New York City in brief

New York City’s City Council will consider a bill from Sandra Nurse to raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030, nearly doubling the current $17 rate and outpacing all other U.S. cities—albeit gradually, and not without consternation from business leaders fearing closures. With over a million workers affected and both cost-of-living and election promises at play, the city seems keen to leap where others tiptoe.

New York police arrested Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, both from Pennsylvania, after they allegedly threw improvised bombs—containing that old terrorist favourite, TATP—during a raucous protest outside Gracie Mansion. Officials dubbed it “ISIS-inspired terrorism” and the FBI is dusting for details. As charges loom in Manhattan federal court, we note New York’s vigilance is matched only by the city’s inexhaustible supply of headline-grabbing mayhem.

Nonprofit legal providers in New York City, such as Legal Services NYC and TakeRoot Justice, say unpaid city contracts now total tens of millions—over 20% of their annual budgets—forcing them to subsist on costly credit and curtail vital tenant and immigrant advocacy. As the city’s bureaucracy dawdles, we gain another compelling lesson in how delayed payments can evict good intentions right out of the ledger.

Faced with child care costs that can surpass $20,000 per year—more than some college tuition—New York parents are juggling work with few good options, while providers and underpaid workers teeter on the brink. Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas advocates universal child care, funded like schools through broader taxation, arguing economic logic trumps hand-wringing; if children really are our future, perhaps wallets should follow rhetoric, not just sentiment.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to let New York seize the most neglected apartment buildings from landlords—no prizes for guessing who finds this controversial—gained traction as Councilmember Pierina Sanchez revived a “third-party transfer” scheme. The Safer Homes Act vows sharper targeting of chronic offenders, but the Council speaker’s go-slow approach means tenants enduring squalor may need to keep the buckets handy for now.