The Briefly for November 30, 2018 – The "Joyless, Arbitrary, Spiritually Empty" Edition

The weekend's subway nightmares, explained. (SubwayStats)

Take your pick: a dog film festival, a cat film festival, or a horse film festival. They’re all this weekend. (NY Times)

Amazon's 4 Star store in SoHo: "among my most dismal shopping experiences in recent memory: joyless, arbitrary, spiritually empty."

The Gowanus Canal is partially clean for the first time in 150 years. Can it ever be truly clean? (Curbed)

Citi Bike will triple the number of bikes in the next five years as a result of the city allowing its parent company, Motivate, to be bought by Lyft for $100 million. (amNY)

Take a tour of Anable Basin, the future home of Amazon's HQ2. (Curbed)

If you've noticed businesses taking down awnings and replacing them with signs, you're not alone. Is it a conspiracy? The Department of Buildings has started enforcing old laws that placed limits on letter size and awning size with fines that start at $4,000. City Council members have floated a theory that an awning company has called in complaints to drum up business. (Bklyner)

Mic, who occupied two stories of World Trade Center One, laid off most of its staff and is in talks to sell to Bustle. (Gothamist)

10 secrets of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. (Untapped Cities)

Four days of the new "modern" signals on the 7, four days of significant delays, and that was only a small part of what made Thursday's commute awful. (Gothamist)

While likely not a surprise, Comptroller Scott Stringer released a report that argues the city doesn't do enough for the city's neediest families, despite Mayor de Blasio's affordable housing agenda. (Curbed)

Atlantic Ave-Barclays Center has the distinction of having the most reported crimes of any subway stop in the city, with the Port Authority coming in second. Here are the 25 subway stations with the highest numbers of crime. (The Brooklyn Reader)

Hanukkah approaches, plan properly. (amNY)

A tour of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's Greenwich Village. (GVSHP)

Life isn't difficult enough for cyclists in the city before some nut job starts tossing thumbtacks into Sunnyside's protected bike lanes. (Sunnyside Post)

What's the snootiest area in the city? Before you click, try to guess. (StreetEasy)

A portion of LaGuardia's new Terminal B opened on Thursday, including a fool hall, retail, and also some gates for airplanes to come and go from. Amazon Cuomo was there to cut the ribbon. (6sqft)

The NYPD is getting a new handbook on how to treat victims of crime. According to Commissioner James O'Neill, it's about "simple human interaction." (NY Post)

Irate Winterfest attendees are receiving refunds after attending the underwhelming first few days of the event in the Brooklyn Museum's backyard. The Brooklyn Museum has been quick to point out that the event is being run by an outside company. (Bklyner)

Do opponents have any hope of stopping Amazon in Long Island City? (Gothamist)

A 125th St Whole Foods security guard choked a man unconscious. Turns out they take it seriously when you intentionally mislabel bulk goods. (NY Post)

RIP Bleecker Bob, owner of the appropriately titled Bleecker Bob's. (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

For 20 years, "Santa's Corner" in Whitestone has been the epitome of "there's no such thing as too many Christmas light on one house." (TimesLedger)

The New York State Pavilion in Queens is receiving a $16 million federal grant from FEMA to repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. (TimesLedger)

Can a rezoning of parts of Bushwick, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg save North Brooklyn from itself? (Brooklyn Paper)

Unsolicited dick pics being sent over AirDrop on iPhones is a problem and a new City Council bill could make it punishable by a $1,000 and a year in jail. (NY Times)

Kyle Borello, 31, was arrested for riot and attempted assault charges for last month's Upper East Side fight involving The Proud Boys, a SPLC designated hate group and FBI classified extremist group with white nationalist ties. (NY Post)

13 of the hottest new cocktail bars. (Eater)

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