The Briefly for February 20, 2020 – The "A Diner by Any Other Name" Edition
Today - Low: 22˚ High: 38˚
Mostly cloudy throughout the day.
A look at A’Lelia Walker, daughter of Madam C.J. Walker, who 100 years ago in Harlem was given the nickname of "the Joy Goddess" by Langston Hughes, and whose parties and events provided a central location for the Harlem Renaissance. Part of a series by The Root focusing on little-known or forgotten rebels, celebrating Black History Month. (Anne Branigin for The Root) Mayor Bloomberg started off his debate night getting ruined by Elizabeth Warren. The rest of the night didn't go so great for him either. (John F. Harris for Politico) A timeline of Michael Bloomberg's support of stop and frisk. (Maggie Astor for NY Times) The Lowline, once an extremely cool idea of putting a Highline style park in an abandoned trolley terminal in the Lower East Side, is dead. After more than a decade of work, the project is out of money. (Bowery Boogie) Let's grapple with an existential question for a moment: Is the Soho Diner really a diner? In Robert Sietsema's review, he points towards no, with food choices pointing more towards "Top Chef" than "greasy spoon." The desserts earned a compliment, but those are from Petee's Pies and not made in house. Is a diner by name still a diner? (Robert Sietsema for Eater) Myles is a new ride-hailing app available this week in NYC. The company claims rides will be 10% cheer than Lyft and Uber on average and they won't make use of surge pricing. (Igor Bonifacic for Engadget) Say hello to Eugene Hernandez, the new director of the New York Film Festival. (Sara Aridi for NY Times) The MTA is betting $15 billion of its $51 billion 2020 - 2024 capital plan on the Trump Administration giving congestion pricing the go ahead and not delaying the 2021 rollout. If there is a delay or a call for an environmental impact study, congestion pricing won't start on time and the MTA would likely have to borrow money, eventually leading to a transit financial disaster. (Dave Colon for Streetsblog) Lyft's pedal-assisted electric bikes are finally back, after being pulled out of commission in April 2019 for malfunctioning brakes and batteries. (Tina Bellon for amNewYork Metro) Chairnobyl? Chairnobyl. (EV Grieve) NYC's best under-the-radar museums, mapped. (Ameena Walker for Curbed) This ain't the piercing pagoda kiosk in the mall. A "hole new you" is ht promise of the new piercing studio Studs in Nolita. (Lindsay Tuchman for NY1) The NYPD arrested a 14-year-old, the third and final suspect in the killing of 18-year-old Barnard College student Tessa Majors on Wednesday. (JB Nicholas for Gothamist) Apartment Porn: Take a look inside the ex-WeWork CEO's three-story $27.5 million Gramercy Park apartment. (Valeria Ricciulli for Curbed) John Ciero, a former NYPD officer, is among five people indicted in federal court for dealing meth and a date rape drug called GBL, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York announced on Wednesday. (Sydney Pereira for Gothamist) New York City's first weed dummies are arriving in Queens. Of course, you need to have a prescription to get them for the moment. (Jacob Kaye for QNS) Here are the new protected bike lanes coming to Manhattan this year. From the plan, it looks like you'll finally be able to bike around the perimeter of Manhattan completely in 2021. (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist) This story of a parrot who got loose in Manhattan, is frankly amazing. (Emily Flitter for NY Times) Plush seating and carpets. That sounds like a good idea for the subways, right? (Jen Carlson for Gothamist) Citywide alternate side parking tickets will be increasing from $45 to $65 starting today. I used to live in Park Slope and my upstairs neighbor never moved his car for ASP because if he never moved his car and just paid the tickets once a week, he was still going to pay less than if he put his car in any garage in the neighborhood for the month. At $65, three tickets a month is still cheaper than any garage. (Kristen Torres for Sunnyside Post) James Dolan has won more legal victories over former-Knicks star Charles Oakley than the actual Knicks have won championships over anyone. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) The West Side Story revival has been met with protests, as demonstrators have been calling for Amar Ramasar’s removal from the cast because of his role in a photo-sharing scandal at City Ballet. (Julia Jacobs for NY Times) Chirlane McCray, Mayor de Blasio's wife, launched a podcast called "Thrive with Chirlane McCray" on the Brooklyn Free Speech podcast network and we are all paying for it. The podcast is funded by Thrive NYC, which has received $850 million in taxpayer funds. (Sophia Chang for Gothamist) Do you know about "The Atlantic Ticket?" That's a LIRR ticket that allows you to go from one of Brooklyn's three stops to Jamaica, Hollis, Queens Village, Locust Manor, St. Albans, Laurelton or Rosedale for only $5. The success of this ticket is renewing calls that traveling within the city on the LIRR should cost $2.75. (Jose Martinez and Trone Dowd for The City) Happy the elephant, who resides in the Bronx Zoo, does not have human-like rights and does not have to be transferred to a sanctuary. (NY1) Believe it or not, there are people that live in the Financial District, and those people showed up in force to show their support against the creators of Sleep No More getting a liquor license at a Manhattan Community Board 1 licensing committee meeting. The new show is looking to set up shop in a mostly residential building. The NIMBYs voted against recommending a liquor license be granted and the proposal goes to a full vote of the community board next week, and the State Liquor Authority only uses community board votes as guidance, so it's still possible the show moves forward as planned. (Ben Brachfield for Gothamist) RIP Swamp Trump. We hardly knew ye. (Scott Enman for Brooklyn Eagle) NYC's top cocktail bars. (Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner for Eater) thanks to reader Jacqueline for today's featured photo!