The BroadsheetDAILY ~ 1/28/21 ~ City Council Member Margaret Chin Endorses Onetime Presidential Aspirant Andrew Yang Who Favors Universal Income

Quit Your New Year’s Resolutions Early

And Indulge In Restaurant Week

No judgment for those of you who will want to drop those new year’s resolutions (or whatever other health kicks you’ve got going on) after reading this PSA:

NYC Restaurant Week launched this week, as hundreds of hot spots citywide have been lining up special delivery deals through January 31.

Promotions include lunch or dinner with a side for $20.21, two-course brunches and lunches ($26) and three-course dinners ($42), mostly Monday through Friday. (Some participating restaurants are honoring those prices on weekends.)

Dozens of restaurants south of Chambers Street plan to take part in NYC Restaurant Week, including Brooklyn Chop House, The Fulton, Crown Shy, Stone Street Tavern, The Dead Rabbit and more.

The Restaurant Week website lists several more tempting options to treat yourself — even if it means playing it a little fast and loose with your commitments to fitness. (We won’t tell.)

(sponsored content)

Chin Joins the Yang Gang

City Council Member Endorses Onetime Presidential Aspirant Who Favors Universal Income

Outgoing City Council member Margaret Chin (who is barred from running for reelection under term-limit laws) has endorsed Andrew Yang in his quest to be elected New York’s next mayor.

Mr. Yang rose from obscurity during the 2020 presidential campaign, during which he was a contender for the Democratic Party nomination. Polling strongly enough to qualify for seven Democratic debates, Mr. Yang showcased his signature proposal of a “universal basic income,” which would provide $1,000 per month to every adult American. Arguing for the idea, he said, “the poverty line is currently $11,770. We would essentially be bringing all Americans to the poverty line and alleviate gross poverty.”

He also focused on issues largely overlooked by other candidates, such as job losses stemming from automation, data privacy, the rise in diagnoses of autism, and disturbing macro-trends, such as “deaths of despair,” about which he said, “deaths now outnumber births among white people in more than half the states in the country. Much of this is low birth rates and white men dying from substance abuse and suicide. Our life expectancy has declined for three years. We need to do much more.” To remedy these ills, Mr. Yang proposed, “an evolution to the next stage of capitalism, Human Capitalism.”

The son of immigrants from Taiwan, Mr. Yang grew up in the suburbs north of New York City, before attending Brown University and earning a law degree from Columbia University. He later founded Venture for America, an organization that recruits and trains college graduates for work at start-ups in struggling U.S. cities, with the aim of generating jobs, rejuvenating local economies and incubating future entrepreneurs.

Mr. Yang announced his mayoral bid on January 13, entering the field with greater name recognition than most of the other 11 candidates who have formally launched campaigns. For the race to preside over City Hall, he has modified his universal basic income proposal to call for $2,000 annual payments to about half a million of the poorest New Yorkers.

He recently attracted local attention by proposing the construction of a casino on Governors Island, both as a tourist draw and a revenue booster for the City’s coffers. In addition to the likelihood of inspiring robust local opposition, this idea would run afoul of deed restrictions that regulate possible uses of Governors Island.

In her endorsement, Ms. Chin said, “Andrew Yang rose to the national spotlight not because he has name recognition, but because he has good ideas. He is a fresh voice in the mayoral race who can separate the politics from what will truly benefit New Yorkers as we work to recover from the pandemic, and he has the proven leadership skills to push past the bureaucracy of our City’s government and make real change. We need a leader who will be a true advocate for our marginalized communities, and I am confident that Andrew will be a Mayor for all neighborhoods, and all New Yorkers.”

Matthew Fenton

Hoping to Make Whirlybirds an Endangered Species

Nadler Sponsors Legislation to Make Lower Manhattan Heliopolis No More

U.S. Congressman Jerry Nadler, who represents Lower Manhattan in Washington, has introduced legislation that would impose stricter regulations on helicopter tour flights. Such flights have long been a source of quality-of-life concerns among Lower Manhattan residents, who have complained for years about the incessant buzz of engines passing directly outside their windows as often as three minutes apart.

Atlantic City on the East River?

Mayoral Hopeful Proposes Casino Development on Governors Island

Former Democratic presidential aspirant and current City mayoral contender Andrew Yang says he has found a way to help lift New York’s economy out of the pandemic-triggered recession, as well as to help fund his universal basic income plan, which would offer $2,000 annual payments to about half a million poor New Yorkers: He wants to develop a casino on Governors Island.

In a story first reported by Politico, Mr. Yang on January 14 told interviewers on the Breakfast Club morning radio program, “one way I think we can generate money, and also make New York City more fun [is that] New York City should have its own casino on Governors Island.”

Letter

To the editor:

 I just read the article by Matthew Fenton on Andrew Yang’s proposal for a casino on Governor’s Island. (BroadsheetDAILY January 26)

I am so angry at Mr. Yang right now that I don’t even have words to describe it. A “casino” on that historic and beautiful island?? It will be ruined instantaneously. Let it be used for what it is now—like a Central Park for downtown.

