Saturday, June 30th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket

Happy 4th of July, UESiders!!

Happy barbecue!!  Happy cold brews!!  Happy fireworks on the East River!! 

Sidalcea Hendersonii

Let’s get down on the week ahead:

82nd Street between First and York, 9am–2pm

Compost & Clothes Collection, 9am–1pm

With us will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey,  Sikking Flowers, Samascott, Rising Sun Beef, Old Mother Hubbert,  Gajeski,  Ale Wife, Hawthorne and Cherry Lane Farms!!

Yes, and the Master Knife Sharpener will be with us for yet another week!!

Tomatoes…  Tomatoes…  Tomatoes!!  So delicious!!

Now, we’re praying for corn…

Recycling totals 6/23:  71 lbs batteries;  14 lbs cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges;  7 pairs eye glasses;  10 compost bins; 38 bags of clothes!!

Wow, people!!  Keep those eye glasses coming!! 

Sunday, July 1st:  The 92nd Street Greenmarket

92nd Street at First Avenue, 9am-3pm

Compost Collection, 9 am-1pm

Returning with the market will be the great American Pride Seafood,  Back to the Future Farm/Ole Mother Hubbert Milk, Central Bakery, Sikking Flowers, Consider Bardwell, Meredith’s Bakery, Norwich Meadows, Halal Pastures, Phillips Sun Fed Beef/Maple Avenue Farms  and NS Wager’s Cider Mill!!

Sikking’s flowers are pretty fantastic, yes? 

6/24 Battery/Cords/Compost Recycling:  TBA    Paper Shredded:  6400 lbs.

Yes!!  A fantastic 6400 lbs. !!

Sunday, July 1st & Thursday, July 5th: Composting with the Green Park Gardeners

East River Esplanade at 62nd Street, Sunday: 10am-12pm, Thursday: 2-4pm

Converting food scraps to the black gold of compost…  A so important piece of the waste puzzle that’ll have us reducing UES garbage another 40%!!   What’s more,  composting’s fun!!  Novices and old hands…  All are welcome…  Just wear comfortable clothes you won’t mind getting dirty!!  For more, give Composter Supremo Marise a call:  212-688-1632…

Monday, July 2nd:  Summer Seafood Boil at the Guggenheim

The Wright, Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th & 89th, 11:30am-330pm

Think Long Island clams, Gulf shrimp, Louisiana crawfish, and mussels with new potatoes and sweet corn, served with garlic butter and classic cocktail sauce!!  The full range of liquid refreshment, too!!  For reservations…   

Wednesday, July 4th:  Midsummer Night’s Swing at Lincoln Center

Plaza at Lincoln Center, 6pm

Dance to the fabulous music of the Mambo Kings Orchestra and DJ Trumix!!  And thanks to brilliant dance instructor Marlon “International” Mills you have your salsa down!!  $17 & $25.  For tickets and more…

Thursday, July 5th:  “Paddington 2” Screening

96th Street Branch Library, 112 East 96th Street, 2pm

The beloved teddy searches for a perfect gift for his soon-to-be 100-year old aunt!!  Free.  For more…

And then:

Monday, July 16th:  New York Women, War & Patriotism, 1812-1918

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum, 421 East 61st Street, 6-7:30pm

And we quote, “Enjoy an after-hours evening at the Museum, and meet the descendants of Hildreth Meière, mural artist, designer, and member of The Colonial Dames of America.  Meière was one of the thousands of women who enlisted in the Navy during WWI and her story is featured in the exhibit!!   Plus:  Enjoy a special selection of songs from the era of the Great War performed by Paul Errico!  Members, free.   Non-members, $9.  But RSVPs required for all…

Tuesday, July 17th:  What To Do With All That Stuff Forum

Draesal Hall, Church of the Holy Trinity, 316 East 88th Street, 6-8pm

Experts explain hoarding disorders and how they can be addressed, what the available resources are and more!!   Sponsored by Assembly Member Krueger.  Free.  To sign up call 212-288-4607 or  go to…

Thursday, July 26th:  Free Mammogram Screening

1485 York Avenue between 78th & 79th Streets, 9am-2pm

Yes, free mammograms for women 40 and older who’ve not had a mammogram for more than a year.  All insurances accepted, with co-pays and deductibles waived.  Free for uninsured women over 40.  Co-sponsored by Assembly Member Seawright & Council Member Kallos!!  Just call for the required appointment:  800-564-6868. 

Tuesday, July 31st:  Queenboro Bridge Area Committee Meeting

New York Blood Center, 310 East 67th Street, 6:30pm

Under discussion this time out:  Continued conceptual planning for Andrew Haswell Green Phase 3:  Transition from East Midtown Greenway through the former Sanitation Building to AHG Phase 2B (i.e. immediately south of the Aycock Pavilion).  A propos of that scathing Center for an Urban Future’s report, plans for this 3-block segment of the Esplanade’s been under discussion/”design” since 2005!!  Meanwhile, the disaster that is Tram Plaza is cited as a design reference!!  Be smart of us citizens to make sure that this certain-to-be-costly thing gets done right!! 

As for week in miscellany:

Yikes!!  Thailand’s set to ban the import of electronic waste – as in our electronic waste – on June 30th…   

But:

Ikea’s committed to eliminating all single-use plastics from its shelves and racks by 2020!!

The  great people of SWIM are standing fast for better NYS water quality standards!!

And:

NYC  has its first public greenhouse!!

Absolutely, kids once farmed in NYC…  (One UES location being the site of the present-day Rockefeller University…  Many of the “farmers” being children of Italian immigrants who’d settled on First between 60th and 65th!!) 

Plants to avoid even touching (with names like “giant hogweed”) when you’re out in the wild…!! 

Seems like the town of Hudson, New York is a hotbed of illegal ivory trading!! 

Meanwhile, NYS Forest Rangers are, as usual, quite busy…

The Night of the Radishes…! 

