Our Town is a community newspaper serving the Upper East Side of Manhattan from Turtle Bay to Carnegie Hill. We cover the people, local businesses, schools, crime, real estate and human interest stories that make the neighborhood unique.
Complimentary copies of Our Town are distributed in more than 1,000 residential buildings and through community street boxes. Published weekly by Straus News, Our Town is chock full of information that helps residents and businesspeople keep up with the goings on in their neighborhood.
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Today’s very old are overwhelmingly female. Genetics and hormones play key roles.☝
Want to live to be 100? Pick your parents carefully, and make sure you’re born a girl. Centenarians (people who hit the century mark) usually have similarly long-lived grandparents, parents and siblings, and while the male Y chromosome delivers broad shoulders, slim hips, and tons of muscle, the f...
#FlashbackFriday for this article! A recent study by Comptroller Scott Stringer revealed that the Upper East Side does not have a sufficient number of playgrounds. 🤸♀️
A recent study by Comptroller Scott Stringer revealed that the Upper East Side does not have a sufficient number of playgrounds. The UES has eight total playgrounds, or 4.3 per 10,000 children, compared to the UWS, with 21 playgrounds and 9.8 per 10,000 kids. Stringer’s office released a report on...
The groundbreaking crime analysis tool, which changed the way policing works in the city, continues to play a central role in keeping New Yorkers safe 👮♂️
From nearly the moment CompStat was introduced in 1994, the New York City Police Department’s cutting-edge crime tracking and performance management system became an instrument of unparalleled influence in law enforcement.CompStat’s implementation here coincided with an unprecedented drop in cri...
Female fighter pilots — and other U.S. Air Force personnel — talk about their roles and challenges 💪
By Leida Snow We may have heard about women warriors, but it’s still a jolt to meet the nation’s first female fighter pilot, Brigadier General Jeannie Leavitt. With her blond, loosely upswept hair and bangs, and her warm smile, Leavitt is disarming. But her no-nonsense, take-control voice assure...
A herd from Rhinebeck, NY will help remove invasive plants and make the land usable for trees and native species. 🐐🐐
Beginning next week, New Yorkers will have a chance to see goats in Riverside Park.On May 21, the Riverside Park Conservancy is welcoming a herd of 24 goats from Rhinebeck, NY, who will be assisting to remove invasive species from a two-acre area of Riverside Park’s woodland. This is part of the c...
A high school student argues that the industry is trying to hook young people with flavored “starter kits” 🚫
The tobacco industry has a kids menu. Death, disease and addiction now come in new imaginative electronic cigarette flavors like sour candy worms, unicorn milk, and smurf cake. It is no surprise that these companies are tapping into the imaginations of youth and luring them into a candy-coated addic...
Rep. Jerrold Nadler takes on the most important role of his life.
Read all about it here:
Forty-five years after Watergate, the nation is once again engulfed in Constitutional turmoil, and history has chosen as the man of the moment an urban progressive, beloved in his district, who sees his mission, in no small part, as the defense of democracy.U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, universally know...
Chinese restaurants, with their “Thank You” plastic bags and red and yellow storefronts, are so woven into the fabric of New York that we rarely stop and ponder the history of these spaces 🤔🧐
Chinese restaurants, with their “Thank You” plastic bags and red and yellow storefronts, are so woven into the fabric of New York that we rarely stop and ponder the history of these spaces. How and when did they come about? Whom did they cater to? What did they mean for emerging conversations ab...
Representatives of Lenox Hill Hospital discussed their redevelopment plans at a meeting with Community Board 8 members and local residents.
Find out what's going on:
The Upper East Siders who turned out last Thursday for Community Board 8’s zoning and development committee meeting spent the first part of the evening listening to presentations from the Manhattan District Attorney’s construction task force and the Waterfront Alliance. But when it was time to a...
Gale A. Brewer, Manhattan Borough President vows legal action if the city allows private development on NYCHA land without public land use review.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial plan to allow a private developer to build a residential tower on the grounds of a Yorkville public housing development without a public land use review could spur a legal showdown with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.In a Feb. 20 letter to de Blasio, B...
Students at Eleanor Roosevelt H.S. on the UES near 5,000 signatures on a petition to the city.
In a little more than two weeks, students at an Upper East Side High school have reached close to 5,000 signatures on a petition asking the city for a gym for their school. The petition is being hosted by Councilman Ben Kallos, and as of Feb. 22, had 4,709 signatures. The school, which has been at i...
