N.Y. Today: On Track for the Next Reopening

What you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

N.Y.C. on Track to Enter Phase 3 of Reopening on July 6

By Amanda Rosa

It’s Friday.

Weather: Mostly sunny with a high in the upper 80s, turning partly cloudy tonight.

Alternate-side parking: Suspended through Sunday.

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Amr Alfiky/The New York Times

Just days after New York City entered the second phase of its reopening, the next phase is already around the corner.

The city is on track to enter the third part of the state’s four-phase reopening on July 6, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday. The phase allows for indoor dining and services like manicures and tattooing, as long as social distancing is practiced.

Here’s what else you need to know:

The details

New Yorkers will soon be able to eat inside the city’s restaurants instead of being limited to takeout or sitting outdoors. People can also book appointments for their next tattoo or a fresh set of acrylic nails. Outdoor recreational spaces, including basketball courts, tennis courts and dog runs, will also reopen. The city’s public beaches will open for swimming this coming Wednesday.

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At a news briefing, Mr. de Blasio said the changes would be a big relief for children, who have mostly been cooped up indoors and away from their friends.

The context

New York City was an epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak and the last region in the state to enter Phase 1. When it began Phase 2 on Monday, barbershops, hair salons, offices and playgrounds reopened.

So far, New York has kept new infections down as it slowly reopens. On Thursday, for the first time since March 18, fewer than 1,000 people in the state were hospitalized with the virus, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at a news briefing.

Mr. de Blasio said the timing of Phase 3 could change if cases were to surge again.

“Am I 100 percent confident?” the mayor said. “Of course not.”

The news came a day after Mr. Cuomo announced, jointly with the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut, that anyone traveling into New York from certain states with rising infection rates would have to be quarantined for 14 days.

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The precedent

New York City’s suburbs entered Phase 3 this week. Five upstate regions are entering Phase 4 today, allowing for gatherings of up to 50 people.

Other states have seen spikes in virus cases after more fully reopening. As of Thursday, new infections were increasing in 29 states, including California, Florida and Texas.

Texas paused its economic opening on Thursday. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis also said that he did not intend to move to the next phase of reopening, and he has urged people to avoid closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowds and close contact with others.

The reaction

Mr. de Blasio stressed that the third phase would be good news for the city’s young people, as well as for struggling businesses.

“There’s been a lot of discipline, a lot of strength, because people want to keep moving forward,” he said. “So, let’s stick to it so we can get to Phase 3, make it work and then keep going from there.”

Not all New Yorkers welcomed the news, turning to social media to express skepticism. “The concept of NYC going into Phase 3 in two weeks is so bad I had to make a TikTok about it,” Charlotte Dow, a writer, tweeted.

From The Times

The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.

What we’re reading

Two city councilmen have formed a “CBGB Caucus” to help support independent music venues during the pandemic. [Brooklyn Vegan]

Transit officials are renaming two subway stations in Brooklyn after Medgar Evers College. [Gothamist]

What we’re watching: “The New York Times Close Up With Sam Roberts” includes a segment on The Times’s At Home section, which helps give New Yorkers and others ideas on what to do and how to entertain themselves during the coronavirus pandemic. The show airs on 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.

Pride City Sounds: New York City with Papi Juice

At 7 p.m. on Friday, celebrate Pride with live D.J. sets from Papi Juice, an art collective celebrating queer and trans people of color, and Rimarkable as part of HBO’s weekend-long Human by Orientation event.

R.S.V.P. on the event page.

Black & Asian-American Feminist Solidarities Workshop

Join the Asian-American Feminist Collective for a workshop on Saturday at 1 p.m. Participants will gain tools and strategies to build solidarities through poetry, literature from “The Bridge Called My Back,” essays by Audre Lorde and bell hooks, and other writings.

Visit the event page to R.S.V.P.

Jewish Deli Culture with Phil Rosenthal and Lara Rabinovitch

On Sunday at 8 p.m. the writer Lara Rabinovitch will be in conversation with the television personality Phil Rosenthal about the North American Jewish deli, its immigrant history and its cultural impact in American food culture.

Register here for access to the livestream.

It’s Friday — enjoy the weekend.

Metropolitan Diary: Christmas help

Dear Diary:

It was fall 1966. I had just moved to New York from Oklahoma. My first job was as Christmas sales help in the men’s department at Bloomingdale’s. I was stationed near the Third Avenue entrance by a section of the store called Peterborough Row.

On one of my first days there, a woman rushed in the door trailing two very small, frisky children, a boy, a girl. They began to play with a mannequin, and I reached for the security phone.

My adviser, a man who was known as Fat Freddy, said I shouldn’t bother: It was Phyllis Newman and her children.

By then, the boy and girl had pulled an arm off the mannequin. Ms. Newman picked it up, looked around and banged it on the counter.

“I believe this is yours,” she said.

And with that, the three of them sped off.

— Robert Eaton

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