N.Y. Today: Mamdani Appoints Top Parks Official to Oversee New York’s Green Spaces
The mayor announced Tricia Shimamura as the new parks commissioner amid calls for more park funding.
New York Today
January 18, 2026
A student wearing a green shirt and sitting in a classroom at Barnard College types on a laptop computer in a first-year writing class. Only the student’s arm and hand are visible. Another computer is shown to the left.

A.I. Is Coming to Class. These Professors Want to Ease Your Worries.

Even as some instructors remain fervently opposed to chatbots, other writing and English professors are trying to improve them.

By Sharon Otterman and Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Protesters, some holding flags and wearing keffiyehs that cover their faces, gather near a synagogue at night.

Before Criticizing Pro-Hamas Chants, Mamdani Sought Jewish Leaders’ Input

The outreach by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s team has demonstrated how the mayor is taking care to not inflame tensions on either side of the Israel-Gaza war.

By Sally Goldenberg, Dana Rubinstein and Liam Stack

Dozens of people sit on stairs outside a large building. A red banner over doorways says “The Met.”

Met Museum Employees Vote to Unionize

The bargaining unit, which includes curatorial, conservation and retail departments, could represent about half of the Met’s work force.

By Zachary Small

Several people look at Pokemon cards in a display labeled “Pack Bar” at a store where they are sold.

At Least $110,000 in Pokémon Cards Stolen From Lower Manhattan Store

The robbery at the Poké Court on Wednesday was the latest in a string of thefts of high-value Pokémon trading cards.

By Hannah Ziegler

A photo showing the outside of a two-story brick house on a flooded street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, with a line marking the level of the flooding at 1.5 feet in October 2025, and another line indicating six feet of projected flooding.

The Disaster to Come: New York’s Next Superstorm

Heavy rain would make a hurricane catastrophic. See the neighborhoods that could face the worst flooding.

By Hilary Howard, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Daniel Wood and Vincent Alban

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