WNYC News

Temperatures are rising, but spring vegetables are still a little ways away. Luckily, some veggies are good all year round. 

Amelia Tarpey is the Program and Publicity Manager for GrowNYC Greenmarkets. She says sunchokes are a root vegetable that are often overlooked, or confused for ginger. They're often called Jerusalem artichokes, even though they're neither from Jerusalem nor part of the artichoke family. That misnaming could be the result of what's known as "linguistic corruption," and may stem from a mispronunciation of the Italian word for sunflower, "girasole."

Right now at Greenmarkets, sunchokes are going for about $3 to $5 per pound.  

Mark Soyka remembers feeling unsettled when he heard homeless people had been attacked while they were sleeping in Chinatown in 2019. At the time, he said, he had been staying on nearby Mulberry Street.

“I was safe, by the grace of God, because I was living in a basement. So I had protection at night from the cold and the madness,” he said. “Before I was there, I was just sleeping in the street around where them guys got killed.”

The man accused of those killings, who was also homeless, was convicted of murder and assault last month. Prosecutors said Randy Santos traveled from the Bronx to the neighborhood surrounding the Bowery, known for its large homeless population, and used a heavy metal bar to bash the heads of five men as they slept on the street. Florencio Moran, Nazario Vásquez Villegas, Anthony Manson and Chuen Kok died from their injuries.

One man survived, along with another person whom Santos beat with a stick in Chelsea days earlier, prosecutors said.

Santos’ conviction offers some closure in a case that took nearly seven years to go to trial. But the dangers facing homeless New Yorkers remain.

Mayor Mamdani, Gov. Hochul and other New York politicians and officials react to President Trump's war with Iran. That and more in this week's Politics Brief.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been in office for a little more than two months now, and we’ve been checking in with the new leaders on his team, to learn more about the administration’s priorities.

 Doctor Alister Martin, recently named as the new city health commissioner, joined WNYC's Sean Carslon to talk more about his priorities.

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers receiving food assistance — including older adults and homeless people — now have to demonstrate they’re working if they want to keep the benefits that allow them to afford groceries every month.

After court battles and a temporary freeze on benefits during the federal government shutdown, the Trump administration’s big changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, officially took effect in New York this month. That means New Yorkers who fail to meet new work requirements could be kicked off the program beginning in June, a worrying prospect that city officials and emergency food providers are working furiously to avoid.

Food insecurity remains high in the city with more than 1 million households relying on SNAP, a rate that’s outpacing the city’s population growth.

New Yorkers have long been exempt from work requirements. But a measure pushed by Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration will require about 123,000 New Yorkers to prove that they are working, volunteering or in school beginning in March. This now includes veterans, homeless people, youth aging out of foster care, and parents with children older than 14. It also means that some seniors who had retired under the old rules will now have to go back to work to continue getting food benefits. SNAP recipients who fail to meet the rules for three months will lose their benefit.

"This is very big for our seniors," said Sister Marie Sorenson, associate executive director for St. John’s Bread & Life, which provides food assistance to 11,000 people a week.

The effort to revitalize Sunnyside Yards is back on the table after Mayor Mamdani met pitched President Trump on the idea during their Oval Office meeting last week. The Mayor’s office says Mamdani is asking for more than $21 billion dollars in federal grants to build a platform over the railyard in Western Queens. The city would then build about 12,000 affordable homes there. But the local Council member says she’s opposed, because she says the community is being cut out of the planning process.

Julie Won, the local Councilmember for Sunnyside, joins WNYC's Sean Carlson to talk more about it

Patients who have Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and usually see doctors at Mount Sinai have been in a bind since the start of the year due to a contract dispute.  

Mount Sinai doctors went out of network for Anthem members in January, which means patients have to pay more OR look elsewhere for care. Hospitals are set to go out of network in March if the parties can’t reach a deal.

Elisabeth Benjamin, the vice president of health initiatives at the Community Service Society, joins WNYC's Sean Carlson to help us better understand the fallout from all of this.

The month of March begins with a total lunar eclipse. WNYC's Rosemary Misdary joins Weekend Edition host David Furst with all the details, along with an update on NASA's postponed moon mission. 

It's still winter but the spring concert season is already starting to heat up in New York City. Music journalist Hank Shteamer joins Weekend Edition host David Furst to direct us to some of the March highlights. He's been writing about music for decades, and is selecting monthly concert picks for Gothamist.