Within the first minute of SNL’s viral spoof of the Barbie movie’s song “I’m Just Ken,” a bleached and toned Pete Davidson softly croons about his purchase of a 277-foot Staten Island Ferry: “When I’m high, I do things like call up Colin Jost and say, ‘Homey, we should buy a boat.’”

It is one of the many references the comedians have made to their acquisition of the former John F. Kennedy Staten Island Ferry vessel for $280,100 in 2022 — a non-operational, 61-year-old ship they planned to transform into an event space with restaurants, bars, hotel rooms and a concert venue.

But since then, the massive ferry has become an embarrassing white elephant, moored to a pier they rent out at Staten Island’s Caddell Dry Dock and Repair. Meanwhile, Jost and Davidson have been sued for failure to pay a law firm involved in the ferry’s dockage and towing contracts.”

“Help our family,” joked Scarlett Johansson, Jost’s wife, about starting a GoFundMe when asked about his purchase last year. 

Now, they have an option to offload their slowly sinking ship: the state wants to send it to a watery grave — as a home for sea life that could make it the first large vessel in New York to be reborn underwater as an artificial reef.

The state official in charge of creating habitats for underwater creatures told THE CITY in no uncertain terms: He wants the ferry.

Marine biologist and diver Chris LaPorta has spent the last 26 years working as the sole coordinator for the state Department of Conservation’s artificial reef program, where he spends much of his time chasing leads on vessels that would make good reefs.

And he’s got his eyes on the John F. Kennedy.

Unlike other states that sink boats to create habitat, New York has yet to land a large vessel for reefing. States like New Jersey and Maryland have sunken retired naval crafts, which LaPorta called the “jewel in the crown” of artificial reefs.

“Something like a Staten Island Ferry would be approaching a naval vessel,” he said.

“They are gorgeous. They would make fine habitat, for sure,” he added. “Think about the iconic look on the bottom for divers because you’ve got that beautiful blazing orange and the navy blue. It would be something.”

Should New York obtain a large vessel of its own to sink, LaPorta would deposit it in one of the designated reef zones that create complex habitats which otherwise do not exist on the flat, sandy bottoms of New York waters.

LaPorta took a tour of the John F. Kennedy when it went up for auction.

Bill Cadden wanted it, too. He is a retired marine engineer who founded the nonprofit Long Island Reef Society to create artificial reefs out of concrete, rock or steel objects. He is often in touch with LaPorta at the DEC, and both men tap into their decades in the marine industry to source for reefing.

“I knew that the Kennedy was going to be coming out of service because they were building three new boats down in Florida,” Cadden said. “When the new boats started rolling in, the Kennedy, being the last of her class, was going to be on the chopping block.” 

But they lost out to the pair of entertainers in the public auction.

“That’s where Mr. Davidson and company came into the picture,” Cadden said. “They had the winning bid.” 

Sea Creatures and Seafarers 

Two groups benefit from artificial reefs: underwater species and humans who take an interest in them. 

The Kennedy’s large size, with the capacity to hold 3,500 passengers, would allow for currents and tides to flow through it, providing places for fish to swim in and hide from predators, Cadden explained. Its steel structure also means it has staying power to stick around for a long time.

Carl Lobue, senior marine scientist at The Nature Conservancy in New York who also does work on local artificial reefs, said the areas around man-made habitats are lively.

“We’ve taken some underwater videos of these areas, and they’re really full of different critters,“ he said. “It’s quite a diverse amount of marine life, from the little anemones that live on the structures, to the little crabs, shrimp and all of the fish.”

Artificial reefs also boost the “economic engine” that fishing is in the New York and New Jersey area by creating new spots for fishermen to find game, according to Lobue. 

“I think it would become a destination for people and marine life,” he said about the Kennedy. 

Most of New York’s ocean bottom is a marine life “desert,” without rock reefs and structures for certain species to cling to. According to Cadden, “The only place where there’s structure for marine life, for fish and other critters, is from vessels that have been sunk or material that has been put down for that purpose

Buyer’s Remorse 

For many, an impulse purchase entails a late-night fast food order, but for the two Staten Islanders who struck big performing on SNL, it was a 2,100-ton steel vessel.

Now, the pair apparently has buyer’s remorse, shown through self-deprecating humor. (Neither Jost nor Davidson’s representatives responded to THE CITY’s inquiries about their future plans for the ferry.)

“This is why idiots should not be allowed to do things,” Jost said on Late Night with Seth Meyers less than a year after the purchase.

“In case you’re wondering why I had to do a show in Saudi Arabia, we’re losing millions on this ferry,” Davidson said on SNL five months ago, referencing his much-criticized performance at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

“You watch SNL every so often, he’ll be joking, ‘Here, take my boat,’” Cadden told THE CITY about Jost.

In fact, the japes about their “mistake” have become so common, Lobue at the Nature Conservancy has started collecting them.

“Every time it gets mentioned on Saturday Night Live as a little side joke, I’m constantly clipping the videos and sending them to the artificial reef unit at DEC,” he said.

Jost and Davidson are far from the first people to purchase a vessel with a dream but without any seafaring expertise. There have been a series of unsuccessful endeavors to repurpose old ferries in New York — like the Prudence Ferry purchased over a decade ago by the Long Island City-based company Plaxall with the idea of turning it into a floating beer garden. Cadden will now sink that ship for a reef in June, as previously reported by THE CITY. 

