New York
13 Off Broadway Shows to See in September
‘The Wild Duck’
Henrik Ibsen’s searing dissections of bourgeois hypocrisies appear to be in sync with our angry times. The Norwegian playwright is even getting high-profile movie adaptations, with the Tessa Thompson-starring “Hedda” dropping in October. In New York, Simon Godwin’s production of this semi-obscure effort from 1884, about a family’s secrets coming to light, follows recent revivals of “An Enemy of the People,” “A Doll’s House” and “Ghosts.” (Through Sept. 28, Theater for a New Audience)
‘Mexodus’
In their hip-hop musical, Nygel D. Robinson and Brian Quijada portray an enslaved man and the sharecropper-turned-soldier he meets at the Rio Grande. The story looks at a different kind of Underground Railroad while also connecting to our current turbulence with an era-transcending message of solidarity. David Mendizábal directs the two-man show, which is part of Audible Theater’s series. (Sept. 9-Oct. 11, Minetta Lane Theater)
The Small Rooms Where It Happens
Grier Mathiot and Billy McEntee’s lovely “The Voices in Your Head” was staged for about 20 people at a time in a storefront church last year. McEntee’s “Slanted Floors” goes even smaller: The actors Kyle Beltran and Adam Chanler-Berat portray a couple living out their domesticity under the watch of five audience members in a Brooklyn apartment. (Sept. 9-Oct. 10, Slanted Floors Play).
A collaboration between Hansol Jung (“Wolf Play”) and the collective The Pack, co-directed by Jung and Dustin Wills, “Last Call, a Play with Cocktails” takes place in various New York City apartments, so the audience size varies depending on where the show lands on any given day. One constant: There will be drinks. (Sept. 19-Oct. 13, En Garde Arts)
‘Family’
Alec Duffy’s original staging of “Family,” an early work by the playwright-turned-filmmaker Celine Song, took place in a Brooklyn apartment for audiences of about 30. The production — outré, operatically gothic, near-feral at times — is returning for an encore run, but in a more traditional theatrical space. Let’s see how Duffy recalibrates the show. (Sept. 12-28, La MaMa)
‘The Essentialisn’t’
“Can you be Black and not perform?” Such is the question driving Eisa Davis’s new piece, in which she leads a cast of four. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her haunting play “Bulrusher” and the co-creator of the concept album “Warriors” with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Davis remains a frustratingly underrecognized writer and performer with a lyrical, fiercely poetic voice all her own. Here is an opportunity to watch her confront and subvert the expectations placed on Black artists. (Sept. 10-28; Here Arts Center)
‘The Other Americans’
John Leguizamo’s stage career is paved with solo shows, sometimes autobiographical, in which he brings to life a gallery of characters. At first glance it looks as if his latest piece might be more of the same since it involves a Colombian American New Yorker, like the writer-performer himself. But while Leguizamo does play that central character, Nelson, he is far from alone onstage: “The Other Americans,” directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, is a family drama with an actual cast — it’ll be exciting to watch Leguizamo jostle with costars. (Sept. 11-Oct. 19, Public Theater)
‘Caroline’
Chloë Grace Moretz was only 17 when she starred in Scott Z. Burns’s “The Library” at the Public Theater, in 2014, but her screen career was already buzzing. Still, few expected that it would take over a decade for Moretz to return to the New York stage. At long last here she is again, under the direction of the ever-reliable David Cromer (whose recent credits include “Dead Outlaw” and “Good Night, and Good Luck”). The three characters in Preston Max Allen’s new play are all members of one family, with Moretz in the middle as the daughter of the character played by Amy Landecker (“Transparent”) and the mother of young Caroline (River Lipe-Smith). (Sept. 12-Oct. 19, MCC Theater)
‘Are the Bennet Girls OK?’
