New York Today: Live Music, Live Voters

Demetrius Freeman/The New York Times Christine C. Quinn campaigning outside a Brooklyn concert on Monday.

The subway platform meet-and-greet has long been de rigueur for political candidates.

But this summer, there’s another spot for pressing the flesh: the outdoor concert.

Last night, it seemed like nearly every candidate for citywide public office attended the Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series gospel night in Brooklyn.

Bill de Blasio and Sal Albanese, to take two mayoral candidates, campaigned at five outdoor concerts apiece in July. Indie rock. R&B. Mariachi.

Voters are less harried at a gig than on their commute, candidates say.

But there’s a fine line.

“Folks would rather listen to Stevie Wonder than a candidate for comptroller,” said Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for Eliot Spitzer, who hit back-to-back concerts on Sunday and Monday, “We get that.”

WEATHER

It will be a gorgeous day, with a high of 84 sparkling degrees. Leave your umbrella at home and enjoy. Click for current forecast.

TRANSIT & TRAFFIC

- Mass Transit Subways are O.K. Click for the latest status.

- Roads Traffic is mostly O.K.  Click for the latest status.

- Alternate side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- The city will complete its scheduled mosquito control for the year to combat West Nile virus, spraying in Queens at 8:30 p.m. and at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Click for affected areas.

- Jury deliberations continue in a lawsuit brought by a group of sex offenders against former Gov. George E. Pataki and other former state officials. The plaintiffs say they were wrongly institutionalized after completing their sentences.

- The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital series comes to Harlem with arias and duets by three up-and-coming Met artists. Jackie Robinson Park, from 7 to 8 p.m. [Free]

- Watch the film “Strictly Ballroom” on Valentino Pier in Red Hook, Brooklyn, at sunset. [Free]

- Take a kayaking lesson and paddle the gentle waters of Jamaica Bay, at Canarsie Pier in Brooklyn. 5 p.m to 7:30 p.m. [Free]

- Goonies never say die! See the cult classic movie on the garage roof deck of the Bronx Terminal Market at 8:30 p.m. [Free]

- Listen to East African jams in Washington Square Park at 8 p.m. [Free]

- The Queens Symphony Orchestra celebrates Verdi’s bicentennial on the Great Lawn at St. John’s University on Utopia Parkway in Jamaica at 7 PM. [Free]

- “The Central Park Five,” a documentary about a miscarriage of justice, screens at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, at Second Avenue and East 47th Street, at 8:30 p.m. [Free]

- Bach and friends will resound through Central Park in tonight’s installment of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts series, featuring the adventurous orchestra the Knights. [Free]

IN THE NEWS

- About a third of the city’s renters spend half or more of their income on rent, according to a New York University report. [Gothamist]

- A new class of firefighter recruits was sworn in Monday, the Fire Department’s most ethnically diverse group yet. [NY 1]

- Thieves fled empty-handed after the backhoe they used to break into a bank in Queens could not crack an A.T.M. [Daily News]

- A Bronx cemetery has interns. [New York Times]

- The majority of Democratic voters seems to have had enough of Anthony D. Weiner, a poll found. [New York Times]

AND FINALLY

Nearly 200 readers weighed in by e-mail, comments and Twitter on Monday to help name a piglet rescued last week from the streets of Queens.

Wilbur, Houdini and Carnitas Danger were among the suggestions.

Meet Winston.

“Pigs treat us as equals,” was part of a quotation attributed to Winston S. Churchill that inspired Ellen Balfour from Long Island.

Farm Sanctuary, the rescue organization, chose the name.

“Napoleon” was a close second. That name, suggested by Elizabeth Emmons from Manhattan, came from George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” in which the pigs rule.

Michaelle Bond, E.C. Gogolak and Nicole Higgins DeSmet contributed reporting.

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