New York Today: Cherries Bloom in Brooklyn

Bryan Thomas for The New York TimesThe first blossom has appeared on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Cherry Walk.

Updated 6:56 a.m.

Good Wednesday morning to you.

It is 45 degrees. A pink sign of spring has arrived.

We asked the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to put us on cherry blossom watch this year.

On Tuesday, we got the happy call: A bud in the Cherry Walk had become a flower.

In the coming weeks, it will be lost to sight, as the trees around it bloom, just in time for the annual Sakura Matsuri Festival.

But for now, the blossom stands alone in a crosshatch of bare branches, a hint of what’s to come.

Its petals are a cotton candy hue, with flecks of fuchsia.

It appeared about a week later than usual, the garden said, on one of the garden’s early bloomers.

There are more than 200 cherry trees in the garden, most of them on the Cherry Esplanade and the Cherry Walk.

If there is a string of warm days, most could be in full bloom in time for the festival.

You may track their progress on the garden’s Cherry Watch Blossom Status Map.

Another cherry tree in more advanced blossom is off the main drag, near the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden. It has white flowers.

Unlike the pink-petaled spring bloomers, it’s an everblooming cherry tree, which means it could have flowered in winter. (It did not.)

Here’s what else you need to know for Wednesday.

WEATHER

Extremely normal, with morning sun, afternoon clouds, evening clearing and a high of 59.

COMMUTE

Subways: Delays on the C and the 6. Check latest status.

Rails: O.K. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: No big delays. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect all week.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor de Blasio speaks at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network’s Annual Convention in Midtown. (On Tuesday, the mayor defended Mr. Sharpton’s nearly revealed past work as an F.B.I. informant against the mob.)

- Other speakers at the convention include Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and the mayor’s wife, Chirlane McCray.

- Janelle Monáe sings a song from the coming “Rio 2” in Rockefeller Plaza for the “Today” show. 7 a.m. [Free, though fan passes are available]

- Rob Lowe signs copies of his second memoir, “Love Life,” at the Barnes & Noble in Midtown. Noon [Free, bring your own book]
- A Columbia professor, Dipali Mukhopadhyay, explains how warlords are shaping Afghanistan at Columbia at 6 p.m. [Free]

- An actor plays the 19th-century anarchist Emma Goldman, and historians and City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez discuss her legacy, at the Tenement Museum. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

- Jim Jarmusch fields questions after a screening of his 1995 film “Dead Man” at Film Society Lincoln Center. 6:30 p.m. [$13, standby only]

- Bob Saget discusses his book “Dirty Daddy,” about his journey from family man to “filthy comedian,” at the Union Square Barnes & Noble. 7 p.m. [Free]

- “Is this generation uniquely coddled, narcissistic and lazy?” The ABC newsman John Donovan moderates a debate on Millennials at the Kaufman Music Center. 6:45 p.m. [$40, $12 for millennials, or students, or watch livestream].

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- Watch your minivan. Thieves are targeting old, heavy cars, possibly because a loophole lets older cars be sold easily for scrap. [New York Times]

- A priest was called to the bedside of one of the police officers critically injured responding to Sunday’s arson in a Coney Island highrise. [Daily News]

- A detective’s notes found at Police Headquarters could exonerate two men convicted in a 1985 killing. [New York Times]

- A look back at the long and storied careers of Mr. Sharpton. [New York Times]

- Susan Sarandon, Mr. Sharpton and other allies of the mayor want him to scrap a $150 million renovation of the main New York Public Library and give the money to smaller branches. [Daily News]

- A Brooklyn woman received a birthday card that her parents sent her in 1969. She took it as a sign that she had their blessing to move to Las Vegas. [Fox 5 News]

- An aide to the governor urged the M.T.A. to review its ad standards after eye-catching ads for breast augmentation appeared on the subway. [Daily News]

- The city records department added 30,000 photos to its online gallery. Here are a few. [Gothamist]

- Scoreboard: Orioles Yankees, 14-5. Mets blank Braves, 4-0. Nets turn down Heat, 88-87. Rangers still Hurricanes, 4-1. Senators veto Islanders, 4-1.

AND FINALLY …

This week in 1904, one of the city’s main crossroads was named for a newspaper.

This one.

“By action of the Board of Alderman,” The Times reported, “the open space formed by the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, and extending from Forty-Second to Forty-Seventh Street, hitherto popularly known as ‘Long Acre Square,’ received the name of Times Square.”

The change, The Times added, grew from “the necessity of having a distinctive title for the subway station in the basement of The Times Building at the corner of of Forty-Second Street and Broadway.”

The Times has since moved off Broadway, to Eighth Avenue and 41st Street.

But the name stuck.

Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.

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