The "Seventy Percent" Edition
The "Seventy Percent" Edition
A Nic Cage cocktail menu, why Ubers cost so much lately, restrictions being lifted, and more
Today - Low: 63˚ High: 78˚
Partly cloudy throughout the day.
• Early voting has begun in the city's primaries but you already knew that and either applied for an absentee ballot (today's the last day to do that) or have a plan for voting, right? Only 16,800 voted on the first day of early voting. (Emma G. Fitzsimmons for NY Times)
• Now that 70% if adults in New York state have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine most Covid-19 restrictions are being lifted in the state. All capacity restrictions, social distancing, disinfecting, health screenings, and contact tracing requirements are lifted for commercial settings. Have some respect for New Yorkers who are still uncomfortable in public and crowded settings, but the light at the end of the tunnel is more visible. (Ben Yakas and Nsiak Akpan for Gothamist)
• The Hometown Heroes Parade will happen on July 7. The people of NYC are 46.8% vaccinated in any way and the positivity rate is at a low 0.59%. (Dana Schulz for 6sqft)
• The 2, 4, and 6 are the grossest subway lines according to a "soiled cars" incident report. Pooping on the subway? Ahhhhhh, NYC is healing. (Matt Troutman for Patch)
• The mayor is putting together a "fireworks task force" to try to curb the number of unlicensed fireworks being shot off in the city. The task force appears to be focused on "the people who bring these fireworks into New York City." (Bobby Panza for I Love the Upper West Side)
• The Brooklyn Liberation march took place on Sunday protesting bills and laws across the country, which organizers say have links to violence against violence against trans people. This was the second annual march. (Micheal Gold for NY Times)
• Take a look inside Director David Gordon Green’s Kubrick-inspired loft. Green was the director of the most recent Halloween movie and its two sequels as well as the new Exorcist movie and Hellraiser TV show. (Wendy Goodman with photography by Eric van den Brulle for Curbed)
• Renderings: Robert de Niro's new Wildflower Studios in Astoria. (Sebastian Morris for New York YIMBY)
• The city announced plans to preserve the East River Park amphitheater, and allow the Lower East Side Ecology Center to keep its compost footprint inside the park as a part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. Advocates argue this isn't a preservation but a demolition. (Elie Z. Perler for Bowery Boogie)
• Across the city you'll find a crop of candidates that are running for office on platforms of fighting back against current planned luxury developments from Staten Island to Crown Heights to Flushing. How can we see that these candidates are making an impact? The real estate industry have begun pouring money into Super PACs to fight them. (Clifford Michel for The City)
• The MTA arrested three drivers crossing the Triborough Bridge with fake license plates last Wednesday. The MTA can arrest people? The fake license plates were pretty bad replicas printed on regular paper. The other day I saw a truck with a license plate that was made of cardboard, so this isn't completely shocking. (Kevin Duggan for amNewYork Metro)
• Can't find a cab and prices are soaring on Uber? There's a reason for that. A little under half the usual number of cabs are on the road as drivers took thousands of cabs out of service indefinitely. Many taxi drivers won't go back to work until there's a substantial debt restructuring, which was already a huge concern pre-pandemic. Even Uber is down over 20,000 drivers compared to February of 2020. As a result of the loss of all the available drivers and cars, Uber is practically always in surge pricing mode. (Winnie Hu, Patrick McGeehan and Sean Piccoli for NY Times)
• I love a good silly local mystery. A tent was bolted to the ground in front of a building on W 67th between Columbus and Broadway for over two months. Turns out the building's super's motorcycle. It wasn't the greatest reveal but for the people who saw it every day, mystery solved. (Bobby Panza for I Love the Upper West Side)
• Adorable: A duck and its ducklings crossed the street in Park Slope to check out a bagel shop. Of course there are videos and the ducks were eventually led to Prospect Park. (Ben Yakas for Gothamist)
• The meaning behind every New York City borough flag. They are all unbearably lame. (Devin Gannon for 6sqft)
• You can't fight the moonlight, the new Coyote Ugly is opening on Wednesday. (EV Grieve)
• The mayor pledged $39 million to fix McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn after a local teacher was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Plans include adding missing crosswalks, turn calming, and a larger upgrades and a redesign. (Kevin Duggan for amNewYork Metro)
• The MTA is restoring more service to Metro North trains with the state's reopening, adding 24 peak-time trains, up to 67% of pre-pandemic service. (Kevin Duggan for amNewYork Metro)
• Who is the Naked Man seen running around outside the Museum of Natural History? There were five sightings of him last week. (Jeff Fischer for I Love the Upper West Side)
• If you've ever stood outside Fresco by Scotto on E 52nd and thought to yourself, "Scotto, like the newscaster?," you'd be exactly right. Rosanna and Eliana Scotto are reopening their Italian restaurant this week. (Emily Favenport for amNewYork Metro)
• The best pizza places on Staten Island. (Alexis Priester for The Infatuation)
• Four real-life NYC locations you can see 'In the Heights'. (Shaye Weaver for Time Out)
• The best restaurants in Sheepshead Bay. (Carina Finn for The Infatuation)
• How can you argue against a Nic Cage cocktail menu? (Lillian Stone for The Takeout)
Featured Animal: Prospect Park Zoo Peacock
Thanks to reader Jessica for sending in a photo of the most surprising part of the Prospect Park Zoo, the peacocks that wander the grounds freely and once escaped the zoo. The pet/animal photos are getting low again. Send me photos of your pets to thebriefly@gmail.com!