Today - Low: 50˚ High: 54˚
Overcast throughout the day. What the hell.
This weekend - Low: 51˚ High: 60˚

Thanks to reader Madeline for sending in this tribute from Central Park. *Email your photo to thebriefly@gmail.com to be featured.*

• Good lord, look at this bag of Giant African Snails seized at JFK. While they're extremely cool and they enjoy being pet like a dog, they're also in the top 100 invasive species list. (Christopher Robbins for Gothamist)

• Russian Doll is filming in the East Village. (Bob Krasner for amNewYork Metro)

• State tests for grades 3-8 are optional this year and families have to opt in to having the tests administered. No one will be penalized for not participating. This year's been hard enough already. (Reema Amin for Chalkbeat)

• Reminder: The deadline for opting back into in-person learning from fully remote is today. (Matt Troutman for Patch)

• Here are the city's new rules for Covid-19 school closures: Schools — not buildings — will close if four or more positive cases happen within a week in different classrooms, and the cases were originated inside the school and 40% of students and staff will be tested when 2-3 cases are discovered. (Reema Amin for Chalkbeat)

• Mayoral candidate and current City Comptroller Scott Stringer is arguing that the vaccine should come with incentives like vouchers for businesses, cultural centers, and a round-trip MetroCard and that activity would go a long way in pushing the economy forward. At the moment you can still get yourself a Krispy Kreme and Junior's mini cheesecake if you've been jabbed. (Devin Gannon for 6sqft)

• There's a mini-golf course coming to the ridiculous Williamsburg waterfront development at River and North First St, which is also promising a public beach. The mini-golf course, GREEN, will be open this summer. Is it silly? Maybe, but parts of the city have been deprived of typically suburban activities for too long. (Shaye Weaver for Time Out)

• All public beaches will open on Memorial Day and the city's public pools will be open on June 26, both under social distancing rules. We may even see dumpster pools make their return to the city as a part of Open Streets. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist)

• Coney Island's amusements officially open today for the first time since October of 2019. It's limited capacity and you need to make reservations in advance. It's almost like a real summer is possible this year. (Will Gleason for Time Out)

• The Cyclones will return to the field this summer as part of the High-A East league, with the first home game scheduled for May 18. (Peter Kropf for Brooklyn Magazine)

• Despite rumors to the contrary, Totonno’s in Coney Island is not closing. Totonno’s has one of the best pizzas in the city. (Jake Samieske for Brooklyn Magazine)

• It is the humble pizza, the absolute most perfect food ever created, that has been helping restaurants stay afloat for the last year. (Juliet Izon for Eater)

• Speaking of pizza, the New York Pizza Festival is going virtual this year. You can catch it for free on April 24 and 25. I'm personally interested in what the Cake Boss has to say about the best kind of pie. (Alex Mitchell for amNewYork Metro)

• Walk-in vaccinations are available at 26 sites for New Yorkers 75 and older and for one person escorting them. There are sites in all five boroughs. (Shaye Weaver for Time Out)

• Mayoral candidate Barbara Kavovit, a construction executive and appearing on The Real Housewives of New York, has the worst idea possible of any mayoral candidate this cycle. As Curbed explains, it is "a profoundly bad idea" and "sounds uncomfortably like an internment camp" for people with mental health issues and addiction on Rikers Island. I had low expectations, but holy moly. (Caroline Spivack for Curbed)

• The Concert Grove Pavilion in Prospect Park has been fully restored, including its stained-glass skylights, after being closed since 2014. It was originally completed by the park's designers, Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux in 1874. (Brian Braiker for Brooklyn Magazine)

• Apartment lust: A $3 million Upper East Side maisonette, with historic woodwork, a marble en-suite bathroom, three bedrooms, a Tiffany-style gas fireplace, a room for your staff (of course), and in-building amenities include private garden, full-time doorman, and an onsite gym. (Dana Schulz for 6sqft)

• The Slipper Room is reopening on April 23. The first show has not been announced yet. (Elie Z. Perler for Bowery Boogie)

• A look at the 2021 Manhattan District Attorney candidates. (Mark Hallum for amNewYork Metro)

• Wall Street's chosen candidate for Manhattan DA is Tali Farhadian Weinstein, whose husband is the founder of a billion-dollar hedge fund. Maybe the Wall Street watchdog shouldn't be endorsed by Wall Street? (Gwynne Hogan for Gothamist)

• lol, Rudy Giuliani's son Andrew wants to be governor. There's no way this doesn't end in a criminal investigation. (Jesse McKinley for NY Times)

"Electricity is a ubiquitous need, and a service for which free-market competition makes no sense—nobody wants three different brands of power lines crisscrossing our skies, and nobody wants to make the “consumer choice” of not having a working refrigerator. For ConEd, this makes Brooklyners into a tidy, captive audience, ripe for the plunder. Without rivals or meaningful regulations, they have free rein to jack up our rates, cut our services, and neglect our infrastructure into dangerous levels of decay."
-Nicholas Boni, Brooklyn Needs Public Power, for Bklyner

• Photos: Yayoi Kusama's exhibit KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature at the New York Botanical Garden. (Dana Schulz for 6sqft)

• 12 great xiao long bao. (Hannah Albertine, Nikko Duren, and Carlo Mantuano for The Infatuation)

• If you're driving to Staten Island this weekend to get a Covid-19 vaccine in that one CVS that seemed to have appointments, get ready for a 7% toll hike on the Verrazzano. (Brooklyn Eagle)

• The Times has discovered the fight over the Gowanus rezoning plan, which wants to bring twice as many apartments to the neighborhood as were created in the Hudson Yards. (Mihir Zaveri, Brad Hamilton and Jo Corona for NY Times)

• Where to go for Iftar during Ramadan after a long day of fasting. (Jiniya Azad, Tahirah Baksh, and Sameen Choudhry for The Infatuation)

Featured Pet: Scooter Update!

Thank you to everyone who sent such wonderful messages wishing Scooter a speedy recovery. He had 19 teeth removed (19!!!) in his surgery and is recovering, sedated, in his cozy cup. Tuesday was a rough day and I appreciate every positive message you all sent.

The Briefly

The "Dreaming of Beaches and Pools" Edition