Joshua Bright for The New York Times You know you’re really the mayor when your name is on the sign. This one is near the Williamsburg Bridge. Updated 6:41 a.m.
Good morning on this strangely seasonable Monday. Enjoy your one-day respite from the cold.
Now, come along for a brief ride in our rickety time machine.
There’s a corner of the city where Michael R. Bloomberg is still the mayor.
But not for much longer.
The piece of real estate in question is actually a big green sign, near the Outerbridge Crossing, the city’s southernmost entry point.
“Welcome to Staten Island,†it says. “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Boro Pres. James P. Molinaro.â€
It is the last of the 53 entrance signs in the city that still carries the old guard’s names.
Today, it is to be replaced with one honoring Mayor Bill de Blasio and Borough President James Oddo - nearly a month into their respective terms.
For the last few weeks, the city Department of Transportation has been busy cranking out new signs at its signage plant in Maspeth, Queens.
The semiotic transition is being performed at a total cost of $27,000.
In Brooklyn, the former borough president, Marty Markowitz, adorned the signs with eye-catchingly corny slogans like “Entering Brooklyn - How Sweet It Is†and “Leaving Brooklyn, Fuhggedaboudit.â€
Mr. Markowitz was replaced by Eric Adams at the end of last year. But his legacy lives on: the new signs with his successor’s name still bear Mr. Markowitz’s slogans.
Here’s what else you need to know today.
WEATHER
Disorienting. The temperature should get near the average high for this date of 39 degrees.
A little rain could fall (rain is like melted snow that drops from the sky).
But tonight, bam: Back down to 12.
COMMUTE
Subways: Northbound Q rerouted to N line in Brooklyn. Northbound E and M running on the F line in parts of Manhattan and Queens. Check latest status.
Rails: Scattered delays on L.I.R.R. and North Jersey Coast Line. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.
Roads: No unusual delays. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.
Note: The Super Bowl, being played across the river in New Jersey on Sunday, will bring changes and traffic havoc to the city all week.
Broadway is closed to traffic from 47th Street to 34th Street as it gets turned into one long pedestrian mall / field-goal practice field / toboggan run. Do not go near Midtown in a car unless you must.
Alternate-side parking is suspended yet again.
COMING UP TODAY
- Mayor de Blasio is in Albany trying to sell state lawmakers on his universal pre-K plan and the tax increase on the rich that would pay for it. He’ll be back to attend a Super Bowl shindig in Jersey City tonight.
- The city and thousands of volunteers conduct the annual street count of homeless New Yorkers tonight.
- J. Crew’s chief executive, Millard Drexler, talks with the Parsons professor and architecture critic Paul Goldberger at Parsons. 6 p.m. [Free]
- Super Bowl madness: an exhibition on the video game Madden NFL at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens…
- … Vintage football cards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art [$25 suggested admission] …
- … and J. Cole raps at Queens College as part of VH1’s Super Bowl Blitz. 10:50 p.m. [Sold out, but telecast and live-streamed]
- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
IN THE NEWS
- Water towers, those icons of the New York City roofscape that supply drinking water to millions, turn out to be full of E. coli and other gross stuff. [New York Times]
- A drunken driver struck and killed a 67-year-old man in Staten Island, the police said. [New York Times]
- One more time, at least: Representative Charles B. Rangel, at 83, is staffing up for his re-election campaign. [Capital New York]
- Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is urging President Obama to let college graduates refinance their student loans. [Daily News]
- Senator Charles E. Schumer has proposed “Avonte’s law,†which would pay for optional electronic tracking devices for autistic children. [New York Times]
- A Russian Orthodox priest in Brooklyn declared plans for Pussy Riot to play at Barclays Center “satanic.†[Brooklyn Paper]
- Scoreboard: After 40-minute sun delay(!) at Yankee Stadium, Rangers stomp Devils, 7-3. Knicks lick Lakers, 110-103.
Joseph Burgess and Annie Correal contributed reporting.
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