Alexis Springer wavered between closing her eyes and staring at the harsh, fluorescent lights on the ceiling of the examination room. She was shaking uncontrollably, despite the sedative her doctor had given her to ease her anxiety during the insertion of an intrauterine device (IUD). As the
The Maloney brothers were worried. Two months into the pandemic lockdown, their South Bronx chocolate company was still taking online orders, but it was struggling, and they were discussing whether to dig into their savings. Then the Black Lives Matter movement gained ground, with massive protests
Rhonda Harper stands waist deep in a black wetsuit, holding a surfboard steady in the hammering waves. Meanwhile, a young girl with a radiant smile, her Afro wet from the breaking surf, climbs onto the board, steps into a crouched position and, with a gentle push from Harper, rides her surfboard unsteadily to
New York City’s subways have changed since the pandemic hit – platforms are littered with dropped masks, cars are rarely packed tight – but some things have remained constant. “People sit the same since before COVID,” said Devon Rodriguez, who’s been observing the city’s subway
Across the street from the Fort Totten bus stop in Queens is a bronze sign in sans-serif letters: “FLUSHING COMMONS |RESIDENCES.” The font and style are a near match to a sign adorning the luxury clothing store Atelier next door, housed in the same steel
Natnael Tsigab and Lwam Gidey have always been tech-savvy, but until last month, they had never used those skills for activism. Then tensions escalated this fall between Ethiopia’s central government and the regional government of the Tigray state, in the northern part of the country.
Before she picked up her graduation regalia last spring, Emily Kreusch applied for unemployment. The 23-year-old planned to turn her Pratt University degree and skills in graphic design and stop-motion film making into a position at a studio. Now, her main job is applying for
Long before the pandemic shut down the rest of New York, Manhattan’s Chinatown was struggling. Baseless fears spread quickly about people of Chinese ancestry as carriers of the coronavirus, and by mid-January, Chinatown’s streets were almost deserted. Business was down by 40% to 80%, with restaurants
The day before Election Day in Times Square, the sunlight faded in a canyon of skyscrapers, and a few locals moved along the sidewalks. With wind gusts above 40 mph, Tootsie Warhol couldn’t feel his orange-tinged fingers as he handed out flyers that read “MAKE
For almost a year, environmental activists have marched, carried signs and chained themselves to equipment to protest a Brooklyn gas pipeline project, but the work is now nearing completion, and demonstrators may be running out of options. When finished, seven miles of new underground gas mains
Although many New York City restaurants are struggling to survive the coronavirus pandemic, some entrepreneurs see this as a good time to establish new eateries. Between March and September, nearly 2,550 restaurants have launched in the state, according to a Yelp economic impact report. These openings
In February, Justin McKibben, 28, set out on his skateboard to buy pork dumplings from 88 Lan Zhou in Manhattan’s Chinatown. He rode past the entrance twice before realizing he’d missed it. The security gate was rolled down. A sign read, “Due to the recent