Consumer Reports on the healthy stuff to eat on either side of that workout… 

How to clean your cutting boards…

Let’s have some animals:

Baby hawks fledging…  Baby ospreys taking to the air…  Cornell’s Bird Cams are working overtime!! 

Okay, so our NYS tests and licenses folks in falconry, as wildlife rehabilitators and for leashed tracking dog handling!!

When hot weather and unpleasant bugs converge... 

How to help our NYS salmon and trout beat the heat…

A Trout Feeling Cool

And from the Hudson River Almanac:

6/11 – Crum Elbow, HRM 82: We caught a 6.5-foot-long, 187-pound female Atlantic sturgeon in our research net today. She was spawning – her eggs (caviar) were running – reconfirming this area as a spawning ground for her species (Acipenser oxyrinchus). In twelve years of catching adult Atlantic sturgeon in the river, this was only the second individual we caught that was actively spawning. Our sturgeon are collected, photographed, tagged, and released under Federal Permit 20340. – Amanda Higgs, Emilie Hickox, Russ Berdan, Gavan Greco

That 187 Pound Sturgeon!

6/16 – Wallkill River, HRM 77: It was nineteen years ago today as I walked along the edge of a fallow cornfield listening to the “witchity-witchity-witchity” song of the common yellowthroat, that I spotted a piece of gray stone (chert) protruding slightly from a crack in the dry earth. It was the thin edge of a small projectile point, 47 x 25 millimeters (mm), staring up at me having eroded out of the soil. I had found a very old Indian spear point that was later dated to c. 12,500 years ago. The implications reconfirmed our sense of the incredible time-depth of our watershed. – Tom Lake

That Arrowhead

[This stone artifact was a Barnes-type fluted spear point, a style that originated in southwestern Ontario about 12,500 calendar years ago. The lithic material came from a bedrock quarry in Sussex County, NJ. These fluted points predate “arrowheads” by eleven thousand years and are a diagnostic tool of what archaeologists believe were the first of us, called Paleoindians, to enter the Hudson Valley. The Wallkill River Valley was a seasonal passageway for these hunter-gatherers from southwestern Ontario, through the Mohawk River Valley, then south along the Hudson River, stopping at stone quarries along the way, and following game herds into northern New Jersey. – Tom Lake]

6/19 – Manhattan: The resident pair of peregrine falcons put on quite a show today in Hell’s Kitchen. From the roof of my building I noticed a falcon calling out from the ledge of the building across the street. It was soon joined by its mate that had prey clasped in its talons. They sat there for a few minutes calling to each other, before bird number one took off, followed a moment later by bird number two. They soared directly overhead, doing three complete turns, before alighting on the apartment building on the opposite block. It made for a great morning! – Sean Gannon

A Peregrine Falcon

[Hell’s Kitchen is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan, bordered by 34th Street to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. The name first appeared in September 1881 when a New York Times reporter went to the West 30s with a police guide to get details of a multiple murder. He referred to a particularly infamous tenement at 39th Street and Tenth Avenue as “Hell’s Kitchen” and said that the entire section was “probably the lowest and filthiest in the city.” Thus 39th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues became known as Hell’s Kitchen and the name was later expanded to the surrounding streets.) – Mary Clark

May even our fireworks be green,

UGS

 

 

 

 

Happy Pollinator Week, UESiders!!

Ah, yes!!  Those wonderful butterflies, bees, birds, bats and bugs making possible one out of three bites of nourishment we humans consume each day!!  

Live, be well and multiply, you invaluable creatures!!

And a most happy beginning of summer to all us humans!!

Going to be some weekend and upcoming week:

Friday, June 22nd:  Skate Night on the Upper East Side

Stanley Isaacs Playground, First Avenue at 96th Street, Family Session – 5-6:30, Adult Session – 7-9pm

Skate or just make your best dance moves to a live DJ’s playlist!!  Bring your own skates or avail yourself of those provided!!  Sponsored by CM Kallos and NYC Parks.  Totally free, but registering is a must…   

Saturday, June 23rd:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket

82nd Street between First and York, 9am–2pm

Compost & Clothes Collection, 9am–1pm

With us will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey,  Sikking Flowers, Samascott, Rising Sun Beef, Old Mother Hubbert,  Gajeski,  Ale Wife, Hawthorne and Cherry Lane Farms!!

NEWS FLASH!!  The Master Knife Sharpener’s has just confirmed she’ll be at the market!!

Then there’s this from Uber Market Manager Margaret:  “For those of you missing Consider Bardwell’s delicious cheese not to worry ’cause they’ll now be with us at the Sunday 92nd Street Greenmarket!! 

Recycling totals 6/9:  64 lbs batteries;  10 lbs cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges;  6 pairs eye glasses;  10 compost bins; 50 bags of clothes!!

You folks are definitely cleaning closets!!

Saturday, June 23rd:  Trash Talk – Local Poets Respond to Stuff We Throw Away

Bloomingdale Library Branch, 150 West 100th Street, 2:30-4:30pm

Poet and all-around solid waste activist Jacqueline Ottman and friends read their own works on the subject and hope you bring and share your own!!  Free.  For more…

Sunday, June 24th:  The 92nd Street Greenmarket Re-Opens!!

92nd Street at First Avenue, 9am-3pm

Compost Collection, 9 am-1pm

Returning with the market will be the great American Pride Seafood,  Back to the Future Farm/Ole Mother Hubbert Milk, Central Bakery, Consider Bardwell, Meredith’s Bakery, Norwich Meadows Farm,  Phillips Farm Vegetables, Sun Fed Beef / Maple Avenue Farms and NS Wager’s Cider Mill!!

An already fantastic line-up, all the more so by the addition of Sikking Farms and their stunning flowers!!

So great that 82nd Street Manager G’ll have things running smooth and food demos delicious at 92nd Street, too!! 

