Buildings glow in an UWS sunrise. Photo by Laura Muha.
Monday, October 6th, 2025
Today’s weather: Warm and sunny; high 80.
The rest of the week: The same tomorrow, followed by cooler temperatures and a mix of sun and clouds the rest of the week; a possibility of showers on Wednesday.
On this date in history, the New York Jets announced they were leaving Shea Stadium for the Meadowlands (1983), and Instagram was launched (2010).
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper right-hand corner to check.
The Harmony Program, a nonprofit that brings musical training to public schools and community-based organizations, is offering free trumpet and trombone classes for students in the third through eighth grade, starting this week. Trumpet classes meet M-W-F and trombone classes meet Tu–Th-F, both from 4–5:30 pm. at St.Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church. Register — HERE. For more information, email programs@harmonyprogram.org.
If you’re calling 311 to report issues with the ongoing demolition at the ABC campus, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection asks that you give the address as 141-149 Columbus Avenue, to enable the department to better track the complaints.
The preservation committee of Community Board 7 meets Thursday from 6:30-10 p.m. to review an application from the Presbytery of New York, asking the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to allow the demolition of the historic West Park Presbyterian Church on the basis of financial hardship. The meeting will be held at the Joan of Arc campus Auditorium, 154 West 93rd Street (Amsterdam and Columbus avenues), and also on Zoom. Register to receive the Zoom link — HERE.
News Roundup
Compiled by Laura Muha
The building where The Mermaid Inn used to be located. Photo Credit: Gus Saltonstall.
Last fall, we reported that the building that once housed The Mermaid Inn had been sold to developers who planned to replace it with an 18-story residential tower. Now, a rendering of the lower floors of the proposed new building has been revealed by the website NewYorkYIMBY.com, which covers real estate development in the city from what it calls a “pro-growth perspective.”
The rendering shows a lower story of gray stone blocks, with an arched entrance whose shape is echoed by a gated entrance to a motor courtyard. The arched windows of the building’s second floor, also of gray stone blocks, echo the first floor, giving the facade a prewar feel. Above the second floor, the facade changes to brick, with stone window frames, fluted stone paneling, and, in some cases, Juliet balconies.
The building, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects for Nortco Development, is located at the corner of West 88th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. According to permits filed with the city, it will be 215 feet tall, with retail space on the ground floor, a parking garage on the second floor, and 37 condominium units on upper floors. The New York YIMBY article also includes what it says are “outdated” renderings of the upper floors that “still offer an indication of the plan for the fenestration and exterior ornamentation.” The older renderings show stepped setbacks and a bulkhead with an arched motif. Updated visuals for the upper floors have not yet been revealed, according to the site.
Read the full story and see the renderings — HERE.
St. John the Divine Cathedral has a new dean – the first woman to hold that position. Photo by Laura Muha
Seven hundred people gathered at St. John the Divine last weekend to watch the Rev. Winnie Varghese installed as the cathedral’s first female dean. But there was an unexpected twist halfway through the ceremony, when Varghese’s father fainted in his front-row pew and had to be rushed to the hospital.
Varghese had not yet delivered her remarks, and in an interview a day later, she told ChristianCentury.org she didn’t know what to do. “I was looking at him, he was out, and he wasn’t waking up,” she said.
After consulting with Matthew Heyd, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, Varghese left the ceremony to accompany her father to the hospital. “I thought, I’m here with literally 700 people I love, who love me and love this cathedral,” Varghese told Christian Century. “I know I have a remarkable bishop and canons and leadership … I can just be my father’s daughter because these people, they will know what to do.”
But, she added, “I feel extraordinarily conflicted about it [leaving], and I think I will forever.”
The next day, Varghese — who is also the first gay woman of color to serve as the cathedral’s dean — posted an Instagram photo of herself with her father at the hospital and told followers he was feeling much better. “We are so grateful for your prayers,” she wrote. “We are so sorry not to have finished the service that so many worked so hard to prepare; and we are endlessly grateful for your support.”
Varghese told Christian Century she hopes to deliver the remarks she prepared for the ceremony at a later date.
Read the full story on Varghese’s installation — HERE. And see an interview with Varghese on NY1 — HERE.
Autumn leaves. Photo courtesy WSR archive.
Fall is here, and it won’t be long until Central Park’s 18,000 trees turn the landscape into what the Central Park Conservancy calls “a kaleidoscope” of color: crimson, scarlet, gold, yellow, orange, purple.
To make sure no one misses out on it, the conservancy recently activated its Foliage Tracker Map, which is updated daily by park arborists, and allows users to see where leaves are changing at eight locations in the park. As of yesterday, there was “no change” at any of the locations, but when the leaves do start to turn, you may want to check out The New York Times travel section, which recently included Central Park as one of six great places for urban leaf peeping. (The others are Mount Royal Park in Montreal; the Arnold Arboretum in Boston; Stanley Park in Vancouver; Centennial Park in Nashville; and Burke-Gilman Trail in Seattle.)
The Times suggests a mile-long loop through the North Woods as an ideal way to take in the autumn leaves, entering the park at West 103rd Street and walking past the northern edge of the pool, toward the grotto. “On your way, take in the greenish-yellow beech tree leaves, the scarlet-hued black tupelo and the sweetgum trees that mark the path,” the paper advises, also suggesting stops at the Blockhouse (which overlooks the Harlem Meer) and the Great Hill.
Read the full story — HERE and find a map of the North Woods — HERE. The conservancy’s Foliage Tracker is — HERE.
Pool table. Photo courtesy WSR archives
About 15 years ago, while watching a friend compete in a regional pool tournament in Midtown, UWSer Matt Kenefick — a pool enthusiast since childhood — got the urge to shoot a few games himself. The problem: There was no easy way to find a place to play.
So Kenefick, who has 30 years of software development experience, created one. ChalkySticks, the website and mobile app he launched in 2013, includes a searchable database of more than 10,000 places to play pool in New York City and around the world. Users also can create profiles, watch professionals play, map out difficult shots on a page called “the pad,” and shoot balls on a 3D simulator.
“I thought, ‘I can’t be the only person who wants this and it doesn’t exist, so someone else must want it,’ and I like to make stuff, so that was what I made,” Kenefick told amNY, which recently profiled him. “I want pool to grow and so, anything that I can do to help facilitate that, is what I’m working on and so that’s kind of how ChalkySticks evolved.”
Kenefick told amNY he spends almost 40 hours a week on the app, and though he is thinking about ways to monetize it, it currently is free. “I want to allow people to find the information that they need,” he said. “Like, if they want to find a pool table, I don’t want to get in the way of that. One of the primary guiding lines that I have for myself is I want to keep a lot of it free.”
Read the full story — HERE. And check out the ChalkySticks site (which includes a link to download the mobile app) — HERE.
ICYMI
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