📌 Pinned Missed these? Your neighbors didn't.

🌟 The Summer 10 📣 NEW — We're featuring 10 UWS neighbors this summer. The doorman, the bench regular, the new couple who already knows the bodega guy. Nominate yourself or someone you know — we'll talk to anyone. Even you, reading this in bed before your first coffee. Fill out the form.

🍜 UWS Outdoor Dining + NYT 100 ✨ NEW: NYT 100 Added

⛺ Summer Camp 2026 Guide

🧩 Inclusive Camp Guide

Next time you're at the pool table at Tap a Keg in Manhattan Valley, look around. The person running the table might be Dr. Jackie Faherty. Dr. Faherty, astrophysicist by day and popcorn loving potential pool shark by night, is responsible for calculating when Manhattanhenge happens each year as part of her role at the American Museum of Natural History. She does the math. We take the photos. Everybody wins.

The name itself comes from our cosmic captain Neil deGrasse Tyson, who christened it in 1997 after studying stones and the cosmos in the British Isles. He first photographed the phenomenon from 34th and Park Ave. The building canyons of Park Avenue reminded him of Stonehenge. Which, honestly, is the most flattering thing anyone has ever said about Midtown.

A favorite tidbit Tyson loves correcting people on: the sun does not rise in the east and set in the west. This pedantic and precise detail? It only happens during the equinoxes. Every other day, it rises and sets in a slightly different spot. Twice a year, the sunset lines up perfectly with the cross streets and paves the streets in golden light. That's Manhattanhenge.

2026 dates: 🌗 Thursday, May 28 — 8:14 PM (half sun) 🌕 Friday, May 29 — 8:13 PM (full sun) 🌕 Saturday, July 11 — 8:20 PM (full sun) 🌗 Sunday, July 12 — 8:21 PM (half sun)

Best viewing: 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, and 57th streets, looking west. Get as far east as you can with a clear sightline. More on Manhattanhenge from NY1.

Twenty-five artist-designed pianos just landed across all five boroughs, and the UWS got one. It's at Sherman Square (Broadway & W 70th), and it's in residence through June 7.

The program is Sing for Hope, celebrating 25 years this summer. Artists paint pianos, they go outside, anyone can play them. You walk by, you sit down, you play. Nobody asks if you're any good. When the three weeks are up, every single one gets permanently placed at a school, hospital, or community center. They've placed hundreds over 25 years.

Our piano is called "Aladdin" — designed by Sonya Balsara, who plays Jasmine in Aladdin on Broadway. The lamp lighting up a night sky made of actual sheet music from "A Whole New World," a magic carpet against the moon, the Agrabah skyline. It's almost too pretty to play. Almost.

UWS resident Kaitlin Simonson, founder and Artistic Director of Lux Mea Women's Chorus, is leading her group in the Sing for Hope Choir Fest with a special performance at The Dairy Visitor Center in Central Park alongside The Lion King piano. Saturday, May 30 at 1:00 PM. FREE.

Go tickle the ivories. Or just sit on a bench and listen to a stranger play something beautiful.

Commencement season hit the neighborhood this week. Columbia held its ceremony on May 20 at Morningside. But the speech West Siders need to hear came from Fordham, where former Upper West Sider Hoda Kotb gave the Class of 2026 nine life lessons:

She closed by playing Sinatra's "New York, New York" on her phone. Took her a minute to find it on Spotify. Peak Hoda.

We loved Hoda's 2026 commencement. And The West Sider, as a proud millennial publication, maintains that the greatest commencement advice ever given is still "Wear Sunscreen," Mary Schmich's 1997 column in the Chicago Tribune, immortalized by Baz Luhrmann in 1999. We will die on this hill. If you loved it too, drop us a line [email protected]

We don't do sports. We do tension, romance, cliffhangers, and drama. Right now the Knicks are the best show in town.

Five issues. Five weeks of biting our tongue.

Game 1: Down 22 in the fourth. A 0.1% win probability. Jalen Brunson looked at James Harden and chose violence. Thirty-eight points. An 18-1 run. A tied game with 19 seconds left. A 9-0 overtime opener. Final: Knicks 115, Cavs 104.The Garden lost its collective mind. The only bigger fourth-quarter playoff comeback in the last 30 years was the 2012 Clippers.

Game 2: Josh Hart woke up and chose 26 points, a playoff career high. Eighteen unanswered in the third quarter. KAT grabbed 13 boards. Brunson coasted with 19 and 14 assists. Sam Merrill went 0-for-7 from three. Knicks 109, Cavs 93.Game 3 Saturday in Cleveland.

Nine straight playoff wins. 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals. Three wins away from a thing we refuse to name. You know the thing. We know the thing. Nobody say the thing.

