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☆ The ‘Mad Men’ Era Is Long Over. Why Is Advertising Still So White?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-17 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Last summer, KFC ran advertisements in Canada featuring Black people eating fried chicken and licking their fingers, their faces reflected in unused silverware. Critics called the images racist, but the campaign was not canceled. Instead, it was submitted this spring for a prestigious industry award in New York. Nate Nichols, the founder and creative director of Palette Group, a creative agency in Brooklyn, was one of the few Black members of the panel of judges reviewing submissions. “It just means not enough of us have been able to make it into the room.”

Persons: Nate Nichols, Mr, Nichols Organizations: KFC, Palette Locations: Canada, New York, Brooklyn

☆ Congestion Pricing’s Latest Challenger: New York City Truckers
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Stefanos Chen | Ana Ley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With a month left before drivers start being charged to enter Midtown and downtown Manhattan under New York City’s congestion pricing plan, a new group of challengers is joining a crowded field of critics: truckers. “It’s simply the way that trucks are being targeted.” The suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan. The congestion pricing plan, scheduled to start June 30, will charge fees to most vehicles entering Manhattan on or below 60th Street. Passenger vehicles entering the zone will be charged up to $15 once a day, with some exceptions. Commercial trucks will be charged $24 or $36 per entry, depending on the size of the vehicle and the time of day.

Persons: “, Kendra Hems, “ It’s Organizations: Trucking Association of New Locations: Midtown, Manhattan, New York, Trucking Association of New York

☆ Roses Are Red, Love Is True. Here’s Why This Bouquet Costs $72.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Stefanos Chen | Adrienne Grunwald | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To gather every last stem and ribbon, Mr. Patrikis is on the phone constantly, negotiating with 15 distributors to get the best deals. “If you don’t know how to buy from the wholesalers, the wholesalers are going to buy you,” he said. Mr. Patrikis prefers the Explorer variety of red roses, which he said tend to have larger blooms and stay fresh longer than some other varieties. The elevated prices put pressure on longtime florists like Mr. Patrikis, whose shop was one of five on his block around 2010. Ditmars Flower Shop is now the last one left.

Persons: Patrikis, ” Locations: New York City

☆ The Fried Chicken Is in New York. The Cashier Is in the Philippines.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

At Sansan Chicken in Long Island City, Queens, the cashier beamed a wide smile and recommended the fried chicken sandwich. Or maybe she suggested the tonkatsu — it was hard to tell, because the internet connection from her home in the Philippines was spotty. Romy, who declined to give her last name, is one of 12 virtual assistants greeting customers at a handful of restaurants in New York City, from halfway across the world. The virtual hosts could be the vanguard of a rapidly changing restaurant industry, as small-business owners seek relief from rising commercial rents and high inflation. Others see a model ripe for abuse: The remote workers are paid $3 an hour, according to their management company, while the minimum wage in the city is $16.

Locations: Long Island City, Queens, Philippines, New York City

☆ Anger in Chinatown Over a Huge Jail Project: ‘We Are the Dumping Ground’
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Stefanos Chen | Mable Chan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Construction has not yet started on what could become the world’s tallest jail, a 300-foot-tall tower on a site in Manhattan’s Chinatown where the remnants of a former detention center still stand. Since demolition began last spring, large cracks have formed along the wall of a neighboring senior center, where residents shut their windows to block out dust. Longtime businesses have warned that they may have to close because of reduced foot traffic or costly renovations. Now, community groups that opposed the new jail are pushing for more accountability at the demolition site, formerly home to the Manhattan Detention Complex, also known as the Tombs. Locals are bracing for a yearslong construction process that they fear will become only more disruptive.

