New York City in brief

The Congressional Budget Office now expects America’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance pot to run dry by 2032, a year earlier than prior estimates, jeopardising full payments to nearly 70 million Social Security recipients. Without reform, payroll taxes would cover only partial benefits—hardly the golden years many envisaged. Pensions, it turns out, are subject to the same law of gravity as everything else.

New York City’s latest figures confirm it leads America’s inflation tables, with food prices up 56% in a decade—outpacing national gains, says the comptroller. For Hispanic residents especially, four in five now resort to credit just to eat as they once did. Some 67% of locals now juggle groceries against rent, transit, or utilities—a recipe for belt-tightening, with little actual slimming.

A new survey by Current and Talker Research finds 87% of Americans now label the country’s cost of living a full-blown crisis, with half struggling to pay monthly bills or afford groceries. The squeeze has spurred 38% to move, mostly young adults fleeing dearer cities and states. Whether inflation or ennui drives this great reshuffling, we suspect U-Haul shares are outperforming optimism.

A new Urban Institute analysis finds that, more than a year into Donald Trump’s second term, federal contracts for new urban rail projects have ground to a halt, slicing state and local support to $7 billion, less than half the 2021 level. While American cities once rivaled the likes of Paris, their rail ambitions now queue meekly behind highway spending—leaving subways, and perhaps our patience, idling in the station.

Rents for both homes and storefronts in New York City have soared so high that neighborhood staples—from Juan Dela Cruz’s bodega on Avenue D to hundreds of others—are vanishing faster than you can say “market forces.” Lawmakers are again flirting with commercial rent control, but with chain stores multiplying and vacancy rates at 11.4%, we wonder if New York’s spirit can be preserved—at any price.