The "SantaCon Inflicts Itself on NYC" Edition
Law & Order returns, the Fox News Christmas Tree hero, the CCRB gets new powers, James drops out of the gov race, the cream cheese shortage, the Met sacks the Sacklers, NYC's Eiffel Tower, and more
Today - Low: 45˚ High: 50˚
Mostly cloudy throughout the day.
This weekend - Low: 38˚ High: 62˚
• Shitshow Saturday is this weekend. How to avoid SantaCon. (Michelle Cohen for 6sqft)
• Alcohol is banned on the LIRR and Matero-North for 32 hours this weekend, all thanks to SantaCon. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist)
• Speaking of New York traditions, here's one that I welcome back with open arms. After eleven years, Law & Order is back and filming no the Upper West Side! Maybe there's a chance for me to fulfill my dream of playing a dead body on TV. (Mike Mishkin for I Love the Upper West Side)
• A 49-year-old hero was arrested for setting fire to the Fox News Christmas tree, which wasn't even a real tree btw. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist)
• 15 holiday trees in NYC that are not at Rockefeller Center or Fox News. (Devin Gannon for 6sqft)
• There is a new fight over the leadership of Brooklyn's Republican party, the Bad News Bears of NYC politics. (Aidan Graham for Brooklyn Paper)
• A clear winner has emerged from resigned-in-disgrace Governor Cuomo's crackdown on homeless New Yorkers on subways: the wallets of the MTA Police. MTA police overtime jumped 20% last year due to mismanagement of Governor Touch-Too-Much's special projects. (Jose Martinez for The City)
• The Civilian Complaint Review Board was given the power by the City Council to self-initiate police misconduct complaints against the NYPD, which is something they could not do before. The City Council also passed a bill that banned the NYPD from hiring police officers fired for misconduct at other police departments. The CCRB estimates it will launch 500 investigations per year. (George Joseph for Gothamist)
• Mayor Bill de Blasio violated ethics rules twice by hitting up real estate industry players for donations to a nonprofit he created to boost pet projects and he got away with just warning letters. After getting the warning letters, he spent years trying to prevent the public from finding out about them. (Yoav Gonen for The City)
• The City Council is poised to ban new gas hookups in new buildings in five years. The move to all-electric is seen as part of fighting climate change as boilers, furnaces, and hot water heaters account for 40% of the city's carbon each year. (Devin Gannon for 6sqft)
• There are calls for a probe into City Hall's shielding of zip code-level data on Covid-19 fatalities from Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. (Katie Honan for The City)
• Information for people who self-identify as "Gowanus Curious." (Kathryn O'Shea-Evans for StreetEasy)
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced it will remove the Sackler family name, the literal villains in America's opioid crisis, from seven exhibition spaces throughout the museum. If this is a painful moment for the Sackler family, I have a suggestion for some medication they can take for that pain. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist)
• New York Attorney General Letitia James is out of the running for Governor and will run for re-election. In early polling, Governor Hochul has the lead amongst gubernatorial hopefuls with 36% of support. (Josefa Velasquez for The City)
• We've hit the point where every story about changes to just about anything in the city include something about "if Mayor-Elect Adams will approve it" and this story is no different. The wooden boards of the Coney Island Riegelmann Boardwalk will be replaced by recycled plastic decking, a much more durable and sustainable resource provided Mayor-Elect Eric Adams will give the project his approval. (Untapped New York)
• Eric Adams announced that David Banks will become school Chancellor. Banks says the city's schools are fundamentally flawed and outlined priorities of universal screened to identify students with dyslexia, access to healthy food, and exposing students to career options before graduation. (Alex Zimmerman for Chalkbeat)
• Real Estate Lust: A $5 million Flatiron co-op on E 21st with a double-height wall of glass (which I think is known as a window?), a private piazza, two beds, two baths, a laundry room, skylights galore, and more. (Michelle Cohen for 6sqft)
• Here are the proposed locations for new CitiBike docking stations in the East Village. (EV Grieve)
• Have you seen New York City's Eiffel Tower? It isn't quite as glamorous as the one in Paris. (Kevin Walsh for Forgotten New York)
• Here's how the city's bagel shops are dealing with the cream cheese shortage. (Anna Rahmanan for Time Out)
• The best Christmas cocktails around Astoria. (Melissa Principe for Give Me Astoria)
• Rejoice, Jing Fong is back! It may not be as large as the original, but it's still Jing Fong. (Luke Fortney for Eater)
• The New York Public Library's book dedication program is back, allowing anyone to add a loved one's name to a volume in the library's vast collection. Think of it as the opposite of the Bronx Zoo's "name a cockroach" program around Valentine's Day. (Anna Rahmanan for Time Out)
• 10 secrets of the Brooklyn Subway. Secret tunnels to the money room? Yes, please. Untapped New York)
• If you're celebrating the return of 75% of Sex and the City, here are 10 NYC spots from the original. (Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner for Time Out)
• 15 eggy breakfast tacos. (Eater)
Featured Pet: Smoke Shop Cat!
Thanks to reader Jessica for sending in this photo of a smoke shop cat near Columbus Circle. What’s the cat’s name? Is it something obvious for a smoke shop like Mary Jane or a normal cat name like Bucky O’Haire?
Thank you to the two readers who contributed to The Briefly using the Ko-Fi link in the footer of the email.