Good morning. It is Friday. We’ll be looking at the New York Fire Department’s latest four-legged look—not exactly mascots. We’ll also be previewing the New York City Half Marathon, back on Sunday for the first time since 2019.
The fire department’s two new best friends are robots. The department wants to send them to places where it’s too dangerous to send firefighters — places like buildings that could collapse. Or where deadly carbon monoxide, which cannot be seen or smelled, could accumulate.
It’s counting on them to change the way the city thinks about robots. Hollywood often casts robots in dystopian movies. Captain Michael Leo of the Fire Department’s robotics unit says giving guns to movie robots does real robots a disservice because “people think all robots are like that.”
“Our entire mission is life-saving,” he said. “That’s the gist. These robots will save lives.”
They cost $75,000 each and weigh 70 pounds each. Some Dalmatians weigh as much as some Borzois, German Shepherds and Pointers. The robots do not need to be fed, walked or cared for. They will never bite anyone, and after seeing a demonstration by the fire brigade, my colleague Chelsia Rose Marcius wrote that they were unfailingly obedient. They were ordered to lie down, roll over or stay, they did.
But in addition to helping with firefighting, they will have to combat the negative perception surrounding a robot dog acquired by the police in 2020. robot dog to determine if anyone was still in an apartment. More criticism followed after the robot was seen with agents in the lobby of a public housing in Manhattan.
John Miller, the police’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said the department had prematurely terminated the lease for that robot dog at the time because the device became a “target” for critics who he believes sparked the debate over breed and control.
A spokesman for the fire service said the robots would only collect data on hazardous material situations and added that the department’s compliance officers had been trained in confidentiality rules. But Albert Fox Cahn, a lawyer who is the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, expressed concern about what data the firefighting robots might collect and how that data might be used.
“When agencies buy these new systems, they always point to the best-case scenario for use,” Cahn said, “and I agree, if it’s actually used in a way that keeps firefighters safe, that would be great. history has always been that even when it’s first used for a compelling case, you get this creep where it’s used for more and more scenarios until it reaches areas where it just doesn’t feel justified.
In the Bronx, where 17 people died in high-rises in January after deadly smoke billowed from a single apartment, deploying robots in hazardous situations could save the lives of firefighters and other people, Borough President Vanessa Gibson said. She said she looked forward to a “progressive and productive conversation” with fire officials to see the robots only being used “on rare, specialized occasions, with the aim of protecting our residents and first responders”.
Weather
It is a sunny day with temperatures reaching the low 70s. Expect some showers late tonight, with temperatures dropping into the 50s.
parking on the other side
Valid until April 14 (Maundy Thursday).
Hochul calls for stricter bail law
The push for a more restrictive bail law has gained a key ally: Government Kathy Hochul is privately urging state lawmakers to make changes. According to an internal memo from The Times, she wants to increase the number of crimes that qualify for bail and give judges more freedom to account for the criminal history of suspects in cases involving serious crimes.
If implemented, those changes would reverse some of the changes to the state’s bail law passed in 2019 by the Democrat-led legislature.
Hochul, a Democrat running for her first full term as governor, has come under political pressure from Republicans and moderates in her own party. Her proposals, part of a ten-part public safety plan first reported by The New York Post, contain elements that appear to target subway crime and the rise of gun violence.
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A half marathon returns with a large field
For Sunday’s New York City Half Marathon, which returns to the streets for the first time since 2019, the course will be known: 21.1 miles from Prospect Park in Brooklyn to Central Park in Manhattan. Around Mile 11, the 25,000 participants will cruise through Times Square. The New York Half is the only event that Times Square is officially closed for, other than New Year’s Eve.
It was one of the first races to be canceled as the pandemic tightened its grip on New York City in 2020. It was canceled again last year.
This time around, the field includes 23 Olympians, eight Paralympics and six open division runners with national records in half marathons in their home country. Among them are Desiree Linden, the 2018 Boston Marathon champion; Galen Rupp, two-time Olympic medalist and winner of the 2017 Chicago Marathon and the 2016 and 2020 US Olympic Trials marathons; and Sara Hall, who set the US half marathon record in January.
My colleague Matthew Futterman calls Hall “the Energizer rabbit of elite road racing” in our Running newsletter because she fills her schedule with little downtime between distance races. Last week she ran the Tokyo Marathon and finished eighth with a time of 2 hours 22 minutes 56 seconds.
Hall said the New York City Half’s main draw was “the fun of it.” She said she is more focused on competition than on the clock – she doesn’t have a specific time in mind. This from someone who broke the American half marathon record in January with a time of 1 hour 7 minutes 15 seconds.
Matthew will also run it, as will his daughter, who is 16 and is competing in her first race. Also in the pack is Michael Gold, a Metro reporter who did our preview of the New York Marathon last fall.
“I like that Sara Hall and I are both just running for fun,” he told me. “But she’ll finish in, about half the time I need.”
What we are reading
Coach and Zabar’s collaboration has resulted in a $150 bagel t-shirt, a $495 sweater and an already sold-out $550 bag, Patch NYC reports.
The Westside Rag says 90-year-old-to-be David Goldstick has been helping beautify Riverside Park for more than 30 years. He doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.
What we subscribe to: “Where should we eat?” is the age-old question. Nikita Richardson, a food editor for the Times, has answers for New York City diners. Every Tuesday starting next week, this subscriber newsletter (free for the first four weeks) will feature recommendations from new places to beloved classics. Register here.
Dear Diary:
I came to New York City in 2019 from a Northern Canadian city to visit a friend. While she was at work, I took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.
It was a warm September day and I sat out on the deck staring at the giants: Lady Liberty loomed, tall and green; behind me, office towers shot into the blue sky. Ships passed by all around me.
I couldn’t help but think that everywhere I looked, rusted metal, shiny glass, and gray concrete dominated almost every surface.
I took a deep breath and caught a whiff of diesel vapor from tugboats vying for a piece of the harbor as the ferry clattered and screeched forward.
How do people live here? Why would anyone want to be a New Yorker with all this noise, these foul smells and hard edges?
Then something struck me. A butterfly fluttered in the breeze above the water.
Something soft had found space in the midst of all the roughness. Something small had found its own way. Something small had found a home in New York.
— Lea Story
