Blake Nelson has been photographing weddings in New York City for six years, including as many as 10 weddings a year at the City Clerk’s office. Couples who reached out to him to shoot their civil ceremonies often made two requests. “They want the green couch, and they want their exit photo at the yellow […]

The post Where Is the Love? NYC Marriage Bureau’s Iconic Gilded Doors Vanish — For Now appeared first on The City Reporter.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s charter revision panel approved five ballot proposals Thursday for the November election, including moves to speed up the creation of bike lanes and outdoor dining setups. The other measures would accelerate the city contracting process for nonprofits and small businesses, simplify permitting for construction projects and set a target for the city’s […]

The post Mamdani’s Government Efficiency Panel Approves 5 NYC Ballot Proposals appeared first on The City Reporter.

Four Upper East Side buildings that tested positive for live Legionella bacteria were not in compliance with a city law requiring property owners to submit monthly test results of their cooling systems to the health department, records reviewed by The City Reporter show. The bacteria is usually found in water towers that are part of […]

The post Four UES Buildings With Live Legionella Were Out of Compliance With Testing Rules, Records Show appeared first on The City Reporter.

A $400 million renovation of a major Brooklyn transit hub has yielded little for locals looking for jobs, critics charged Thursday, saying that less than 8% of the 170 hires for the project so far have come from surrounding neighborhoods. The multi-year makeover of Broadway Junction — a sprawling complex that last year served more […]

The post Not Enough Jobs For Locals at Broadway Junction Revamp, Local Pols Charge appeared first on The City Reporter.

Thank you, Argentina. With the final numbers on the economic impact still trickling in, it is clear a sudden flood of fans swelled into New York for the World Cup final on July 19, boosting hotel occupancy and the rates hotels were able to charge.  A Hotel Association of New York City analysis suggests that […]

The post World Cup Final Score: A Win For NYC Hotels appeared first on The City Reporter.

A Manhattan judge has blocked a city law that is designed to shield Uber and Lyft drivers from being abruptly deactivated from the ride-hailing apps just days before it was set to take effect. The preliminary injunction issued Tuesday by United States District Court Judge Gregory Woods pumps the brakes on Local Law 52, which […]

The post Judge Blocks Law Made to Protect App Drivers From Abrupt, Unexplained Firings appeared first on The City Reporter.

Months after scrapping a $9.9 million McKinsey & Co. consulting contract as part of an effort to rein in city spending, Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday turned to a veteran McKinsey partner who had worked on that contract to lead New York City’s top economic agency. Mamdani appointed Anthony Shorris — a former first deputy […]

The post Mamdani Tapped McKinsey Partner After Axing $9.9 Million McKinsey Contract appeared first on The City Reporter.

Within seconds, nearly a dozen teenage detainees pour out of their cells and converge on Kalief Browder. Surveillance footage from 2010 captures the relentless beating inside a Rikers Island housing unit. The attack was possible in part because the cell doors, like hundreds of others throughout the city’s jail system, had failed to lock. Browder, […]

The post ‘Bedlam’: Rikers Island Can’t Keep Its Doors Locked appeared first on The City Reporter.

New York City added 40,000 jobs in the first half of the year, far more than expected, as a boom on Wall Street continues to support the economy. The strength of hiring in the financial sector has allowed the city to overcome the cost of tariffs that squeezed small firms, inflation that exceeded the national average […]

The post Surprise! NYC Nets 40,000 New Jobs on Wall Street Surge appeared first on The City Reporter.

Inside a New York City immigration courtroom at 26 Federal Plaza on Friday morning, 90 people had cases before a single immigration judge. People described hastily making plans to get to court, some from hundreds of miles away, having learned about their new hearing date only days in advance. By the end of the morning, […]

The post Deportation Orders Soar in NYC as Trump ‘Mega Master’ Hearings Accelerate appeared first on The City Reporter.