Sunday, June 24th:  Shred-A-Thon – Welcome Back 92nd Greenmarket 

First Avenue between 92nd & 93rd Streets, 10am-2pm

The best way we know to celebrate 92nd Street’s 2018  return!! 

As ever:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings. 

NO HARDCOVER BOOKS.   (But paperbacks are fine.)

(Take hardcovers to Goodwill or Housing Works.)

As ever, giant thanks to CMs Powers and Kallos and AM Seawright for their unflagging support of Shred-A-Thons!!

Sunday, June 24th & Thursday, June 28th: Composting with the Green Park Gardeners

East River Esplanade at 62nd Street, Sunday: 10am-12pm, Thursday: 2-4pm

The calm of the river… The gorgeous Green Park Garden an arm’s length away… The righteous pleasure of turning humble vegetable scraps into the black gold of compost!!  Novices and old hands…  All welcome…  Just wear comfortable clothes you won’t mind getting dirty!!  For more, give Composter Supremo Marise a call:  212-688-1632…

Tuesday, June 26th:  Summer Garden Concert with Stout

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum, 421 East 61st Street, 6-8pm

Another lovely evening in the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum garden, this time with accoustical duo Stout providing the music…  Beautifully rendered, family friendly tavern tunes!!  Members free.  Non-members, $15.   Kids under 12, $5. Babies free.  For more and tickets…

Wednesday, June 27th:  The Second Annual UES Garden Party

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum, 421 East 61st Street, 6-8pm

A celebration honoring all those green-thumbed volunteers who devote their time, energy and dollars to making our Upper East Side bloom!!  Free, but you must RSVP (and do tell us where you garden):  uppergreenside@gmail.com…

On the horizon:

Sunday. July 1st:  Monteverdi & Bartok – A Classical Recital

Hungarian House, 213 East 83rd Street, 5pm

Think 4 singers (featuring Kinga Cserjési), 2 violins, cello, and piano,  a guest appearance by members of the Choral Society of the Hamptons…  All making the beautiful music!!  Perfect for a late Sunday afternoon!!  $10 in advance.  $20 at the door.  For more and tickets…  

Monday, July 9th:  Sims Municipal Recycling Facility Tour 

424 Second Avenue, Sunset Park, Booklyn, 5-6:30pm

Whether it’s truly state-of-the-art as claimed, this is the place where our recyclables are sorted, baled and shipped to manufacturers who use them to make new things. Got to be fascinating!!  Free.  For more and how to get there…

Tuesday, July 17th:  What To Do With All That Stuff Forum

Draesal Hall, Church of the Holy Trinity, 316 East 88th Street, 6-8pm

Experts explain hoarding disorders and how they can be addressed, what the available resources are and more!!   Sponsored by Assembly Member Krueger.  Free.  To sign up call 212-288-4607 or  go to…

As for this week in miscellany and activism:

Back on the subject of pollinators:   Here’s what NYS’s doing… And not (like pesticide bans) to protect them…  (And, guess what?  Ozone/air quality’s an issue for bees, too!) 

Should you believe the new Congressional Farm Bill should provide adequate funds for nutritional programs… 

If you think protections for migratory birds should be maintained…

Going brighter:

Another way to advance NYC composting…  GrowNYC’s Crazy for Compost Program and volunteers lending a hand to Greenmarket Compost Coordinators like 82nd Street’s great Moyses!!  Check it out… 

Say what?   Comparitively small $, but the U.S. Department of Energy is funding anything solar…?  

The Central Park Summer Guide…

Trouble-shooting common air conditioner problems…

Seems even a volcano eruption has a bright side…

Don’t think any UES subway stations are quite in this state of delapidation, but check these elsewhere out… 

No surprise, NYS Forest Rangers had a busy last 7 days…

Green cleaning at home…

Five must-see sights from the 1807 NYC Guide Book…!!

We always need animals:

A pair of local kittens up for adoption…

Then there’re these 4 mountain lion kittens…

For all it’s pollinator week, it’s also fawning season…

It’s Great Fish Count all the time across every borough in this week’s Hudson River Almanac:

6/2 – Manhattan, HRM 13.5: Students from Dinorah Hudson’s Advanced Placement science class helped us seine at Inwood Park for the Great Fish Count. In addition to many blue crabs of all sizes, were six species of fish, including Atlantic silverside, bay anchovy, summer flounder, winter flounder, mummichogs, and white perch, including one that was a foot-long!   – Rebecca Houser, Aidan Mabey. Dan Tainow

Little Great Fish Counter

6/2 – Manhattan, HRM 1: For the Great Fish Count, we checked our research sampling gear in Hudson River Park at The River Project’s sampling station on the lighthouse tender Lilac at Pier 25. Our catch was impressively large and diverse! In addition to two amazing (68, 85 mm) lined sea horses (Hippocampus erectus), we caught two tautog (185, 295 mm), and a large oyster toadfish (250 mm). – Siddhartha Hayes, Lauren Negron

6/2 – Manhattan, New York City: Randall’s Island, situated at the intersection of the Harlem River and the East River, hosted the Great Fish Count along with 50 participants. Our seine captured YOY Atlantic tomcod and bluefish, northern pipefish, a bay anchovy, and a new species to the Great Fish Count, a YOY Atlantic herring (50 mm). Salinity was 23.0 ppt and the water temperature was 63 F. – Chris Girgenti

[Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) are one of eight members of the herring family (Clupeidae) that includes, among others, American shad, blueback herring, alewife, and Atlantic menhaden. C. Lavett Smith’s Inland Fishes (1980) cites their occurrence in the estuary as very much a sometimes event having been found on occasion as far upriver as Indian Point. Tom Lake]

