📌 Pinned Missed these? Your neighbors didn't.

🍜 UWS Outdoor Dining + NYT 100 + Where to Watch the Knicks — Nearly 70,000 of you have used this map.

🌟 The Summer 10 — Nominate a neighbor. We'll tell their story all summer.

⛺ Summer Camp 2026 Guide

🧩 Inclusive Camp Guide

Flip on your AC this summer and there's a real chance the electricity behind it started as falling water in Quebec. The Champlain Hudson Power Express, a 1,250-megawatt cable running over 330 miles, switched on this month. It travels from Canada, down through Lake Champlain, under the Hudson, and surfaces at a converter station in Astoria. It can run about a million homes, almost a fifth of everything the city draws. The whole thing is buried or underwater, so you'll never lay eyes on it. The opposite of scaffolding.

Quick word on Quebec. The province is more than twice the size of Texas, about the size of Alaska. Mostly forest, mostly French, mostly unbothered. Also: Canada makes 70% of the world's pure maple syrup, and 90% of that is from Quebec. Real maple syrup is essentially Quebec in a bottle. Your weekend pancakes have been Canadian for years. Now your electricity is too.

Last week, the NYPD pulled the permits on the outdoor watch parties outside MSG after the crowds got too rowdy. Then, hours before Game 1, the city reversed itself and granted permits for parties at Plaza 33 next to the Garden and at SummerStage in Central Park. The free tickets sold out in under an hour. The line for Levain has lasted longer. The catch: the permit was good for Game 1 and nothing else. Whether the parties come back for the home games is still undecided.

The Knicks took Game 1 in San Antonio, 105-95, erasing a 14-point hole and running off the final 11 points. Our clutch captain Jalen Brunson scored 30. They lead the series 1-0 with twelve straight playoff wins. Game 2 is tonight in San Antonio. Then it comes home: Game 3 at MSG on Monday June 8, Game 4 on Wednesday June 10, both at 8:30pm. (It's a rematch of 1999, the last time these two met in the Finals. The Spurs won that one. We've waited.)

Watching with strangers who care too much is the whole point. The west side has no shortage of bars where shouting is encouraged, your neighbors become family by halftime, and a Brunson three counts as community news. Our Where to Watch the Knicks Finals map has every one.

Always Knicks!

Three west side real estate stories this week, with nothing in common but the zip code.

The Hunt. The Times tracked a family of four upsizing from a duplex in a W. 80s brownstone. Budget: $1.5M. They needed an office, and three bedrooms so their son and daughter could stop sharing one. They offered $1.55M on a W. 94th two-bedroom. Lost to all-cash. Tried W. 98th. Lost to all-cash again. (If you've house-hunted up here, you know.) Third time was the charm: a four-bedroom on W. 103rd they hadn't even considered, picked up for $1.635M. So glad we didn't lose you to the burbs. We were sweating. The Manhattan Valley food scene is about to ruin you for everywhere else on the UWS.

The arrival. A new Robert A.M. Stern Architects building revealed itself on W. 88th this week: 36 condos, three to five bedrooms, gated motor court, stone-covered loggias, RAMSA's first all-electric residential project. The buyers will tell everyone. Quebec doesn't know it has a new building to power. Same firm behind 15 Central Park West, so you know the type. We've watched the demo, the dig, and the build. Now we get to watch who buys.

The sale. The Real Deal reports a buyer signed a contract on the 19,600-square-foot double-wide at 48-50 W. 69th, last asking $85 million. Eleven bathrooms for five bedrooms. Do the math. A 55-foot indoor lap pool that we promise is not a typo. If it closes at asking, it's a new UWS townhouse record, well past the $26M paid for 248 CPW in 2022. French businessman Pierre Bastid and jazz singer Malou Beauvoir bought the two adjacent townhouses in 2011-12 for $24.5M, knocked them down in 2018, and spent the years since building a megamansion the neighbors hated being next to. The contract is signed. The deal isn't closed. The neighbors are holding their breath.

For America's 250th, NYPL has two asks.

The first is small. They've designed a special-edition library card with Jefferson's handwritten Declaration on it. Jefferson made copies for friends after ratification. NYPL has one. Naturally. Jefferson's actual handwriting. On a library card. If your card has expired, you just got handed an excuse.

