The Briefly for February 6, 2020 – The "No More Paying Brokers Fees For Rentals" Edition
Today - Low: 43˚ High: 45˚
Rain throughout the day.
Everything you need to know about New York's new plastic bag ban. (Shaye Weaver for Time Out) Is the "Molten Chocolate Body Scrub" weird or soothing with its cocoa scrub and chocolate mask? It's both. (Shaye Weaver for Time Out) Is it better to rent or buy in NYC? There's no one answer for anyone in the city. (Ameena Walker) Landlord, not tenants, will now be forced to foot the bill for New York City's notoriously high brokers fees, following new guidance issued by the NY Department of State. Maybe renting IS better! (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist) Apartments without roommates with rent under $1,800 actually exist in the city, and here's five of them. (Erika Riley for StreetEasy) There have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in the city but two more people have been quarantined due to a possible infection. This brings the total number of currently suspected cases to four, the first case was determined not to be coronavirus. (Elizabeth Kim for Gothamist) A jackass in Chinatown attacked a mask-wearing woman in what is being investigated as a hate crime by the NYPD and the Hate Crime Task Force. (Kathleen Culliton for Patch) You've got until February 13th if you want to put yourself into the lottery for the NYC Marathon. (Alex Mitchell for amNewYork Metro) A year after Amazon cried its way back to Seattle, the Queens Chamber of Commerce has launched its “Relocate to Queens” campaign. (Bill Parry for QNS) A 24-year-old man from Oklahoma allegedly stumbled into New York City, visited a guy he met on a dating app, killed him, and blew the slain man’s money all over the city, according court documents from the Manhattan district attorney’s office. (Matt Tracy for amNewYork Metro) Governor Cuomo's Penn Station plan, by the numbers. (C.J. Hughes for The Real Deal) Governor Cuomo is taking his fare evasion road show to the state's bridges and tunnels, making evading a bridge toll to misdemeanor “theft of services.” Any Churro vendors on the Throggs Neck Bridge better watch out. (Dave Colon for Streetsblog) Welcome to the stretch of I-95 from the George Washington Bridge and stretching into the Cross Bronx Expressway, the fifth most dangerous spot in the nation for car crashes. (Ed García Conde for Welcome2TheBronx) Signs for the Verrazzano Bridge have never been spelled correctly, thanks to an error on the contract for the bridge's construction. That has been corrected. (Rose Adams for Brooklyn Paper) In an effort to fight postpartum depression, every first-time parent in New York City will soon be eligible to receive as many as six home visits from professionals for postnatal mental health care. (Jeffrey C. Mays for NY Times) New York City’s Department of Education consistently failed to follow requirements for annual lead-paint inspections in schools over the last five years, records show. No shit. (Christopher Werth for Gothamist) An interview with the creators of High Maintenance on the fourth season of the show on keeping the show fresh, their collaboration with This American Life, Larry Owens, and more. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) Restaurant workers are protesting the $15 minimum wage. Why? Because Governor Cuomo has twice raised the minimum wage to $15 for "everybody" and excluded them twice. (Nikita Richardson for Grub Street) Meet the women behind Monumental Women, the group behind Central Park's first statue of a woman. (Currie Engel for NY City Lens) Two gangs from Brooklyn who are said to be responsible for at least 13 shootings, homicides and other crimes, were charged in a 122-count indictment after cops arrested 34 members and seized 16 guns in "Operation Boxed In." The gangs were named, and this is seriously their names, the Wooo and the Choo. (Todd Maisel for amNewYork Metro) Prada has agreed to a "groundbreaking" restorative justice agreement with the NYC Commission on Human Rights after using blackface imagery in their products and displays in their stores. They'll create a scholarship and paid internship for racial minorities, make a commitment to recruit underrepresented employees, appoint a diversity officer, and everyone in the company will undergo racial equality training. This would be commendable if it wasn't being forced on them as part of settling a lawsuit. (Jen Chung for Gothamist) Manny Teixeira is the city's longest-serving doorman, working in the same building since 1965., taking over for his father. (CBS New York) Arthur Schwartz, the attorney for loud and angry wealthy white boomers and the man who tried to stop the 14th St busway, has turned his attention towards attempting to stop the East Side Coastal Resiliency project's installation of a seawall in East River Park. (Mark Hallum for amNewYork Metro) Congrats to Tanay Warerkar, Erika Adams, and Luke Fortney for joining the team at Eater. (Serena Dai for Eater) Mayor de Blasio's approval rating is lower than President Trump's. He's a lame duck with two years to go. His presidential campaign was DOA. Can the mayor do anything to excite New Yorkers again? (Emma G. Fitzsimmons for NY Times) Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed back against a story from President Trump's State of the Union that claims New York's sanctuary city policy led to the murder of a Queens woman, accusing the president of trying to "exploit" the victim's death. (Sophia Chang for Gothamist) The Strand is coming to the location of the now closed Book Culture on the Upper West Side. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) From March of 1965: Burying Malcolm X (Marlene Nadler for Village Voice) The case of who killed Malcom X may be reopened 55 years after his death. (John Leland for NY Times) Where to eat in Industry City. (Bryan Kim for The Infatuation)