WNYC News

This week's Politics Brief takes listeners inside Zohran Mamdani's meeting with New York City business leaders.

An explosive lawsuit against Mayor Eric Adams and top brass at the NYPD is coming from an unusual plaintiff: the former New York City Police Commissioner.  

Tom Donlon, who served briefly as interim Commissioner last year, is alleging a widespread culture of corruption and even criminal activity in the Department. WNYC's Ben Feuerherd talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson more about it. 

At Fairmont Neighborhood School in the Bronx last week, an eagle-eyed kindergartener just tall enough to peer over a row of elevated flower beds spotted a small red bulb covered with tiny seeds.

“The strawberries are growing!” he exclaimed as the rest of his Bronx summer school classmates rushed over to see the plant.

Thirty miles south on Staten Island’s North Shore, residents lined up for a bag of affordable fruits and vegetables, filled with items they can’t always find in their neighborhood and recipes to learn how to cook with them.

“There's so little access to fresh produce, and groceries are hideously priced,” said Sarah Blas, who picked up food with her twin 9-year-old daughters.

For the last decade, these dual programs run by the nonprofit Children’s Aid have taught families how to eat healthier on a budget. But now, under President Donald Trump’s new spending bill, the long-standing initiatives and others like them across the state will shut down by October, unless they find a way to plug the funding gap.

Trump’s massive tax cut bill is meant to cut waste, fraud and abuse. It slashes federal spending on social safety net programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, that help low-income people pay for groceries. It also cuts SNAP’s educational arm, known as SNAP-Ed. For the last 32 years, that funding has helped low-income families learn how to cook nutritious meals on a limited income.

New York will lose $29 million in SNAP-Ed dollars, state officials said. The programs helped more than 2.2 million residents last year fight food insecurity and improve their health through nutritionists, obesity prevention training, workshops on reducing local food waste, healthy cooking and improving access to fresh produce, according to the state.

Construction of a nine-story luxury apartment building next door to the Prospect Park Stable is stressing out its 11 horses, according to owner John Quadrozzi Jr., 63.

New York City Mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist who is campaigning on the promise of raising taxes on the city’s top 1-percent of earners. But he’s also spending his day with some of the city’s business elite. The meeting was organized by the pro-business group the Partnership for New York City. 

The group’s President and CEO is Kathryne Wylde, talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson more on how the meeting went.

Traffic on the major crosstown thoroughfare crawls at an average of 3 mph at peak hours, according to the transportation department. 

Andrew Cuomo said he hadn't campaigned hard enough in the Democratic primary. And pledged he won't make the same mistake twice. 

Big changes are in store for East Harlem as the MTA ramps up work on the long-awaited extension of the Second Avenue subway.

The $7.7 billion project is scheduled to open in 2032, adding three new stations to the Q line. Two of them will be beneath Second Avenue at East 106th and 116th streets. A third would be an overhaul to the existing 125th Street-Lexington Avenue station, which would reshape a transit hub that sees more violent crime than any other in the city.

The MTA is currently working to finalize a contract to dig the tunnel for the extension. It represents a major step towards the completion of not just a transit line that’s been promised for roughly a century, but also a move that will change the face of one of Manhattan’s poorest areas.

Interviews by Gothamist found that for many locals, the project is a once-in-a-generation chance to make their neighborhood safer and more accessible. For others, it brings the risk of gentrification that could price them out of East Harlem altogether.

Addiction specialists said finding community, even online, is crucial to success.

Food writer Robert Sietsema has been taking us to some of the city's most traveled neighborhoods this summer. This time, he joins Weekend Edition host David Furst with a focus on Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which he calls "one of the best neighborhoods for eating" in New York City.