The Ad Campaign: ‘Serious’ Lhota Tries to Stand Out From Circus

First aired: August 12, 2013

Produced by: Wilson Grand Communications

For: Joseph J. Lhota

Joseph J. Lhota is seen by many as the leading Republican candidate for mayor, but on television, another Republican has been more visible: John A. Catsimatidis, who is campaigning with his own money. On Monday, Mr. Lhota, a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and deputy mayor for Rudolph W. Giuliani, began running a new television advertisement, his first in over two months. The 30-second spot, titled “Serious,” is appearing on cable and broadcast stations.

Fact-Check

0:01

“This primary election has become embarrassing â€" a circus.”

Few would contest the assertion that the mayoral primary has become a circus. In a Siena College poll released on Monday, 62 percent of New York City voters said the national attention attracted by Mr. Weiner and a candidate for comptroller, Eliot Spitzer, was embarrassing.

0:11

“Lhota, ‘the sole glimmer of hope’ in the mayor’s race,’ writes The Daily News.”

The advertisement accurately quotes the headline of an editorial by The Daily News that applauded Mr. Lhota’s stance against retroactive pay for city workers.

0:16

“The New York Post says Lhota has ‘the most impressive resume in the race.’”

The praise attributed to The Post is not from an editorial, but an opinion column written by Charles Gasparino, a correspondent for the Fox Business Network.

0:20

“And The Times says Joe Lhota ‘no doubt has the management skills to put sound policies in place.’”

The quotation of The New York Times is from an editorial, but the assertion was referring specifically to developing policies to protect the city from future storms like Hurricane Sandy. The editorial proceeded to note that, as of June, Mr. Lhota did not appear to have made that a priority in his campaign.

Scorecard

In a race filled with scandal and personal revelations, Mr. Lhota is seeking to draw attention to his strongest credential in the race for mayor: his long record of no-nonsense government service.

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A Coin Is Historic, Priceless and No Longer in a Vault

Richard Perry/The New York Times David N. Redden, vice chairman of Sotheby’s, carried a briefcase holding a 1933 gold coin, known as a double eagle, out of the Federal Reserve Bank in Lower Manhattan on Monday. The coin, which is regarded as the world’s most valuable, was transported by armed guards to the New-York Historical Society where it was to be put  on exhibit.

Richard Perry/The New York Times The double eagle coin escaped being destroyed when President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the  United States off the gold standard.

For 10 months, the world’s most valuable coin sat wrapped in plastic on a folding chair in a little cagelike compartment behind a bright blue door at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It was only a step or two away from billions of dollars’ worth of neatly stacked bars of gold bullion.

On Monday, a man in a dark suit stashed the coin in his briefcase and coolly walked out of the Fed’s heavily guarded limestone-and-sandstone building, a couple of blocks from the New York Stock Exchange in Lower Manhattan. He nodded politely to the guards on the front steps of the Fed. They did not stop him.

The man with the briefcase, David N. Redden, an auction-house executive, was not pulling off a heist. He was taking the coin on a 6.7-mile ride to the New-York Historical Society on Central Park West.

“It’s history,” Louise Mirrer, the president of the historical society, said of the coin after Mr. Redden had turned it over to curators who fitted it into a display case. “We have lots of priceless objects, but it’s always exciting to have the most valuable anything.”

The coin is valuable â€" Mr. Redden auctioned it at Sotheby’s for $7,590,020 in 2002, at the time the highest price any coin has ever sold for â€" because it should not exist. That is why it has inspired four books, a documentary for the Smithsonian Channel and an episode of the cable-television drama “The Closer.”

Known to coin collectors as a double eagle because it was worth twice as much as a $10 eagle gold piece, it was struck in 1933, the year in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard. He also ordered that year’s run of $20 pieces destroyed, except for two that were earmarked for the Smithsonian Institution.

The double eagle that Mr. Redden put in his briefcase somehow escaped that fate. It apparently made its way to Egypt and back, and was seized by the Secret Service in a sting operation at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in 1996.

Compared to all that, the trip to the historical society was somewhat short on drama. The crowd-pleasing chaos of “Die Hard With a Vengeance,” a Bruce Willis movie with a bad guy who broke into the Fed underground after a subway crash and made off with lots of gold in a dump truck? No. Mr. Redden made off with a tiny amount of gold â€" the double eagle is only 34 millimeters wide and weighs just under an ounce â€" in a black sports-utility vehicle with an armed former police officer at the wheel and another in the front passenger seat.

