News
A Diamond, a Mayor and a Citywide Lesson Plan
3+ day, 15+ hour ago (1171+ words) Vital City - Crime: Looking Back at 2025, and Ahead to 2026 A Diamond, a Mayor and a Citywide Lesson Plan Get the best ideas, every week. Mamdani's offhand remark about the Koh-I-Noor should spark new efforts to educate students about where many…...
Call It What It Is: A State Bailout of New York City
3+ day, 16+ hour ago (418+ words) On the morning of May 12, 2026, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that New York State would provide New York City with an additional $4 billion "in gap-closing support" over the current and upcoming fiscal years to enable the City…...
How Mamdani's Government-Backed Grocery Stores Will Affect New York City's Small Businesses
4+ day, 15+ hour ago (1138+ words) Vital City - Crime: Looking Back at 2025, and Ahead to 2026 Mamdani's Choice: Support Small Businesses or Open State-Backed Competition Get the best ideas, every week. His plan to launch five City-backed supermarkets clashes with his promises to help mom-and-pops. My first…...
The History Behind New York's Iconic Wooden Water Tanks
5+ day, 12+ hour ago (1239+ words) Vital City - Crime: Looking Back at 2025, and Ahead to 2026 New York's Wooden Water Tanks: A Perfect Fusion of Form and Function Get the best ideas, every week. An architectural history lesson New York is a city of towers, and not…...
How the Voting Rights Act Reshaped New York City Government
1+ week, 3+ day ago (666+ words) Vital City - Crime: Looking Back at 2025, and Ahead to 2026 The Voting Rights Act in New York City Get the best ideas, every week. How the landmark legislation continues to reverberate to this day Coverage of the Supreme Court's decision last…...
Waymo and New York: A Different Robotaxi Future is Possible
1+ week, 3+ day ago (406+ words) In some sunbelt cities, robotaxis are becoming part of everyday life. In Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco, you can ride a Waymo to your destination with no human behind the wheel. But not yet in the Northeast....
Just Fix It: 8 Policy Tweaks the Mamdani Administration Can Make to Speed Up the Permitting Process
1+ week, 3+ day ago (1064+ words) As Mayor Zohran Mamdani himself seems to understand, the job of mayor is about more than laying out grand visions. It's about improving small- and medium-bore management to make New York's government work better. Just Fix It is Vital City's…...
The Unions and the Cities
1+ week, 6+ day ago (650+ words) On May Day, Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a slickly produced video with the tagline that "there is no NYC without unions," featuring images of proud public workers "showing the world what solidarity means." It's a fine sentiment, but it's not…...
Does When We're Born Make Us Who We Are?
2+ week, 3+ day ago (789+ words) Sociologist Robert J. Sampson's new book, "Marked by Time: How Social Change Has Transformed Crime and the Life Trajectories of Young Americans," draws on three decades of data from the landmark Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to argue that…...
Government AI, the Road to More Bureaucratic Discretion and Accountability
2+ week, 4+ day ago (894+ words) Vital City - Crime: Looking Back at 2025, and Ahead to 2026 Government AI, the Road to More Bureaucratic Discretion and Accountability Get the best ideas, every week. How new tech tools can streamline processes and make hidebound systems more rational When Mayor…...