The Briefly for May 21, 2020 – The "Is This Guy A Complete Idiot?" Edition
Today - Low: 54˚ High: 61˚
Clear throughout the day.
More and more, people are waking up to the realization that whatever the city looks like after this is all over, it doesn’t have to be what it was before this started. Manhattan President Gale Brewer wants an expanded Street Seats program and less parking. (Dave Colon for Streetsblog) “Do you have reservations? No? Please leave.” Is reservations only the future of restaurants? (Emma Orlow for Time Out) Is Dr. Mitchell Katz, the head of the city's public hospital system and also the city's tracing system for Covid-19, a delusional idiot? He made mention that everyone should do what he did to help his ailing parents and just find an apartment in your building to put her in instead of a nursing home. Everyone has the ability to do that, right? Just pay for another apartment and also maybe hire a caretaker. What do you mean he's making $700,000 and you're not? Just get a $700,000 a year job and then you're all set. (Kathleen Culliton for Patch) It looks like Michael Cohen may serve the rest of his prison sentence at home thanks to an early release over Covid-19 concerns. (Benjamin Weiser, Katie Benner and William K. Rashbaum for NY Times) The Metropolitan Museum of Art is planning a mid-August reopening "or perhaps a few weeks later," which is a lot of wiggle room. Whenever they reopen, the rest of the year will have additional social distancing requirements with the hope that things can be relaxed sometime in 2021, when the Met Gala might also return. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist) The city's politicians and advocacy groups are beginning to share one message to the mayor, and that is when we open up, we have to stop using streets for cars and let businesses and people take over the streets. (Kathleen Culliton for Patch) 19 organizations helping essential workers in NYC. (Hannah Albertine for The Infatuation) The NYPD dispursed three yeshivas that had illegally opened up for classes and gatherings on Wednesday and were issued "polite warnings." The mayor was pushed about this on Inside City Hall with Errol Louis, who asked him if he had "some kind of political understanding with the leaders of the Orthodox community that there would basically be no enforcement around this?" The mayor insisted they are receiving no special treatment, despite multiple pieces of evidence that gatherings are happening regularly. Let's not forget that the mayor's wife has aspirations of running for Brooklyn borough president. (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist) Child vaccination rates plummeted 63% as Covid-19 spread across New York City. (Kathleen Culliton for Patch) City landmarks will be lit up green tonight in honor of the parks workers. (Dana Schulz for 6sqft) The 10 best lesser-known spots for a lovely NYC picnic. (Bao Ong for Time Out) Thanks to reader Monty for today's featured photo!