New York News

🎃 Central Park сancels Pumpkin Flotilla for 2026

📰 Central Park Conservancy is pausing its beloved Halloween Pumpkin Flotilla this year. The tradition dates back to the early 1990s.

📍Organizers say the event has simply outgrown its venue as the site can no longer safely handle the crowds it now draws.

ℹ️ No replacement event is planned for 2026, but the Conservancy is developing a new format for the future. Meanwhile, other fall programs continue as usual, including Birding Basics Tour, Wonder in the Woods, the Central Park Conservancy Film Festival, and Free Yoga in the Park.

@NewYorkNews

🚕 Tesla’s Cybercab is being tested on NYC streets

📰 The autonomous cars have been spotted in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but unlike Tesla’s robotaxis in Texas and Florida, the NYC vehicles currently have a safety driver behind the wheel.

🚖 NYC officials say Tesla is testing autonomous driving under driver supervision. It’s still unclear how many cars are involved or how long the testing will last.

🤔 New York’s taxi industry and officials are raising questions about safety, traffic, emergency response and the potential impact on drivers’ jobs.

@NewYorkNews

📰 NYC public schools closed for three days for holiday

📆 On Monday, September 21, all New York City public schools will be closed in observance of Yom Kippur.

• Beyond the first long weekend of the new school year, the Department of Education has approved the schedule for September parent-teacher conferences. On Wednesday, September 23, meetings will be held at middle schools (grades 6–8) and District 75 special education schools.

• The following day, September 24, conferences will take place for high schoolers (grades 9–12), as well as students in K–12 and 6–12 schools. The series wraps up with elementary and pre-K conferences scheduled for Wednesday, September 30.

📌 The full 2026-2027 public school calendar is already available for review.

@NewYorkNews

🕊️ 2,977 lights over New York Harbor

😔 2,977 illuminated drones rose over New York Harbor and formed the full-scale silhouette of the Twin Towers – one light for every life lost on September 11, 2001.

ℹ️ The tribute, held two nights before the 25th anniversary of the attacks, was created in close collaboration with victims' families, survivors, and first responders. The drones first spiraled into the sky before locking into fixed formation, tracing the towers at their original architectural scale – a quiet counterpart to the annual Tribute in Light shining beside them.

@NewYorkNews

🌪 Violent storms plunge Washington DC into darkness

📰 A powerful line of severe thunderstorms tore through the US capital on Thursday night, bringing hurricane-force wind gusts, relentless lightning, and torrential rain that left the Capitol and other landmarks barely visible through sheets of rain and fog.

⚡ Wind gusts reached 64 mph at Reagan National Airport, toppling trees and cutting power to over 150,000 customers across the DC region. Flash flood warnings triggered multiple water rescues in Alexandria and Arlington as 1-2 inches of rain fell in under an hour.

📸 Residents shared footage comparing the scene to a hurricane, with near-continuous lightning lighting up the sky over the city. Authorities urged residents to stay sheltered as additional storms and flooding remained possible into Friday.

📍 Source: Capital Weather (Washington Post) & WTOP News

@NewYorkNews

📰 New York introduces a one-year pause on AI use in schools

⏸️ The city's public school system is introducing a one-year "pause" on generative AI use and new screen-time limits in classrooms.

ℹ️ A full ban on generative AI for teaching and tutoring will affect around 600,000 students through 8th grade that is two-thirds of all students. High schoolers will be allowed only "limited" use of the technology for AI literacy and career-readiness purposes.

🧑‍🏫 Pre-K through 2nd grade students will be barred from using personal laptops and tablets, while grades 3-8 will face strict time limits. Teachers, meanwhile, will be banned from using AI for grading, managing crisis situations, or making decisions about student promotion. Exceptions will be made for assistive technology for students with disabilities, English language learners, and computer-based testing.

@NewYorkNews

🗽 Autumn in NYC

🍂 Central Park turns gold, Fifth Avenue smells like cinnamon lattes, and the skyline finally has some competition from the trees.

@NewYorkNews

📚 Brooklyn Book Festival: 21 years, still free

9️⃣ days, all five boroughs, this fall in NYC.

