The Briefly for April 30, 2020 – The "I Will Report You To 311 For This!" Edition
Today - Low: 53˚ High: 57˚
Rain until morning, starting again in the evening.
Waiting for an antibody test is the new waiting for a table at brunch. (Zijia Song for Bedford + Bowery) One of Brooklyn's best places to go for peace and quiet is now closed to the public. Floyd Bennett Field is being used to store MTA buses, cutting off access to the Gateway National Recreation Area, Floyd Bennett Gardens Association's access to their gardens, and some of the city's best spots for biking. (Gabriel Sandoval and Jose Martinez for The City) Andrew Yang is suing New York state for canceling the Democratic presidential primary, trying to get it reinstated. (Emily Ngo for NY1) "I am not happy at all, and this doesn't have to do with what candidate you are supporting." -AOC on the primary's cancelation. (Juan Manuel Benitez for NY1) Residential noise complaints to 311 have gone up by 22% during everyone's quarantine. I'm sorry, I'm trying to perfect my tap dancing. I'll try to keep it down. (Charles Woodman for Patch) A look inside the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center and how it's kept itself, and the city's food supply chain, going during the pandemic. (Gary He for Eater) VIDEO: "The Central Park," a mashup of scenes from movies in or around Central Park. (Flaming Pablum) Major League Baseball continues to think of how to play the remainder of the season, whenever that might start. The latest idea disbands the American and National Leagues in favor of three geographic-based leagues and highlights local rivalries, giving us a season's worth of Subway Series games. (Joe Pantorno for amNewYork Metro) The cover of the April 15 New Yorker sums life up pretty well right now. An interview with Chris Ware about "Still Life." (Françoise Mouly for The New Yorker) Sara Erenthal's work, which uses the city's trash as a canvas for years, has been featured multiple times in The Briefly's daily photos (including one claiming "our president is an absolute piece of shit, which I got an angry email about). Here's an interview with Erenthal about her art and experience creating it. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) A series of interviews with N.Y.U. Langone Health nurses, who bear the burden and weight of the city's sick and dying. (David Gonzalez and Sinna Nasseri for NY Times) "You know what it spells? It spells love." When Governor Cuomo unveiled a wall of masks, I spent a few moments actually searching for the word "LOVE" within it. He was speaking metaphorically and I'm glad no one was around to watch me lean in and squint to try to see it. I wasn't the only one confused. (Kathleen Culliton for Go beyond Amazon Prime and Instacart. 10 grocery delivery services that are locally focused. (amNewYork Metro) The funeral in Williamsburg is putting the NYPD and city officials in a tough spot. More than 2,000 Satmar Hasidic Jewish residents flooded the streets, despite an attempt to work with the NYPD to socially distance, endangering everyone involved. (Todd Maisel for Brooklyn Paper) NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea stated it bluntly: there will be "zero tolerance" for gatherings like this in the future because the crowds are "putting my cops at risk." (Todd Maisel for amNewYork Metro) "I have no regrets about calling out this danger and saying we’re going to be dealing with it very, very aggressively" -Mayor de Blasio on future enforcement of social distancing after the funeral. (Nina Golgowski for HuffPost) CitiBike is expanding into upper Manhattan and the Bronx starting the week of May 4 with 100 new docking stations. (Caroline Spivack for Curbed) A map of the Bronx's new CitiBike locations. (Ed García Conde for Welcome2TheBronx) The city will offer COVID-19 antibody tests to 150,000 health care workers and first responders to determine whether they’ve been infected. The Department of Defense will also be setting up a program to treat health care workers for "combat stress." Chirlane McCray is in charge of the mental health program. Hopefully, unlike her past work with ThriveNYC, this will be proven to be effective. (Erin Durkin for Politico) Throughout May, the city will transfer 1,000 New Yorkers living in city homeless shelters every week to vacant hotel rooms, according to the mayor. The city has approximately 30,000 empty hotel rooms. (Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech for amNewYork Metro) The YMCA launched YMCA @ Home, free workout classes. (Will Gleason for Time Out) The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is offering 200 exhibition catalogs from its archives for free, dating back to 1936. (Howard Halle for Time Out) Last weekend you baked Junior's cheesecake, this weekend are you ready for another challenge? Here's the recipe for Magnolia Bakery’s iconic cupcakes. (Bao Ong for Time Out) A closer look at the MTA's new code of conduct that is written with the explicit intention of clearing homeless New Yorkers from trains and enable daily disinfecting of each car. (Mark Hallum for amNewYork Metro) IKEA Rego Park's store opening has been pushed back to the fall. (Michael Dorgan for LIC Post) Dozens of bodies — many of which were the remains of coronavirus victims – were seen being loaded from several U-Haul trucks to a refrigerator truck outside of a Brooklyn funeral home on Wednesday. (Todd Maisel and Jessica Parks for amNewYork Metro) RIP Samuel Hargress Jr., owner of Paris Blues in Harlem and "the soul ambassador of, that culture of community." (Steven Kurutz for NY Times) Vox Media furloughed 9% of its staff and will be making Curbed a part of New York Magazine. Starting May 1, Curbed will be completely furloughed for three months. There is a GoFundMe for the Vox staff who have been furloughed. (Vox Media Furlough Fund) Looking to donate food to the city's essential workers? Here are eight ways to deliver food without having to leave your couch. (Emma Orlow for Time Out) 40 inexpensive dining destinations still open, straight from Robert Sietsema's inexpensive dining column. (Robert Sietsema for Eater) Thanks to reader Natalie for today's featured photo!