New York City in brief

Faced with a $7.5 billion annual federal funding cut under President Trump’s latest domestic bill, Governor Kathy Hochul is rushing to rescue New York’s Essential Plan, which insures 1.7 million low-income residents—many immigrants included by court order. Her fix? Tighten eligibility, likely dropping 450,000 by July, but preserving coverage for others like Edward Roller of Long Island. Washington giveth, Washington taketh away—Albany just cleans up the paperwork.

Following a $30m court-ordered payment, funds have finally started trickling back to the Gateway Hudson Tunnel project, after the Trump administration’s freeze suspended work and left New York and New Jersey fuming—and suing. Judges, politicians and about 1,000 union workers now eye some $175m still stuck in bureaucratic limbo, hoping the tunnels’ next rush hour involves trains and not just legal briefs.

Over 10,000 nurses traded picket signs for scrubs as they returned to work at Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospitals after a month-long strike—New York City’s largest of its kind—having secured three-year contracts featuring a 12% pay bump and stronger staffing guarantees. Yet with more than 4,200 NewYork-Presbyterian nurses still out, labor peace may be contagious, but evidently not airborne.

A Trump-era warning that federal emergency housing vouchers were evaporating has left New York City patching leaks with a stopgap plan for just 2,000 families, while the Housing Authority’s fix for another 5,500 has flopped after a funding snub from HUD. State lawmakers have kicked in $50m—barely a bandage. For thousands teetering on eviction’s edge, “long-term solution” remains something of a unicorn.

Amtrak and NJ Transit will funnel commuters onto a single track between Newark and Secaucus for a month, beginning Sunday, to shift trains from the cranky 115-year-old Portal Bridge to its sleeker successor, Portal North. While weekday service into Penn Station shrinks and Hoboken braces for crowds, officials promise this short-term mess means fewer sledgehammers and signal headaches—a win after a century-long wait, if not a painless one.