Thank you! I thought I may have said something not appropriate. — AJ on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks

I have to approve them. — Tribeca Citizen on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks

Absolute heaven! Another CVS! Soon there will be one on every Tribeca corner just like Starbucks! — George Bacon on Seen & Heard: CVS coming soon?

Have you heard RFOR? It's the new rodent lobbying association Rats For Outdoor Restaurants. — George Bacon on Rats! Part Deux

“… Masks had also been shown to reduce airborne respiratory particles from entering and exiting people’s faces. At least one early investigation, published in April 2020, showed masks could block viral particles exhaled by people older than 11. “Masking does physically block these aerosols,” Dr. Jennifer Dowd, an associate professor of demography and population health at the University of Oxford, told Gothamist in August 2021, after Zweig’s article was published. The body of work supporting masks has only grown since then. Massachusetts school districts found coronavirus attack rates were 10 times higher with unmasked interactions versus masked ones, according to a preliminary report released in September. A nationwide survey of more than 6,600 childcare professionals, published in late January, reported that child masking was associated with a 13% reduction in facility closures. And a California study released on February 4th showed that mask usage with indoor settings, including at schools, reduced the odds of the positive COVID result by 44%, on average. Higher-quality masks — such as N95s and KN95 — lowered the chances by 83%.…” https://gothamist.com/news/masks-work-even-kids-sometimes-science-isnt-enough — A. on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks

“ It’s understandable why there might be confusion, says Thomas Murray, a pediatrician at the Yale University School of Medicine. There’s no question that masking reduces the spread of disease, but the evidence is less cut and dry about how masking affects kids emotionally and developmentally over the age of two. To answer that definitively would require that researchers asking people to shed their masks for a randomized trial, the gold standard in science, which would be unethical. So, most masking research is based on retrospective real-life observations that can be more easily cherry-picked to argue one side or the other of the debate over mask mandates. “But we do have this human experiment that’s been going on with kids wearing masks at school, and we know that we haven’t seen those fears of health risks realized,” says Theresa Guilbert, a pediatric pulmonologist who is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine. She and other experts say most evidence suggests that masking doesn’t harm children—and that it benefits them in more ways than one. Not only do masks protect kids from COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, but studies show that schools with mask policies in place are more likely to stay open, which decades of research show is particularly critical for kids’ mental health and development. Here’s what the science says about kids and masks.” https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/do-masks-really-harm-kids-heres-what-the-science-says — A. on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks

Hi Tribeca citizen, Why was my previous comment not allowed? Thank you, Ana — AJ on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks

I knew him for two years in Philadelphia and ran into him a few times in JC. He was all the things people say, an intelligent cheer filled and talented artist. A joy to be around every time you saw him. — Paul on Homeless man found dead on Murray

No such licenses exist there. Do not know what products they actually sell, though. "Check a DCA License "Use the search below to see if a business/individual holds a license from the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA)." https://a858-elpaca.nyc.gov/CitizenAccess/GeneralProperty/PropertyLookUp.aspx?isLicensee=Y&TabName=APO — james on Seen & Heard: CVS coming soon?

You should check whether they have / need (based on products for sale) a NYC Tobacco Retail Dealer and / or Electronic Cigarette Dealer License. These are capped by Community District, but issued by NYC. — james on Seen & Heard: CVS coming soon?

So sorry for your loss. Seems like you knew him well. Tragic that he got lost in life. Thank you for telling us a little bit about him. — vale on Homeless man found dead on Murray

Thank you for writing about this important issue and the fact that our youngest are consistently being asked to shoulder the burden of this pandemic, for the longest time ostensibly to support the elderly, and now ostensibly to protect them, be it by keeping schools closed or keeping restrictions only on them. Putting aside the question of whether masks work or not, what to do in surges, or the cost and benefit analysis of masking for different populations, particularly children who have incredibly important developmental milestones in a very short period of time that is their childhood, it is imperative to stress that at this point in time, NYC is an outlier in the state, in the country and in the world on this issue. The WHO has never recommended masking toddlers, the European CDC has never recommended masking under 12 and for the past two years, toddlers in almost the entire rest of the world never wore masks, ever.. Now that NY state has lifted the school mask mandate, as have neighboring states, NYC Is the only city still doing this in the region. Even the CDC now no longer recommends restrictions on toddlers be any different than the rest of the population, that is to say their levels of recommended restrictions based on metrics are the same for all. So how are we here even justifying - by cherry picking data, by labeling those who disagree as right-wing nuts, including pre-school directors in our very, very progressive neighborhood! - being the only city in the state, in the region, one of few left in the country, that was already the only country in the world, with a policy of putting a mask on a two year old. We cannot possibly really believe that keeping masks on toddlers is an effective measure to slow the spread for society. Simply put, they should not be the ONLY ones with restrictions today. — AJ on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks

