Good morning on this cloudy Tuesday.
On Monday, in an airport hangar in Queens, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced design competitions for Kennedy and La Guardia Airports.
Each of the winning teams will receive $500,000.
One particularly vocal airport critic, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was there.
In February, he compared La Guardia to an airport in a third world country.
We checked in with Patrick McGeehan, The Times’s reporter who covered Monday’s meeting at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Flushing.
Our first question: Did anyone refer to the vice president’s joke?
Mr. McGeehan said the governor quoted the quip, then asked, in the form of a multiple-choice question: “Who said it? Texas governor Rick Perry? Jay Leno? Donald Trump? Or none of the above?”
“And then he went on to say he agreed.”
Mr. Cuomo said the design competitions, which open in 30 days, would not interfere with the Port Authority’s plan to rebuild La Guardia’s main terminal.
Mr. Biden did not retract his criticism, Mr. McGeehan said.
Indeed, the vice president took another shot at the airport.
“It’s unacceptable that La Guardia has the worst passenger service in the world,” he said.
Mr. Cuomo gave a 15-minute presentation. Mr. Biden responded with a 25-minute “ramble” on the importance of infrastructure.
“It was kind of like performance art,” Mr. McGeehan said.
Three other people were on the panel. Not that they made a memorable impression.
“They never said a word,” he added.
Share your ideas on how La Guardia and J.F.K. could be redesigned in the comments or on Twitter with #nytoday.
Here’s what else you need to know for Tuesday.
WEATHER
Half-full or half-empty, depending on who you are. Sun in the morning, clouds in the afternoon, with a high of 67.
Pessimists may bring umbrellas and delight tonight, as showers fall.
COMING UP TODAY
• The mayor and the governor speak at an Ebola education session hosted by the Centers for Disease Control at the Javits Center. 10 a.m. [Livestream]
• Mmm. “Food Policy for Breakfast,” a panel on making university food “a force for food change,” at CUNY Graduate Center. 9 a.m. [Free]
• Bryant Park’s Winter Village returns with its ice skating rink and warren of shops. Noon.
• Taxi drivers call on the City Council to pass legislation requiring a warning, in 22-point Cambria, that assaulting them carries a 25-year prison sentence. City Hall steps. 2:30 p.m.
• Annie Lennox signs her new CD, featuring standards like “I Put a Spell on You,” at Barnes & Noble at Union Square. 7 p.m. [Free]
• Opening day of the CMJ Music Marathon, featuring Sofar Sounds, a group that puts on concerts in people’s homes. Details available with registration. [$140 per show]
• For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
COMMUTE
• L.I.R.R., Metro-North, N.J. Transit, Amtrak
• Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.
• Alternate-side parking: in effect until Thursday.
• Air travel: La Guardia, J.F.K., Newark.
IN THE NEWS
• Several hundred protested the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “The Death of Klinghoffer” on its opening night at Lincoln Center. [New York Times]
• New York University has prohibited travel to Ebola-affected countries for university purposes. [Capital New York]
• Governor Cuomo said the federal government should consider banning some flights from West Africa. [New York Times]
• A carriage horse named Bernie briefly escaped and trotted through Hell’s Kitchen.[New York Post]
• More than 700 homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy are finally being fixed under a long-stalled city program. [New York Times]
• If you’re in the market for part of a giant rust-covered sports arena, Barclays Center is for sale. [Wall Street Journal]
• There are more licensed taxi drivers than ever, but fewer are driving yellow cabs. “Yellow cab company is hard,” one driver said. [ABC]
• Business owners on the Upper West Side are dreading the end of the Allman Brothers’ long run at the Beacon Theater. [Wall Street Journal]
• Oscar de la Renta died from complications of cancer in Connecticut. The fashion designer was 82. [New York Times]
• For a global look at the news, see Your Tuesday Briefing.
AND FINALLY …
The New York Public Library has long collected maps documenting the changing city.
These street atlases, originally commissioned by insurance companies, contain hundreds of stories: buildings that have been destroyed, streets that have been renamed, neighborhoods that have vanished.
Now the library has undertaken to “make these lost places findable” using contemporary digital maps like Google’s.
And it needs your help.
At a free workshop”>workshop on Nov. 18, you can learn to use the library’s tools to add valuable geographic context to the old maps.
“There are literally thousands of maps to process — far too big a job for N.Y.P.L. to do on its own. So we’re enlisting you, our Citizen Cartographer corps, to help,” the library says.
(Correction: An earlier version of this post had an incorrect date for the workshop. The workshop takes place on Nov. 18, not Oct. 21.)
Kenneth Rosen contributed reporting.
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