Good morning and happy Monday. It’s going to be a pretty nice morning and afternoon — but the evening will bring heavy rain to the neighborhood. The rest of the week is a mixed bag, but Saturday could bring us the first 70-degree day of 2023.
There are new generations of chess champions in the making at the Times Square Migrant Chess Club, where young New Yorkers and immigrants are teaching recent arrivals how to master the game — and the city. Read more…
Jeremy Driesen is a drummer and photographer who also runs a corporate events company. He’s a recent arrival in the neighborhood, but landed in New York back in the 1980s. Read Jeremy’s West Side Story…
What we’ve been reading
* Stories that might be behind a paywall are marked with a 💰
Cops are now transporting fewer folks with mental health issues to hospital than before Mayor’s directive. (Gothamist)
The NYC pandemic exit to Hudson Valley is causing a rent problem. (THE CITY)
Geothermal could be the future for heating New York City’s buildings. (Spectrum News)
New exclusive luxury gyms carry a weight of expectation… (New York Times💰)
Exploring the history of New York City in 27 buildings. (Architectural Digest)
Freeze Frame
Sometimes, we look back in the archive for what happened on this day in previous years. Today, we found this photo of a memorial to Timothy Caughman. An awful story, that reminds us of the hatred of a minority.
In March 2017, Timothy Caughman, 66, was fatally stabbed multiple times with a sword by James Harris Jackson, a white 28-year-old man at the corner of W36th St and 9th Avenue. Caughman was collecting cans for recycling. Jackson had traveled from Baltimore with the intention of killing Black men to prevent interracial relationships. Caughman was a New York City native who had spent his entire life in the city, earning an associate degree and working as a social worker. Accoring to Wikipedia, Caughman was an avid reader, collector of celebrity autographs, and enjoyed discussing religion and philosophy. Jackson, a military veteran who had expressed racist views since childhood, pled guilty to murder and was sentenced to life without parole. May Timothy rest in peace — and be remembered.
Happy birthday this weekend to Richard Hillman and the Hickman Triplets — and today to Jillian Schnapp and Alan Rice.
