Harlem Bespoke: The spring season will have more on the calendar for everyone and local live events are some of the things to watch our for in the coming month. Keep it all in the neighborhood and help support uptown’s small businesses!
Thursday, June 8th, 7:00PM, Jason and Shirley, in-theater screening at Maysles Cinema, 343 Lenox Avenue by West 127th Street.
NOBODY WAS HERE…THE LIFE OF TMNK is a captivating and intimate documentary that delves into the enigmatic world of renowned street artist TMNK, aka Nobody. More details and purchase online tickets at the Maysles Cinema site: LINK
Saturday, June 17th, 2:00PM-5:00PM, National Jazz Museum In Harlem Juneteenth Black Music Festival at Jackie Robinson Park, by 148th Street and Bradhurst Avenue at the Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell. NJMH Juneteenth Black Music Festival is an outdoor music and dance celebration rooted in community, movement, and sounds from the Black Diaspora. Featured artists include vocalist Charenee Wade, poet, vocalist, musician and designer Tai Allen with his group Sample Sale, and freestyle dance and music group LayeRhythm.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Department of Education (DOE) Chancellor David C. Banks today announced with effects from Harlem to Hollis, Queens. Theyannounced that the DOE Office of Food and Nutrition Services (OFNS) has been awarded $8.4 million through the Local Food for Schools grant. The funds, allocated by the New York State Education…
Harlem Bespoke: One of the city’s biggest cultural block party will happening in June with free admission to all of the notable museums to be found on upper Manhattan including El Museo, The Africa Center, The Museum of the City of New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cooper Hewitt and more.
Tuesday, June 13th, 6:00PM to 9:00PM, The Museum Mile Festival 2023, Fifth Avenue from 105th Street to 82nd Street. This is also a big street festival so expect live performances along Fifth Avenue and a lot to look at while on the stroll. Come early for lines tend to wrap around the blocks at this popular event. More details and a full list of participating institutions can be found on the Central Park website:LINK
Every year, the best public pools in NYC—from Crotona to Kosciuszko—are set to open for the season in June, joining the city’s top beaches, which officially opened during Memorial Day Weekend, as necessary havens from New York’s sweltering summer heat. But many of those pools may experience reduced hours this summer, due to a growing shortage on lifeguards.
Per The New York Times, New York Parks Department officials report that they have fewer than 500 lifeguards available to patrol local swimming pools and beaches, 480 total to be exact (280 returning lifeguards and another 200 new recruits), one-third of the number they would need to staff the city’s pools and beaches full-time.
“In order to open all beaches and pools we need about 1,400,” Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue announced during the city council’s parks committee meeting on Monday, May 22. “If we don’t get to a number of around 800 or 900, we would open for one shift of our pools and beaches, so like 11-7,” a.k.a. reduced operating hours and limited access to those pools and beaches.
Already, some pools will be closed for the season because of renovations, including Astoria pool (pictured above).
Last summer, the city had a workforce of 529 guards by late June and certified another 300-plus pool and beach attendants by early July ahead of the ever-busy Fourth of July Weekend. Even those 900 lifeguards of the 2022 summer season is down significantly from years’ past, which saw 1,000 guards in 2021 and 1,500 back in 2016.
“We’re doing all that we can to recruit and train as many lifeguards as possible,” Donoghue said at the meeting. “We are clearly still facing a very challenging hiring environment.” The city has adopted incentives like increased pay and retention bonuses, as well as free swimming lessons and boosted advertising as schools and job fairs. The plan is to onboard new lifeguards in a rolling recruitment to hit target by Independence Day.
The current shortage on water safety personnel in New York City is reportedly tied to a notoriously difficult qualifying test and contract negotiations between city officials and local lifeguard unions, but it’s part of a larger, nationwide dearth, said to be tied to pandemic-related difficulties, including staff vacancies and lack of training opportunities.
Harlem Bespoke: The hotel at 410 West 126th Street and Morningside Avenue started up right before the pandemic and now the windows are finally being installed. We walked this section Manhattanville last week and took the above photos and things are really moving quickly at this point in time. Check out our past post for more details on the forthcoming tourist abode: LINK
