Work on the $16 billion Gateway tunnel linking New Jersey and Manhattan—a project meant to unclog America’s busiest rail corridor—will halt Friday, as a federal funding freeze instigated under Donald Trump persists. Local officials and the Gateway D…
President Trump has dispatched Eric Hamilton, a go-to legal fixer whose résumé bulges with administration pet projects, to spearhead a federal suit trying to squash New York’s congestion pricing—a $9 toll that funneled $562 million to the MTA last year. The legal wrangle has produced as much farce as progress, but with Hamilton in the ring, we suspect the White House won't be idling in neutral anytime soon.
New York City officials seemingly knew far more about post-9/11 air quality than they let on, as a newly released October 2001 memo from Kelly McKinney—then at the city’s Office of Emergency Management—reveals early recognition of health hazards around Ground Zero. We now have written proof bureaucracy moves faster than airborne toxins; it just prefers to keep its progress well under wraps.
A newly unearthed internal memo sent to then–deputy mayor Robert Harding a month after September 11th suggests that New York officials quietly braced for lawsuits over toxic air exposure, even as public statements touted safety. The document, obtained by 9/11 Health Watch, never addressed what was actually in the air, but did foresee legal headaches—proof, if nothing else, that official optimism sometimes floats on a haze of paperwork.
Residents of the Stanley Isaacs Houses in Yorkville, Manhattan, are the first New York City Housing Authority tenants this year to vote on whether to stick with classic public housing or switch to better-funded but riskier Section 8 models: either the privately-run PACT scheme or the city’s Preservation Trust. Tempting though fresh repairs are, many wonder if new management simply means trading one headache for another.
Ice choked the East River this week, forcing NYC Ferry to suspend service and leaving thousands of New Yorkers to brave alternative commutes, perhaps with a touch more nostalgia for the robust charm of the subway. As temperatures plummet further and fresh snow looms, we’re reminded that while spring always comes, city transit’s best-laid plans still yield to Mother Nature’s chill—albeit with predictable metropolitan grumbling.
Donald Trump, ever ahead of the electoral curve, is already declaring the 2026 contest “rigged,” proposing a constitutionally dubious federal takeover of elections in fifteen yet-to-be-named “crooked” states. Speaker Mike Johnson dutifully echoed doubts about blue-state ballot counting, while Steve Bannon threatened ICE at the polls. We recall when such bluster would have drawn laughter, not logistical plans—or, at least, fewer podcasts.
Joyland Management snapped up 254 W. 35th St. in Manhattan’s Garment District for $26.2 million, making Cayre Equities a cool $10 million after just over a year of ownership—proof, perhaps, that timing the City Council’s rezoning pays. Plans now call for 166 apartments, including low-income housing, instead of storage; in New York, everything old gets a new lease on life, if not always at bargain rates.
New York City has sued Mark David Militana, owner of two Upper West Side brownstones, alleging he bypassed rent-stabilization laws by offering long-term apartments to short-term guests—amassing a tidy $550,000 in the process. The city seems keen to show it can police its rental market, though we wonder if this particular game of musical chairs ever really ends.
