How the Mayoral Candidates Plan to Help New York Rebound

Weather: Chance of rain increases as the day goes on. High around 70.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until May 13 (Solemnity of the Ascension).

New York City’s reopening looks to be near. Vaccinations are widely available, infection rates are dropping, the tulips are in full bloom.

Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he wanted the city to be fully reopened by July 1, about a week after the June 22 Democratic primary election, which will likely decide the next mayor.

How the city re-emerges after more than a year of lockdowns, sickness and economic devastation will depend on the next mayor’s plans.

“For a large amount of people suffering in this pandemic,” said Donovan Richards, the Queens borough president, “their question is going to be, ‘Reopen the city for whom?’”

[As New York City reopens, its recovery will hinge on the next mayor.]

Here are what some candidates have in mind:

Andrew Yang

Mr. Yang, the former presidential candidate and current front-runner, is banking on voters’ wanting a hopeful mayor with a simple message. He has unveiled several policy proposals based on accelerating the city’s opening, and has proposed a basic income program for the city’s poorest residents.

Though Mr. Yang brands himself an ambitious entrepreneur, a report from The New York Times shows he didn’t deliver on his bold promises while leading his nonprofit.

Maya Wiley

Ms. Wiley, a civil rights lawyer and former counsel to Mr. de Blasio, is particularly focused on racial justice and equity.

She wants to invest in caregiving by, in part, paying more informal care workers, and has proposed a $10 billion capital spending program for creating jobs and improving infrastructure.

Eric Adams

Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, often speaks from his experience as a Black former police captain and has presented himself as a candidate focused on inequality. He’s recently become the candidate most clearly focused on combating gun violence.

A Spectrum News NY1/Ipsos poll found that crime and public safety are on Democratic voters’ minds. Mr. Adams has said that public safety is the “prerequisite to prosperity.”

Dianne Morales

Ms. Morales is a left-wing former nonprofit executive who sees racial justice and public safety as integral to the city’s reopening.

She is proposing an overhaul of city institutions to address inequality, which has been deepened by the pandemic. Her proposals include “basic income relief for every household” and cutting $3 billion from the New York Police Department’s budget to reinvest in community responses.

The city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission will stop testing cabdrivers for marijuana, after the state recently legalized it. [1010 Wins]

And finally: Philharmonic in a shipping container

The Times’s Zachary Woolfe writes:

Late last summer, the august New York Philharmonic took a swerve toward scrappiness.

With its theater closed by the pandemic, the orchestra rented a Ford F-250 pickup truck, wrapped it in red, white and black, and drove around the city over eight weekends for short, impromptu chamber events.

The Philharmonic recently announced that it would be bringing the NY Phil Bandwagon concept back this spring, but for a shorter period and in more stable surroundings — reflecting the glimmers of a transition back to concert-hall trappings.

Bandwagon 2 will trade in the pickup truck for a 20-foot shipping container atop a semi truck, which will visit four parks around New York City — including Domino Park in Brooklyn and Marcus Garvey Park in Manhattan — for weekend-long residencies through May. (Because of “health and safety guidelines,” the events will not be announced in advance, the Philharmonic said on its website.) Tricked out with a foldout stage, video wall and integrated sound and lighting, the setup is now more arresting and theatrically attuned.

The offerings will also move beyond classical and new chamber music into more varied, genre-crossing collaborations with six community arts organizations, including A Better Jamaica in Queens and El Puente in Brooklyn.

“Bandwagon 2 allows us to center the voices of our partners, and utilize the Philharmonic’s resources to amplify the work of our collaborators,” Deborah Borda, the orchestra’s chief executive, said in a statement. The countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who helped create the Bandwagon last year, will have another stint as the program’s producer.

It’s Monday — enjoy the show.

Metropolitan Diary: Circle line

Dear Diary:

Some years ago, my wife and I drove down from Connecticut to take the Circle Line around Manhattan.

Once aboard, we noticed some groups of people sticking together. We learned that they were engineers from other countries who had come to the United States to study the traffic patterns in large cities here.

Approaching one nattily dressed, well-groomed member of the group, I bent forward slightly at the waist and began to speak to him in a halting tone.

“And. What. Country. Are. You. From. Sir?” I asked.

“I. Am. From. Phoenix. Arizona. U.S.A.,” he said. “I. Am. In. Charge. Of. This. Group.”

— Jack Lupkas