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Dave's Picks | NYT | How N.Y.C.’s Population Expert Says the City Will Bounce Back

Dave's Picks | NYT | How N.Y.C.’s Population Expert Says the City Will Bounce Back

Joseph J. Salvo is optimistic about New York City’s recovery after the pandemic. Recently retired after nearly 30 years as New York City’s chief demographer, Speak to Dave sends cheers and a huge thank you to Joseph!

Dave's Picks | Your Brookyln Guide's Best + Most Famous Pizzas in Brooklyn

Dave's Picks | Your Brookyln Guide's Best + Most Famous Pizzas in Brooklyn

Oh geez foodies

prepare yourselves for quite possibly the most exhaustive list of pizza joints in all the land you’re stompin’ on. And let’s not fight about it: we at Speak to Dave believe in making pizza, not war!

Feast your eyes on the incredible specimens below, bookmark the source and scoot your pizza lovin’ booties to these fine establishments and get you a slice ASAP.

HOLY HOLY . . . 👀

Dave's Picks ICYMI | NPR • Housing Projects And Empty Lots. Chanell Stone Reframes Nature Photography

Dave's Picks ICYMI | NPR • Housing Projects And Empty Lots. Chanell Stone Reframes Nature Photography

California-based photographer Chanell Stone

is challenging the genre of nature photography, made popular in the 1900s by (typically white) men like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. The idea back then being that nature was remote, wild, and untouched — environments she notes in this NPR piece have too often been off limits or inaccessible to low income Black people.

Dave's Picks | NYT Opinion | They Escaped During The Pandemic. Now They Must PAY.

Dave's Picks | NYT Opinion | They Escaped During The Pandemic. Now They Must PAY.

Ok real talk. Do you have sharp thoughts or opinions! about NYC COVID deflectors? Cheekie Mr. Luke Winkie penned an Op-Ed for the NYT — in a voice we rather dig.

Dave's Picks | NYT | 90,000 Packages Are Stolen in N.Y.C. Every Day. How One Building Fought Back.

Dave's Picks | NYT | 90,000 Packages Are Stolen in N.Y.C. Every Day. How One Building Fought Back.

Interesting followup on package theft, a topic we’ve visited before — but this time, people are fighting back and we gotta say, you love to see it.

With rampant package theft still an ongoing problem, Speak to Dave is here to help you — just contact Jeff or Asa for a solution. But first, read on for tips and options to avoid theft in the first place.

Dave's Picks | Dr. Fauci Card Selling For $5k Proves Everything Is a Collectible

Dave's Picks | Dr. Fauci Card Selling For $5k Proves Everything Is a Collectible

Pretty crazy piece on the expansion of what is now considered collectible. Read: Just about anything and EVERYTHING. As big fans of Dr. Fauci here, we like this one. Hashtag Approved!

ArtNet | Artist Nick Cave Just Won a Bizarre Legal Fight Over Whether His Political Mural in a New York Village Is Actually Art. (It Is)

ArtNet | Artist Nick Cave Just Won a Bizarre Legal Fight Over Whether His Political Mural in a New York Village Is Actually Art. (It Is)

The town's board unanimously ruled that Cave’s text installation is indeed an artwork.

Taylor Dafoe, February 4, 2021

NYT | Covid Pushes Real Estate Into the Future

NYT | Covid Pushes Real Estate Into the Future

Ever wonder ..

how COVID-19 will affect our daily lives beyond the current landscape and how industries such as real estate will propel us forward? If robotic furniture and design innovations are your thing, then whoa, this NYT essay is for you.

Dave's Picks | NYTMag | ‘I Voted’ Stickers for Everyone Who Needs One

Dave's Picks | NYTMag | ‘I Voted’ Stickers for Everyone Who Needs One

A New York Magazine collab with 48 artists.

Hey kids look: Stickers! Super cool VOTING Edition!! And please, I know you know but DON’T SIT THIS ELECTION OUT. We need all hands ON DECK.

From NY Mag:

Perhaps you’re voting by mail this year. Millions of Americans are doing so, more than ever before, and many of them for the first time. What these voters need is I VOTED stickers. And so New York, in partnership with I am a voter., asked 48 artists to design them. The cover of the October 26 issue of the magazine will be converted to a sticker sheet, featuring contributions from Shepard Fairey, KAWS, Barbara Kruger, David Hammons, Laurie Simmons, Amy Sherald, Baron Von Fancy, Marilyn Minter, Lorna Simpson, Tawny Chatmon, Rico Gatson, Zipeng Zhu, Adam Pendleton, Adam J. Kurtz, Zaria Forman, and many more. There will be four different covers, each with 12 stickers — enough that each reader can wear a different one daily, from publication through to Election Day.