“For collectors,” he said as the S.U.V. barreled up the West Side Highway, “it’s almost a mystical experience to look at it.” He said this while looking at an almost identical double eagle, one from 1923 that did not have to be destroyed because it had been in circulation. He carries that coin with him everywhere, the way other people carry their cellphones. (He has one of those, too.)

Some coin experts consider the 1933 double eagle the Mona Lisa of coins. Steve Roach, the editor of Coin World magazine, suggested a slightly different description: “The Hope Diamond of American numismatics.” It is the only 1933 double eagle that someone can own legally. On one side of the coin is Liberty, “her hair whipping in the wind,” in the words of David Tripp, who wrote about the double eagle. On the other side is an eagle patterned after the image on pennies issued a couple of years before the Civil War.

“There are few coins that can capture the public’s imagination in the way that this coin can,” Mr. Roach said. “It’s a unique combination of beauty, desirability and mystery. It’s so rare, but it has such an interesting back story.”

One element of the back story, he said, is the current owner, who has never been identified. “It’s one of the wonderful mysteries of coin collecting, who bought that coin,” Mr. Roach said.

Mr. Redden described the owner as “a fabulous collector who was completely captivated by the story of the coin,” but not a coin collector.

“After he bought it, he said, ‘I don’t want to take it home, I don’t want to put it in a bank vault â€" what should I do with it?’” Mr. Redden recalled. “I said the Fed is planning a show. It was the star of that show for years.”

But last fall, the Fed sent the coin off to the vault. “The owner is interested in letting the public see it,” Mr. Redden said. The historical society beckoned, and the two security men followed Mr. Redden from the S.U.V. through the society’s back door. They watched as exhibition designers polished its case and tested the alarm, just in case.

“I don’t know what the threat level on this particular item is, because if they steal it, who’s going to buy it?” one of the security men, Louis Guiliano, said. “If you can’t fence the coin, it’s not valuable. It’s only valuable if you can get someone to pay you.”

Richard Perry/The New York Times Bianne Muscente, left, and Lizzie Wright (right) eased the coin into its display case after its safe arrival at the historical society.

The Ad Campaign: Weiner’s ‘Powerful Voices’

First aired: August 12, 2013

Produced by: Penczner Media

for: Anthony D. Weiner

Once an improbable frontrunner in the Democratic primary, Anthony D. Weiner has fallen to fourth place in many polls, his campaign engulfed by fresh revelations of online liaisons with women. In his first television ad, “Powerful Voices,” Mr. Weiner speaks directly to the viewer for a full 30 seconds, casting himself as an underdog hounded by the establishment and urging voters to ignore his critics. â€" MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Fact-Check

0:06

“I’ve waged a campaign focused like a laser beam on fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it. I’ve put out two books of new ideas â€" 125 of them in fact. Everything from restoring discipline in our schools to creating a single-payer health plan for our city. Look, powerful voices have made it clear from the very beginning they didn’t want me to win. But this isn’t about what they want. They’ve gotten their way for far too long. If you give me the chance, I will fight for you and your family every single day.”

Mr. Weiner projects sincerity: he is dressed simply (white shirt, blue tie with black stripes) and speaks directly to the camera, framed from the chest up. He begins with a familiar recitation â€" that he is the candidate focused on ideas â€" but the jaunty music abruptly fades out, and the on-screen images disappear, as he moves into the heart of the commercial.

0:14

“Powerful voices have made it clear from the very beginning they didn’t want me to win. But this isn’t about what they want. They’ve gotten their way for far too long.”

Without specifically mentioning his recent troubles, Mr. Weiner neatly ascribes â€" and implicitly dismisses â€" any attacks on him to a vaguely shadowy group. The language doubles as an appeal to his longtime base, aggrieved working-class New Yorkers who may have felt excluded from the Bloomberg boom years.

Scorecard

Just as Mr. Weiner seemed to inspire Eliot Spitzer’s redemptive bid for comptroller, Mr. Spitzer’s advertising strategy may be influencing Mr. Weiner. Mr. Spitzer’s most recent commercial announces that the “establishment” is against him and urges the voter (“you”) to decide. Mr. Weiner is taking a similar tack, although his argument may lack the potency of Mr. Spitzer’s, whose battles with Wall Street are well known. Mr. Weiner’s commercial runs the risk of sounding hollow to voters who are fully aware of the candidate’s troubles and may have reached their own conclusions about him, regardless of what any “powerful voices” are saying.

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New York Fringe Festival Report: ‘Rubble’

Dixie Sheridan Bruce Vilanch and Amy Wilson in “Rubble.”

