The Briefly for June 24, 2020 – The "Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning" Edition
Today - Low: 74˚ High: 83˚
Partly cloudy throughout the day.
Tired of waiting for the mayor, the City Council is set to introduce a bill this week that would force the beaches open. (Joe Anuta for Politico) Last night's primary and election results. It's still too early to declare winners due to the high volume of absentee voting, but Donovan Richards is leading for Queens Borough President, Jamaal Bowman has a sizable lead over incumbent Eliot Engel, Ritchie Torres is leading the pack in House District 15, AOC is cruising to victory, Yvette Clarke has a large lead, and Jerry Nadler is winning. (NY1) How did the Democratic primary and election go yesterday?
Problems. (Chistine Chung for The City)
Problems. (Maya Kaufman for Patch)
Problems. (Jeffery C. Mays for NY Times)
Problems. (Zainab Iqbal for BKLYNER)
Over 229,806 absentee ballots distributed in Manhattan for the Democratic primary, only 13% had been received before June 23. (Mark Hallum for amNewYork Metro) Mayor de Blasio is tackling the city's biggest problem. Obviously, that problem is Alternate Side Parking. For some reason, the mayor is making ASP more difficult to understand, only demanding that cars be moved once a week instead of multiple times. Of course, this doesn't apply on streets where cars are only moved once a week. If this sounds complicated, it's because the mayor took a subject that only pertains to 45% of households in the city and made it complicated. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) Kudos to the people who chose to protest the mayor's inaction on the amount of fireworks regularly being set off by sitting outside Gracie Mansion all night while laying on car horns. (Kathleen Culliton for Patch) Where are the illegal fireworks? Take a look at a map of the ballooning complaints across the city through the month of June. (Sydney Pereira, Clarisa Diaz, Jen Chung, Jake Dobkin, and Beth Fertig for Gothamist) The mayor announced a crack down on fireworks, but don't expect any relief on the nightly displays across the city. The mayor's approach is mostly supply chain based and not enforcement based. (Matt Troutman for Patch) In the hall of fame of bad ideas, this may be the king. The mayor announced that instead of a July 4th fireworks display, Macy's will set off fireworks for five minutes, unannounced, on a nightly basis for every night next week and a highlights package will air on July 4th. This is the literal plot of the 30 Rock episode "Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning" and it ends poorly. This truly is the Mayor de Blasio of fireworks displays. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) Layleen Polanco, the trans woman who died in a Rikers Island solitary confinement cell last year, was pushed there by jailers over a doctor’s objections and despite her seizure disorder, according to a new report from thecdty's Board of Corrections. (Rosa Goldensohn for The City) The complaint history of Daniel Pantaleo, whose illegal chokehold caused the death of Eric Garner, has been released and, surprise surprise, Daniel Panteleo was a piece of shit with seven misconduct complaints before using an illegal chokehold on Garner in 2014. (NY1) The NYPD Tasered George Zapantis to death. Video was taken of Zapantis being taken from his home with hands tied behind his back has surfaced while four or five officers tased him and screamed at him not to resist arrest. (David Cruz for Gothamist) The city's criminal courts have a 39,200 case backlog right. The city's justice is on hold and people waiting for trial are sitting in jail cells. (Alan Feuer, Nicole Hong, Benjamin Weiser and Jan Ransom for The City) Museums can open their doors, if all goes according to plan, on July 20. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has plans to open on August 29. (Julia Jacobs for NY Times) The Met Breuer will be closing for good in July, with The Frick moving in while its home on the Upper East Side gets renovated. (Howard Halle for Time Out) The Museum of Jewish Heritage is laying off over 40% of its staff due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Colin Moynihan for NY Times)
"We write to inform you that your covert and overt white supremacy that has benefited the institution, through the unrecognized dedication and hard labor of Black/Brown employees, with the expectation that we remain complacent with the status quo, is over."
A look at the heroic efforts of the people who step in to help the pets of New Yorkers who become seriously ill with coronavirus. (Sarah Maslin Nir for NY Times) Over a quarter-million of the city's food jobs were lost since March, with only about 14,000 returning to work so far. It's the lowest level of hospitality employment since before 1992. (Ryan Sutton for Eater) The city's cocktail-takeout law expires this weekend. Without action from Governor Cuomo, this is the end of the to-go cocktail. (Erika Adams for Eater) There are only two kinds of people in the world, according to Serena Day, those who like Van Leeuwen and those who like Ample Hills. Which are you? (Serena Day for Eater) Ample Hills was sold to Schmitt Industries for one million dollars. They were the only company to submit a qualifying bid. Technically the sale is pending with a court hearing set for June 30. (Erika Adams for Eater) 85 restaurants where you can eat outside today. (Hannah Albertine, Nikko Duren, Bryan Kim, & Matt Tervooren for The Infatuation)