Locations: Manhattan’s Chinatown, Manhattan

☆ New Jersey Ballot Ruling Applies Only to Democratic Race, Judge Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New Jersey moved a step closer last week toward overhauling its unique-in-the-nation election ballots, in a decision that could reshape party politics in the state for years to come. On Saturday, the federal judge who ordered the redesign, in response to a lawsuit filed in February by three Democratic candidates, said in a statement that only the Democratic primary, which includes the race to replace Senator Robert Menendez, would have to use the new ballot. The Republican ballot, he wrote, can stay the same, though he said his order did not prohibit Republican leaders from choosing to alter their party’s ballot. The clarification is the latest twist in a long legal battle in New Jersey to shift the balance of electoral power away from party-backed candidates and open the door for newcomers in both parties. “If this decision holds, it will completely upend New Jersey politics.”

Persons: Robert Menendez, Julia Sass Rubin, “ It’s, Dr, Rubin, ” Organizations: Democratic, Republican, Rutgers University Locations: Jersey, New Jersey, upend New Jersey

☆ New York City’s Population Shrinks by 78,000
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Winnie Hu | Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

City officials said that they were likely to challenge the 2023 census estimates, which they said had significantly underestimated the number of migrants and other people living in group settings, such as shelters and dorms. A spokesman for the Department of City Planning, Casey Berkovitz, said that 180,000 migrants had come to the city since the spring of 2022 and that 64,600 were still in the city’s care. City officials had previously projected that New York City would reach 9 million within two decades. Though the latest census numbers are a marked improvement over recent years, the turnaround has mostly benefited New York City’s more affluent areas, said Andrew Beveridge, the president of Social Explorer, a demographic data firm that analyzed the numbers. “But it’s the struggling people that leave for good.”Four of the five boroughs continued to see population declines in 2023, according to the latest census estimates.

Persons: Casey Berkovitz, Andrew Beveridge, ” Mr, Beveridge Organizations: Department of City Planning, New, Manhattan, Social Locations: New York City, New York

☆ 1 in 4 New York City Children Now Lives in Poverty
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It differs from the U.S. census’s official poverty measure, which only counts cash resources, but the supplemental measure is also widely used by government. In 2022, under the supplemental measure, a family of New York City renters with two children was considered below the poverty line if it made less than about $44,000. Why It Matters: The City’s Economic Recovery Is UnevenThe rise in poverty underscores wide disparities in New York. A major reason for the disparities is the lopsided jobs recovery, said James Parrott, the director of economic and fiscal policy at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School. The median household income in New York City is about $75,000.

Persons: Christopher Wimer, “ It’s, Wimer, “ we’re, James Parrott, Parrott, Charles Lutvak, “ Organizations: Poverty, Columbia University, Center, New York City Affairs, New Locations: New York, New York City

☆ What’s Behind a $10 Chicken Over Rice From a Cart? An $18,000 Permit.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Stefanos Chen | Ahmed Gaber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But Mr. Mousa focused on one number: 3,892. Like thousands of the city’s mobile food vendors, Mr. Mousa cannot get a permit for his cart, the Halal Plates. A spokesman said it had released 1,074 applications — a permit prerequisite — since the law was enacted, but most applicants had yet to complete the process. While he waits, Mr. Mousa said he and his business partner pay $18,000 in cash every two years to rent their permit from a Bronx cabdriver who Mr. Mousa said obtained it decades ago for a few hundred dollars. Mr. Mousa said such arrangements were the only ways many vendors, who otherwise follow regulations, can avoid fines and confiscation of their carts.

Persons: Mousa Locations: New York City

☆ A Moonshot Plan to Fill a Cavernous, Dilapidated Armory in the Bronx
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Stefanos Chen | Winnie Hu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It has been called the world’s largest armory — a palatial fortress in the middle of the northwest Bronx, with turrets overlooking the subway station. But for nearly 30 years, the Kingsbridge Armory has languished despite grand plans by mega-developers, billionaire investors and celebrities to repurpose the 570,000-square-foot landmark. It hopes to bring high-tech manufacturing jobs, a live performance space, new businesses and affordable housing to the city-owned site. The proposed development, if selected by city officials, would be led by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, an influential nonprofit group that has fought for racial justice, affordable housing and economic development in the city’s poorest borough since 1974. The plan grew out of years of frustration among community leaders and residents who were tired of being sidelined in previous plans for the armory.

