David F Brand

Mamdani halts NYC's 'predatory' private tax lien sale process The mayor is ordering a six-month suspension in order to review the controversial system and add homeowner protections.

NEW: @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social is halting NYC’s tax lien sale, and potentially scrapping it altogether gothamist.com/news/mamdani...

Mayor Mamdani's Push to Build at Sunnyside Yard | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC David Brand, housing reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, discusses the housing project proposed for Sunnyside Yard.

Last month, Mayor Mamdani lobbied President Trump for federal funds to build a housing development in Queens. Today, we talked more about the plan itself with WNYC and Gothamist reporter @davidfbrand.bsky.social
www.wnyc.org/story/mayor-...

Bruh

At Largest ICE Detention Camp, Staff Bet on Detainee Suicides, AP Reports Camp East Montana has received several 911 calls in the span of five months about immigrants trying to harm themselves.

Staff at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility have placed bets on which detainee will be the next to die by suicide, according to new reporting from the Associated Press based on 911 calls and detainee accounts.

Reminds me of a middle-aged couple I interviewed for a story about Greenpoint

They won an affordable housing lottery that allows them to stay in Brooklyn:

“I don't want to go down to Florida and retire. I'm a New Yorker and I want to retire here.”

gothamist.com/news/what-ny...

Forget Florida. They Got Older and Moved to New York.

I love this

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/n...

Mayor Mamdani Launches New Efforts to Take Sidewalk Sheds Down, Require Fewer Unnecessary Sheds

Holy crap, Mamdani is finally doing something to bring down sidewalk sheds that will actually sort of work! Sheds will no longer be required more than 40 ft. away from buildings, which will be a help to NYCHA and other towers-in-a-park complexes www.nyc.gov/mayors-offic...

ICE detains reporter Estefany Rodríguez in Nashville - Nashville Banner Reporter Estefany Rodríguez, detained by ICE with no arrest warrant, may face deportation. Her attorneys seek immediate review of the legality of her case.

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.

They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

bad news for new yorkers with housing vouchers

New York judges add new obstacle for low-income tenants with housing vouchers A panel of judges said a law banning discrimination against Section 8 recipients actually violates landlord rights.

NEW: A panel of upstate appellate judges ruled that New York law banning source-of-income discrimination (rejecting apartment applicants because they have Section 8) actually violates the constitutional rights of landlords

@wnyc.org @gothamist.com
gothamist.com/news/new-yor...

Mamdani will close NYC's largest homeless shelter for men, citing disrepair The massive structure has received complaints for years about poor conditions and safety.

Important scoop from my colleague Karen Yi

The Mamdani admin will close the Bellevue men’s shelter

@wnyc.org @gothamist.com gothamist.com/news/mamdani...

Mamdani will close NYC's largest homeless shelter for men, citing disrepair The massive structure has received complaints for years about poor conditions and safety.

Mamdani will close NYC's largest homeless shelter for men, citing disrepair gothamist.com/news/mamdani...

Mamdani faces deadline on NYC housing vouchers after reneging on campaign pledge The Mamdani administration has until later this month to issue a new proposal or request an extension to continue negotiations over what to do with a rental assistance program he is legally obligated ...

Inside the efforts to block, implement or negotiate the expansion of NYC’s crucial rental assistance program

@wnyc.org @gothamist.com gothamist.com/news/mamdani...

Mamdani pitched Trump on building massive housing development in Sunnyside, Queens Sources tell Gothamist that Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke with President Donald Trump about reviving a plan to build 12,000 housing units over the railyard in Sunnyside.

Mamdani met with Trump today to pitch the 12K-unit Sunnyside Yards project in Western Queens

NYC released a final plan for the $14B project days before the pandemic hit in Mar 2020. Then it withered

It needs federal OK and $$$

Scoop for @wnyc.org and @gothamist.com gothamist.com/news/mamdani...

Mayor Mamdani wants NYC tenants to sound off on junk fees at 'rental ripoff' hearings Mamdani is asking tenants to share their housing horror stories at a series of public hearings starting Thursday.

One major theme of @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social’a first “Rental Ripoff” hearing tonight:

All the extra fees that can drive up housing costs

For @wnyc.org and @gothamist.com gothamist.com/news/mayor-m...

NEW: housing-averse CM Vickie Paladino voted to advance this project in Bayside-which she does not otherwise support-under threat of override from the city's new affordable housing appeals board.

