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It’s Monday.
Weather: Partly sunny, with a high around 90. Scattered storms beginning this evening.
Alternate-side parking: In effect until July 4 (Independence Day).
The last day of early voting saw the top Democratic mayoral candidates fanning out across the city to make their final pitch to voters before Primary Day on Tuesday.
[A swirl of activity was marked by creative politicking and deepening acrimony between Eric Adams and the rest of the field.]
Here are a few scenes from Sunday:
Garcia and Yang go for a walk in Chinatown
Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, and Andrew Yang, a former presidential candidate, appeared together in Chinatown ahead of a get-out-the-vote rally focused on attacks against people of Asian descent. It was the second display of unity between the rivals this weekend.
Mr. Yang has encouraged his supporters to mark Ms. Garcia as their second choice on the ranked-choice ballots. But despite the apparent solidarity, Ms. Garcia has not returned the favor, saying she will not tell her supporters how to rank their ballots.
Adams talks street violence
Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and presumed front-runner, denounced gun violence by returning to a Bronx street where a masked man had nearly shot two young children while attacking another man. “We need to get him,” Mr. Adams said of the gunman, his voice rising in anger. “He needs to be off our streets.”
Stringer and family canvass the Lower East Side
Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, and his wife and two sons canvassed the Lower East Side of Manhattan, stopping to talk to voters, many of whom greeted the candidate warmly. At one point, a neighborhood resident asked Mr. Stringer for a photo.
“That’ll cost you a first-place vote,” Mr. Stringer joked.
Maya Wiley goes to church and then hula-hoops
Maya Wiley, a former MSNBC analyst and counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, spent Sunday morning at two Black churches in Harlem and Brooklyn. Later in the day, she was seen hula-hooping at the Tompkins Avenue Merchants Association Festival.
More on the mayor’s race:
Why We May Not Know Who Won the Mayoral Primary for Weeks
Who Do the Billionaires Want for Mayor? Follow Their Money.
From The Times
New York Faces Lasting Economic Toll Even as Pandemic Passes
New York City Lost 900,000 Jobs. Here’s How Many Have Come Back.
‘It Hurts’: Season Is Over Before Nets See How Good Big Three Can Be
Want more news? Check out our full coverage.
The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.
What we’re reading
Eight candidates running to be the next city comptroller took part in a televised debate Sunday morning. [Gothamist]
New York City’s building sector remains 25,000 jobs below its prepandemic peak — a warning sign for the construction industry. [The City]
Service cuts on the B, D, N, Q and R lines are likely to continue through November 2022. [Daily News]
And finally: New York reopens, but normalcy is elusive
The Times’s Troy Closson writes:
The lives of New Yorkers were marked by solitude and alarm during the worst months of the pandemic: Tens of thousands died, thousands of businesses closed and the city’s regular tempo screeched to a halt. But as vaccination rates have climbed, the city’s long hibernation has begun to end.
When some capacity restrictions and mask mandates fell away, neighbors, for the first time in months, greeted one other with bright smiles, no longer struggling to recognize the person behind the mask. Family members and friends reunited with long-sought embraces. Still, some parts of pandemic life — temperature checks and socially distanced lunch tables — remained.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s order last week to lift almost all virus restrictions on businesses and social gatherings represented one of the final steps in the city’s reopening. The governor said the new guidance represented a “return to life as we know it.”
But for some, the news was only a symbolic triumph, as the most stringent restrictions had been removed weeks ago. And the decision over whether to do away with precautions lies with individuals and business owners, many of whom said the governor’s announcement would not spur immediate change.
“We’re not back to normal,” said Sedonia Croom, a longtime worker at Croom Boutique Salon & Spa, a family-run business in the Crotona area of the Bronx. The shop, she said, has no immediate plans to throw out its face-covering or capacity guidelines.
“You still got to protect yourself and your clients,” Ms. Croom said. “You have no other choice.”
It’s Monday — start anew.
Metropolitan Diary: Playing hooky
Dear Diary:
As a teenager, I lived along the Hudson River near the Croton-Harmon train station. During my senior year in the high school, I would cut class, take the train to New York City and use my babysitting money to go to museums.
I knew when all the free and discount days for students were, and I would bring a book of my father’s that listed cheap and interesting restaurants where I could go for lunch. I would get back to school in time to take the bus home (or at least to make it look like I had).
One time, I was headed home on the train and I spotted my father. (I found out later that he had left work early because he was sick.)
I moved up a couple of cars and hid in the bathroom the rest of the way.
I never told my parents.
— Cheryl Mayrsohn
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
