{"id":246011,"date":"2026-05-28T04:19:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/246011\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T04:19:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:19:42","slug":"thursdays-headlines-great-bridge-long-table-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/246011\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday’s Headlines: Great Bridge, Long Table Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now, you\u2019ve heard of Andy Lerner and Maryam Banikarim, who created The Longest Table, the city non-profit whose sole goal is to get neighbors together around a table, eating and talking as \u2026 neighbors.<\/p>\n

Lerner and Banikarim, who won the \u201cMost Inspiring Community Connectors\u201d award this year at the Open Plans Public Space Awards, have inspired \u201cLongest Tables\u201d in 30 cities towns and cities all over the country since 2022 (check out some on ),<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday, Banikarim raised the stakes (or were those steaks) by setting up a demonstration \u201ctable\u201d on the Brooklyn Bridge footpath to promote the group\u2019s most ambitious community event ever: A \u201cLongest Table\u201d occupying the entire Brooklyn Bridge footpath.<\/p>\n

Obviously something like that will need city approval, so organizers started their campaign on social media. Check it out below and definitely get involved. After all, we can all get behind the group\u2019s mantra: \u201cNo speeches. No agenda. Just neighbors, food, and a couple of hours to remember what community feels like. We\u2019re rebuilding it one table at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other news:<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul touted her car insurance \u201creforms\u201d during an appearance at an auto body shop in Manhattan. (NY1<\/a>) (For more, check out the latest from Austin C. Jefferson at Streetsblog Empire State<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

You love him in his\u00a0new \u201cOld Man Vertical\u201d series<\/a>\u00a0and his old horizontal \u201cCriminal Mischief\u201d series (now on Season 5!<\/a>), but now you can catch Streetsblog Editor Gersh Kuntzman on stage tonight as part of the \u201cNot In My Backyard\u201d comedy roundtable show at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater on E. 14th Street.\u00a0Details and cheap tickets are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s Van Wyck Expressway widening is allegedly almost done, nine years after it began. (Queens Eagle<\/a>)<\/p>\n

NYPD won\u2019t allow \u201cuncontrolled\u201d Knicks viewing parties, and is blaming social media influencers for earlier chaos. (Gothamist<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Cops arrested a hit-and-run driver who fled one crash only to immediately cause another, injuring two seniors in the process. (QNS<\/a>)<\/p>\n

A woman who struck and killed a man in Brooklyn almost a year-and-a-half ago was finally arrested. (News 12 Brooklyn<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Possibly related: The Bronx\u2019s official World Cup \u201cfan zone\u201d won\u2019t be on a street. (PIX11<\/a>)<\/p>\n

New York and New Jersey\u2019s attorneys general are investigating FIFA\u2019s ticket prices. (The Athletic<\/a>, WSJ<\/a>)<\/p>\n

City Council members pushed back on the mayor\u2019s underfunding of parks at a hearing on Wednesday. (NY Post<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The next World Trade Center tower is on hold due to material costs. (Crain\u2019s<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Central Park\u2019s \u201cRanger Corps\u201d are now on bikes. (NY1<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul\u2019s take on Trump\u2019s Penn Station plan<\/a>: \u201cIt looks very grand.\u201d (Ramsey Khalifeh via X<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Transit ridership is up across the country amid high gas prices. (Jalopnik<\/a>)<\/p>\n

A hit-and-run driver injured a pedestrian on Staten Island on Tuesday. (S.I. Advance<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The Mamdani administration cut the ribbon on McGuinness Boulevard on Wednesday, The City<\/a> reported. We were there, too, and appreciated that DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said that street safety projects should not be forced to wait until someone is killed. But Flynn would not commit to a timeline for beginning the capital improvement of McGuinness, which is likely years delayed in the say way that the project was delayed. (Want to know more about that delay\/Adams era corruption: Head to the latest screening of Ben Wolf\u2019s \u201cChanging Lanes\u201d next Thursday at the Greenpoint Library. Info here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a picture from the ceremony:<\/p>\n

\"\"Pols and activists, including (from left) Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn, Deputy Mayor Julia Kerson, and community leaders Bronwyn Breitner and Kevin LaCherra, toss ceremonial dirt at the groundbreaking of the McGuinness Boulevard road diet. Photo: Gersh Kuntzman<\/p>\n

\u2013 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By now, you\u2019ve heard of Andy Lerner and Maryam Banikarim, who created The Longest Table, the city non-profit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-246011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}