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It’s Wednesday. Here are 10 photos of Monday evening’s rainbow over the city, if you missed it. 🌈
Weather: Early morning showers, then a mostly sunny day, with a high in the low 50s.
Alternate-side parking: Suspended through April 28. Meters are in effect.
Cuomo calls Trump’s claim of absolute authority “dictatorial.”
Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has insisted that the crisis requires him to be above politics and partisanship.
But on Tuesday, as Mr. Cuomo battled President Trump over who had the authority to reopen public life, the governor struggled to walk the line between antagonistic and conciliatory.
On Monday, he and the governors of six other Eastern states said they were banding together to make a coordinated plan for reopening their economies. Mr. Trump responded that only he had the authority to decide when states could reopen.
“That is not an accurate statement,” Mr. Cuomo said at his daily briefing in Albany on Tuesday.
Earlier, in four television appearances, Mr. Cuomo took issue with the president’s assertion, saying at one point that any move to follow through on it would be “dictatorial.”
On CNN, when asked what he would do if Mr. Trump directed him to reopen New York, Mr. Cuomo said, “If he ordered me to reopen in a way that would endanger the public health of the people of my state, I wouldn’t do it.”
[Get the latest news and updates on the coronavirus in the New York region.]
N.Y.C.’s death toll soars past 10,000 as count is revised.
New York City, already the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, sharply increased its death toll on Tuesday, by more than 3,700, after officials said they were now including people who had never tested positive for the virus but were presumed to have died of it.
The new figures, released by the city’s Health Department, drove up the number of people killed by the virus in New York City to more than 10,000, and appeared to increase the overall U.S. death count by 17 percent, to more than 26,000.
The numbers brought into clearer focus the staggering toll the virus has already taken on the largest city in the United States, where deserted streets are haunted by the near-constant howl of ambulance sirens. Far more people have died in New York City per capita than in Italy, the country with the most deaths except for the United States.
The revised death toll has also underscored shortcomings in testing that have hamstrung city and state officials since the beginning of the outbreak. The number of tests available has been inadequate, and until now, only deaths where a person had tested positive were counted.
[Coronavirus in New York: A map and the case count.]
Should N.Y. get $12,000 per case if Nebraska gets $379,000?
Mr. Cuomo has repeatedly complained that Congress shortchanged New York in the $2 trillion economic stabilization package it passed last month.
Among the governor’s grievances: States like Nebraska, Minnesota and Montana, he recently said, were getting far more money per virus case than New York.
Mr. Cuomo cited a news report that estimated Nebraska would get about $379,000 per case while New York would get only $12,000.
The specifics behind Mr. Cuomo’s complaint are somewhat arcane. But his demands for more federal aid for New York are a sign of the growing political pressure Congress will face in the coming weeks from elected officials in states hit hard by the virus.
From The Times
New Role for New York Police: Breaking Up Crowds at Trader Joe’s
What Doctors on the Front Lines Wish They’d Known a Month Ago
Hank Steinbrenner, Heir to the Yankees, Is Dead at 63
Want more news? Check out our full coverage.
The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.
What we’re reading
One expert is predicting a rat turf war as some parts of New York City churn out less garbage. [Gothamist]
Some New Yorkers have turned to private chefs during the pandemic. [New York Post]
A man was charged with weapons possession and making terroristic threats in connection with an alleged plan to blow up the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park, and kill his parents and girlfriend. [Daily News]
And finally: Historical recipes
The Times’s Amelia Nierenberg writes:
Once upon a time, in the mid-1800s, a New Yorker named Eliza Duane put pen to paper to record her most beloved recipes.
A Jenny Lind bread, named after the celebrated Swedish opera singer, calls for “a lump of butter the size of an egg.” A fruit cake calls for the yolks of 30 eggs, three pounds of butter and currants that are “perfectly dry.”
On Tuesday, members of the New-York Historical Society’s email list received a transcribed recipe from one of six handwritten cookbooks and a handful of loose recipes partially attributed to Ms. Duane: a lemon cake, which calls for “2½ tumblers of powdered sugar” and the juice and peel of one lemon. It was the first of an initiative to share a historical recipe every week, in a nod to the cooking frenzy of life during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I never really baked very much before, but there’s something therapeutic, I think, about doing things with your hands,” said Louise Mirrer, the society’s president and chief executive. “It just seemed like this would be a really great opportunity to engage people who are at home, thinking about cooking and baking, with history.”
Each week, the society will post one recipe from the Duane Family Cookbooks, which date from 1840 to 1874 and are also attributed to Mary Wells and Fanny T. Wells. Taken together, the recipes offer a window into the tastes and trends of fashionable households in 19th-century New York.
It’s Wednesday — bake something.
Metropolitan Diary: Late date
Dear Diary:
Two minutes before I was supposed to meet my date at the entrance to Riverside Park at 79th Street, he texted me to say he was a half-hour away. I was, naturally, already there.
It was a pleasant summer night, and, after finding a nice spot to kill some time, I noticed a man who appeared to be about 15 years older than me sitting on the wall 10 feet away.
A few minutes passed as I picked at my nails, scrolled through Instagram and wondered why people in their 20s are so terrible at time management.
The man eventually got up off the wall and started to pace gently. After about 20 minutes, he looked over at me.
“So,” he said, “are you early or are they late?”
“He’s late,” I said. “You?”
“She’s late. You know we’re the suckers here, right?”
“Yep.”
We chatted for the next few minutes, mostly about how we would do our best not to be rude once our tardy companions showed up.
Eventually, the guy I was waiting for arrived. As he and I walked into the park, I turned back toward the man I had been chatting with.
“She’ll get here!” I shouted.
“She’s right there!” he said, pointing into the near distance. The smile on his face had wiped away any trace of impatience. “Have fun, you two.”
— Hayley Glatter
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