The "Spot the Differences Between These Highways" Edition
The "Spot the Differences Between These Highways" Edition
Covid cases are up in city schools, the Gowanus rezoning kills a restaurant, rats live in the mayor's head rent-free, a local's guide to the Dyker Heights lights, a bitcoin bar (no, really), and more
Today - Low: 34˚ High: 47˚
Rain until evening.
This weekend - Low: 30˚ High: 39˚
I’m not 100% certain what my publishing schedule will be next week, so don’t be totally shocked if you only get one email from me.
• The Adams administration has approached the future of the BQE with all of the originality of a Hallmark Christmas movie. The Adams administration's "visionary, forward-thinking project" for what should replace the six-lane highway is another six-lane highway. The road is currently two lanes in each direction, meaning the city is thinking about widening the road, which is almost too stupid to consider a real idea, but that's cruise control for the Adams administration. (Liam Quigley for Hell Gate)
• “The (DOT) meeting on the BQE has a lot of focus on beautification and very little on pollution, congestion, or safety. Greenwashing “shoulders” as transit lanes for bus lines that don’t exist. It’s lipstick on a pig.” The reaction hasn't been positive. (Julianne Cuba for Streetsblog)
• Covid-19 cases are up 76% in city schools; wearing masks is not. (Jessica Gould for Gothamist)
• Q&A: NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan on getting Covid-19, RSV, and the flu back to back, getting tested for RSV, and more. (Sean Carlson, Amina Srna, and Nsikan Akpan for Gothamist)
• A brief guide to encountering a weeping person in public in the city. (Molly Osberg for Hell Gate)
• A Manhattan Supreme Court judge on Tuesday granted Uber’s request for a temporary restraining order on rate increases that were scheduled to go into effect on Dec 19. (Catalina Gonella for Gothamist)
• Mayor de Blasio pledged to remove police from street vendor enforcement. The NYPD issued almost 50% more tickets to street vendors in the first nine months of 2022 than all of 2019 The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection was put in charge of vendor enforcement last year and advised the NYPD to avoid taking action absent "exigent" circumstances. (Daniel Parra for City Limits)
• Pig Beach in Gowanus is closing at the end of the month, thanks to the Gowanus rezoning. I fear many businesses that helped bring attention to the neighborhood in recent years will not survive the rezoning. (Brooklyn Magazine)
• Fay Choy is closing on December 23, the Lower East Side vegan spot cited slow business as the reason for the closure. (Chris Crowley for Grub Street)
• Yeshiva University discriminated against LGBTQ students by refusing to officially recognize an LGBTQ campus group known as the YU Pride Alliance, according to a state appeals court. There are still many appeals left for this court case, which may end up at the Supreme Court. (Catalina Gonella for Gothamist)
• Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams are teaming up to "transform" the city's central business districts of Lower Manhattan and Midtown by rezoning them to allow empty office buildings to become apartments, likely extremely expensive ones. Does this seem like an idea that should have gone hand in hand with whatever's going on around Penn Station? Anyway, there are renderings. (Aaron Ginsburg for 6sqft)
• Turtle Bay tops the lists of "NYC Neighborhoods to Watch" in 2023, where the median asking rent is $4,000. Bushwick comes in at #2 with a $3,200 median asking rent. (Anna Rahmanan for Time Out)
• Video: Mayor Adams is always thinking about rats. (Jon Campbell for Gothamist)
• You can't use bitcoin to pay your tab at the bitcoin bar. No, you can't use Dogecoin either, you weirdo. Luke Fortney says he had fun regardless. (Luke Fortney for Eater)
• Four months into Mayor Adams's push to get New Yorkers experiencing homelessness off the subways is failing. I don't think that there's anyone that would see 0.3% of 83,591 underground “engagements” by police and outreach teams leading to a person checking into one of those specialized sites as a success. This is different than his recent declaration to remove homeless New Yorkers from the streets, so your confusion is understandable. (David Brand for City Limits)
• Apartment Porn: Vogue editor-at-large Hamish Bowles's $2.9 million pre-war Village duplex. (Michelle Cohen for 6qsft)
• Hanukkah events and menorah lightings around the city. (Shara Levine for Brooklyn Paper)
• A local's guide to enjoying the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights. (Annemarie Dooling for Gothamist)
• Where to find Indonesian food in NYC. (Robert Sietsema for Eater)
Top Clicked Links in the Last Edition:
Featured Pet: Cookie!
Oh my goodness, look at those eyes. Thank you to reader Jennifer for sending in the photo! Send your pet photo to thebriefly@gmail.com to be featured.
