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☆ NY Gov Hochul delays controversial NYC congestion pricing plan ‘indefinitely’
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Gloria Pazmino | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

A source familiar with the Governor’s plan said Hochul pushed for the delay due to concerns about affordability and the potential impact to the city’s post-pandemic economic recovery. New York’s congestion pricing would have been the first of its kind in the United States. “As a longtime champion of Congestion Pricing and the Congressional Representative of a significant portion of the Central Business District (CBD), I am disappointed by reports that Governor Hochul will not implement Congestion Pricing on June 30, as previously planned,” Nadler said in a statement. “For years, Leader Hakeem Jeffries has maintained neutrality with respect to the congestion pricing policy debate. Congestion pricing is a $15 billion lifeline for the MTA – critical funding that will be lost if the program is stalled,” the group said in a statement.

Persons: Kathy Hochul, ” Hochul, Hochul, John Samuelsen, CNN Hochul, ” Samuelsen, Joe Borelli, ” Borelli, ”, Ritchie Torres, Jerry Nadler, ” Nadler, Hakeem Jeffries, Andy Eichar, “, Jeffries, ” Eichar Organizations: CNN, New, Yorkers, The New, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Transport Workers Union, Republican, “, Rep, Democrat, Congressional, Central Business, Transportation, MTA Locations: New York City’s, Manhattan, United States, London, Stockholm, The, The New York City, Staten Island, Hudson, Brooklyn, New York State

☆ A ‘House of the Dragon’ Party Without a Silvery Wig in Sight
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-04 | by ( Nancy Coleman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Where does the story pick up this season on HBO’s fantasy epic “House of the Dragon”? “So,” the actor Tom Glynn-Carney told a reporter on Monday night at the Season 2 premiere at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom, everything “hits the fan.”His character in the “Game of Thrones” prequel, the newly crowned King Aegon II Targaryen, holds a grip on the throne that is tenuous at best. His brother has just killed their nephew in what could best be described as death by dragon chomp. And his sister Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen is on the brink of going nuclear — as Targaryens tend to do — likely with more dragon chomping. Even as Mr. Glynn-Carney, Matt Smith and other “Dragon” actors laid out the violence in store for the new season — which returns June 16 — the show’s impending civil war stood in stark contrast to the evening’s cocktails and joviality, with not a single silvery wig in sight.

Persons: Tom Glynn, Carney, Manhattan’s, Rhaenyra Targaryen, Glynn, Matt Smith Organizations: King Aegon

☆ Hochul Pushes for Congestion Pricing Delay in Last-Minute Reversal
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-04 | by ( Dana Rubinstein | Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Kathy Hochul is quietly maneuvering to delay a plan to toll drivers entering Manhattan’s central business district, just weeks before it is slated to go into effect, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan, which has been decades in the making, is slated to start June 30. Drivers using E-ZPass will pay as much as $15 to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street. But even as Ms. Hochul believes that congestion pricing is good environmental policy, she has concerns that the timing was less than ideal, according to a person familiar with her thinking. The governor feared that it might deter commuters from returning to the central business district, which has yet to fully recover from the pandemic.

Persons: Kathy Hochul, Hochul Locations: Manhattan, New York City

☆ Opinion | Gov. Hochul’s Unwarranted Retreat on Congestion Pricing
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-04 | by ( Mara Gay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Americans didn’t need a reason to feel more cynical about politics. But New York Gov. She said she had become concerned that the program could hurt Manhattan’s economic recovery from the pandemic. But Hochul is the one who has been issuing glowing news releases about how New York State has already achieved “full economic recovery,” including Manhattan, and any economic effects of the pricing plan are nothing new, having been hashed out for years. The more likely reason, as Politico reported, is that Democratic officials, including the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, are worried that starting the program now could hurt Democratic chances in competitive House races this November.

