A federal appeals court let stand Judge Jeannette Vargas’s order that the Trump administration must release over $200 million to the Gateway Tunnel project—New York and New Jersey’s effort to refresh a rusting Hudson River rail link—after months of …
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani returned to Albany for the annual “Tin Cup” day budget hearing, pitching his trimmed-down “fast and free” bus plan—now a modest $600-700 million, down from $800 million—to skeptical state lawmakers, while also batting around ideas like G train weekend expansion. As for persuading Albany or Governor Hochul, we suspect the farebox isn’t the only tough nut to crack.
A New York City Council report found that even six-year-olds have been cuffed by police in public schools—the country’s largest education system—where metal detectors, daily searches, and uniformed NYPD staff remain fixtures. Advocates argue that fortifying school-based health centers rather than policing young miscreants could spare children from a pipeline to trouble; reform, it seems, sometimes starts with letting kids be kids.
Sam Levine, New York’s Consumer and Worker Protection chief, is making a name for himself—if not friends in Silicon Valley—by demanding delivery apps like Instacart pay the city’s 80,000 workers at least $21.44 an hour, enable customer tipping, and offer e-bike perks. More worker safeguards arrive in 2027. We suspect tech giants will now discover the city’s minimum-wage spirit is not just for Broadway musicals.
Median rent in northwest Queens leapt 10.4% to $3,754 in January, as per Douglas Elliman, with inventory shrinking nearly 17% and more units triggered bidding wars—a jump to 25.7% from 20.2% last year. Notably, two- and three-bedroom flats saw rents surge by over 31%. Clearly, while amenities may wow, tenants now need more than just deep pockets—they may want boxing gloves.
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, having campaigned on a pledge to expand rental assistance, has now shelved the $1 billion voucher scheme, a retreat highlighting the gulf between electoral rhetoric and operational arithmetic. Fiscal restraint, it seems, trumps housing idealism once one confronts the city’s balance sheets—a lesson as timeless in the five boroughs as the local fascination with affordable square footage.
Stanley Richards, freshly tapped by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to helm New York’s Department of Correction, brings the rare distinction of having survived Rikers Island from both sides of the bars. Now charged with reforming the jail complex—under its first-ever federal receivership—Richards must juggle court-ordered safety reforms, closure deadlines, and restive staff; past experience suggests turning around Rikers may require more than memoir material.
As New York City shivered through a bitter cold snap, officials confirmed that nearly two dozen people died from hypothermia, with at least 18 found outdoors and seven more in private homes, prompting pointed questions from City Council members about gaps in cold-weather response. Record complaints—some 80,000—about heating outages hint that for some New Yorkers, “heat season” is more ambition than assurance.
New York’s recent arctic blast saw National Grid and Con Edison log record or near-record gas deliveries, especially on Long Island, as shivering millions cranked the heat. With wholesale prices following the mercury’s plunge, bills are up nearly 10% for some, and the Public Service Commission’s rate hike is only warming utility coffers. Meanwhile, New York’s long-postponed gas phase-out stays characteristically on ice.
