A plea to reduce Rikers Island's female population

Plus: Ballerinas set a Guinness record at the Plaza [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.]( [NYC councilmembers urge Mayor Adams to reduce Rikers Island's female population]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: ☔ Rain off and on, with highs in the lower 50s. It's Thursday in New York City, where Mayor Eric Adams currently plans to triple the number of beds for female detainees in city jails. But after a Gothamist analysis of more than 700 lawsuits from women claiming they were sexually assaulted on Rikers Island, [female City Council members are urging the mayor to reverse course](. Here's what else is happening: - A 62-year-old man was arrested this week after he allegedly [struck and killed a 10-year-old girl]( with his SUV in Williamsburg. - Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed that a cyberattack early Wednesday forced her and state lawmakers to [revert to a three-decades-old backup system to draw up state budget bills]( which could delay the already-late budget process. - About [30,000 children were staying in New York City’s homeless shelters]( last year, marking the highest youth shelter population in nearly a decade, according to the city comptroller's office. - A federal appeals court has [upheld a decision]( blocking the county line system from being used on ballots in New Jersey’s Democratic primary election this year. - Timothy Pearson, a former NYPD inspector and current aide to Mayor Adams, was sued yesterday for the second time this month — this time by a retired police sergeant who [accused Pearson of retaliation and harassment](. - Several MTA bus drivers who [couldn't do their normal duties while pregnant]( plan to sue the transit agency for not giving them alternate assignments, forcing them to burn through sick days and comp time. - Salvatore Rubino, a.k.a. "Sal the Shoemaker," pleaded guilty this week to [operating an illegal gambling parlor for the mafia]( out of his Sheepshead Bay shoe repair shop. - City Hall's Digital Content & Communications department asked staffers across several agencies to write poems about their jobs for Poem in Your Pocket Day, which is today, April 18. [The request was not well received](. - NPR business editor Uri Berliner, who was suspended without pay for writing an essay criticizing the network for alleged liberal bias, [has now resigned](. - The producers of the hit Broadway musical "SIX" are now making a musical about the man who [attached 42 helium balloons to his lawn chair]( and cruised above Los Angeles in 1982. - Ashanti and Nelly are [engaged and expecting](. - Fat Joe is selling [beard dye](. - They [keep making]( ugly shoes. - Have some time for a game? [Play]( our mini local news crossword. - Sign up for reminders when we publish new games [here](. [“We have to go back to the more antiquated system we had in place from 1994.”]( - Gov. Kathy Hochul on carrying out budget negotiations [AFTER THE CYBERATTACK]( More from Gothamist [second image]( [Ballerinas flood NYC's Plaza Hotel to stomp a Guinness World Record on their tiptoes]( Exactly 353 ballerinas set a new world record on Wednesday at the Plaza Hotel for the most ballet dancers en pointe, or standing on their tiptoes, simultaneously. [Lincoln Center announces free shows and concerts for 3rd annual 'Summer for the City']( The festival kicks off June 12 with “Soundcake,” a drag opera starring Monét X Change and Sapphira Cristál from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” [We Rely On Your Support]( [Announcements, maps and signs: Manhattan BP presses MTA to improve restroom accessibility]( "[The bathrooms] all got some renovation work done before they reopened, so they’re in better shape than people might remember, and they're a great resource,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “Now we just need the public to know about them.” [Bad Religion to kick off Summer Concert Series at Rooftop at Pier 17]( The genre-spanning series brings more than 60 concerts to the Pier 17 roof from May through October. [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [New York Public Radio] [WNYC]( | [WQXR]( | [NJPR]( | [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( | [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 [TERMS OF USE]( You can update your [PREFERENCES]( or [UNSUBSCRIBE]( from this list.