Wednesday, September 2, 2026 · No. 23
Good morning, Yorkville. Yesterday we told you the Legionnaires' sequencing results were overdue; later that same day the city answered — with a raft of new cooling-tower enforcement, but still no name for the tower that started it. That's the lead. Below it: the overnight spray-truck pass through our ZIP codes, the return of the listing of note (Irving Berlin's old penthouse, at a discount), and a reason to be on the esplanade after dark this Friday. Backpacks go on a week from tomorrow; enjoy the quiet while it lasts.
The Lead
New cooling-tower measures, but still no named tower
Mayor Mamdani and the Health Department announced new cooling-tower enforcement measures Tuesday — coordination with the Buildings Department on unregistered towers, violation hearings fast-tracked to 15 days, an expanded public cooling-tower map, and a scientific advisory panel — ahead of a City Council oversight hearing on the outbreak that killed 11 people this summer, the Upper East Side cluster we have been following since July, per Gothamist. What Tuesday's announcement did not include: a source. The whole-genome sequencing results the city said to expect by the end of August have not been publicly reported, and none of the coverage of the new measures names the tower behind the outbreak. We'll keep asking.
via Gothamist
Around the Neighborhood
The West Nile spray trucks and our ZIP codes
A follow-up on yesterday's lead: the Health Department's truck-based pesticide spraying against West Nile virus covers a broad swath of Manhattan, from Midtown West up through Washington Heights, that includes Yorkville's ZIP codes 10028 and 10128, using the EPA-registered product Duet, per Patch. The city's notice put the truck pass after midnight Tuesday, wrapping by 6 a.m. this morning, with the same overnight hours tomorrow night as the rain date if weather pushed it — which is why you may have seen both dates reported. The department says risks to people and pets are low, and advises people with respiratory conditions to consider staying indoors during spraying.
via Patch
Listing of note: Irving Berlin's penthouse, at about half its 2022 ask
The listing of note returns after a summer hiatus: the penthouse duplex at 130 East End Avenue — the Emery Roth-designed co-op at 86th Street where Irving Berlin lived from 1931 to 1944 — is asking $5.25 million, per the Brown Harris Stevens listing cited by CityRealty. CityRealty, which flagged the price cut, notes the same apartment sought $10.3 million in June 2022. However the market reads that, a piece of songwriting history with East River views is now listed at roughly half its price of four years ago.
via CityRealty
This Week
Telescope night on the esplanade this Friday
The Amateur Astronomers Association's free monthly stargazing session at Carl Schurz Park lands this Friday, September 4, on the esplanade along John Finley Walk. A service note from the group's own page: the 86th Street entrance is closest to where they set up but requires stairs up to the esplanade — enter at 87th Street to avoid them. Telescopes and volunteers are on hand, it's open to anyone, and the group runs one park Friday a month, May through October. Sessions start after sunset and are weather-dependent, with Saturday as the rain date, so check the association's calendar before heading over.
via Amateur Astronomers Association
Yorkville, Remembered
Yorkville had its own Hungarian Broadway
German wasn't the only Central European strip uptown: in the early 20th century, East 79th Street east of Lexington Avenue became the Hungarian Broadway - or 'Goulash Boulevard' - the main stem of a Little Hungary of Hungarian restaurants and shops (the Debrechen, Tokay, Hungarian Gardens among them) that ran roughly from 75th to 83rd Streets, mostly just south and west of today's Yorkville box. St. Stephen of Hungary Church anchored the growing Hungarian parish as it built a permanent home in the neighborhood. Holdouts like the Paprika Weiss delicatessen and the Yorkville Packing House kept a thread of the strip alive into the 1990s and 2000s, long after most of Little Hungary had faded.
source: Forgotten New York
One more thing: if you find yourself on the esplanade Friday night facing a row of telescopes aimed out over Hell Gate, nobody is watching the buildings — that's the astronomy club, and they will absolutely let you have a look. Bring a sweater; the river cools off before the rest of the neighborhood does.