Saturday, September 26, 2026 · No. 44
The nor'easter got here before the weekend did: Governor Hochul declared a state of emergency Friday, the mayor issued a travel advisory, and tomorrow's Lexington Avenue street fair — the one we told you about all week — is now pointed at October 18. Details on all of it below, plus an indoor plan for a washed-out Saturday. And the bigger story under the rain: the city's first-ever housing-growth plan asks our community district for 12,725 new homes — more than any other district in the city, by East Side Feed's count — and a community board member has thoughts.
The Lead
The city's first housing-growth plan asks our district for 12,725 new homes
HPD and City Planning have released a draft of the Fair Housing Growth Strategy — the city's first-ever, required by 2023's Local Law 167, per HPD's own announcement — and it sets five-year housing-production targets for every community district. East Side Feed reports that Community District 8, which covers the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island, drew a target of 12,725 new units by 2030, the most of any district in the city by the outlet's account, against roughly 1,600 net new units added over the prior five years. At a Community Board 8 zoning committee session, one board member called the target "really fantastical," per East Side Feed. Friends of the Upper East Side, which cites the same 12,725 figure in its published response, is urging what it calls a more thoughtful approach. The plan is a draft; where those units would actually go is the fight to come.
via East Side Feed
This Week
Sunday's Lexington Avenue festival is postponed — new date, October 18
The storm took the street fair with it. With Governor Hochul declaring a state of emergency for the city, Long Island and Westchester and Mayor Mamdani issuing a travel advisory — the same system that canceled Central Park's Global Citizen Festival — the Lexington Avenue UES Festival will not run tomorrow as we previewed this week. Patch's updated guide now points to Sunday, Oct. 18 for the 92NY-organized fair, same 17-block run from East 79th to 96th, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Community Board 8's street-fairs page now lists Sept. 27 as the original date. One caution for tonight, too: nobody has called off Movies Under the Stars at East 96th and Lexington by name, but with Gothamist reporting forecast wind gusts of 40 to 50 m.p.h., check CB8's listing before you carry a blanket over.
via Patch
The indoor plan: family art-making at the Guggenheim, free with admission
For a washout Saturday, a standby worth knowing about: the Guggenheim's Art Cart is a drop-in family art-making session in the galleries, listed on the museum's own calendar for Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and again 3 to 5 p.m., free with admission and no registration needed. The museum sits at Fifth Avenue and 89th — a few minutes' walk west of our patch line, which on a day like this is close enough. One storm-day caveat: check the museum's site for today's hours before you go. Kid-friendly, definitionally.
via Guggenheim
Yorkville, Remembered
Gracie Square wasn't named until 130 years after Gracie Mansion
With the city asking Yorkville for another wave of new housing, a reminder of an earlier one: the far eastern end of East 84th Street, overlooking Carl Schurz Park and the East River, was rebranded Gracie Square in 1929 — honoring Archibald Gracie, whose 1799 summer house stands four blocks north as Gracie Mansion. The block quickly filled with grand co-ops: 10 Gracie Square, built 1930-31 in the Art Deco style by architects Van Wart & Wein with Pleasants Pennington and Albert W. Lewis, has counted Gloria Vanderbilt, conductor Andre Kostelanetz and Soong Mei-ling — Madame Chiang Kai-shek — among its residents.
source: Ephemeral New York
A quieter Saturday than anyone planned, then. The fair will keep until the 18th, and tonight's movie at 96th and Lex is a check-before-you-go — as, honestly, is everything else this weekend. Stay dry, Yorkville. We'll see you on Lexington in three weeks.