New York City in brief

Commuters using Amtrak and NJ Transit should gird themselves: from Sunday, a month of snarled service awaits as rail traffic is shifted from the famously temperamental, 115-year-old Portal Bridge to the sleek new Portal North span over the Hackensack River. Fewer trains, rerouted lines, and congested platforms from Newark to Manhattan loom, but officials insist these headaches will yield a smoother ride—eventually, if only sledgehammers become obsolete.

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s quest for universal free child care takes a baby step this autumn, with 2,000 two-year-olds leading the charge. Officials, led by Emmy Liss, are still crunching data on neighbourhood needs, provider capacity, and possible service models—while pinning their hopes on Governor Hochul’s budget crumbs. With $20,000 the going rate for care, those crumbs might be gobbled up fast.

Following a court order and the expiration of a federal appeal, Washington sent $30m to the Gateway Hudson Tunnel project, a mammoth rail link under the Hudson connecting New York and New Jersey. That’s a fraction of the $205m still in limbo after the Trump administration’s freeze last October—a sum two pending lawsuits aim to free before thousands of weary commuters and union jobs go off the rails again.

New York City’s scramble to patch a looming rental aid gap has yielded only mixed results: while the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has mustered temporary help for over 2,000 families, the Housing Authority’s plan to shift 5,500 more to Section 8 vouchers fizzled after a federal funding snub. With Washington, Albany, and City Hall eyeing each other’s wallets, tenants may want to keep their moving boxes handy.

Over 10,000 nurses at Mount Sinai and Montefiore have ended New York City’s largest-ever nurses’ strike, returning to their rounds with new, union-backed contracts promising 12% raises and safer staffing over three years. While management at both hospitals sounded relieved, more than 4,200 nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian dig in, ready for another Valentine’s spent holding signs rather than hands.