Brooklyn’s dollar vans squeezed by Mamdani’s Flatbush Avenue bus plan

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ☔ Showers, thunderstorms, potentially serious flooding and even a chance of tornadoes, with highs in the lower 80s.

It's Tuesday in New York City, where Flatbush Avenue's famed dollar vans (they now charge $2) have long been lifelines for people trying to commute through an area with limited subway service.

But these unlicensed shuttles are facing a new threat: Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan to install dedicated bus lanes and other MTA bus-oriented improvements on Flatbush Avenue. 

Here's what these changes mean for the culture of dollar vans — and the prospect of fast, affordable and safe transit through one of the city's most congested corridors.

And here's what else is happening:

• City officials said yesterday a fourth person has died in connection with the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on the Upper East Side.
  • The city was still scrambling to hire and train new cooling tower inspectors when this cluster of Legionnaires' cases was identified, according to new staffing figures shared with Gothamist.
• The military veteran arrested by federal agents yesterday for setting off fireworks and starting a large blaze outside New York City’s largest immigration court told law enforcement officials he was willing to injure or kill people, according to the FBI.
• A Department of Buildings safety inspection blitz following the recent near-collapse of a Midtown tower has reviewed at least eight projects handled by a steel fabrication firm that was involved in the troubled project.
• More than 22,000 New Yorkers lost their monthly SNAP food assistance benefits in June due to new work requirement rules implemented by the Trump administration, city officials told Gothamist.
  • How are households and grocers managing the city's food affordability crisis? Join "All Things Considered" host Sean Carlson for a free live event focused on affordability, tonight at 7 p.m. at BEM books & more in Brooklyn.
• Police said a 27-year-old woman died Sunday after she was injected with an “anti-aging therapy” at a Bronx holistic medicine center.
• New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a law yesterday restricting landlords’ use of algorithms to set rents.

• Here's a tidy rundown of what Eric Adams has been up to in retirement.
• New York City will continue to fund its buyback program for used syringes.
• Authorities said F-16 fighter jets had to intercept multiple planes that got too close to MetLife Stadium during the World Cup Final.
• The Spanish soccer team celebrated their win with dozens of pizzas — including 10 buffalo chicken pies — from a place called Bagels by Jarrett in West Orange, New Jersey.
• Congrats to everyone in Queens who completed their World Cup Panini sticker collection.
• Golfer Bryson DeChambeau, facing a penalty at a tournament in England last week, allegedly threatened to call Donald Trump, ostensibly to have the president overturn the call?
• The Anthony Bourdain-inspired Singaporean food hall in Midtown has closed.
• If we all wore shorts to the office, maybe our buildings wouldn't have to crank the A/C and waste energy.