Organizations: Kingsbridge Armory, Northwest Bronx Community, Clergy Coalition Locations: Bronx, Kingsbridge

☆ Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Shuns Boycott Demands From Hate Group
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Stefanos Chen | More About Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

group is organizing a boycott of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade over performances by nonbinary Broadway actors, in the latest attempt to force companies to reverse course on social issues that some far-right groups consider too liberal. But the parade has long had close ties to Broadway, one of the most L.G.B.T.Q. The group, which is called One Million Moms, says it has drawn about 33,000 signatures in support of its boycott. But it appears to have overplayed its hand, said Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University Stern School of Business. “I think this is the easiest ‘no’ in the history of Macy’s,” Mr. Galloway said.

Persons: nonbinary, ’, Scott Galloway, Mr, Galloway, ” Organizations: nonbinary Broadway, Budweiser, Broadway, New York University Stern School of Business

☆ New York Has Regained Its Lost Jobs. Why Doesn’t It Feel That Way?
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Stefanos Chen | More About Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New York’s job recovery has lagged behind other cities in part because the virus struck the city sooner, and vital industries, like hospitality and retail, remained closed longer and lost more jobs. The positions, mostly in clothing and department stores, paid an average of about $62,000 a year. In the same period, about 66,200 home health aid jobs were added, the most in any industry. Another 34,000 jobs were added in social services positions, which paid an average of $38,000. The third-fastest growing industry was management consulting, which paid an average $198,000, but only added 14,000 jobs to the economy, Dr. Parrott said.

Persons: haven’t, ”, Aaron Judge, “, Jobs, Parrott Organizations: Yankees, State Department of Labor Locations: New Yorker

Until last week, Corona Plaza in Queens was bustling: taqueros flipping fresh tortillas and vendors hawking Central American crafts over a soundtrack of cumbia and train traffic. There were produce stands, live bands and surging crowds, all in a public square that was named one of the 100 best places to eat in the city. But last Thursday and Friday, sanitation workers swept through the plaza, removing several stalls and threatening to penalize vendors who did not have a city permit to operate — nearly all of the more than 80 who regularly work there. In the days since, the grilled-meat stands and jugs of agua fresca have been replaced with protest signs. A spokesman for the Sanitation Department said removing the unpermitted vendors was necessary because the plaza had become so crowded that it was impassable, “with dirty conditions, with semi-permanent structures bolted into the ground, illegal vending right in front of storefronts.”

Organizations: Corona, hawking, Sanitation Department Locations: Corona Plaza, Queens, American, New York

☆ Affordable Apartments Are Coming to the Top of New York’s Skyline
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Stefanos Chen | More About Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The latest luxury tower to rise in New York could distinguish itself not for its sky-high views, but for its residents: survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks, and some of the lowest-income renters in the city. On Thursday, a state oversight board cleared the way for a 900-foot mixed-use tower to be built at 130 Liberty Street, also known as 5 World Trade, the only site on the World Trade Center campus that is expected to be residential. But the real feat, spurred by a group of local agitators, could be the inclusion of an unexpected share of permanently below-market-rate apartments. One-third, or 400, of the 1,200 units will be reserved for low- and middle-income renters, spread across the soaring tower. A portion of those units, 80 apartments, will be offered to people who lived or worked in Lower Manhattan between Sept. 11, 2001, and the end of June 2002.

Organizations: Liberty, World Trade Center Locations: New York, Lower Manhattan

☆ With Hollywood on Strike, a Bright Spot in New York’s Economy Goes Dark
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Stefanos Chen | More About Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By day, Ryan Quinlan handles the desk lamps, sconces and chandeliers that appear in films and television shows. At night, he rents out props from his Brooklyn warehouse, like an Egyptian sarcophagus and a taxidermy leopard. It joined the screenwriters union, the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since May. “This shut down all of my streams of income,” Mr. Quinlan, 44, said. But it’s not just actors and writers who are out of work.

