Good morning and happy Saturday. What had looked like a great weekend could be punctuated late afternoon/early evening today with either light showers or heavy thunderstorms (depends what forecast you read). Either way, expect rain later today. Sunday’s looking hot and clear.
Hell’s Kitchen went Hollywood this week, as one local’s act appeared in a now-viral segment on NBC’s variety competition America’s Got Talent! Read more…
Here’s the rest of the neighborhood news from this week…
Hell’s Kitchen has another omakase option. Check out chef Frankie Dong at Sushiichi on 10th Avenue (where Bar-Tini Lounge used to be). Read more…
A community in mourning asserted its right to exist — and to vogue — in New York City as a teenager turned himself in for fatally stabbing O’Shea Sibley in what Mayor Eric Adams said “clearly was a hate crime.” Read more…
New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal has joined the fight against unauthorized cannabis shops — and is calling for a “hands-on approach” involving the Hell’s Kitchen community and for the Office of Cannabis Management Director “to act quickly and aggressively to shut down these unlicensed stores.” Read more…
Professional choreographer and director Jessica Chen arrived in New York as a student at the Ailey School and never left! Hell’s Kitchen “has been my home, safe space and HQ ever since,” she says. Read Jessica’s West Side Story…
The iconic Concorde supersonic jetliner was picked up from its long-time home at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. The Concorde was lifted by a massive floating crane barge and placed on another barge to travel to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. [Our original story has now been updated with a timelapse from reader Paul David]. Read more…
Ice cream vendors warm to the idea of powering their freezers with electric or renewable energy, as New York City Council considers a fossil fuel ban. Read more…
In the 1990s, a serial killer preyed on NYC’s LGBTQIA+ community amid the AIDS crisis and a rise in hate crimes, evading capture for years. As examined in HBO’s Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York, the killer had murdered before. The recent murders of Julio Ramirez and John Umberger show it can happen again. Read more…
New York-born actor, singer, songwriter and podcaster Rafi Fuentes loves the ever-changing face of Hell’s Kitchen. Read his West Side Story…
Check out Sarah’s latest edition of “Make Way for the Weekend” for ideas of what to do around New York. Read more…
In good news for the neighborhood, Hell’s Kitchen Park is back up and running, boasting new improvements after months-long renovations to the tune of $450,000. Read more…
A man has been indicted on four charges for sexually assaulting and robbing a woman as she walked in Riverside Park alongside the Hudson River. Manhattan DA said: “New Yorkers need to know they can safely use our city’s many beautiful waterfront parks.” Read more…
What we’ve been reading
* Stories that might be behind a paywall are marked with a 💰
A shortage of air traffic controllers means fewer flights in and out of New York City. (CBS)
Controversial funding delivers “digidogs” for NYPD, raising privacy concerns. (Politico)
The Four Seasons hotel will reopen in Midtown next fall. (6sqft)
This scammer thought he had the key to fare evasion on the subway. (NBC)
The pen, the sword and the speeding fine… (New York Times💰)
Freeze Frame
W42ST readers Peter Herdrich and Karen Trott made history as the first to play pickleball on the new court in Hell’s Kitchen Park. The longtime residents watched the court’s progress eagerly and inaugurated it with a friendly match on Thursday morning. They told us: “We waited til 10:20am, and the historic moment arrived with a warm up serve, followed by three tightly-contested matches, the results of which are lost to history.”
Happy birthday today to Raeya Stephan and Zach Aaronson — and tomorrow to Nancy McGoff and Marcos Salazar.
