On Christmas Eve 2024, Andrea Smith-Taylor went shopping for presents for her five children. The single mom was staying with her kids at a domestic violence shelter at the time, and felt a sense of accomplishment as she bought her kids clothing, boots, jewelry and a PlayStation — enough to fill two heaping shopping bags. But before she could give her children their gifts, police arrested her and took everything. The case against Smith-Taylor was later dismissed and sealed, and she did not want to say what it was about. But even after the charge was dropped, police never returned the gifts, or $3,500 in cash she had with her that day, according to court records. “I apologized so much to my children,” she said. “I felt so weak, so broken, because there was nothing that I could do about it.” Smith-Taylor is one of six people suing New York City, the NYPD property clerk and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. In the suit, they describe a "labyrinthine, time-intensive and burdensome” process that makes it nearly impossible for hundreds of thousands of people who are arrested or witness a crime each year to reclaim belongings seized during their interaction with law enforcement. The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed by Brooklyn Defender Services and White & Case LLP, accuses the police department of violating people’s due process rights and upholding a convoluted system that courts have said for decades is unconstitutional.

Fall migration is underway so a diversity of birds are temporarily calling the city home. And a family of Barn owls, which are non-migratory birds, have made themselves comfortable on the Upper West Side.

New York City is spending millions on services for homeless people living on the street. But more New Yorkers are sleeping outside than ever before. Calls to 311 related to homelessness tripled between 2019 and 2024 and spending for street homelessness tripled in roughly the same time period, the state comptroller found. Nearly 5,000 people slept on the streets or subways this year. Homeless advocates, business groups and elected leaders say the problem is that the Mamdani administration needs to streamline what’s become an inefficient and largely uncoordinated street outreach system — and one that lacks clear accountability. “What is happening right now is cruel and ineffective. It wastes money and doesn't fix the problem,” said Jeremy Saunders, co-executive director of VOCAL-NY, a grassroots organization advocating for low-income communities. “We need a City Hall approach where we say, ‘This is a priority. There's political will to address it. We are going to improve the systems we have,’” Saunders said. Many administrations have tried to tackle homelessness with varying degrees of success. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio effectively ended chronic homelessness for veterans. Homeless advocates hope the Mamdani administration can do the same for other New Yorkers. Gothamist spoke to more than a dozen stakeholders who said the city’s outreach approach to street homelessness isn’t working and leaves too many New Yorkers living outside in harsh and dangerous conditions. They said that’s happening for various reasons: The dozens of outreach groups hired by various agencies and organizations often overlap and can overwhelm the very people they’re trying to help, there’s no one person in charge across city and state agencies, and a lack of enough housing or temporary beds that people want to accept. “The people who do this work are doing God's work, but they're operating in an ineffective, inefficient system,” said Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance, a business improvement district. He said at least nine different groups provide outreach in Midtown alone.

What if the smell of death is actually the smell of life?

Natasha Singer's new book explores how big tech became ensconced in our childrens' classrooms

Powered by disappointment among Trump voters and outrage over data centers, a Texas Democrat is running neck and neck with the Republican incumbent in the governor’s race.