Now NYC’s Air Is Unbearable Too

Crack a window or step outside your door today (I mean, don't, if you can avoid it), and you'll be taking in lungfuls of the some of the most polluted air in any major city in the world, the byproduct of 400 active wildfires in Canada. The sickly yellow-pink haze that rolled into the city this week has turned the sun a harsh neon red, when you can see it at all, and tinted everything else it touches in the colors of a late-2010s-dystopian-sci-fi movie. If you're too hubristic to cancel your outdoor plans or unlucky enough to have to spend too much time outside, the smoke settles in your chest cavity and clogs it up like so much gauze. 

The last time smoke from distant wildfires forced New Yorkers inside was July 2021. Then, like now, health officials advised that children, seniors, and anyone with pre-existing respiratory or heart conditions stay indoors as much as possible. But July 2021 was a time when we were all much more used to being cooped up and wearing masks, like the KN95s and N95s we should probably be wearing right now. There was just less to reschedule. 

This time around, Eric Adams has canceled outdoor activities at New York City public schools today and is urging New Yorkers to "limit outdoor activity to the greatest extent possible"; the WGAE canceled the day's NYC-area pickets scheduled for the ongoing writers strike; the nonprofit behind the New York City Marathon urged the city's jogging acolytes not to observe whatever "Global Running Day" is; things aren't looking good for the bar backyard event we planned to have tonight. Obviously, these are mostly just annoying schedule interruptions, not monumental sacrifices. But they add to the eerie, unreal quality that a day tinged with smoke from fires hundreds of miles away already has.

Eerier still is the likelihood that days like this are going to become a routine part of life in NYC (and beyond). An air pollution advisor to the U.S. State Department told Curbed that there's "solid evidence that wildfires are becoming more frequent, partially due to climate change causing these drought conditions that allow for more fuel to burn." 

Bad news for the Earth, and absolutely horrible news for our ongoing cultural combat with LA. At least we still have better public transit; more hot people; less virulent, toxic wellness culture; and more expansive late-night food options to hold over Angelenos' heads—climate change can't take those away from New York, no matter how many cigarettes' worth of air pollution it throws at us.

Stay in and read these links today instead: 

• Yes, Chris Christie, I want to see you humiliate yourself on the national stage for my amusement, uh, I mean, run for president.
• New York is poised to become the second state to study issuing reparations to Black residents.
• Eric Adams just threw his hat into the ring of the Board of Correction scuffle—although, he admitted that he kind of didn't know there was so much drama going on. 
• According to the MTA, Madison Square Garden and Penn Station are the couple that gets into a fight every time they go out with friends—no longer compatible. Please, break up already!
• Oh hell yeah, the mob's back.
• Two "orgasm cult" leaders were just charged with forced labor conspiracy. Adding that Netflix docuseries to my watchlist.
• The pile-on over CUNY Law commencement speaker Fatima Mousa Mohammed rages on as a group called StopAntisemitism calls for the school's chancellor to resign.
• Andrew Cuomo really wants to know what all the women who've accused him of sexual harassment talked to each other about before going public with their allegations. (I have one wild guess!)
• The Manhattan DA's office tossed out 316 convictions stemming from police work done by nine dirty cops who were convicted of "official misconduct, planting drugs, taking bribes, petty theft and lying under oath." Great! Now do the rest of them! 
• Airbnb has stalled the implementation of short-term rental regulations from the Office of Special Enforcement again—and probably asked them to throw their sheets in the wash and vacuum before they leave, too.
• A U.S. district court judge just blocked Orange and Rockland Counties from discriminating against migrants, even though local politicians really, really want to.
• A requiem for a pizza legend.
• Man, you know the rental market is fucked when even our mayor is talking about getting roommates!