6/2 – Brooklyn, New York City: Bush Terminal, a reclaimed industrial site in a fairly urban area, provided the forum for today’s Great Fish Count. The seining team, with 79 onlookers, pulled in a net full of fish. Among them were mummichogs, YOY winter flounder, Atlantic silverside, northern pipefish, and a new fish to the Great Fish Count, a feathered blenny. The salinity was 20 ppt and the water temperature was a warm 79 F. 
– Mike McCann

[Feather blenny (Hypsoblennius hentz), a seasonally marine resident, is a small, scale-less fish with fleshy cirri “feathers” on their head. Their lower jaw has a row of small, close-set teeth like those of a comb, thus their family name, combtooth blennies (Blenniidae). Blennies are benthic dwellers where they often burrow in the soft bottom or find refuge in old mollusk shells. The first documented feather blenny for the Hudson River list was caught by the Manhattan River Project in 1994.  C. Lavett Smith]

6/2 – Queens, New York City: Fort Totten was a new site for the 2018 Great Fish Count and hosted nearly 200 attendees. Our seine collected eight species of fish, among them YOY Atlantic tomcod, a lined seahorse, northern pipefish, a summer flounder, YOY Atlantic herring (43 mm), and a new species to the Great Fish Count, a YOY spot. The salinity was a salty 24 ppt and the water temperature was 69 F. 
– Peter Park, Steve Stanne, Martice Smith

[Spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) are a sporadic visitor to the Hudson estuary. Their colloquial name, “Lafayette,” honors France’s Marquis de Lafayette. His visit to New York City in 1824, to be honored for his role in the American Revolution on behalf of the American Colonies, coincided with unusually large numbers of these palm-sized fish in New York Harbor. Spot are a member of the drum family of fishes that also includes freshwater drum, black drum, northern kingfish, croakers, weakfish, and silver perch. Most of them have highly specialized swim bladders that serve as sound-producing organs. This has led to the colloquial family name of “drum.” Tom Lake]

6/2 – Queens, New York City: Frank Charles Park, one of the most southern sites for our Great Fish Count, routinely produces large numbers of salt-loving striped killifish (Fundulus majalis). This year’s seining did not disappoint our 38 participants as we captured 216 striped killifish, by far the most prominent fish in our net. Among the other fishes were mummichogs, Atlantic silverside, and summer flounder. 

With greenest of summer wishes, 

UGS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy June 18th Opening Of NYS’s Regular Large & Small Mouth Bass Fishing Season, UESiders!!

“Regular”??

As opposed to…  Non-regular?  Irregular?  Intermittent?

Ah-ha!  Seems there’s a pre-Regular Season that’s catch and release! 

Shall we talk more recycling?

In previous editions, mention’s been made of the ongoing difficult relationship  between China and America’s recycled plastic and paper…  As in China’s being, at best, extremely picky as to what they will and will not accept, with the distressing effect of more American plastic waste finding its way to landfill.  

Likely the present uncertainties of U.S./China trade policy play a role…  Plus, in recent years, China’s become ever more aware of the pretty extreme challenges posed by its own vast recyclable but unrecycled waste…  

Science to the rescue!!

In the last few months, at least 3 labs have gone public with methodologies for returning recycled plastic to near pure petroleum state with major investors stepping right up.

(If Ron Gonen’s name sounds familiar, you’re spot on.  He’s the guy who brought compost collection to NYC…  And who our present mayor chose not to keep at his desk at Sanitation.)

As summer begins:

Friday, June 15th:  NYSkies Astronomy Seminar

McBurney House, 125 West 14th Street between Sixth & Seventh, 6:30-9:30pm 

Starmaster John Pasmino describes – as only he can – how we went to the moon a hundred years ago…  Or how thought we thought we’d go to the moon a hundred years ago!!  As ever, free and totally unique! 

Saturday, June 16th:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket

82nd Street between First and York, 9am–2pm

Compost & Clothes Collection, 9am–1pm

At their tables will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey,  Sikking Flowers, Samascott, Rising Sun Beef, Old Mother Hubbert,  Gajeski,  Ale Wife, Hawthorne and Cherry Lane Farms!!

Look for the Master Knife Sharpener to be busily honing, as well!! 

Devoured our first real tomatoes of the season last Saturday night…  Pure heaven!!  Thank you, Mother Nature!!  Thank you-thank you-thank you, Cherry Lane!!

Recycling totals 6/9:  78 lbs batteries;  16 lbs cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges;  6 pairs eye glasses;  12 compost bins; 41 bags of clothes      

12 bins!!  Hurrah!!

Sunday, June 17th & Thursday, June 21st: Composting with the Green Park Gardeners

East River Esplanade at 62nd Street, Sunday: 10am-12pm, Thursday: 2-4pm

The calm of the river… The gorgeous Green Park Garden an arm’s length away… The righteous pleasure of turning humble vegetable scraps into the black gold of compost!!  Novices and old hands…  All welcome…  Just wear comfortable clothes you won’t mind getting dirty!!  For more, give Composter Supremo Marise a call:  212-688-1632…

Tuesday, June 19th:  New York Solar & Storage Summit

Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College, 524 West 59th Street, 8am-6pm

Be a part of planting solar’s flag (and our ability to store that energy) ever further!!  There’ll be a host of energy, utility and government people there and they need our eyes on them and our prodding!!   $25-$50.   For more and to register…

Tuesday, June 19th:  Summer Garden Concert with The Crickets

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum, 421 East 61st Street, 6-8pm

Summer at its best on the UES…  Music, light refreshments an acapella music in the MVH Museum’s lovely garden!!   Think a choice selection of jazz standards, Broadway hits, doo-wop, barbershop and spirituals!!  Just right for the whole family.  Members free.  Non-members, $15.   Kids under 12, $5. Babies free.  For more and tickets…

Thursday, June 21st:  Make Music New York Day

Everywhere in the City

Think 5,000 participating musicians…  Think hundreds of concerts all over NYC…  Including our own Schurz Park where artists Xav A and Lady Z will be performing,  5:45 to 8:30pm!!  (For more…)  Co-sponsored by Borough President Brewer.  Free!!  (For events citywide… )   

 

Saturday, June 23rd:  Paddle the Never Sink Reservoir

Meeting place and time provided with ticket purchase… 

And we quote, “Come paddle on the Neversink Reservoir with NYC H2O! The Neversink Reservoir is the highest in elevation in NYC’s water system with it’s spillway at 1,440 feet in elevation…!”  Organized by the great NYC H2O.   Van transportation from Greenwich Village.  Both kayaks and canoes available.   $25-$100. And you must register (it’s free) with the NYS DEP for watershed access.    For tickets and more…

Sunday, June 24th:  The 92nd Street Greenmarket Re-Opens!!