After its successful country musical “Music City” last year, the Bedlam company returns to one of its foundational authors: Jane Austen (Kate Hamill’s adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility” was an early Bedlam hit in 2014). Now Emily Breeze’s new take on “Pride and Prejudice” looks like it’s going to have fun with the Regency superstar’s best-seller: “I haven’t reread the source material since I skimmed it in high school,” Breeze claims. (Sept. 14-Oct. 19, West End Theater)
‘When the Hurlyburly’s Done’
After dedicating a decade to his “Rhinebeck Panorama” project, which includes the Apple, Gabriel and Michael family cycles, the writer-director Richard Nelson set out for war-torn Kyiv to work with the local Theater on Podil on a staging of his 2008 play “Conversations in Tusculum.” So inspired was he by the experience that he wrote the company this piece, about Ukrainian actors performing “Macbeth” in 1920. The resulting production (in Ukrainian with English supertitles) settles at Nelson’s frequent artistic home, the Public Theater, for a short run. (Sept. 16-21, Public Theater)
‘Weather Girl’
These days weather reporters like Stacey (Julia McDermott) are called upon to deliver apocalyptic accounts of a world either drowning in floods or bursting into flames along with their forecasts. Written by Brian Watkins (the creator of the time-travel Western series “Outer Range”), this solo play straddles satire and warning. (Sept. 16-Oct. 12, St. Ann’s Warehouse)
‘And Then We Were No More’
The most intriguing pairing this month may well be that of Elizabeth Marvel and Tim Blake Nelson. They are not onstage together, though: Marvel stars in this new play by Nelson, who somehow finds time to write (he also has a novel, “Superhero,” coming out in December) in between gigs as an ur-character actor (next up: the film “Bang Bang” and the series “The Lowdown”). Marvel plays a lawyer in a near-future society where the justice system is even more out of whack than our current one. (Sept. 19-Nov. 2, La MaMa)
‘Torera’
The title character of Monet Hurst-Mendoza’s play is a young Mexican woman, portrayed by Jacqueline Guillén, who yearns to make a space for herself in bullfighting — which the WP Theater’s site noncommittally refers to as “a controversial practice that we neither condemn nor condone.” Tatiana Pandiani choreographs and directs. (Sept. 20-Oct. 19, WP Theater)
‘Crooked Cross’
Sally Carson’s play premiered in Britain in 1935 and takes place just a couple of years earlier, in Germany — you can guess what the title refers to. The show, based on Carson’s own novel, presciently tracks the rise of Nazism through the prism of a divided Bavarian family. (Sept. 20-Nov. 1, Mint Theater)
‘All Right. Good Night.’
N.Y.U. Skirball plays a vital role in the New York cultural ecosystem by programming radical theatermakers from around the world, albeit for blink-and-you’ll-miss-them runs. Such is the case with this piece by the experimental German company Rimini Protokoll (“Remote New York”) in which Helgard Haug intertwines the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight in 2014 with her father’s slide into dementia. Bonus: a live score by the exquisite Berlin-based musician Barbara Morgenstern and Zafraan Ensemble. (Sept. 25-27, N.Y.U. Skirball)
new video loaded: Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan for Universal Child Care
transcript
transcript
Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan for Universal Child Care
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan on Thursday to vastly expand free and low-cost child care for families across the state in the coming years and add programs for 2-year-olds.
-
“Today, we’re working together with the mayor at this incredible place to announce the first major steps to make child care universal — truly universal — here in New York City, transforming the lives of children and parents all across the state.” “We will build on the city’s existing three-K program, and say, no longer will a family in Flatbush be offered a seat, but have to find out that seat is in Astoria. We will add seats in the neighborhoods where demand has not been met. This will be felt by expanded subsidies for tens of thousands of additional families. It will be felt when parents look at their bank accounts at the end of the year, and see that they have saved more than $20,000 per child.” “And today, I’m proud to announce that New York State is paying the full cost to launch 2-care. For the first time — universal daycare for 2-year-olds, as proposed by Mayor Mamdani. We’re not just paying for one year of the program. We don’t usually go one year out in our budget, but just to let you know how serious we are, we’re taking the unprecedented step to not just commit for the 2027 budget, which I’m working on right now, but also the following year as well to show you we’re in this for the long haul.”
By Meg Felling
January 8, 2026
A new mayor, a fresh start — you know the drill. There are as many ideas out there for how Zohran Mamdani can now improve New York’s urban environment as there are New Yorkers.
I canvassed a few dozen planners, architects, academics, community leaders, neighborhood organizers, developers, housing and transit experts and former city government officials. I gave them no budgets or time lines. They gave me a mayoral to-do list of ideas big, small, familiar, deep in the weeds, fanciful and timely.
What follows is a small selection, with some kibitzing by me. You can vote “love it” or “skip it” below and help determine the ranking of priorities. Feel free to leave eye rolls and alternative proposals in the comments section.
Check back in the coming days to see how the ranking has changed and we will let you know the ultimate results on Jan. 13.
1
Create many thousands more affordable housing units by converting some of the city’s public golf courses into mixed income developments, with garden allotments and wetlands.
2
Deck over Robert Moses’s Cross Bronx Expressway and create a spectacular new park.
3
Devise a network of dedicated lanes for e-bikes and electric scooters so they will endanger fewer bicyclists and pedestrians.
