| |
| It's Friday. Cue the Rebecca Black. |
 |
| Weather: Bright and toasty with a high of 88 followed by a sunny weekend. |
| Alternate-side parking: In effect until Aug. 11. |
 Jason Jermaine Armond for The New York Times |
| A leading face — and force — behind some of New York's biggest subway improvements is exiting at the next station. |
| John Raskin, the co-founder of the Riders Alliance, a public transit advocacy group that has long been applying public pressure on elected officials, is stepping down after nearly eight years at the group's helm. |
| Riders Alliance has helped usher in some of the city's biggest subway victories — the introduction of the Fair Fares program, which offers half-price MetroCards to New Yorkers with incomes below the federal poverty line; congestion pricing, a plan to raise money for the subway; and the hashtag #CuomosMTA, tying Governor Cuomo to the system he runs. |
| And while Mr. Raskin says we're still far away from an optimized system, now, he says, is as good a time as ever to step down and make way for a new leader. |
| We caught up with him this week. His answers have been edited for length and clarity. |
| Why are you leaving? |
| In order for an organization to succeed for the long term, it should not be too reliant on any one individual leader. And this is a good time for me to move on. We're coming off some recent successes that will make a difference in riders' lives. |
| What, for you, has been the biggest improvement with New York public transit? |
| Subway service has improved and there is a plan underway to make buses better. |
| But I think the biggest change we've seen in the past few years is a clear accountability for the governor and members of the State Legislature who feel the pressure from their constituents to prioritize the needs of the transit system. |
| In a sense, the biggest achievement of the Riders Alliance so far is bringing a new level of accountability. |
| Are there any glaring public transit challenges that stick out? |
| The core challenge for the subway system in the coming year is going to be whether new money from congestion pricing and other revenue sources successfully translates into new equipment and new signals that will give everyone a more reliable and more comfortable ride. |
| How do you feel about the state of the Fair Fares policy? |
| Fair Fares is on track to be a hugely successful program. |
| The city is rolling it out in phases, and I think the most recent public information that we saw was that approximately 50,000 people had signed up for Fair Fares so far. |
| But in the coming years the city is going to transition to opening the Fair Fares program to everyone who is income eligible. |
| And that will be the greatest test of the program's success. When anyone earning an income below the poverty line can walk into the Fair Fares office and sign up for the benefit, that is when Fair Fares will be operating at its peak capacity. |
| Manhattanhenge |
 Mike Pont/Getty Images North America |
| It's back. |
| Manhattanhenge, that magical time of year when the sunset aligns perfectly with Manhattan's street grid for a beautiful sight (and picture-perfect Instagram posts) will happen for the second time this year. |
| Set your alarms for today at 8:20 p.m. and Saturday at 8:21 p.m. |
| Remember to be punctual. This is the last chance you'll have to experience Manhattanhenge until 2020. In the meantime, check out our Science department's explanation of the science and history behind the phenomenon. |
| From The Times |
| One of New York's most famous progressive churches hired a female pastor five years ago. But now she's departing, after filing a sexual harassment complaint. |
| R. Kelly has been arrested on child pornography and other federal charges. |
| Jeffrey Epstein has an extravagant bond offer for the court to stay out of jail before trial: a mansion and a private jet. |
| A century-old tradition in Brooklyn needed some help to keep going. So local hipsters stepped in. |
| [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 |
| What a dummy. A man was stopped for driving with a peculiar passenger in his back seat. [NY Post] |
| Faulty forensics? The forensic expert Henry Lee is under fire (again). Another defendant says Mr. Lee offered inaccurate testimony that led to his imprisonment. [Hartford Courant] |
| Coming up today |
| MoMA PopRally begins its summer tour in Queens at Trans-Pecos with live music, performances and offerings from Queens Night Market. 7 p.m. [$10] |
| American Chordata, a literary and arts magazine, celebrates its newest issue with "readings and revelry" at McNally Jackson in Manhattan. 7 p.m. [Free] |
| Bring a picnic to Green-Wood Cemetery for a Night at Niblo's Garden, which hosts an evening of performances from fire eaters, contortionists and others. 7 p.m. [$40] |
| — Vivian Ewing |
| 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: An AirPod rescue |
| If you own AirPods, it's your worst nightmare: One precious bud slips from your grasp on the subway platform and ends up rolling around on the grimy tracks below. |
| That's what happened to Ashley Mayer this week when one of her Apple AirPods (which can cost as much as $200 for a pair) dropped onto the speckled station platform and then down into the gunk. And like most who drop something onto the tracks, she was ready to say goodbye forever. She tweeted, "RIP little buddy." |
 |
| But it wasn't over yet for her little buddy. When she returned the next day, it was still there. On the tracks. Completely intact. |
| She was determined to rescue it herself, and shared her mission on Twitter with her 28,400 followers. |
| Rather than wait for the M.T.A.'s dropped-items pickup crew — or, unwisely, jump onto the subway tracks — she went and bought a broom and masking tape. Then she waited for the train to pass and commuters to clear the platform. |
| Then, with her ingenious, self-fashioned, object-retrieving subway tool, she rescued her AirPod. |
| "He's filthy but he's mine (again)!" she tweeted. |
 |
| After cleaning and charging the AirPod, she posted a poll on Twitter about whether she should put it in her ear. |
| Of the 50,000 people who voted, 55 percent chose "It's the obvious ending," while 45 percent selected "Gross, don't do it." |
| Shortly after, she tweeted a photo with both AirPods in her ears and a caption that said the one rescued from the tracks was "working wonderfully." — Nefertari Elshiekh |
| Metropolitan Diary: On Underhill Avenue |
 Agnes Lee |
| Dear Diary: |
| I headed down Underhill Avenue, looking forward to running a few miles in Prospect Park. It was one of those early spring days when the city was just starting to shake off the winter. There were throngs of people in streets that had seemed desolate just a few days before. |
| As I ran past a group of children playing on the sidewalk, I heard the patter of small feet behind me. After a moment, I looked to see them matching stride with mine. |
| "Hi," I said to the boy now jogging alongside me. |
| "Hi!" he replied enthusiastically. |
| Unsure of how to continue the conversation, I ran on silently. The boy kept pace. |
| "Do you want to race?" I said after a minute. |
| "Eh," he looked off in thought for a moment. "Not really." |
| "Great," I said. "Me neither." |
| He stared down at my running shoes as another block scrolled by. |
| "Are your legs tired?" he asked. |
| "Not yet, but they will be at the end," I said. "Are you running all the way to the park, too?" |
| "No, I'm going home," he gestured into the distance. "It's just up there." |
| As we crossed the next intersection, we must have reached his street. He pulled off to the right as I continued on. Just as we separated, he called out. |
| "I didn't go to my normal school today!" |
| He turned away and continued jogging down the street. |
| — Edward Sturtevant |