Persons: Kathy Hochul, Hakeem Jeffries Organizations: New, New York Gov, New York State, Politico, Democratic Locations: New York, Manhattan

☆ The 7 Grueling Months to Reclaim the Bookstore Dream a Fire Stole
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-01 | by ( Jordyn Holman | Hiroko Masuike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Lucy Yu wasn’t sure if she had smoke in her lungs or was having an anxiety attack. Five days earlier, on the Fourth of July, she had raced out of her bookstore in Manhattan’s Chinatown as it filled with smoke. She had assembled a team of friends to pack up the books that weren’t damaged beyond repair and put them in storage. She walked outside and sat down on a stoop next door, as her friends comforted her and brought her water. Her once-vibrant store, Yu & Me Books, needed a gut renovation to remove mold and smoke residue.

Persons: Lucy Yu wasn’t, Yu Locations: Chinatown

☆ A Match Made in Church Sparks a Journey of Self-Discovery
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Valeriya Safronova | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At that time, almost no one knew that Mr. Stewart was romantically interested in men. Mr. Stewart knew Mr. Lagasca from Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan, where Mr. Lagasca, a classical singer, performed periodically, and where Mr. Stewart headed the board that oversaw the church’s Bach Vespers series. He and Mr. Lagasca saw each other around and were Facebook friends, but had never spent time alone — until that day. “It was like, I have to impress him,” Mr. Lagasca said. Mr. Lagasca, 38, grew up in Manila and moved to Orlando, Fla., in 2006.

Persons: Jonathan Runge Stewart, Enrico Lagasca, Stewart, Lagasca, “, ” Mr Organizations: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Facebook, Mannes School of Music, New School, Carnegie Hall, Portland Baroque Orchestra Locations: Manhattan’s West, Manhattan, Manila, Orlando, Fla, United States, Canada, Germany

☆ After Conviction, Trump Says ‘Real Verdict’ Will Come in November
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Michael Gold | More About Michael Gold | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Moments after former President Donald J. Trump learned that he was a convicted felon, he dismissed the trial as illegitimate and the jury’s verdict as irrelevant as he pushed ahead to the presidential election. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people.” Mr. Trump said on Thursday evening in the hallway outside the courtroom, just minutes after a jury in Manhattan convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. “And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here.”Speaking for less than three minutes, a somber Mr. Trump revived his contention that the case amounted to a politically motivated prosecution intended to interfere with his bid to return to the White House. But as he rattled off attacks against Manhattan’s district attorney, the judge in the case, President Biden and Democrats, Mr. Trump seemed less animated than he had while addressing reporters during the duration of the trial. Rather than an energized rebuttal, his post-verdict remarks felt more like a rote recitation of grievances.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Mr, Biden Locations: Manhattan, Manhattan’s

☆ Opinion | Will Roy Cohn Save Donald Trump’s Hide One Last Time?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Kai Bird | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But it was in another courthouse just down the street that Mr. Trump’s wily mentor, Roy Cohn, pulled off one of his greatest legal feats. It was Mr. Cohn who taught Mr. Trump how to manipulate the law, and other people, to his advantage. Mr. Trump always admired Mr. Cohn’s bravado and belligerence; Mr. Cohn’s whole worldview seemed to validate the young developer’s crassest instincts. “If you need somebody to get vicious,” Mr. Trump once said, “hire Roy Cohn.” His legal strategy boiled down to: Delay and deny. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have aggressively sought every delay possible and called for mistrials or new judges on a regular basis.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump’s, Roy Cohn, Cohn, Trump, Cohn’s, Mr, ”, Don’t, —, Juan Merchan Organizations: Truth

☆ Caleb Carr, Author of Dark Histories, Dies at 68
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Penelope Green | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Caleb Carr, a military historian and author whose experience of childhood abuse drove him to explore the roots of violence — most famously in his 1994 best seller, “The Alienist,” a period thriller about the hunt for a serial killer in 19th-century Manhattan — died on Thursday at his home in Cherry Plains, N.Y. The cause was cancer, his brother Ethan Carr said. Mr. Carr had first pitched the book as nonfiction; it wasn’t, but it read that way because of the exhaustive research he did into the period. And he peopled his novel with historical figures like Theodore Roosevelt, who was New York’s reforming police commissioner before his years in the White House. Up to that point, Mr. Carr had been writing, with modest success, on military matters.