4
Pedestrianize Lower Manhattan. Not even 10 percent of people there arrive by car.
5
Build more mental health crisis centers citywide.
6
Provide more clean, safe public pay toilets that don’t cost taxpayers $1 million apiece.
7
Convert more coastline into spongy marshes, akin to what exists at Hunter’s Point South Park in Queens, to mitigate rising seas and floods.
8
Dedicate more of the city budget to public libraries and parks, the lifeblood of many neighborhoods, crucial to public health and climate resilience. The city devotes barely 2 percent of its funds to them now.
9
Follow through on the Adams administration’s $400 million makeover of once-glamorous Fifth Avenue from Central Park South to Bryant Park, with wider sidewalks, reduced lanes of traffic, and more trees, restaurants, bikes and pedestrian-friendly stretches.
10
Do away with free street parking and enforce parking placard rules. New York’s curbside real estate is priceless public land, and only a small fraction of residents own cars.
11
Open the soaring vaults under the Brooklyn Bridge to create shops, restaurants, a farmers’ market and public library in nascent Gotham Park.
13
Persuade Google, JPMorgan or some other city-vested megacorporation to help improve the acoustics as well as Wi-Fi in subways, along the lines of Citibank sponsoring Citi Bikes.
14
Overhaul freight deliveries to get more 18-wheelers off city streets, free up traffic, reduce noise, improve public safety and streamline supply chains.
15
Rein in City Hall bureaucracy around new construction. The city’s Department of Design and Construction is full of good people but a longtime hot mess at completing public projects.
16
Convert more streets and intersections into public plazas and pocket parks. Like the pedestrianization of parts of Broadway, this Bloomberg-era initiative has proved to be good for businesses and neighborhoods.
17
Stop playing Russian roulette with a crumbling highway and repair the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway before it collapses.
“There’s less traffic and more parking.”
“I only drive if I have to move something large or heavy.”
“Sometimes I skip lunch at work to make up for the driving tax.” “I visit my elderly parents less often.”
“I complain to myself every time I have to pay the fee and I’m STILL 100% in favor of it.”
“I am returning my leased car six months before the lease expires.”
One year after the start of congestion pricing, traffic jams are less severe, streets are safer, and commute times are improving for travelers from well beyond Manhattan. Though these changes aren’t noticeable to many, and others feel the tolls are a financial burden, the fees have generated hundreds of millions of dollars for public transportation projects. And it has probably contributed to rising transit ridership.
The program, which on Jan. 5, 2025, began charging most drivers $9 during peak travel times to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, has quickly left its mark.
To assess its impact, The New York Times reviewed city and state data, outside research, and the feedback of more than 600 readers with vastly different views of the toll.
Some groused about high travel costs. Others cheered for a higher toll. Many shared snapshots from their lives: quieter streets, easier parking, costlier trips to the doctor.
Many findings from a Times analysis a few months into the experiment have held up. The program so far has met nearly all of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s goals, although more evidence is needed on some measures. And one question remains unresolved: whether a federal judge will decisively shield the program from efforts by the Trump administration to end it.
“Despite the threats to shut it down,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in an interview, “the cameras are still on, and business is still up, and traffic is still down. So it’s working.”
Here’s the evidence one year in:
1. Fewer vehicles
About 73,000 fewer vehicles are entering the central business district each day, a number that has added up in the first year to about 27 million fewer entries. The decline, compared with traffic trends before the toll, has been remarkably stable across the year:
Average daily entries to the central business district
All other consequences of congestion pricing flow from this one — that fewer people are choosing to enter the area by private vehicle.
“I never drive into the city anymore. I only take the subway. It’s a relief.”
Philip Zalon Brooklyn
“I’m much more aware of driving into Manhattan and avoid it unless I have to haul a lot of stuff like a car load of Girl Scout cookies.”
Jacob White Queens
By influencing that one decision, the policy can also affect commute times, transit reliability, road safety, street life and more (as we’ll get to below).
One clear sign that behaviors are changing: Every weekday, there is now a spike in vehicles entering the zone right before the toll kicks up to $9 at 5 a.m., and right after it declines to $2.25 at 9 p.m.
Personal vehicle entries into the central business district
“I’ve decided to get up earlier to get the lower price.”
Eric Nehs Manhattan
“It is exhausting to plan the trip to cross the line at 9 p.m.”
Paul S. Morrill Manhattan
2. Faster traffic
The first consequence of those fewer vehicles is that traffic is now moving faster for the drivers who remain, and for the buses that travel those same roads. And this turns out to be true inside the congestion zone, near the congestion zone, and even much farther away.
