New York City braces for up to four inches of snow

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New York prepares for first snow of the season

New Yorkers looking for a gentle transition back to the work week after an extended Thanksgiving weekend are in for a rude awakening. The city could see up to four inches of snow during a storm forecasted to slam the city from 11 a.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Sheets of freezing rain are predicted for the city early Monday morning, but the worst of the storm isn’t expected to strike the city until the evening, potentially setting New Yorkers up for some treacherous end-of-day commutes. Snow isn’t in the forecast for the morning, but a mix of rain and gusting winds could spell trouble for late morning travelers.

Officials with the Emergency Management Department urged city dwellers to opt for public transportation when possible and to drive cautiously. Public schools have remained open, but after-school programs that require school bus trips are canceled, according to the city’s Department of Education. The Department of Sanitation is deploying 705 salt spreaders across the five boroughs and will dispatch snow plows once two inches of has fallen.

And in other news…

• After historic new protections for renters passed Albany in June, the real estate industry aims to rebound from a rough year with new tactics gleaned from grass-roots groups.
• NYCHA general manager Vito Mustaciuolo, who is tasked with tackling the lead crisis in the city’s public housing, has a questionable track record of protecting the city’s private buildings from toxic substances in a previous role he held at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
• Snow may be in the forecast this week, but at least it’s not raining rodents like on one Lower East Side handyman who in a new lawsuit says a ceiling packed with rats collapsed on him.
• A new private club launches in Hudson Yards.
• Community groups against the city’s proposed methods to overhaul the Brooklyn-Queens Express have band together with a unified vision for the crumbling road. A panel of experts assembled by Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to drop their report with recommendations this December.
• Tensions are high in Bushwick as the community awaits the much-anticipated environmental impact statement for the de Blasio administration’s proposal to rezone the Brooklyn neighborhood.
• Staten Island is seeing a surge of tourism thanks to Empire Outlets.
• And, finally, remember when design firm Wolfgang & Hite satirized Hudson Yards with a series of sex toys inspired by the megaproject’s buildings? Well, now you can actually buy the ribbed butt plug that mimics the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Vessel. How’s that for a stocking stuffer?