Persons: Caleb Carr, —, Ethan Carr, Carr, Theodore Roosevelt, Jacob Riis, James Chace Organizations: Quarterly Locations: ”, Cherry Plains, N.Y, American, Chinese

☆ How a Novelist Became a Pop Star
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Emily Lordi | Philip Cheung | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“I hope you fall in love, I hope it breaks your heart” is the refrain (in English translation) of “Pasoori,” Ali Sethi’s 2022 global hit. The song, performed as a duet with the Pakistani singer Shae Gill, defies such simple classifications — it’s a pop banger sung in Urdu and Punjabi, punctuated with flamenco handclaps and driven by a reggaeton beat. It’s now been viewed some 850 million times on YouTube, including by countless Indian fans. Sethi, 39, is a master of microtonal singing, gliding between the notes of the Western tempered scale. In 2009, he published “The Wish Maker,” a semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel set in his home city.

Persons: ” Ali, Shae Gill, Sethi, —, ” Sethi, It’s, He’s, Ustad Saami, Farida Khanum, “, ”, Jane Austen, Zadie Smith, Indiana Jones, Mariah Carey, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Organizations: Pakistani, YouTube, Harvard Locations: Pakistani, Manhattan’s East, Lahore

☆ Met Gala 2024: Everything we know about the theme, hosts and guests
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth and Zendaya will co-chair this year's Met Gala for the exhibition "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion." The first celebrities to appear will be Gala co-chairs Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny and Chris Hemsworth, the last of whom is making his Met Gala debut. What was the first Met Gala theme? Gwyneth Paltrow famously called the Met Gala “un-fun” in 2013 and said she’d “never” go again, but returned in 2017 (and 2019). Met Gala guests have often broken the no-social-media rule to give a more candid glimpse of who is hanging with who and what goes on behind closed doors.

Persons: CNN —, —, Jared Leto’s, Rihanna, J.G, Ballard, Andrew Bolton, Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth, Zendaya, James Devaney, Victor Aubry, Christina House, Neil Mockford, Bad Bunny, Anna Wintour, Wintour, Arturo Holmes, Karl Lagerfeld, Rei Kawakubo, Charles James, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen, Gianni Versace, Angela Weiss, Lagerfeld, Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman, Jenna Ortega, Chanel, Fendi, Eleanor Lambert, Diana Vreeland, LaunchMetrics, Calvin Klein, “, ” Cher, Ron Galella, ”, Lady Gaga, Kardashian, Jenners, Donald Trump, James Corden’s, Demi Lovato, Zayn Malik, Tina Fey, Fey, David Letterman ”, backtrack, Gwyneth Paltrow, she’d “, Olivia Wilde, Margaret Zhang, Kevin Mazur, Bella Hadid, Dakota Johnson, Jason Derulo, Jay, Solange, it’s, ” Wilde Organizations: CNN, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Costume Institute, Los Angeles Times, American Vogue, New York Times, Getty, Super, Hollywood, Vogue, “ Vogue China Locations: New York, British, American, China

☆ The Offense That Harvey Weinstein Can Never Be Convicted Of
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-27 | by ( Jodi Kantor | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the first time in years, there is a chance that Harvey Weinstein could walk free. His New York conviction for sex crimes was overturned on Thursday. Manhattan’s district attorney says he wants to retry Mr. Weinstein, but that seems, at most, a maybe. Many of Mr. Weinstein’s accusers say they are horrified. But criminal convictions have never seemed like the ultimate measure of Mr. Weinstein’s behavior.