Opened: 🛣️ Open Streets — The city launched its 2026 Open Streets program this week. The UWS has two locations. Cars out. Kids, bikes, strollers, and dogs in.

Opened: 💪 Étude 72 — 133 W 72nd St, Suite 501 (between Amsterdam and Columbus). Gyrotonic, Pilates, and strength training in a boutique studio that opened in April. Rebecca Correia went from professional dancer to COVID-era private trainer to full studio owner, all without leaving the building. Private, duet, and small group sessions, seven days a week.

Update: 🍷 Ghemo — 201 W 106th St. The Georgian wine restaurant and bakery we told you about last issue pushed its May 20 opening to "some time next week." Close enough to smell the khachapuri.

Scaffolding down: 🏗️ The Henry — 211 W 84th St at Broadway. The luxury condo's scaffolding is finally gone and the sidewalk is wide and sunny again. Welcome back, sky.

Temporarily closed: 🛒 Trader Joe's 72nd Street — 2073 Broadway. Closed May 17 for a months-long renovation. New refrigeration, new escalators. Don't autopilot to 72nd out of habit. Columbus Ave at 93rd is still open. Gentle reminder, because we're all suffering: what's for dinner?

Temporarily closed: ✂️ Metro II Hair Studio — 952 Amsterdam (between 106th and 107th). Closed May 17 for renovations, reopening May 24. One week. Your roots can wait.

Moving: 🏥 ENT & Allergy Associates — From 620 Columbus Ave to 2431 Broadway (between 89th and 90th) in late June. The old Face Values and Beyond space finally gets a tenant.

Opening this summer: 🎶 Sweet Peanut Records — 463 Amsterdam (between 82nd and 83rd). Vinyl, CDs, cassettes, listening sessions, album release nights, and somewhere to go that isn't a coffee shop or a bar. We'll wait while you process that.

🌧️ Memorial Day weekend. The forecast is 56° and rain. The events are better. Summer arrives Wednesday.

✈️ KLM 80th Anniversary Pop-Up — New-York Historical Society, 170 CPW. May 22–27, 11 AM–5 PM (closed Mon 5/25). KLM became the first European airline to fly to New York 80 years ago. The flight took 25 hours. To celebrate, there's a Delft House pop-up in the lobby with vintage menus, aviation history, and a limited-edition miniature ceramic house modeled after the NY Historical building. Only 300 made. Filled with Dutch gin. You read that right. The Old Masters, New Amsterdam exhibit is upstairs. FREE.

🎭 Free Shakespeare in the Park: Romeo & Juliet — Delacorte Theater. Opens tonight. Through 6/28. Line up at the 81st Street entrance and try your luck. The Delacorte is freshly renovated. The tragedy is not. Pro tip: the show often goes on in drizzle and light rain. They rarely cancel before 8 PM, so head to the box office anyway — people have been known to score tickets just as it's starting. FREE. How to get tickets.

🎵 Baylor University Organists at St. John the Divine — 1047 Amsterdam at 112th. Tonight, 7:30 PM. Jens Korndörfer and competition winner Hyewon Park on 8,500 pipes inside the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world. FREE with reservation.

**Clarified it is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world.

🚢 Intrepid Museum: Memorial Day Weekend — W 46th St & 12th Ave. Four days. One aircraft carrier.

🚢 USCGC Vincent Danz — Pier 86. Sat 10 AM–6 PM. A Fast Response Cutter homeported in Guam, named for Vincent Danz — Marine Corps veteran, NYPD officer, and Coast Guard Reserve specialist who gave his life on September 11, 2001. The cutter departs Sunday morning.

🎖️ Riverside Park Memorial Day Ceremony — Soldiers & Sailors Memorial. Monday 5/25, 10 AM–12 PM. The annual tribute with active duty members, veterans, and elected officials. Guest speaker: the Honorable Thomas Duffy, retired diplomat and naval officer who served aboard USS Cochrane during the Tanker War and later as US Consul General in Jeddah.

🎶 NYS Parks Memorial Day Concert — Riverbank State Park, 679 Riverside Dr at 145th. Monday 5/25, 3–7:30 PM. 3D Rhythm of Life and Harvey Morris and Deep Cover. FREE.

Wear Sunscreen, that’s it. Just give it watch to refresh.

💦 Playground water features are turning on. The unofficial official start of summer. If you haven't been soaked by a hippo or a shooting fountain spray while yelling at your kid to share the bucket, have you lived?

🐦 Birding Bob — Central Park. The man has been leading bird walks for 25 years and still gets excited about a warbler. Saturdays and Sundays, typically 7:30 AM and 9:30 AM starts. Newbies welcome. Check birdingbob.com for the full schedule. $10.

