is New York City dead?

it might be time for an AGNB / currents in video journalism thread

nvm there's the youtubers thread already

.@NYCMayor says his critics, including former allies like @JumaaneWilliams and @DRichards13, don't "really understand the reality of New York City."

— Julia Marsh (@juliakmarsh) June 12, 2020

yikes

what a nuanced take

Ruh-roh

Oh, please do splain to us kind Mr. Mayor sir.

For the record:
I am city-wide elected official, after serving on the @NYCCouncil

I was educated in the NYC Public School System, Pre-school to Masters

And, BTW, I was born, raised and spent my entire life here....how about you? https://t.co/eLjpHRYVa1

— Jumaane Williams (@JumaaneWilliams) June 12, 2020

apart from his utter uselessness, it's astonishing how bad a politician he is

Light that fucker up

Go go jumaane

DeBlasio of course grew up in Cambridge MA, assume that is well-known

As I understand it, this is a free country. A man can live where he wants.

and yet, poor de blasio remains trapped here, in a city which he holds in complete contempt :(

This is literally an argument for abolition. https://t.co/2GEqgniRoV

— David Kaib (@DavidKaib) June 12, 2020

https://gothamist.com/news/investigating-nypd-misconduct-during-protests-and-will-it-matter

separate voice of progressive hope here:
https://www.bkreader.com/2020/06/10/state-lawmakers-repeal-50-a-pass-sweeping-police-reform

This is fine
https://gothamist.com/food/photos-pandemic-fatigued-new-yorkers-turn-nyc-into-bourbon-street

more empty apartments on the way!

Dopey fucks

Cellino and Barnes have broken up. For real this time. https://t.co/ph6EAG5VN3

— Pat Kiernan (@patkiernan) June 15, 2020

Cellino and the Mad Dog

https://gothamist.com/news/mayor-de-blasio-sick-coronavirus-test-no-covid19
for fuck's sake man, just get tested! you see more people than anyone!

it doesn't make sense. it takes 5 seconds.

what's up with the fireworks

there are Theories, and i wouldn't even be surprised if they were correct

i am accustomed to my neighbors shooting off fireworks at unforeseen times but rarely for a straight week

and their fireworks usually make a few cool sounds. most of these are just really obnoxious boomings

my response to it (as with most things) is to crank the a/c

what are the Theories??

cops

Gentrification

people had more time to cultivate their fireworks during quarantine and they’re sprouting early

lol

https://www.firehouse.com/stations/video/21142776/video-fdny-firefighters-ignite-illegal-fireworks-at-station

A group of FDNY firefighters are accused of setting off illegal fireworks at a Brooklyn fire station.

The pyrotechnic display was caught on video by a Crown Heights resident who was passing by Ladder 123 at around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, the New York Post reports.The video shows firefighters at the station lighting a firework display that sparked.

“I thought it was young kids lighting it. And there are. But then I see the firefighters doing it—they should know better,” the 33-year-old resident told the Post.

Have also seen somewhere that the type of fireworks being used cost about $250 per pop, so it doesn't seem likely that neighborhood teens have that kind of cash flow? Not knocking alternative explanations, but given the defund/abolish pressure and movement right know I would not put ANYTHING beyond the NYPD.

Some of the detonations I’ve heard in my neighborhood have surpassed anything I’ve learned to expect from m-80s, cherry bombs etc. deep, horizon filling booms

Ugh

Yeah I've seen that talked about, that the noises are more like munitions and not like "oooh, fireworks!" and it's setting the affected areas up as war zones.

it has been fairly nonstop. finding boxes of spent fireworks on corners and on overpasses. I think it's mostly just kids tbh? There's a world of pent up energy and attitude that's gotta go somewhere. Though yes, i wouldn't put anything past nypd.

It's very weird. I read this piece, which seemed to suggest that one theory was that it was white gentrifiers complaining more about something that happens every year

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/flatbush-brooklyn-fireworks-nypd-police-blm

Other people see it the other way around:

White people in Washington Heights: "It's like this every year."

Black/Brown people in Washington Heights: "It has never been like this EVER before. This is some NEXT-LEVEL, scheduled, coordinated shit!"

— Son of Baldwin (Robert Jones, Jr.) (@SonofBaldwin) June 20, 2020

It literally sounded like a truckload of fireworks had gone off at once at one point in my street last night (I'm at the Crown Heights side of Prospect Lefferts Gardens. It doesn't bother me that much personally but it's just so weird, the number of them, like yeah, it must cost a fortune.

british kids set off fireworks for a good two weeks before guy fawkes day - so why not two weeks before july 4?

well, this would be the first time i've ever experienced it

i don't really buy that it's the cops but who knows

In a facebook group I'm in people have been reporting them everywhere from wealthy westchester county ny suburbs to charlottesville va, so I don't think it's some kind of terror campaign against black and brown communities, but who the fuck knows. One theory is just that people are bored and cooped up and there are already usually amateur fireworks this time of year, so there's just a lot more. Firework stores have reported upticks in sales.

I certainly wouldn't rule out a more nefarious explanation, but social media has a tendency to need to give everything a nefarious explanation

there was one crazy night about a week ago I heard outside the hospital, but I don't know the norms for El Barrio

We’ve been hearing fireworks for about a couple weeks here in northwest DC. Big shows the night of juneteenth. I assume it’s neighborhood folks having fun with their stockpiles leading up to July 4, which isn’t uncommon.

Tracer, having lived in inner London through many a Guy Fawkes season, this is of a different order of intensity.

I am hearing the munitions dump explosion ones here in LA too for the first time fwiw

https://gothamist.com/news/everything-you-need-know-about-phase-2-reopening-nyc