In NYC everyone has a voice that gets heard. By tweet. By twitter. By email. By letters and postcards. By phone. By text. By marching. By protesting. Using microphones and megaphones.
Civics and the City and Amazon — It happened on February 14th, but as Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney opined, “It was not the Valentine that New York needed.” Amazon pulled out of the deal that would have brought their HQ2 and 25,000 jobs to Long Island City before it would have been pummeled by...
A young woman had to flee a restrictive religious community, and her own family, to find a future.
From an early age Faigy Roth was skeptical of her family’s lifestyle. She grew up in an insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish enclave in Monsey, New York, where religion and tradition guide every aspect of their lives and a rabbi sets the rules for everyone. Yiddish is the native language. English and mos...
Boy Scout camp in the 1960s was not for the faint of heart.
Going to Boy Scout camp in the first half of the 1960s was a raw and exhilarating experience. It was also kind of nuts. We didn’t play tennis or softball. We didn’t have coed cookouts with girls from all-girl camps. We didn’t sleep in cabins with electricity and screen doors. And we didn’t h...
After 54 years and a celebrated track record for animal rescue work, Petland Discounts is expected to close all its stores and face a possible sale or liquidation by April.
“Noodles” was a homeless orphan living on the streets of Virginia. His prospects seemed dire. Then, he was rescued and brought to New York for adoption. Now, he’s living in a cozy pad in the heart of Chelsea.But the idyll may not last. His fate, at least for the moment, is unclear. He may have...
There’s music everywhere in Manhattan, and you can join in! 🎼🎤
There are no neon lights and the red door tucked in a corner is nondescript. “If you reach a place with Italian lights overhead, you’ve gone too far,” are a stranger’s vague directions. With a handful of steps down from the sidewalk, I bend down to peer in, make sure it’s the right spot, t...
A hotly contested Jan. 30 election to determine the next president of the Metropolitan Republican Club highlighted tensions among members, returning the historic political organization to the public eye four months after chaotic street violence erupted on the Upper East Side following a club event featuring the founder of a far-right group.
A hotly contested Jan. 30 election to determine the next president of the Metropolitan Republican Club highlighted tensions among members, returning the historic political organization to the public eye four months after chaotic street violence erupted on the Upper East Side following a club event f...
Two elite Jesuit schools confront painful revelations about priests from their past.
The sexual abuse crisis that has plagued the Catholic Church for decades has now reached two prominent Manhattan high schools. A list naming Jesuit priests, who were identified by the Society of Jesus as having credible allegations of sexual abuse, was published on January 15, revealing that Regis a...
A camp director on tech and social trends — and what today’s parents are looking for. ☀️📱🌳
American Camp Association, New York and New Jersey
Liberty Lake Day Camp
BY Andy PritikinOur children are growing up so much differently than we did, with so much of their lives spent staring at and touching glowing screens. I looked for information in my encyclopedia, dictionary or local library, while kids can find a fact through their fingertips in seconds. But while....
In hundreds of apartments across Manhattan, the elderly, the disabled and the poor have lived in fear and confusion since the federal shutdown on Dec. 22. Their troubles aren't over yet.
From Avenue A to West 145th Street, roughly 2,000 of the city's most vulnerable residents just got the scare of their lives.For 35 harrowing days, as the government shutdown dragged on, they faced the threat of being forced from their homes.It didn't happen. But the abrupt cutoff of federal funding....
In case you missed it: The Upper West Side Congressman answered questions and ripped President Trump during an electronic Town Hall.
The wall President Trump wants to build along the Mexican border is a “4th century solution to a 21st century problem” Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler told his Upper West Side consituents on Wednesday. “The president is holding the American people hostage,” said Nadler, the new head of...
The Manhattan Borough President calls for an independent review of “a Pandora’s box of outstanding questions” 🚈
The L-train un-shutdown has been a particularly gripping early story of 2019, one that’s brought more intrigue than an episode of “Law and Order.”(If you haven’t heard, Gov. Cuomo called in academic engineering experts late last year and settled on an alternate rehabilitation plan for the L ...
It’s eastward ho as the hospital redevelops an entire blockfront on Third Avenue 🏢
It was 1868 when the institution that would eventually became Lenox Hill Hospital first put down stakes on Park Avenue at East 77th Street.Now, 150 years later, the Upper East Side fixture is weighing whether it should monetize some of the pricey property at its ancestral home.The hospital is in the...