More than a third of positions in the health department unit dedicated to testing the city’s water supply for the Legionella bactria are unfilled, The City Reporter has learned, as health officials scramble to deal with a deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak that has so far killed three people and infected dozens.  Only 35 water ecologists — […]

The post More Than a Third of Water Inspector Slots Unfilled Amid Deadly Legionnaires’ Outbreak appeared first on The City Reporter.

Other than the extreme heat, smoky air, flash flooding and deaths from an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, it’s remained a lovely summer in New York City — including for night fishing. FAQ NYC hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss all that and much more, including “shark” Zohran Mamdani’s aggressive early plans for […]

The post The Tide Is Out and NY’s Old-Guard Dems Are Beached appeared first on The City Reporter.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. Thousands of New York families might be leaving millions of dollars on the table when it comes to summer food benefits. To combat hunger while schools are closed, the state’s Summer EBT program sends eligible families $120 per child in food benefits. Last year, […]

The post How NYC Families Can Use Summer EBT Benefits To Put Food on the Table appeared first on The City Reporter.

The union representing the city’s public health professionals and scientists says that units dedicated to testing the city’s water supply are critically understaffed — complicating New York’s ability to control a Legionnaires’ outbreak that has so far killed three people and spread to the air conditioning cooling towers of at least 76 Manhattan buildings. Members […]

The post Legionnaires’ Outbreak: Health Workers Say They’re Burnt Out, Understaffed appeared first on The City Reporter.

A corner of Monica Carrasco’s kitchen has metal shelves stacked with a toaster oven, a microwave, two hot plates and an air fryer. For more than three years, she’s relied on them to cook family meals — but using only two at a time for fear of tripping the electric system. Carrasco’s family and the […]

The post After Years Without Cooking Gas, First Run of Induction Stoves Arrive in Co-Ops appeared first on The City Reporter.

If America is all these different cultures coming together in one land, that’s kind of what I wanted the books to represent… The best conception I can have of our country is different people coming together to make something bigger, and that’s kind of what I wanted to represent in my books by using these […]

The post LISTEN: An American Quilt of Civil Wars and Sunday Funnies appeared first on The City Reporter.

On primary night in June, democratic socialist wins in New York congressional races garnered national attention, but lower down on the ballot, a quieter sea change was taking place in Brooklyn. Reform-oriented candidates with the New Kings Democrats and Brooklyn Can’t Wait flipped eight of nine contested district leader races, bringing their coalition to 22. […]

The post Brooklyn Reformers Set to Oust Embattled Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn appeared first on The City Reporter.

The City Council voted unanimously to approve a one-time $10,000 payment to most of the public school paraprofessionals on Thursday, an effort to boost retention and recruitment for the badly-needed – but low-paying – jobs with students.  But Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who could try to stop the bill, said it is in “direct violation” of […]

The post Council Approves $10k Perk for Public School Paraprofessionals appeared first on The City Reporter.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. New York City officials urged summer school programs to limit outdoor activity on Thursday as wildfire smoke wafted into the five boroughs. The Education Department’s guidance to principals also asked schools to reschedule outdoor trips. The city’s summer school program, known as Summer Rising, has slots […]

The post NYC Summer School Programs Are Urged To Stay Indoors Due to Wildfire Smoke appeared first on The City Reporter.

Hundreds of workers representing low-income defendants in Brooklyn and Queens walked off the job Thursday morning, after failing to reach a deal with management on wages and benefits before an 8 a.m. strike deadline. Approximately 500 lawyers, case managers and staff at Brooklyn Defender Services and Queens Defenders have been locked in negotiations on a […]

The post Walkout: Lawyers for Low-Income Clients Strike in Brooklyn and Queens appeared first on The City Reporter.

This story is part of Summer & The City, our weekly newsletter made to help you enjoy — and survive — the hottest time in the five boroughs. Sign up here. Anthony Reyes began his life’s work fishing the waters around New York City as a kid, when his dad would take him to the […]

The post Chasing Croakers With the Night Fishing Crews of Sheepshead Bay appeared first on The City Reporter.

