The Briefly for July 16, 2019 – The "No One Knows What Caused the Blackout" Edition

Deep below the Flatiron Building, there's an unused coal-fueled power plant that pre-dates the building's steam systems. You probably will never get a personal tour of it, so experiencing it through this photo gallery is the closest you'll get. (Untapped Cities)

The pizza wars of Dumbo continue on, but the ice cream war between Ample Hills and the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory are only just beginning. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

Want to prepare for the next (inevitable) blackout? Here's a list of six things you can do to get yourself ready. (Curbed)

Why are so many of the escalators in the new Q train subway stations broken so often? Don't ask the MTA, because they can't figure it out. (amNY)

Put ConEd down in the same category as the MTA, because they can't seem to get their story straight about what caused this blackout. (NY Times)

Governor Cuomo appears to be sick of ConEd's shit between this outage, the fire in Astoria that lit the sky, and transformer fires in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, and he's open to replacing them. (Gothamist)

How has ConEd responded to this massive outage? By making a public statement that the heat this week could cause more outages. Lovely. (Huff Post)

The cost of the blackout was $3.5 on Broadway alone, with 26 of 30 possible performances being canceled. Saturday in July is Broadway's most popular night in the most popular month. (NY Times)

A brief history of blackouts in New York City. (amNY)

The NYPD won't share details about an off-duty Queens cop who was arrested on charges of false imprisonment and assault, calling it a "confidential investigation" while flagrantly showing the NYPD's "fundamental and pervasive lack of transparency," as cited in a report earlier this year. (Gothamist)

From romantic to the club to sporty to outdoors: where to go for date night in Astoria. (We Heart Astoria)

Staten Island politicians are urging the governor to start a "microtransit" pilot program to expand transit options throughout the city's largest borough. Microtransit refers to buses and not alternative modes of transportation, as Staten Island remains a borough without any bike lanes. (Curbed)

With Jeff Bezos buying a Manhattan apartment, protestors of Amazon have a new target to make their voices heard. (Patch)

It seemed the public call for volunteers worked, the Giglio Lift went off without a hitch last weekend, which is the largest of the lifts during Williamsburg's Giglio Feast. The feast continues through the weekend with more lifts on Wednesday and Sunday nights. (Gothamist)

There is a fight for survival happening all around us, as invasive species are threatening the city's flora. The problem is only a biodiversity one, but fighting invasive bugs and plants can be costly. The treatment and removal of ash trees due to a beetle infestation will cost the city nearly $10 million over three years. (amNY)

What's the latest on the Mandarin Duck? He seems to have left the city a few months ago and we should expect him back after the summer. Ducks molt in the summer and while they're flightless they look for safer and more private bodies of water. (Gothamist)

Residents of the financial district are trying to get the city to pump the brakes before construction begins on the last building in the World Trade Center in an attempt to keep the project selection process fair and to ensure the neighborhood benefits from another massive construction project. (amNY)

Photos from the Queens DA primary recount is giving off major Bush v Gore vibes. (NY Times)

The next expansions of CitiBike's coverage will be painfully slow. The current roll-out will take until 2023– the service's decade anniversary– to complete. (Streetsblog)

The statue outside of the Museum of Natural History of Teddy Roosevelt atop a horse, flanked by an African-American and a Native American was one of the monuments the city was reconsidered in 2017. The statue has attracted negative attention for Roosevelt's racist views and statements about Native Americans and Africans and has been the target of protest multiple times since installation in 1940. The museum is leaning into controversy by highlighting the criticism of the statue and of the museum's history to complicate and contextualize without glorification. (NY Times)

The best restaurants in the East Village. (The infatuation)

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