The Briefly for March 3, 2020 – The "Kill it! Kill It All With Bleach!" Edition
Today - Low: 43˚ High: 58˚
Light rain starting in the afternoon.
A look inside Bohemian Grove, part venue, part apartment building full of artists and performers that are all paying under $1,000 rent and that is, yes, in Bushwick. (Kim Kelsey for NY Times) Video: A POV experience going to the top of One World Observatory. (ActionKid) An argument that restaurant letter grades, health inspections, and fines work against the public interest and instead are a great source of revenue for the city. (Demian Repucci for Grub Street) Governor Cuomo directed NY health insurers to waive cost sharing associated with testing for coronavirus, including emergency room, urgent care and office visits. (@NYGovCuomo) KILL IT WITH BLEACH. That the's MTA's plan to fight the spread of coronavirus on our buses, trains, and schools. New York will never be so clean again. (Mark Hallum for amNewYork Metro) The numbers of New Yorkers infected with coronavirus will go up, but it does not mean that the virus is spreading. It means we're identifying the people who have it already. In the meantime, cough and sneeze into your elbow, wash your hands with soap, and please stop touching your face. Are you doing it right now? Stop it. (Jesse McKinley and Joseph Goldstein for NY Times) Top 5 pizza shops in the Bronx. (Ed García Conde for Welcome2TheBronx) Whoops. Gale Brewer's stated argument against the rezoning for Lenox Terrace technically goes against the 1968 Civil Rights Act. Brewer specifically says the rezoning should be stopped to prevent a decrease in the area's Black population. Attempts to preserve racial composition of a neighborhood goes against the act, even if it the original intention was to criminalize keeping white neighborhoods white. The argument made here lays it on a bit thick, but it highlights why our politicians need to be careful when laying out their arguments. (Nikolai Fedak for New York YIMBY) Rendering: The Waldorf Astoria's residents-only pool, 6,000 square feet with 19-foot ceilings and a retractible roof. (Alexandra Alexa for 6sqft) The Democratic Socialists of America have allies in City Councilmember Costa Costantinides, State Senator Michael Gianaris, and Assemblymembers Ron Kim and Brian Barnwell in replacing Con Ed with publicly owned power. (Max Parrott for QNS) Amtrak has a new chief executive in William J. Flynn, the third in the last three years. Good luck. ((Patrick McGeehan for NY Times) RIP Joe Coulombe, Trader Joe. (Alan Sytsma for Grub Street) A moderate Democrat drops out of the race in hopes that it ives another moderate enough of the vote to beat the Democratic Socialist at the top of the ticket. No, this isn't about Mayor Pete or Amy dropping out of the race in hopes of stopping Bernie, this is Fernando Cabrera dropping out of the race for 14th Congressional District against Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez in hopes that Michelle Caruso-Cabrera has a better chance. (David Cruz for Norwood News) Residents in East New York are looking to Albany to declare a cease-and-desist zone for house flippers after reporting multiple phone calls and door knocks a day from people attempting to buy their homes unsolicited. (Allison Dikanovic for The City) A Q&A with the new Interim President of New York City Transit, where Feinberg offers no good answer as to why she supports hiring 500 additional cops with no measure of success on the job would look like for them and at the same time cutting 700 operational positions to save money. (Stephen Nessen for Gothamist) Free rent and getting paid to explore downtown Manhattan. Welcome to the Explorer-in Chief job. (Shaye Weaver for Time Out) Without visible enforcement, the rules get relaxed. That's what's happening in Sunset Park as truck drivers are deviating from the city's legal through streets and getting stuck in attempts to make impossible turns. The NYPD issued 16 tickets for commercial vehicles on residential streets in all of Brooklyn in January. (Ben Verde for Brooklyn Paper) Could this be the year the city takes decisive action to protect pedestrians against drivers? State Sen. Andrew Gounardes is sponsoring a package of bills at the state level aimed at making the city's streets safer. You'd think the City Council would be leading the way on this, but I'm glad to see that someone is attempting to take action. (Paula Katinas for The Brooklyn Home Reporter) A carriage horse was euthanized shortly after she collapsed in Central Park on Saturday. The incident that lead to the horse's death was captured on video. (Sydney Pereira for Gothamist) Mayor de Blasio as yet to make good on his campaign promise from 2013, where he said he would ban horse carriages from Central Park on day one. A promise which earned him the support of animal rights activists over Christine Quinn in the Democratic primary. (Elizabeth Titus for Politico) The Sergeants Benevolent Association and Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, two loudmouth organizations when it comes to bail reform, are suspiciously quiet when it comes to the case of narcotics officer Stephen Abreu, who was charged with attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon and other charges. Awaiting a felony murder charge, he was released without bail. (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist) Kudos to Streetsblog, who heard about the stupid campaign in Staten Island to tie yellow ribbons around phone poles to warn drivers of speed cameras, and decided to go to Staten Island to tie as many ribbons around as many poles as they could find in protest. (Gersh Kuntzman for Streetsblog) Mayor de Blasio ran for president and his campaign died. He endorsed Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden is seeing a resurgence. Now he's taking his kiss of death home to Chirlane McCray in hopes that he can help make his wife the next Brooklyn borough president. (J. David Goodman for NY Times) Scarr's Pizza is moving, but only down the street to a larger location on Orchard St. Get your slices now so you can talk down to people waiting on line for pizza at the new location. (Elie Z. Perler for Bowery Boogie) Sometimes you can't pass up a sign (or two in this case) declaring the best burger in New York City. (Robert Sietsema for Eater) 10 new public art installations not to miss in March. (Michelle Young for Untapped New York) Thank you to reader Dylan for sending in today's featured photo from outside the Brooklyn Museum of this Leon Karssen sticker.