1st project demonstrating power of last fall's housing ballot measures. Story TK ⤵️

The Day After the 2026 Blizzard | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC Reporting and calls on the aftermath of the blizzard, including what's up and running and what is not, plus what schools are open and which are not.

@wnyc.org & @gothamist.com reporters Brittany Kriegstein & @davidfbrand.bsky.social talk about the aftermath of the blizzard in NYC: www.wnyc.org/story/the-da...

How much snow can NYC rooftops really handle? The weight of the snow and ice are wreaking havoc on NYC rooftops.

Demand for contractors to help clear snow and ice is, uh, through the roof

For @wnyc.org and @gothamist.com

gothamist.com/news/how-muc...

Racing Investigator Resigns After New York Focus Investigation The investigator was initially placed on leave after New York Focus revealed that state gaming regulators ignored evidence of a massive horse doping ring.

@sammellins.bsky.social gets results nysfocus.com/2026/02/20/h...

Feds say ICE detention center coming to Roxbury, NJ after days of contradictions https://gothamist.com/news/feds-say-ice-detention-center-coming-to-roxbury-nj-after-days-of-contradictions

“I Have Lost Everything”: The Toll of Cities’ Homeless Sweeps Cities often take belongings — including important documents and irreplaceable mementos — when they conduct sweeps of homeless encampments. ProPublica gave notecards to people across the country so th...

We asked people who lived in homeless encampments that were cleared out in city “sweeps” to write about what object was the hardest for them to lose.

“They took my baby pictures and my moms obituaries,” a man in California wrote.

(Published Dec. 2024)

How a decision by NYC voters sped up a plan to build affordable housing in the Bronx The proposed 84-unit apartment complex is the first project to enter the city’s expedited review process.

The first test of NYC's new expedited review process for 100% affordable housing projects is now underway at a city-owned lot in Mott Haven

Voters approved the new process in a November ballot question

For @wnyc.org @gothamist.com
gothamist.com/news/how-a-d...

Fantastic reporting from @chrisgelardi.bsky.social who easily found a former New York prison chef accused of sexual assault, after the state insisted in legal filings that he did not exist.

Meet the vigilante cleaners pulling garbage and love locks off the Brooklyn Bridge 'We have free will, it just occurred to me one morning, and I said ‘I can just do that.’

“When the Brooklyn Bridge was built, it was heralded as the eighth wonder of the world. I said to someone the other day, ‘Would you go to Machu Picchu and just tie your dirty old receipt to a fence there? No, you wouldn't. So you shouldn't do it here either.’ ” nygroove.nyc/garbage-clea...

But is he wearing dress shoes??

I visited a group of people who have been staying on a sidewalk along W18th St since fall to discuss Mamdani’s plan to resume sweeps

I saw an old sweeps notice from Oct 25 still taped to a wall nearby. People staying there said the site was repeatedly cleared (but they returned)

The new board chair is a former NYC housing official

Mamdani’s pick to fill a landlord rep seat is a supportive housing developer who has worked for the city’s housing and homeless services agencies

NEW: @mayor.nyc.gov @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social has his Rent Guidelines Board

Mamdani is naming five new members and reappointing one other, reshaping a panel with the power to fulfill, or upend, his pledge to ‘Freeze the Rent’ for tenants in ~1M regulated apartments

For @gothamist.com @wnyc.org

Mamdani names new Rent Guidelines Board majority, testing rent freeze pledge The Rent Guidelines Board sets annual rent-stabilized increases and the mayor’s new picks could determine whether tenants get a freeze or another hike.

NEW: @mayor.nyc.gov @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social has his Rent Guidelines Board

Mamdani is naming five new members and reappointing one other, reshaping a panel with the power to fulfill, or upend, his pledge to ‘Freeze the Rent’ for tenants in ~1M regulated apartments gothamist.com/news/mamdani...

NYC still struggling to replace emergency housing vouchers set to expire under Trump Just as one city housing agency devised a “stopgap” for replacing a federal housing assistance program for thousands of New Yorkers, NYCHA’s plan collapsed.

4/ The end of the federal EHV funding — initially billed as 10-year program —means thousands of NYC's lowest-income households (and the landlords they rent from) are now in danger of losing their housing assistance

Story for @wnyc.org and @gothamist.com

gothamist.com/news/nyc-sti...