Two black-and-white ruffed lemur babies and their mother, a critically endangered species, explore their environment at the Central Park Zoo. (More on the babies below.) Photo by Terria Clay, courtesy of WCS.

Today is Monday, August 10th, 2026

Today’s forecast calls for hazy sun with a high of 89. The rest of the week should be similar: Highs in the 80s every day, high humidity, and a mix of sun and clouds. Thunderstorms possible tomorrow and Wednesday.

On this date in 1939, the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” based on L. Frank Baum’s bestselling book and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, held its worldwide premiere in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It would go on to be nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and would win two: Best Original Song for “Over the Rainbow,” and Best Original Score. In addition, Garland received an Academy Juvenile Award, which was a special honorary Oscar bestowed at the discretion of the governing board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences between the years of 1934 and 1960.  She was one of 12 young actors to receive the award, which has since been discontinued.

Notices

Our calendar has lots of local events. Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.

News Roundup

Compiled by Laura Muha

A horse on break in Central Park. Photo via WSR archives,

It isn’t often that Lancaster Farming — a Pennsylvania-based publication focused on agricultural news — has reason to turn its attention to New York City. But it did just that last week, taking a look at how the proposed ban on Central Park carriage horses could affect horse-related industries in the Mid-Atlantic region.

As it turns out, the ripple effects could be significant — and not in a good way. Businesses throughout the region provide everything from the horses themselves to the wheelworks for the carriages, to the transportation companies that ferry the horses to and from their state-mandated rest breaks, the publication reported.

“It’s gonna be terrible for everybody,” Rich Fountaine, who owns a horse farm in Oak Ridge, N.J., told Lancaster Farming. For decades, he’s been transporting carriage horses back and forth to farms in the Mid-Atlantic region for their state-mandated five-week vacations each year.

He said he’d heard from farriers who shoe the horses, harness shops, and buggy hardware shops, all of which are worried about the ban. “They’re very upset about it, and it will definitely have a trickle-down effect,” Fountaine said. “No doubt about it.”

The City Council is currently considering a law that would ban carriage horses in the park. Called Romanch’s Law, after 18-year-old tourist Romanch Mahajan, who died after falling from a carriage in Central Park in May, it also includes a provision to help “retrain” the carriage drivers for other work.

Read the full story — HERE.

Photo courtesy of Gale Brewer.

Earlier this summer, the City Council approved a new law allowing the sanitation department to quite literally stick it to the half-million vehicles that violate alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules every week. It’s now gone into effect and City Councilmember Gale Brewer and Department of Sanitation Commissioner Greg Anderson recently hit the streets together to help launch it, affixing neon green “stickers of shame” to the windows of cars that were in the way of street sweepers.

The stickers had been in use for years by the Department of Sanitation, and “were one of the City’s most effective tools for improving [parking] compliance,” said Brewer. But they were banned in 2012 after drivers complained that they left gummy residue on the glass that was difficult to remove.

The glue used on the new stickers will be easier to remove — but Brewer still thinks it will be effective.

“I have hope that this will encourage the scofflaws to move their damn cars!” she wrote in her weekly newsletter.

Read The New York Times’ coverage of the new law — HERE, and Gothamist’s coverage — HERE.

Patsy’s Pizza.. Photo by Gus Saltonstall.

The owners of the Mermaid Inn have signed a lease on the West 74th Street space formerly occupied by Patsy’s Pizza, the Commercial Observer reported.

Husband-and-wife restaurateurs Danny Abrams and Cindy Smith “secured the 2,300-square-foot lease, plus a basement space, at $130 per square foot,” the publication reported, quoting Carson Shahrabani, a senior associate with Meridian Capital Group, who represented the couple in the negotiations.

Shahrabani told the publication that the restaurant, at 61 West 74th Street (between Columbus and Central Park West), remains unnamed and its concept undecided. “Abrams declined to share additional details on the new lease,” added the publication.

Read the full story — HERE.

The babies, shortly after their birth in April. Photo courtesy of WCS.

The Central Park Zoo has some new additions: two rare black-and-white ruffed lemurs, who were born April 5 and recently made their public debut.

The fraternal twins – a male named Masco and a female named Tonga — belong to a species native to Madagascar, which are critically endangered in nature, reported Popular Science. Scientists estimate their population in the wild has shrunk more than 80 percent over the past three generations, due largely to poaching and habitat loss. The twins were born as part of a zoo-based breeding program and species survival plan.

Black-and-white ruffed lemurs play a critical role in the ecosystem of Madagascar, feeding on the nectar of a palm-tree-like plant called a Traveler’s tree. Its pollen sticks to their faces, then moves with them to other plants, pollinating them, Popular Science reported.

“Lemurs play important roles in protecting plant species and maintaining healthy ecosystems through seed dispersal,” Central Park Zoo Animal Curator Susan Cardillo told the publication. “In addition to the spread of pollen from their snouts, they are highly frugivorous [fruit eaters] and pass seeds in their feces across forest landscapes. They are sometimes called the ‘rainforest gardeners.’”

Read the full story — HERE and see a video of the twins in action — HERE.

In Other UWS News

The Boston Herald did an in-depth interview with filmmaker Penny Lane about the documentary Wild Inside, about Flaco the owl who escaped from the Central Park Zoo. Read it — HERE.
Gothamist took up our challenge, to find the bolt in the Central Park rock. Read about it — HERE.
Secret NYC recently published a guide to what it called an end-of-summer UWS “rosé crawl” — for those who want to “drink some pink,” as the publication termed it. Read the story — 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.)

How an Upper West Side Widow Found Comfort and Herself Through AI

Back in Time with the American Classical Orchestra

‘Everything Must Go’ Signs Appear at UWS Barzini’s: Store Says it’s Not Closing

Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.