Soon at Bars, It's Adios to 'Cuomoritos' |
Weather: Partly sunny, with a high in the mid-80s. Scattered thunderstorms this evening. |
Alternate-side parking: In effect today. Suspended for Orthodox Holy Thursday and Holy Friday. |
 | | John Minchillo/Associated Press |
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Bags of chips. Floppy quesadillas. A single pickle in a plastic bag. |
In New York, going out for drinks has been weird. |
Last summer, in attempt to curb overcrowding during the pandemic, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo required bars and restaurants to serve food with alcoholic drinks. New Yorkers have been ordering margaritas with a side of microwaved nachos ever since. |
But soon, the infamous "Cuomo snacks" could be a thing of the past, with lawmakers expected to put a pause on the requirement. |
Here's what you need to know: |
Today, leaders of the New York State Legislature plan to move to suspend the food directive. The repeal of the rule must pass both chambers in order to go into effect, which could happen this week. |
Last July, the governor cracked down on bars with rules meant to enforce social distancing at a time when videos and photos of large groups were shared on social media. Customers had to be seated, not standing, while sipping a drink, and alcohol had to be served with food. |
The decision to scrap the food rule comes as the governor has been rolling back coronavirus restrictions in recent weeks. |
Mr. Cuomo expanded indoor dining capacity for New York City restaurants to 50 percent from 35 percent and extended the curfew for bars and restaurants to midnight from 11 p.m. |
Bar owners, patrons and Republican lawmakers have long criticized the food rule as arbitrary and questioned if it did much to prevent the spread of the virus. |
The restaurant industry welcomed the news, though restrictions on seating and midnight closing times should be repealed as well, said Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, an industry group. |
"The public health justification for the food rule was always questionable, so this is good news because it is past time to repeal it," Mr. Rigie said. |
On Twitter, New Yorkers bid their strange bar snacks adieu. "Rest in peace to the Cuomoritos (a $1 bag of Doritos) the place near us has been selling," one user wrote. |
More than 95 percent of New York City residents follow up on their second vaccine dose. [Gothamist] |
Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and mayoral candidate, wants to revive the Police Department's plainclothes anti-crime unit. [The City] |
Even after a sharp drop, New York leads the nation in the number of anti-Semitic incidents, the Anti-Defamation League said. [NBC] |
And finally: Tulips, the city and you |
The Times's Ezra Marcus writes: |
"Stunned today by the masses of beautiful tulips blooming all over the Upper East Side, and glad we can appreciate them as flowers rather than the bitcoin of 1636," the filmmaker Whit Stillman wrote in a message on Twitter after posting a photo of a bright yellow tulip bed on Park Avenue. |
Indeed, many people have noted and documented the flowers sprouting from medians, sidewalk planters, parks and gardens around the city. |
"I think they absolutely look more stunning than I have recalled in years," Olivia Rose, the owner of a plant design studio, wrote in an email about the tulips she has observed on First Avenue near the United Nations building. "Taking tulip strolls has been a daily activity. I think the street beds in the last five years have gotten a lot better in general." |
Have the tulips changed, or have we? |
"I can't tell if they're more beautiful than last year or if I'm so traumatized and downtrodden by the year's events I'm just happier to see them," Dasha Nekrasova, an actress and a host of the podcast "Red Scare," wrote in a message on Instagram. "They definitely seemed abundant and caused me to reflect with gratitude on the attention and care with which someone planted them." |
Puja Patel, the editor in chief of the music website Pitchfork, said that on her walks around the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill neighborhoods of Brooklyn, the tulip beds have been impossible to ignore. "To me, they seemed bigger than usual," she said. "And there was a stronger variety of colors, almost like they were velvety in texture — honestly, the most radiant version of the tulips that I have seen in Brooklyn in my 10 years of living here." |
So yes: After a year of languishing, New York is flourishing. More so than usual? |
"Everybody's looking at this spring with a different set of eyes, right?" said Dimitri Gatanas, the owner of Urban Garden Center in Manhattan. "If you left a prison or a cave after six months, you know, even a butterfly will look like a work of art." |
It's Wednesday — take a stroll. |
Metropolitan Diary: Scattered coins |
I was a music student living on the Upper West Side, and I was rushing to catch the subway for an orchestra rehearsal downtown. |
I made it onto the platform just as the train doors began to close. I reached out, wallet in hand, and stopped them from closing completely. I assumed they would spring back open, but they didn't. |
As the train began to move, I realized my hand was more important than my wallet and pulled back. The wallet fell to the floor inside the train. I could see the coin purse pop open, scattering coins all over. Dejected, I made a mental list of everything I now needed to replace. |
That night at home, a young woman called. Had I lost a wallet in a subway train that afternoon? Yes, I said. |
We agreed on a place to meet, and when we did, the wallet was intact: money, cards and all — including coins. The people on the train had collected nearly all of them, the woman said. |
New York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. You can also find it at nytoday.com. |
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