New York Today: Wild Things

Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society, via Associated Press Snake on the run! This one captivated the city when it briefly escaped its cage at the Bronx Zoo.

There is perhaps no more unabashedly urban environment than New York.

That might explain the city’s gravitation toward animals like Gus, that illustrious polar bear at the Central Park Zoo, who had to be euthanized this week at 27 after developing a tumor.

(He’d become such a part of Manhattan that he had his own therapist.)

Wild parrots, meanwhile, flock free in Brooklyn. Nobody seems to know exactly where they came from.

A few years back, a 400-pound tiger was discovered in a high-rise in Harlem. Its owner had moved out, and fed it by gingerly throwing chickens through a crack in the door.

A cobra, which escaped its cage at the Bronx Zoo in 2011, soon had a parody Twitter account, and hundreds of thousands of followers.

There is scant proof for the tale that alligators live, and breed, in the city’s sewers.

Then again, they are found mysteriously every few years - near apartment buildings, in Central Park lakes, and, in one instance, under a car in Queens.

“It was like the urban legend washes up from the sewer and says, ‘What the heck am I doing here?’ and hides under a Datsun,” said Joyce Hackett, a novelist who discovered that reptile.

Here’s what you need to know for your Thursday.

WEATHER

A high of 82 degrees, but also thunderstorms. You win some, you lose some.

TRANSIT & TRAFFIC

- Mass Transit Click for latest M.T.A. status.

- Roads Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- A nationwide strike by fast-food workers, who are seeking a wage of $15 an hour and the right to form unions without retaliation, will include Manhattan restaurants, according to organizers.

- Mayoral candidates, including Christine C. Quinn, Bill de Blasio, Williams C. Thompson Jr., and John C. Liu, plan to attend rallies in support of the workers, including one at Union Square at 3 p.m.

- Elsewhere during the day, Ms. Quinn announces her proposals for the Housing Authority, and Mr. Thompson unveils a “workforce training plan.”

- The last outdoor movie of the summer at Brooklyn Bridge Park will be chosen by public vote, and might well be Sharknado, a film about a tornado full of sharks assaulting Los Angeles. D.J.s play from 6 p.m. and the movie begins at sundown. [Free]

- The New York City Guitar Orchestra plays a 1 p.m. concert at Hudson Square in Lower  Manhattan. Go, and confuse your co-workers when you return by dropping “guitar orchestra” into conversation like you see them all the time. [Free]

- There’s an open studio at The Storefront on Pier 17 at noon, so you can peek into the mysterious workings of the art world. [Free]

- Larry Harlow and the Latin Legends band play a free concert at East River Park at 7 p.m. [Free]

- Klezmer music at 7 p.m. at Elmhurst Park in Queens. [Free]

IN THE NEWS

- A poll by Quinnipiac University shows Mr. Blasio outstripping his mayoral rivals, backed by 36 percent of likely Democratic voters. He’s approaching the 40 percent threshold, which would allow him to avoid a runoff. [New York Times]

- The survey found 21 percent backed Ms. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who had long been the front-runner. Mr. Thompson had 20 percent.

- About 2,000 trees damaged by salt water after Hurricane Sandy, some weakened to the point that they can fall on passers-by, will be cut down by the city this fall. [New York Daily News]

- More animal tales: a massive, and briefly mysterious, fish washed up in Manhattan. (It was apparently a sturgeon) [Gothamist]

- Mind control is now real. (O.K., this is not related to New York, but it’s freaky.) [New York Times]

AND FINALLY…

Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook, decades old and run by appropriately wizened characters, was severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy, but apparently did not qualify for government aid.

So local residents, and fans who donated on the fundraising site Kickstarter, collected the $100,000 for repairs.

Today, Sunny’s will reopen, according to The Brooklyn Paper.

Sunny Balzano, whose grandfather opened the bar in 1890, plans to turn the front into a giant blackboard where patrons who offered support can sign their names.

All in all, an excuse to drink and feel worthy about it.

Nicole Higgins DeSmet contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

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