WNYC News

Winter in the Tri-State area means clanking radiators, snowy streets and, for many, steaming dishes of delicious Chinese food. Food critic Robert Sietsima makes the case that some of region's best Chinese restaurants are now in the Chinatown emerging in Long Island City. 

Speaking with Weekend Edition host David Furst, Robert runs down some of the highlights.

Snow is blanketing the region as we continue to deal with a major winter storm this weekend.

New Jersey State Climatologist and Rutgers University professor David Robinson has his cross country skis at the ready. He joins Weekend Edition host David Furst with the latest on the storm.

New Jersey has been preparing for this weekend's winter storm for days. Governor Mikie Sherrill declared a state of emergency on Friday night, urging residents to stay home during the storm and to keep their phones charged. She joins Weekend Edition host David Furst with the latest on the storm and the frigid week ahead.

A new mayor also means new city agency leaders, and we’ve been talking with several of them recently about what their priorities are during this new administration.

The new commissioner of the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Samuel Levine joins WNYC's Sean Carlson to talk more about what he will focus on. 

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been grilled over policing, antisemitism, the budget deficit, his relationship with President Donald Trump and even his bathroom makeover for Gracie Mansion in his first three weeks of office.

But come Sunday, he will face a mayor’s most unpredictable political threat: Mother Nature.

Try something new with carrots this week! If you haven't tried the viral carrot ribbon salad yet, it's a fun way to pack in nutrients and fiber. If you've already made it once, try it with a twist with carrots the color of the rainbow. Or, make a carrot cake and experiment with purple and red carrots instead of orange. Amelia Tarpey, Program and Publicity Manger for GrowNYC Greenmarkets, says you can expect carrots to go for around $3 to $5 per pound right now.

New York City’s new transportation commissioner is looking to cities like Bogotá, Tokyo and Paris for inspiration as he seeks to realize Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mandate to make NYC’s streetscape “the envy of the world.”

“New York is the greatest city in the world, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that we can’t learn from our global peers,” Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn said Thursday on WNYC’s “Morning Edition,” specifically calling out the capitals of Colombia, Japan and France.

Bogotá has received global acclaim in recent years for its expanding rapid bus network and bike lanes. In 2022, the city received a sustainability award from the Institute for Transportation and Policy Development.

Tokyo has long been light-years ahead of New York City when it comes to reorienting its streets, with an efficient subway system and sprawling network of pedestrian plazas that discourage commuters from driving.

And in Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo has over the last decade prioritized banning cars from the city center and expanding pedestrian space. Last year, Parisian voters passed a referendum to close an additional 500 streets to traffic — and remove 10% of the city’s parking spaces.

Cyclists represent more than 10% of all commuters in each of the cities cited by Flynn. In New York City, only about 2% of people commute by bike.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is proposing a pilot program in New York City to require speed limiters be installed in the cars of drivers with a documented pattern of speeding. 

The pilot program would be run by the city, not the state, and there are still few detail about how it would be implemented. If the pilot is deemed successful,  other cities across the state will be allowed to opt-in to the program as well. 

The plan is very similar to the Stop Super Speeders Act bill, sponsored by State Senator Andrew Gounardes, that has repeatedly stalled in the state legislature. 

Joe Jankoski is a member of Families For Safe Streets. A driver with a history of speeding killed Jankoski's partner, Amanda Servedio, while riding her bike in 2024. Alexa Sledge is with the non-profit Transportation Alternatives. The non-profit says that for most drivers, traffic citations are an effective deterrent for speeding. But a small number of repeat offenders need to be physically slowed down. They spoke with WNYC Morning Edition host Michael Hill about what they feel the state needs to do to protect people from repeat speeders. 

If you live on Staten Island or in Southern Brooklyn, there are questions about the future of who is going to represent you in Washington.That’s because a judge is ordering a commission to redraw the congressional district's lines, because the current boundaries dilute the voice of Black and Latino voters on Staten island.

The ruling might affect which party controls Congress after next year's midterm elections.

Republican Nicole Malliotakis currently represents the district in Congress She talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson more about what the ruling means.

Mayor Mamdani is promising a bold new vision for New York City's streets. He has so far pushed forward new projects long stalled under the Adams administration and he rose to prominence with his call for fast and free buses.  

Key to new administration's vision for the streetscape is Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn. Flynn joined WNYC's Michael Hill to discuss his plans for the city.