Persons: Ryan Quinlan, Mr, Quinlan, it’s Organizations: Hollywood, SAG, Writers Guild of America Locations: Brooklyn, New York, Los Angeles, United States

☆ The Afterlife of Forlorn Office Furniture
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Stefanos Chen | More About Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Herman Miller is one of the most revered makers of office furniture in the world, its designs so esteemed that its Aeron chair, which became a fixture of New York City cubicles, was put in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. This month, some Herman Miller chairs, which can retail for over $1,000, met a less dignified fate: an appointment with the crushing metal jaws of an excavator. More than three years after the coronavirus pandemic began, about half of the office space in the New York City metro area in June was occupied, according to Kastle Systems, a security-card company tracking activity in office buildings. The hollowing out of the city’s cubicles has raised existential economic and cultural questions, but also a big logistical one: What do you do with all that office furniture?

Persons: Herman Miller Organizations: Museum, Modern, New, Kastle Systems Locations: New York City

☆ Why Migrant Women Are Turning Toward Construction Jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Stefanos Chen | Ana Ley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Roxana García sat in a packed classroom on a recent night in Jackson Heights, Queens, with 38 strangers — a chef, an I.T. technician, and a business manager among them — all with a single goal: To get a job in construction, one of the few industries open to New York’s surging migrant population. Ms. García, 36, a nurse who flew to New York three months ago from Guayaquil, Ecuador, with her partner and two children, has subsisted since then on housecleaning jobs, but in construction, she sees a future: being able to afford better care for her prediabetic teenager and the means to take her family to Disneyland. “I came here with a suitcase full of dreams,” she said in Spanish. “If I can make this into a career, that would be excellent, because I can’t focus on what I once was.”

Persons: Roxana García, García, ” Locations: Jackson Heights , Queens, New York, Guayaquil, Ecuador

☆ New York City Sets New Minimum Wage for Food Delivery Workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Perhaps more than any other American city, New York relies on a growing army of delivery workers who have braved successive waves of Covid, extreme weather and toxic air as remote work has reshaped the economy. Starting July 12, New York City’s app-based delivery workers must be paid at least $17.96 an hour, not including tips — the first such minimum pay-rate in the country for an industry that exploded in popularity during the pandemic. Critics say the rule does not go far enough to compensate the workers, who must absorb a range of expenses as independent contractors, including frequent injuries on the job. The city’s more than 60,000 delivery workers, who courier takeout, groceries and other goods, are paid an average of about $11 an hour, after factoring in tips and expenses, less than New York’s $15 minimum wage, according to an analysis by the city. They also cover their own health insurance, business expenses and additional taxes.

Persons: Eric Adams Organizations: City Council Locations: New York

☆ New York City Has Lost Tens of Thousands of Retail Jobs, Report Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

More than 70 percent of the city’s 301,700 retail jobs are held by Black, Hispanic and Asian workers, a disproportionate share of whom did not finish college. But that amounted to only 4,300 new jobs, Mr. Bowles said. The growth of home health care services has also been sharp, with a gain of 41,700 new jobs, but those positions tend to pay far less than some retail jobs. The working-age population of New York City was down 400,000 people in March and April of 2023, compared to the start of 2020, which hurt retail demand, Dr. Parrott said. To counter the losses in retail, Mr. Bowles said, the city should invest in job training programs that can help retail workers transition to other fields.

Persons: Mr, Bowles, James Parrott, Jobs, Parrott, “ They’re, ” Organizations: Black New Yorkers, Yorkers, City, New York, Center, New York City Affairs, New School, Mr Locations: New York, New New York, New, New York City

☆ Why a ‘Startling Number’ of Low-Income Tenants Face Eviction Cases
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The housing developer, Breaking Ground, has filed to evict the tenants in about 345 of its more than 4,300 apartments since January 2022, according to SHOUT, an advocacy group for low-income and formerly homeless tenants that compiled the data. The cases came after a pandemic-era moratorium on evictions was lifted. The analysis captures a longstanding practice among nonprofit housing providers that has been exacerbated by the pandemic, legal experts said: threatening to evict low-income tenants who are behind on rent as a tactic to prod the city to give those tenants rental assistance more quickly. The lawsuits come at a time when the city is dealing with record-high homelessness and surging demand for shelter from migrant asylum seekers. They are also emblematic, they said, of dysfunction within the city’s social safety net, at a time when budget cuts are straining numerous departments.

