The Briefly for June 11, 2019 – The "The Pizza Wars of New York Are Getting Saucy" Edition

The Two Bridges towers are at the center of a legal battle, centered around the developers' attempts to work around the city council and the land use review procedures. (Curbed)

Respect to whoever was able to cover an entire Q train with graffiti extremely quickly without being caught. (@JMartinezNYC)

Welcome to Soho, or as the Times puts it, "CBD stores and face-mask pushers are going to destroy us all." (NY Times)

The Brooklyn Pizza War of 2019 has only just begun. L&B Spumoni Gardens is opening up a DUMBO outpost mere steps from Grimaldi's and Juliana's. May the best slice win. (Eater)

It appears that Robert De Niro is on the verge of building a movie studio in Astoria. (QNS)

A correction from yesterday (thanks Harry!), the apartment building planned for the former Hell's Angels clubhouse will be 22 apartments, not 22 stories. (Curbed)

Tiffani Torres is 16, a twice-caller on "Ask the Mayor" on WNYC, an activist with Teens Take Charge, and a thorn in the mayor's side. She's correctly criticized the mayor for his DOA presidential run distracting him from city business and has been vocal about the systemic issues facing the city's schools. Is it too late to elect her mayor? She sat down for an interview with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

New York was a different place in the late 70s. (Bowery Boogie)

Does Times Square need a 24-hour, multi-story "immersive" Krispy Kreme with a theater and, no I'm not kidding, a goddamn "glaze waterfall?" Of course it does. (Gothamist)

Brooklyn's Pride Parade took over Park Slope last weekend with heavy splashes of color, celebration, politicians, and remembrance of the Stonewall Riots half a century ago. (Brooklyn Paper)

Layleen Polanco, a 27-year old transgender woman, was found dead at Rikers Island on Friday. Polanco was a member of the House of Xtravaganza (get yourself up to speed on Ball Culture) and was arrested in April for assault and possession of a controlled substance. (Patch)

The city council scheduled a hearing to look into accusations against Grubhub (who owns Seamless), as well as Uber Eats, Doordash and the like, from restaurants accusing the company of charging fees for customer calls that never resulted in orders. (Eater)

10 of the best running spots in New York City, even if I think saying the High Line is a great place to run is like saying the Brooklyn Bridge is a great place to bike. (6sqft)

A helicopter crashed into AXA Equitable Center in Midtown, killing the pilot. Have you noticed how many helicopters are constantly flying around Manhattan? Manhattan has three public heliports and this was the second crash in less than a month, but that doesn't seem to slow down the $800 trips to the Hamptons or the new service to take people to JFK Airport. (NY Times)

"Oh, you're a girl, I thought you were a guy," is an auspicious way to start a job somewhere. A chef is suing Hudson Yards Spanish food hall Mercado Little Spain, claiming she was fired for being a woman. (Eater)

With the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act, New York has a path to become the first state to decriminalize sex work, even in the face of criticism from the governor, the mayor, and Corey Johnson. (Patch)

The NYPD are arresting turnstile jumpers. The officers have wide latitude to decide who they arrest and who they ticket, so it should become obvious very quickly that people of color will be arrested at a higher rate. In 2019 people of color represent 87% of people arrested for farebeating. exact numbers aren't known because the NYPD is refusing to comply with a court order demanding them to disclose these numbers. (Gothamist)

The conversation about rent control has gotten so muddy and opaque it's hard to know if this article which says that mom-and-pop landlords may decide to sell their buildings if rent reform passes, is steeped in the truth or has roots in one of the many astroturfing campaigns from larger landlords and developers. (amNY)

New Yorkers overwhelmingly support the end of religious exemptions for the measles vaccine. Overwhelming is 85%, which includes more than 80% support from the Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant populations polled. There's a bill in the state' legislature as you read this, but there is only a week left in the legislative session until summer recess. (Patch)

St. James Place in Bed Stuy is now Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace Way. (amNY)

Congrats to Gothamist on their site redesign. (Gothamist)

The perfect time for a sci-fi radio show is after midnight when everything is quiet and your imagination is ripe for exploration of its dark recesses. The "Hour of the Wolf" has aired between 1am – 3am on Thursday mornings since 1972. Helmed by Jim Freund, the show has had nearly every writer of importance on the show, the first U.S. broadcast of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and whose website was originally a collaboration with Tim Berners-Lee, the literal father of the world wide web. A living piece of broadcasting history on Atlantic Avenue. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

The 14th St busway will arrive on July 1, drastically changing traffic and (hopefully_ speeding up the buses. (amNY)

32 great places to eat something kind of healthy for dinner. (The Infatuation)

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