Change in vehicle speeds, 2024-25
“Taking my kid to [doctor’s] visits in 2024 was a nightmare, every time. … After congestion pricing, it’s been noticeably less aggravating.”
Josh Hadro Brooklyn
Many readers, however, told us they didn’t believe they could see the benefits; the changes aren’t always easy to perceive by the naked eye. Readers also frequently said they believed the gains from congestion pricing were more apparent in the first months of the year and had waned since. The city’s speed data generally suggests that these improvements have been sustained, although some of the largest gains were recorded in the spring.
Average vehicle speeds in the congestion zone
But for some travelers, the speed gains have been much larger, particularly those who cross through the bridge and tunnel chokepoints into and out of Manhattan:
“Traffic approaching the [Holland] tunnel has saved me 15-30 minutes on the rides back to New York and given me hours of my time back.”
Salvatore Franchino Brooklyn
“On a typical 8 a.m. commute, there is so little traffic into the [Lincoln] tunnel that it looks like a weekend.”
Lisa Davenport Weehawken, N.J.
“I haven’t used the Lincoln Tunnel all year, probably will never use it again.”
Steven Lerner Manhattan
Improvements have also been more notable for commuters who take longer-distance trips ending in the congestion zone. That’s because those 73,000 vehicles a day that are no longer entering the zone have disappeared from surrounding roads and highways, too.
Commuters from farther out are seeing accumulating benefits from all these sources: faster speeds outside the congestion zone, much faster speeds through the tunnels and bridges, and then the improvements inside Manhattan. And people who travel roads outside the congestion zone without ever entering it get some of these benefits, too.
An analysis by researchers at Stanford, Yale and Google confirmed this through the program’s first six months. Using anonymized data from trips taken with Google Maps, they found that speeds improved after congestion pricing more on roads around the region commonly traveled by drivers heading into the central business district. That’s a subtle point, but one many readers observed themselves:
“Noticeably fewer cars driving, even way out in Bensonhurst!”
Charles Haeussler Brooklyn
“Even across the river in Bergen County, I feel that we benefit.”
Michelle Carvell Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
“I supercommute weekly from Kingston by bus. Each week, my bus round trip is 30-60 minutes faster than it was before congestion pricing.”
Rob Bellinger Kingston, N.Y.
3. More transit riders
Public transit will benefit from congestion pricing as its proceeds are invested in infrastructure upgrades; in the first year, the toll is projected to raise about $550 million after accounting for expenses, $50 million more than the M.T.A. originally predicted. But transit also stands to benefit as bus speeds improve on decongested roads and as more commuters shift to transit.
On bus routes that cross through the congestion zone, speeds increased this year, in notable contrast to the rest of the city. These improvements follow years of declining bus speeds in the central business district coming out of the pandemic.
Local bus routes
Express bus routes
Change in bus speeds, 2024-2025
“The crosstown buses are faster than they used to be, even during peak commuting times.”
Marc Wieman Manhattan
“Have gratefully noticed that they’re more on-time.”
Sue Ann Todhunter Manhattan
“It has significantly improved my bus trips from N.J., cutting about 20 minutes of traffic each way.”
John Ruppert New Jersey
Paid transit ridership is up this year compared with 2024 across the subway, M.T.A. buses, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad as transit has continued its recovery from pandemic declines. About 300,000 more people are riding the subway each day — far more than the 70,000 cars that have been taken off the road in the congestion zone. So while congestion pricing is probably contributing to rising transit ridership, it’s not the main driver of it.
All of these added transit riders do, however, help explain why congestion pricing has not dampened activity in the busiest parts of the city, as critics feared. People are still coming, just not necessarily by private car.
“I finally taught myself to use the subway. Between the tunnel toll, congestion pricing and parking, I’m saving an enormous amount of money, time and inconvenience.”
Daniel Ludwig Weehawken, N.J.
“It’s made using the bus for short trips a more appealing option.”
John Buckholz Brooklyn
In fact, overall visits to the business district aren’t down — they were up by about 2.4 percent over the previous year, according to the city’s Economic Development Corporation. And restaurant reservations on the platform OpenTable were up inside the zone as well, by the same amount as the increase citywide.
Tom Harris, the president of the Times Square Alliance, which represents 2,600 businesses, said he had initially received complaints from some businesses. But he was pleasantly surprised that they soon stopped.
“We’re thrilled we have not seen negative impacts to local businesses,” he said. “It seems like it has been absorbed.”
