Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll meet the man who counts pollen in Manhattan. And did you ever think you’d see the word “summited” in a sentence that wasn’t about, say, Mount Everest? Well, here it comes: We’ll also get details on the climbers who summited the Empire State Building.
When everyone else is thinking about the heat, Guy Robinson is still thinking about that scourge of spring: pollen. He measures how much pollen is in the air, year in and year out. “It does have to be done,” he said. This was on Wednesday, at the pollen collection device that he checks every week. It sucks in air, day and night, at about the same rate as a person who is breathing normally. It blows the air onto a clear, slightly sticky tape. Robinson, a pony-tailed visiting scholar at Fordham University, carries the tape to his laboratory and examines it under a microscope. Grains of pollen are tiny. The largest in the New York area are usually pine and are a little smaller than a human hair, said Robinson, who has counted them for years. That makes him a person allergy sufferers might love to hate. Right now, though, they may not be cursing him: 2026 has been an unusual year — a year that hasn’t been that bad for pollen. The tales of the pollen tapeThere were some “pretty high days” in April, which was unusually early for such readings — and the numbers for early May, usually the peak time, were unusually low. “We don’t know why that is,” he said. One possibility: There were a few late frosts, which could kill off flowers. Lately, Robinson’s pollen counts have been low. Looking through his microscope, he found only 13 particles per cubic liter of air on the tape from Tuesday. He can identify most tree pollens as fast as a Taylor Swift fan can recognize a line from “Cruel Summer,” and he quickly reported seeing grass, pine and plantain pollen. (Broadleaf plantain is a weed that is an enemy of smooth-as-a-carpet lawns.) “You’ve got to be able to recognize literally dozens of pollen types in different orientations,” he said. “They’re not always symmetrical or spherical. Some of them are, and those ones you can generally recognize from any direction, but many of them, if they’re turned slightly, they look different.” More than pollen gets sucked in and transferred to the slide that goes under the microscope. The first thing Robinson said when he looked at the slide was, “There’s a lot of tire rubber.” But he counts only the pollen. Bright lights, big city, more pollenI tracked down Robinson after reading that bright lights in urban areas might be making things worse for people with allergies. “If you live in a big, brightly lit city and you feel like allergy season just never ends,” the reporter Marta Zaraska wrote, a new study has an explanation: light pollution. The study said that light pollution prompts plants and trees to produce pollen earlier in the spring and continue producing it later in the fall, compared with places with more darkness. Robinson said he had focused more on heat in New York “because of the heat island effect,” a well-documented phenomenon. The masonry, concrete and asphalt that shape cities also make them hotter, by absorbing and radiating heat. But he said the idea that light pollution could prompt pollen production made sense. Plants have an internal clock that is triggered as the nights get longer, and they begin releasing pollen about a month after they flower. “If light is stimulating them,” he said, “they may continue flowering longer than they would” — which would mean runny noses and sneezing as winter approaches. WEATHER Prepare for a hot and sunny day as temperatures soar near 100 with heat index values as high as 108. The night will be clear with a low around 84. An extreme heat warning is in effect. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Friday (Independence Day observed). QUOTE OF THE DAY “I was at the N.Y.P.D. for almost 35 years, and there was no wedding near this scale.” — Kenneth Corey, who retired in 2022 as the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the New York Police Department, on the two-day Taylor Swift event that begins this evening at Madison Square Garden. The latest New York news
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Every day more than 6,800 people ride the elevators to the observation deck atop the Empire State Building — on busy days, far more. On Wednesday, two people went noticeably higher than the observation deck on the 102nd floor. Their destination was a flagpole atop the needle, more than a fifth of a mile above the street. There they unfurled a banner that read, “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.” As my colleagues Andy Newman, Maia Coleman and Chelsia Rose Marcius noted, it was another moment in the spectacle that is the summer of 2026 in New York, and it’s only July. The pair, Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Beerkus, 32, are urban climbers and social media celebrities. So maybe it’s no surprise that she posted on Instagram. A video showed the platform, which looked small. But, judging by a photo that she posted, it was big enough for Beerkus to get down on one knee. Another photo showed her left hand with an engagement ring on the fourth finger. They were soon arrested, after officers from the Police Department’s Emergency Services Unit joined them on the platform. They have scaled other buildings in the last 10 years or so. Along the way they were the subjects of “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” a 2024 documentary about their relationship — the trailer shows them kissing on construction cranes and rooftops at terrifying heights. “Skywalkers” also shows their attempt to climb a skyscraper in Malaysia that is more than 2,000 feet tall. They made it to the 112th floor but had to hide out there when construction workers showed up. Nikolau and Beerkus waited them out and eventually went the last six floors to the top METROPOLITAN DIARY 12 days
Dear Diary: It started as a normal subway ride. There were a few of us: Gary, Harry and I forget who else. We were heading home from rehearsal. It was Christmastime, and there was nowhere to sit. The three of us stood at a pole, and Gary started to sing “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It wasn’t uncharacteristic of Gary, and I might have tensed, which wouldn’t have been uncharacteristic of me. I noticed a twinkle in Harry’s eyes, and by the second day of Christmas, he had followed suit. I probably smiled, a kind of smile that suggested I didn’t wish to participate, and they didn’t make me. By the third day of Christmas, Gary had turned to someone we didn’t know, and the implication was clear: Whether we would have French hens relied wholly on this person. There was a reluctance to acknowledge Gary at first, followed by a sense of “No,” followed by, somehow, a softening, and — wouldn’t you know it? — we had French hens. Gary continued with gusto, moving from stranger to stranger. New Yorkers, not famous for bursting into song on command, seemed to expect it. It’s possible some even hoped to be picked. I don’t recall a single person refusing. It’s a long song, and people got off before it was over. The doors slid open at one stop as we counted down the days. “Five Golden Rings!” someone bellowed from the turnstiles, and everyone cheered. They left the subway car, but they didn’t leave us. I sat in wonder at how, despite the cold and the hard of living in the city, the hurries and the worries, right beneath the surface — barely beneath it, in fact — we’re here. Right here. And Gary is an angel on Earth. — Ken Leung Mr. Leung is an actor. He appears on the HBO show “Industry.” Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