“Every single vessel was bought with a fantastic idea of reuse, but bought by someone who is not in the marine business,” Cadden said. “Sounds good on paper, but putting it into practice is going to be very, very expensive.”

Cadden estimated the cost of Jost and Davidson’s not-yet-realized plans.

“You could probably add two zeros to the number that they paid,” he told THE CITY, “then maybe double it, between what it’s going to cost them to upgrade and make the vessel compliant, and find a place to berth it.”

LaPorta underscored the easiest way to stop the cash flow: let the boat flood.

“I always have my eyes out, and if there’s any opportunity, I certainly will be in communication with them,” he said. 

Even selling it for scrap metal wouldn’t be a great option, Cadden said; the costs of transporting and cutting it up would likely outweigh the value of the material.

Lobue, for his part, said he recognizes Jost and Davidson’s vision for the Kennedy and what it symbolizes for the borough they hail from. 

But ultimately, he thinks they may be falling victim to a literal sunk-cost fallacy: not wanting to give up on something you’ve already put time and money into.

As a scientist, Lobue put it in entomological terms, likening them to a type of wasp that must dig a hole down to the water line to lay eggs.

“At some point in time, the wasp will realize, ‘I started digging in the wrong spot,’” he said. But the wasp won’t change course and “will invariably dig one hole.”

“They will never give up, and if they don’t reach water, they’ll just die digging. I do think that it’s human nature to do something like that, as well.”

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While seated behind the wheel of his green cab at East 125th Street and Park Avenue, Bakary Kane recalled how optimistic he felt more than seven years ago when he became the owner of a so-called Boro Taxi.

But with the number of green cab drivers sinking to its lowest level ever, Kane said he regularly must work seven days a week just to pay his bills.

“I had a lot of hope,” the 50-year-old driver told THE CITY outside the Harlem-125th Street Metro-North station on Monday. “But now I will say that turning green was maybe the worst decision I ever made.”

The latest New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission numbers paint an increasingly bleak picture for the green cabs that arrived in Northern Manhattan and the boroughs in 2013 as an alternative for neighborhoods not typically served by yellow taxis. 

That was around the time that Uber and tens of thousands of for-hire vehicles began upending the entire industry with on-demand rides passengers booked via their mobile devices.

TLC data shows there were just 539 working green cab drivers in February — a nearly 93% collapse from May 2015, when 7,521 operators were picking up street hails in the boroughs and Upper Manhattan.

Those numbers jumped out at Nancy Reynoso, who became the city’s first green cab operator in the summer of 2013 before she threw in the towel in March 2022.

“I was shocked to find out that there are even that many — 539, oh wow!” said Reynoso, who went on to work at the LEGOLAND New York Resort in Orange County and as a mail carrier after turning in her TLC license plates. 

Green cabs averaged 1,304 daily trips in February, according to TLC data, down almost 98% from the peak of 57,637 trips per day in May 2015. The number of those on the road fell to 522 in February, lower even than the 671 that remained in service during the early days of the pandemic in April 2020.

At their June 2015 peak, more than 6,500 green cabs were working in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and north of East 96th Street and West 110th Street in Manhattan.

The collapse of the green cab industry has hit those behind the wheel hard, even as drivers can accept pre-arranged trips from for-hire vehicle bases and over the ride-hailing apps.

At its peak in May 2015, green cab drivers averaged $114 a day from trips, totaling $862,099 in revenue across all drivers, which doesn’t include additional earnings from credit card tips. In February, those earnings dropped to roughly $52 a day, according to an analysis of TLC data. 

“The starting time was good, but now it’s very bad,” said Syed Kabir, a 52-year-old father of three from Bangladesh who has been a green cab driver since 2014. “No, no, no — no good business.” 

That’s in contrast to competitors in the taxi and for-hire vehicle industry, which have regained significantly larger portions of their shares of pre-pandemic ridership.

TLC data shows that high-volume for-hire vehicles, such as Uber and Lyft, had 19.8 million trips in February, almost 99% of pre-2020 levels. Yellow taxis are at 47% of pre-pandemic trip levels. The green cabs, meanwhile, are at just 6.5%.

“Economically, it doesn’t give you results like the yellows, because the greens can’t go into the central business district of Manhattan,” said Jose Altamirano, president of Livery Base Owners, an association representing more than 250 bases citywide.

Altamirano added that those restrictions leave green cab owners and drivers to scrap for leftovers, while the more than 82,000 vehicles from app-based services battle for passengers alongside close to 11,000 yellow taxis.

“Instead of getting the juiciest part of the meat, you’re chewing on the bones,” he said. “And now you’re competing against filet mignon.”

On Monday afternoon, more than a dozen green cabs were parked outside the Metro-North station on 125th Street, with drivers waiting for would-be passengers to emerge.

Several drivers stationed alongside the elevated Park Avenue railroad tracks said the waits can be long.

“One hour, half an hour,” said Tamzid Khan, 45. “We’ve all been waiting more than 40 minutes.”

TLC has pushed a pilot program aimed at boosting business for the struggling green cab sector.

