The "What That Smell Was On Sunday" Edition
Covid-19 mandates lifted, rent is at pre-pandemic levels, getting away with crime, uncovering LLC apartment purchases, restaurant picks in Greenpoint, a new spot at the former Les Halles, and more
The latest seven-day positivity rate: 1.33%
77.13% of city residents have received two shots, and 86.16% have received one or more shots. Source: NYC Department of Health.
Thank you to reader Zlata for this photo. From Zlata:
As a Ukrainian-American the unfolding events are breaking my heart and I’m terrified for the future of Ukraine and the world in general. I have a lot of friends in Kyiv, hiding in shelters or fighting in the army. There’s no amount of tears I could shed to weep for the humanity.
My husband and I been attending rallies in New York City (attached are a couple photos) and there’s also a great NYC based organization with a ton of resources for helping Ukraine if you care to look into it: https://instagram.com/razom.for.ukraine
Hoping and praying for peace. Slava Ukrayini! (Glory to Ukraine!)
• Mayor Eric Adams celebrated his lifting the city's mandates with a day out and about in the East Village. (Clio Chang for Curbed)
• You know who is celebrating the return of more workers to offices? The bartenders in Times Square. (Chris Crowley for Grub Street)
• All the mandates are lifting just in time for a new omicron subvariant to come to the forefront. BA.2 (omicron as we knew it was BA.1) spreads 30% faster than BA.1 and doubles in proportion every two weeks. Again, eyes are on the numbers as the BA.2 variant caused a surge in Denmark. There is hope with the news because there is a lot of cross-immunity with BA.1. The positivity rate at the top of the email is staying put, for now, so keep an eye on it. (Nsikan Akpan for Gothamist)
• Vaccines prevented over 48,000 deaths in New York City, according to a new analysis from Yale University. The mayor announced this in Times Square while holding up a printed-out piece of paper. (Aaron Ginsburg for 6sqft)
• The pandemic is over for the real estate industry as rent is above March 2020 levels. Neighborhoods like the Upper West Side, Chelsea, Prospect Heights, and Long Island City see the most significant increases year over year. (Alex Pena for RentHop)
• Your questions answered about getting back paid rent by the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. (Rachel Holliday Smith for The City)
"Empire State Development cannot approve the current Penn Station plan. We need housing, not commercial office space. If this plan is not stopped in its tracks, our city will not only lose out on tax revenue for local services, but we will miss the opportunity to build thousands of new affordable units and begin to reverse our affordable housing crisis. Pause the Penn plan."
- State Senator Jabari Brisport, Why the Penn Station plan should build housing, not office space, amNY Metro
• If you smelled shit on Sunday, it was because there was an enormous asshole spewing bullshit at a church in Brooklyn. Andrew Cuomo has decided it's time to emerge from wherever he was hiding and talk about "cancel culture" and "Democrat extremists," along with the extremely ironic topic of "political sharks." He continues to harp that DAs did not bring criminal charges after eleven different women accused him of sexual harassment. (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist)
• Another crime that you can seemingly get away with is a hate crime. Only 15% of hate crime arrests result in a conviction. Sometimes the charges are lowered, sometimes the people committing the crime are too young for the hate crimes penal code, and sometimes mental illness is at the root of the conduct. The numbers are from 2015 to 2020, and we'll see what more recent numbers will say, but it's not encouraging to see. (Yoav Gonen, Claudia Irizarry Aponte, and Suhail Bhat for The City)
• Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk resigned Wednesday from her post as Taxi and Limousine commissioner after a video leaked of her treating her staff like garbage and swearing at them over a Zoom call. (Matt Troutman for Patch)
• 15 Ukrainian places to support. (Untapped New York)
• New legislation proposed by State Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Emily Gallager will require any person seeking to purchase property through an LLC to submit their identity to the state and include it in their tax returns. This is aimed at Russian oligarchs who park their money in New York real estate and hide their identities behind LLCs. (Jake Offenhartz for Gothamist)
• Amazon Books in Columbus Circle is closing. Amazon is closing all their Amazon Books locations. I guess they couldn't compete with the online booksellers? (Mike Mishkin for I Love the Upper West Side)
• Real Estate Lust: A $7.5 million Upper East Side co-op, combined from two apartments, with 12 rooms, five beds, multiple wood-burning fireplaces, central air, a game room, and more. (Michelle Cohen for 6sqft)
• NYU's Washington Square News interview David Copperfield, who taught an NYU class on magic when he was 16. (Clara Scholl for Washington Square News)
• In case you thought the name Trump would disappear from the city's golf course in the Bronx, you're wrong. A year later, The Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point is still there, waiting for a judge's ruling on the city's attempt to cancel the contract. (Claudia Irizarry Aponte for The City with additional reporting by Katie Honan)
• Someone driving a BMW destroyed the "For Valor and Sacrifice" War Memorial in Park Slope in the center of the Prospect Park West traffic circle at 15th St. No one was arrested, but two people were hospitalized after the car burst into flames following the crash. The car was issued 145 tickets since January 2021, including two dozen parking tickets. Why wasn't this car impounded, which the law states should happen if a car has over $350 in tickets, way before this? What's the point of the city's rules if they can't enforce them? (Gersh Kuntzman for Streetsblog)
• La Brasserie opens today in the location of the former Les Halles. (Amber Sutherland-Namako for Time Out)
• Ten secrets of High Bridge, the oldest surviving bridge in NYC. (Jenna Bagcal for Untapped New York)
• The vintage shop What Goes Around Comes Around is reopening in its old location in SoHo, which has been there since 1993. It's one of those "if you know, you know" places, but to be honest, I don't know. (Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner for Time Out)
• Greenpointers takes a look at Sister Francis Kress, the nun in a hazmat suit, and how she changed Newtown Creek for the better. (Emma Davey for Greenpointers)
• 22 restaurants that make Greenpoint a dining destination, when the trains are running. (Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner for Eater)
Featured Pet: Actually Dumpling!
Okay, so I 100% forgot to include this photo of Dumpling on Sunday and heard a lot about it. I am sorry!