Reviews of shows from the New York International Fringe Festival will appear on ArtsBeat through the festival’s close on Aug. 25. For more information, go to fringenyc.org.

In “Rubble,” Alvin Gordon, an aging TV comedy writer, wants to make one last sitcom pitch. He’s just positive the world will love his latest brainchild: “My Brother the Pope,” about His Holiness’s black sheep sibling.

Alas, in his network pitch meeting, Alvin cannot help but gratuitously insult his potential boss. Then, to make matters worse, an earthquake strikes. Trapped under the flotsam and jetsam of La-La-Land, he passes the time conversing with an obligatorily kooky cast of characters both real (a security guard, a grumpy agent away on vacation) and hallucinated (his vicious ex-wife, a tuneful Freud, a Virgin Mary threatening eternal damnation).

“Rubble” doesn’t offer a lot of plot. The show is primarily a vehicle for a long series of punch lines about the entertainment industry. This is perhaps not terribly surprising, given both the premise and the pedigree of the playwright, Mike Reiss, a longtime “Simpsons” writer and producer. Some of these one-liners are quite funny; many, many others (tired jabs at Joan Rivers’s plastic surgery, or the glut of gay men in musical theater) could stand to meet the cutting-room floor.

Bruce Vilanch - a former Edna Turnblad in “Hairspray” and an Emmy-winning comedy writer himself â€" is very much at home playing Alvin. The show-stealer, though, is Jerry Adler, as the agent whose steadfast crabbiness even Hawaii cannot conquer. Lord knows what he must be like when back in Los Angeles â€" which, as Alvin describes it, makes condemnation to hell look a lot like a lateral move.

“Rubble” continues through Aug. 25 at the Players Theater, 115 Macdougal Street, Greenwich Village.

Judges Finds in Favor of Company Seeking to Build Headquarters Near the Palisades

A judge has ruled in favor of a company seeking to build a new corporate headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. that opponents have tried to block because they say it would disrupt views of the Palisades.

Opponents in the case said they will appeal the decision. The company, LG Electronics, said the ruling opens the way for construction of the $300 million project.

Critics say the building would be far too visible above the tree line. Among those who have expressed concern about the proposed 143-foot-tall building is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which operates The Cloisters, a museum in northern Manhattan across the Hudson from the development site.

In his ruling Friday, Judge Alexander H. Carver III of the New Jersey Superior Court found that the Englewood Cliffs Zoning Board of Adjustment had not exceeded its powers in allowing a variance of the height restriction for the site, which is to be home to the American headquarters for LG, a South Korean electronics manufacturer.

“The board found that LG had met the positive criteria requirements because the project promoted the general welfare by maintaining jobs, promoting green building design, providing adequate light, air and open space, providing energy efficiency, and utilizing renewable energy sources,” the ruling said, according to Bloomberg News.

The building’s design calls for a structure of eight stories in an area that had previously been zoned for a maximum height of 35 feet. The borough subsequently rezoned a stretch of land that includes the development site to allow for taller buildings, an action that remains the focus of a second, still unresolved lawsuit.

In a statement celebrating the decision Friday, LG Electronics said it now plans to begin work and was not worried about the threat of appeals. “The court ruled correctly and decided this case on long established legal principles,” said John Taylor, a spokesman.

Mr. Taylor said the outcome of the second case would have no impact on the company’s project.

“It is a totally separate issue,” he said. “Whether the ordinance is upheld or not does not affect us. The outcome of that case will not affect our project going forward.”

But lawyers for opponents of the project said they believe the second legal challenge could potentially still block construction of the building, if successful.

The New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs, one of the plaintiffs in the case just decided, said it would appeal the decision as did a second plaintiff, Scenic Hudson, an environmental group.

Mark Izeman, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which also opposes the height of the proposed building, said: “This is just the beginning of long, protracted litigation.”

Anonymous Donation May Keep Austen’s Ring in Britain

A gold and turquoise ring once owned by Jane Austen and purchased last year at auction by the singer Kelly Clarkson may find a permanent home in Britain after all, thanks to an anonymous donor.

In a plot twist perhaps worthier of Dickens (or Kickstarter), a donor has given the Jane Austen’s House Museum in Hampshire $155,000 toward matching Ms. Clarkson’s bid of $236,000, providing it can raise the additional money by December. On Aug. 1 the British minister of culture, Ed Vaizey, issued an order temporarily banning the export of the ring.