92nd Street at First Avenue, 9am-3pm

Compost Collection, 9 am-1pm

Returning with the market will be the great American Pride Seafood,  Back to the Future Farm/Ole Mother Hubbert Milk, Central Bakery, Consider Bardwell, Meredith’s Bakery, Norwich Meadows Farm,  Phillips Farm Vegetables, Sun Fed Beef / Maple Avenue Farms and NS Wager’s Cider Mill!!

Completing this perfect market package is this season’s Market Manager…  None other than 82nd’s great Manager G!!

Sunday, June 24th:  Shred-A-Thon – Welcome Back 92nd Greenmarket 

First Avenue between 92nd & 93rd Streets, 10am-2pm

The best way we know to celebrate 92nd Street’s 2018  return!! 

As ever:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings. 

NO HARDCOVER BOOKS.   (But paperbacks are fine.)

(Take hardcovers to Goodwill or Housing Works.)

Many thanks to AM Seawright and CMs Kallos and Powers for making this and all community shredding possible!!

 

 

Tuesday, June 26th:  Summer Garden Concert with Stout

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum, 421 East 61st Street, 6-8pm

This time out it’s the accoustical duo Stout presenting its masterly rendered, family friendly tavern tunes…  Members free.  Non-members, $15.   Kids under 12, $5. Babies free.  For more and tickets…

On the horizon: 

Weekends July 18th to August 24th:  NYS First Time Camper Program

All Around NYState

And we quote, “First-time campers will be provided with a family tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, camp chairs, camp stove, lantern, and even firewood. A Camping Ambassador will meet families at the campsite and help them get camp set up with a Camping 101 lesson. To make the weekend getaway even more fun, campers will have an opportunity to learn from experts how to fish, hike, bird watch, paddle and more!!”  FREE!!   For more and to sign up…

Pretty miscellaneous miscellany, items of concern up first: 

In favor of BYOB plastic bag legistlation?  Give the governor a call and let him know:  845-943-4749!!

NYState legislators could use a push on a number of fronts…  

As seems to so often be the case, the state’s pressing an unwanted plan – in this case, intrusive highway ramps – on our neighbors up at Hunts Point.   Should you like to give them some much welcome support…

Should  you oppose uranium mining in or around the Grand Canyon…

Or think that existing chemical plant safety rules should be maintained…

Or think fracking should be prohibited on public lands around the Little Colorado River..

Most concerning, the state of NYS dairy farms as this WCBS report describes…  (Thanks to reader Karen Lane for the tip!)

How great that new parks are springing up all over NYC…  (Everywhere but the UES.  Here and decades later, any number of buildings allowed to build higher with promise they’d create public space…  Still haven’t!!) 

Going lighter:

Solar roads?!!  They’ll be contributing to powering the 2020 Tokyo Olympics!! 

The Times’ Climate FWD on the future of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets…

(Scroll down further for emerging methods of “vacuuming” CO2 from air…)

The definition of a “bight”…  As in the NY Bight…   (Scroll down for info on the previously unknown (to us) underwater Hudson Canyon!!)  (Scroll further:  Seems like we’ve also got a protected cold water coral zone!!)

Courtesy of the Catskill Mountainkeeper, another great NYS Citizen Science project utilizing smartphones:  Saving our hemlock trees from the depredations of that very bad insect, the Hemlock Wooly Algedid!!   (We’ve got many a hemlock here in NYC!!)

Charcoal vs. coal for best grilling…

3-D printed homes… 

A Mars/Earth convergance is approaching…  (Mars’ll be looking especially red!!)  

Christopher Columbus named peppers…   Peppers?!

Origin of the don’t-end-a-sentence-with-a-preposition rule… 

How vegetables contribute to filmmaking…

In the critter department:

Hummm…  Seems like Jurassic World‘s dinosaurs are kind of last century… 

Dolphins have dolphin names…

Name that bird…!!

How some fish wind up in a museum…

And from the Hudson River Almanac:

5/30 – Brooklyn, New York City: Our Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy invited our new seasonal park interns out on a hot afternoon for their first seining experience. We netted from a small beach sandwiched between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges in the East River. After several hauls of the seine resulted in only algae and snail shells, we almost called it quits. I convinced a fellow educator to go out with me just once more. This effort paid off. We caught what we initially thought to be an odd-looking tomcod, but soon discovered it to be the first ever pollock 55 millimeters (mm) caught at our park! Salinity was 35.0 parts-per-thousand (ppt) and the water temperature was 75 degrees Fahrenheit (F). –– Christina Tobitsch, Shad Hospon             [Note: one inch = 25.4 millimeters (mm)]

That Little Pollock

[Pollack (Pollachius virens) is one of eight “codfishes” (Gadidae) documented for the Hudson River. They are far more common in New England waters than the New York Bight. One of their colloquial names is “Boston Blue.” On rare occasions, pollock make their way into the Hudson River. In 1980, a juvenile pollock (53 mm) was captured at Indian Point (river mile 42). Tom Lake]

(And we now know what a bight is!!)

