The "This Feels Like the Wrong Problem" Edition
Another pick from Eric Adams with an anti-LGBTQ+ history, why newsstand umbrellas break so easily, Cuomo gets sued, 18 excellent Asian desserts, and more.
Today - Low: 33˚ High: 37˚
Clear throughout the day.
The latest seven-day positivity rate: 2.31%
76.17% of city residents have received two shots, 85.26% of city residents have received one or more shots. Source: NYC Department of Health.
• The mayor and governor announced together that they will remove homeless people from the city's subways. According to the mayor, the plan stops people from "doing whatever you want." I can't help but feel like the problem they're addressing is homeless New Yorkers on the subway instead of why anyone would choose to shelter on the subways. The plan expands Kendra's Law, enabling a judge to order someone with mental illness into outpatient treatment. It will send more mental-health professionals into the subways who can involuntarily hospitalize people who have been deemed a danger to themselves and others. Both are involuntary and sound like imprisonment under a different name, but literally, anything is better than sending someone to Rikers Island for being homeless. The plan also will create 500 new shelter beds in private rooms to accommodate the estimated 1,000 New Yorkers that use the subways as a shelter nightly. The mayor announced that this plan would be in place by this coming week, which doesn't seem like enough time to increase the capacity of shelters and facilities for the numbers of homeless New Yorkers that will be removed from the subway system, but it certainly seems like enough time to start doing the removing, which shows where the priorities of the plan lay. (Andy Newman, Dana Rubinstein, and Michael Gold for NY Times)
• The mayor's budget, when it comes to schools, is being called a "scarcity budget," cutting between a quarter to a half-billion dollars depending on how you do the math. It calls for an increase in funding of charter schools and transportation. The budget calls for cutting 3,600 jobs, freezing hiring, 560 school safety agents, reducing salaries, overtime, and professional development in the education department's central offices. The mayor justifies the cuts by citing a shrinking enrollment, which seems like an odd number to cite based on the last two years of existence. (Alex Zimmerman for Chalkbeat)
• The mayor, in the same week announcing his subway safety plan, also announced that he is cutting $615 million from homeless services. (David Brand for City Limits)
• The mayor has made a disturbing trend of selecting people with histories of making anti-LGBTQ+ statements to his administration. The latest is Erick Salgado, the new assistant commissioner of outreach at the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. He is also a pastor in Brooklyn and runs a Spanish-language ministry radio station. Salgado ran for mayor in 2013 partially on an anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion platform where he was proud to be the only candidate not to march in the Pride Parade and stated he only believes in "traditional marriage." In 2011 he organized a rally and march against same-sex marriage with noted homophone Ruben Diaz Sr. In 2016, Salgado opposed the Parks Department erecting statues of non-Jewish victims of the Nazis, including homosexuals and political prisoners, calling it “a betrayal of the community and even worse, disrespectful to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.” The cherry to this bigotry sundae is a tweet from 2016 criticizing Bill de Blasio for supporting trans rights. Salgado, in his defense, says his views have "evolved" and supports marriage equality. (Katie Honan for The City)
• The Adams administration said it would harden 20 miles of protected bike lanes in its first 100 days. That promise has been broken, and the new target date is the end of 2023, expanding 100 days into over 700 days. The end of 2023 is a popular date for the DOT because that's also when the bike lane on the Queensboro Bridge was delayed until. (Gersh Kuntzman for Streetsblog)
• Why do newsstand umbrellas break? There's a law. Newsstands can't sell anything over $10, so naturally, your umbrella is going to be pre-garbage. (Caroline Spivack for Curbed)
• Jia Liu, an accused January 6 insurrectionist from Queens, faces federal charges for selling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards. According to prosecutors, Liu was aided by Stephen Rodriguez, a nurse who sold blank vaccination cards and destroyed vaccine doses. (Kathleen Culliton for Patch)
• Despite the eviction moratorium, thousands of tenants were evicted illegally, and only a handful of landlords have been charged with crimes. (Ishan Thakore for The City)
• "Trooper 1" is suing resigned-in-disgrace Andrew Cuomo for sexual harassment claiming he retaliated against her for making the allegations. (Timothy Bolger for Queens County Politics)
• We all owe the attendees of Anime NYC an apology. Anime NYC was not an Omicron super spreader event. We're sorry, anime nerds. (Rob Bricken for Gizmodo)
• There's an NFT vending machine in the Financial District. It takes credit cards, and you'll get a small box with a code inside of it to redeem online. (Anna Rahmanan for Time Out)
• Real Estate Lust: A $25 Upper West Side million penthouse with 6,168 square feet, six beds, seven and a half baths (two of them are en suite), Hudson River views, floor-to-ceiling windows, was recently rented by Kerry Washington for $70,000 a month, and more. (Devin Gannon for 6sqft)
• Thirteen NYC pet peeves that will make you see red. Number eleven, FaceTiming in public, is my #1. (Shaye Weaver for Time Out)
• Atoboy and Dominique Ansel Workshop are working to create a one-weekend-only Korean egg sandwich with steamed egg, kimchi taleggio, mozzarella, glazed ham, and a hash brown with spicy gochujang mayo, and pickled Korean radish on a perilla leaf brioche bun. It'll only be available the weekend of February 25 at Dominique Ansel Workshop. (Amber Sutherland-Namako for Time Out)
• Eighteen excellent Asian desserts. (John Tsung for Eater)
Featured Pet: Bunny!
Thank you to reader Sophia for sending in this photo of Bunny taking a bit of a nap. Everyone shhh, we don’t want to wake Bunny!