The ring first passed from Austen to her sister, Cassandra, who later gave it to her future sister-in-law Eleanor Jackson after Eleanor’s engagement to Henry Thomas Austen, Jane and Cassandra’s brother. It remained in the family until the sale to Ms. Clarkson, who also owns a replica of the ring given to her by her fiancé, Brandon Blackstock.

If the ring does go to the Hampshire museum, it will join celebrated items like Austen’s writing desk, some of her letters, and music books annotated by her hand, as well as a shelf of humbler artifacts found under the house’s floor boards.

It will also probably be part of an exhibition next year celebrating the bicentennial of the publication of “Mansfield Park,” in which Fanny Price is given an amber cross by her brother, much as Austen’s own brother gave her an amber cross, which is now held by the museum.

“To have the cross and ring together is very exciting,” Louise West, the museum’s manager, told The Guardian.

Carole King Musical Finds Its Carole King

The producers of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” have found their star.

Jessie Mueller (“On a Clear Day You Can See Forever”) has been cast to play Carole King in the coming production that focuses on the early life and career of the singer-songwriter. Ms. Mueller is fresh off a stint as Billie Bendix in “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” which closed in June.

Originally announced to open in spring 2014, previews for the Broadway production of “Beautiful” at the Stephen Sondheim Theater will now begin on Nov. 21 with an official opening night set for Jan. 12. The musical’s world premiere is scheduled for Sept. 24 at the Curran Theater in San Francisco.

The show will have a book by Douglas McGrath (“Checkers”), direction by Marc Bruni (“Old Jews Telling Jokes”) and choreography by Josh Prince (“Shrek the Musical”). The score will include songs by Ms. King and Gerry Goffin, her songwriting partner and former husband, as well as Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

Aug. 12: Where the Candidates Are Today

Planned events for the mayoral candidates, according to the campaigns and organizations they are affiliated with. Times are listed as scheduled but frequently change.

Joseph Burgess and Nicholas Wells contributed reporting.

Event information is listed as provided at the time of publication. Details for many of Ms. Quinn events are not released for publication.Maps of all campaign events since April »

Events by candidate

Albanese

Catsimatidis

De Blasio

Lhota

Liu

McDonald

Quinn

Thompson

Weiner

Group event

John A. Catsimatidis
Republican

10 a.m.
Calls on city to impose a moratorium on all new solid-waste plants, in light of uproar over proposed marine-transfer site in Yorkville, which according to the candidate, has 25 percent more people living near it than the six other marine-transfer sites combined. “When I am mayor, there will be no waste transfer stations in highly populated areas,” he promises those gathered to hear him, at 91st Street and York Avenue.

7 p.m.
Participates in the Staten Island-Political Watch Forum, hosted by the Mount Sinai Center for Community Enrichment, the Staten Island Ministerial Alliance and the Staten Island chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, at the Mount Sinai United Christian Church on Pike Street.

Bill de Blasio
Democrat

11:30 a.m.
Bringing his own musical accompaniment, the candidate announces that he has clinched the endorsement of the Associated Musicians of Greater New York Local 802, the largest professional musicians’ union in the world, representing performers at Broadway musicals, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, nightclubs and other gigs. News conference, billed as a “Time for NYC to March to the Beat of a Different Drum,” features a live jazz performance, on the Broadway Pedestrian Plaza in Times Square.

11:30 a.m.
Takes opportunity at his news conference to also criticize New York City for its stop-and-frisk policies at the heart of today’s Floyd v. City of New York court ruling, on the Broadway Pedestrian Plaza in Times Square.

4 p.m.
Greets voters, at the Church Avenue subway station on Nostrand Avenue.

6 p.m.
Second of four mayoral candidates greeting voters at the Martin Luther King Jr. concert series performance featuring Toni Braxton, at Wingate Field.

7:45 p.m.
Attends a “Millenials for BdB” event, with his wife, Chirlane McCray, and their children, Dante and Chiara, at Butterfield 8 on East 38th Street.

John C. Liu
Democrat

7 a.m.
Greets morning commuters, at the Newkirk Avenue subway station on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.

12:30 p.m.
Visits with senior citizens, at the Wayside Tompkins Park Senior Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

5 p.m.
Greets commuters during the evening rush, at the East Broadway subway station in Lower Manhattan.

5:45 p.m.
Hosts an Eid celebration, observing the end of Ramadan, at the Emigrant Bank on Chambers Street in Manhattan.

7:15 p.m.
Participates in the Staten Island-Political Watch Forum, hosted by the Mount Sinai Center for Community Enrichment, the Staten Island Ministerial Alliance and the Staten Island chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, at the Mount Sinai United Christian Church on Pike Street.

