Good morning. It’s Friday! And a very busy weekend for New York City. Ships will sail along the Hudson before fireworks erupt at the Brooklyn Bridge. There’s also the prolonged heat wave, a World Cup match, and let’s not forget Taylor Swift’s wedding.
Fourth of July Celebrations
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Tourists and locals in New York can enjoy a front-row seat to the Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks at the Brooklyn Bridge by heading to the access points along the lower East River. Viewing locations not requiring tickets will be available along the F.D.R. Drive in Manhattan, and public transportation is highly recommended. New Jersey residents can enjoy the show from the lower Hudson River, arriving via PATH trains or the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.
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More than 40 tall ships representing at least 20 nations will sail along the East and Hudson Rivers this weekend to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. The event, known as the tall ships parade, is part of the Sail4th 250 event and will involve roughly 20,000 sailors.
Today, a preliminary parade will make its way down the East River from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. from the Hell Gate Bridge in Astoria, Queens, to Gravesend Bay in south Brooklyn before sailing off to Sandy Hook, N.J. On Saturday, the ships will sail from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge up to the George Washington Bridge along the Hudson River. The boats will be on display until Wednesday.
Heat Wave
The dangerous and prolonged heat wave that struck New York City this week is expected to carry on through the Fourth of July weekend, with the temperatures hovering around 100 degrees. This means no reprieve for many food truck workers in vehicles that line the city streets under the blazing sun with no air-conditioning.
“The grill and the stove spew heat inside,” said Frank Sukonta, who works in the Chop Steak food truck by Bryant Park. “We’ve been in this business so many years, you get used to it.”
Residents in Jamaica, Queens, are also suffering in the extreme heat. The neighborhood was deemed heat-vulnerable by public health experts because of its lack of leafy parks, tree-lined sidewalks and easy access to air-conditioned spaces.
World Cup
On Sunday, Brazil and Norway will go head-to-head in the FIFA World Cup round of 16 at the New York/New Jersey Stadium (MetLife) in East Rutherford, N.J., at 4 p.m.
All things Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift, the global pop star, and Travis Kelce, a professional football player, are set to hold their wedding celebration at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan tonight. For weeks, rumors have circulated about the pop star’s wedding, and then a city official confirmed that the Garden was hosting. But an internal police memo titled “Taylor Swift wedding at Madison Square Garden” put all rumors to rest.
About 1,000 guests are expected to arrive at the Garden for a cocktail hour around 4 p.m., followed by a “a wedding and reception in the arena” beginning at around 5:30 p.m. It is likely that the two will exchange their vows in a more intimate setting before heading to the Garden.
Nearby streets will be closed for the duration of the event.
Weather
Today will be sunny and hot, with a high near 101. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 82.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
Suspended (Independence Day observed).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Anniversaries of this scale are not just invitations to reflect on the past. They are also a mirror.” — Mayor Zohran Mamdani when asked about his views of the Fourth of July holiday.
METROPOLITAN diary
Room with a view
Dear Diary:
Ten years ago, after my divorce, I was looking for an apartment when I saw a listing for a one-bedroom at the Volney, where Dorothy Parker had lived and died.
Even before seeing the place, I told myself I would probably take it. If the building was good enough for Dorothy Parker, it was certainly good enough for me.
The apartment definitely had an air of older single woman, but being one myself — and because it possessed two peeks of Central Park — I eagerly took it.
I immediately set up my computer and prepared to write, marveling at how all a writer needed was “a room with a view.” I prepared to channel Dorothy Parker by Googling Dorothy Parker.
That was when I discovered the truth: Dorothy Parker didn’t exactly love the building. In fact, she may have hated it.
In her time — the 1950s and ’60s — the studio and one-bedroom apartments were mostly occupied by older single women with dogs. According to the Dorothy Parker Society, there were over three dozen dogs in the building.
It seems Dorothy Parker was pretty annoyed that she’d ended up in this land of older single women and their pooches, though she famously had dogs herself.
The Volney and its occupants would become fodder for her largely unsuccessful 1953 play, “The Ladies of the Corridor,” which a New York Times critic called “a sad depiction of widowed and divorced women before feminism.”
Happily, the building, and its occupants, have changed enormously. Apartments were combined; families with children moved in. Celebrities — including Baby Jane Holzer and Lena Horne — did too.
But the Volney remains home to a bevy of single women with dogs, just like me. When we meet for drinks or greet each other with our dogs, I’m grateful for feminism and girlfriends. And for dogs.
— Candace Bushnell
Ms. Bushnell is a writer and most recently an author of “Rules for Being a Girl.”
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. D.W.
Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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