After a Year of Missed Opportunity, New York Revises Sputtering Hotel-to-Housing Plan

When COVID-19 hit, policymakers saw an opportunity: The city had interconnected affordable housing and homelessness crises; the city also had hundreds of empty hotels hemorrhaging cash. But a year after the state passed a law funding the conversion of hotels to affordable housing, not a single one has happened. The experience of the Paramount Hotel on West 46th Street illustrates why.

With New York’s Hectic Petitioning Season in Overdrive, is There a Better Way to Get on the Ballot?

New York’s procedure for candidates to get their names on the election ballot is one of the more onerous in the country, critics say. Candidates running for office this summer told City Limits that while they enjoyed hitting the streets to speak with voters, they likewise described the petitioning process as “archaic,” “exhausting,” “grueling” and a “burden.”