Jennifer Peña raced home from middle school on a Friday afternoon two weeks before Christmas 1999, trying to beat her 3:30 p.m. curfew at her family’s Soundview apartment in The Bronx. She still remembers glancing at the clock.  3:14 p.m.  Inside, her adoptive mother, Antonia Peña, lay on the floor, facing the living room couch. […]

The post Judge Who Sentenced ‘90s Teen Killer Now Wants Him Freed appeared first on The City Reporter.

Seventeen-year-old Sabrina Gao, a rising senior, and 15-year-old Benjamin Xie, a rising junior, at Stuyvesant High School have taken on a duty some of the grown-ups have shirked: advancing socioeconomic and racial equity in the school’s admission process. They are well aware of a notorious problem at their school — one of the top in […]

The post Do You Know About the SHSAT? The Teens of Stuy Prep Want to Make Sure. appeared first on The City Reporter.

City health officials have detected nearly twice as many mosquito samples with West Nile virus so far this year compared to the same time last year, the health department warned this week — though there haven’t been any reports of New Yorkers testing positive for the mosquito-borne disease as yet. The health department had identified […]

The post 5 Things To Know About NYC’s Surge in Mosquitoes With West Nile Virus appeared first on The City Reporter.

The City Council plans to hold an oversight hearing on the Mamdani administration’s rocky rollout of a new tax on luxury second homes, as thousands of homeowners seek exemptions from the impending charges aimed at boosting the city’s budget. “Have you recently received a letter about the new pied-à-terre tax?” says a Council flyer advertising […]

The post NYC Lawmakers Scrutinize Mamdani’s Pied-à-Terre Tax Rollout appeared first on The City Reporter.

A state judicial oversight commission ordered the removal of a Queens Civil Court judge after finding he continued practicing law after taking the bench, allowed an unlicensed twice-convicted felon to run his law office, mishandled client funds and repeatedly failed to comply with financial disclosure rules. The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct announced […]

The post Queens Judge Ousted Over Law Practice, Fake Lawyer Scheme appeared first on The City Reporter.

Attorneys and families of dozens of Legionnaires’ disease victims from last summer’s Harlem outbreak said they’re suing the city and several contractors they allege failed to maintain cooling towers linked with the public health emergency in which seven people died and roughly 120 people were sickened. City health officials have said the Central Harlem outbreak […]

The post Survivors and Families Sue NYC Over Deadly Legionnaires’ Outbreak in Harlem Last Year appeared first on The City Reporter.

All aboard, baby. Tykes who ride MTA buses will have designated stroller-only spaces across the entire fleet of nearly 6,000 carriages by the end of the year, officials announced Thursday. The move marks more than just a baby step for a program that the transit authority began testing in 2022, when it created stroller-only sections […]

The post Wheels on the Bus: Strollers Now Given Space on Entire MTA Fleet appeared first on The City Reporter.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. Reading proficiency plunged across New York state last school year while math scores ticked up slightly, according to preliminary state test results obtained by Chalkbeat. About 48% of students across the state were proficient in reading on the 2025 state exams administered in grades […]

The post Under Half of 3rd to 8th Graders in NY State Are Reading Proficient, Test Scores Show appeared first on The City Reporter.

As New York City rolls out a new tax on pricey second homes, the state will be watching for evidence of potential tax fraud by owners who claim they mostly live elsewhere — thereby avoiding local or state income taxes or higher car insurance premiums — but actually spend most of their time in the […]

The post NYC Pied-à-Terre Tax Puts Primary-Resident Free Riders in Double Bind appeared first on The City Reporter.

As New Yorkers contend with rising utility bills, battling those costs is becoming a focus for Mayor Zohran Mamdani as his administration prioritizes tenant protection and affordability. The city launched a survey this summer to understand the experiences of New York tenants who pay for their heat and air conditioning. Mamdani appointed a public utility […]

The post Mamdani’s Latest Focus for Tenants? Sky-High Utility Bills. appeared first on The City Reporter.

The teachers union said it is considering a legal challenge on behalf of more than 180 retired paraprofessionals whose disability pensions were slashed after the city’s pension system found their payments had been miscalculated for years.  Earlier this summer, the retirees received letters from the city’s Teachers’ Retirement System informing them of the mistake — […]

The post Teachers Union Threatens to Sue Over ‘Inhumane’ Pension Clawback appeared first on The City Reporter.

Amid a decline in foreclosures citywide, the number of homeowners in The Bronx facing such cases has nearly doubled from the prior year, highlighting worrying economic trends in the borough. A recent report from PropertyShark, a real estate research platform, shows first-time foreclosures of single- and two-family homes as well as coop and condo apartments […]

The post Bronx Foreclosures Have Doubled. Experts Say Many More Are Coming. appeared first on The City Reporter.

A third detainee died after being held at Delaney Hall, according to Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ), who said the death wasn’t disclosed to the public by Immigration and Customs Enforcement because the agency recently changed how it reports deaths of detainees.  Menendez described the reported death, which took place in late July, on a phone […]

The post A Third Delaney Hall Detainee Has Died, New Jersey Congressman Says appeared first on The City Reporter.

Nearly three families applied for each free childcare seat for 2-year-olds in New York City’s program rolling out next month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday. Just over 2,000 families are receiving coveted offers in the debut of the marquee “2-K” initiative, out of more than 5,700 families who applied, according to […]

The post Demand for Free Childcare Seats for 2-Year-Olds Far Exceeds Supply in NYC Pilot appeared first on The City Reporter.