The commission approved changes in May 2023 that allow up to 2,500 out-of-use green cab licenses to be reactivated — but minus required upfront and operating costs that include green paint jobs, partitions, metered trips, rooftop lights and vehicle markings.

Licensed vehicles in the street-hail livery pilot program are mandated to have trips booked through livery bases and cannot be hailed on the street, unlike the green cabs. 

A September 2025 report on the initiative found that only 563 permits from the test were actively in use as of last June after 3,509 were initially issued. A TLC spokesperson said that as of February, there are 441 licenses in good standing.

The report last year noted that the drop in driver demand suggests that the business model envisioned by TLC “is of limited viability.” In addition, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance filed suit against TLC in state court, charging that the pilot program runs counter to state law by not allowing street hail livery vehicles to be hailed on the street.

Citing pending litigation, TLC declined to comment on the lawsuit, though a spokesperson said the trial run has been extended through June. 

“The TLC is committed to supporting all our drivers — including our green cab drivers —  as we move into a new era of solving the problems licensees face every day,” TLC spokesperson James Parziale said in a statement. “We will actively listen to the city’s hardworking drivers and will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to improve their economic well-being.”

Altamirano, of the Livery Base Owners group, expressed optimism that the remaining green cabs and their owners can be saved from further damage.

“The greens could be revamped, the state should look at making this less complicated,” he said. “There are a lot of requirements that the greens have to do.”

Reynoso, the original green cab driver, was less upbeat.

She said she worries about the future of the remaining green cab drivers — a far cry from the day in November 2013 when she drove then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg back to his Upper East Side home from Brooklyn after he marked the arrival of 1,000 such vehicles on city streets.

“I was always hoping, keeping fingers crossed, that it would get better for the people who [stayed],” Reynoso said. “But I don’t see that it’s happening.”

She added that she is hopeful that the bleeding can be stopped for green cab owners and drivers under Midori Valdivia, the incoming TLC Commissioner.

“Everybody made an investment to get in there, you know?” Reynoso said. “They didn’t do this to not make enough money or to feel like you’re being left out of the big pie.”

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The state Department of Environmental Conservation on Friday approved a key water-quality permit for a natural-gas pipeline that would extend about 17 miles in New York waters — after rejecting the proposal three times since 2018.

The Northeast Supply Enhancement natural gas pipeline would run from Pennsylvania to just off the coast of the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens and east of Staten Island, in Raritan Bay. Proposed by the Oklahoma-based Williams Companies, the pipeline would connect to a larger network starting in Texas.

DEC denied the project’s permit in 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, citing how construction would kick up contaminants including mercury, lead and copper buried in the ocean sediments that would harm marine life, such as clams and sturgeon. The agency had also rejected the permit on the basis that a new fossil fuel project would run afoul of state climate law, which mandates a transition to renewable energy.

The revival of the pipeline project came as part of a deal Gov. Kathy Hochul reportedly struck with the Trump administration in order to save the Empire Wind 1 offshore wind project, which the federal government had sought to shut down mid-construction. DEC’s approval of the permit is in line with her administration’s stance that the state will continue to rely on fossil fuels for energy into the future and continue to invest in them.

Following DEC’s approval, the chief executive of Williams, Chad Zamarin, touted natural gas as a “low-cost resource” in a statement that said the company is “proud to move NESE forward.”

“This project reflects our commitment to deliver clean and reliable energy, while lowering energy costs and supporting economic growth and environmental stewardship,” Zamarin said in a statement.

DEC’s approval of the water-quality permit comes with requirements: the developer must use third-party monitors to oversee construction, implement a plan to limit contaminants in Raritan Bay and Lower New York Bay, and pay $23.5 million in “mitigation for all unavoidable impacts.”

DEC said it will also monitor the pipeline’s construction — which would involve placing it at least four feet below the bottom of the sea — to ensure the project complies with permit requirements.

DEC determined in 2020 that burying the pipeline four feet below wasn’t enough and pushed for six feet. In Friday’s approval letter, the DEC noted how construction of other projects in the past five years has provided “new information” related to water-quality impacts and how to “avoid and minimize” them at four feet.

The pipeline developers must obtain a similar permit from New Jersey before construction can begin.

The gas utility National Grid, which backed the pipeline with other business groups, had revised a plan submitted to New York State about the future of the gas system to include the pipeline. The state Public Service Commission greenlit the altered plan in September, opening the door for National Grid customers to potentially be on the hook for the pipeline’s costs.

Sally Librera, president of National Grid New York, said in a statement that the pipeline “will bolster critical energy reliability across New York City and Long Island.” 

She praised Hochul’s “all-of-the-above energy strategy,” referring to the governor’s embrace of fossil-fuel based energy sources as well as renewables.

The DEC granted the permit even after itdetermined the pipeline would not align with state climate law mandates to cut greenhouse-gas emissions because it would do the opposite and “contribute to future climate change impacts.” But the agency ultimately said the pipeline is a must for reliability.

Susan Kraham, a managing attorney at EarthJustice, said the notion of the pipeline making energy more reliable should not have been relevant for the state environmental agency when deciding on whether to issue the permit.

“Whether any of that is true is a separate question,” Kraham said. “The only appropriate question is whether the project meets water-quality standards.”

