Saturday, October 3, 2026 · No. 51 · Sunny, high 71°F
Good Saturday morning. Asphalt Green's Halloween bash is Friday, Oct. 30, and this year you'll need a (free) ticket to get in — and we owe you a correction on the date. Also in the paper: fifth-grade families get their middle-school application date, the 30-story tower going up just south of our line on First Avenue, and the Hungarian parish that broke ground on East 82nd Street on its patron saint's day.
The Lead
Asphalt Screams is Friday, Oct. 30 — and this year you need a free ticket
Asphalt Green's 2026 event page lists its annual Halloween festival, Asphalt Screams, for Friday, Oct. 30, on Litwin Field at the East 90th Street campus (555 E. 90th St.) — not Oct. 23, as we reported in September. Admission is still free, but the page says every guest must claim a ticket online in advance to manage capacity; tickets come as a QR code scanned at the gate. The page lists a sensory-friendly hour from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. with reduced sound, lighting and crowds (limited tickets), the street fair from 2:30 to 6 p.m., and the main event and haunted maze from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. This year's edition is presented with Council Speaker Julie Menin. Costumes encouraged; small or clear bags speed entry, and outside food and drink aren't allowed on the field. Our events page has been updated. Via Asphalt Green.
via Asphalt Green
Schools & Kids
Fifth-grade families: the middle-school application opens Oct. 14
The Education Department's middle-school admissions page says the application for sixth grade in September 2027 opens on Wednesday, Oct. 14, through families' MySchools accounts, and closes Friday, Dec. 11; offers are scheduled for April 7, 2027. Every fifth grader must apply — including students at schools that continue through eighth grade. Separately, as we reported this week, the high school application and SHSAT registration open this Tuesday, Oct. 6. Via NYC Public Schools.
via NYC Public Schools
Around the Neighborhood
Nearby: the 30-story rental tower on First Avenue keeps climbing
Just south of our 79th Street line, Alchemy-ABR's tower at 1482 First Avenue is rising fast, New York YIMBY reports: a 30-story, 395-foot rental building designed by Hill West Architects, with 18 apartments set aside as rent-stabilized for households earning 80 percent of area median income or less. Via New York YIMBY.
via New York YIMBY
Corrections
A correction: Asphalt Screams is Oct. 30
Our Sept. 23 edition, and our events page until this morning, said Asphalt Green's Asphalt Screams festival would be held Friday, Oct. 23, and described admission simply as free. Asphalt Green's current 2026 event page lists Friday, Oct. 30, and requires free tickets claimed online in advance. We have updated our listings.
via The Yorkville Ledger
Yorkville, Remembered
Yorkville's Hungarian Catholics broke ground on St. Stephen's Day
Father Laszlo Perenyi founded St. Stephen of Hungary parish in 1902 to serve New York's growing Hungarian Catholic immigrant population; the young congregation had no permanent home until 1905, when it moved into a former Presbyterian church on East 14th Street. As Yorkville grew into a Central European hub alongside its German majority, the Franciscans, who took over the parish's administration in 1922, broke ground on a new church and school at 402-412 East 82nd Street (also listed as 414 East 82nd Street) on August 20, 1927 - St. Stephen's Day, the feast of Hungary's patron king - to a design by architect Emil Szendy. The Archdiocese folded St. Stephen of Hungary into a combined Yorkville parish in 2015, but Szendy's brick-and-sandstone church still stands on East 82nd Street.
source: Wikipedia
First Saturday of October, and the 82nd Street Greenmarket is open as it is every week. Pick up something for the table — and set a reminder to claim those free Halloween tickets. See you tomorrow.