Locations: New York City

☆ To Promote a New York Casino, a Different Kind of Light Show
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If the owners of one of the largest undeveloped sites in Manhattan get their way, they could soon be building one of New York’s first Vegas-style casinos — on a craggy, waterlogged field next to the United Nations. But first, a gesture of good will: Soloviev Group, the developer, is commissioning the artist Bruce Munro to install a sprawling light installation on the 6.7-acre site that will be free to the public and open for at least a year, starting in late September, the firm said. The art piece, “Field of Light,” an arrangement of 17,000 flowerlike fiber optic stems, will be staked, mounted and lit up in a kaleidoscope of colors on a vacant stretch of First Avenue between East 38th and 41st Streets. The Soloviev Foundation, a charitable arm of the development firm, will cover the $1.5 million cost of installing and maintaining the display, said Michael Hershman, the chief executive of Soloviev Group. “It’s a gift to New York,” he said.

☆ New York’s Smallest Businesses Face Some of Its Biggest Rent Hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Now, the owners of many of those small businesses, many of whom did not qualify for pandemic-era public loans and grants, worry that sharp rent increases and a lack of protections for commercial tenants could shut down their stores, just as the economy is gaining momentum. These businesses helped fuel the city’s recovery while the rest of the economy faltered, and many store owners say they fear they will be left out of the resurgence. At risk, they say, is the soul of the city: the minority- and immigrant-owned businesses that create a path to the middle class and provide hard-to-find goods and services in ethnic enclaves. “For the first time in New York City history, their existence is being threatened,” said Annetta Seecharran, the executive director of Chhaya, a nonprofit community development group. In districts where the rent rose, people of color made up 72 percent of the population, the analysis showed, raising concerns about displacement and gentrification.

☆ Suburbs Are Furious at Adams’s Plan to Send Migrants to Their Hotels
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Although Mr. Adams said that he had consulted with the state and with local officials, at least two said they were caught off guard and vowed to fight the plan. “It felt like they were trying to do a Friday night drop,” said Teresa Kenny, the town supervisor of Orangetown, who said she learned about the plan only hours before Mayor Adams announced the move. “I feel like the mayor called me to check a box so he couldn’t be criticized for not talking to us.”The Rockland County executive, Ed Day, said he was stunned by Mr. Adams’s plan, and moved quickly to find a way to stop it. He issued the state of emergency order on Saturday, declaring that no municipality could transport or house migrants in Rockland without his permission. “They’re basically dumping them into a county where we’re not prepared for them,” he said.

☆ The Unemployment Gap Between Black and White New Yorkers Is Widening
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The gulf between Black and white unemployment rates in New York City is now the widest it has been this century, exceeding even the largest gap during the Great Recession, according to a new report. The overall unemployment rate among New Yorkers was 5.3 percent. The New York City figures are out of step with the national picture. The nationwide Black unemployment rate was 5.4 percent in the first quarter of the year, and the white unemployment rate was 3.2 percent. The Black and white unemployment rates in New York City have not continuously diverged for at least a year in about 25 years, and it is happening at a time when Black unemployment nationwide is approaching new lows, said James A. Parrott, a co-author of the report and the director of economic and fiscal policy at the center.

☆ Seeking a Manhattan Studio With Design Potential for $600,000. Which Option Did He Choose?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Nothing excites Eric Wong like the thrill of the hunt — usually in the clearance section of a West Elm outlet store. “I get high as hell on a deal,” Mr. Wong, 42, said of his best finds at the interior-design chain. “He’s basically furnished his whole apartment with West Elm stuff,” said his sister, Elke Wong. “I still love them, so hard,” Mr. Wong said of his erstwhile coworkers. Mr. Wong wanted something centrally located, but also fun for a bachelor.

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