Good morning on this ominously mild Tuesday:
It’s 58 degrees, but snow is coming.
It’s nearly time to give thanks.
That could mean volunteering.
And there is good reason to do so.
The number of people in city shelters reached 58,562 last week, and homelessness appears to be rising.
The Bowery Mission, which will have its 135th Thanksgiving, plans to serve 1,600 meals.
Its volunteer slots are full, but food donations are being accepted around the clock at 227 Bowery (near Prince Street; look for the double green doors).
Milk, butter and eggs are especially welcome; they’ve got the turkeys and potatoes covered.
Pork, beef and chicken are also gladly received, as the charity continues to serve three meals a day.
Le Pain Quotidien declared this “Bowery Mission Week” in all of its Manhattan cafes and is collecting financial donations at the cash registers.
Or you can donate to the Bowery Mission directly or check out its list of different ways to help.
Here are some other places to volunteer this week and beyond:
• FeedingNYC needs helpers to hand-deliver Thanksgiving meals.
• Citymeals on Wheels also needs people to hand-deliver meals, and more.
• God’s Love We Deliver had a race last weekend, but still welcomes help delivering meals to people with life-threatening illnesses.
• And Mommy Poppins has its guide to Thanksgiving volunteering with children.
Here’s what else you need to know.
WEATHER
A day to get ready: The temperature falls to the mid-50s, pauses under partly sunny skies, then heads toward winter tonight.
A cold rain starts before dawn. By lunchtime it turns to wet snow.
At least four inches falls in the city, up to a foot north and west.
COMING UP TODAY
• The mayor and first lady volunteer, too, serving lunch at a soup kitchen in the Bronx.
• The multiracial city: City Council members unveil a bill to allow residents to select multiple ethnicities on government documents. 10 a.m. outside City Hall.
• Protesters against the Ferguson grand jury decision gather in Union Square at 7 p.m.
• A new dog run opens at Dyker Beach Park in Brooklyn. 11 a.m.
• Old food: an illustrated lecture on the 19th-century rise of New York as a gastronomic capital, at Mid-Manhattan Library. 6:30 p.m. [Free]
• A talent show featuring public-housing residents aged 6 to 76, at the Rubenstein Atrium in Lincoln Center. 7:30 p.m. [Free]
• A concert of sacred and secular Bach works by the Baroque Aria Ensemble at Manhattan School of Music. 7:30 p.m. [Free]
• Devils at Vancouver, 10 p.m. (MSG+).
• For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
COMMUTE
• L.I.R.R., Metro-North, N.J. Transit, Amtrak
• Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.
• Alternate-side parking: in effect until Thursday.
• Air travel: La Guardia, J.F.K., Newark.
IN THE NEWS
• New York is one of three finalists to host the 2016 Democratic convention, along with Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio. [New York Times]
• Photo: Police Commissioner Bratton was spattered with fake blood at a Times Square protest after the Ferguson grand jury decision. [Gothamist]
• The city and state will pay nearly $7 million to the widow of a Bronx man who served 12 years on a murder conviction that was later overturned. [New York Times]
• A city police officer is accused of keeping more than 100 child-pornography videos on his home computer. [Staten Island Advance]
• A bill before the City Council would ban the sale of pet rabbits and prohibit pet shops from buying dogs from puppy mills. [New York Post]
• Pay to play it, Sam: The piano from “Casablanca” sold for $3.4 million at auction. [New York Times]
• De Robertis pastry shop, an East Village mainstay for 110 years, is closing next week. [Bedford+Bowery]
• Fears of flooding from melted snow around Buffalo have proven unfounded so far. [NY State of Politics]
• Scoreboard: Bills stampede Jets, 38-3. Rockets over Knicks, 91-86. Islanders bring down Flyers, 1-0 in shootout.
• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Tuesday Briefing.
AND FINALLY …
A hundred and fifty years ago today, Confederate saboteurs tried to burn down New York City.
They set 21 simultaneous fires, mostly in hotels, hoping to overwhelm the city’s volunteer fire department.
The attack, while well planned, touched off only a minor panic.
“Had it been executed with one-half the ability with which it was drawn up,” The Times reported, “no human power could have saved this city from utter destruction.”
In a scene out of a far-fetched historical novel, one fire interrupted a performance of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” at the Winter Garden Theater starring the brothers Booth –- Edwin, Junius Jr. and John Wilkes, our colleague Sam Roberts writes this morning.
John Wilkes Booth, of course, would go on to wreak far greater havoc with a single gunshot.
Kenneth Rosen contributed reporting.
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