And the masks came back on: New York’s Day in Smoke

Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll look at what to expect for air quality in New York City today. We also look at a picture from a less bad day almost 57 years ago. And we’ll find out why a meeting of state cannabis regulators and retail licensees suddenly got heated.

Jennifer Poynter and her husband Mike thought about what to pack for their trip to New York City. They left the masks at home in Indianapolis.

“We talked about it, ‘Do we still need them? Are there Covid protocols in New York? she said. They had checked the weather forecast. “The weather looked great,” she said.

They arrived as the concentration of pollutants in the air reached the highest levels ever recorded in the city and with the skyline blurred by smoke from wildfires in Canada. Familiar landmarks were pale shadows in the distance. The Chrysler Building? His silver hood did not shine. The statue of Liberty? It was a silhouette in the orange-brown haze.

The Poynters soon bought themselves masks. He was wearing his as he moved the binoculars on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building on Tuesday. There wasn’t much to see, and maybe not much better today. The National Weather Service said the haze would stick because the weather system pushing it through the atmosphere was relatively stagnant.

The AirNow index had climbed from ‘unhealthy’ to ‘very unhealthy’ and finally to ‘dangerous’. New York City’s air quality index climbed to a new and unwanted record that surpassed a record one day earlier. And Tuesday’s air quality record broke a record that had stood for 21 years, when another outbreak of wildfires from Canada sent smoky air south.

High readings are not uncommon in smoggy places like Jakarta or New Delhi. But they’re rare in New York, where state and federal laws have helped reduce emissions. Mayor Eric Adams articulated what many New Yorkers probably thought when they looked out a window or walked down a street: “What the hell is this?” he said at a press conference.

Governor Kathy Hochul called the deteriorating air quality “an emergency crisis” that swept across New York state, urging people to stay indoors: “Please don’t go out if you don’t have to,” the governor said. Much of the state was under an air quality health advisory alarmindicating that the index was expected to cross 100. Mike Hardiman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Binghamton “looks like Mars” and “smells like cigars.”

In New York City, libraries closed early Wednesday. City-run beaches were virtually empty. The Yankees rescheduled their game against the Chicago White Sox. The team said today would be the first game of a single-admission doubleheader, but that could change if air quality doesn’t improve.

The city has suspended parking on the other side. Public schools would be closed as early as today, removing a possible decision point from the list for city officials. But thousands of teachers and staff were scheduled to attend a professional development workshop.

And again, many New Yorkers scrambled to find masks. Some commuters said the smoky air had flipped passengers’ routines: During the pandemic, people slipped their masks on the subway. In the Wednesday haze, they wore masks in the street and took them off as their train doors closed behind them.

Christine Booth, who lives in Dorset, England, walked the High Line on Wednesday. “That wasn’t too bad,” she said as she looked out over the city from the next stop on her route for the day, the Empire State Building, “but this is something else.”

Dorset has a long stretch along the English Channel, “so the air is clear and fresh,” she said. She said she was no stranger to cities: she used to work in London, for a trade council that promoted business with countries in Eastern Europe. “It was never like that,” she said.

Weather

Prepare for a chance of showers, lasting all evening, on a mostly sunny day around 70 degrees. The evening will be mostly cloudy, with temperatures dropping above 50 degrees.

ALTERNATIVE SIDE PARKING

Suspended due to smoky air.

In Latin, ‘infamis aer’

“Breathe in that smog and feel lucky that only in LA can you catch a glimpse of a green sun or a brown moon,” said the filmmaker. John Waters once wrote drive over to Hollywood.

New Yorkers have been breathing in a lot of smoky air in recent days, even though the sun didn’t turn green. And an image came to mind suggesting that there was unfortunately nothing new about it, except perhaps the origin of the smoke.

I remembered the photo above from when we were collecting the material for “The New York Times Book of New York” ten years ago. The photo was published on the front page on November 25, 1966, along with a caption alluding to a Hemingway novel. It was less than 57 years ago, four years before the first Earth Day celebration.

I came across an article from Smithsonian magazine that said air pollution had been a problem for the ancient Romans, who referred to the foul cloud above them as gravoris caeli (“heavy sky”) and infamis aer (which was exactly what the words looked like, “infamous sky”). And I was haunted by what Andrew Hinderaker, one of our photo editors, said on a less bad day a few years ago when I asked him if he could find the 1966 photo: “Aren’t we all just islands in the sea of ​​smog? ”

The latest New York news

Things got tense at a meeting between cannabis regulators and retail license holders — so much so that a state official left the stage after being harassed by attendees frustrated by what they said was a lack of transparency.

Officials had convened the meeting to announce changes they said would accelerate the rollout of sales pharmacies that are months behind schedule.

The official who left the podium was Reuben McDaniel III, the president of the State Dormitory Authority, the agency responsible for raising $200 million to fund the rent and construction of the first 150 dispensaries. Chris Alexander, the executive director of the state’s cannabis management agency, which issues licenses and develops policies, asked the licensees not to give up, adding that government agencies and Gov. Kathy Hochul were “all in” on the program despite the problems.

“Don’t stretch your money on us,” he told attendees at the rally, held at the CUNY School of Law in Queens. “We are committed to you.” He promised the state’s commitment was one that went “beyond this moment of tension,” even though he acknowledged “the hiccups we’ve had in launching the program.”

The two-hour meeting had gone smoothly until the final minutes, when officials announced changes designed to make the process of opening a pharmacy faster and smoother. The changes include adding smaller storefronts to the pool of properties available to licensees and setting aside low-interest loans of up to $100,000 for those who choose to find their own locations rather than sublease from the stands.

McDaniel also said his agency would publish a list of locations where it has signed a lease or is negotiating to avoid conflict with licensees exploring their own stores. Previously, permit holders had complained that they were finding viable sites, only to later find out they were too close to a Dormitory Authority facility.

METROPOLITAN Diary

Nice dishes

Dear Diary:

I admired a dish in the Housing Works store on Columbus Avenue. They looked shiny and new.

I said something to the young woman standing next to me about how nice the dishes were.

She turned to me and smiled.

“Please don’t say another word,” she said, “because if you do, I’ll have to buy them, and I can’t afford it.”

— Susan Kalev

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here And read more Metropolitan Diary here.