🌷 Conservatory Garden Tours — Enter at 105th & Fifth Ave. Go behind the scenes with the people who actually keep this place alive. Tulips, lilacs, summer perennials, and the kind of quiet that makes you forget you live on an island with 8 million people. The garden has been erasing the stresses of city living since 1937. It still works. FREE to $33.

🏞️ Iconic Views of Central Park Tour — Starts at the Columbus Circle Information Kiosk. Sunday 5/24, 10 AM. Sheep Meadow, the Mall, Bethesda Terrace, the Lake. You've walked past all of them a thousand times. You've never actually stopped. This is the tour that makes you stop. FREE to $33.

🤖 Lincoln Center: DIY Automata Workshop — Sunday 5/24, 1 PM. Build mechanical moving sculptures with puppeteers Alex and Olmsted. If your kid takes apart everything in your apartment, this is the class that finally makes that a skill. FREE.

🐯 Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood at the Bronx Zoo — May 22–September 7. The Zoo is Daniel Tiger's neighborhood now. Live performances, a meet-and-greet, a life-sized fully accessible Trolley (ding ding), a music wall, dress-up stations, and an interactive exhibit at Giraffe Corner. Of course the parents and kids are going to high-five Daniel and friends. This is the tiger who gave us "When you're mad and want to roar, just take a breath and count to four" and "When you have to go potty, stop and go right away." He's a legend. Free with Bronx Zoo ticket or membership.

👸 The Grandest Princess Ball Ever — Carmine's, Times Square. Sat 5/23 & Sun 5/24, 11:30 AM–2 PM. This month it's The Little Mermaid. Singalongs, dancing, interactive games, a royal dessert bar, and princesses your kid will not stop talking about for weeks. 1 hour 45 minutes. All ages. ADA accessible. Characters rotate, dates are limited. Saturday is going fast. Rain? Doesn't matter. You're indoors with a tiara and a cannoli. Optional lunch buffet ($15 kids, $25 adults). $55.

🎪 PS 87 Spring Fair: Camp 87 — Saturday 5/30, 2–5 PM, PS 87 playground (W 77th & Amsterdam). S'mores, tie-dye, carnival games, face painting, balloon animals, photo booth, bake sale, used book sale. Timothée Chalamet went here and now he's front row at the Knicks. Your kid could be next. $20.

🏛️ New-York Historical Society: DiMenna Children's History Museum — 170 CPW. Sunday story times, crafts, singalongs, dances, and games for ages 3–6. There's so much on the family calendar it's almost suspicious. Use code FAMPASS26 for FREE admission for groups of four (must include children). Good through 7/31.

🪨 AMNH: Astronomy Live — The Hidden Worlds of Asteroids — Hayden Planetarium. Tuesday, June 9. In 1998, Bruce Willis saved the planet from an asteroid. In 2022, NASA actually tried it. This is what they learned. The program covers how NASA's DART mission changed our understanding of planetary defense, plus how the museum is using cutting-edge imaging to unlock secrets hidden inside its own meteorite collection. Find out how close we've actually come to a real-life Armageddon, or continue in blissful ignorance. Your call. Tickets go fast.

🎬 Tribeca Festival — June 3–14. The festival was born after 9/11 to bring people back downtown, it's turning 25 this year, and it's stacked. Filmmakers who got their start at Tribeca — Damien Chazelle, Ryan Coogler, Jon M. Chu, the Daniels — are coming back. A loaded music-doc lineup, live performances after premieres, and three nights at the Beacon Theatre you need to know about. This is the kind of thing that makes living in New York worth the rent. We're telling you now so you can make plans and actually keep them:

🌱 West 90s Neighborhood Association — The folks who adopted the Broadway & 96th subway station plaza are doing a planting with NYC Parks and the Broadway Mall Association. Saturday, May 31, 9:30 AM. They say they have enough workers. Show up anyway. Nobody's ever been mad about extra hands and free dirt.

Be the neighbor you think you are.

🧹Alternate side parking is suspended three days this week. Leave the car. Enjoy it.

🌟 The Summer 10. Still taking nominations. We want the neighbor who makes your block feel like your block. The one your kid waves to every morning. The one who always has a chair outside. Could be the rent-stabilized lady in your building who's seen five presidents from the same apartment. Could be the new folks who just moved in and already know the super by name. Fill out the form. We'll tell their stories all summer.

📣 SHARE THE WEST SIDER Forward responsibly. Or irresponsibly. We're not picky.

Twelve issues. Still free. Still weekly. Still the only newsletter where you'll learn about planetary defense, Daniel Tiger, and Dutch gin in the same scroll. Trader Joe's is closed and we're all figuring out dinner. Nominate someone for The Summer 10. Check the map. See you next Friday. We're not going anywhere. Neither are you.

— The West Sider