NYPL has done specials before: Snowy Day (2020), Spider-Man (2022), Hip-hop at 50 (2023). Only one was a west side exclusive: the 2019 Lou Reed card, a run of 6,000 handed out only at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, Mick Rock's Transformer photo on the front. Lou Reed, on a library card. If you have one, frame it.

The bigger ask: NYPL has partnered with StoryCorps on "We the People: Reflections on America's 250th", inviting anyone in the U.S. to walk into a booth and reflect on what the 250th means to them. The booth opens June 15 at the Schwarzman Building (the one with the lions) and runs through January 10, 2027. Plenty of time to figure out what you actually think. Adults submit online; teens 13–17 record onsite with a parent. Equipment list, per StoryCorps: "an open heart."

Your recording joins NYPL's archive, collecting New Yorkers' stories since 1895. Someday a great-grandchild you'll never meet will hear exactly what you thought of 2026.

Not strictly UWS, but a tantalizing tidbit on New York art history.

In 1938, the WPA paid artist Abram Champanier to paint Alice in Wonderland on the children's ward at Gouverneur Hospital on the Lower East Side. The hospital was abandoned in the 1960s. Nobody told the mural.

Almost 90 years and one decades-long restoration later, Alice of Wonderland Visiting New York is on view as part of Another Wonderland at the Museum of the City of New York, across the park at 1220 Fifth Ave at 103rd. Alice has aged better than most of us.

Want the rescue story? MCNY is hosting Behind the Surface: Conserving WPA Murals Thursday June 11, 6:30pm. Exhibition access at 5:45. Panelists include the Whitney's Barbara Haskell and conservators from Foreground Conservation. $30 general, $25 members.

An appeals court ruled Wednesday that NYC has to text you every time sewage spills into local waters. Every spill, within four hours.

The Department of Environmental Protection had been doing it differently. Their models guessed which spills would breach water standards. Those got texts. The rest stayed between DEP and the river.

The Appellate Division disagreed. All spills. The law that says so passed in 2013. The city has been... selective about which ones counted.

NYC pumps over 20 billion gallons of untreated sewage into local waters a year. Mostly during heavy rain.

Not to be an alarmist, but last summer, five of the city's eight public beaches got at least one swimming advisory. South Beach in Staten Island: 31 advisory days. Boosters Beach on the East River: 99. YIKES.

The city may appeal. They've had thirteen years.

In the meantime, sign up at NY-Alert. The phone will know before you do.

Opened: 🥪 Tomas Sandwich Shop, 930 Columbus Ave (between 105th & 106th). A sandwich and coffee shop that opened May 24 in the old Domimex Beauty Salon space. Owner Diana Munoz named it after her cat. The cat is fine with it.

Opened: 🏋️ Lift NYC, 2091 Broadway (at 72nd), second floor. The UWS fitness company opened its third neighborhood studio on June 1, adding to its spots on 79th and 80th. The pitch is your own squat rack, no sharing, classes capped at eight. Eight people. Eight squat racks. Math finally works.

Closed: 🪴 easyplant, 334 Columbus Ave (between 75th & 76th). The self-watering plant shop shut all three of its Manhattan stores on May 31. The whole idea was a plant you couldn't kill. The store, it turns out, was killable. It lives on at easyplant.com.

Closed: 🥖 Ban Ban Shop, 2911 Broadway (between 113th & 114th). The modern Southeast Asian spot near Columbia closed May 29, two years in, after the owners opted not to renew the lease. Michelin-starred chef Nils Noren wants to try again elsewhere. The lease died before the food did.

Probably closed: ☕ Casasalvo, 473 Amsterdam Ave (between 82nd & 83rd). The Italian café has been dark since February. The owner promised a reopening in March. Then April. Then May. Then June 1. It is June. The door has a Con Ed notice and a sign that says it's no longer open. We have our answer.

On the move: 🎬 New Plaza Cinema, leaving 35 W 67th St (between Columbus & CPW). The art-house theater is vacating its Macaulay Honors College screening room from June 3 through August 28 while the building handles construction. A summer pop-up venue is coming "in the coming days." It's bounced between a JCC, a college, and a church since 2018, so a new address is practically its native habitat.