Persons: Harvey Weinstein, Mr, Weinstein, —, ” Locations: York, Manhattan’s, Los Angeles, New York

☆ Donald Trump has shared tales of courtroom spectacles. The reality is much more subdued
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Steve Contorno | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —An email Monday night from Donald Trump – subject line: “My farewell message” – carried a fateful warning to his backers. Throughout the first six days of his trial, Trump’s dramatized retellings of his legal peril have veered considerably from the events actually unfolding in and around Manhattan’s criminal courthouse. In one fundraising email on the first day of his trial, Trump claimed he “stormed out” of the proceedings. With the courtroom quiet Tuesday, Trump flipped through a pile of papers loud enough to hear the pages turning. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in the courtroom,” Merchan said.

Persons: Donald Trump, –, Trump, Rather, untethered, “, he’s, unremarkably Trump, Judge Juan Merchan, Stormy Daniels, E, Jean Carroll, Merchan, ” Merchan, hasn’t, “ You’re, ”, Todd Blanche, Christopher Conroy, Blanche, ‘, CNN’s Kate Sullivan, Kristen Holmes, Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell Organizations: CNN, Trump, Columbia University, Truth, Protesters Locations: Manhattan, Fiji, Lower Manhattan

☆ How Hudson Yards Went From Ghost Town to Office Success Story
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Matthew Haag | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was March 2019, and 13,000 people were on Manhattan’s West Side at a star-studded opening ceremony for the largest private real estate project in United States history: Hudson Yards. A year later, the development was a ghost town. The roughly $30 billion planned neighborhood looked like it had fizzled before it ever got started. But now, five years after that grand opening, Hudson Yards has not only survived, but it has also emerged as perhaps the most dominant office market in New York City, a bright spot as companies across the country cut space in the shift to remote and hybrid work. Skeptics had also predicted that area — bounded by Eighth and 12th Avenues from West 30th to West 42nd Street — was too out of the way for New Yorkers.

Persons: Young —, — Organizations: Hudson, Shops, Hudson Yards, BlackRock, Pfizer, Ernst, Eighth, West, New Yorkers Locations: United States, New York City, West, New

☆ Trump’s Criminal Trial Begins With a Bumpy Jury Selection
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Matthew Cullen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New York prosecutors joined Donald Trump and his attorneys today in a Manhattan courtroom for the official start of the first criminal trial of an American president. Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign. My colleague Alan Feuer noted that such a high initial failure rate is “surpassingly rare,” underscoring the challenges of seating an impartial jury for a defendant whom much of the country has already made its mind up about. The trial — perhaps the only one against Trump that will unfold before Election Day — is projected to take about six weeks, the judge told the prospective jurors. But it could stretch out longer if jury selection turns out to be especially time consuming.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Alan Feuer Organizations: Trump Locations: York, Manhattan

☆ Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to face his toughest trial yet as Trump criminal case begins
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Gregory Krieg | Kara Scannell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

“I’ve done a lot of cases that are considered no-win,” Bragg told CNN at the time, in December 2021. Though Bragg’s ambitions are widely considered to be less lofty than some of his predecessors, the Trump trial will likely write both his political future and legacy. Two months into office, Bragg was confronted by two senior attorneys leading the Trump investigation. When Bragg refused to authorize them to seek an indictment they abruptly and noisily resigned, putting additional pressure on the new district attorney. Trump eventually paid $2 million of his own money to a group of charities, and the foundation was dissolved.

Persons: Alvin Bragg, Donald Trump, “, ” Bragg, you’re, ’, ”, Bragg, indicting Trump, Trump, –, craven, Jim Jordan, Cy Vance Jr, Robert Morgenthau, Morgenthau, Vance, Charles Seymour Whitman, Thomas Dewey, Dewey, Eric Garner, Garner, Trump’s, Michael Cohen –, Stormy Daniels, Cohen, blitzed Bragg, Alina Habba, that’s, ” Trump, “ Alvin, I’m, Eric Adams, Adams, Donald J, Barbara Underwood, Judge Juan Merchan, Daniels Organizations: CNN, Ohio, White, Harvard, of, New, New York Law, Racial, Trump, Republican, Prosecutors, New York, “, New York City, NYPD, Trump Organization, Democratic, Trump Foundation Locations: Harlem, American, New York City, Black, New York, Southern, of New York, America

