If there’s one thing Cris Matos doesn’t miss about her life before the coronavirus pandemic, it’s the way she moved throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The subway, Uber, and taxis used to be her religion. “Now, I can’t live without my bicycle,” said Matos. “I’m afraid to use the subway and I’m still concerned about getting inside a car with a driver I don’t know.” Whenever she needs to leave East Harlem, the first thing she does is plot bike lanes. More →

When Kalima DeSuze, founder of feminist bookstore Cafe Con Libros, opened her Instagram account days after the killing of George Floyd, she was shocked to see over 99 mentions. 

“I said, ‘What the hell is happening? What is going on?’” DeSuze remembers. “I realized that someone had sent the list out of books to read and someone then said invest your money in Black-owned business, Black-owned bookstores. My life has not been the same since.”

DeSuze’s “tsunami” of orders for books about race in America was a small reverberation felt across the bookselling and publishing industry in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. More →

As kids all over the city entered summer break on Monday, the New York City Department of Education decided to continue its Free Meals initiative. Originally restricted to students and, subsequently, children, the grab-and-go program was expanded in early April to include adults as well, and will continue to operate this way throughout the season. More →

Last week we reported that Rockaway Beach’s food vendors are returning, albeit only for takeout service. This week, some vendors on the other side of the peninsula, at Jacob Riis Park, have also returned, and the city’s beleaguered beachgoers will be glad to hear they can now sit down with a beer. More →

Dr. John T. McDevitt saw the coronavirus coming. His wife, Anna Grassini, had been hearing about Covid-19 from her family in Italy since February. She recalls one message from her brother about a newspaper in a small town northeast of Milan whose obituaries spanned 10 pages; they usually took up two. It was like a horror movie, she said. More →

What’s worse than a rainy Saturday afternoon? A rainy first Saturday of outdoor dining after months of waiting. 

“That’s a pain,” said Jimmy, a bartender at Kenn’s Broome Street Bar in Soho as people deserted its outdoor terrace during an intense episode of rain. “We’re losing so much clients because of the weather. Usually it’d be crowded, especially on a Saturday afternoon.” More →

Soon after Yukti visited India in February to get her H-1B visa stamp, American consulates around the world shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, the 28-year-old New Yorker hasn’t had a good night’s sleep and she has lost seven pounds. Over the past four months, she has delayed her return flight to the US four times, called the consulate in Mumbai daily until almost every phone receptionist knows her full name, and pleaded her case to no avail. Now, thanks to President Trump’s latest visa suspension order, which bans foreign workers with no H1-B visa stamps from entering the US, she is looking at another six months of unpaid leave from the Manhattan bank where she worked, while stranded in India. More →

Concessions stands at the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk have begun to reopen, but New Yorkers visiting the shoreline will find fewer restaurants than usual. 

On the corner of Hancock St. and Marcus Garvey Blvd. is a small patch of earth called the Hancock T&T Community Garden. A wooden sign protrudes from behind its fence, displaying portraits of iconic Black change-makers like Angela Davis, Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass. In large, bold letters are the words “The Gateway To The Ancestors,” which hang above these lines. More →