Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City, from WNYC. It's Monday, June 2nd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill.
Michael Hill: Equinox and SoulCycle have agreed to pay restitution to New Yorkers for making memberships at the high-end gyms too hard to cancel. WNYC's Caroline Lewis reports.
Caroline Lewis: New York Attorney General Letitia James has reached a $600,000 settlement with parent company Equinox Group over membership policies she says violated consumer protection laws. James says Equinox and SoulCycle haven't always been upfront about automatically renewing memberships, and Equinox didn't advise members properly before locking them into year-long subscriptions.
A spokesperson for Equinox Group said they've already changed their practices. Equinox Group has agreed to pay up to $250 to individuals affected by its policies. For more information, visit ag.ny.gov.
Michael Hill: A runway at Newark Airport is reopening today, two weeks ahead of schedule. The routine repairs began in March, reducing the number of runways from three to two. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says they included repaving that's usually done every decade, but work coincided with epic operational meltdowns, including air traffic controllers losing contact with planes and communication equipment failures.
The FAA has since ordered Newark to reduce its number of flights. The runway will still need to be closed nights and weekends for some remaining repairs. The FAA has not returned a call asking whether Newark can now increase its number of flights.
67 and sunny with a big warm-up this week. Sunny and 73 now, but starting tomorrow, we begin a stretch of 80-degree days with sunshine.
Janae Pierre: Stick around, there's more to come.
Sean Carlson: It's All Things Considered on WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. WNYC culture reporter Ryan Kailath is here with some fun, free, and cheap things to do this month. Hello, Ryan.
Ryan Kailath: Hello.
Sean Carlson: You always tend to bring us something a little experimental, maybe a little artsy, maybe puppety.
Ryan Kailath: Yes, puppety. Great word. All of the above. This first thing I'm bringing you new outdoor performance series. There's got to be a hundred of those now. This one's in Domino Park, and it's called, what else, Sugar, Sugar.
Sean Carlson: [laughs] Makes sense.
Ryan Kailath: Right?
Sean Carlson: Sure.
Ryan Kailath: Domino's, the fancy park there along the Williamsburg waterfront. It's a few years old now. Their new series, this is the first one, it's exactly the month of June-Long. It's got theater, it's got dance, it's got music, and it's got puppetry.
Sean Carlson: Puppets.
Ryan Kailath: Yes. There's a Juneteenth among the highlights. There's a Juneteenth theatrical concert from Troy Anthony, and just this coming Thursday, there's something called Mysteriosa. They're purposefully scant on details, but what we can tell, it's a performance that includes larger-than-life-sized puppets.
Sean Carlson: Admittedly, that all sounds so Brooklyn, Ryan, but you're also sending people to the beach this month, right? It's not too early, is it?
Ryan Kailath: Not too early. Pack a light shell just in case, but June 21st, so you should be fine, it's the Mermaid Parade.
Sean Carlson: Oh, great. Yes. Love it.
Ryan Kailath: If anyone listening has not been before, I'm going to say less because this is a treat. This is your best reason to get to Coney Island this month. I'll say no more. For everyone else, I'll say, you know it, you love it. It doesn't look like we're going to get that Coney Island casino that's been threatened, but hey, just in case, get down there for this last before the casino Mermaid Parade. Check out King Neptune.
I think the Mermaid Parade is kind of a dry run for Pride, which is, of course, at the end of the month. It's like a sillier Pride. Maybe some more straight people. I don't know.
Sean Carlson: I think that's fair. I think that's a fair comparison. Next up, you've got something a little more classic, I guess you could say, something for the blanket and picnic crowd. What's up?
Ryan Kailath: Yes. Love a blanket and a picnic in summer. The New York Phil, they are doing their concert in the parks series now with Gustavo Dudamel as conductor. Great lineup. There's four shows in the first week of June, including Dudamel leading the orchestra in Central Park on June 4th. Check my notes here. Van Cortlandt Park, then Prospect Park, and then Cunningham Park in Eastern Queens, like Fresh Meadows over there.
They're doing Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony for these shows. That's a real crowd-pleaser. People may remember it as soundtrack of the movie Birdman. Lots of other pop culture. Also, they're doing some Stravinsky from the Firebird Suite, a trumpet concerto from Arturo Sandoval, and apparently, there are fireworks after every show, which also sounds pretty cool.
Sean Carlson: Yes, I dig it. Finally, we have an event with a little romance.
Ryan Kailath: Yes, depending how you feel about marriage. Yes, [unintelligible 00:05:01]. [laughter] Almost on the solstice itself, a few hours away on June 21st, Lincoln Center doing its fourth mass wedding, The Wedding. The Wedding is what they call this. This is where they pack hundreds of couples into Alice Tully Hall, there on Broadway. Some people are actually getting married for the first time, very romantic, or renewing their vows, also very romantic, or just doing a symbolic marriage.
It's not just the thing. It's also a whole party. There's a ceremony, multicultural, with various different faith leaders each leading their own sort of mini thing. There's concerts, music performances. There's a big party. It's all totally free. It's at Lincoln Center. That's June 21st.
Sean Carlson: Cool. You can read more free things to do in June at our news website, Gothamist. You can be sure to check that out. Ryan, thanks as always for joining us.
Ryan Kailath: You got it. Thanks.
Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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