The Briefly for January 20, 2020 – The "You Trust the MTA, Right?" Edition

Today - Low: 21˚ High: 43˚

Possible drizzle in the morning.

"I still have faith in the future. However dark the night, however dreary the day, I still believe that we shall overcome." -Martin Luther King Jr at his address to Queens College in 1965 as part of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Lectures. (Carlotta Mohamed for QNS) Listen to clips from the May 13, 1965 address. (Queens College Civil Rights Archives) Martin Luther King Jr, in his own words, on anti-Semitism. (Martin Luther King Jr in the Village Voice, 1967) The neighborhood with the highest median prices in any neighborhood in the city is in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn. Prices increased 117% in a decade going from $1.15 million to $2.5 million. (Emily Davenport for amNewYork Metro) The L train slowdown will finish with a $850 million budget below the initially announced budget by $75 million. If you want proof, you'll just have to trust the MTA, because there has been no review and no public accounting for the cost savings. You trust the MTA, right? (Stephen Nessen and Christopher Robbins for Gothamist) The Upper West Side and water mains aren't getting along this month. A water main broke at the corner of 102nd and Central Park West, causing havoc on traffic and the A, C, and D trains. (Jen Chung for Gothamist) Our subways continue to fall apart. This time a piece of a wall along the F/G train fell onto the sidewalk below with no reported injuries. According to the MTA the wall is over a century old and they are now conducting inspections in the area. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) The history of how Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia fought the mob by banning artichokes. (Mark Hay for Atlas Obscura) The East Side Coastal Resiliency project may force the Lower East Side Ecology Center, a compost yard in East River Park that takes in eight tons of compost a week, to relocate to an MTA lot in East Harlem by April. (Caroline Spivack for Curbed) How will New York defend itself against the horrors of the next Hurricane Sandy? It's still up for debate, but one of five options being explored is a $119 billion seawall that would take 25 years to build and may not prevent flooding caused by rising sea levels. (Anne Barnard for NY Times) Is Community Board 2's wealth and political connections preventing Soho and Soho from being rezoned for the first time since the 70s? (Elizabeth Kim for Gothamist) Renderings: A look at the future look of the Hudson Yards with 3 Hudson Boulevard. Spoiler: it's another large glass building. (Michelle Cohen for 6sqft) Papyrus is closing all of its stores, including the dozen plus stores in Manhattan. Looking for cheap cute paper goods? They're liquidating everything. (Mike Mishkin for I Love the Upper West Side) 12 hidden gems of Lincoln Square and Lincoln Center. (Michelle Young for Untapped New York) Will the Gowanus Canal ever be clean? Simple answer: no, and here's why. (Joseph Alexiou for Brooklyn Eagle) Mandatory helmet laws do two things: They reduce cycling and increase head injuries. (Jessica Roberts and Caron Whitaker for Streetsblog) Homeless deaths in New York City are up 40% year over year. (Cindy Rodriguez for Gothamist) It's a Broadway musical about emojis, and it's a Times Critic's Pick. (Laura Collins-Hughes for NY Times) The landlord and two contractors in the East Village who installed an illegal gas line which lead to an explosion that killed two men, injured over a dozen, and destroyed two buildings, Maria Hrynenko, was sentenced to 4-12 years for manslaughter for their roles in the explosion. (Aaron Randle for NY Times) Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza refused to answer the father of a teenager who was sexually assaulted at M.S. 158 in Bayside during an education town hall2 and eventually cut the town hall short and left without addressing the issue with the crowd. (Jenna Bagcal for amNewYork Metro) Want to go out to eat for a good cause? Here are the NYC restaurants raising money for Australia. (Nikita Richardson or Grub Street) After being called out for turning a "play street" cul-de-sac into a teacher's parking lot at Park Slope's M.S. 51, a Department of Education spokesperson said teachers would stop abusing their parking placards and no longer park there. That was a blatant lie. (Streetsblog) Photos: Take a loo kinsinde The Sill's first Brooklyn brick-and-mortar store in Cobble Hill. (Alexandra Alexa for 6sqft) New Yorkers pay 35-40% more for electricity than the rest of the country, and expect what you pay to increase by over 4% each year for the next three years. The state approved rate hikes for ConEd. We really held them accountable for their service outages. (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist) The Trump administration is using a rape and murder as a way to condemn New York's sanctuary city policy. (Annie Correal for NY Times) A new law in New York City lets parents remove their obstetricians’ names if their medical licenses were revoked for misconduct. (Michael Gold for NY Times) Evelyn Yang, whose husband is Democratic hopeful Andrew Yang, is one of 18 patients suing obstetrician Dr. Robert A Hadden for sexual abuse. In 2016, Manhattan DA CyVance's office agreed to a plea deal with Hadden that involved no jail time for his crimes and reduced his sex-offender status to Level 1, keeping his name off online lists of offenders. (Sophia Chang for Gothamist) The husband of “Mob Wives” star Drita D’avanzo is facing federal charges after he and his wife were arrested on state weapons charges last month. So guess it's not just a clever name for a TV show. (Emily Davenport for amNewYork Metro) Ready for the next step in the war on cigarettes? The Tobacco Product Waste Reduction Act would ban the sale of single-use cigarette filters, virtually all cigarettes, framed as an anti-pollution measure. The bill was introduced in the state senate with three co-sponsors. (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist) The de Blasio family is not done with New York City. Mayor de Blasio is reportedly pushing Chirlane McCray, his wife, to run for Brooklyn borough president. Supposedly the de Blasio's would give an endorsement to Eric Adams for mayor in exchange for an endorsement of McCray for borough president. (Matt Troutman for Patch) Here's what is known about the BQX's design. (Kevin Duggan for Brooklyn Paper) What else is there to do at the Brooklyn Navy Yard after you’ve shopped at Brooklyn’s new favorite supermarket? (Meredith Craig de Pietro for Brooklyn Based) There was once a rumor that John Wilkes Booth's diary was hidden in an abandoned subway tunnel under Atlantic Avenue. While the diary hasn't been found, you can find Le Boudoir, a speakeasy partially built inside the tunnel, through a secret door at Chez Moi. (Reina Gattuso for Atlas Obscura) 12 actually quiet restaurants to try. (Beth Landman for Eater)