All Over NYC: Food Trucks, A Weird Looking Building + More

Here are some brief summaries of trending stories around NYC. Follow each link for more info!

The City Council has voted to approve a bill which will increase the number of food vendor permits by 4,000 by 2032. While advocates and prospective vendors have been waiting for this for years, some restaurant owners and business improvement districts argue the new curbside competition will make matters worse for already struggling restaurant owners.  [ Eater ]

At a Wednesday press conference, Governor Cuomo said he would release a new plan to allow NYC restaurants to offer indoor dining at a 25% capacity by the end of this week, though this contradicts a statement he made on Monday, when he said his administration was not contemplating the return of indoor dining anytime soon. Some restaurant owners are arguing that a 50% capacity would be more reasonable. [ Eater ]

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Turkish architecture firm, Hayri Atak, has revealed designs for a snake like ‘amorphous tower.’ Sarcostyle Tower “is inspired by biological concepts, including anatomy and cells.” [ Design Boom ] A new report by the Department of Planning says that 20% of NYC hotels have closed, with 146 out of 705 closing between January and September of 2020. [ NY1 ] New data suggests enrollment numbers at NYC public schools have dropped by 43,000, or 4%, for the 2020-2021 school year. [ Patch ] Over a dozen vaccination sites which had temporarily closed due to supply shortages have now reopened. According to Mayor de Blasio, Governor Cuomo has agreed to release 18,000 second doses to the city. A mega-vaccination site at Citi-Field may also be opening as soon as February. [ NBC New York ] The Panel for Education Policy voted against Mayor de Blasio’s proposed extension of the Gifted and Talented exam this spring, which assesses the abilities of students as young as four years old. Opponents expressed concerns that a single test could determine the future of these students. [ NY Daily News ]