New York City in brief

Poverty in New York City edged up for the third consecutive year in 2024, as the price tags on housing and groceries stubbornly outpaced stagnant incomes and static government benefits. We note that, despite Manhattan’s skyline suggesting otherwise, affording the basics in the five boroughs now requires rather more than just a view—though public officials promise solutions are somewhere on the horizon.

After Moody’s nudged New York City’s financial forecast into “negative” territory, officials finally acknowledged what the Independent Budget Office has warned for months: Gotham’s outlays outpace its revenues by billions, with last year’s $1.2 billion housing-voucher splurge just one culprit. Mayor Zohran Mamdani resists austerity, but with tax hikes off the table, we may soon be sampling the budgetary cuisine of the 1970s—a taste few remember fondly.

Heights University Hospital in Jersey City, once Christ Hospital, shut its doors on Saturday, trimming the city’s emergency rooms to a lone option for 300,000 residents. Hudson Regional Health, citing $74 million in losses last year, closed the hospital before state approval—eliciting outcry from local leaders and a stern look from regulators now eyeing enforcement, proving that in healthcare, closure can be swifter than compliance.

Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna unveiled the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, which would slap a 5% annual wealth tax on America’s 938 billionaires, aiming to raise $4.4 trillion over ten years. The plan promises $3,000 direct payments to individuals in households earning up to $150,000, as well as funds for social programmes—assuming, of course, the ultra-wealthy don’t find a new fondness for Swiss chalets.

New York City, ever in search of a cleaner grid, will receive hydropower from Canada's Hydro-Québec by 2027, courtesy of a $6 billion transmission line dubbed Champlain Hudson Power Express. The move trims reliance on fossil fuels and may green up 20% of the city’s supply. Whether these imported electrons will make Gotham sparkle or simply dampen Canadian spirits remains to be seen.