SCOOP DU FRIDAY_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

Secrets_2

BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather.   

FYI: On Monday April 25 alternate-side-of-the-street (ASOTS) parking will be suspended for religious
observance (Passover). Also: Thursday through Saturday April 26-30 ASOTS
parking is also suspended. All other parking regulations in effect.

Saturday April 23rd is the first night of Passover. It is also Earth Day.

EDITOR’S NOTE: NEWS FROM  YESTERDAY (AND THE DAY BEFORE) WILL NOW BE
PRINTED IN ORANGE. THE MOST CURRENT NEWS WILL BE, AS ALWAYS, IN BLACK.

CITY NEWS:  NYC unemployment down 30% from last year. It is the largest one year drop on record.

-According to the "Schumtz Survey " conducted by the the NY Straphangers Campaign, the subways are getting dirtier.  The group inspected 2,200 cars on 22 lines in the city between September and December.  The 1 and 9 trains were rated the dirtiest, while the N train was the cleanest.

_Subway service returned to normal on the A and C lines after January fire.

_City will tighten security for
Passover holiday. There will be more foot patrols and heavily armed
units at synogogues around the city.  Mayor Bloomberg also asked
citizens to report any price gouging of kosher food items.

_New York City population down although not as many people are
leaving the city as expected. Last year, 5,500 left the city, the
largest number since 1991.  The latest census numbers put the city’s
population at 8.1 million with Brooklyn and Queens being the most
populous borough with a population of 2.4 and 2.2 million
respectively.  City officials challenged the accuracy of the figures.

BROOKLYN BEAT:  Raphaelina Smith, the girl that was shot in the back on Sterling and Ralph Avenue in Crown Heights on the way home from school last week left Kings County Hospital today with the bullet still in her back. A neurosurgeon involved with her case said that it would be more dangerous to remove the bullet than to keep it in.

From Curbed a blog sponsored by NYtimes.com Real Estate: "We all know that Brooklyn will be another front in the coming gourmet
food war. In Park Slope, Whole Foods is opening a 42,000-square-foot
store to take on the Coop. The secret weapon? Around 220 parking spaces–meanwhile the hippies strike back with a new (and already neglected) product blog.
In Red Hook, Fairway is taking a 19th-century warehouse and converting
it into another huge supermarket, opening in the fall. It’s all old
news, yes, but adding fuel to the fire is the report that Trader
Joe’s–reigning king of the food-related rumor mill–also has its eye on the borough. As much as we’d like to see the tofu fly between these fine retailers, we’re sticking to our original story.