Joseph J. Lhota
Republican

10 a.m.
Continues his small-business tour, which began last Monday, to discuss how to improve the city’s economy and create an environment conducive to job creation, in the flatiron district in Manhattan.

12 p.m.
Meets privately with Faith in New York, a multicultural federation of congregations that represents over 60,000 families across New York, at the Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Queens.

3 p.m.
Meets privately with Turnaround for Children, an organization working to improve educational opportunties for low-income children, at the organization’s office on West 45th Street.

5:30 p.m.
Attends St. John’s University’s 34th annual Staten Island Golf Outing reception, at the Richmond County Country Club on Flagg Place.

Christine C. Quinn
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters, at the 231st Street subway station in Riverdale.

8 a.m.
Delivers remarks at the South Bronx Leadership Forum on what she sees as the issues facing New Yorkers, and takes questions, at the South Bronx Overall Development Corporation on Bergen Street in the Bronx.

12 p.m.
After being one of a number of candidates to meet with the group on July 23, receives the endorsement of the New York City League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group that focuses on fighting for clean air and clean water, along the West Side Highway in the West Village.

Some of Ms. Quinn’s events may not be shown because the campaign declines to release her advance schedule for publication.

William C. Thompson Jr.
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Joins State Senator Jeffrey Klein and meets with elderly New Yorkers who are living in sewage-damaged apartments at the city-run Throggs Neck Houses on Randall Avenue in the Bronx.

9 a.m.
Leads a clergy breakfast in Southeast Queens together with Representative Gregory Meeks, at York College’s faculty dining room, in Jamaica.

11:10 a.m.
Calls for new steps to combat hate crimes and promote tolerance prompted by the defacement of the statue of Jackie Robinson and Peewee Reese that sits outside Coney Island’s MCU ballpark, in a teleconference call convened jointly with State Senator Diane J. Savino.

1:30 p.m.
Appearing with his wife, Elsie McCabe Thompson, at a news conference, the candidate calls for action to stem the growing rates of breast cancer deaths among black New Yorkers, outside City Hall.

7:30 p.m.
Third of four mayoral candidates greeting voters at the Martin Luther King Jr. concert series performance featuring Toni Braxton, at Wingate Field.

8:30 p.m.
Participates in the Staten Island-Political Watch Forum, hosted by the Mount Sinai Center for Community Enrichment, the Staten Island Ministerial Alliance and the Staten Island chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, at the Mount Sinai United Christian Church on Pike Street.

Anthony D. Weiner
Democrat

12:30 p.m.
Visits with senior citizens, at the Cothoa Luncheon Club on Amsterdam Avenue.

7:45 p.m.
Fourth of four mayoral candidates greeting voters at the Martin Luther
King Jr. concert series performance featuring Toni Braxton, at Wingate
Field.

Sal F. Albanese
Democrat

10:30 a.m.
Meets privately with United to End Homelessness Coalition, a group of community leaders, including Habitat for Humanity and the Human Services Council, pressing for answers to the problems that face the city’s homeless population, at the campaign’s headquarters in Brooklyn.

11:30 a.m.
Visits with senior citizens, at the Wyckoff Senior Center in Brooklyn.

12:15 p.m.
Visits with senior citizens over lunch, at the St. Charles Jubilee Senior Center on Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn.

1:45 p.m.
Gets in the mood for the evening’s screening of “Saturday Night Fever” by starting a tour of small businesses in his former Council district with a stop in Bensonhurst at Lenny’s Pizza, depicted in the film. Tour continues along 86th Street.

7:30 p.m.
Greets moviegoers, on the Astoria Park lawn, where the film of the evening is “Saturday Night Fever.”

Adolfo Carrión Jr.
Independent

5:30 p.m.
First of four mayoral candidates greeting voters at the Martin Luther King Jr. concert series performance featuring Toni Braxton, at Wingate Field.

George T. McDonald
Republican

6:30 p.m.
Attends the Shakers and Stirrers N.Y.C. Business Mixer, hosted by the Networking for Professionals’ co-founder Amanda Nissman, at O’Brien’s Irish Pub on West 46th Street.

Readers with information about events involving the mayoral candidates are invited to send details and suggestions for coverage to cowan@nytimes.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @cowannyt.

Aug. 12: Where the Candidates Are Today

Planned events for the mayoral candidates, according to the campaigns and organizations they are affiliated with. Times are listed as scheduled but frequently change.

Joseph Burgess and Nicholas Wells contributed reporting.

