Thursday, October 1, 2026 · No. 49 · Chance Rain Showers then Partly Sunny, high 77°F
October opens with a lease, a hearing and a look up: Solidcore has signed on for a second Upper East Side studio — this one in the new tower at Second Avenue and East 88th Street — the City Council spent Wednesday on the e-bike crackdown with the Upper East Side's Julie Menin leading the questioning, and the amateur astronomers are due back on the Carl Schurz Park esplanade Friday evening, weather permitting. Also in the paper: a correction from Wednesday's edition, and the story of the park statue that spent a stint at the bottom of the East River.
Openings & Closings
Solidcore signs a lease at Second Avenue and East 88th, with a 2027 target
Solidcore, whose high-intensity, low-impact resistance classes Upper East Site previewed Wednesday, has signed a long-term lease for the ground-floor retail space of The Langdon, the new residential building at 1695 Second Avenue near East 88th Street, with an opening targeted for the first quarter of 2027 — a lease and a target date, not an opening announcement, so don't look for a storefront this fall. It would be the brand's second Upper East Side studio, joining its East 67th Street location. Commercial Observer and Patch also report the lease; Upper East Site calls the workout's following "cult-like" — their word.
via Upper East Site
Around the Neighborhood
The Council takes up the e-bike crackdown, with Menin leading the questioning
The City Council held a hearing Wednesday on a package of bills aimed at dangerous e-bikes and scooters — among them a ban on sales of the fastest (Class 3) e-bikes, requirements that delivery apps hand over more rider data, stepped-up enforcement and a street-design task force — with City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who represents the Upper East Side, leading the questioning, per Upper East Site's account. NY1 reports the Department of Transportation, the NYPD and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection all testified. No vote was taken at the hearing; we'll flag one when it's scheduled.
via Upper East Site
This Week
Stargazing on the esplanade Friday — check the sky, and the calendar
The Amateur Astronomers Association's free public stargazing session at Carl Schurz Park is listed for Friday evening, October 2, on the esplanade. Two notes before you walk over: the association's listings have carried different start times for this session (its calendar shows 7 to 9 p.m.; earlier notices, including ours, said 8:30), and sessions are weather-dependent, with Saturday as the rain date, per the association. One loop closed from Wednesday's paper: the page headed CANCELLED that we flagged is the club's general Carl Schurz page; its calendar still lists October 2. Check aaa.org/calendar before you go.
via Amateur Astronomers Association
Corrections
A correction from Wednesday's edition
As first published Wednesday morning, our item on the city's rat-mitigation deployment ran under "Nearby on the East Side" — the section this paper uses for off-neighborhood news — and did not name the block. The deployment is on East 88th Street near First Avenue, on our blocks, as the cited outlet's earlier report and our own September 19 coverage place it. The item was moved to its proper section and the block named in a same-morning update. We regret the error.
via Upper East Site
Yorkville, Remembered
Carl Schurz Park's Peter Pan was rescued from the bottom of the East River
The bronze Peter Pan in a garden corner of Carl Schurz Park was sculpted in 1928 by Charles Andrew Hafner for the lobby of the old Paramount Theater. It was donated to the city and installed in 1975 in one of the park's cloistered gardens. In August 1999 it vanished from its base — and was recovered by the NYPD from the bottom of the East River, after which it was restored and more securely reinstalled that year.
source: NYC Parks
First morning of October. If the clouds behave, look up from the esplanade tomorrow night; either way — see you tomorrow.