5/31 – Brooklyn, New York City: As a part of our after-school program, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy educators led 25 middle school students into the East River for an afternoon of seining at the beach at Pier 4. The students were very quick to pick up the skills and techniques of using a seine net as evident by their impressive catch. We ended the day with four northern pipefish, a winter flounder, a green crab, nine YOY Atlantic tomcod (40-60 mm), and shore shrimp galore.  It had rained a lot in the morning so the salinity was low at 24.0 ppt and the water temperature was 67 F. – Christina Tobitsch, Haley McClannahan

Happiness is greenness,

UGS

Saturday, June 9th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket

Happy World Ocean Day, UESiders!!

What better time to set aside a few hours for a beach clean-up…  Support the Billion Oyster Project and its dedication to the restoration/health of our magnificent harbor  (just eating an oyster at a partner restaurant is a donation form!)…  Sign up to do some citizen science for NYS’s Blue Crab Recreational Study…  Get up to speed on (and scroll down to) Boyan Slat’s remarkable, crowd-funded Ocean Cleanup that’ll soon be deployed in the plastic-riddled North Pacific…  

Closest to home?  A late Tuesday afternoon outing in one of the great East River  Crew‘s wonderful boats on the Esplanade at 96th …  Row yourself or just ride and savor being out on the amazing Atlantic Ocean estuary that our East River is!!  

Saturday’s also NYS Outdoors Day!!  (Check out the Outdoors Day event at the Mount Loretto Unique Area on Staten Island!!) 

We say it’s World Ocean and Outdoors Day all week…  Make that all year long:

82nd Street between First and York, 9am–2pm

Compost & Clothes Collection, 9am–1pm

With us will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey,  Sikking Flowers, Samascott, Rising Sun Beef, Old Mother Hubbert,  Gajeski,  Ale Wife, Hawthorne and Cherry Lane Farms!!

Our Master Knife Sharpener will be on tap, too!! 

Now that it’s June, what wonderful coming-into-season fruit and vegs will be appearing on our farmers tables…??

Recycling totals 5/19:   73 lbs batteries;  18 lbs cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges;  6 pairs eye glasses;  11 compost bins; 34 bags of clothes      

Longing to get back in the 12 bin mode…

Saturday, June 9th:  The Great Randall’s Island Treasure Hunt  

Randall’s Island Park, Field 80, 10am-2pm

Join Alliance guides for an adventure unlocking Island secrets, searching for treasure and exploring the Park!  Plus…  Learn how to use map and compass while navigating a fun course…  Check out the Alliance’s Gallery of Maps…  The larger-than-life musical puppet show…  The ton of prizes, too!!  Free.  Just right for ages 5 and above.  For more…

Monday, June 11th:  “Albatross –  A Love Story for Our Time from the Heart of the Pacific” Screening

GrowNYC’s Project Farmhouse, 76 East 13th, 6-9pm

The NYS Association for Reduction, Reuse & Recycling, Project Farmhouse and GrowNYC present Chris Jordan’s moving film detailing the effects of plastic pollution on the Midway Atoll and its avian population.   Free.   For more (and the trailer)…

Tuesday, June 12th:   40th Annual Museum Mile Festival

Fifth Avenue from 82nd to 105th Street, 6-9pm (rain or shine)

Six of the world’s great museums, their fantastic collections and current fabulous shows open and free to all!!  For the complete rundown…

Coming up soon:

Thursday, June 21st:  Make Music New York Day

Everywhere in the City

Think 5,000 participating musicians…  Think hundreds of concerts all over New York…  Including our own Schurz Park where artists Xav A and Lady Z will be performing,  5:45 to 8:30pm!!  (For more…)  Co-sponsored by Borough President Brewer.  Free!!  (For events citywide… )   

Tuesday, June 19th:  New York Solar & Storage Summit

Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College, 524 West 59th Street, 8am-6pm

Be a part of planting solar’s flag (and our ability to store that energy) ever further!!  There’ll be a host of energy, utility and government people there and they need our eyes on them and our prodding!!   $25-$50.   For more and to register…

Saturday, June 23rd:  Paddle the Never Sink Reservoir

Meeting place and time provided with ticket purchase… 

And we quote, “Come paddle on the Neversink Reservoir with NYC H2O! The Neversink Reservoir is the highest in elevation in NYC’s water system with it’s spillway at 1,440 feet in elevation…!”  Organized by the great NYC H2O.   Van transportation from Greenwich Village.  Both kayaks and canoes available.   $25-$100. And you must register (it’s free) with the NYS DEP for watershed access.    For tickets and more…

Sunday, June 24th:  The 92nd Street Greenmarket Re-Opens!!

92nd Street at First Avenue, 9am-3pm

Compost Collection, 9 am-1pm

At their tables will be our wonderful friends American Pride Seafood,  Back to the Future Farm/Ole Mother Hubbert Milk, Central Bakery, Consider Bardwell, Meredith’s Bakery, Norwich Meadows Farm,  Phillips Farm Vegetables, Sun Fed Beef / Maple Avenue Farms and NS Wager’s Cider Mill!!

Rumor has it that this season’s Market Manager might be somebody we know and love…!!

Only 3 weeks now!!

Sunday, June 24th:  Shred-A-Thon – Welcome Back 92nd Greenmarket 

First Avenue between 92nd & 93rd Streets, 10am-2pm

The best way we know to celebrate 92nd Street’s 2018  return!! 

Just keep in mind:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings. 

NO HARDCOVER BOOKS.   (But paperbacks are fine.)

(Take those hardcovers to Goodwill or Housing Works.)

We thank CMs Kallos and Powers and AM Seawright for their staunch support!!

