Saturday, September 12, 2026 · No. 31
First Saturday of the school year, and the neighborhood is out of doors: the Gracie Square Art Show takes over East End Avenue through tomorrow, the outdoor pools swim their last laps Sunday, and — five years after the money was secured — Ruppert Park's $8.9 million rebuild is finally about to break ground. Plus a full-floor penthouse listing over East 90th, what the proposed BID would actually cost, and a corrections note we owe from Thursday. Here's your Saturday.
The Lead
Ruppert Park's $8.9 million rebuild is finally about to break ground
Five years after the funding was secured, the long-awaited renovation of Ruppert Park — the terraced 1979 pocket park at 1741 Second Avenue, between East 90th and 91st — is finally poised to start construction, Upper East Site reports. The project carries $8,894,000 in discretionary funding from local elected officials, per amNY's coverage of the allocation, and the design went through more than one Community Board 8 round on its way here, including a revision that added a dog run, per Patch. Worth knowing for Sunday regulars: the Ruppert Park Greenmarket sets up along the park's Second Avenue flank on Sundays, in season.
via Upper East Site
Around the Neighborhood
Listing of note: a full-floor penthouse at Gracie Green with 1,100 square feet of roof
Penthouse 11 at Gracie Green, the condominium at 427 East 90th Street, is asking $4,495,000 for a full-floor, three-bedroom, three-bath spread of about 2,414 square feet, per the William Raveis listing — plus a private rooftop terrace the listing puts at over 1,100 square feet, with East River views. CityRealty's building page has the tower's history for the curious.
via William Raveis
Former NYPD sergeant pleads guilty in the crash that killed a UES doorman
Tiffany Howell, a former NYPD sergeant, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and manslaughter for a wrong-way, alcohol-involved crash on the Taconic State Parkway that killed Manuel Boitel, 61, a doorman who worked on the Upper East Side, the state attorney general's office announced. Sentencing is set for Oct. 28. Upper East Site and News12 Westchester carried the plea.
via NY Attorney General
East Side first responders mark 25 years since 9/11
Upper East Side first responders gathered for a solemn remembrance honoring those killed on September 11, 2001, Upper East Site reports — 25 years on this week. The neighborhood's own losses from that morning are in today's history corner.
via Upper East Site
Talk of the Neighborhood
What the proposed Yorkville BID would actually cost the block
Numbers on the proposed East 80s Yorkville Alliance — the business improvement district property owners are voting on around the East 86th Street corridor, roughly 84th to 88th between First and Park Avenues, so much of it west of our Third Avenue line: a first-year budget of about $1.7 million, capped near $2 million with board approval, with owners assessed roughly $1,444 per $1 million of assessed value — figures that match between East Side Feed's report and the Alliance's own materials, and larger than the roughly $900,000 initial budget we cited in August from the same outlet. Whether the corridor's owners think that buys enough clean-and-safe to be worth it is the conversation to eavesdrop on.
via East Side Feed
Corrections
For the record
In Thursday's edition (#30), as first published, our Whole Foods lead placed an existing store at Lexington Avenue and 61st Street — the chain's other two Upper East Side stores are at 1551 and 1175 Third Avenue — and our MYKA item said we first reported the chain's UES plans on Sunday, when that item ran Monday, in #28. Both were corrected the same morning; both had been live on the site before the fix. We regret the errors.
via The Yorkville Ledger
This Week
The Gracie Square Art Show fills East End Avenue today and tomorrow
The juried outdoor fair returns to East End Avenue between 84th and 88th today and Sunday, 10am–5pm, rain or shine with no rain date, per the Carl Schurz Park Conservancy — roughly 100 artists, kids' drawing and painting workshops in the Catbird Playground both mornings, proceeds to park restoration.
via Carl Schurz Park Conservancy
Last laps: outdoor pool season ends Sunday
The city's outdoor pool season closes September 13, per NYC Parks' pool season dates — which makes Sunday the last day at John Jay Park's pools, just south of our line at East 77th and Cherokee Place. After that, it's memories and the indoor waitlist until next June.
via NYC Parks
A craft market joins next Saturday's Third Avenue street fair
Makers Manifest, a curated open-air craft market from Trade + Prosper, is slated for Third Avenue between 78th and 79th — a block below our line — next Saturday, Sept. 19, per its Eventbrite and Craft Map listings. The Community Benefit Festival runs the avenue from 66th to 86th the same day, per the city's events calendar, so the walk up through our stretch should be one long browse.
via Eventbrite
Yorkville, Remembered
Yorkville's firehouse lost nine of its own on 9/11
The firehouse at 159 East 85th Street — between Lexington and Third, a block west of our Third Avenue line — is home to FDNY Engine Company 22 and Ladder Company 13. On September 11, 2001, nine of its members did not come home: four from Engine 22, five from Ladder 13, a loss that came to be known as the 'Yorkville 9' — Capt. Walter Hynes, Thomas Casoria, Michael Elferis, Thomas Hetzel, Vincent Kane, Dennis McHugh, Martin McWilliams, Thomas Sabella and Gregory Stajk. Twenty-five years on, memorial plaques at the firehouse still carry the nine names.
source: Giants.com
Two seasonal rituals share the same weekend: the art show takes over East End Avenue while the outdoor pools take their last laps. If you find yourself torn, the classic Yorkville compromise is both — art in the morning, cannonball in the afternoon, and let Sunday sort out the rest.