Happy Tuesday in New York City, where Legionella — the deadly bacteria that I know how to spell because of how often they’ve been in the news over the last couple of years — are once again spreading, this time across the Upper East Side.

Legionella like to breed in warm water systems like cooling towers and can cause a severe form of pneumonia known as Legionnaires’ disease when people inhale contaminated mist. Last summer, an outbreak concentrated in a cluster of ZIP codes around Central Harlem led to the deaths of seven New Yorkers and hospitalized 90 others.

The latest outbreak has already infected 23 people, with no deaths reported as of today. The New York City Health Department is currently investigating all cooling towers in the ZIP codes of 10028, 10128 and 10075 to identify where the Legionella bacteria are breeding. “My hope and my expectation is that we will be able to identify the handful of cooling towers that need remediation and quickly act on them to begin to put an end to this cluster,” NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin told CBS News.

Following last year’s flare-up in Harlem, city health officials promised to increase regular inspections of cooling towers to catch infected sites before the bacteria began spreading. 2025 saw a near record-low number of inspections in the months leading up to the outbreak. But according to a Gothamist investigation, inspections have risen only gradually over the last year, with more than 20% of building owners failing to comply with required testing during the first five months of 2026. 

Meanwhile, residents in the affected zip codes remain rattled, although officials say the outbreak is not connected to any building’s plumbing and that showers, tap water and ACs are safe to use. “They’re scared to shower,” Miguel Castro, a doorman, told CBS. “A lot of them are staying in hotels or going to other places.”

Health officials are urging anyone who’s visited the east side of Central Park in recent weeks to monitor themselves for symptoms, which include aches, chills, fever, difficulty breathing and gastrointestinal distress.

Brooklyn’s Lithuanian-American community was well represented at the Pink Soup Fest, where contestants gathered at the Lithuanian Alliance of America in Manhattan for a competition celebrating one of Lithuania’s most recognizable dishes — šaltibarščiai, or cold beet soup.

The annual event challenges participants to prepare their own interpretations of the brightly colored dish, a staple of Lithuanian cuisine that draws entries from across the city’s Lithuanian-American community.

Among the participants were two mothers of students at Brooklyn’s Maironis Lithuanian Language School, Elena Valainytė and Jolita Crosland, who teamed up to prepare a traditional version of the bright pink summer soup. They competed alongside Ingrida Galkauskienė, a Lithuanian language teacher at Maironis, who also submitted a recipe in the contest.

Read on to learn more.

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