Parts of Rockaway Beach will remain closed this summer

Plus: A call for more trees [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.]( [Parts of Rockaway Beach will remain closed during ongoing Army Corps project]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: ☀️ Sunny, highs in the upper 80s. It's Friday in New York City, where the beaches are officially opening this Memorial Day weekend — except for a roughly 15-block stretch of the Rockaways. While the Army Corps of Engineers is building 19 new stone groin structures along the shoreline to stabilize and replenish the beach, the Parks Department told WNYC [the construction won't affect “the busiest parts of our beaches.”]( Here's what else is happening: - Leaving New York City by car this weekend? Here are [the worst and slightly-less-worse times]( to do it, based on an analysis of MTA toll data from last year. - A magnitude 2.9 earthquake [hit New Jersey just before 4 a.m. this morning](. Officials didn’t have any immediate reports of damage. - With the threat of summer heat drawing nearer, two New York City officials are urging Mayor Eric Adams to [find more funding]( to increase the city’s number of shade-providing trees. - The city is considering [buying homes from residents]( of a small flood-prone section of Flushing. - A little more than a year after the deadly collapse of a parking garage in Lower Manhattan, the City Council yesterday passed legislation aimed at [improving the safety and maintenance of local parking structures](. - City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has introduced a bill to give the Council approval over the mayor’s appointment of 21 key commissioners — a move that could [dramatically alter the balance of power at City Hall](. - Following a rise in antisemitic incidents and hate speech in New York City schools, the Museum of Jewish Heritage will host [free tours for eighth graders](. - Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Dan Goldman are both facing challengers in the June 25 primary. [Here's who's trying to unseat them](. - A new state law taking effect in July aims to protect New York-based judges and their close families from harm and harassment by allowing them to effectively [wipe their personally identifying information from the internet](. - The change comes after NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell earlier this year [tweeted criticism of the wrong judge]( for releasing a suspect without bail. - An organization dedicated to throwing birthday parties for children living in homeless shelters [held its first celebration in New York City this week]( since the pandemic halted its operation four years ago. - Nearly 10,000 New York City apartments lost their rent-regulated status last year, marking [the biggest decline in eight years](. - Since the end of 2022, the NYPD hasn't published data (that it's required to publish) about how many arrests have been made for a variety of crimes, leaving the public to wonder ... [if the NYPD is solving crimes](. - Wednesday night's NJ Transit meltdown [was Amtrak's fault](. - The saga of artist Richard Prince taking a Paper magazine photographer's picture of Kim Gordon and making a crass Instagram-themed image out of it — and then getting sued by the photographer, who'd been paid $100 for the original work — is, among other things, [a rough story about the state of New York's magazine industry]( over the past 30 years. - If you join a running race that you didn't register and pay to take part in, you should have to be [wearing a salmon costume](. - Prospect Park got a pair of pink [inflatable chair sculptures]( that are actually rock solid. - The Prospect Park Zoo got a pair of [South American pudu deer]( that are extremely cute. - Europe is in for another [hot summer](. [“This area used to be a pond. Why did they even create these properties and sell it to people?”]( - Vineciya Vijayarajah, a 20-year-old Flushing resident who said [HER FAMILY WOULD BE OPEN TO A BUYOUT FROM THE CITY]( More from Gothamist [second image]( [Incarcerated New Yorkers staged a Broadway show in prison]( Earlier this month, men incarcerated at the prison in Stormville, New York, performed a rendition of "Thoughts of a Colored Man," a play by Keenan Scott that follows seven Black men through a single day in Brooklyn. [Nassau police held in contempt of court over $100k phone directory]( Nassau County's police department was held in contempt of court this month after ignoring an order to hand over its phone directory to a Gothamist reporter who first requested the document four years ago. [We Rely On Your Support]( [Should you quit therapy? New Yorkers weigh in on when it was time to call it off.]( Should we be thinking about our mental hygiene with the same stick-to-itiveness that we think about, say, dental health? [NYC beach season is back. But what about the sharks?]( The true risk of encountering a shark at a local beach is miniscule, according to an expert at the New York Aquarium, who added that the mere presence of sharks in city waters is a sign our oceans are getting cleaner. [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.