4. Better quality of life
These primary shifts — fewer cars, less congested roads, more transit riders — have in turn produced a number of other effects that might more broadly be thought of as changes to qualify of life. Readers described experiencing safer crosswalks, less stressful bike rides and what feels like cleaner air.
In city data, the number of complaints to 311 for vehicle noises like car honking has declined significantly inside the congestion zone, compared with the rest of Manhattan.
Change in vehicle noise complaints, 2024-25
“Sometimes it’s almost — dare I say it? — quiet.”
Daniel Scott Manhattan
“Midtown is so much quieter now.”
Melanie DuPuis Manhattan/Hudson Valley
“It turns out that mostly when people say ‘New York is noisy’ they really mean ‘cars are noisy.’”
Grant Louis Manhattan
And the perception that roads have gotten safer is also borne out by crash data. The number of people who were seriously injured in a car crash decreased citywide, but the improvement was more pronounced in the congestion relief zone.
Change in number of people seriously injured in a crash, 2024-25
“Nobody’s trying to run me over.”
Alice Baruch Manhattan
“Fewer cars honking, fewer cars running red lights, fewer cars blocking crosswalks.”
Charlie Rokosny Brooklyn
“The number of blocked crosswalks have gone down significantly!”
Samir Lavingia Manhattan
Amid these positive changes, however, other readers described distinct declines in their quality of life, often stemming from the cost of the toll. These deeply personal observations have no corresponding measures in public data. But they make clear that some of those 27 million fewer driving trips weren’t simply replaced by transit or forgone as unnecessary — they’re missed.
“Sadly Manhattan is no longer an option for many things we once enjoyed.”
Linda Fisher Queens
“Congestion pricing has made my world much smaller.”
Justine Cuccia Manhattan
“I’m more careful about choosing events to attend, so I go to fewer of them.”
Karen Hoppe Queens
“I will not use doctors in Manhattan, limiting my health care choices.”
David Pecoraro Queens
One final aim of congestion pricing — improved air quality — has the potential to benefit everyone in the region. But the data remains inconclusive so far. A recent study from researchers at Cornell found a 22 percent improvement in one air quality measure over six months. But another analysis, by the Stanford and Yale authors, found little to no effect on air quality using local community sensors and comparing New York with other cities. And the M.T.A.’s own analysis of the program’s first year found no significant change in measured concentrations of vehicle-related air pollutants.
That doesn’t mean benefits won’t become clearer with more time and data. But the open questions about air quality underscore that even one year in, even with all the evidence gathered, there are still some effects we don’t fully understand.
“As an asthmatic, I can also palpably feel improvements in the air quality.”
Rob Hult Brooklyn
“It’s allowed me to believe that perhaps America can change for the better.”
Hanna Horvath Brooklyn
“As a car owner myself, I think it’s fair that the cost of driving is now being passed from city residents onto the drivers.”
Vincent Lee The Bronx
“I don’t like the cost but I also can’t deny its effectiveness.”
Jon Keese Queens
Left-wing Dems steer $1M to addiction group operating above Minneapolis Somali restaurant amid fraud fallout
Harvard dean removed after anti-White, anti-police social media posts resurfaced
Video: Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan for Universal Child Care
Tarik Skubal, Tigers can’t agree on 2026 salary. Here’s what happens
San Francisco celebrates drop in traffic deaths
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Video: ‘It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way:’ U.Va. Faculty Call for Review of Police Response to Protests
Video: What Trump Told Us About the ICE Shooting
Trump calls for $1.5T defense budget to build ‘dream military’
Belgium open to housing foreign prisoners in other countries, minister says
Community reacts to ICE shooting in Minnesota. And, RFK Jr. unveils new food pyramid
Video: Minnesota Governor Condemns ICE Shooting
-
Detroit, MI5 days ago2 hospitalized after shooting on Lodge Freeway in Detroit
-
Technology2 days agoPower bank feature creep is out of control
-
Dallas, TX4 days agoDefensive coordinator candidates who could improve Cowboys’ brutal secondary in 2026
-
Health4 days agoViral New Year reset routine is helping people adopt healthier habits
-
Nebraska2 days agoOregon State LB transfer Dexter Foster commits to Nebraska
-
Iowa2 days agoPat McAfee praises Audi Crooks, plays hype song for Iowa State star
-
Nebraska2 days agoNebraska-based pizza chain Godfather’s Pizza is set to open a new location in Queen Creek
-
Entertainment1 day agoSpotify digs in on podcasts with new Hollywood studios