Nathaniel Brooks for The New York TimesThey’ll be back soon. Updated 10:02 a.m.
Good Thursday morning to you. It’s still cold â€" 38 degrees, with a wind chill below freezing.
Sleep tight, little salamanders.
After poking their noses into the spring air, salamanders may have ducked under the leaf cover when the temperature dropped this week.
And gone back to sleep.
Salamanders â€" including the orange-skinned juvenile eastern newt shown above â€" are found in wooded areas all over the city:
Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan, Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx and Blue Heron Park in Staten Island.
If a cold snap strikes in early spring, many species of animal return to hibernation, the parks department says.
This includes ants, flies, bees and butterflies, many of which began appearing in parks and gardens across the city last week.
As long as the cold doesn’t last too long, they can survive. And luckily, the cold won’t last.
Should you want to see them as they wake, the parks department is offering exploration walks.
There’s a night creatures walk in Staten Island tonight.
And a salamander-spotting walk there on Sunday.
Ghanim Khalil, the urban park ranger who gives that tour, said he hoped to spot a red-backed salamander or two, particularly if children were on the hike.
“They get very excited, especially when it moves around,†he said.
Here’s what else you need to know for Thursday.
WEATHER
Frosty at both ends, mild in the middle, with a high of 50.
The wind will rise now and then.
And clouds may briefly cover the sun.
Tomorrow looks similar.
COMMUTE
Subways: Check latest status.
Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.
Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.
Alternate-side parking is suspended through Friday for Holy Week.
COMING UP TODAY
- Mayor de Blasio announces an expansion of the program to buy back hurricane-damaged buildings on Staten Island. 12:45 p.m.
- Then the mayor speaks at N.Y.U., his alma mater, at 6 p.m. [No seats left, but there’s a livestream]
- Senator Charles E. Schumer calls for a federal investigation of this winter’s high electricity prices, at his Midtown office. 11:30 a.m.
- Metro-North holds an all-day blood drive in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central.
- Experts share ideas for how to put the city’s old wood to use, at Parsons in Greenwich Village. 6 p.m. [Free]
- The Iraqi author Hassan Blasim talks about his short story collection, “The Corpse Exhibition,†at Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side. 7 p.m. [Free]
- “Strongman,†a documentary about “Stanless Steel, The Strongest Man in the World at Bending Steel and Metal,†screens at the National Arts Club in Gramercy. 8 p.m. [Free]
- After Maundy Thursday services at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, poets read from Dante’s “Inferno.†9 p.m.
- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
- Note: the event we listed earlier, wherein the motel chain Red Roof Inn unveils new upscale rooms inside a truck parked at Union Square, is actually happening next Thursday. It was mistakenly listed as occurring today by The Associated Press.
IN THE NEWS
- Architectural drawings for the 1964 World’s Fair show the Port Authority’s inventively whimsical streak. [New York Times]
- The suburbs are trying to prevent the exodus of their young people for the city. [New York Times]
- The M.T.A. and unions are near a contract deal that would mean modest raises for 34,000 workers. [Daily News]
- Homeless families with children will be able to stay overnight in a city shelter, thanks to a letter from the Public Advocate Letitia James. [Capital New York]
- The medical examiner ruled the death of a baby found in a Brooklyn teenager’s Victoria’s Secret bag a homicide. [News 12 Brooklyn]
- Christine Quinn will re-emerge â€" on Bill Maher’s “Real Time†show on HBO. [Capital New York]
- Scoreboard: Yankees club Cubs twice, 3-0 and 2-0. Mets bury Diamondbacks, 5-2. Basketball regular-season finales: Cavs carve up Nets, 114-85. Knicks clip Raptors, 95-92.
AND FINALLY …
You may not have heard of Rafael Guastavino, but you have walked beneath his work.
Mr. Guastavino, an architect who died in 1908, designed arches and domes.
You can see them all over the city: in some of our grander subway stations, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the Elephant House at the Bronx Zoo.
Mr. Guastavino’s work is the subject of a new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.
And today, masons will show you and your children how to build arches on the museum terrace.
Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.
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