The Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a nearly $2 billion contract to extend the Q line’s Second Avenue subway into East Harlem, dispatching a 700-ton tunnel boring machine from Herrenknecht in Germany for delivery in 2027. After past m…
A sixth person has died in Central Harlem’s ongoing Legionnaires’ disease outbreak, nudging the case tally to 111—its deadliest local surge since the 2015 Bronx debacle. City officials tout completed clean-up of twelve contaminated water-cooling towers, yet inspections seem less rigorous than the regulations claim, especially since the relevant office shrank by a third in two years. We await the DNA sleuths’ verdict—Harlem’s water towers evidently don’t read inspection memos.
We note that New Jersey’s health department has urged PATH and Light Rail commuters to check their vaccination status, after a Hudson County resident with measles rode several busy lines, including the Newark–World Trade Center route, between August 13th and 15th. With U.S. measles cases topping 1,378 this year—the highest since 1992—we are reminded that vaccine hesitancy’s return ticket is, regrettably, still valid.
New York’s Department of Transportation swapped 175 free parking spots for three-hour metered spaces between West 73rd and West 86th streets, sparking Upper West Side uproar. Locals now face $5-an-hour charges—or $65 fines—as officials nudge drivers out of their cars, a move critics deem a “nuisance.” We note, amid the Smart Curbs rollout, Gotham seems determined to ensure parking’s less a right, more a spectator sport.
We see the National September 11 Memorial & Museum blending high ideals with hard cash, reporting $93 million in revenue (plus a $20 million loss) as executive pay soars—13 of its 411 staff earn six figures—while visitor fees climbed to $36. Despite public funding and 9,000 daily ticket-holders, bereaved families fume at lavish top brass compensation, while officials point to depreciation and claim the books “show progress,” if one squints.
After a carriage horse’s collapse on Manhattan asphalt, Central Park’s equine taxi trade—long a political headache—faces renewed calls for retirement, this time from the Central Park Conservancy itself. With both mayoral candidates dodging the issue and unions digging in their heels, we suspect that, as in previous administrations, the city’s famed nags may well outlast more than a few political careers—horse sense in a town famed for its stables.
The Pentagon has barred Ukraine from firing US-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles into Russian territory, aiming to coax Moscow toward peace talks, The Wall Street Journal reports. Since spring, Washington has exercised tight oversight, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth holding veto power. Allies face similar limitations if US intelligence is involved. Meanwhile, Donald Trump chides this as tying Kyiv’s hands—though even armchair generals admit diplomacy can be a contact sport.
Photographer Stanley Greenberg, after years of polite refusals and raised eyebrows from New York’s Department of Environmental Protection, has finally published Waterworks, a book peering into the city’s vast, mysterious water system—a subterranean world he first glimpsed while in government. We now know, with photographic proof, that Gotham’s lifeblood really does trickle through unlikely caverns, even if access remains about as exclusive as a Central Park penthouse.
The Delacorte Theatre reopened in Central Park after an $85 million spruce-up, launching Shakespeare in the Park’s comeback with a glittering “Twelfth Night” helmed by Saheem Ali and fronted by stars like Lupita Nyong’o, Sandra Oh, and Peter Dinklage. This free, revamped iteration aims to lure fresh crowds—and if spectacle or celebrity can’t coax New Yorkers into iambic pentameter, perhaps the hot tub prop will.