Tuesday, June 26th:  Tenement Chic – An Upper East Side Walking Tour

Meeting place provided with registration, 5pm

Seems – given the prevelance of  beautiful and ornate stonework – UES walk-ups have been designated “tenement chic”!!   So says no less than Friends of the Upper Side Historic Districts and the Lower East Side Jewish Consdervancy!!  Urban historian Barry Feldman leads the tour.   Members and seniors, $18.  Non-members, $22.  For more and to sign up…

 

And then it’s July:

Tuesday, July 10th  Zoning Greener Solar – Facilitating Solar Adoption

The Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, 6-8pm

Laurie Kerr of the Urban Green Council and NYS Solar Ombundsman Deric Meister weigh in on how NYC needs to update its building code to promote expansion of solar!!  $10.  To RSVP…  

Time for miscellany and activism:

As in if you think Lyme Disease research should be funded…

Or if you oppose clear-cut logging of Alaska’s Tongass Forest…

If you take issue with a Farm Bill containing major exemptions to the  

Or believe wolves should retain their Endangered Species protection…

Or object to the dumping of partially treated sewage into the nation’s river, lakes and coastal waters… 

Believe that adequate funding is an absolute necessity for our underfunded, unstaffed NYC Parks…

On the sobering statics score:

Pretty horrible but not surprising that the UES could be doing better on the rodent prevalence/density score…  (Worthwhile taking a look at the recent, exhaustive NYC rat study…)

An Armageddon on our insect life…  

No wonder we purchase our meat at Greenmarkets…!!

NYC air as art…?

Let’s lighten up:

Streetcars making a comeback in America…??

Public art in the Russian hinterlands…

Consumer Reports on organizing one’s passwords…

Europe’s oldest tree…  (And we’re talking old!)

Never dull moment for NYS Conservation Officers… 

How to pick the perfect watermelon…!!

As for our animal pals:

Love the title of this from The Times:  “The Hudson Isn’t Dirty.  It’s Alive“!!

More than 3 cheers!!  Mountain gorilla population is on the rise!!  (Thanks to reader Carol Rinzler for the tip!)

Same for Chad and their elephant conservation success!!

Among the youngest Manhattanites, count as-yet-to- be-named baby hawks born to feathered parents Christo and Amelia!!

Australia’s cat-proof fence and the reason why it exists…

An avocado-loving NYC squirrel…

NYC’s baby pigeons…

Why dogs dig holes…

Tick myths debunked…

Animals who especially favor summer…

Roman cats with an appreciation of ancient ruins…

Hope for coral!!

Not forgetting the Hudson Rier Almanac:

5/22 – Norrie Point: Two classes of 5th graders from Wappinger Junior High helped us sample the river life in the cove at Norrie Point. We caught the local fish species including American eels, banded killifish, tessellated darters, and pumpkinseed sunfish. There was also a puzzler, a small dark crab the size of a dime. A closer look under a hand lens revealed it to be a white-fingered mud crab. The water temperature was 63 degrees. – Tom Lake  

That White-Fingered Mud Crab

5/20 – Brooklyn – The pinxterbloom azalea ((Rhododendron periclymenoides), a spectacular pink-and-white confection, bloomed today.  The common name is dereived from the Dutch name for Pentecost, one of the 3 great feast of the Christian year.  It comes 50 days after Easter (actually 49, since it’s always on a Sunday) and the Dutch, for whom it was a major holiday, brought it to New York.  BY the early 19th Century, it had become primarily a holiday for both enslvaed and free African-Americans in the Hudson Valley, a day off to meet relatives and friends.  — Thomas Shoesmith

Rhododendron Periclymenoides

5/23 – Yonkers – A second grade class from the Bank Street School in Manhattan arrived at Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban Riber with much anticipation.  We hauled our seine and caught five kinds of fish including American eel, bay anchovy, Atlantic tomcod, mummichog, northern pipefish, 20 crabs and 18 shrimp! – Gabby Carmine  

Evergreenedly yours,

UGS

Happy 199th Birthday to that great and nature-loving New Yorker, Walt Whitman, UESiders!!

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,

And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the 
                                     egg of the wren,

And the tree-toad is a chef-d’oeuvre for the highest,

And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,

And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,

And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any statue,

And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.

(How ’bout we send W.W. our good wishes with a Twitter like?)

Happy Past Week of Dueling Manhattanhenges, as well!!  A week that included not only a 3-day weekend and 4 days of Air Quality Alerts, but 2 consecutive days without rain!!

Meanwhile, people, Saturday’s both National Trails and National Smile Day!!

As you ready that smile for the Greenmarket, check out the coming week:

Saturday, June 2nd:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket

82nd Street between First and York, 9am–2pm

Compost & Clothes Collection, 9am–1pm

At their tables will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey,  Sikking Flowers, Samascott, Rising Sun Beef, Old Mother Hubbert,  Gajeski,  Ale Wife, Hawthorne and Nolasco Farms!!

Count on the Master Knife Sharpener being with us, as well!! 

Last but hardly least, Market Manager Supreme Margaret sez:  “Cherry Lane’ll be coming back, which most likely means there’ll be luscious strawberries, too…  Along with farmer Lou Dare’s smiling face…  Both well worth waiting for!!😊”

Recycling totals 5/19:   67 lbs batteries;  15 lbs cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges;  15 pairs eye glasses;  11 compost bins; 34 bags of clothes      

We’re on a eye glasses roll!!

Saturday, June 2nd:  National Trails Day at Riverdale Park AND Willow Lake

Riverdale Park, The Bronx, 9am-12pm
Willow Lake, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, 10am-2pm

Celebrate National Parks Day with the great Parks’ Stewardship Team and the Natural Areas Conservancy folks learning how to identify and safely remove invasive plants along trails!! Time permitting,  volunteers will also be trained in erosion control!!  For details, directions and to sign up for Riverdale Park or  Willow Lake…  

Saturday, June 2nd:  Jamaica Bay Cleanup

Canarsie Pier, Gateway National Recreational Area, Brooklyn, 10am-12pm

A whole host of great New Yorkers – from United By Blue, the National Park Service, Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, and Natural Areas Conservancy – will be gathering for the critical spring cleanup of the Pier area…  And saving a huge accumulation of winter debris from winding up in our Atlantic!!  Every hand needed!!  For the lowdown and to register…

Saturday, June 2nd:  Celebrate at the Alice Aycock Pavilion

East River Esplanade at 60th Street, 1-4pm

Primo weekend pleasure with great music (and totally dance-able), kid-friendly fun, ice cream treats and the company of great New York neighbors from the UES and beyond!!  And let’s not forget that that ever wonderful, soothing river view…  Free!!  Organized by Esplanade Friends!!  Spread the word!!