She said the company’s permit application was the same as the last times DEC rejected it, but now the political context has changed. 

Several members of Congress and other elected officials representing New York expressed their opposition to the pipeline, as did New York City, which had urged the DEC to deny the permit. City officials warned the pipeline could entrench reliance on gas infrastructure, worsen air quality, lead to increased costs for ratepayers and was not deemed necessary by state agencies. The pipeline would also not help to advance the city’s own goals of slashing its own planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Other environmental advocates decried the decision and blamed the governor.

“In granting the certification for this pipeline, Governor Hochul has not only sided with Trump, she’s fast-tracked his agenda,” said Laura Shindell, New York state director at Food and Water Watch. “Hochul has shown New Yorkers she’d prefer to do Trump’s dirty work rather than protect our waterways from pollution.”

In a statement, Hochul said the state’s approach to energy to include fossil fuels, renewables and nuclear is important given the state is “facing a war against clean energy from Washington Republicans, including our New York delegation.”

“While I have expressed an openness to natural gas, I have also been crystal clear that all proposed projects must be reviewed impartially by the required agencies to determine compliance with state and federal laws,” she said.

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On a sunny Saturday in mid-September, more than a dozen volunteers for Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign gathered at a corner of Canarsie, Brooklyn, armed with talking points and voters’ addresses.

The crew was almost ready to hit the ground — but first, a slight adjustment.

One canvasser, who had arrived on foot as part of the DSA Running Club, wore a black shirt emblazoned with ‘Democratic Socialists of America’ in red lettering. It caught the eye of Pat Williams, the mother of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and who was much older than most of the group.

“This is not going to work here. That’s a big turn-off in this neighborhood,” Williams said she told her fellow volunteer. “The older Black folks are pro-Cuomo — I mean, unbelievably pro-Cuomo.”

The runner, who declined to be named, ducked into a nearby store and emerged with a plain burgundy t-shirt.

“It was $2.50!” she said cheerfully.

Canarsie, a majority Black, heavily Caribbean residential neighborhood with a large share of homeowners, overwhelmingly voted for Gov. Andrew Cuomo over Mamdani, a 33-year-old state Assemblymember and democratic socialist, in the June primary election.

Now, as the campaign enters its final weeks, neighborhoods Cuomo won have emerged as a new battleground for the Mamdani campaign’s volunteer efforts. The race has shaped up to be a three-candidate contest among Mamdani, Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, as Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday ended his campaign. 

In a city where the majority of voters are registered Democrats and Mamdani, the party’s nominee, is the leading contender according to multiple polls, the race is his to lose. 

His canvassers are once again fanning out among all five boroughs — and pushing into new neighborhoods — to speak with a larger share of the electorate and ultimately get them to turn out for Mamdani.

“We now have this base of support, and now we can talk to even more voters across the city,” said Tascha Van Auken, the campaign’s field director. “Lots of those voters are in areas where we didn’t win in the primary.”

Canvassers are in The Bronx’s Co-Op City and Norwood; Chinatown and Washington Heights in Manhattan; Ozone Park and Glen Oaks in Queens; Bath Beach and Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn; and New Dorp and Mariners Harbor in Staten Island, among other neighborhoods. 

Mamdani fared best in the primary in areas with more renters than homeowners, middle to higher incomes as opposed to lower incomes, and more college graduates. He also won more votes than Cuomo in places where a majority of voters are Asian, like Jackson Heights and Kensington.

Van Auken said the campaign is focused on areas where the campaign has determined it has not only ardent supporters, but also undecided voters it can reach. Results of phone-banking and door-knocking inform where the campaign sends volunteers.

The conversations are less about introducing voters to Mamdani and revolve more around pitching his platform of fast, free buses, free child care and freezing rent. The campaign believes the affordability message can resonate across a wide swath of neighborhoods.

Because of the expanded territory, field lead Christian Celeste Tate warned the canvassers in Canarsie that things could feel a bit different from when they canvassed leading up to June’s primary. The 31-year-old nonprofit consultant instructed them to listen more than talk. To avoid lecturing. And to ensure the interaction makes a positive impression. 

“Honestly, especially if they don’t agree with us, we want those people to leave thinking, ‘I hate his policies, but wow, that was a nice person who knocked,’” Celeste Tate said. 

The campaign’s goal is to engage 90,000 volunteers, up from the 52,000 during the primary. To that end, the campaign hosted a citywide scavenger hunt to launch the field operation and continues to provide merch to repeat canvassers who earn enough stamps on “Zetro cards.” So far, more than 75,000 volunteers have knocked on more than 436,600 doors, according to the campaign.

New Map

Democratic strategist Trip Yang said the field operation is impressive but that wouldn’t be the reason Mamdani would win the election. Instead, it’s  key to maintaining his status as the favorite to clinch the mayoral contest. 

“Mamdani’s ground game is a firewall that will prevent a Cuomo comeback,” Yang said. “To the campaign’s credit, they’ve gone into areas that are not viewed as progressive areas and Cuomo carried them. It’s smart, when you’re a frontrunner, to open the map up as much as you can.”

