Saturday, September 19, 2026 · No. 38
It's the Saturday we've been pointing to all week: the Steuben Parade steps off on Fifth Avenue at noon, the Community Benefit Festival takes over Third Avenue, and there's a craft market and an Oktoberfest besides — your block-by-block plan leads the paper. Also today: students and religious leaders rallied near Gracie Mansion against antisemitism, an East 88th Street block says it's overrun with rats, and a Deborah Berke-designed penthouse on East End Avenue is asking $11.95 million. Plus the week ahead — including no school Monday. Here's your Saturday.
The Lead
Your big Saturday: parade at noon, a street fair and craft market on Third
The day the neighborhood circles in September is here. The German-American Steuben Parade marches up Fifth Avenue to 86th Street, stepping off at noon, with the official Oktoberfest following at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park from 1 p.m., per the parade's organizers. Closer to home, the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce's 3rd Avenue Community Benefit Festival runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. along Third Avenue — the 79th-to-86th stretch is ours — with vendors, live music and kids' rides, per the city's events calendar, and the Makers Manifest craft market sets up on Third between 78th and 79th over the same hours, per its Eventbrite listing. Comfortable shoes recommended; the whole neighborhood will be on the street.
via German-American Steuben Parade
Around the Neighborhood
Students rallied near Gracie Mansion against antisemitism
Students from Jewish private schools on the Upper East Side, joined by parents and religious leaders, gathered near Gracie Mansion on Friday for a rally denouncing antisemitism, per Upper East Site.
via Upper East Site
An East 88th Street block says its rat problem is 'out of control'
Residents of an East 88th Street block near First Avenue are pleading with city leaders for help with what they call an 'out of control' rat infestation, per Upper East Site — neighbors describe rats overrunning tree pits and trash, point to nearby construction as a culprit, and say the health department has sent exterminators to the block repeatedly. We'll keep an eye on whether the city's response goes beyond return visits.
via Upper East Site
Listing of note: a full-floor Deborah Berke penthouse at 40 East End
Penthouse 15 at 40 East End Avenue — the Lightstone condo near 81st Street with interiors by Deborah Berke Partners — is on the market asking $11.95 million, per its StreetEasy listing: a full-floor four-bedroom of roughly 3,645 square feet with 855 square feet of outdoor space. Its sibling penthouse one flight up is listed too, and 6sqft has toured both if you'd like the full photo treatment.
via StreetEasy
This Week
No school Monday — and a quieter Sunday to recover
NYC public schools are closed Monday, Sept. 21 for Yom Kippur, per the district calendar — plan childcare or lean into the long weekend. If Saturday's crowds wear you out, Sunday stays gentle: the Ruppert Park Greenmarket runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Second Avenue between 90th and 91st, per GrowNYC.
via NYC Public Schools
Mark the calendar: movie night and museum sketching next Saturday
Next Saturday, Sept. 26, brings a free Movies Under the Stars screening at Samuel Seabury Playground (East 96th and Lexington) at 7:30 p.m., per Community Board 8's listing, and Cooper Hewitt's drop-in sketching session in the galleries, on the museum's own calendar. Further out, NYC Parks lists a free Kids in Motion pop-up — organized sports and games — at Carl Schurz Park on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
via CB8 / NYC Parks
Corrections
For the record: two fixes to Friday's paper, and a repaired archive page
Friday's edition (#37), as first published — it was live on the site for roughly twenty minutes Friday morning before a same-morning standards fix — (a) dated its Pizza in the Park reminder to 'our Tuesday paper' when the item ran in Wednesday's #35, and (b) said 'Adria's owners have said they plan to stay' when the sourced attribution is to one co-owner, Maria Marquez-Hass. Separately, the archived Sept. 15 edition (#34) carried that same owner/'she plans to stay' phrasing in an item's headline and body; the archive page was repaired Friday, Sept. 18, with an inline note. We regret the errors.
via The Yorkville Ledger
Yorkville, Remembered
Yorkville's marzipan palace held out on German Broadway
For decades, Elk Candy Company sold hand-made marzipan - bunnies, eggs, pigs - from East 86th Street, one of the German businesses that made the strip 'German Broadway.' When the shop closed, NPR told the story of the Lulgjuraj family, its last owners, working to keep the marzipan tradition itself alive beyond the storefront. On the day the Steuben Parade marches, worth remembering what 86th Street used to taste like.
source: NPR
That's Saturday: a parade, a street fair, a craft market, a beer garden, and a penthouse to daydream about between them. Wear the comfortable shoes. See you Sunday.