Sunday, June 3rd:  Grand Acquisitors – A Walking Tour

Meeting location provided with registration/ticket purchase, 10:30am

Walk the blocks and know the gorgeous UES buildings where many of America’s – and the world’s – foremost art collectors resided and enjoyed their masterpieces!!  Organized by Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts and led by architectural historian Matt Postal!  Members, $10.  Non-members, $20.  

Wednesday, June 6th: Manhattan Solid Waste Board Spring Fundraiser

Starret-Lehigh Building, 601 West 26th Street, 6-8pm

Love composting ?  Want to connect with some really great people who love it, too?  People who like you want it to spread to every presently compost-unfriendly nook and cranny of our great city?  Want to hear how that might happen from the likes of  Ron Gonen, the guy who introduced compost collection in NYC?  Here’s your chance!!  There’ll be great food and drinks, too!!  General admission, $45.  Student/Non-profit/Government, $30.   For tickets…

Wednesday, June 6th:  How Tall Is Too Tall Conference

Einhorn Auditorium, Lenox Hill Hospital, 131 East 76th Street, 7pm

In reponse to the ever more sky-scraping buildings going up across NYC and, in particular, the UES, Civitas and urban planner Frank Fish present their height proposal…  To which representatives of the CB8,  the Real Estate Board and the Regional Planning Association will respond!!  Needless to say, hugely important to UES quality of life!  Free but RSVP required!!     

Thereafter:

Saturday, June 9th:  Big Apple Knitting Guild’s Share the Talent Meeting

NY Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th, 1-4pm

Learn the techniques that distinguish the just okay knitter from someone really adept with those needles…  Like the fabulous knitters of BAKG!!  Choose from a host of great workshops…  Then sign up (it’s required)!!  Free!!

Sunday, June 24th:  The 92nd Street Greenmarket Re-Opens!!

92nd Street at First Avenue, 9am-3pm

Compost Collection, 9 am-1pm

At their tables will be our wonderful friends American Pride Seafood,  Back to the Future Farm/Ole Mother Hubbert Milk, Central Bakery, Consider Bardwell, Meredith’s Bakery, Norwich Meadows Farm,  Phillips Farm Vegetables, Sun Fed Beef / Maple Avenue Farms and NS Wager’s Cider Mill!!

Rumor has it that this season’s Market Manager might be somebody we know and love…!!

The countdown has begun!!

Sunday, June 24th:  Shred-A-Thon – Welcome Back 92nd Greenmarket 

First Avenue between 92nd & 93rd Streets, 10am-2pm

The best way we know to celebrate 92nd Street’s 2018  return!! 

Just keep in mind:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings. 

NO HARDCOVER BOOKS.   (But paperbacks are fine.)

(Take those hardcovers to Goodwill or Housing Works.)

Many thanks to AM Seawright and CMs Kallos and Powers for their enduring support of  Shred-A-Thons!!

Miscellany, commencing with some alerts:

Commencing with NYS tips on how to be/stay tick free…

The issue came up a few years ago with who knows what result, but it’s back on the front burner again:  What’s going on in our building water towers and what’s being done to monitor their internal condition?  City/State‘s been investigating and  Channel 13’s “Metro Focus’s” covering that investigation… 

Things we all need to add to our emergency kits…

Then items to ponder:

The Times weighs on American Public Health…

And the NHL in very warm cities…

A greener future for food trucks… ?  Can’t wait!!

On the good foot:

CM Kallos’s just announced the 2018 Participatory Budgeting winners…   (Scroll down).

The governor’s just announced $250M to expand the number of EV charging stations in NYS!!

How great that the first – and massive – piece of the erstwhile Tappan Zee Bridge’s been put in place to shore up Hampton Bay’s Shinnecock Reef!!  (To see it drop…!!)

Always more interesting refinements to what should and shouldn’t be recycled…

Rescues…  Fires…   Our NYS Forest Rangers have had a challenging week!! 

Let there be animals:

A UES neighbor’s been fostering this lovely kitty awaiting a forever home…

France has its own invasive species…  A giant worm!!

A homemade hummingbird nectar recipe…

Always something great in/from the Hudson River Almanac:

5/14 – Manhattan  This morning, from the Baylander IX-514 that’s docked at the West Harlem Piers, Brian O’Hara, who works on the vessel, spotted a “pod” of what he believed to be dolphins swimming upriver.  They were too far away to get a reasonable phto with his cellphone camera, but he was able to make out that there were three of them.

The Baylander

The Baylander is a Vietnam-era, decommissioned U.S. Navy ship that was used to train helicopter pilots to land at sea.  It’s moored at the West Harlem Piers Park at 125th Street in Manhattan and has become a makeshift museum-by-the-river as well as a community gathering space and educational resource for the West Harlem community. – Ira Gershenhorn

(These were likely bottlenose dollphins (Tursiops truncatus), occasional visitor to the Hudson River.  Bottlenose dolphins, as well as humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangeliae), have been sighted 20 miles downriver in the Lower Bay of New York Harbor, outside the Verrazano Narrows.

If you see a live and apparently healthy marine mammal or sea turtle in the Hudson River, please let the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society know.  If you have photos or video, please send them to sightings@amseas.org.   

If you see a sick or injured marine mammal or sea turtle, please call the New York State Stranding Hotline (Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research & Preservation) immediately:  631-369-9829 and ask for Kimberly Durham.

In contented greenness,

UGS