Where you can truly relax and enjoy the beautiful views it offers that so many of us don’t have unless we commute to it. The Harbor View School is there along with so many other wonderful offerings at this time. I understand that the city needs money but there are other ways to get it. I’m comforted to hear that the Trust already put in place that casinos cannot be built there. Tell Yang he’s an idiot.

Lia Dudine

Moveable Feasts

Annual Food Fest Puts Lavish Local Meals within Reach of Thrifty Epicures

New York’s annual food celebration, Restaurant Week, has been reimagined for the era of COVID-19. What’s new is that all meals will be for takeout or delivery. What remains the same is the deep discounts on fine food.

Starting today (Monday) and though next Sunday (January 31), those disinclined to venture above Canal Street can order from 35 participating restaurants located in Lower Manhattan for the bargain price of $20.21 (including a prix-fixe entrée and at least one side). To read more…

Plus, diners who pay with a registered Mastercard will get a $10 statement credit per meal, with a ten-meal ($100) redemption limit per customer. (To register, or find more information, please browse https://www.mcallinnyc.com)

At many of these eateries, the everyday prices are significantly higher than Restaurant Week offerings, which makes this value proposition a compelling opportunity to try places that might ordinarily be outside your budget.

You can order directly from each restaurant (via phone or their websites), or by using their preferred delivery app. Participating restaurants in Lower Manhattan include:

Today’s Calendar

Thursday

January 28

1PM

Is the Covid-19 Vaccine a Good Idea for Me?

Free lecture cosponsored by Pace University and New York Presbyterian presented via Zoom by Dr. David Scale. RSVP at Chl9090@nyp.org or call (212) 312-5165.

7PM

Experience the annual music series, New Sounds Live, virtually! Curated by WNYC’s John Schaefer, this concert was recorded in the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place and features performances by innovative guitarists, Kaki King and Yasmin Williams.

Eyes to the Sky January 25 – February 7, 2020

Sirius, The Big Dog and Thor’s Helmet

Sparkling, blue-white Sirius the Dog Star, the brightest star in the night sky, rises in the east-southeast 20 minutes after sunset this evening and will rise simultaneously with sunset by month’s end.

As twilight deepens, Sirius – from the ancient Greek Seirios for “scorcher” or “glowing” – appears above the skyline leading one of winter’s most alluring constellations, Canus Major, or The Big Dog, into the sky.

January’s Full Wolf (or Hunger) Moon rises at 4:55pm on Thursday the 28th as the Sun sets on the opposite horizon at 5:02pm. Twilight gathers half an hour later.

Judy Isacoff

Thor’s Helmet, NGC2359 Emissions nebula.

Astrophotography by Mario Motta, MD. All Rights Reserved

Doyenne of the Estuary Departs

HRPT President Who Oversaw Build-Out of Waterfront Park to Step Down

Madelyn Wils, president and chief executive officer of the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) for the past decade, will step down February 5. In a January 19 letter to the Trust’s board of directors, she noted, “we are well on our way towards accomplishing our shared goals of completing the Park’s construction while ensuring it is also on solid financial footing.” She also cited a broad range of achievements in the ongoing build-out of the Park, including the September opening of Pier 26, in Tribeca, the beginning of reconstruction of Pier 40 (near Houston Street), progress on the development of Little Island and a plan for the Gansevoort Peninsula (both near West 14th Street).

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

TODAY IN HISTORY

January 28

Elvis and his mother

814 – The death of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, brings about the accession of his son Louis the Pious as ruler of the Frankish Empire.

1547 – Edward VI, the nine-year-old son of Henry VIII, becomes King of England on his father’s death.

1724 – The Russian Academy of Sciences is founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, and implemented by Senate decree. It is called the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.

1754 – Sir Horace Walpole coins the word serendipity in a letter to a friend.

1813 – Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is published in the United Kingdom.

1855 – A locomotive on the Panama Canal Railway runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).

1902 – The Carnegie Institution of Washington is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.

1938 – The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195 at a speed of 432.7 kilometres per hour (268.9 mph).

1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first national television appearance.

1977 – The first day of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 which dumps 10 feet (3.0 m) of snow in one day in Upstate New York, with Buffalo, Syracuse, Watertown, and surrounding areas are most affected.

1986 – Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Births

1706 – John Baskerville, English printer and typographer (d. 1775)

1841 – Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh-American explorer and journalist (d. 1904)

1887 – Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-American pianist and educator (d. 1982)

1900 – Alice Neel, American painter (d. 1984)

1929 – Claes Oldenburg, Swedish-American sculptor and illustrator

1940 – Carlos Slim, Mexican businessman and philanthropist, founded Grupo Carso

Deaths

1547 – Henry VIII, king of England (b. 1491)

1938 – Bernd Rosemeyer, German race car driver (b. 1909)

1939 – W. B. Yeats, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)

1976 – Marcel Broodthaers, Belgian painter and poet (b. 1924)

1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger crew

Gregory Jarvis, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1944)

Christa McAuliffe, American educator and astronaut (b. 1948)

Ronald McNair, American physicist and astronaut (b. 1950)

Ellison Onizuka, American engineer and astronaut (b. 1946)

Judith Resnik, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1949)

Dick Scobee, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1939)

Michael J. Smith, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1945)

1988 – Klaus Fuchs, German physicist and politician (b. 1911)

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