Good morning on this steamy Tuesday.
The site where La Guardia Airport now operates was once home to the popular Gala Amusement Park, but amusement is the last thing weary travelers now feel as they trudge through the place.
The four terminals and myriad walkways often feel like a house of mirrors, and waiting times on the runway can give passengers the kind of stomachaches typically reserved for roller-coaster rides.
But on Monday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a $4 billion plan to revamp the beleaguered airport, which has become the punch line to many jokes – including the well-known “third world country” line delivered by the vice president himself.
The new design, scheduled to open in 2021, calls for one central terminal that architecturally unites the constellation of existing terminals by razing some buildings and repurposing others, and clears the way for more taxiway space.
La Guardia travelers can only hope that they will be treated as well as the dogs, cats, and reptiles at ARK, a soon-to-be-built luxury animal terminal at Kennedy Airport that will feature canine hotel suites with flat-screen televisions.
What improvements would you like to see in the new La Guardia?
Here’s what else is happening:
WEATHER
It seems we’re back to scorching temperatures for the near future, with a heat advisory in effect until Wednesday evening. Today is humid and mostly sunny, with a high of 90.
IN THE NEWS
• A Harlem school principal who killed herself amid a cheating scandal admitted to forging students’ exam answers. [New York Times]
• Less than 10 percent of the sidewalk curbs along Broadway meet the standards of the Americans With Disabilities Act, according to a new report. [WNYC]
• The Civilian Complaint Review Board ruled that a Bronx police sergeant used excessive force in shoving a handcuffed 14-year-old boy through a plate-glass window. [Daily News]
• Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dropped $25 million on a seven-bedroom, 18th-century mansion in London. [New York Times]
• Scoreboard: Yankees outduel Rangers, 6-2.
• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Tuesday Briefing.
COMING UP TODAY
• Watch a performance of Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” at Castle Clinton in Battery Park. 7 p.m. [Free]
• St. John’s University is hosting its 17th Annual Great Lawn Summer Concert on the Great Lawn of its Queens campus, featuring a performance by the Queens Symphony Orchestra. 7 p.m. [Free]
• “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” plays outdoors at the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center in Greenwich Village. Starts at 8:15 p.m., but doors open an hour early. [Free]
• Hear some storytelling from the TALE, at Three of Cups in Manhattan. 8:30 p.m. [$5]
• For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
COMMUTE
• Railroads: 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 Aug. 15.
• Ferries: Staten Island Ferry, New York Waterway, East River Ferry
• Airports: La Guardia, J.F.K., Newark
AND FINALLY …
On this date in 1917, more than 8,000 African-Americans marched silently down Fifth Avenue in what is widely regarded as New York’s first mass civil rights protest.
Their footsteps matched only by the muffled beat of drums, the marchers demonstrated against the rampant lynchings of African-Americans, including a race riot that year in East St. Louis, Ill., that left at least 40 black people dead.
The 1917 marchers, organized by W. E. B. Du Bois and the N.A.A.C.P., walked in their Sunday finest behind signs reading “Thou Shalt Not Kill?” and “Your Hands Are Full of Blood.”
The Times the next morning noted that, “Without a shout or a cheer they made their cause known.”
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