Grocery bills on Staten Island continue their upward march, with Labor Department figures showing coffee up nearly 21% and ground beef at record highs, testing household mettle and fridge space alike. Locals, pinballing between Trader Joe’s, ShopRit…
Staten Island's express bus riders are at last seeing service improve, with monthly cancellations down to 174 in September from nearly 1,000 in July, thanks to pressure from Borough President Vito Fossella and alliances with the MTA and unions. Yet unless New York finds room for another bus garage, mechanics will remain elbow-to-elbow, and the borough’s punctuality renaissance risks becoming a brief detour rather than a permanent route.
Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaigners fanned out from St. George’s Borough Hall on Staten Island, eager to drum up early votes and convince locals—still reeling from pandemic woes and sticker-shock prices—that change is finally in reach. With help from politicos like Jamaal Bowman and Marcela Mitaynes, we saw earnest canvassing, hopeful coalition talk, and a borough that may, at last, prove harder to forget.
Applications are now open until November 30th for Staten Island’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy, where teenagers pitch business ideas—robot-run restaurants welcome—to a panel of local titans and vie for seed funding, all under the benevolent gaze of Rotary Club benefactors. Students get four months of Tuesday-evening capitalism at Chamber of Commerce HQ; whether any become genuine moguls or just ace their college essays remains to be seen.
We watched Staten Island’s Seamen’s Society for Children and Families fill LiGreci’s Staaten with nearly 250 donors for its Hope Gala—a spirited evening aimed at shoring up programs for local children beset by hardship. The likes of Joseph Manzo and Lynne Persing bagged awards, while Miss Staten Island sang her heart out. Given the society’s 180-year track record, hope apparently ages well in this borough.
Staten Island can brace for a textbook bout of spring misery, as the National Weather Service predicts a 100% chance of rain and possible thunderstorms after 2 a.m., with gusts reaching 31 mph and temperatures dipping to 57°F. We suspect umbrella vendors, not sunbathers, will be the optimists cashing in—at least until the next “chance of showers” rears its soggy head.
Wagner College in Staten Island will host its 20th annual Italian Idol Singing Competition on October 24th, dangling a $4,000 first prize for undergraduates who can belt out Italian art songs with panache. Thanks in part to a $50,000 donation from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, the event now sports a grand title and generous prizes—which seems proof that in opera, a high note can really pay off.
While youth soccer rarely makes global headlines, Saturday saw the Staten Island Youth Soccer League turn Miller Field in New Dorp into a hive of competitive energy, cheered on by sideline parents and 102 action-hungry photographers. Local organisers promise the usual blend of grassroots chaos and unbridled enthusiasm—though, judging by the fine print, data privacy might be the only thing tougher to defend than the home goal.
A 1990 directory of Staten Island Mall has resurfaced on Reddit, triggering a sentimental audit of consumer rituals past, when 16 shoe stores jostled with a liquor shop for custom and Roy Rogers outflanked Blimpie at lunch. While Sears is long gone, Macy’s and Spencer Gifts still cling on, starring in tales of tantrums and Stuft Potatoes—proving nostalgia never quite kicks the retail habit.