☆ Election 2024 Trump plays the victim card at Pennsylvania rally ahead of his Monday trial.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-14 | by ( Michael Gold | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The case, which Mr. Trump also called a “communist show trial,” was brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and has nothing to do with Mr. Biden. As he often does, Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, cast himself as a victim of political persecution who is protecting his followers from a similar fate. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that he backed Israel’s right to defend itself after a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7. Mr. Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020 by more than 80,000 votes. “They cheat like hell,” Mr. Trump said of his political opponents, an allegation of voter fraud that has not been supported by evidence.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, ” Mr, Biden, ”, “, Trump’s, Israel’s, Mr, Israel, Joe, “ They’re, I’m Organizations: White, Biden, Pennsylvania Locations: Manhattan, New York, Pennsylvania, York, Schnecksville, Pa, Iran, Israel, Gaza

☆ Fact check: Trump’s false and unsubstantiated claims about his Manhattan criminal case
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-14 | by ( Daniel Dale | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

With Trump’s trial scheduled to start Monday, here is a fact check of some of Trump’s remarks. Trump’s baseless claims that Biden is secretly running the caseTrump has repeatedly claimed that the Manhattan case has been secretly orchestrated by President Joe Biden, Biden’s White House or the Biden-era federal Justice Department. Third, there is no basis for the claim that Colangelo oversees Bragg; Bragg is Colangelo’s boss. Facts First: Trump’s claims are not even close to true; Manhattan, like New York City as a whole, is nowhere near record highs for murder or violent crime more broadly. They want to take away my constitutional right to talk.”Facts First: Trump’s claims are exaggerations.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump’s, Biden, Trump, Joe Biden, Biden’s, Matthew Colangelo, Alvin Bragg, Joe Biden’s, ”, “, ” Trump, Thugs ”, Colangelo, ” Bragg, Bragg, It’s, Joe Schmoe, ’, Jeff Asher, Juan Merchan, Loren Merchan, Loren Merchan “, Al Baker, Loren Merchan didn’t, Baker, Loren Merchan’s, Judge Merchan’s, Judge, I’m, Merchan, Merchan’s, Soros, George Soros, Michael Vachon, Vachon, Alvin Bragg’s, ” Soros, Rashad Robinson, overstate, Al Capone, Capone, Brad Schwartz, CNN couldn’t, Schwartz Organizations: Washington CNN, Justice Department, DOJ, Biden, Bragg, Manhattan, New York, CNN, Trump, Democratic, The Spectator, Soros, PAC, Democracy PAC, Change’s PAC Locations: Manhattan, York’s, New, New York City, Pennsylvania, Fulton County , Georgia

☆ Protests, Traffic, Crowds: Court Braces for a Trump Trial Like No Other
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Jesse Mckinley | Jonathan Swan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Manhattan’s Criminal Courts Building, at 100 Centre Street, is short on charm: circled in scaffolding, lit like an aging cafeteria and, in recent months, neighbor to a colossal pile of rubble, the remains of the Manhattan Detention Complex, which is being demolished. Yet come Monday, it will be the pulsing center of a swirling mass of security measures, and likely headaches, as the first criminal trial of Donald J. Trump kicks off on its 15th floor. Court and law enforcement personnel have been tight-lipped about the exact steps they are taking, but a court lawyer said at a hearing this week that preparations had been underway for months. They will have plenty to contend with. Right-wing supporters of the former president have already announced plans to protest near the courthouse on Monday as jury selection begins, and cable news networks have promised wall-to-wall coverage of the case.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Locations: Manhattan

☆ 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

☆ Are Glue Traps Too Cruel to Use in the Fight Against Mice and Rats?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Sarah Maslin Nir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When New Yorkers concern themselves with rodents, they typically focus on how to kill them. The bill would ban the sale and use of what are known as glue boards — cheap, sticky traps that can be strewed around construction sites or tossed under kitchen cabinets and forgotten. If the legislation is successful, New York would join a growing list of places that passed bans recently, like Scotland and Ojai, a city in California with a population of about 7,500, which made glue traps illegal this month. In January, Representative Ted W. Lieu, a Democrat who represents Los Angeles, introduced the Glue Trap Prohibition Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. “We don’t need to lose our humanity just because we don’t like having as many rodents in our midst as we currently do.”

