A high-end Manhattan sushi restaurant opened by mega-developer SL Green, one of Mayor Eric Adams’ biggest financial backers, landed on a high-priority Deputy Mayor of Operations list of locations eligible for fast-track FDNY inspections needed to open for business, THE CITY has learned. The restaurant, JoJi, was able to open in September 2022 in the basement level of one of SL Green’s signature projects, One Vanderbilt, three months after landing on the DMO list. JoJi is described as a “partnership” that includes SL Green and renowned chefs George Ruan and Daniel Boulud. As THE CITY first rep ..read more

Eric Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign accepted donations from three members of a foundation incorporated by Bilal Erdogan, a son of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and whose board members include Erdogan’s daughter, Esra Albayrak. The campaign is at the center of an FBI probe looking into whether it conspired with the Turkish government to accept illegal foreign contributions. Adams on Wednesday acknowledged meeting Erdogan while he served as Brooklyn Borough President in response to questions from THE CITY. Under Erdogan, the U.S. State Department has repeatedly cited Turkey for widespre ..read more

They’ve been photographed repeatedly with Mayor Eric Adams. They’ve volunteered their time at more than 100 government and civic events in the last three months. They are contestants in Miss Immigrant USA, where many traditional beauty pageant rules do not apply.  Here, contestants representing different countries of origin are judged not by their age or physical appearance but by the number of publicity events they attend, and how they represent themselves and their organization in person and online, said co-founder Magdalena Kulisz, herself a Polish immigrant photographed in many event ..read more

Migrants are experiencing a new level of confusion and hopelessness this week as city officials make a renewed push to get them out of shelters and the city altogether. Migrants who’d been evicted from their shelters and told to reapply were directed to a site in the East Village that turned out to be a “reticketing center” the city opened over the weekend offering plane fares to anywhere in the world. Those who declined were turned away, with some sent on Monday to a “waiting room” an hour away. But by Tuesday that option had disappeared as well and new arrivals were simply told there was no ..read more

This article originally appeared in Documented. On Sept. 29, when New York City was hit by record rains, the 88 East Broadway Mall in Chinatown was experiencing one of its busiest days since the pandemic. Nearly 300 Chinese immigrants from Langqi, a village in the Fujian Province in China, gathered to hold a religious ceremony and banquet in honor of their deities at the mall’s renowned restaurant, 88 Palace. 阅读中文版：唐人街地产交易背后错综复杂的政治关系网 The air carried a unique blend of scents — the fragrance of roasting suckling pig mingling with burning incense. Amidst the lively beats of gongs and drums from ..read more

THE CITY is a nonprofit newsroom that serves the people of New York. Sign up for our SCOOP newsletter and get exclusive stories, helpful tips, a guide to low-cost events, and everything you need to know to be a well-informed New Yorker. The post 12 Hours in FiDi appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News ..read more

On a recent Friday at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the audience filled up the brick-walled space and ordered drinks as a DJ played hip-hop, soca and dancehall. Upcoming poets were scattered about inside as the host worked the crowd before the main event. It was almost like any other Friday Night Slam at what has become a Lower East Side cultural institution — but with more urgency: At the end of the month, the entire cafe is set to shut down for three years while $24 million in renovation work is done.  “We’re only gonna be able to do this two more times. You’re among the last audience to b ..read more

One week after New York state opened the permit process for legal cannabis shops to the general public, community boards across the city have been bombarded by submissions that they are struggling to review. Under the state’s 2021 law, a retail applicant must notify their local community board at least 30 days before submitting their application to the state and identify their proposed business location. But that provision was barely noticed until now because retail licenses had previously been limited to justice-impacted individuals whose store locations were provided by the state. Hope ..read more

On the morning of Oct. 7 in Jerusalem, Steven Galitzer was preparing to go to synagogue with his family when they were surprised by the sounds of sirens. As observant Jews, they avoided the use of technology until the following day, but in cafés across the city they began to learn the news: Hamas carried out the deadliest attack on Israeli soil in decades with over a thousand civilians killed or captured. Since returning to the U.S. the following day, the Yeshiva University sophomore has struggled to grapple with his grief and fear as the Israel-Hamas war escalates — for his own community and ..read more

Additional reporting by Gwynne Hogan and Haidee Chu Record rainfall soaked New York on Friday, disrupting public transportation and schools while flooding streets and homes as officials struggled to cope with the deluge — and Mayor Eric Adams fended off waves of criticism for his administration’s handling of the storm. Parents, environmentalists and regular commuters alike were steamed for not being given more of a warning by city officials. “Every time climate change events happen — and we’re seeing it happen in real time — we’re seeing less and less planning, and it’s the kids who have to s ..read more