🗓 Key dates:
• Sep 20 — Virtual kickoff (Maggie Haberman, Chloe Benjamin & more)
• Sep 26 — Children's Day at Borough Hall — workshops & signings (Adam Gidwitz, R.J. Palacio, Vashti Harrison)
• Sep 27 — Main festival day, Downtown Brooklyn, 10am–6pm
• All week — 70+ Bookend events at local bookstores citywide

🏆 This year's Best of Brooklyn Award: Amitav Ghosh
🎫 Free entry, no tickets needed.

@NewYorkNews

🎡 NYC's oldest county fair returns to Historic Richmond Town from 5 to 7 September

📍 Historic Richmond Town, 441 Clarke Avenue, Staten Island
🕐 Daily 12:00–20:00 (tickets until 19:00)
🎟️ $15 adults / $12 seniors / $7 kids 3–11 / free under 3

🎡 Carnival rides, pony rides, aerial acrobats, a butterfly pavilion, historic trades demos (blacksmithing, open-hearth cooking), 100+ local vendors, and a three-day music festival. Plus pie, hot dog, wing and donut eating contests.

🅿️ No on-site parking — free shuttle from Staten Island Mall.

@NewYorkNews

🆕 Drone delivery is coming to Uber Eats in minutes

🚁 Uber has invested in startup Zipline and launched a drone delivery project for Uber Eats orders. The first drones will hit the platform before the end of the year. These deliveries will start in Zipline’s existing markets, and the companies want to expand into “dozens of U.S. cities.”

⏱️ The companies are targeting 5–10 minute deliveries. By the end of 2029, the partners aim to reach 1 million drone deliveries per day. Zipline itself recently closed an $800M funding round, hitting a $7.6B valuation.

ℹ️ Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called ultra-fast delivery a key growth driver for Eats in the coming years. Uber has previously poured over $10B into robotaxi and air-taxi partners, and already launched drone delivery with startup Flytrex.

@NewYorkNews

🐋 500th humpback whale spotted in New York waters

📰 Over the weekend, a yearling humpback whale breached off Coney Island marking the 500th individual of its kind recorded in New York waters since 2012.

🌊 Researchers were able to identify the whale thanks to the unique scarring pattern on its tail fin (fluke), which activists use to track individual animals over time.

A small but striking reminder of how much marine life has been quietly returning to NYC's waters.

@NewYorkInform

🇩🇴 44th annual Dominican Day Parade to take over NYC this Sunday

📰 New York City will host the 44th Annual Dominican Day Parade this Sunday. This year's theme is "Identidad y Cultura" (Identity and Culture). The celebration honors NYC's Dominican community, highlighting its folklore, traditions, and contributions to American and global culture.

📍 Marchers will begin lining up at 8 a.m. on 36th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway, as well as on 37th and 38th Streets between Fifth and Seventh Avenues.

⏰ The parade kicks off at 11 a.m., heading north up Sixth Avenue from 37th Street to 55th Street.

☀️ Forecasts call for favorable weather, so nothing should get in the way of the festivities.

@NewYorkNews

📞 NYC launches free legal help campaign for immigrants

📰 The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs is running a month-long public information campaign across all five boroughs. The City Council allocated $300,000 for it in FY 2026. Ads will appear in 17 languages across print, digital, radio, and social media.

😲 Any New Yorker — regardless of immigration status — can get free, confidential legal advice by calling:
• 1-800-354-0365
• or 311 and saying “Immigration Legal”
Hotline hours:
Mon & Wed 9 a.m.–8 p.m.
Tue, Thu & Fri 9 a.m.–6 p.m.

💬 Mayor Zohran Mamdani: the city must ensure every immigrant has access to the resources they need.

@NewYorkNews

🏊 NYC's Central Park Pool

📍The Gottesman Pool – the centerpiece of Central Park's new $160M Davis Center near the Harlem Meer — is now welcoming swimmers, a 285-foot-long oval that can fit about 1,000 swimmers.
NBC New York

⏰ It's open daily from 11 AM to 7 PM (with a break from 3-4 PM for cleaning), and yes — admission is completely free.

📍 Mid-park, near 106th–108th St
🗓️ Open through mid-September

🌊 All you need is a swimsuit, a towel, and a lock for your locker. One of NYC's best-kept free summer spots just got even better.

@NewYorkNews