Persons: Ted W, ”, Harvey Epstein Organizations: Democrat, U.S . House, Representatives, State Assembly Locations: Albany, New York, Scotland, Ojai, California, Los Angeles, U.S, Manhattan’s, State

☆ When Richard Serra’s Steel Curves Became a Memorial
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Jason Farago | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After the yelling, the hearings, the lawsuit, the dismantlement, Richard Serra entered the last decade of the last century with his mind cast toward the classics. The American sculptor, who died Tuesday at 85, got caught up in the Reagan-era culture wars with “Tilted Arc,” a 120-foot plate of curved Cor-Ten steel that sliced across Manhattan’s Federal Plaza. The work was finally removed — in Serra’s estimation, destroyed — in March 1989. “The central space is simply a regular ellipse, and the walls that surround it are vertical,” he would later recall. “I walked in and thought: what if I turn this form on itself?”

Persons: Richard Serra, Reagan, Yorkers, Street, San Carlo alle Quattro, Francesco Borromini that’s, “ Organizations: San Carlo Locations: American, Italy, Rome, San

☆ The U.S.’s First Congestion Tolls Were Approved in New York City
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Matthew Cullen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Transit officials in New York City voted today to approve a program aimed at curbing traffic and pollution by imposing hefty new fees on drivers entering Manhattan’s busiest areas. The tolling program, which still faces legal challenges, could begin as early as mid-June — making New York the first American city to adopt a comprehensive congestion pricing system. The city estimates that the tolls will raise $1 billion annually for public transportation improvements. But congestion pricing has been a hard sell in New York, where many people commute by car from the boroughs and the suburbs. The program could still be upended over the next few months by courts in New York and New Jersey, where several lawsuits have sought to block the new fees.

Locations: New York, New Jersey

☆ 2 Schools Clash as One Shrinks and the Other Gains Migrant Students
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Troy Closson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A bitter clash over space has emerged in recent weeks at a beloved New York City school building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that two programs have shared for the past decade. One of the building’s occupants, Public School 145, has added more than 120 new students as a result of an influx of newcomers. The conflict highlights broader fault lines in New York and other large U.S. cities. The country’s public schools have lost more than 1.2 million students since the pandemic began and are facing major budget declines as a result. By 2031, enrollment could plunge by another 2.5 million nationwide, in large part because of declining birthrates.

Organizations: New York, Public, of Education, West Prep Academy Locations: New York City, New York, U.S

☆ Two Artists Make a Home for Their Family, and Their Collection
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Max Berlinger | Stefan Ruiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In the primary bedroom of the artists Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian’s townhouse in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park, a 2015 Thomas Houseago sculpture, a 2021 Henry Taylor portrait of Hovsepian, a Campana brothers Bolotas sofa and Racket chair, a custom dresser by Robert Pluhowski, a Giancarlo Valle coffee table, a black leather Martin Eisler chair and shades and walls upholstered in Zeist brocatelle by Prelle. Credit... Stefan Ruiz. Artwork, from left: Thomas Houseago, “Psychedelic Brother Mask (Architecture I)” (2015) © Thomas Houseago, courtesy of Gagosian; Henry Taylor, “Untitled” (2021) © Henry Taylor, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Persons: Rashid Johnson, Thomas Houseago, Henry Taylor, Hovsepian, Campana, Robert Pluhowski, Giancarlo Valle, Martin Eisler, Stefan Ruiz, “ Organizations: Prelle, Hauser & Wirth Locations: Prelle .

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