EXCLUSIVE: 640 new school seats for UES
The city aims to add 640 new public school seats on the Upper East Side as part of its upcoming $17 billion five-year school capital plan.Plans for expanding the neighborhood’s school capacity appear in the School Construction Authority and Department of Education’s proposed capital plan for fis...
The backstory of a new book that’s a “joint love letter to the greatest city in the world”🍎
It was a frantic day on deadline at The New York Times when the email popped into my in-box. It almost had a French accent.“I am a publisher based in NY.I would be very happy to meet you to explain an important project that we are starting now for next year.I think that you will like it and be the...
Ever wonder how your doorman feels about the growth of online shopping? Increased package deliveries bring the impact of e-commerce on building service workers into focus during the holiday season.
By Michael GarofaloIt’s the most wonderful time of the year. But not for the doorman at an East 80th Street condominium building. “It sucks,” he said with a wry smile, gesturing to a row of cabinets in the building’s lobby filled with residents’ package deliveries. As New Yorkers increasin...
Do you recognize these Doors of Manhattan? Click the link to download a Free Poster! 🚪📥🍎
Immanuel Lutheran Church, New York City
The Church of The Holy Trinity
“Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else,” the playwright Tom Stoppard once wrote. I've always thought the same thing about doors. They're mysterious; they hold promise of adventures, and secrets. I can't help but wonder what's happening behind them; or what world will emerge if I...
What’s happening on the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Downtown, Chelsea. Events, things for kids to do, arts, entertainment, food & wine tastings, community events, kid-friendly events in Manhattan, NYC. - NYCNow
Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Downtown, Chelsea events, concerts, movies and things to do
Territorial dispute over cleanup program
By their very nature, press conferences regarding City Council expense funding allocations are generally rather staid affairs. But a Dec. 5 announcement on public funding to tidy Upper East Side sidewalks turned into a raucous standoff between the cleanup crews of two nonprofits that each help forme...
Are you getting the Best of Manhattan? Do you know which business offer the best Food & Drink, Arts & Culture, Workouts, Home Improvement, Gifts, places for Kids, Pets and more? Take a look through our list, and let us know where you shop! 🍎
Food and Drink Arts & Culture Home Improvement Workouts
Holmes Towers project faces questions
By Michael GarofaloThe city’s plan to allow a private developer to build a 500-foot tower on the campus of a Yorkville public housing development, which sparked backlash from neighbors and local elected officials upon its announcement last year, is facing continued opposition from many members of ...
Safer East Side streets
East Side pedestrians and cyclists are making strides in street safety, according to an analysis of NYPD collision data covering East Side zip codes from 26th to 96th Streets performed by the offices of East Side City Council Members Ben Kallos and Keith Powers.Pedestrians have seen the most signifi...
For two years, southbound buses on Fifth Avenue have skipped a longstanding stop near Trump Tower due to security concerns--but a change is in the works.
Since Donald Trump was elected president in the fall of 2016, the area surrounding his Midtown residence — to say nothing of the rest of the country — has experienced severe disruptions. While protests at Trump Tower have ebbed in frequency over the last year, police barricades still line the si...
Free seminar being held on Wednesday, November 28 from 6-8:30 PM at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
Learn about different surgical procedures and treatment options available for adult scoliosis and spinal deformities at a free seminar being held on Wednesday, November 28 from 6-8:30 PM at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (173 Fort Washington Avenue). World-renowned spine specialists Lawrence Lenke, M...
The subway and the soul of Yorkville
As a burst of oversized and out-of-scale development projects radiate from the path of the Second Avenue Subway, a preservation group is fighting back — by publishing a book to document the area’s glorious past.The Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts is delving into the boundless h...
After federal authorities arrested a suspect in connection with the series of mail bombs discovered this week, Mayor Bill de Blasio praised residents for their resilience in the face of adversity. “Fear can spread. Fear can overtake us. New Yorkers did not let that happen,” de Blasio said, adding, “Terrorism is never going to change who we are."
By Michael GarofaloHours after NYPD officers disposed of the third suspected mail bomb found in Manhattan in the last three days on Friday morning, federal agents in Florida arrested a suspect in connection with the series of suspicious packages sent this week to CNN’s Manhattan offices and promin...
The Breslinization of East 42nd Street
He was an old-school, street-savvy, door-knocking, pavement-pounding journalist who championed the city’s disenfranchised, railed against its ruling classes and wrote for its masses.He was also a megalomaniac — he fancied himself as “J.B. No. 1,” the “greatest columnist in the history of t...
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Editorial Board Meeting with the District 4 city council candidates
