a newspaper deserve that designation only when they lean to your biases?
Why are e-bikes always given a pass??? No insurance, no license and certainly a minimum of compliance with the few laws that govern them. Red light running, now that the red lights in the Park are eliminated that’s not even on the table. Summons forms without a line for e-bikes, do they not exist? And as to the vision of horses frolicking in a meadow somewhere? More likely on a plate in France or a dog’s dish. And the mythical transition of carriage drivers to a different trade. All such fiction. What happened to Central Park bigwigs staying out of politics? E-bikes get a pass after running over a multitude of pedestrians.
re: “replacing horse-drawn rides with electric replicas of classic vehicles to chauffeur tourists through the park”
Or better still: e-horses! They can start with that big one in front of the movie theater.
How would electic carriages be any better for park oedestrians than cars were?
Leave the horses alone ban electric bikes and scooters. They’ve proven to be much more dangerous than the horse carriages beloved by many.