Volunteers like 35-year-old Dena Cox helped open up that map. As part of We Grew Here, a pro-Mamdani group for native New Yorkers that’s not affiliated with the campaign, Cox had spent time leading up to the primary talking to residents in majority-Black or working class places she and other members felt weren’t getting proper attention from the campaign — Brownsville, East New York, the South Bronx and southeast Queens, among them. For the most part, Cuomo swept these areas in the primary, but now the campaign sees them as having potential to swing for Mamdani.

Cox, a city employee who grew up in Canarsie, said she pushed for areas like those to be included in the official canvassing line-up for the general.

That’s how she found herself as a field lead, walking Canarsie’s tree-lined streets of brick two-story homes. She wore a ‘Hot Girls for Zohran’ t-shirt because her ‘Caribbeans for Zohran’ shirt was in the wash, she said. She and a fellow volunteer, 43-year-old Alex Lane, rang bells and knocked on doors at both the ground level and at the top of the stairs leading to porches.

One woman opened the door but stayed behind a screen, her lips pursed and eyebrows raised.

Cox drew on her knowledge as a local and her own background as a Brooklynite who did what she was supposed to to lock in a career but still struggles with the cost of living in the city.

“Remember when the B60 bus was free?” Cox asked about the route that connects Canarsie with Williamsburg, linking the fare-free pilot Mamdani championed to his campaign promise of free buses. “He just really wants to make New York City more affordable for all of us, especially us working class, middle class people.”

“He wants to,” the neighbor responded skeptically.

“A lot of the stuff, yes, uphill battle,” Cox said. “He might have to do a lot more talking with the state, but for other things like freezing the rent, that’s actually really the simplest thing he can do — ”

The woman cut her off: “But that’s not going to affect me.” 

“Right, but a lot of it is just making sure the city runs more effectively and efficiently,” Cox said.

“He’s at least going to try,” Lane added. “We think he’s the most useful politician to come around in a long time.”

“How do you know?” the neighbor pressed.

The volunteers reasoned that Mamdani was not beholden to special interests like Wall Street or real estate and argued they were willing to take a chance on a mayor who had a new vision. Cox handed the neighbor a palm card of Mamdani’s policies before leaving. 

Turning away from the house, Cox murmured, “How that went is how it goes.” 

Cox said when she needs a win, she sometimes takes a canvassing shift in a “feel-good district” — like Prospect Lefferts Gardens, or her own neighborhood of Crown Heights, which are diverse, renter-heavy and full of many young progressives. Mamdani won most of the election districts in those areas.

“I don’t think I’ve had anyone less than a three,” Cox said of those areas, referring to the one through five scale the canvassers use to mark voters’ level of support. “People are like, ‘Hell yeah! Of course!’”

But in the lead-up to the general election, the campaign increasingly finds itself outside its comfort zone — not just preaching to a choir of supporters, but encountering undecided voters, who make up between 5% and 9% of the electorate, according to recent polls.

A curiosity about those undecided voters is in part what brought Drew Kolenick, a 25-year-old tutor and nanny who lives on the Upper West Side, to a canvassing shift in Long Island City, Queens, on a crisp Wednesday evening. 

“Everyone I talk to is so Zohran,” Kolenick said, referring to the people in his everyday life. “I’m like, that can’t be the reality.”

Kolenick — paired up to canvass with 36-year-old nurse practitioner Kevin Cho Tipton — didn’t get much of a chance to test the theory. They climbed five stories of a pre-war walkup building but didn’t talk to anyone. They rang doorbells to no answer and found themselves turned away at shiny doorman buildings. 

“That’s canvassing, I guess,” said Cho Tipton, who moved to Murray Hill from Florida in February. Wearing teal scrubs and a “Healthcare Workers for Zohran” sticker, he said he was excited to cast his first New York vote for Mamdani.

At one rowhome, the volunteers finally spoke with someone: a retiree, Rochelle Wyner, who hadn’t made up her mind about who she’d vote for. She said she’d decide at the last minute. 

Cho Tipton made a pitch, linking Mamdani’s affordability goals to what he sees at his nursing job: “For me, a lot of my patients can’t afford life,” he said.

Wyner took two pieces of campaign material — one for herself and one for her husband. In the coming weeks, canvassers will knock on Wyner’s door once again, as they conduct second rounds for people who are undecided in the hopes the voters would convert to Mamdani.

Yvette Buckner, a political lobbyist and co-chair of The New Majority, said those kinds of conversations could go a long way.

“Never underestimate the influence of a one-on-one connection, whether it’s Mandani or his volunteers,” she said. “People in these neighborhoods want to engage, and that engagement can make or break their vote at the ballot box.”

In Staten Island, field lead Christian Howles has come across many people — including Republicans — who initially say they didn’t want to talk about politics and feel that no one in power cares about them. But in some cases, his mere presence has served as an opening.

“People have been just so surprised that someone’s knocking on their door from the campaign,” said Howles, a 29-year-old student activities director at a college, who lives in Grymes Hill with his wife. “They’re like, wait, you’re doing this for free? I’m not paid, I just get a button, that’s it.”

Back in Canarsie, Cox and Lane knocked on the door of 60-year-old retiree Karim Alomari, who greeted them with enthusiastic support for Mamdani. He said with pride that that candidate visited his mosque a couple weeks ago. 

