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MONDAY, JULY 28, 2025

Today's SCOOP is brought to you by our members.

Dear New Yorkers,

The city Department of Probation is understaffed, overworked and plagued by a revolving door of top officials under Commissioner Juanita Holmes, according to multiple veteran officers and the union leader representing rank-and-file employees.

A City Council hearing today will take on growing chaos at the department, which is operating with more than 200 vacant positions even as it supervises thousands of New Yorkers navigating the criminal and family court systems.

Meanwhile, probation violations are on a sharp rise, agency stats show.

“This agency is a hot mess,” Councilmember Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the Committee on Criminal Justice, told THE CITY. “People are leaving in droves, the programs are being chopped without explanation, technical violations are spiking, and frontline workers — many of whom are women of color — are being pushed to the brink.”

Read more here.

Weather ⛅

Mostly sunny with some clouds, around 90 degrees.

MTA 🚇

The uptown A local skips 72 St through 116 St overnight. Find all the MTA’s planned changes and the latest delays here.

Alternate side parking 🚙

It’s in effect today, July 28.

By the way…

Confused by New York’s expansive ferry networks? Here’s our guide to navigating the city’s waterways.

Our Other Top Stories

Only a tiny fraction of immigrants facing deportation are held in detention while awaiting legal proceedings because they pose a safety or flight risk, and in New York City their cases are heard in a court on Varick Street. Yet ICE is holding people based on minor or decades-old criminal violations, and in some cases no criminal record at all. Our partners at NOTUS report that U.S. Reps Adriano Espaillat (D-The Bronx/Manhattan) and Nydia Velazquez (D-Queens/Brooklyn) are the first federal officials to join calls to inspect and address conditions in holding rooms for immigrants at lower Manhattan’s federal building, following video and data published by THE CITY showing people crowded in the office building for days and nights on end.

Reporter’s Notebook

Apartment Mini-Boom

The pace of residential building in the city continues to accelerate, driven by buildings containing 50 to 99 units — the size developers say is the most cost-effective to build under the new 485-x property tax break.

Developers filed applications for 158 new multi-unit buildings with 6,943 new units in the April to June period, according to the latest construction pipeline report from the Real Estate Board of New York, a 43% increase over the same period in 2024.

The report notes that over the last year 28 applications have been filed for projects with between 50 and 99 apartments — whereas just 13 projects of that size had been filed in the nearly two decades between 2008 and the passage of 485-x in 2024. Developers are keeping buildings to that size so they do not trigger a $40-an-hour minimum construction wage requirement for buildings with 100 or more units.

But as a result they are building fewer units than are allowed under a site’s zoning, part of the reason the pace of construction falls far below the 12,500 new units every three months needed to meet Mayor Eric Adams’ goal of 500,000 new units over a decade.

In all, developers filed applications for 424 new buildings, a 43% jump over the same period in 2024.

— Greg David

Things To Do

Here are some free and low-cost things to do around the city this week.

Monday, July 28: Bring kids to Bryant Park at 10 a.m. for a free performance of percussion music from around the world, at Le Carrousel Extravaganza. Monday, July 28: Watch a free screening of “Camille,” an early Hollywood silent film, at 6 p.m. at the Jefferson Market Library. Monday, July 28: If you prefer more action, there’s a free screening of “Pulp Fiction” at Bryant Park. Movie starts at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6: Join THE CITY and JPMorganChase for a community conversation about the skills New Yorkers need to access in-demand 21st-century careers — and how job training and skill development can open doors for people across the city. From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Chase Harlem Community Center Branch. RSVP here.

THE KICKER: A resident of Brooklyn and member of the New York Yo-Yo Club was crowned the National Yo-Yo Champion in June. New York is the greatest, once again!

Thanks, as always, for reading. Make it a great Monday.

Love,

THE CITY

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