Coronavirus in N.Y.C.: Latest Updates |
Weather: Patchy fog and possible thunderstorms, with a high around 80. It starts to clear up Saturday afternoon, and Sunday should be sunny but cooler. |
Alternate-side parking: Suspended through June 7. |
 | | Brittainy Newman/The New York Times |
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The City Council is pushing to expand outdoor dining. |
With the weather getting warmer and New Yorkers getting antsier, the New York City Council wants to force Mayor Bill de Blasio’s hand on outdoor dining. |
The Council, backed by the restaurant industry, introduced legislation Thursday requiring the mayor to find a way to open streets, sidewalks and public plazas to outdoor dining. |
Corey Johnson, the Council speaker, and Councilman Antonio Reynoso of Brooklyn are spearheading the effort. “The restaurant and the food industry has been struggling just as much as any other businesses in our city,” Mr. Reynoso said at the Council’s hearing on Thursday, adding that the process would be “something that can be done very quickly and in a timely fashion.” |
Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, a business group, said the idea was to require the mayor to establish a framework to identify appropriate places for restaurants to sell food and beverages outside and create a mechanism by which businesses and community boards could submit suggestions. |
The bill would also require the city to set health and safety requirements for such operations. |
“Our hope is there may be areas where entire streets could be shut down for restaurant service,” Mr. Rigie said. “Other places you may be able to extend the sidewalk, while keeping a lane of cars and bike lanes. Other places, you may be able to use pedestrian plazas.” |
Businesses can bar people without masks, Cuomo says. |
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday that he would issue an executive order authorizing any business in New York State to deny entry to people who were not wearing face coverings. |
“We’re giving the store owners the right to say, if you’re not wearing a mask, you can’t come in,” Mr. Cuomo said. “That store owner has a right to protect themselves. That store owner has a right to protect the other patrons in that store.” |
Mr. Cuomo is not the first local leader to enact such a measure. In New York City, for instance, Mr. de Blasio announced a mask requirement on April 30. |
Mr. Cuomo also delivered the state’s daily fatality report: 74 more people died of the coronavirus. |
The governor delivered his briefing at a Boys and Girls Club in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and was joined by the comedian Chris Rock and the actress Rosie Perez, both of whom grew up in the borough. They amplified the governor’s message on the importance of face coverings. |
Mr. Rock said he had seen many young people in Brooklyn with faces uncovered. |
“It’s sad that our health has become sort of a political issue,” Mr. Rock said. “It’s a status symbol, almost, to not wear a mask.” |
The State Legislature passed a rent relief bill. |
After weeks of outcry from distressed New Yorkers demanding that housing payments be halted during the pandemic, the State Legislature passed a bill on Thursday to provide emergency rent relief to tenants. |
The legislation would provide up to $100 million in rental assistance vouchers to landlords on behalf of tenants who are struggling to pay rent after losing their jobs during the health crisis. The funds would cover rent due from April 1 to July 31. |
As of late Thursday, the bill had yet to be formally delivered to Mr. Cuomo, but it would take effect immediately if and when he were to sign it. |
The program would be funded with New York’s share of the $2 trillion CARES Act, the federal relief package passed several weeks ago. |
The City Council voted to replace mentions of “alien” in city documents, regulations and laws with “noncitizen.” [New York Post] |
Dozens of people were arrested in Union Square at a protest over George Floyd’s death. [NBC 4 New York] |
What we’re watching: On “The New York Times Close Up With Sam Roberts,” Christina Goldbaum, a reporter who covers the subway for The Times, discusses how the pandemic has affected the system. Also, the reporter Brian Rosenthal talks about the actions taken after his New York taxi medallion investigation. The show airs Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. [CUNY TV] |
And finally: A virtual social weekend |
The Times’s Melissa Guerrero writes: |
Although most performance spaces, museums and community centers are closed, people are finding creative ways to connect through virtual events and programs. Here are suggestions for maintaining a New York social life this weekend while keeping a safe distance from other people. |
Renegade Craft Virtual Fair |
From 6 to 8 p.m. Friday and 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, visit the Renegade Craft Virtual Fair, a marketplace of makers and designers. Each vendor will host a portal that “transports you into their universe,” and attendees will be able to interact with some of the artists through a livestream. |
Bring the Cool, a Virtual Family Festival |
On Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m., gather family members for this festival put on by the Brooklyn Museum and Cool Culture, an organization that provides historically marginalized families free access to a network of cultural institutions. The virtual event will include animal-inspired yoga, a dance party and interactive storytelling. |
Book talk: Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Parable of the Talents’ |
The Free Black Women’s Library, a pop-up library that features books by black women, will host a conversation with the professors Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey, founders of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network. At noon on Sunday, they will discuss the book and Ms. Butler’s legacy, and why those feel relevant in this moment. |
Register and access the Zoom link on the event page. |
It’s Friday — make the most of it. |
Metropolitan Diary: The after-party |
It was the wrap party for a not-so-successful television show I had just spent 60-plus-hour weeks working on for the better part of a year. |
The party was at our sound stage in Queens with about 200 crew members who now had to look for new jobs. The open bar was utilized liberally. |
Somewhere between the buffet dinner and the sloppy dance party, two costume assistants I hadn’t interacted with much approached a group of us. I knew their names, but I wasn’t quite sure which one was which. |
“You guys should come to our after-party!” one of them, either Nadia or Nathalie, said. |
“Meet me outside Bergdorf Goodman at midnight,” the other one instructed enigmatically before dissolving into the dance-floor crowd. |
It sounded less like a party invitation than the kind of code used by criminals to pass messages about clandestine meetings to incarcerated mob bosses. |
Honestly, either option sounded pretty thrilling, and it didn’t much matter to me which one I was in for. |
After all, I had nowhere I needed to be for the foreseeable future. |
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