In Sunset Park, businesses blame fear of ICE for slowdown

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ☀️ Sunny, highs in the upper 60s.

It's Tuesday in New York City, where Juan Ramirez said there used to always be a line at the New Public Meat Market in Sunset Park, where he works.

Now, the shops often remain empty, and the owner had to let go of two workers.

Here's how fear of immigration enforcement — and social media posts about alleged ICE sightings in the neighborhood — have rocked small businesses that were already operating on thin margins.

And here's what else is happening:

• The NYPD routinely takes people to the hospital for involuntary psychiatric evaluations. There's no publicly available data on what happens next.
• Mayor Zohran Mamdani has vowed to scale up alternative 911-response programs like We Build The Block, a nonprofit civilian group in Brownsville focused on calming local disputes.
• Three New Yorkers who were passengers onboard the cruise ship with the deadly hantavirus outbreak are being quarantined in Nebraska, according to state health officials.
• City medical examiners are investigating after police on Sunday discovered possible human remains in Ozone Park.
• "What they are doing inside of there is trying to create conditions where people are so demoralized that they will sign voluntary departure papers," said Rep. Rob Menendez after touring a privately owned ICE detention center in Newark.
• Twenty-eight-year-old O'Shae Sibley, a professional dancer, was “living his best life” before a Brooklyn teen fatally stabbed him in Midwood in 2023, a prosecutor said yesterday in opening statements at the accused killer's trial.
• The New York City Council is dropping disciplinary charges against Councilmember Vickie Paladino after she agreed to remove three social media posts decried as Islamophobic.
• Gov. Kathy Hochul made her first joint campaign appearance with Rep. Dan Goldman yesterday as he seeks re-election, putting her at odds with Mayor Mamdani, who has endorsed former City Comptroller Brad Lander in the tight Lower Manhattan primary.

• Here's a detailed breakdown of what people are complaining about and where when they call 311 to report stinky smells.
• New York City is installing temporary docks off Hell's Kitchen for some of the semiquincentennial tall ships to tie up.
• Jimmy's Corner, the famed Times Squared dive bar, is still fighting to stay put, even though the building just changed ownership.
• Shout out to the officials in Elizabeth, New Jersey, who used donuts and peanut butter to coax a bear down from a tree before safely relocating it.
• A majority of Americans now think the Trump assassination attempts were either staged or they're not sure, according to a new poll.
• They're saying Hugh Jackman's talking-sheep movie "has no business being as good as it is."
• This is a good restaurant.