This story was originally published by Healthbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at healthbeat.org/newsletters. Health officials have yet to identify the source of the Legionnaires’ outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side as the number of infected individuals has climbed over the past two weeks. Sixty-three people have developed the severe form of pneumonia from the Legionella bacterium as […]

The post What You Need To Know About Legionnaires’ Disease as Upper East Side Outbreak Persists appeared first on The City Reporter.

A group of seven strangers sat in a 25-foot-long wooden boat on a recent clear-skied Wednesday evening, brows glistening with sweat as they rowed up and down the Hudson River. They were not trying out for a crew team but taking part in a free, twice-weekly community rowing program hosted by the nonprofit Village Community […]

The post ‘We’re Surrounded by Water’: How To Experience NYC on a Boat This Summer, For Free appeared first on The City Reporter.

The court-appointed remediation manager overseeing Rikers Island has ordered the city to overhaul key parts of the troubled jail system, calling for hiring new investigators to police officer misconduct, a $50 million expansion of educational and other programs for detainees and a pilot revamp of solitary confinement. In a 33-page action plan filed Wednesday — […]

The post Rikers Remediation Manager Unveils Blueprint for Overhauling City Jails appeared first on The City Reporter.

Trash cans overflowing with empty Modelo bottles. Weeknights spent hanging out with friends with no regard for work in the morning. Fireworks on Steinway Street. New York City has been outside all summer thanks to the World Cup, and on Sunday, the fun (and crowds) comes to a close, with Argentina and Spain facing off […]

The post Where in NYC to Watch the World Cup Final Between Argentina and Spain appeared first on The City Reporter.

As pressure mounts to end the city’s horse-drawn carriage rides once and for all, lawmakers are working to develop a jobs plan for the industry’s drivers — but the proposal on the table to retire the iconic tourist trade is light on specifics. That proposal was at the heart of hours of testimony at the […]

The post As Horse Carriage Ban Gains Allies, Lawmakers Promise New Jobs With Few Specifics appeared first on The City Reporter.

City Comptroller Mark Levine on Wednesday launched a comprehensive audit of nearly a quarter-billion dollars in no-bid migrant shelter contracts the city awarded to a non-profit group called BHRAGS Home Care whose leaders have been indicted on corruption charges. The group’s former president, Ronald Tirelus, and its former executive director, Roberto Samedy, were hit with […]

The post Levine to Audit $243 Million in Migrant Shelter Contracts After Bribery Charges appeared first on The City Reporter.

With smoke traveling in from wildfires burning in Minnesota and Ontario, New York is due for a week of hazy skies and possibly poorer air quality. When smoke from Canadian wildfires engulfed the city in June 2023, the boroughs turned suddenly orange, with air quality indices reaching 484 — the highest ever recorded. It may […]

The post Wildfire Smoke Is Back: A New Yorker’s Guide to Staying Safe appeared first on The City Reporter.

Elena Zerkal isn’t shy about tooting her own horn over the 11 years she spent behind the wheel as a for-hire vehicle driver. “Five-star ratings, professional, I never had any problems,” she said. “Best ratings, best customer service review, everything.” But the former Lyft driver says that track record didn’t spare her from being “dumped […]

The post App Drivers Protest Uber and Lyft’s Legal Fight Against Deactivation Law appeared first on The City Reporter.

More than 500 cooling towers across Manhattan are not in compliance with city regulations requiring monthly water sample tests to help combat the spread of the potentially deadly Legionella bacteria, records examined by The City Reporter show. All told there are 568 towers that records show haven’t submitted required tests to the Department of Health […]

The post Hundreds of Manhattan Cooling Towers Haven’t Submitted Tests to Detect Legionella appeared first on The City Reporter.