New York and New Jersey are suing the Trump administration over plans to cut FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which covers up to 75% of resilience project costs; this comes as flash floods overwhelmed the Northeast, …
U.S. immigration officials and Medicaid recently agreed to let ICE comb through the personal data—addresses, Social Security numbers, even ethnic backgrounds—of 79 million enrollees, in hopes of tracking down undocumented immigrants, an effort not likely to calm nerves from Phoenix to Harlem. We expect the ensuing legal tussles to be as robust as the government’s appetite for ever-more comprehensive databases.
President Trump has signed off on a $1 trillion cut to Medicaid, with New Jersey alone bracing for a $3.3 billion loss and 350,000 likely to lose coverage, says Commissioner Sarah Adelman. New rules require twice-yearly eligibility checks and stricter work demands—hardly ideal for caregivers like Theresa Luoni, who now faces mounting bureaucracy and the unenviable task of making 24-hour care fit neatly into an 80-hour work month.
New York endured yet another aquatic indignity as 2.7 inches of rain fell in an hour—behind only Hurricane Ida’s infamous 2021 deluge—leaving subways awash and motorists marooned. The MTA and city hall agree the century-old sewers can’t cope, though $36 billion for upgrades appears less forthcoming than the rain itself. Meanwhile, pumps and perky rain gardens do their valiant best, but rubber boots remain our best short-term hedge.
After New York's August cloudburst sent water surging into subways and streets, and with $351 million in federal storm-mitigation grants to the city yanked by the Trump administration in April, local officials are suing FEMA for their return. We watch as 20 states join New York’s legal rain dance—though umbrellas may prove sturdier than promises if the funds remain in a Washington downpour.
Ground broke on a $270 million redevelopment at the Christian Cultural Center campus in East New York, Brooklyn, which aims to deliver over 2,000 affordable homes, child care, and open space in the coming years. The project, pushed by Governor Kathy Hochul and Rev. A.R. Bernard, offers amenities for lower-income and formerly homeless residents—an urban utopia, or at least a commendable attempt to square faith with the New York housing market.
Donald Trump’s latest tax bill clipped $29 million in funding for SNAP-Ed programs, an educational arm of SNAP that’s helped over 2 million New Yorkers stretch their grocery budgets and eat healthier. Nonprofits like Children’s Aid, running school gardens and fresh food boxes in the Bronx and Staten Island, now face closure unless Albany conjures new money—though bureaucratic green thumbs, sadly, may not make strawberries grow.
New York’s Public Service Commission has paused plans to build offshore wind transmission lines, citing opposition and permit blocks from President Trump’s administration—a move that puts the state’s vaunted Climate Leadership Act in limbo. With utilities spared the premature bill for winds that aren’t blowing, officials insist consumer protection is paramount, though New Yorkers may wonder if their renewable ambitions are merely blowing in the breeze for now.
A topsy-turvy New York City mayoral race sees Eric Adams—recently acquitted and now an independent—squaring off against Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist who handily beat Andrew Cuomo (yes, that Cuomo) in the Democratic primary. With Republican Curtis Sliwa and independents including Cuomo himself still in the fray, Gotham’s next chapter may hinge less on Gotham and more on Gotham’s crowded cast.