Event information is listed as provided at the time of publication. Details for many of Ms. Quinn events are not released for publication.Maps of all campaign events since April »

Events by candidate

Albanese

Catsimatidis

De Blasio

Lhota

Liu

McDonald

Quinn

Thompson

Weiner

Group event

John A. Catsimatidis
Republican

10 a.m.
Calls on city to impose a moratorium on all new solid-waste plants, in light of uproar over proposed marine-transfer site in Yorkville, which according to the candidate, has 25 percent more people living near it than the six other marine-transfer sites combined. “When I am mayor, there will be no waste transfer stations in highly populated areas,” he promises those gathered to hear him, at 91st Street and York Avenue.

7 p.m.
Participates in the Staten Island-Political Watch Forum, hosted by the Mount Sinai Center for Community Enrichment, the Staten Island Ministerial Alliance and the Staten Island chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, at the Mount Sinai United Christian Church on Pike Street.

Bill de Blasio
Democrat

11:30 a.m.
Bringing his own musical accompaniment, the candidate announces that he has clinched the endorsement of the Associated Musicians of Greater New York Local 802, the largest professional musicians’ union in the world, representing performers at Broadway musicals, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, nightclubs and other gigs. News conference, billed as a “Time for NYC to March to the Beat of a Different Drum,” features a live jazz performance, on the Broadway Pedestrian Plaza in Times Square.

11:30 a.m.
Takes opportunity at his news conference to also criticize New York City for its stop-and-frisk policies at the heart of today’s Floyd v. City of New York court ruling, on the Broadway Pedestrian Plaza in Times Square.

4 p.m.
Greets voters, at the Church Avenue subway station on Nostrand Avenue.

6 p.m.
Second of four mayoral candidates greeting voters at the Martin Luther King Jr. concert series performance featuring Toni Braxton, at Wingate Field.

7:45 p.m.
Attends a “Millenials for BdB” event, with his wife, Chirlane McCray, and their children, Dante and Chiara, at Butterfield 8 on East 38th Street.

John C. Liu
Democrat

7 a.m.
Greets morning commuters, at the Newkirk Avenue subway station on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.

12:30 p.m.
Visits with senior citizens, at the Wayside Tompkins Park Senior Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

5 p.m.
Greets commuters during the evening rush, at the East Broadway subway station in Lower Manhattan.

5:45 p.m.
Hosts an Eid celebration, observing the end of Ramadan, at the Emigrant Bank on Chambers Street in Manhattan.

7:15 p.m.
Participates in the Staten Island-Political Watch Forum, hosted by the Mount Sinai Center for Community Enrichment, the Staten Island Ministerial Alliance and the Staten Island chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, at the Mount Sinai United Christian Church on Pike Street.

Joseph J. Lhota
Republican

10 a.m.
Continues his small-business tour, which began last Monday, to discuss how to improve the city’s economy and create an environment conducive to job creation, in the flatiron district in Manhattan.

12 p.m.
Meets privately with Faith in New York, a multicultural federation of congregations that represents over 60,000 families across New York, at the Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Queens.

3 p.m.
Meets privately with Turnaround for Children, an organization working to improve educational opportunties for low-income children, at the organization’s office on West 45th Street.

5:30 p.m.
Attends St. John’s University’s 34th annual Staten Island Golf Outing reception, at the Richmond County Country Club on Flagg Place.

Christine C. Quinn
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters, at the 231st Street subway station in Riverdale.

8 a.m.
Delivers remarks at the South Bronx Leadership Forum on what she sees as the issues facing New Yorkers, and takes questions, at the South Bronx Overall Development Corporation on Bergen Street in the Bronx.

12 p.m.
After being one of a number of candidates to meet with the group on July 23, receives the endorsement of the New York City League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group that focuses on fighting for clean air and clean water, along the West Side Highway in the West Village.

Some of Ms. Quinn’s events may not be shown because the campaign declines to release her advance schedule for publication.

William C. Thompson Jr.
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Joins State Senator Jeffrey Klein and meets with elderly New Yorkers who are living in sewage-damaged apartments at the city-run Throggs Neck Houses on Randall Avenue in the Bronx.

9 a.m.
Leads a clergy breakfast in Southeast Queens together with Representative Gregory Meeks, at York College’s faculty dining room, in Jamaica.

11:10 a.m.
Calls for new steps to combat hate crimes and promote tolerance prompted by the defacement of the statue of Jackie Robinson and Peewee Reese that sits outside Coney Island’s MCU ballpark, in a teleconference call convened jointly with State Senator Diane J. Savino.