Heyyy, they’re walkin’ here! The city’s Transportation Department has hit an app that tracks New Yorkers’ block-by-block walking routes with a cease-and-desist letter. DOT wants the free app, called WalkNYC, to walk away and come back with a new name.  That’s because WalkNYC has the name of DOT’s trademarked wayfinding program, as detailed with maps […]

The post Block-By-Block Walking App Hit With Cease and Desist by NYC appeared first on The City Reporter.

The Mamdani administration and a major insurer agreed to pay up to $53 million to reimburse retired civil servants who said they’d been wrongly charged copays for medical visits.  The settlement stems from a 2022 class-action lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan alleging the city improperly forced retirees to pay $15 copays for […]

The post City and Insurer to Pay $53 Million Over Retiree Copay Lawsuit appeared first on The City Reporter.

An El Salvadoran man held for the past six weeks at Delaney Hall, the largest ICE detention center in the New York metro area, has died, his mother and attorneys say. It is the second death at the facility since it opened a year and a half ago. In a lengthy interview posted to Facebook […]

The post El Salvadoran Man Held by ICE at Delaney Hall Dies, Family Says appeared first on The City Reporter.

As the mayor’s push to trumpet the collection of his new pied-à-terre tax and confront quiet money with loud politics got off to a bumpy start, he’s standing his ground and playing for time to smooth things out.  Christina Greer, Harry Siegel and guest co-host Alex Brook Lynn dig into that and much more, including […]

The post LISTEN: Mamdani’s Pied-à-Terre Pressure Play Is Paying Off 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’s Education Department is changing how it responds to students who are chronically absent due to school avoidance, according to an agreement officials signed last week with the legal team that brought a class-action lawsuit over the issue. School avoidance, or school […]

The post NYC Schools Will Change How They Handle Chronic Absence Due To Disabilities appeared first on The City Reporter.

In the predawn darkness of Sept. 4, 2024, city and federal law enforcement agents knocked on the heavy wooden door of the ornate Hamilton Heights townhouse Schools Chancellor David Banks and his then-fiancée, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, called home. Agents with the FBI and city Department of Investigation confiscated their cellphones that morning as […]

The post Two Years After Federal Raids, an Eric Adams Power Couple Seeks Podcast Fame appeared first on The City Reporter.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. A top Education Department official overseeing Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s ambitious childcare program for 2-year-olds is stepping down. Simone Hawkins, the deputy chancellor of the division of early childhood education, is leaving her post in September, city officials said Friday afternoon. Her departure comes at […]

The post NYC Deputy Chancellor Departs as Mamdani Looks To Expand Childcare for 2-Year-Olds appeared first on The City Reporter.

New York City health officials said Friday that the deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, killing seven people on the Upper East Side, is over.  Health Commissioner Alister Martin announced that the two-week incubation period for any new cases linked to this cluster had passed.  The first two confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease were discovered on […]

The post Upper East Side Legionnaires’ Outbreak is Quelled, Health Commissioner Says appeared first on The City Reporter.

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The City Reporter and NOTUS, a publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued prediction market Kalshi in state court on Friday, alleging that the company runs an “illegal gambling operation” without proper state licenses. James’ lawsuit comes amid […]

The post New York Sues Prediction Market Firm Kalshi, Alleging ‘Illegal Gambling Operation’ appeared first on The City Reporter.

Throughout the summer, inside a small, fluorescent-lit courtroom in Lower Manhattan, hundreds of migrant children, some as young as three, faced deportation hearings. Most appeared virtually. Some sat around desks in a classroom, while others bounced on bunk beds or rocked in chairs inside small offices or storage closets.  Detained in nearby shelters for unaccompanied […]

The post Inside the NYC Courtroom Where Detained Children Face Deportation Without Attorneys appeared first on The City Reporter.

For residents of an East Village affordable housing complex called Haven Plaza, this summer has been a trial of patience after potentially deadly Legionella bacteria was discovered in their buildings’ water system. Since mid-May they have been forgoing showers on the advice of city officials and have waited in vain for the building management to […]

The post No Showers, But Tenants at Legionella-Affected East Village Complex Are Steamed 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 Education Department officials in recent months quietly relaxed a controversial curriculum mandate for early childhood education programs, Chalkbeat has learned. The 2023 mandate, part of former Mayor Eric Adams’ sweeping NYC Reads curriculum overhaul, required all classrooms in the city’s publicly funded […]

The post Mamdani Eases Adams-Era Curriculum Mandate for NYC Early Childhood Education 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. New York City is home to nearly 500 species of birds, making it a destination for birders all over the world. For that, you can […]

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Birding in New York City appeared first on The City Reporter.

Flushing Meadows Corona Park is the largest park in Queens, home to the Unisphere, soccer fields, two lakes, two museums, a theater, and a zoo.  Queens Borough President Donovan Richards thinks the borough’s crown jewel needs some extra shine. On Thursday, he’s set to announce increased funding for the park, including a more than $17 […]

The post A $17 Million Glow-Up For Flushing Meadows Corona Park appeared first on The City Reporter.

New York’s courts are reckoning with a second consecutive summer of strikes by public defenders and legal staff who are employed by a constellation of private non-profits represented by the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys-UAW Local 2325.  The ongoing strikes at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and Bronx Defenders are much smaller than the stoppages […]

The post Why Bronx and Harlem Public Defenders Walked Off the Job appeared first on The City Reporter.

Nearly a decade after New Yorkers with disabilities sued the MTA in federal court over allegedly insufficient upkeep of subway elevators, the two sides have reached a legal peace — as the in-service rate for lifts has climbed to nearly 98%. The pact comes after the 2023 approval of a landmark settlement in two separate […]

The post MTA Settles With Disability Advocates as Subway Elevators Improve appeared first on The City Reporter.