The Briefly for May 14, 2020 – The "Your Reservation for The L Train is in 45 Minutes" Edition

Today - Low: 58˚ High: 62˚

Possible light rain overnight.

"I haven't been tested this whole time." -Mayor de Blasio (Kathleen Culliton for Patch) The city is adding 12 additional miles of open streets today/Thursday. Some protected bike lanes that have been long-planned were also announced for opening throughout the month. (Dana Schulz for 6sqft) The MTA is looking into "everything" when it comes to crowd control and reducing packed subway cars once the city starts reopening, including reserving space on subways and buses. (Collier Sutter for Time Out) The chaos at Elmhurst hospital exposes the city's lack of a cohesive healthcare system and shows that all we have are a series of hospitals that are ill-equipped to work as a team. (Jim Dwyer for NY Times) The police union is calling for the head of Dr. Oxiris Barbot after she denied an NYPD request for 500,000 surgical masks during the height of the pandemic. Her response was that she "didn't give two rats' asses about your cops." Okay, maybe that's not the best response, but the NYPD's total headcount is 55,000, why do they need 500,000 masks during a PPE shortage? (NY1) It must be fun to be NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea because he seems to exist in a reality that the rest of us don't inhabit. According to Shea, the problem with the NYPD's selective and racially biased enforcement isn't the NYPD, the problem is the people the NYPD are enforcing the rules on. No one doubts that being an NYPD officer is one of the toughest possible jobs in the city, but to argue that when a cop with a violent history beats the shit out of an NYCHA groundskeeper with no criminal history, it's the groundskeeper's fault? (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist) It was only a few months ago that I linked to a story about Brian Quinn, aka Q from "Impractical Jokers" on TruTV reviving the Rubsam and Horrmann name for brewing company in Staten Island. Covid-19, like with most things, pumped the brakes on his places. Now their unused beer is being used to create hand santizer, working with Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn. (Roger Clark for NY1) State Senator Julia Salazar earned Bernie Sanders's endorsement in her re-election campaign, along with financial support from his followers. State Senator Mike Gianaris also earned Sanders's support for his beating back of Amazon in Queens. (Andrew Karpan for Bushwick Daily) 82 kids are being treated for pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome. Fourteen states and five European countries are investigating the syndrome. (Kathleen Culliton for Patch) The move by Major League Baseball to downsize minor league teams is still moving forward, and the Staten Island Yankees are still on the chopping block. Game attendance was at its lowest last season and its games are the third-lowest attended games in the league. This could be the last season for the team if the season ever gets started. (Amanda Farinacci for NY1) There's a commissioned new mural at Atlantic Terminal by Brooklyn artist Jason Naylor which adds a splash of bright color, titled "Hope," to the city. (Meaghan McGoldrick for Brooklyn Paper) Governor Cuomo added a sign language interpreter to his daily press conferences after being sued by Disability Rights New York for not including one. (Marina Fang for HuffPost) Crews at Green-Wood Cemetery have been working seven days a week with shifts that can be longer than 17 hours to keep up with the demand for cremation and burials. (Gwynne Hogan for Gothamist) In a sign of good news, healthcare workers now have a lower rate of infection than the general population, which points at being careful and taking precautions actually working. (Mark Hallum for amNewYork Metro) Are we ready for in-person shopping to look very different? (Collier Sutter for Time Out) David Chang is closing Momofuku Nishi for good. (Emma Orlow for Time Out) The City Council passed a package of legislation to help small businesses on Wednesday that aims to protect commercial tenants from harassment by their landlords and restrict the fees that third-party apps such as Grubhub and Uber Eats can charge businesses during states of emergency. (Ben Verde for amNewYork Metro) The New York Times has discovered something new during the pandemic: the outside. (Alexis Soloski for NY Times) The city is supposed to be stepping up to help New York's homeless when the subways close at 1 am. NY1 followed the trains to the end of the tracks to find a city that was not equipped to help the people that need it the most. (Courtney Gross for NY1) Plan your weekend, here's a brunch delivery guide. (Nikko Duren for The Infatuation) Thanks to reader Karen for today's featured photo of a new way to get car-free streets in the city.