Monday, May 6, 2024
Cloudy. High 71 degrees.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
National Teacher Appreciation Day is on Tuesday.
Mother’s Day is Sunday
Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
The Upper West Side townhouse where Tom Cruise both lived and worked as its super just saw its asking price fall by $3 million, as first reported by the New York Post.
The landmarked property at 50 West 86th Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West, will now cost buyers $12 million, down from its previous $15 million price tag this past fall.
The five-story townhouse comprises eight separate market rate units, but it can also be converted back into a single-family home.
The property has a pool on the ground floor, multiple fireplaces, private roof decks, an optional commercial space, and more, according to a listing on Brown Harris Stevens.
Cruise lived in the Upper West Side building shortly before he got his big break in the 1981 film “Taps.” He paid half the rent by working as the super, while his mother paid the other half.
He wasn’t the only future movie star to call 50 West 86th Street home; Sarah Jessica Parker and her then-boyfriend Robert Downey Jr. also lived in the building for a period of time.
You can find out more — HERE.
A newly opened Upper West Side Italian restaurant just received a glowing review from the food news-and-review publication Eater New York.
Sempre Oggi opened in mid-March at 164 West 75th Street, off the corner of Amsterdam Avenue, and Eater editor Melissa McCart paid it a visit.
Her subsequent piece, titled “Where the Chicken and Crispy Bits Snag the Spotlight,” said the Upper West Side newcomer “delivers soulful, well-priced Italian.”
The 130-seat restaurant is headed by Robert Guarino, who is also behind Marseille and Nizza in Hell’s Kitchen, and 5 Napkin Burger, which has a location in the neighborhood.
McCart listed the standout menu items as the Romanesco with an olive tapenade and Calabrian chiles, the seafood salad with celery and olives, linguine with littlenecks and crispy breadcrumbs, almond-crusted halibut with fingerling potatoes, and veal cutlet with a salad.
Most cocktails are $11 a piece from 3 to 5 p.m.
You can read more about the new restaurant — HERE.
A celebration will take place on May 18 at 2 p.m. for the restoration of the Joan of Arc Statue at Riverside Drive and West 93rd Street.
Riverside Park Conservancy, along with the Joan of Arc Statue Committee, the Municipal Art Society of New York, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, will celebrate the restoration of the statue’s pedestal base in a public ceremony.
It is the statue’s first restoration of the base since its unveiling in 1915, and the ceremony will include a visit from the French consul general of France in New York. Additionally, the ceremony will feature musical performances by Broadway star Norm Lewis (Les Misérables) and the P.S. 84 Student Choir, as well as a theatrical performance by the Hudson Classical Theater Company.
“’For the Love of Joan’ is a well-deserved nod to all Upper West Siders who continue supporting the JOAN Statue Committee and its efforts to care for our iconic heirloom,” said Randy Hugill in a news release. He is the Chair of the Joan of Arc Statue Committee, the volunteer group dedicated to the upkeep of the statue and its four-block parkland. “Our Committee of volunteers raised the funding for this significant restoration work entirely through private donations from the community.”
The statue was sculpted by Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington. Commissioned in 1915, it was part of the City Beautiful movement that helped transform Riverside Park, in honor of Joan of Arc’s 500th birthday.
The sculpture was the first NYC park monument dedicated to a nonfiction woman, and is considered a symbol of both the friendship and alliance between the United States and France, and the empowerment of women.
The event is FREE, and you don’t need to RSVP.
Mother’s Day is on Sunday, May 12, and Secret NYC recently put together a guide for different ways to celebrate the holiday in New York City in 2024.
The guide provides citywide options that include special holiday brunches, cruises, garden celebrations, spas, and off-Broadway shows.
New York Botanical Garden is hosting a special Garden Party on May 11 and 12, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., that will be perfectly arranged for Mother’s Day and include lawn games, collage and crafts, and face painting.