Coming: 🚲 The West 72nd Street bike lane (Streetsblog NYC), West 72nd, Central Park to the Hudson.Community Board 7 voted 26 to 19 on Tuesday to endorse DOT's two-way protected lane, the UWS's first protected bike route from park to river, six years after CB7 first asked DOT to build it. The vote is advisory but DOT could break ground by summer. We've been on this since Issue #4. Shovels by summer. Block meetings forever.

🌤️Weather: Friday 89, Saturday peaks at 91, Sunday eases to 84. Mostly sunny, almost no rain in the forecast. UV index hits 9 of 11. Sunscreen is non-optional.

This weekend's events:

🎤 Madonna in Conversation + Film Premiere: Confessions II — Beacon Theatre, 74th & Broadway. Tonight (Fri June 5), 8pm, doors 6:30. Tribeca's last Beacon night: Madonna premieres the film for her forthcoming album Confessions II, then takes the stage with Jimmy Fallon. Phones lock in Yondr pouches at the door, so you'll actually have to watch it. $137–$390. Tickets still available as of send. Move fast.

💃 Mary, Queen of Scots — Scottish Ballet at the David H. Koch Theater. Friday 7:30, Saturday 2:30 and 7:30, Sunday 2:30. $70–$260. Scottish Ballet stages the doomed rivalry between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, with an original score played live by the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Two queens who never actually met, getting one last go at it. Four centuries late. Tudor drama on pointe.

🎭 Sunday at Symphony Space: NT Live double feature. The Thalia (Leonard Nimoy) screens two filmed National Theatre productions Sun June 7.

🌅 Summer on the Hudson is in season. Riverside Park Conservancy's free summer programming. Five events at Pier I (West 70th) and Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument (89th & Riverside) this weekend. Pick one. Pick all five.

🎬 Lenfest Teens: Isle of Dogs — Columbia University Lenfest Center for the Arts, 615 W 129th St. Saturday, 2–3:45pm. Wes Anderson's stop-motion film about banished dogs and the kid who goes looking for one. Recommended ages 11+. FREE, first-come first-served. Lenfest overbooks. Arrive early or stand in the standby line and hope.

💃 Dancing on the Overlook: Salsa — Wollman Rink, Central Park (near East 63rd). Saturday, 11am–1pm. Arthur Murray's Saturday dance series at the Overlook; this week is salsa. Bring hips. Grown-ups welcome too. FREE.

Ongoing/continuing:

Late Wednesday, the State Senate passed a bill that would make stores round cash totals to the nearest nickel. Senate 59-2. Assembly 133-4. The penny does not have many friends in Albany. The bill is on Hochul's desk.

The federal Mint stopped producing pennies on November 12, 2025. Each one was costing almost four cents to make.

The math, cash only: totals ending in 1, 2, 6, or 7 round down. Totals ending in 3, 4, 8, or 9 round up. Cards will be to the penny.

Canada killed the penny in 2012. Australia in 1992. New Zealand in 1990, and they retired the nickel in 2006 for good measure. They have been laughing at us for thirty-six years. We are very, very late. Baaaaaaaa.

The bodega register is about to get simpler. Your change jar is about to get lighter. Someone you know will defend the penny. They will live.

Last week's question: biggest streetscape issue on your block? Eighteen voted. Scaffolding won in a landslide (10). Trash cans and "something else" tied at 3. Tree canopy got 2. Broken streetlights: zero. Not one. We devoted a whole section to one last week. Message received. The scaffolding, meanwhile, remains. It was up before you moved in. It'll be up after you leave.

🎤 SummerStage turns 40 at Rumsey Playfield, Central Park (mid-park around 69th–72nd). City Parks Foundation's free outdoor concert series, since 1986. Four decades of free music. In this city, suspicious. Three Central Park nights in this issue's window. Bass DJ, Grammy R&B, aughts emo, in that order. Range, in other words.

🌳 West Side Tree Care Clinic, West 65th & Amsterdam. Monday June 8, 5:30–7pm. Trees New York hosts a hands-on street-tree clinic with Council Member Brewer's office. Learn to care for the canopy. Or just hang out with the people who can tell a London plane from a Callery pear. FREE.

