Ben Brachfeld

my local park is full of hundreds of snow sculptures and someone has been adding museum labels

Would someone, please, for the love of God, rescue The Daily News from this strip mining hedge fund. Please.

New-design faregates at Broadway-Lafayette this morning

Ryan Moulton @moultano Oil is the most Lovecraftian thing that actually exists. You're telling me that there's a black ichor under the earth, made from the ancient dead, whose burning can realize all the dreams of man but only at the price of slowly returning the earth to its primordial state?

The Times parsed the vote using similar categories and again found that the single most determinative factor economic-like factor in the election was "commute by transit" vs "commute by car." It edged out renters vs. homeowners. There's still outstanding data but I expect these trends will hold.

New Yorkers are HITTING THOSE POLLS. It's the highest turnout in about two decades.

🎂 Happy birthday, #NYCSubway! 121 years ago #OnThisDay in 1904, the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) subway opened with 28 stations along a 9.1-mile line extending from City Hall to 145th Street. This #NYTMCollection silent film, shot just months after the subway opened, shows its early days.

"Journalist jobs fared worse than 85% of all occupations tracked by the BLS."

ACTUAL GOOD TRANSIT NEWS ALERT: Metro-North will run to Albany, starting this spring.

And Amtrak is adding back one train to NYP-ALB and capping prices at $99.

“Designed to Break You:” Two Incarcerated Writers on the Heavy Toll of Solitary Confinement - Bolts Isolating people inside a small, closet-like cell for weeks, months, and even years on end remains common inside this country’s prisons and jails, even though the United Nations defines the... Read Mo...

Trump commutes George Santos’ prison, saying he was moved by Santos’ account of being in solitary confinement.

A reminder: many people are left in solitary confinement all over the county, sometimes *for years*, without a direct connection to the president.

Some of their voices:

ICE agents assault amNewYork reporter at Federal Plaza immigration court; another journalist seriously injured after shove | amNewYork ICE agents assaulted amNewYork's own Dean Moses, and allegedly attacked another journalist, on Tuesday morning as they were documenting the ongoing arrests of

This is an outrage and every journalist needs to stand up for Dean Moses of amNY right now: www.amny.com/immigration/...

Donate to THE CITY | The CITY (Powered by Donorbox) Local problems don’t get solved without local journalism. We cover New York's uncovered neighborhoods, hold the powerful to account, and make sense of the greatest city in the world. Your support toda...

I'd like to emphasize that you can make a totally above-board donation to support @katiehonan.bsky.social's work at @thecity.nyc right here. All you get in return is great journalism, and a tax deduction. It's up to you whether you itemize any potato chips you include.

Ben Brachfeld appearing on a list of write-in votes for Brooklyn civil court judge

Who in the Boro Park/Midwood area voted for me for Brooklyn civil court judge?

BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

MTA proposing 10-cent hike to subway and bus fares starting in January.

www.nydailynews.com/2025/07/30/n...

Key detail: the shooter had a history of mental health issues AND a gun license, according to the NYPD

Judge derails NYC plan to move Bedford Ave. Bike lane in Brooklyn at eleventh hour Williamsburg’s Bedford Ave. bike lane was granted a last-minute reprieve Tuesday, as an appellate judge ruled on an emergency restraining order just hours before city work crews were set to b…

BREAKING: Bedford Ave bike lane gets last minute reprieve, with an appeals court halting the city hours before DOT crews were set to begin work removing the protected bike lane

The FBI's Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Had Nearly 3 Minutes Cut Out Metadata from the “raw” Epstein prison video shows approximately 2 minutes and 53 seconds were removed from one of two stitched-together clips. The cut starts right at the “missing minute.”

NEW: Metadata from the “raw” Epstein prison video shows approximately 2 minutes and 53 seconds were removed from one of two stitched-together clips. The cut starts right at the “missing minute.”

Are We About to Have Labor Camps in the United States of America? If you think that’s far-fetched, then you really haven’t been paying attention to what the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have been up to lately.

An astonishing figure in this piece:

Last year, the U.S. budgeted $12.8B for new affordable housing.

This country is now poised to spend $45B on immigrant detention centers.

That's nearly *four times* as much on cages as on homes—in the middle of a devastating housing and homelessness crisis.

Anti-Miracle On 34th Street: Adams Administration Pauses Work On 34th Street Busway - Streetsblog New York City The highly-anticipated 34th Street busway may not happen under Mayor Adams after all, sources said.

One last piece of news before one more news is allowed for the weekend: Sources tell Streetsblog that the Adams administration has paused work on the 34th Street busway nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/07/03/a...

What It Would Take to Make Buses Free Ridership went up under Zohran Mamdani’s yearlong pilot, but running it citywide would be a much bigger undertaking.

Wrote about @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's marquee free bus proposal, the pilot that preceded it, and how free transit around the world has worked for @nymag.com www.curbed.com/article/zohr...

#Breaking: According to @mta.info fare increase may be tied to full implementation of OMNY. Not confusing people with too many things all at once and possibly figuring out more discounts for the new payment system. That means could come next year and not this year.
@spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social

the data backs this sentiment up!

Brad Lander Detained by Masked Federal Agents Inside Immigration Court The arrest came in his latest visit to the courthouse to speak with migrants there.

A reporter from The City had overheard one agent say to another minutes before Lander’s arrest, “Do you want to arrest the Comptroller?”

www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/17/b...

Lander just got detained by federal agents as he tried to escort a man out of the courtroom. Lander was taken in an elevator with masked agents, along with one member of his NYPD security detail.

Cuomo’s car parked (illegally) outside union HQ.

I asked a cop nearby if it was parked illegally. He said “yes.”

Why? “Because it got two tickets already”

BREAKING: Mayor Adams to Remove Bedford Avenue Protected Bike Lane Citing, Bizarrely, Safety - Streetsblog New York City A protected bike lane that was installed last year to calm a notoriously dangerous Brooklyn corridor will be removed by the Adams administration, making the roadway less safe.

And now, of course nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/06/13/b...

NYPD Admits Bike Crackdown Based on 'Community' Vibes, Not Data - Streetsblog New York City It turns out, the new strategy arose not from data, but from people complaining about e-bikes at community meetings, the NYPD finally admits.

It turns out, the new strategy arose not from data, but from people complaining about e-bikes at community meetings, the NYPD finally admits.

There's a dinosaur bodega inside a Brooklyn subway station and I'm pleased to say it's not viral marketing for the new Jurassic World movie. @jessjoseph.bsky.social reports in today's @nygroove.nyc nygroove.nyc/grand-army-p...