The "Era of $5 Pizza Slices" Edition

Cardi B is a hero, Central Park Karen loses again, the mayor goes to Puerto Rico, getting out of jail to eat vegan, a reason to go to church, where to eat breakfast for dinner, TMNT dandies, and more

Today - Low: 56˚ High: 68˚
Clear throughout the day.

I remember these slices, and they were delicious. I need more NYC photos! Send your photos to thebriefly@gmail.com

• Cardi B, a well-documented hero, donated $100,000 to her old Bronx middle school's art program. (Ed García Conde for Welcome2TheBronx)

• Elizabeth Kim puts the city's budget concerns into context, including five key takeaways. (Elizabeth Kim for Gothamist)

• The self-dubbed "Get Stuff Done" mayor, Eric Adams, pledged to make "design improvements" to 1,000 intersections this year. How's that going? It's not going great, and the number of intersections at 395 seems to have shrunk since July, which seems impossible. (Gersh Kuntzman for Streetsblog)

• It's not just the intersections because the mayor promised 300 miles of protected bike lanes and 150 miles of bus lanes in four years. The mayor is already falling behind on those promises. (Stephen Nessen for Gothamist)

• Headline: How Eric Adams Made the Crisis of Sheltering Asylum Seekers Worse. (Max Rivlin-Nadler for Hell Gate)

• Mayor Adams left the city to visit Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Fiona, perhaps to be seen as "doing something" while doing nothing instead of actually doing something. (Ethan Stark-Miller for Brooklyn Paper)

• Despite increases in weapons seized, stabbings have increased dramatically at city jails, prompting a potential federal takeover to be seen by some as an opportunity instead of a punishment. (Matt Katz for Gothamist)

• Reported rapes are up and higher than pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, the number of hours the NYPD spent on trauma-informed training for sexual assault victims declined 89% in the last fiscal year. (Samantha Max for Gothamist)

• Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols, who is in jail because he hired a hitman using cocaine as payment to kill his ex-girlfriend, among other nastiness, wants to be released from prison so he can eat vegan. You never hear the NYPD blame veganism for people being let out of jail. (Kathleen Culliton for Patch)

• Where to go: Slutty Vegan in Fort Greene. What to Order: The Fussy Hussy, with orange Slut sauce, vegan cheese, and a Hawaiin bun. (Scott Lynch for Brooklyn Magazine)

• Another chapter in the book, "how the NYCHA completed fucked itself regarding water tests." The NYCHA could have ordered an expedited water test but decided to wait for a few weeks after the tap water tested positive for arsenic. (Greg S. Smith for The City)

• Female, black, Asian, and Latino city workers earn less than their white and male counterparts. These Tuesday emails should come with an anti-depressant. (Michelle Bocanegra for Gothamist)

• The city's affordable housing crisis is bad enough to put pressure on the informal "whatever the local councilperson wants" deference that has existed for years. (Greg David for The City)

• High mortgage rates are pushing people who might otherwise be luxury buying homes into the rental market, putting even more pressure on city rents and causing another record-breaking month of high rents. (Kathleen Culliton for Patch)

• Apartment Porn: A $7.5 million Village co-op with 3,000 square feet, an expansive landscaped private roof terrace, 16-foot ceilings, oversized windows, an enormous walk-in closet, a marble-cad bath, a depressing-looking children's room, and more. (Michelle Cohen for 6sqft)

• Amy Cooper, a noted racist and Central Park Karen, lost her lawsuit against her former employer. (Bobby Panza for I Love the Upper West Side)

• The people behind the murder of Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz, leaders in the Trinitarios gang, were sentenced to 25 years to life. A total of seven people have been convicted in the 2018 murder. (Eric Feldman for NY1)

• You won't find me in a church, but St. John the Divine's Blessing of the Animals this weekend is the closest I'll come to wanting to be in church. Yes, there is a photo of a llama being blessed. (Mike Mishkin for I Love the Upper West Side)

• Throughout the review of Fini, a new pizza spot in Williamsburg, you can't help but shudder at the constant mentions of $5 slices of pizza. Welcome to the era of pizza inflation, where even Scarr's will charge you a dollar for a take-home box. Pretty soon, millennials will be told to stop buying so much pizza so they can afford a house. (Ryan Sutton for Eater)

• Satire: Disappointing: This ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Superfan Left 4 Turtles In The Sewer, And While They Did Mutate, Learn Martial Arts, And Befriend A Large Rat, They Are Ambivalent Towards Pizza And Speak Like Southern Dandies. (Chris Gilman for Clickhole)

• Where to go when you want breakfast for dinner when time feels like a flat circle. (Luke Fortney for Eater)

• Photos: Buff-breasted Sandpiper on Randalls Island. (D. Bruce Yolton for Urban Hawks)

Top Clicked Links from Last Edition:

1. 15 uniquely New York habits people pick up after living here

2. The State of Recycling in New York City Is Extraordinarily Grim

3. Seven Forgotten NYC Subway Entrances

Featured Pet: Stella!

Thanks to reader Tim for sending in this photo of Stella taking a big ol’ lick of her own nose. Have you checked out Young Ethel’s in South Slope? You should!

Send your pet pics to thebriefly@gmail.com!