🎭 NY Classical Theatre: The Tragedy of Julius Caesar — Central Park, enter at West 103rd & Central Park West. Tuesdays through Sundays, 7–9pm, through June 21. The other free Shakespeare in Central Park. NY Classical's "Panoramic Theatre" means no fixed stage; the audience walks with the actors from scene to scene. Shakespeare with a step count. Directed by Stephen Burdman. FREE. Reservations encouraged for weather updates; walk-ups always welcome. Bring a picnic, a blanket, a chair, and good shoes.

Saturday, June 6 — three 11am options and an afternoon story hour, all free, all worth it:

🌈 Pride Family Picnic, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Pulpit Green (1047 Amsterdam at 112th). 11am–2pm. The Cathedral Gardens open for picnicking and yard games; the Queer Big Apple Corps Marching Band plays at noon, then an instrument petting zoo. FREE with reservation. No rain backup, so cross fingers.

🎭 Hans Christian Andersen Storytelling Center, Central Park, at the bronze HCA statue near the Model Boat Pond / Conservatory Water (closest entrance 5th & 72nd). 11am–noon. Opening day of the summer storytelling series, told under the bronze HCA, who has heard it all. This week: a Tewa myth (Dancing Down from the Stars) with live harp, plus HCA's own The Flying Trunk. Ages 6+. FREE. Saturdays through August 29.

🎨 MCNY Kids Art Studio, Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave at 103rd. 11am. Hands-on art workshop for ages 3+. Kids take home what they make. Or leave it on the wall. Kids FREE. Adult admission PWYW at the door (full price online).

📚 Summer on the Hudson: Story Hour, 102nd Street Field House, Riverside Park. 3–4pm. Riverside Park Conservancy's Saturday kids story hour. Fresh book, fresh reader, every week, all summer. FREE.

Sunday, June 7

🎩 Sundaes on the Overlook: Magic Dave, Wollman Rink, Central Park (near East 63rd). 11am–1pm. Wollman's Sunday family series ("Sundaes," because of course). This week: Magic Dave's interactive magic show. Children gasp on cue. FREE.

Wednesday, June 10

🎹 Music Storytime with Antonio Truyols, David Geffen Hall (LeFrak Lobby). 11am and 1pm. Pianist and composer Antonio Truyols runs a music-driven storytime, co-hosted by Lincoln Center and NYPL for the Performing Arts. Storytime with a Steinway. FREE.

🎭 Modern Marionette with Kim Profaci, Wollman Rink, Central Park (near East 63rd). 12–1:30pm. Puppeteer Kim Profaci, twenty years deep in handcrafted puppet shows. This is one of them. FREE.

Continuing:

🪨 AMNH: Astronomy Live — The Hidden Worlds of Asteroids — Hayden Planetarium Space Theater, enter at 81st & Central Park West. Tue June 9, 7pm. Planetary scientist Marina Gemma on what asteroids actually are, NASA's DART mission, and how CT scans see inside meteorites. Doors lock at 7:15, so don't be the person. $20 / $15 members.

🎼 Inside The Interestings: An Evening with Sara Bareilles, Michael Arden & Meg Wolitzer — Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. Tue June 9, 7pm. The three discuss their musical adaptation of Wolitzer's novel; Bareilles performs songs from her score, audience Q&A. A Symphony Space fundraiser, which is why the floor is $100. VIP gets a signed Bareilles print and a signed Wolitzer novel. $100–$395, 85 min.

🎻 Baroklyn, Simone Dinnerstein & CONCORA at the Naumburg Bandshell — Central Park, the Mall (around 72nd Street). Tue June 9, 7:30pm. Pianist Simone Dinnerstein leads her Baroklyn ensemble and the CONCORA chorus through Bach, Philip Glass's Suite from The Hours, and In the Air, a 2025 Bach setting by Philip Lasser. Opening night of the Naumburg series. Free classical at this bandshell since 1905. FREE, first-come seating. Broadcast live on WQXR. No rain date.

