Dear New Yorkers, Eggshells, apple cores and lawn trimmings aren’t the only things that can be composted — human bodies can be, too. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill in December legalizing human composting, making New York the sixth state to allow it. But while human composting may eventually offer a new environmentally friendly solution for what to do with people’s bodies after they die — especially in New York City, where space for burials is scarce — it is still a long way from being available. Officials need to hammer out regulatory details. Cemetery and funeral directors who want to offer the service need to acquire materials and prepare facilities. But draft regulations are due by June 28. Currently, only Washington and Colorado have facilities offering the service, drawing survivors from elsewhere who spend thousands of dollars to fly in their loved ones’ bodies for transformation into nutrient-rich soil. Courtney Vick was one of them. She first heard of human composting when her late partner, Greg Fischer, showed her an online video explaining what it was. When he died suddenly last year, she knew just what to do. “He said, ‘It’s sort of like being rotisserie-chickened. You go into this alien pod, they cover you with organic matter,’” Vick, 41, said she remembered Fischer telling her. Read more here. Some other items of note: Weary migrants stayed out of sight as angry parents protested Mayor Eric Adams’ sudden move to house asylum-seekers in six elementary school gymnasiums across Brooklyn. At least some of the makeshift shelters in those gyms lacked showers and other amenities that, up until Adams’ reversal last week, were guaranteed by the city’s right-to-shelter laws. Hundreds of migrants also slept in a school in Staten Island over the weekend. After two years, the NYPD has yet to hire a contractor to investigate the former head of its Equal Employment Opportunity Division, THE CITY has learned. James Kobel, who appeared to be behind “racist, misogynistic, antisemitic, and homophobic” posts online, was fired in 2021. City Council mandated a review of Kobel’s activities by an external consultant. But that hasn’t happened. After two years in office, City Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan (D-Manhattan) made the surprise announcement yesterday that she would not seek re-election for her Harlem seat — just weeks before a contentious June primary where her name will still appear on the ballot. Join THE CITY’s MISSING THEM COVID-19 memorial project this Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. for the closing reception of our ongoing exhibition with Photoville, honoring New Yorkers who are no longer with us. The free event at the Bronx Documentary Center's Annex will include a live theatrical performance by the Working Theater. RSVP here. This Thursday, THE CITY’s Rachel Holliday Smith will be speaking at “Luck & Lotto,” a free panel at BRIC House Ballroom in Brooklyn, about the scarcity of low income and affordable housing in New York City. RSVP here. For the latest local numbers on COVID-19 hospitalizations, positivity rates and more, check our coronavirus tracker.
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