Donald Trump announced plans to scrap federal funding for the Gateway Project, intended to build new Hudson River train tunnels between Manhattan and North Bergen, potentially halting America’s largest mass transit investment mid-dig. Chuck Schumer, who spent two decades wrangling the $6.8 billion grant, cried sabotage; construction lurches on regardless, though it seems New Yorkers may soon add “unfinished holes” to their list of commuter frustrations.
New York City in brief
Top five stories in the five boroughs today
Greenpoint, once a Polish industrial backwater, has morphed into Brooklyn’s emblem of breakneck gentrification—despite swelling housing supply courtesy of a Bloomberg-era rezoning, rents now hover near $5,000 for one-bedroom flats. Mayoral hopefuls like Zohran Mamdani tout ambitious building sprees, but many locals watch the “virtuous growth” drive long-time residents out, suggesting market forces have a stubborn sense of irony in America’s housing capital.
New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a law barring landlords from using algorithm-based software, like RealPage’s, to set rents, a move prompted by federal lawsuits and claims it squeezed tenants for $3.8 billion more in 2023 alone. The Empire State joins California and assorted cities from Jersey City to Minneapolis in curbing digital rent hikes—a rare bipartisan quest to outwit the landlord’s new best friend: the algorithm.
A federal judge—Lewis Kaplan—has prolonged an order shielding $33 million in anti-terrorism funds for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority after the Department of Homeland Security threatened to yank them, allegedly for political reasons. New York's Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul hailed the reprieve, bought until October 22, as a win for subway security—though we suspect D.C. and Albany will remain at cross-purposes long after the next train departs.
Protesters plan to assemble across New York City this Saturday for “No Kings” rallies, their second major demonstration since Donald Trump’s re-election, with organizers expecting up to 100,000 people in Manhattan and sister events nationwide. Federal agencies, uncharacteristically silent on deployment plans, are keeping a watchful eye, while the ACLU has schooled 20,000 would-be marchers on protest rights—proof that, in America, civics class occasionally spills out onto 42nd Street.