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People walk through Bellevue Hospital in Midtown. (Alex Krales/The City Reporter)
Dear New Yorkers,
For the roughly 2 million city residents who rely on federally funded food benefits, spending cuts and more stringent work rules enacted by the Trump administration are a growing source of worry.
Meanwhile, more than 230,000 city residents will lose affordable health insurance coverage next month because of federal cuts.
City and state officials are taking steps to blunt the blow of the food aid changes, but have limited short-term options to address the much steeper costs of plugging the impending insurance gap.
“The health care cuts will take us back to an uninsured rate that is the same as before the Affordable Care Act was passed in the Obama administration with less than 90% with insurance,” said Emily Eisner, interim director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank.
“We have already seen a 100,000 decline in SNAP [food assistance] enrollment in the state,” she added. “It’s a smaller decline than in other states but it is still precipitous.”
Read more about the big budget problems Trump’s slashing of the safety net is causing New York — and the human toll.
Weather 🌤️
A heat advisory is in effect, with real-feel temperatures up to 99. Partly sunny and chances of showers and thunderstorms during the day. City cooling centers will be open. At night, chances of showers and t-storms continue, with a low near 75.
MTA 🚇
In Brooklyn midday, no L train service between Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues and Atlantic Avenue. Find all the MTA’s planned changes and the latest delays here.
How about them Knicks! The hometown team accomplished the largest comeback in NBA Finals history last night, winning Game 4 against the San Antonio Spurs and putting themselves just one victory away from their first championship since 1973. This was after Madison Square Garden’s management canceled a watch party outside the arena in a public spat with City Hall.
A fighter-jet mechanic for the U.S. Armed Forces who grew up in the city and now lives in North Carolina borrowed $11,000 to take his ailing father to Game 3 at MSG this week: “I just don’t know how much time I have left with him.”
Samuel Williams died in 2023 after colliding with an unmarked vehicle driven by NYPD officers trying to block a group riding illegal dirt bikes and ATVs across a bridge connecting the Bronx and Manhattan. State officials say the officers violated departmental guidelines in the incident.
Inflation continues to be higher in the New York area than the rest of the country as prices rose 5.1% for the 12 months ended in May, the first time the increase has exceeded 5% since February 2023.
Nationally, prices rose 4.2%, almost a full percentage point less.
Energy prices rose a whopping 26.9%, according to the monthly Consumer Price Index report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, as gas prices soared following the war with Iran.
But gasoline prices affect the CPI less in New York given the high use of mass transit; the increase shows sharply higher prices for electricity in the area. Food prices went up 3.7%.
Some experts said May could represent the peak of inflation if oil prices stabilize or decline amid the war. Higher inflation in New York than elsewhere has been a problem for the last two years — hitting lower-income consumers hardest and eroding wage gains.
— Greg David
Jail Union Balks
The union representing city correction officers is opposing the hiring of Sarena Townsend, the former head of discipline for the Correction Department under Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In a six-page letter to federal Judge Laura Swain, who oversees the city jails through a federal consent decree, the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association argued that bringing Townsend back would be a "regressive decision."
The union cited past comments where Townsend said COBA “despises women in power” and described it as "corrupt" and "bought-and-paid for."
"Ms. Townsend's well-documented bias against COBA ... should have disqualified her from consideration," the union wrote.
Nicholas Deml, the federal remediation manager for Rikers Island, recently selected Townsend to help overhaul the department’s troubled disciplinary system. Criminal justice reform advocates have praised the move, arguing the city has long failed to adequately discipline officers found guilty of abusing detainees.
Swain has not publicly responded to the union's letter. Townsend declined to comment.
— Reuven Blau
Things To Do
Here’s what’s going on around the city this week.
Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12: The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit brings an open-air production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” to Washington Heights. Free, chairs available on a first-come, first-served basis, J. Hood Wright Park, 6:30 p.m. both nights.
Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12: Oculus Outdoors shows screenings of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark,” respectively. Free, RSVP recommended, Westfield World Trade Center, 7-9 p.m. both nights.
THE KICKER: Haiti is playing in the World Cup for the first time in 52 years, and Haitian New Yorkers are feeling a mix of emotions amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and violence in the island nation.
Thanks, as always, for reading. Make it a great Thursday.
Love,
The City Reporter
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