Dave's Picks | ICYMI — Banksy's London Tube Artwork

Dave's Picks | ICYMI — Banksy's London Tube Artwork

In the ongoing saga of whether to mask or unmask in the age of a raging pandemic. We found this Banksy video post capturing the work in progress (and ensuing development) fascinating to say the least.

So you know, all of us in Speak to Dave Land falls squarely in the former camp. Wear your masks, people. Stay safe, be kind, be smart and remember, the name of the game is staying alive!

BEATSTRO⁠ | The Bronx’s first hip-hop restaurant

BEATSTRO⁠ | The Bronx’s first hip-hop restaurant

Beatstro is a Bronx restaurant that reaches deep into the heart of Speak to Dave — check it out and hope to see you there sometime! Pro Tip: Don’t read this piece while hungry. Or do. RACE YA THERE!

Dave's Picks | NYT | New Loses Iconic Graphic Designer Milton Glaser

Dave's Picks | NYT | New Loses Iconic Graphic Designer Milton Glaser

Remembering Milton Glaser, Master Designer of ‘I ♥ NY’ Logo

He was also a founder of New York magazine, created a memorable Bob Dylan poster and produced designs for everything from supermarkets to restaurants to “Mad Men.”

Gothamist | Bed-Stuy Gets Its Own Gigantic "Black Lives Matter" Street Painting

Gothamist | Bed-Stuy Gets Its Own Gigantic "Black Lives Matter" Street Painting

By Sophia Chang June 14, 2020

YES. Bed Stuy represent!

Taking inspiration from the gigantic Black Lives Matter street painting near the White House in Washington D.C., community leaders and volunteers painted a street in the heart of Bed-Stuy with the same message Saturday.

Dave's Picks | NYT | Take One Last Look at the (Many) Plastic Bags of New York

Dave's Picks | NYT | Take One Last Look at the (Many) Plastic Bags of New York

Alright kids, today — MARCH 1 — marks the first day of the new ban on plastic bags in NYC and all of NYS. Let’s a have a look back in this fun, rather beautiful at times, Ode to a Plastic Bag photo essay and commentary. Ohhhh BAGS. We hardly knew ya.

WSJ | How Huey Lewis Found ‘The Power of Love’

WSJ | How Huey Lewis Found ‘The Power of Love’

Hey kids, fun piece about how Back to the Future's theme song came to be, and how it almost didn’t. A powerful reminder to check your gut instincts when creative or career choices arise. Ya never know what’s gonna stick, man. Follow your gut!

A Twist in California’s Homeless Crisis: Evictions by the Evicted

A Twist in California’s Homeless Crisis: Evictions by the Evicted

Not to bring anyone down, but a surprising, ironic trend is developing in the very sad area of homelessness in California, in which the homeless are hired to deliver eviction notices in order to survive.

We found this think piece very Speak to Dave worthy and hope one day to be past the devastating reality of far too many unhoused Americans.

Dave's Picks | NYT | ‘High Maintenance’ and the New TV Fantasy of New York

Dave's Picks | NYT | ‘High Maintenance’ and the New TV Fantasy of New York

Well now. In which we discuss the merits of television (“It’s not TV, Dave. It’s HBO”.) portraying our fair city . . . Do they get it right or nah?

By Willy Staley | Jan. 30, 2020

It was probably during the fourth episode of the second season of HBO’s “High Maintenance” when I finally noticed what it was up to. The show follows a weed dealer known only as The Guy while he bikes around Brooklyn, leading the viewer into his customers’ homes and lives, where the cameras remain long after he’s gone, letting us peer into their problems, quirks, traumas and anxieties. Like many representations of New York on TV, it’s loosely predicated on the notion that people who live here are inherently more interesting than people who live in, say, Milwaukee. This particular episode centers on a man named Baruch who has just left one of Brooklyn’s ultra-­Orthodox sects. His hair is still twisted into payos, and he’s crashing with a friend in a squalid railroad apartment, looking for whatever work he can find by plugging search terms like “kosher jobs” into Craigslist. He tells his friend that he’s going on a date with a shiksa, one who has been asking him penetrating questions. “Wait a minute,” the friend responds. “Is she a writer?”