I completely agree. Look them in the eye, say hello, talk to them, help them. They are us....but minus the resources and networks...RIP Chuck Daly. — SusanD on A neighborhood fixture dies on the street

There hasn’t been any work on 45 Park Place in at least 2 years, probably more. The construction netting is torn to shreds and it looks like nobody has been there to inspect it. My question, does NYC inspect the (abandoned) building and more importantly the massive crane on top? Isn’t it dangerous to just leave all this unattended? Are we sure that after all this time it is still securely affixed. — A2 on Unfinished business

One ounce of food and one ounce of water will feed a rat for a week. We need to get food off the streets. Mint bags are only minimally if at all helpful. — 14 Jay Street on Rats! Part Deux

The two buildings adjacent to the site have enormous cracks from the construction and are definitely in jeopardy of collapse. Those buildings are hundreds of years old! The construction has been awful for those living around it with constant pounding, especially during the pandemic when we were all working and schooling from home. The crazy thing is with all the digging they've done, they've hardly gone down deep. — Broadway Mamma on Unfinished business

I believe that will be a relocation of the current CVS on Fulton/Nassua, located in the building with the permanent scaffolding. — James S on Seen & Heard: CVS coming soon?

CB1 should be ashamed of themselves for allowing a smoke shop in the direction of ES, MS HS and college students. They could have put that shop anywhere but on Chambers. My son when we frequent 16 handles always calls that the bad people shop. — SB on Seen & Heard: CVS coming soon?

Thank you so much for covering this, and sharing his story. He was a wonderful man. I, for sure, know that I will be making a concerted effort to continue to speak with our neighbors on the streets; they are all individuals with their own stories - a brother, sister, mother, father. Bundling them into the category of "homeless" and not knowing their names desensitizes us from them being a human, a person with the same needs as our own. Conversation, food, water, shelter - basic needs, that for whatever the reason, they're struggling to fill. They each have their own story and the only way we know that story is to speak with them. Your hello, or gift of time shared with them, may be the only time that day that they get to speak with someone. They are vulnerable, needing of help, and if we pass them daily let's say hello, as we would with another face you pass daily. It won't take long to discern who is a safer person to speak with and who is not. That "hello" could make their entire day. — anonymous on A neighborhood fixture dies on the street

Great news!! We have always received excellent care from their wonderful staff and enjoyed delicious food at their Hudson and Morton location. Bonus for us…closer to home now!! 🍝 — Lori on Upscale Italian coming to former Girello space

His name was Chuck Daly. He was a tattoo artist who had apprenticed in Japan. He was incredibly talented but more than that, he was a joy. He was funny, he was so clever and his energy was incomparable. There was nothing like a hangout with Chuck. He brought the best times, he brought the best music, he knew the most fun people. His name was Chuck Daly and he was a legend to those of us who loved him. And then we lost him. He got lost and he couldn’t come home. Every picture tells a story and that photo of the pile of blankets tells the saddest story. I can’t stop looking at it and thinking, this person was Chcuk Daly, he was the biggest grin, the funniest, the smirkiest, the best at story telling, the most authentic belly laughing, King of JC. — Hisnamewaschuckdaly on Homeless man found dead on Murray

Counterpoint - why should masks only be required for the least impacted age group (source: by % hospitalizations https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#new-hospital-admissions ; by % death https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics ). Perhaps these educators, who have experience to judge both pre and post covid students and their abilities, are worried about falling education levels and learning loss (from the well known right wing publication The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/kids-masks-schools-weak-science/621133/ ). What if the risks of learning loss and illiteracy are far greater to this cohort (young kids) than the virus itself? — bob b on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks

The data from the last surge showed that the masks did almost nothing to prevent transmission whatsoever among kids. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59895934 If you're in the camp of following the science and data, these masks should have been ditched at schools a long time ago. Focus on getting the population vaccination and booster rates up, and don't push visible yet ineffective efforts that aren't based on the latest data. — James S on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks

A new CDC report says Omicron hospitalized infants and children ages 0-4 at 5x the rate of Delta. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7111e2.htm — j. on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks

When the four families in New York lost a 0-4 child to Covid this January (look it up), I'm sure they were comforted when the doctors said, "your child died, but Covid is far less dangerous to minors and this is factually confirmed by data" — J Frank P on Preschool directors hoping the youngest can lose masks