💃 Summer for the City opening week (June 10–12). Lincoln Center's free summer festival kicks off (everything below is FREE unless noted):

🎨 Exhibition on Screen: Frida Kahlo — The Making of an Icon — Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia. Thu June 11, 1pm. A film tour of the Tate Britain / MFA Houston blockbuster on Kahlo's life and art, directed by Ali Ray. Frida without the flight. Members $15, Non-members $17, Seniors $16 + $2 service fee, 90 min.

🎤 Uptown Showdown: Aliens vs. Robots — Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia. Thu June 11, 7pm. A panel of comedians argues whether the apocalypse will be alien or AI; the audience picks the winner. Hosted by Negin Farsad (Wait Wait), with Emmy Blotnick, Michael Cruz Kayne, and Kenice Mobley. $18 + $5 service fee, 90 min.

⚽ FIFA store at Columbus Circle, June 11 through July 19. The merch arrives with the tournament.

🌈 Pride Night at the Museum: Forces of Nature — AMNH, 81st St & Central Park West. Fri June 12, 7–10pm. The Museum's after-hours Pride event with drag artists Pattie Gonia, VERA!, and Sequoia, where the runway is the climate stage and fast fashion is the villain. Plus a live DJ, lightning talks on sustainability, a queer vendor market, and the Big Bang Theater experience. 21+. $30 GA, $25 members. Drink tickets on-site.

⚽ World Cup, World Cultures Celebration — AMNH, 81st & Central Park West. Saturday June 13, 11am–8pm (museum open until 9). Opening day of AMNH's summer-long World Cup programming. NYC FC runs 30-minute soccer clinics for ages 9–12 throughout the afternoon (register on-site, closed-toe shoes, no cleats). Watch parties for Qatar vs Switzerland at 3pm and Brazil vs Morocco at 6pm across multiple halls. Cultural performances in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. Yes, the one with the whale. New exhibition For the Win: Objects of Sports Excellence (70+ items) and the Goal Zone interactive play space are up too. The actual FIFA World Cup trophy was at AMNH this past Tuesday. FREE with museum admission. Timed-entry tickets required, so reserve now.

🌷 It's My Park at Bloomingdale Playground. Sunday June 7, 10am–2pm. Plant flowers, tend the gardens, leave the playground a little better than you found it. Friends of the Bloomingdale Inclusive Park and Playground host; meet at the play area. FREE.

Be the neighbor you think you are.

🎷 Dion Parson & 21st Century Band — Dizzy's Club. Friday through Sunday, two sets a night (Sunday at 5 and 7:30). Caribbean rhythm out front, percussion doing the heavy lifting. Cover charge plus a $10 food-and-beverage minimum per person, so factor that in.

🎺 Etienne Charles: Folklore LIVE Vol. 2 — The Appel Room. Friday (7 and 9) and Saturday (7). $67–$102. Trumpeter Etienne Charles builds a set out of African diaspora folklore, from Gullah-Geechee to Haitian Vodou to Garifuna, backed by a big band, dancers, and masquerade. The Central Park view behind the stage doesn't hurt.

🎻 NY Phil: Bruckner's Eighth — David Geffen Hall. Friday and Saturday, 7:30. $88–$238 (includes a $5 facility fee). Semyon Bychkov conducts Bruckner's Eighth to close out the Phil's season. Ninety minutes, no intermission, one enormous symphony.

🚗 Alternate side parking is in effect. No suspensions until Juneteenth (Friday, June 19). Move the car.

🏃 Mastercard New York Mini 10K, starts at Central Park West and W. 90th Street. Saturday June 6, 8am gun, race wraps by noon. The 54th running of the world's first women-only road race, founded in 1972 and named after the miniskirt. 10,500+ runners this year. NYRR closes a sizable stretch of the UWS to make it happen:

If you live along CPW or need to cross the park Saturday morning, plan accordingly.

🚧 Street closures across the UWS (via NYC DOT):

"Great newsletter…AGAIN! Keep up the amazing work!” — Betsy C.

That "AGAIN" did some heavy lifting. Betsy also caught us missing the Israel Day Parade; we added it to the online version. This is the deal: you read it, you tell us what we missed, we fix it. Thank you, Betsy.

🌟 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.

That's it for this week. Mind the heat. Mind the spills. Mind your pennies. See you Friday.Nominate someone for The Summer 10. Check the map. See you next Friday.

— The West Sider