Updated 2:50 p.m. | A strange species of transport is appearing around the city: taxi cabs painted a sickly sour-apple green.
Do not fear them.
They’re called Boro Taxis, and they have made 285,000 trips since they were rolled out in August, officials said this week.
Boro Taxis were created to serve cab-starved neighborhoods.
You can’t hail them at airports or in Manhattan below East 96th or West 110th Street.
Anywhere else, just stick up your hand.
They can take you anywhere (including places where they can’t pick up).
The green cabs have their opponents.
Critics point out that the ban on pickups in yellow-cab territory sends green cabs back to their pickup zone empty, wasting gas and time.
Boro Taxis have the same fares as regular cabs, the same credit-card readers and G.P.S. gear — “all the comforts of yellow home,” said Allan Fromberg, a city spokesman.
Those 285,000 rides are not much, compared with the 50 million yellow-cab trips since August.
But the Boro Taxis are spreading fast.
There are 1,000 of them. The city has sold permits for 5,000 more.
A map released by the city shows lots of Boro Taxi rides in Upper Manhattan, brownstone Brooklyn, western Queens and most of the Bronx.
The cabs are scarce in Staten Island and southern Brooklyn.
The city is taking your input on where to open Boro Taxi stands, at BoroTaxis.org.
Here’s what else you need to know for Thursday.
WEATHER
Not warm, but nice. Mostly sunny with a high of 52. Not quite as cold tonight.
COMMUTE
Subways: O.K. Click for latest status.
Rails: Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.
Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.
Alternate-side parking is in effect today and tomorrow.
COMING UP TODAY
• The state attorney general’s office releases a report on 150,000 arrests resulting from stop-and-frisk encounters.
• The city will auction taxi medallions for 200 wheelchair-accessible cabs.
• Mayor Bloomberg will plant a tree on Governors Island — the 800,000th tree in the Million Trees NYC Initiative.
• Grand opening for the gigantic H&M store in Times Square. Actually, it’s been open since 12:01 a.m. Lady Gaga was there.
• The star goes up on the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. It features 25,000 Swarovski crystals. Don’t try to steal it.
• “De Novo,” a play about a 14-year-old Guatemalan former gang member’s legal battle to stay in the United States, is performed at El Museo del Barrio, followed by a panel talk. Noon. [Free]
• A memorial service for Lou Reed at Lincoln Center’s Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. “No speeches. No live performances, just Lou’s voice, guitar music and songs,” the announcement says. 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. [Free]
• The author Zadie Smith reads and talks at Barnard. 6 p.m. [Free]
• A lecture at the Arsenal in Central Park on “Urban Cemeteries as Historic Landscapes,” about the Evergreens Cemetery of Brooklyn and Queens. 6 p.m. [Free]
• The jazz harpist Brandee Younger leads a quartet at the main Brooklyn Public Library. 7 p.m. [Free]
• The DOC NYC documentary festival opens with an Errol Morris film about Donald Rumsfeld. 7 and 7:30 p.m. [$25]
• For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
IN THE NEWS
• The Strand bookstore has been running an outdoor sprinkler at night to keep homeless people from sleeping under its awning. [DNAinfo]
• The Bloomberg administration issued its last letter grades for city schools. Most were above average. [New York Times]
• Relatively good but vague news for commuters: the M.T.A. is scaling back expected fare and toll increases. [New York Times]
• Lower Manhattan residents are suing over what they call the “fortresslike” security plan for the World Trade Center. [New York Times]
• The Port Authority police helped talk an 18-year-old out of jumping off the George Washington Bridge — via Facebook. [DNAinfo]
• An aging Andean she-bear at the Queens Zoo has been given a French lover 21 years her junior in hope that she will reproduce. [Daily News]
• Scoreboard: Knicks beat Hawks, 95-91. Kings conquer Nets, 107-86.
AND FINALLY…
Sometimes, cultural preservation means the preservation of cucumbers.
That is, pickles.
Tonight at 6 p.m., the Workmen’s Circle, a Jewish fraternal organization, is holding a free-for-all instructional session on the theme “Pickle Like It’s 1895.”
It happens at the group’s headquarters in the garment district.
Pickling materials will supplied.
You will leave with your own jar of fresh kosher dills.
Updated They only have enough cucumbers for 20 people, so B.Y.O.C., just in case.
Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.
New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.
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