Mayor Mamdani and Gov. Hochul unveiled a joint plan to speed 50 bus corridors by 20%, but left free fares out of the deal. [80]
02
The Legionnaires' cluster on the Upper East Side grew to 36 cases, and the city will begin publishing addresses of buildings with contaminated cooling towers. [119]
03
City records show the Midtown tower that nearly collapsed Tuesday had unreported worker injuries and unpaid safety violations dating back a year. [116]
04
The City Council moved toward final passage of an 18.2% pay raise for the mayor, comptroller and council members, their first since 2016. [86]
05
AI firm Anthropic is leasing a full 16-story Hudson Square building and doubling its New York City headcount to 1,000 by year's end. [82]
Mayor Mamdani and Gov. Hochul unveiled "Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service," a joint DOT-MTA plan to speed up 50 of the city's most delay-plagued bus corridors [80]. The plan omits fare-free buses, a signature Mamdani campaign promise; he insisted at the announcement that the fight isn't over [5]. MTA Chair Janno Lieber, who has resisted free fares, pointed instead to the city's recent Fair Fares expansion [5]. All-door boarding arrives systemwide in 2027. [206]
“I've been very clear with New Yorkers that my commitment is to make buses fast and free. Today, we stand together on how we deliver the fast.”
Two steel columns buckled on the 21st floor of 235 East 42nd Street, the former Pfizer headquarters MetroLoft and David Werner are converting into 1,600 apartments, forcing an FDNY evacuation of the tower and nine nearby buildings Tuesday [210]. The City Reporter found nine worker injuries at the site since May 2025 that contractors never reported to the Department of Buildings, including a ladder fall that fractured a laborer's ankle [116]. MetroLoft calls the buckling a "freak accident" from under-reinforced columns [210]; Laborers Local 79 says the site's non-union demolition subcontractor has a history of wage theft and safety fines [27]. The tower has since stabilized under emergency shoring. [210]
“The I-beams are bending like cigarettes in there, which is super dangerous.”
Cliff Johnsen, Steamfitters Local 638 representative · [125]
“This was well designed and approved by structural engineers.”
$720 millionconstruction loan Madison Realty Capital gave MetroLoft and David Werner for the conversion, the largest of its kind in NYC history. (Commercial Observer)
9worker injuries at the site since May 2025 that were never reported to city inspectors. [116]
$32,530paid in fines by the general contractor for seven safety violations issued since last July. [125]
The thread
Jul 8Two columns buckle on the 21st floor; FDNY evacuates the tower and nine nearby buildings. [210]
Jul 9The City Reporter reveals nine worker injuries at the site never reported to the city. [116]
TodayCrews finish shoring floors 9 through 37; DOB says it will review the conversion's full plans before non-emergency work resumes. [210]
WatchDOB's promised "rigorous assessment" of the site's structural plans, and whether that scrutiny extends to the 44 other office-to-residential conversions underway citywide. [238]
From6sqftThe City ReporterDocumentedLatest New York Real Estate News
The Upper East Side Legionnaires' Cluster
Thirty-six cases in three ZIP codes, and the city still can't say which cooling tower did it.
The Legionnaires' cluster in Carnegie Hill and Yorkville grew to 36 confirmed cases and 22 hospitalizations as of Wednesday, with no deaths reported and the source tower still unidentified [251]. Mayor Mamdani said the city will take the "unprecedented" step of publishing the address of every building whose cooling tower tests positive for Legionella [1]. Health officials have tested 139 of the area's 160 registered cooling towers, while a Healthbeat analysis found only 13.65% of building owners citywide have complied with a stricter testing law since it took effect in May [119].
“We know for a fact that many buildings did not comply with that City Council law, which is inexcusable.”
36confirmed cases and 22 hospitalizations as of Wednesday. [251]
139 of 160registered cooling towers in the affected ZIP codes tested so far. [119]
13.65%of NYC building owners citywide have submitted required Legionella samples since the stricter law took effect May 8. [119]
The thread
2015A cooling tower atop the Opera House Hotel in the South Bronx caused the city's deadliest Legionnaires' outbreak, killing 12 and sickening 120. [209]
Aug 2025A Harlem cluster killed 7 and hospitalized more than 100, prompting the Council's stricter cooling-tower testing law. [209]
Jul 2The first two Carnegie Hill and Yorkville cases are confirmed. [209]
TodayThe case count holds near 36 as Mamdani commits to publishing every positive tower's address. [251]
WatchLab cultures take about two weeks to grow, so the confirmed source tower may not surface until closer to mid-July. [251]
FromHealth amNewYorkCity & State New York - All ContentThe City Reporter6sqft
Around the Boroughs
Brooklyn (Coney Island): Police arrested Robert Smith, 44, in the July 4 mass shooting that wounded eight people, including four children, at a Surf Avenue barbecue. [182]
Brooklyn (Downtown): An NYPD officer assigned to the department's Legal Bureau, Joshua Acosta, was arrested and charged with raping a child relative over several years. [174]
Queens (Ozone Park/Woodhaven): Police charged Yogesh Sayrange with firebombing a Baptist church and a Jehovah's Witness hall with Molotov cocktails overnight Wednesday. [179]
Manhattan (26 Federal Plaza): ICE told a federal judge its immigration courthouses are the "safest location" for arrests because of sanctuary-city street protests, defending arrests made despite a May order limiting the practice. [121]
Brooklyn (Downtown): Hundreds rallied at Borough Hall demanding Congress extend Temporary Protected Status before Haitian work permits lapse Friday. [126]
Manhattan (Central Park): Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu endorsed banning horse-drawn carriages after two recent deaths, boosting Romanch's Law ahead of a July 15 hearing. [264]
Brooklyn (Red Hook): The Red Hook Pool missed its summer opening for the second year running after flooded filters were found two days before its planned debut. [117]
Brooklyn (North Brooklyn): Manufacturers warn a city budget cut to the Industrial Business Service Providers program will strip local nonprofits of funding that helps factories navigate relocation grants and code violations. [118]
Citywide: The city settled with self-storage giant Extra Space for $1.7 million over rat-infested units and surprise rent hikes, part of Mamdani's consumer-protection crackdown. [184]
Statewide: A WilmerHale review found "goon squads" beating incarcerated people in prison transport vans, part of the report Gov. Hochul ordered after officers killed Robert Brooks. [89]
Manhattan: A federal judge ruled Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll the $5.8 million a jury awarded after finding he sexually abused and defamed her. [84]
Queens (Willets Point): Gotham FC will join NYCFC at the new Etihad Park stadium in 2028, giving the two-time NWSL champions a permanent home in the city. [211]
Citywide: Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels froze new education-technology purchases until the city finalizes long-delayed AI guidance this summer. [348]
Statewide: Attorney General Letitia James sued DuPont, 3M and other chemical makers over decades of "forever chemical" pollution in New York's water supply. [171]
Only in New York
Photo: hyperallergic
An artist camped outside Madison Square Garden the morning after Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding, working a claw grabber over the sidewalk trash. He found a lone AirPod, an ovulation test kit and a scatter of cigarette butts, sealed each find into one of 50 little display boxes stamped with the date, and sold every one for $25. [461]