For those looking to visit a famous building on the day, One Vanderbilt is hosting an immersive event for the holiday, which will provide lots of photo opportunities and “Mom-mosas.”
You can read the full Mother’s Day guide — HERE.
Columbia University has cancelled its university-wide graduation ceremony, which was scheduled for May 15.
Columbia University President Nemat Shafik made the announcement on Monday, after a couple of tumultuous weeks in which pro-Palestinian protestors put up a tent encampment and later occupied a campus building. Hundreds of city police were called in last week to arrest dozens of occupiers, and Shafik asked police to continue providing security until after the scheduled May 15 graduation.
Now, “We have decided to make the centerpiece of our Commencement activities our Class Days and school-level ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, rather than the university-wide ceremony,” Shafik wrote in announcing the cancellation. In prior years, Columbia has held a schoolwide event along with class days at individual schools.
Shafik also said Columbia will relocate any school ceremonies currently scheduled for the South Lawn of Morningside campus, which is where the first Gaza Solidarity Encampment was erected. The university is “looking at the possibility of a festive event on May 15 to take the place of the large, formal ceremony,” she wrote.
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What time is the Joan of Arc ceremony?
The poster says 2-3pm.
It is so wrong that people who have worked hard for years will have to forgo their graduation because of these demonstrations in favor of HAMAS.
True, but the ceremonies for the individual colleges and divisions are more intimate, each person’s name is called and that person goes on stage, etc. So they’ll have that.
They’ll have that, but they should have both. The energy and the speakers at a large university commencement are very exciting.
Especially since most of them had to forgo their high school graduation 4 years ago because of Covid.
These poor college kids—senior year of high school destroyed by covid —many missed prom or commencement then —then on to first years of college either remote or again covid restricted and impacted—most had to take at least three experimental genetic shots to be allowed to attend college —and now cancelled commencements—enough already!
Experimental genetic shots???? You would not happen to be referring to vaccines, would you?
It’s interesting that in all my points about these kids born in the early 2000s and all the impacts on them by covid and politics you would pick out how I described the jab—I truly feel sorry they cannot have more normalcy in their lives and that was my point
Please no drama. These vaccines most likely got us out of the most horrible pandemic, but the fact remains that they were not sufficiently tested and a lot of people got serious side effects. So yes, they helped tremendously, but the mechanism itself wasn’t approved even for cancer at the time of their rollout that makes them – as much as you hate the term “ experimental”. But did they help – yes, absolutely.
It doesn’t have to be all black and white as with most medications.
They should have the ceremonies and arrest any person who interrupts it. Deport anyone with a visa. I have no patience for this anymore.
Agree 100%. Columbia canceling the graduation ceremony is a big win for the protesters. Don’t give them a victory.
I am with you 100%.
The over whelming and vast majority of American students do not support these protestors but they have been inconvenienced by them and many will now pay the price of forfeiting a once in a lifetime graduation ceremony with their families because the protestors and professional agitators might create a scene. It’s very unfortunate. I rarely agree with Mayor Adams but believe he is correct that the graduation ceremonies should have proceeded and anyone who interferes should be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. That said, one never knows if things could get out of hand and I can understand why the schools don’t want to take chances with anyone’s safety, especially with the enormous crowds. It’s a real pity for the graduates.
The Sempre Oggi review begins by referring to the restaurant as “well-priced”. I am no cheapskate when dining out, but well-priced must refer to the owners, not the diners. I was surprised at how expensive the menu is! Vegetable sides at $16-$24????
Too bad about the graduation. There was really no choice. If someone causes a disruption in say Madison Square Garden you can drag him to an exit in a short time. If someone starts screaming at the graduation you might have to drag him a hundred yards or more. Just impossible if there are multiple disrupters.
Sempre Oggi was brilliant my first visit, but not so much my second. Too many technical flaws in the cooking and the prep. Third time will be the ultimate decider for me.