The Briefly for June 30, 2020 – The "Indoor Dining on July 6? Not So Fast." Edition
Today - Low: 70˚ High: 79˚
Possible light rain in the evening.
The mayor announced that he's committed to redirecting $1 billion of the NYPD's funding to other city resources. This is a move that both the police unions and police protestors are upset with. The perfect de Blasio move, creating as much anger as possible on all sides. (Matt Troutman for Patch) Brooklyn got a second Black Lives Matter street mural last week, this one outside of Borough Hall. (Meaghan McGoldrick for Brooklyn Paper) "We don't need more Black Lives Matter signs painted on streets. We need a real, true cut, and this money laundering ain't it." -Nelini Stamp on the mayor's $1 billion announcement. The announcement includes the transfer of fringe benefits for school safety agents to the DOE, which move around money, which accomplishes literally nothing. (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist) "The purpose of this article is to outline five specific, systemic, attainable remedies to the epidemic of police abuse." This is from May 28, 1985. (David Swanson for Village Voice) Maybe we won't have indoor dining starting on July 6? We're less than a week away from the city's supposed start of indoor dining and the mayor says he needs to "examine closely and come to a decision in the next couple of days." The wavering is due to the spike in Covid-19 cases nationwide, not necessarily in the city. When will a decision be made? You'd assume before July 6. (Luke Fortney for Eater) The NYPL lions, Patience and Fortitude, are wearing masks like all good New Yorkers. (Jen Carlson for Gothamist) An interactive map of apartment prices at each subway stop in the city, with the 2020 edition showing 36% of subway stops experiencing drops in rent. (RentHop) How much are you supposed to tip movers? The American Moving and Storage Association suggests $25 per person, which doesn't seem like much for NYC. Here are some things to keep in mind when calculating a tip. (Rita Cidre for StreetEasy) Tens of thousands of New Yorkers are facing possible eviction without city, state, and federal aid. The stat'es eviction moratorium ends in August, the federal government's regular Covid-19 assistance ends in July, creating a perfect storm for evictions. (Janaki Chadha for Politico) Making the case why New Yorkers won't actually move to the suburbs. (Mike Mishkin for I Love the Upper West Side) With an unsure future ahead for the city's schools, the Department of Education purchased an additional 40,000 iPads for students for summer school students, adding to the 300,000 it's already purchased. (Reema Amin for The City) Interview: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Black Lives Matter, representing NYC in Congress, her first two years in Congress, and more. (Peter Rugh for The Indypendent) We don't have results from the June 23 primaries and elections yet, and it still may be a while until we get results. There were 765,000 absentee ballots distributed, but only 471,000 votes were cast in person, so when it comes to results we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. (Jim Brennan for Gotham Gazette) Broadway will be closed through at least the end of the year. All tickets through January 3 have been refunded, but there's been no statement on a return date. (Michael Paulson for NY Times) Remember how the MTA was in the process of re-designing Brooklyn's bus systems? Forget it. The MTA says Covid-19 has forced them to put a hold on the plans and they'll publish a revised timeline in "the next few months." An announcement to say they'll make an announcement about an announcement in a few months. The original plan was due at the end of the second quarter. (Kevin Duggan for Brooklyn Paper) Will 24-hour subway service ever return? Maybe. The governor is leaving a lot of wiggle room in all of his answers. (Dave Colon for Streetsblog) Will offices ever go back to normal? amNY looks at the Empire State Building as a bellwether for recovery. Only 15-20% of the building's occupants that could return have returned during phase two. (Imani Moise and Echo Wang for Reuters) Crown Heights Caribbean spot Glady’s is shutting its doors permanently due to Covid-19. (Erika Adams for Eater) The Downtown Brooklyn Public Art + Placemaking Fund award in Brooklyn is giving grants of up to $50,000 for public art and performance projects looking to revitalize portions of Downtown Brooklyn. Applications are open through June 25, 2020. (BKLYNER) Around the city, you'll find flyers for someone selling flan. A look at New Yorkers who have started businesses making cooking and baking during the pandemic. (Devorah Lev-Tov for NY Times) Mayor de Blasio wants to do something about solitary confinement. He's assembled a "working group" whose job it will be to create a plan to end solitary confinement and "punitive segregation." (Rosa Goldensohn for The City) Interview: Milton Glaser, shortly before his death, talking about a design idea to unify the city around the word "together." (Jeremy Alias for NY Times) 13 things you didn’t know about the Woolworth Building. (Michele Cohen for 6sqft) The city will take over more streets in the evenings to combine Open Streets and Open Restaurants to push restaurant seating into the car lanes and create pedestrian walkways down the center of the street. The streets haven't been announced but will begin this weekend and run through Labor Day on Friday nights, and all day on Saturdays and Sundays. (Angélica Acevedo for amNewYork Metro) The City Council unanimously passed the COVID-19 Funding Tracker Bill to establish a public database to track city spending in an attempt to provide balance for relief throughout the city. (Jaime DeJesus for The Brooklyn Home Reporter) After the police's violent actions against the Queer Liberation March, Washington Square Park's statues of George Washington were splattered with red paint in protest. Washington was targeted for his ownership of slaves. (Sydney Pereira for Gothamist) On Saturday the Covid-19 death toll in New York was down to five, the lowest since March 15. With the United States' cases hitting new all-time highs, will the people who left the city return and bring new cases with them? (Noah Singer for Brooklyn Eagle) In a ramp-up to the weekend and lifeguards returning to beaches, food vendors have returned to Jacob Riis Beach. (Daniel Maurer for Bedford + Bowery) A parakeet has been spotted hanging out in Tompkins Square Park. (EV Grieve) Photos: A peacock escaped from the Prospect Park Zoo. It checked out Flatbush Ave, was chased around by the NYPD, and flew back home. (Todd Maisel for amNewYork Metro) Thanks to reader Zlata for the photo of last night's "surprise" fireworks on the East River!