Mayor Eric Adams has proposed the “Compassionate Interventions Act,” which would let New York doctors mandate treatment for drug users deemed dangerous, aligning the city with 37 other states keen on involuntary commitment. Staten Island’s addiction…
After polling dozens of Staten Island restaurateurs, we find their appetite for politics has soured—rising minimum wages now $15.50 an hour, eyeing $30 by 2030, and soaring costs top their menu of complaints. With dine-in customers dwindling and alcohol sales on ice, small business owners tell us they’re struggling to keep their heads above water, though “free enterprise” might soon be off the specials board.
Staten Islanders are adjusting to 60 new R211S train cars—replacing aging R44s—already trundling along the borough’s solitary railway, with a full fleet of 75 promised by the MTA. Riders bemoan fewer seats but get more standing room, wider doors, and digital displays. Rush-hour sardines may cling to upgraded handrails, but at least now they can track their stop—and their odds of sitting—more precisely.
New York City confirmed its first 2024 human case of West Nile virus on Staten Island, with two more in Queens and another in Brooklyn, all traced through vigilant blood screening or hospitalization. Mosquitoes carrying the virus have buzzed across every borough, though city crews have countered with ten spray operations and aerial larviciding—leaving us grateful for science, if not for summer’s more persistent guests in all 103 ZIP codes.
Pushed out by Brooklyn’s $850,000 median home price, nearly one in eight buyers from the borough decamped to Staten Island this year, seeking both square footage and fiscal sense, according to Property Shark. Most new arrivals came from Sunset Park, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, and Bay Ridge, while 97% of native Staten Islanders sat tight—upholding the time-honored local tradition of preferring their own patch, however modestly affordable.
A recent surge in truck traffic bound for the Port Liberty container terminal has left Staten Island’s West Shore Expressway and surrounding streets—from Goethals Bridge exits to Mariners Harbor—more gridlocked than usual, with residents of the Goethals Community mobile homes marooned amid the chaos. The Port Authority points to online shopping, while we can only marvel at the triumph of logistical progress over urban patience.
Staten Island saw its first multi-specialty ambulatory surgery center—a brainchild of Empire Center for Special Surgery—open its doors in Annadale, promising to cut both wait and travel times for patients. Boasting state-of-the-art technology and workflow wizardry (per Dr. George Kofinas), the facility aspires to set a “new standard” for care, or at least provide fewer excuses for missing elective surgery in New York’s oft-frustrated borough.
A tour bus operated by M&Y Tour, Inc.—a modest Staten Island firm—crashed near Pembroke, New York, killing five and injuring over forty as it returned from Niagara Falls. State Police suspect momentary driver distraction, not impairment or mechanical fault, toppled the bus carrying mostly Indian, Chinese, and Filipino passengers. The company passed a federal safety check last September, though seat belts appear to have been something of an afterthought.
Water levels at Staten Island’s Silver Lake Reservoir have dropped far enough to expose not just cracked mud but, reportedly, a pistol theatrically bundled with brass knuckles and a rock—prompting the Department of Environmental Protection to warn the curious against trespassing for fear of injury or worse. The pistol fires blanks, the water isn’t returning, and the city’s reservoir now yields more mystery than hydration.