1:30 p.m.
Appearing with his wife, Elsie McCabe Thompson, at a news conference, the candidate calls for action to stem the growing rates of breast cancer deaths among black New Yorkers, outside City Hall.

7:30 p.m.
Third of four mayoral candidates greeting voters at the Martin Luther King Jr. concert series performance featuring Toni Braxton, at Wingate Field.

8:30 p.m.
Participates in the Staten Island-Political Watch Forum, hosted by the Mount Sinai Center for Community Enrichment, the Staten Island Ministerial Alliance and the Staten Island chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, at the Mount Sinai United Christian Church on Pike Street.

Anthony D. Weiner
Democrat

12:30 p.m.
Visits with senior citizens, at the Cothoa Luncheon Club on Amsterdam Avenue.

7:45 p.m.
Fourth of four mayoral candidates greeting voters at the Martin Luther
King Jr. concert series performance featuring Toni Braxton, at Wingate
Field.

Sal F. Albanese
Democrat

10:30 a.m.
Meets privately with United to End Homelessness Coalition, a group of community leaders, including Habitat for Humanity and the Human Services Council, pressing for answers to the problems that face the city’s homeless population, at the campaign’s headquarters in Brooklyn.

11:30 a.m.
Visits with senior citizens, at the Wyckoff Senior Center in Brooklyn.

12:15 p.m.
Visits with senior citizens over lunch, at the St. Charles Jubilee Senior Center on Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn.

1:45 p.m.
Gets in the mood for the evening’s screening of “Saturday Night Fever” by starting a tour of small businesses in his former Council district with a stop in Bensonhurst at Lenny’s Pizza, depicted in the film. Tour continues along 86th Street.

7:30 p.m.
Greets moviegoers, on the Astoria Park lawn, where the film of the evening is “Saturday Night Fever.”

Adolfo Carrión Jr.
Independent

5:30 p.m.
First of four mayoral candidates greeting voters at the Martin Luther King Jr. concert series performance featuring Toni Braxton, at Wingate Field.

George T. McDonald
Republican

6:30 p.m.
Attends the Shakers and Stirrers N.Y.C. Business Mixer, hosted by the Networking for Professionals’ co-founder Amanda Nissman, at O’Brien’s Irish Pub on West 46th Street.

Readers with information about events involving the mayoral candidates are invited to send details and suggestions for coverage to cowan@nytimes.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @cowannyt.

Ennead Architects Chosen for Peabody Essex Museum Expansion

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., announced that it had chosen the Ennead Architects firm to design the museum’s new $200 million expansion wing, which is scheduled for completion in 2019.

The 175,000-square-foot space will include new galleries, a restaurant and additional room for public programs and education. Improvements will also be made to the museum’s collection, conservation and exhibition processing areas.

Ennead Architects â€" which recently designed renovation projects for the Public Theater, New York City Center and the Brooklyn Museum â€" was selected from a group of firms that were invited to take part in a design competition earlier this summer.

Groundbreaking for the expansion will begin in 2015.

Discount Tickets For ‘My Name Is Asher Lev’

Joan Marcus Ari Brand, center, in a scene from “My Name Is Asher Lev” at the Westside Theater.

For its final three weeks of performances, the critically praised Off Broadway play “My Name Is Asher Lev” will be one of the cheapest tickets in town for patrons 30 and under. The producer Darren Bagert announced on Sunday that the production would sell $10 tickets to them two hours before performances. Most Off Broadway shows sell such discounted rush tickets in the $20 to $30 range to students; $10 tickets for a well-reviewed Off Broadway play are rare.

Mr. Bagert said the play, now running at the 299-seat Westside Theater, had an average of 60 to 90 empty seats at recent performances. “Asher Lev” cost $700,000 to mount and is close to turning a profit, Mr. Bagert said, but the discount was not designed to make money. Rather, he said, he wanted to provide “affordable theater” when Off Broadway tickets have a face value of $50 to $75 and Broadway productions cost twice that (before discounts).

“Asher Lev,” Aaron Posner’s adaptation of Chaim Potok’s novel, began performances in November and is scheduled to close on Sept. 1. The discount offer, which is subject to availability, will begin on Monday night.

New York Today: Commute, Interrupted

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times Are you missing the R train?

Updated, 7:02 a.m. | When officials announced that the tunnel used by the R train between Brooklyn and Manhattan would be closed for 14 months for repairs, 65,000 riders let out a collective groan.

After a week without the tunnel, how is it going so far?

Depends. More than half of riders who filled out an online survey for the Straphangers Campaign reported that their commute  was longer. Of those, more than a third said it was more than 10 minutes longer.

