NYC NOW

For some New Yorkers, qualifying for a CityFHEPS housing voucher means first entering the shelter system. Reporter Karen Yi breaks down the fight over expanding the city’s rental assistance program and why advocates say delaying it could cost more in the long run.

Photo: Lajoy Clark, Ciro Sollazzi, and Kevin Joseph Cuffy for Gothamist

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Before Madonna was Madonna, she was working coat check. Before the Beastie Boys were the Beastie Boys, they were janitors. They worked at Danceteria, a five-story downtown Manhattan nightclub that became the unlikely launchpad for some of pop culture's biggest names in the 1980s. DJ Rafe Gomez runs Danceteria Rewind on Twitch every Thursday night, reconstructing the club's legendary playlists for nearly 60,000 followers worldwide. He joins us to talk about what made Danceteria unlike anything before or since, and why Manhattan nightlife has never quite recaptured that magic.

Photo: Steve Eichner/Archive Photos via Getty Images

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When Meredith Trainor's 11-month-old daughter tested positive for cocaine at a hospital, New York City caseworkers removed the baby from her arms, without a court order, even though Meredith had been at work when it happened. Five days later, a family court judge ordered the baby returned. Now Meredith is suing the city. WNYC reporter Samantha Max walks us through her case and what it reveals about how the city's Administration for Children's Services uses emergency removals, a process that separates more than 1,300 children from their parents every year.

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration plans to add more than 6,500 curbside trash containers across the five boroughs as part of a push to clean up streets and cut down on rats. WNYC and Gothamist reporter Liam Quigley explains where the new Empire Bins are going, why the rollout could cost parking spaces, and how the city hopes to fully containerize trash by 2032. Plus, WNYC health reporter Caroline Lewis breaks down a new Bellevue Hospital study on serious bike and scooter injuries, what it found about e bikes, helmets, alcohol, and who is getting hurt most.

WNYC Arts & Culture Editor Matthew Schnipper is back with a rundown of what's worth your train swipes this week. We cover the Queens Night Market's last year of $6 food before prices go up, a Martha Cooper retrospective at the Bronx Documentary Center celebrating one of graffiti's earliest documenters, and whether the Lower East Side's booming vintage shops can sustain the hype. Plus: Mayor Mamdani attempts a Mario Kart metaphor, pioneer trans DJ Lena Bradford celebrates 3 decades of DJing, and a Wallace Shawn mini retrospective at Metrograph.

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