Exteriors of NYC subway trains covered in grime while MTA repairs car washers

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ⛅ Partly sunny, highs in the lower 80s.

It's Thursday in New York City, where trains on the E, F, L, M and R lines are all running with dirty exteriors.

The MTA said the subway car washing operations at two of its depots — Jamaica Yard and Canarsie Yard — are under repair. There are also upcoming plans to fix a washer that services 1, A and C trains. 

In the meantime, here's what some of these trains are looking like.

And here's what else is happening:

• Swimming in the Hudson River: It's a thing, but avoid the dead rats and other water hazards.
• The city's Department of Transportation, after receiving community feedback on its plan to make Park Avenue more park-like, released a new design that would remove an extra traffic lane to add a two-way bike lane.
• Chaos erupted at Grand Central Terminal yesterday morning after a woman "experiencing an emotional crisis," according to police, reportedly threatened other passengers on a Metro-North train, telling them "this will be your last day on earth."
• Police are investigating after officers found a dead woman’s body in a garbage can near a busy intersection in Sheepshead Bay yesterday.
• A judge yesterday allowed landlords challenging New York City's rent freeze for stabilized apartments — which is set to take effect Oct. 1 — to seek written communications between Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration and the independent Rent Guidelines Board.
• Teachers unions are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to reverse plans to join the Trump administration's “school choice” program, warning it would siphon students and money away from New York’s public schools.
• The NYPD’s top lawyer told the City Council yesterday that the department needs to fix how police officers issue civil summonses given the high rate of tickets that get tossed.
  • The NYPD's response followed a Gothamist report that showed nearly half the department’s 98,000 civil quality-of-life tickets were tossed out last fiscal year, often due to illegible or inaccurate handwriting. 
• New York City has received its first two Throne bathrooms: Modular public robotoilets that can be unlocked via smartphone or tap card and offer users 10 minutes — and not a second longer — to relieve themselves in peace.

• Believe it or not, New Jersey is the safest state in the country for teen drivers and New York is number two, according to a WalletHub report.
• Famed Meatpacking District nightclub 1OAK — whose co-owner, Richie Akiva, was arrested earlier this year in connection with the beating of a man with a metal pipe while he was sleeping in his own bed — reopened for a special Fashion Week party.
• City Councilmember Chi Ossé, a rumored future U.S. Senate hopeful, recently spoke at a pair of events upstate.
• An 11,000-square-foot Manhattan Beach mansion with a saltwater fish tank and walls covered in pure silk could be yours for an asking price of $13.5 million.
• The Feast of San Gennaro kicks off today.
• The fitness competition series Hyrox is refunding some participants of an event in which one competitor soiled herself on the course.
• The Brisbane 2023 Olympics is going ahead with holding the rowing competition in crocodile-inhabited waters.