“You came to the right person,” Alomari said. “We can talk to the neighbors ourselves.”

His three young granddaughters — ages 2, 5 and 7 — spilled out of the house and played on the porch. Cox asked him if he wanted to sign up for canvassing with the campaign.

“I hate rejection,” Alomari said with a laugh. “But whatever you need in the mosque.”

He took a stack of Mamdani campaign literature, and sent his oldest granddaughter inside to grab an armful of cold water bottles for the volunteers.

He said he thought the country was going in the wrong direction, but Mamdani represents “an opportunity we never saw.”

“There’s so much evil out there,” he said. “So how do you win?”

“People power!” Cox replied, and they bumped fists. “It’s people power. We did what people thought was impossible, and we’ll do it again.”

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Staten Island’s bus service is getting a boost, with newer rides replacing close to half of the borough’s fleet by the middle of next year, MTA officials said Monday.

Transport Workers Union Local 100 officials said the newer reinforcements for Staten Island are arriving at the expense of bus service elsewhere in the city, with the more reliable coaches brought in as a result of swaps with the Flatbush and Ulmer Park depots in Brooklyn.

“You can’t fix Staten Island by having buses breaking down in Brooklyn,” JP Patafio, a Transport Workers Union Local 100 vice president for Brooklyn bus operators, told THE CITY. “That’s not an appropriate fix.”

MTA officials confirmed during a New York City Transit Committee meeting Monday that the changes to Staten Island’s often-beleaguered bus fleet are part of a multi-year series of investments in the borough’s local and express bus service. 

The moves follow complaints from riders, Borough President Vito Fossella and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 726, which represents Staten Island bus workers. 

Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York City Transit, said close to 200 Staten Island buses have been replaced since 2018 and that 130 more will be arriving by the midway point of 2026. In all, he said, that accounts for 40% of the fleet serving Staten Island.

“When customers aren’t happy, I personally get calls, I get emails, we get letters,” Crichlow said. “If it’s a priority for them, it’s a priority for me to ensure that we continue to work as a team to provide the service that we need.”

Crichlow said he had recently met with Fossella, a frequent critic of Staten Island bus service, to discuss “strides” being made by the MTA.

Crichlow added that New York City Transit operates 45% more buses per million riders on Staten Island than any other borough and pointed out that delays have dropped by 10% since the start of congestion pricing in January, while ridership has ticked up by 5%.

“To the people of Staten Island, you deserve world-class transportation service and we are committed and excited to deliver that for you,” he said.

Nicholas Thompson, a Fossella spokesperson, said the borough president told MTA officials at a meeting last week that the status quo on bus service was not satisfactory, with agency text alerts showing that more than 1,100 bus trips have been canceled since the start of June.

An analysis of MTA data shows that Staten Island express buses delivered 87% of scheduled service during peak hours last month. In comparison, Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens had 96% service-delivery rates.

“Simply put, the status quo was and is unacceptable,” Thompson said in a statement.

The complaints about service extend beyond the express routes that shuttle Staten Island bus riders to and from Manhattan.

In April, THE CITY reported that MTA data showed that Staten Island’s local bus routes last year had excess wait times — which measure how long riders are at stops beyond scheduled waits — that nearly doubled the citywide average.

MTA data also revealed that Staten Island’s 19 local bus routes last year delivered 90.6% of peak-hour trips, down from nearly 96% elsewhere in the city. 

The MTA’s latest numbers show that Staten Island’s local buses delivered only 89% of scheduled trips running during peak hours in June, while local routes in the other boroughs held a 97% service delivery rate. 

New numbers from the MTA’s latest “Customers Count” survey show that Staten Island riders gave local bus service higher marks than last fall, with 55% of borough riders saying they were satisfied — an 11% increase from the fall 2024 survey.

Satisfaction increased 10+ points in four of the five boroughs; Staten Island (55%, up 11 percentage points), Bronx (60%, up 13), Brooklyn (61%, up 11), and Queens (68%, up 12). Manhattan customers remain the most satisfied at 72% (up 7).

During the public speaking forum at Monday’s transit committee meeting, board members heard from MTA bus operator Robert Whittaker, who complained that the bus swaps are shorting riders who are not from Staten Island.

“They paint them up so they make them look nice, but they’re really broken,” he told THE CITY.

Even with the continuing changes to the makeup of Staten Island’s bus fleet, rider advocates said the situation remains dire in terms of canceled trips and wait times. 

“I am happy to see action being taken,” Vittorio Bugatti of the Express Bus Advocacy Group. “But we need to see continued improvements on Staten Island, as express bus service has been atrocious now for quite some time.”

Mia Hollie contributed to this report.

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Vanita Maloney knows there’s more than enough room in her home in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, to house other New Yorkers. She’s eager to rent out her basement.

But she can’t. A city pilot program to legalize and regulate basement apartments and other so-called accessory dwelling units that could have been up and running by mid-June has not yet gotten off the ground.

The 65-year-old retiree lives on the home’s first floor, and her daughter lives on the top floor. Until an electrical fire in 2022, another daughter lived in the basement, which extends beneath the front porch. 

Maloney wants to turn that level into an apartment after she completes some repairs and upgrades. 

