The Briefly for April 10, 2020 – The "Bodegas and Fran Lebowitz Will Be There When Things Go to Hell" Edition

Today - Low: 38˚ High: 50˚

Partly cloudy throughout the day.

This weekend - Low: 44˚ High: 61˚

When the Governor is begging the nation to send healthcare workers to New York, imagine how shitty you have to be to threaten to fire your employees for speaking out about bad conditions in your hospital. Instead, hospital administrators are encouraging "appropriate" social media posts with uplifting messages instead. The City Council is planning legislation to prohibit the firing of health care workers for speaking publicly about hospital conditions. (Noam Scheiber and Brian M. Rosenthal for NY Times) Video: It's almost weird to see videos of people crowded into Times Square. (ActionKid) Plans to turn Cathedral of St. John the Divine into a hospital have hit the breaks. The public story is that a leveling off in infections is the reason, but there are also tensions between the church's leaders and Samaritan's Purse, the company operating Central Park's field hospitals, who hold anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ stances. (Liam Stock for NY Times) New Yorkers always know that when everything goes to hell, we can count on our bodegas. (Aaron Randle for NY Times) "Never. It didn’t even occur to me. The morning of September 11th, someone called me and said, “We’re going to Connecticut. We can pick you up. Do you want to go?” I was just shocked that anyone would want to leave. I’m not leaving. In fact, I feel that I am like the designated New Yorker. Everyone else can leave. This is beyond saddening for me, to see the town this way." -Fran Lebowitz is never leaving New York City. (Michael Schulman for The New Yorker) Inside Coronavirus: Chinatown Stories, a video series making an effort to bring attention and love to Chinatown and Welcome to Chinatown, a grassroots initiative to support Chinatown restaurants. (Cathy Erway for Grub Street) If you've been wondering "Why are the city's landmarks lit up blue?," it's for the city's essential workers. It started at Windsor Castle in the UK last month. (Devin Gannon for 6sqft) In praise of making noise at 7 pm every night. (Amanda Hess for NY Times) Everyone can submit an absentee ballot for the June 23 Democratic primary, thanks to an announcement from Governor Cuomo. (Emily Davenport for QNS) Are you one of the 1/3 of renters in the country who didn't pay April's rent on time? (Devin Gannon for 6sqft) A look inside the U.S. Open stadium's makeshift hospital. (Maya Kaufman for Patch) The story of how the Yankees became the Yankees, 107 years later. (Joe Pantorno for amNewYork Metro) Traffic is down 60% on the BQE and speeds are up 288%. Proof that when you remove cars from the streets, the remaining vehicles can travel faster. (Winnie Hu for NY Times) Have you hit the point where you miss all of the city's inconveniences? Try Normplay. Nothing will make you appreciate staying at home like re-creating the pains of living in the city. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) The mayor is feeling optimistic about relaxing the city's quarantine at the end of May, but Governor Cuomo doesn't share his optimism. (Mark Hallum for amNewYork Metro) PHotos: Separate, but together. Portraits of New Yorkers under quarantine. (Caroline Spivack with photos by Johnny Cirillo for Curbed) Saturday Night Live is doing a "work from home" episode this weekend in what will surely be one of the weirdest television experiences of this pandemic. (Will Gleason for Time Out) All of Lincoln Center's summer programming is canceled for 2020. Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, and Mostly Motzart are all canceled. It's not all bad news, they're planning a pop-up festival for whenever we're allowed to go outside again. (Amanda Hatfield for BrooklynVegan) There are a lot of dark clouds lately, but let's discover the silver linings. (6sqft) Looking to emulate your favorite dishes from your favorite restaurants? Here are some restaurants in the city selling their spices and seasonings. (Luke Forney for Eater) "We're working with Google to come up with an online mechanism that bypasses any phone certification." -The governor is working with Google to update the state's unemployment verification process and remove phone verification, the hardest part of completing an unemployment claim. (Christopher Robbins for Gothamist) The New York Historical Society wants your paper and digital ephemera that document all aspects of the current crisis. (Shaye Weaver for Time Out) St. Patrick's Cathedral Easter Mass is being streamed to Facebook and YouTube this year. (Shaye Weaver for Time Out) Hart Island, the city's potter's field, normally sees about 25 new bodies buried by inmates each week. Lately, it's two dozen bodies a day and contract laborers have been brought in to perform the burials. The photography in this article is absolutely chilling. (Christopher Robbins, Sydney Pereira, and Gwynne Hogan for Gothamist) The latest slap in the face to restauranteurs and their staffs is GoFundMe making it difficult for the donated funds to be withdrawn. (Erika Adams for Eater) The Times asks "Did New Yorkers Who Fled to Second Homes Bring the Virus?" The answer is yes. (Sarah Maslin Nir and Tracey Tully for NY Times) 10 great cookbooks and cocktail books from NYC restaurants and bars. (Bao Ong for Time Out)