As New York City’s housing crisis festers, the City Council has waved through a clutch of laws to channel more subsidised units to the poorest families and halt the vanishing of affordable homes. Among them is COPA, giving community groups first dib…
Ninety-seven percent of nurses at 12 private New York City hospitals have voted to authorize a strike if no deal materializes by December 31st, threatening a disruption that could rival the city’s 2023 walkout. The New York State Nurses Association seeks raises, safer staffing, and curbs on artificial intelligence, while hospital bosses, bracing for federal Medicaid cuts, warn of financial ruin—clearly, not everyone finds “care” a cost-effective commodity.
On January 1st, 2026, New York will nudge its minimum wage up by 50 cents—to $17 per hour in Gotham, Long Island, and Westchester, and to $16 elsewhere—courtesy of Governor Kathy Hochul’s inflation-tethering bargain with the legislature. From 2027, future bumps will track a regional consumer-price index, unless joblessness spikes, in which case the “hard workers” must wait—proof that economic gravity remains undefeated.
As Mayor Eric Adams secures three key appointments to New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board—effectively cementing policy until 2026—we note this artful sidestep of incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze pledge. Data suggest landlords’ net income jumped 48% after inflation since 1990, while rent hikes outpaced cost rises by 8%; tenants hoping for relief may instead get a masterclass in regulatory inertia.
As 2026 elections loom in New York, Governor Kathy Hochul tiptoes between progressives itching for corporate tax hikes and moderates wary of change, all while federal Medicaid cuts push the state toward a $3 billion hole. Meanwhile, city and state leaders pirouette around left-wing upstarts and GOP sniping, bracing for fiscal headaches—because in Albany, budget crises remain the only reliably recurring drama.
For a second year running, Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed New York’s LICH Act, a bill that would have forced struggling hospitals to give nine months’ warning and public closure plans before shutting doors or axing key units. Hochul, echoing worries from heavyweights like Greater New York Hospital Association, says such transparency is too costly—leaving New Yorkers to discover “health care transformation” the old-fashioned way: by surprise.
New Yorkers’ mornings grow more tap-happy as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority inches closer to retiring the venerable MetroCard by 2025, nudging millions to adopt OMNY, its contactless fare system. While MetroCards have felt dated since the iPhone’s debut, the transition promises speed (and perhaps some confusion for the less digitally inclined)—but at least this time, we might finally leave that unreadable magnetic stripe in the past.
The Trump administration has rattled New York’s energy plans by “pausing” leases for the Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind projects, citing ambiguous national security risks such as radar interference and “adversary technologies.” Governor Kathy Hochul warns the move threatens jobs, billions in investment, and possibly the city’s grid stability. We have seen offshore headwinds before, though rarely with such a breeze of political timing.
Zohran Mamdani, New York’s mayor-elect, has tapped Samuel Levine—a Federal Trade Commission alum with a taste for dusting off neglected laws—to steer the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Promising muscular oversight of gig giants like Instacart, Mamdani pledges to double the agency’s $75m budget, although, with lawsuits already brewing from corporate behemoths, enforcement could prove to be a contact sport.
