Tuesday, 7 May 2024

N.Y. Today: Yes, Spider-Man Is a Hometown Hero, but Which Borough?

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It’s Wednesday. Here’s something that everyone who voted actually agreed on: The retired Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera was the first player unanimously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Weather: Behold the warmest day in two weeks: up to 44 under mostly cloudy skies.

Then rain overnight, and heavy rain tomorrow. By Friday, expect temperatures back in the mid-30s.

Alternate-side parking: in effect till Feb. 4.

You all know that Peter Parker is your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. For many years, that neighborhood was officially Forest Hills, Queens.

He even lived at a real address: 20 Ingram Street. And in 2001, a few months before the first Spider-Man movie came out, a reporter for The Queens Tribune discovered that a family named Parker was living there.

Even more improbable, across the street lived a family named Osborne, nearly identical to the last name of Spider-Man’s archenemy, Norman Osborn.

But that was a long time ago.

Things have changed.

A new Spider-Man movie hit theaters last month, and on Tuesday, it was nominated for an Oscar, for best animated feature. In the new movie, Spider-Man — who debuted in 1962 — has a new story line. Peter Parker, who is white, has been replaced, sort of, by a biracial teenager named Miles Morales who lives in Brooklyn.

It’s part of a trend to diversify comic book characters to appeal to and better represent their audiences.

For instance, Ms. Marvel is a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City; the new Hulk is Korean-American.

As it turns out, Peter Parker’s old stamping grounds have changed, too.

The real-life Parkers no longer live at 20 Ingram Street; the Osbornes are no longer across the street.

Both white families have been replaced by Asian families, according to Lauren, a young Korean-American who lives in the Osbornes’ old house. (She asked me not to publish her last name.)

Lauren was well aware of Spider-Man’s connection to the block. People still take pictures of 20 Ingram Street, she said.

As for relocating Spider-Man to that other borough, well …

“Brooklyn isn’t the same anymore,” Lauren said, noting how fast the borough has gentrified. If the goal was to change the story line to make it “not as white,” she said, “I don’t know if Brooklyn is the right place.”

She added, “I’m sure in a couple of years things will be changing again.”

Medical examiner rules Saudi sisters died by suicide

The Times’s Ali Watkins and Ali Winston report:

Back in October, two young Saudi sisters were found dead and duct-taped together on the banks of the Hudson. On Tuesday, the medical examiner ruled their deaths suicides.

The pair, found by a passer-by, had immigrated to Virginia in 2015 and run away from their home there last summer.

They were seen praying in a Manhattan park along the Hudson before detectives say they bound themselves together with tape and walked into the river.

Detectives believe the pair were seeking asylum and had vowed to die together rather than return to Saudi Arabia.

Abortion law signed in Albany

The Times’s Vivian Wang and Jesse McKinley report:

It took 12 years, millions of dollars and a sea change in the State Senate, but on Tuesday — the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade —the State Legislature passed the Reproductive Health Act, the first update to New York’s abortion laws since 1970.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed it immediately after.

The bill, which codifies Roe v. Wade into state law, was first introduced in 2007 but died every session in the Republican-led Senate. Democrats took the chamber this year and promised to make the bill a priority.

Hundreds of activists and lawmakers — along with a number of protesters — crowded into the State Capitol to witness the bill’s passage.

One was Sarah Weddington, who in 1973, at age 27, successfully argued Roe v. Wade in front of the Supreme Court.

“It never occurred to me that 46 years later that I would be part of this” in New York, Ms. Weddington said.

Best of The Times

Supreme Court to hear case challenging New York City gun restriction: The city ordinance prohibits people licensed to have guns in their homes to transport their guns outside the city.

Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t opened a district office: Of the four new representatives from New York, she’s the only one without a local office.

In Queens, art with an environmental message: David Opdyke is using more than 500 vintage postcards to depict a grim future.

Plane stop: Flights into Newark Airport were briefly halted after pilots saw drones 3,500 feet over Teterboro Airport nearby.

Carb alert: Get ready to see some new bakeries in town.

Eating on 14th Street, with Lexus in the dining room: The restaurant Intersect by Lexus “is one of those modern places where brands, instead of asking you to buy one of their products then and there, instead try to make you feel the kinds of emotions about the brand that may lead to a sale later on,” writes our food critic Pete Wells.

What we’re reading

No sleeping on subway, mayor says: Mayor de Blasio vowed to crack down on homeless people sleeping in subway cars. [CBS New York]

Four years and four months at Rikers: Joel Porter of East Harlem is “one of the longest-serving inmates in the city’s Correction Department.” [Daily News]

Four people charged with plot to bomb Muslim community: Their target was near Binghamton. [WHEC.com]

The new Broadway show that argues America should break up: The comedian Colin Quinn says the idea got a good reception in Dallas and Boston. [New York magazine]

Investigating swastika incidents since the 2016 election: A map of reported incidents, and why statistics are inconsistent. [Gothamist]

Coming up today

The Chinese new media artist Lu Yang talks about her generation of artists at the China Institute. 6 p.m. [$10]

Get a history lesson on the courageous life of Ida B. Wells from her biographer Paula J. Giddings at the Brooklyn Historical Society. 6:30 p.m. [$5]

Former solitary-confinement prisoners tell their stories, and you can take a virtual-reality tour of a solitary cell, at a taping of the podcast “Micropolis” at the Greene Space. 7 p.m. [$15]

Need laughs and life advice? Head to the Lantern Comedy Club for the “Not a Therapist” stand up show. 7:45 p.m. [Free]

“Lives in Transition: LGBTQ Serbia,” a photo exhibit, opens at The Center in the West Village. 7 p.m. [Free]

— Iman Stevenson

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.

And finally: A is for ash, B is for birch

Last November, a colleague explored how one particular font, called Choc, came to dominate New York City store signs. And there is, of course, the long-running story about the Helvetica font and its ties to the subway system.

Add to that pantheon of local lettering the New York City Tree Alphabet, unveiled this week by the city Parks Department’s artist in residence, Katie Holten.

Each letter is represented by “a tree from the NYC Parks Department’s existing native and nonnative trees, as well as species that are to be planted as a result of the changing climate,” according to her website.

You can try writing with trees online: Go to NYCTrees.org, type a message … and a series of trees appear.

This spring, Ms. Holten hopes to do some spelling with real trees. A message she thinks could be planted in a city park?

“Resist” she said.

It’s Wednesday — look around and find your font.

Metropolitan Diary: Which way Manhattan?

Dear Diary:

Getting off the E train at 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue one morning, I encountered a woman just stepping onto the platform from the stairs.

“Does this train go to Manhattan?” she asked me.

“You’re already there,” I replied.

— Gerard Farrell

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