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Weather: Cloudy early, then May could bring showers (and fog). The high should reach the mid-50s.
Alternate-side parking: In effect until May 27 (Memorial Day).
After three years of construction, the new Statue of Liberty Museum will have a May 16 grand opening, and the invited guests include a bevy of Democratic elected officials.
And President Trump.
The mere possibility of his holding forth next to Lady Liberty has created a buzz in political circles and among immigration advocates.
The president has not confirmed attendance, and neither have the other prominent invited elected officials, said Suzanne Mannion, a spokeswoman for the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which built the museum and is managing the grand opening.
[Everyone’s welcome at the Statue of Liberty. Except tour guides.]
But with Mr. Trump on a guest list that includes the likes of Governor Cuomo, Gov. Philip Murphy of New Jersey, Senator Chuck Schumer, Representative Jerrold Nadler and Mayor de Blasio, it might make for one awkward ribbon-cutting.
Some anti-Trump Democrats say the president should be excluded on the ground that his tough immigration stance mocks the statue’s welcoming spirit, epitomized by the famous lines on its bronze plaque from the Emma Lazarus poem: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
“President Trump’s anti-immigrant rants and policies are diametrically opposed to everything the Statue of Liberty stands for,” said Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo. “His attendance would be truly ironic, and the mere symbolism of it should be offensive to all Americans whose ancestors were guided into this country by her torch.”
But some Republicans called the setting ideal for Mr. Trump to hold forth on immigration.
“The president should be welcome to come and deliver a speech at the statue, to highlight the benefits of legal immigration that built this country from its foundations,” said City Councilman Joseph Borelli, a Republican from Staten Island. “I suppose his base would enjoy him delivering an immigration speech while Governor Cuomo and Murphy sit silent.”
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Some politicos made sport of the whole thing.
The president could speak near the statue “as long as they cover her eyes,” quipped Bob Liff, a Democratic political consultant, who added, “Are they going to redact sections of Emma Lazarus’s poem?”
Bill O’Reilly — a Republican political consultant, not the former Fox commentator — said: “This could be the greatest episode of ‘Survivor’ ever — Chuck Schumer, Donald Trump and Jerry Nadler on an island together right in New York Harbor. Huge ratings.”
Politics aside, the museum should be pretty nifty: a 26,000-square-foot space that will feature the original glowing torch, interactive galleries and an immersive theater.
Which L.G.B.T.Q. figures should get monuments?
The Times’s Ginia Bellafante writes:
New York City has been thinking more reflectively about what and who is memorialized in our public spaces.
Despite the vital role that members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community have played in the cultural and civic life of the city, our means of honoring them have been thin. Beyond a statue of Gertrude Stein in Bryant Park, there are the Gay Liberation Monument and the AIDS memorial in the West Village. Commemorative sculptures have been slow to take shape.
In honor of the city’s hosting World Pride this year, we are asking readers to tell us whom they would like to see immortalized this way.
Use this form to see more details and make your pitches.
From The Times
[Want more news from New York and around the region? Check out our full coverage.]
The mini crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.
What we’re reading
Climate activists urging Senator Chuck Schumer to co-sponsor Green New Deal legislation were arrested outside his Manhattan office. [Gothamist]
The owner of Tin Pan Alley buildings cited racist songs to try to block them from being landmarked. [New York Post]
“The Simpsons” made a jab at upstate New York. Governor Cuomo’s office jabbed back. [Fox News]
Playgrounds per capita: The New York City comptroller said the city ranked 48th among major municipalities. [Curbed NY]
Is it discrimination to choose a roommate by zodiac sign? (I confess I read this article because I am a Capricorn.) [The Guardian]
Coming up today
Preet Bharara, the former United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, talks with Margaret Hoover, the host of “Firing Line,” about his new book at New York University School of Law in Manhattan. 6 p.m. [Free]
Bring a dance partner to salsa night, led by Tito Puente Jr., at Bryant Park in Manhattan. 6 p.m. [Free]
A poetry reading in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, followed by a short film, at the Derfner Judaica Museum in the Bronx. 6:30 p.m. [Free with R.S.V.P.]
Play an acoustic instrument? Join a traditional slow jam at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn. 7 p.m. [$5]
— Elisha Brown
Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.
And finally: Grand Central’s new ‘big board’
There was a time when train arrivals and departures at Grand Central Terminal were written in chalk on blackboards.
Then came those classic rows of flip panels — their continuous clacking was part of commuters’ soundtrack — above the terminal’s elegant, stone-framed ticket windows, providing times, tracks and statuses for Metro-North Railroad trains.
And even as the terminal’s main departure display — known as the big board — was modernized in recent decades with digital letters and numbers, it retained its old-school feel.
Now the big board is getting a big revamping: Terminal officials are refitting the older electronic display, whose mechanisms had grown obsolete, with one that will be brighter and easier to read.
The board’s housing will remain intact, and the new graphics will have a retro look to maintain the board’s historical integrity in the context of the 1913 terminal’s landmarked interior.
The board’s new technology can better estimate train arrivals and communicate service changes during emergencies or other service disruptions, Metro-North officials said.
The job, which is scheduled to be completed in June, is part of a larger $124 million effort to improve communications at the terminal and along Metro-North’s commuter lines, the officials said.
The project also includes the installation of new public address systems and departure monitors at the smaller stations, they said.
Metropolitan Diary: History lesson
Dear Diary:
On a recent trip from Florida to New York, my hometown, I spent an afternoon at the Museum of Natural History. I hadn’t been there in decades and I wanted to see the Northwest Coast Hall.
I asked a tour guide standing near the hall to direct me.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “That hall is closed for restoration.”
When I mentioned that I hadn’t been to the museum in some time, she asked if I would like a get-reacquainted tour.
It was just the two of us, and her broad range of knowledge and engaging personality impressed me. We visited the climate change exhibit, the Great Canoe, the blue whale, the fossil hall and Tyrannosaurus rex, and she provided personal anecdotes along with background information on each exhibit.
That evening I attended Falstaff at the Met. As I settled into my seat before the performance began, I exchanged pleasantries with two women sitting to my right.
“What have you been doing while you are here?” one of them asked.
“I had a wonderful time at the Museum of Natural History earlier today,” I said.
“Oh, really,” the woman exclaimed. “My friend and I are docents there.”
“I had a wonderful guide there who gave me a personal tour,” I said. “She was terrific.”
“Oh really? Who was it?”
When I mentioned the name, both woman scoffed.
“Oh, we don’t like her,” one said. “She just crams too much knowledge down your throat.”
— Joseph P. Tully
New York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com.
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