The Briefly for November 18, 2019 – The "Curiously Timed Stop & Frisk Change of Heart by Bloomberg" Edition

This week's late night subway disruptions are taking large chunks of the 4, 6, 7, A, D, E, L, and Q lines out of service. (Subway Weekender)

Mayor Bloomberg is "sorry" for supporting stop-and-frisk and the trust he lost from supporting it still bothers him. He has had a very opportune change of heart that timed coincidentally alongside his future-failed presidential run. (HuffPost)

Mayor Bloomberg marketed stop-and-frisk as a way to reduce crime by deterring it before it happened. Instead it was a policy of indirect racial profiling of young black and Latino and was used in an unconstitutional manner. (NY Times)

It was not lost on anyone that a majority of the families first in line for a recent open house were white and wealthy. They were some of the 500 parents paying $200 for a newsletter that gives them the advantage when it comes to high school tours and open houses. (NY Times)

Meet Ashley James, the Guggenheim's first full-time black curator. (NY Times)

Is anyone surprised to find Mayor de Blasio siding with the real estate industry when it comes to commercial rent control? (Gothamist)

A look at the violent history of Randy Santos, the man arrested for killing four homeless men in Chinatown, and claims he remembers nothing from the night he was found with a bloody metal bar in hand and recorded on video making the attacks. (NY Times)

A look at Decolonize This Place, the activist group behind the viral videos of the NYPD arresting churro ladies and teens in the subways. (NY Times)

Today starts an official effort by City Council staffers to unionize over pay disparities, long hours, and low wages. (Politico)

Congestion pricing goes into effect in January of 2021, which isn't a lot of time for the MTA's board to get moving on getting the details of the program together. (Streetsblog)

"Crawl back into your hole, Bigot Boys — there’s no place for hate in our state." Governor Cuomo may not be the best with insulting nicknames, but it's good to see him telling the neo-fascist group the Proud Boys to go to hell on behalf of all New Yorkers. (amNewYork)

Of the city's $20 billion in contracts to private businesses, only 4.9% of them went to minority- or women-owned businesses, which seems like an insanely low number. (amNewYork)

This week's restaurants ordered closed by the Department of Health is relatively tame, but still unnerving. (Patch)

Three people were convicted of manslaughter in the 2015 East Village building explosion that killed two men and triggered by an illegally installed gas line. (amNewYork)

The head of the state's Committee on Open Government, Bob Freeman, committed a series of inappropriate touching and sexual harassment according to a report from the state's inspector general. He was fired in June. (Gothamist)

What the hell is anyone in New York City going to do with a $350 axe? No matter, now you can buy one in Williamsburg. (Bedford + Bowery)

Getting real-estate developers to create low-income housing was a fight, getting them to remove "poor doors" was a fight, and getting them to treat all their tenants equally is just as much a fight. (Gothamist)

15 great Caribbean restaurants around the city. (Eater)

An extension of LaGuardia Airport? A solar farm? Homes? Let the speculation on what replaces Rikers Island begin! (NY Times)

Brooklyn Bazaar is closing at the end of the month and is having a liquidation sale. (Brooklyn Vegan)

This review of MeMe's Diner in Prospect Heights compares its pretzel scone to Lizzo, so take that as high praise. (Grub Street)

Maya Lin's Eclipsed Time hung from the ceiling in Penn Station for 25 years and while I've lived in or near the the city for 100% of that time, I never once noticed it while making my way around the dreadful station. It's been disassembled and stored off-site while renovations continue, perhaps one day to be noticed and appreciated. (Untapped New York)

Photos: The Penn Station renovations have uncovered some pieces of the original station, the Guastavino tiles and vaulted ceilings of a passageway that was sealed up in the 80s. (Gothamist)

Things are not going great in the contract talks between the MTA and transit union workers. No talks of a strike like in 2005 just yet, even if a strike is technically illegal. (amNewYork)

A guide to NYC's casual Italian restaurants. (The Infatuation)