In Prospect Park, picnics and chats about mental health

Plus: MTA gives final approval for congestion pricing [View this email in a browser.]( Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( [In Prospect Park, picnics, dog-watching ... and chats about mental health]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: ☔ [Rainy]( with highs in the lower 50s. It's Thursday in New York City, where a few city-contracted health workers are wandering around Prospect Park, asking strangers how they're doing. Here's why the city hopes this pilot program, unlike past initiatives, will successfully [connect New Yorkers will mental health resources](. Here's what else is happening: - Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are joining President Joe Biden for a fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall tonight, while former President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend a wake on Long Island today for NYPD officer Jonathan Diller — [so expect bad traffic all over](. - The MTA board on Wednesday gave its final approval of congestion pricing, paving the way for the agency to [charge drivers a $15 daytime toll]( to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street. - Police [shot and killed a 19-year-old]( in his family’s Queens home yesterday after he called 911 while in a "mental crisis," according to NYPD officials. - Six students at a Queens charter school were [slashed yesterday when a fight broke out in the cafeteria]( police said. - The NYPD has announced charges against Lindy Jones, 41, the alleged driver of the parked car police were investigating in Far Rockaway [when P.O. Jonathan Diller was shot and killed]( on Monday night. - A private company managing a Brooklyn public housing complex was quietly fired late last year after the developer who hired the firm said it [struggled to complete work on time]( and failed to get a handle on "ballooning" costs. - With Tammy Murphy out of New Jersey's U.S. Senate race, front-runner Andy Kim is now slated to get [preferential treatment on primary ballots]( for nearly 70% of New Jersey’s registered Democrats. - The New York City Campaign Finance Board has named a new leader amid [an ongoing investigation into Mayor Eric Adams' fundraising operation](. - [Police had to shut down]( a Versace sample sale yesterday after thousands of people converged on the sale's Chelsea location. - Who should get priority on New York City sidewalks? [Vote in our definitive poll on the sidewalk hierarchy]( — and [share your thoughts on pedestrian etiquette]( for an upcoming Gothamist story. - A new bill in Albany would [ban the sale]( of sticky glue traps for rodents on the grounds that they're cruel and can accidentally harm other innocent critters. - Shortly after Mayor Adams took office, the city backed out of contract negotiations with a renewable diesel vendor and instead chose to do business with Approved Oil of Brooklyn, a company that made [three donations to the mayor's campaign](. - When asked this week why top mayoral aide Timothy Pearson [isn't facing apparent consequences]( after allegedly fighting security guards at a migrant shelter and being accused of sexually harassing a former suboordinate, Mayor Adams explained that "as a person who was in the [World] Trade Center when the buildings collapsed and saved a great deal of people in guiding them out and protecting this city for the time he has, I think [Pearson] is due, due process." - The City Council is considering a bill to let food carts and other vendors [move two feet towards the middle of a sidewalk]( so the person operating the cart isn't centimeters away from moving traffic. - A New York City fitness trainer [set a pair of Guinness World Records]( for lunging. - Next month's total eclipse is going to hit [in the middle of a day game at Yankee Stadium](. - The Judd Foundation is suing Kim Kardashian for claiming to have Donald Judd-designed tables in her company's office when, in fact, [they're knock-offs](. - Donald Trump is [selling $60 Bibles]( with Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" lyrics printed in there as a bonus. - [Push button]( allow Dutch fish to enter mating waters. - Have some time for a game? [Play]( our mini local news crossword. - Sign up for reminders when we publish new games [here](. [“I’m keeping my champagne on ice until the lawsuits are resolved (which stopped a version in 1980) and no acts of Congress passed to block it (which stopped tolls on East and Harlem river bridges in 1977) and the first car is charged.”]( - Traffic Guru Sam Schwartz on [THE MTA BOARD'S APPROVAL OF CONGESTION PRICING]( More from Gothamist [second image]( [In Manhattan, 400 years later, the Dutch unveil plans for marking NY's start]( On Wednesday, government officials from the Netherlands joined with city officials and others to acknowledge the 400th anniversary of Dutch settlement, which precipitated the dispossession of indigenous people from the island of Manhattan. [Late-night sex assaults. Invasive searches. The 700+ women alleging abuse at Rikers.]( More than 700 lawsuits based on accounts spanning from 1976 to as recently as last year describe a system where jail employees groped detainees, forcibly kissed them, ordered them to perform oral sex and engaged in violent rape. [We Rely On Your Support]( [NYPD officials say they will deploy 800 more officers into the subway to stop fare evasion]( Police said the strategy will help reduce crime in the subway because people who commit crimes often don’t pay their fare. [Gowanus Canal cleanup so behind schedule, 2nd dredging may be needed, watchdog says]( The $1.5 billion effort to rid the Gowanus Canal of toxic sludge is so behind schedule and over budget due to government mismanagement that the canal may have to be re-dredged, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's watchdog. 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