“I’m waiting for the program to come into fruition because I can’t put anyone there until I’m authorized to do so,” Maloney said. “I have to wait for them to start the process and bring in the correct people to ensure it’s approved.”

Though the law regulating basement apartments went into effect June 16, city agencies have not finalized related rules. There is no way for interested homeowners to apply to the pilot program, and an online portal the Adams administration announced nearly a year ago has not yet materialized. Key questions about how the program will work remain unanswered.

It’s been more than a year since the state legislature approved a five-year pilot program allowing New York City homeowners in 15 community districts — including Maloney’s — a simplified way to make their basement apartments safe and up to code. Basement apartments, home to an estimated tens of thousands of New Yorkers, can be prone to flooding and vulnerable to fires.

Advocates for tenants and homeowners in communities with many basement apartments heralded the pilot program as a significant step to bringing informal and potentially dangerous — but often affordable — living spaces out of the shadows. 

The pilot program is only authorized until April 2029, which means that even if it began today, the program wouldn’t run the full five years it was intended to.

“We’re now 15 months into the five-year window and that’s becoming increasingly a short window for homeowners to be able to act,” said Howard Slatkin, executive director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council. “They have lots of information to process and decisions to make and finances to review in order to understand if this is something they can start. We need to give them as soon as possible all the information they need.”

He added that the neighborhoods covered by the pilot program — which do not contain most of the city’s basement apartments — represent a limited scope of where basement legalization can happen: “We have to make the most of what we’ve got.”

Meanwhile, also on ice are legalizing basement apartments not in the pilot program neighborhoods and newly constructed basement apartments — as well as apartments in garages, attics and backyard cottages, which were all allowed as part of citywide zoning updates passed last year.

The Department of Buildings had said it wouldn’t issue permits for those kinds of apartments — known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs) — until the laws governing them became effective in June. But implementing those laws depended on rules from several agencies, which haven’t yet been finalized. So nearly a month later, ADUs are in limbo, too.

In a statement, City Hall spokesperson William Fowler called ADUs a “crucial piece” of the Adams administration’s zoning changes, known as City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.

“City agencies are working through the appropriate steps and rule changes required to ensure this new form of housing is introduced efficiently and safely,” Fowler said, adding that the online portal for interested homeowners would launch later this year.

The Red Tape

The upgrades needed to transform an existing basement or cellar residence into an above-board apartment — one that meets all city health and safety standards, as well as the state’s multiple dwelling law — can be expensive, prevent property owners from taking action and often do not improve safety, advocates say.

The pilot program allows for apartments in cellars, which are mostly below curb level and are banned everywhere else in the city. Basement apartments, located mostly above curb level, are allowed outside the pilot program, but the conversions or new-builds must meet all existing standards.

The pilot program waives the strictest aspects of the state’s multiple dwelling law, allowing homeowners to meet less stringent city health and safety standards.

Both newly built basement apartments and those to be legalized as part of the pilot program must rely on new rules that are being created by different city agencies. The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene proposed rules in late June regulating radon and toxic chemical fumes. The Department of Environmental Protection created a draft map showing flood-prone areas to make clear where basement apartments can’t go. And the DOB still must come up with rules around occupancy, use and safety. Each of the rules must be finalized and adopted by the city in a process that can take many months.

Solidified rules would help give certainty to homeowners operating outside the law or those who want to rectify violations they’ve been hit with, said Matthew Sooknanan, the Basement Apartments Safe for Everyone (BASE) campaign organizer at Chhaya CDC, a nonprofit that focuses on housing and serves South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities in Queens.

“You ask people and they want to be legalized because it’ll give people accountability regardless of where they’re at, but people don’t want to get screwed over,” Sooknanan said.

For now, Sooknanan said he’s been trying to prepare homeowners with understanding the codes so they can take action when the time comes. Until then, tenants in illegal basement apartments remain vulnerable to safety hazards and lack standard renter protections.

Developers and homeowners who want to build ADUs from scratch — whether in basements or attics — must also hold off until the city finalizes rules. At least five new houses in Staten Island would include basement apartments, but the DOB audited those projects after first approving the permits too soon, as THE CITY previously reported.

Some others who are interested in ADUs don’t even know where to begin — like Giovi Collado, who lives with multiple generations of family members in a home in Richmond Hill, Queens. The 32-year-old said he’s eager to get some more space for himself and his partner, and likes the idea of building a backyard cottage.

“I like to keep it close to the family. This is a good solution,” Collado said. “You get to build, essentially, a home.”

Wil Fisher, founding principal of Unit Two Development, a firm that helps homeowners navigate the ADU process, said he’s spoken with dozens of people who want to build ADUs on their properties or convert existing spaces — like garages — into livable quarters, even if they can’t quite yet move forward.

“People are excited. It’s really a game-changer,” Fisher said. “There are layers to this process and the administrative roll-out…is key to making sure it’s a success and we actually deliver these units.”

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The Amazon Labor Union held a rally outside the JFK8 Fulfilmment Center in Staten Island Wednesday evening  — in the midst of the retail giant’s  “Prime Day” promotion — to protest what they say are unsafe working conditions that have persisted for years.

Workers from other Amazon sites in the Hudson Valley, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and even a Whole Foods in Philadelphia — the first location of that Amazon-owned grocer to unionize — came to show support for the rally at the warehouse near the Goethals Bridge. 