Ten minutes may not sound like too much, but underground, when you’re trying to get somewhere, it can feel a bit eternal.

(The repairs, by the way, stem from damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.)

Cate Contino, a coordinator for the Straphangers Campaign who is a regular R commuter, said her new route along the N is actually faster, but much more crowded.

“I would take slower over crowded any day,” she said. “Someone else might feel differently.”

We’d like to know how the R line disruption has affected you, whether you use the R or one of the lines absorbing its refugees.

Tell us in the comments or via Twitter, with #NYToday.

Here’s what you need to know for Monday.

WEATHER

Moody skies with a 30 percent chance of showers, possible thunder in the afternoon and a high of 84. Umbrella decision depends on your risk tolerance.

TRANSIT & TRAFFIC

- Mass Transit [6:30] O.K. so far. Click for latest M.T.A. status.

- Roads [6:32] No major delays. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- The mayor, along with the federal interior and housing secretaries, announces the formation of a research center focused on restoring the ecosystem of Jamaica Bay.

- Anthony D. Weiner’s first TV ad hits the airwaves. He says he remains “focused like a laser beam fighting for the middle class,” even as “powerful voices” oppose him. Mr. Weiner has a live interview with Ben Smith of Buzzfeed at 6:30 p.m.

- Joseph J. Lhota’s first broadcast TV ad makes its debut, too. He says the Democratic candidates are turning the race into a circus as photos of Christine C. Quinn wearing bunny ears and Bill de Blasio in handcuffs flash by.

- Other mayoral candidates: William C. Thompson Jr. tours sewage-damaged apartments in a Bronx housing project. Mr. de Blasio gets endorsed and serenaded by the musicians’ union.

- The comptroller candidates Scott M. Stringer and Eliot Spitzer debate again at 7 p.m., with Brian Lehrer of WNYC and Errol Louis of NY1 moderating. Both outlets will broadcast the debate.

- Free waffles and ice cream and Sears jeans at the Central Park bandshell from 5 to 8 p.m. It’s all related, somehow. [Free]

- Toni Braxton sings at Wingate Park in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, at 7:30 p.m. (Warning: at least three mayoral candidates are expected to attend.) [Free]

- The “blackly funny” short-story writer Amy Hempel reads at the Franklin Park Bar and Beer Garden in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. 8 p.m. [Free]

- Outdoor movies at dusk: The original 1939 version (with Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell) of “The Women,” at Bryant Park. “Fame,” at Coney Island. “Saturday Night Fever,” in Astoria Park. [Free]

IN THE NEWS

- After a 22-year legal fight, the city agreed to pay $12 million to families whose children contracted leukemia after living near an illegal toxic dump in the Bronx. [New York Times]

- Slow down: There Is a statewide crackdown on speeding and aggressive drivers this week. [Syracuse Post-Standard]

- Ms. Quinn leads her Democratic competitors in one important category: money raised. [New York Times]

- Mr. Weiner, meanwhile, has achieved, if that’s the right word, the lowest voter-approval rating in the history of the Siena poll. [Daily News]

- WBAI-FM, the radio bastion of liberalism, laid off most of its staff. [New York Times]

- With Lyme disease increasing in and near the city and some ticks now carrying the deadly Powassan virus, Senator Charles D. Schumer urged New Yorkers to check for ticks after visiting city parks. [Fox 5 News]

- An Upper West Side woman boating with her businessman husband in the Hamptons fell overboard and drowned. [New York Post]

- Three people were arrested at a flash-mob dance party on the Manhattan Bridge. [CBS 2 New York]

- Yankees beat Tigers 5-4 in walk off. Mets outslug Arizona 9-5.

AND FINALLY…

Mary Jane West was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, 120 years ago this week. You may know her as Mae.

In addition to strutting her overstuffed self across the big screen, she wrote three plays â€" “Sex,” “Pleasure Man” and “Diamond Lil” â€" that were judged unsuitable for film production. (The entire cast of “Pleasure Man” was arrested at its Broadway opening.)

To celebrate her birthday, the New York Public Library is staging an adaptation this afternoon of West’s most successful (if least salaciously named) play, “Diamond Lil,” about a well-kept dance-hall girl on the Bowery of the Gay Nineties.

“Lurid and Often Stirring” wrote The Times in 1928. What will audiences think now?

Judge for yourself, at 4 p.m. at the Hudson Park Branch, 66 Leroy Street in the Village.

Nicole Higgins DeSmet and Matt Flegenheimer contributed reporting.

We’re testing New York Today, a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

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