The Briefly for March 13, 2020 – The "How Does A Strip Club Fight COVID-19?" Edition
Today - Low: 40˚ High: 66˚
Light rain in the morning and afternoon.
This weekend - Low: 35˚ High: 55˚
Video: Four of six candidates for Queens borough president debated at Queens College on March 9. (Angélica Acevedo for QNS) The Palm steakhouses have been owned for 93 years by the family that launched them, but they have sold to the company that owns the Rainforest Cafe in a $45 million deal. (Serena Dai for Eater) 360° Video: From the top of Edge NY's outdoor deck. (Action Kid) The Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge raised $60,000, which was distributed to multiple community organizations, including the New York Aquarium, the Alliance for Coney Island, Coney Island USA, the Coney Island History Project, Coney Beach Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers, New York State Marine Education Association, New York City Parks Foundation, the Coney Island YMCA, and Parachute Literary Arts. If you ever wondered "why does anyone do that?," this is the benefit of having a wild idea on January 1. (John Alexander for The Brooklyn Home Reporter) The title is 12 buildings that should be brought back, but if you're looking to explore some of old New York's masterpieces, here are 12 of them. (Michelle Young for Untapped New York) The Bronx Brewery in planning a second location in the East Village on Second Ave between 3rd and 4th. The location should be opening in the fall with a brewery, live music, and a kitchen with "special guest" chefs. (Devin Gannon for 6sqft) The best restaurants in the West Village, because we're not all going to be making all of our own meals in perpetuity. (Bryan Kim, Katherine Lewin, Hillary Reinsberg, & Matt Tervooren for The Infatuation) Conor McGregor donated $1 million to the first responder Steven Siller Tunnel To Towers Foundation to make good on a 2018 promise. (amNewYork Metro) If you've got plans to binge the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, you might ask yourself, "If I were her friend, where would I live?" and also "Could I afford it?" Here are your answers. (Localize.City) The secret gardens of the Upper West Side. (Mike Mishkin for I Love the Upper West Side)
I won't list things that are closing but assume that everything, everything pro sports and everything Broadway, is canceled or postponed unless you explicitly hear otherwise, with the exception of city schools, the Queens borough president election, and the census. Before going anywhere or doing anything, please call and confirm. The state's public emergency health plan has two prongs: reducing the spread and treating the infected. "There is no end date." (Emily Davenport for amNewYork Metro) Video: The mayor's press conference about the coronavirus outbreak on Thursday afternoon was somber and reassuring at the same time. If you have the endurance to watch over 90 minutes, the video is available. (NBC News) The Archdiocese of New York announced it was closing all of its elementary schools for at least a week and would reassess the situation on March 20. (Adam Nichols for Patch) Early voting in the Queens borough president's race starts on Saturday. Is the city ready for its first coronavirus election? (Ben Brachfeld for Gothamist) Subway ridership is unsurprisingly down 18.65% from a year ago as as many people as possible are staying home. (Dana Rubinstein for Politico) The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Last Week Tonight, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah are joining most daytime shows in filming without studio audiences moving forward. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) I got a text from a friend yesterday that the school nurse for their school was out and one of their students was displaying signs of a fever and coughing. He told me his school didn't have a backup plan aside from sending the student home immediately. COVID-19 is showing is just how woefully unprepared our school nurse situation is. The city plans on hiring enough nurses to distribute one in each building by today, but these nurses will be contractors with the city and as a result will be unable to access students' medical records. Not an ideal situation for making medical decisions. (Jessica Gould for Gothamist) When people stop showing up to a senior center like the Open Door Senior Center over COVID-19 fears, it doesn't mean they aren't in need of a meal. How do you provide a meal to someone staying home in fear? ( Gabriel Sandoval and Claudia Irizarry Aponte with additional reporting by Josefa Velasquez for The City) If we're all going to be seeing more of the inside of our apartments more, maybe it's time to tackle some of those long-standing projects we've been thinking about. The story of how Lauren Rothman was unable to change to a different apartment, so she changed her apartment. (Lauren Rothman for Curbed) The state's finances are based on economic growth, which means the next fiscal year, which starts on April 1st, is completely screwed by COVID-19, which will have years of ramifications for the state. (Fred Mogul for Gothamist) Advocates are worried undocumented New Yorkers will be scared to seek medical help for COVID-19 symptoms. (Sophia Chang for Gothamist) No matter what you heard early in the day on Thursday, the child who self-reported as having COVID-19 in the Bronx does not have the illness and the school they attended will be open on Friday. The school system may explore a "summer school model," with a limited shutdown. (Sophia Chang, Jessica Gould, Yasmeen Khan for Gothamist) There's gonna be a lot of beer that goes undrank and a lot of corned beef that goes uneaten on St Patricks Day. (Erika Adams for Eater) No gathering of more than 500 people can happen in New York and the legal capacity of just about everywhere has been cut in half. In addition, the mayor said that MSG and the Barclays Center should be expected to be closed for months. (Amanda Hatfield for BrooklynVegan) Restaurants will have to reduce their capacity by 50% as part of the new preventative measures put in place. The mayor re-iterated while outlining the new policy that this could be a six0month health crisis with a longer economic recovery period. The city is offering no-interest loans, but this crisis is going to be absolutely apocalyptic for the city's restaurants, which already operate on slim margins. (Serena Dai for Eater) A longstanding New York trade organization representing restaurants is calling for the state to offer tax breaks and cap food delivery service fees — in addition to a host of other requests, as the industry prepares for drastic economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. (Erika Adam for Eater) Alex Jones, a human backflowing sewer pipe and conspiracy theorist, was selling toothpaste, creams and several other products that claim to treat or prevent and cure COVID-19 on his website. Attorney Letitia James immediately sent him a cease and desist. (Noah Higgins-Dunn for CNBC) How does a strip club like FlashDancers handle an outbreak like COVID-19? (Tribeca Citizen)