Heard Around Town
We got fooled today. Did you?
The best April Fools’ Day pranks in New York politics.
This is what happens when you get rid of the rat czar. New York City Department of Buildings, on X
As the member of City & State’s team who edits First Read every morning starting at 5:30 a.m., I pride myself on being very cautious and meticulous about what is ultimately sent out to our nearly 35,000 subscribers every morning at 7 a.m. (Sahalie Donaldson, who compiles First Read every morning, can confirm: I’m almost irritatingly scrupulous about it.)
So I was very embarrassed to learn that today, on April Fools’ Day, we got got: We ran a story in First Read by Streetsblog that was actually an April Fools’ joke. The story – which Streetsblog updated to say it’s a prank after it appeared in First Read – said several New York City Council members were forming a pro-car caucus, Develop Roadways In Virtually Everyplace, or DRIVE. Members “quoted” in the story include Queens Council Members Vickie Paladino and Joann Ariola, as well as Brooklyn’s Farah Louis (who, by the way, might be hard to reach at the moment!).
Many hours removed, we’re able to laugh about it – and some other April Fools’ stories and posts that made us chuckle here at City & State:
- OK, Streetsblog, we didn’t fall for this one: “Mamdani To Convert Streets Into Rome-Style ‘Piazzas,’ Starting in Paladino and Ariola’s Districts”
- The New York City Department of Buildings says, in jest, it has approved the city’s first “earthscrapper,” which will stretch 90 stories underground.
- City Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu sent out a (fake) press release calling for “a moratorium on dogs” citing public health and sanitation concerns. Not a dog person, I take it?
- An on-time state budget? Too good to be true, Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest.
- And New York’s X account fooled everyone by saying “in” Long Island rather than “on.” (At least, we hope it was a joke.)