Congestion pricing funds $5 million program for overnight truck deliveries in Manhattan

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ⛅ Mostly sunny, highs in the upper 60s.

It's Thursday in New York City, where officials are offering one-time cash payments to local businesses to start handling their deliveries overnight.

The Transportation Department said roughly 90% of goods and deliveries are currently transported via trucks during the middle of the day, when the streets are most congested.

As part of an effort to ease traffic, the city is planning to hand out $5 million in congestion pricing revenue and ask participating businesses to use that money for things like noise-reducing devices for trucks and “last-mile” delivery vehicles such as cargo bikes.

Here's what else is happening:

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is speaking at the U.N. General Assembly today — here's what we know about Midtown road closures and the two separate protests planned for this afternoon.
  • Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he won't be arresting Netanyahu for alleged war crimes or attending any protests, but said he'd uphold the rights of others to demonstrate peacefully.
• The NYPD said it’s planning further security sweeps after three people were seen exiting a manhole on the Upper East Side — the latest of several such incidents over the last few months.
• Seven cooling towers in the South Bronx have tested positive for live Legionella bacteria, city officials said Wednesday. The Legionnaires' disease cluster in the area has so far killed two people.
• Gov. Kathy Hochul said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be joining her on the campaign trail ahead of the November election.
  • Hear Hochul’s interview on “Who’s Running This Place?,” a brand new politics pop-up show hosted by senior politics reporter Brigid Bergin, airing today at 1 p.m. on WNYC.
• A new bill introduced by City Councilmember Shaun Abreu, the chair of the transportation committee, would require the city to create "low-traffic neighborhoods" with street redesigns that discourage driving.
• Bellevue Hospital’s busy adult psychiatric ward is getting a renovation and 40 additional beds under an upgrade backed by $25.6 million from the City Council.
• At a recent roundtable discussion during New York’s climate week, labor unions argued that people who work outside in the sun or in sweltering warehouses or kitchens need more protections in place ahead of the next heat wave. 
• The elevated section of Park Avenue that snakes around Grand Central Terminal would get a bike lane under a design floated by the city transportation department this week.
• New York City’s childcare crisis has become one of the clearest examples of how the affordability crunch shapes everyday family life. On Wednesday, September 30, join WNYC’s “All Things Considered, along with parents, small childcare providers and policymakers to explore solutions that can help families stay and thrive in New York City. Tickets for the event at the Snug Harbor Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art on Staten Island are free.

• Start studying: New York City voters are getting five ballot questions this November. 
• The FDNY said two people were hospitalized after an incident on the escalator inside the Trader Joe's off West 72nd Street.
• The Staten Island Zoo is saving diamondback terrapins by keeping the baby turtles safe from foxes, notorious local predators, before they're big enough to be released into a local waterway.
• Here's a glowing review of the new Southern country buffet in the East Village. 
• Fans of "Next Gen NYC," a Bravo reality show about the adult children of other Bravo reality stars, love how low-stakes and undramatic it is.
• You simply can't have chard at every meal.
• Miniatures are big right now.