The temperature inside the sprawling, 855,000 square foot facility is untenable according to Amazon employees at the rally, who are calling on the corporation to provide adequate air conditioning.

“A couple weeks ago I ended up getting a heat stroke in the building,” said Adrian Easterling, an inventory picker at the warehouse, who said the boiling heat and lack of proper airflow led to his medical episode. “Amazon is a multi-trillion dollar company. They should be providing us with water and proper AC and air that’s not filled with dust. It’s disheartening.”

Easterling said his missed shift was covered by Amazon but that he had to pay for the medical bills incurred from his hospital visit. 

One picker at JFK8, Yackisha Nebot Lopez, pulled out a “Qwik Stik” electrolyte powder pack  that Amazon gives out to help workers get through scorching hot days inside the warehouse. She and her colleagues at the rally stated they’d prefer adequate air conditioning in the buildings instead. 

“They treat us like garbage. We work in the sweltering heat every summer,” said James Cario, an ALU shop steward at JFK8. “It’s been six years [since the facility opened]. Where’s the HVAC? Where’s the air conditioning?”

He added: “Amazon sets the tone here. We’re letting Amazon know we’re not afraid to escalate. If they don’t want to change how business is done, then business as usual cannot continue.”

Others also criticized the presence of dirty working stations filled with dust and other materials, along with rough, uncovered metal that has nicked and scratched warehouse workers. 

In the three years that the ALU has been certified by the National Labor Relations Board, Amazon has not sat down at the bargaining table once, workers noted.

The company has instead ignored the union and filed appeal after appeal to try to break up the new union. Last year, members of the ALU voted to merge with the Teamsters.

“While we certainly respect the rights of all individuals to protest for causes they believe in, it’s important to point out that yesterday’s gathering was largely initiated and attended by outside organizers and former Amazon employees,” Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards wrote the CITY in an email Thursday. “For more than two years now, the ALU and the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public by claiming they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push that false narrative.”

As of now, JFK8 is made up of more than 5,000 unionized workers alongside 200 non-unionized workers as well as drivers who are all subcontractors that do not work out of the Staten Island fulfillment center specifically according to ALU Recording Secretary Sultana Hossain.

The rally comes on the heels of a march on management that the ALU conducted last month over unsafe working conditions at JFK8. That followed the death of a worker, 34-year-old Leony Salcedo-Chevalier, in April. An investigation by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still ongoing, according to the union.

But ALU members said they were not informed by Amazon about the workplace death. They also have not received any information about what workplace protocols were, or were not, followed, prior to Chevalier’s death, Hossain told THE CITY. 

Despite a reported steep dropoffs in sales for retailers on the first day of Prime Day compared to last year, numbers are expected to increase by 9.1% year-over-year at the conclusion of what’s now a four-day sales push, according to Bloomberg.

Workers called on Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos to share more of that pie.

“He spent about 50 million on a wedding,” said Anthony Rosario, a Teamster lead organizer for the Amazon division, in reference to Bezos’ recent extravagant nuptials. “All the workers want is a livable wage.” 

A drone could be seen flying in the air at the beginning of the 5 p.m. rally — which workers noted was also present during the holiday season strike last December. They said they did not know who it belonged to.

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Accessory dwelling units were among the most eagerly anticipated elements of Mayor Eric Adams’ overhaul of the city’s zoning code to spur housing production finalized late last year.

But when it comes to the newly legalized ADUs — the garage, backyard, basement and attic apartments adjoining one-and two-family houses — his “City of Yes” is more like the City of Not Yet.

THE CITY followed up on permits that showed five new homes under construction as part of three projects on Staten Island that include apartments in the basements, taking advantage of the new zoning code’s flexibility.

The Department of Buildings had approved all three permit applications this winter. But after THE CITY contacted the department to find out more, an agency spokesperson says that all three projects are now undergoing audits.

DOB said it isn’t approving ADUs now because the laws governing ADUs and basement apartments don’t go into effect until June 16. Meanwhile, some related regulations from city agencies have yet to emerge.

Staten Island property owners and developers are eager to build ADUs, architects and expediters said — and frustrated that after the fanfare and permit approvals, the units are on hold. 

“I’m befuddled over here,” said one architect whose ADU project is the subject of an audit. “I can’t believe how this played out. It can’t be simple.”

Howard Slatkin, executive director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, chalked up the glitches with ADU permits as “the growing pains of implementation of a very large zoning change.”

Stuck Midway

Adams touted City of Yes as a way to unleash new housing, especially in neighborhoods without many apartment buildings and that generally restricted many kinds of development. 

Elected officials representing Staten Island were staunchly opposed to the zoning change, which ushered in new housing in  neighborhoods where only one- and two-family homes had previously been permitted. ADUs open up many new possibilities: a property can accommodate multigenerational families, or allow a homeowner to rent out a space as a source of income. It’s a way of adding a bit more housing to new or existing homes.

ADUs have shown promise to boost housing elsewhere. California, for instance, has permitted over 100,000 ADUs since 2018, with nearly 68,5000 completed — accounting for about 13% of all housing built in the state in that period. 

In legalizing ADUs as part of the City of Yes, New York prohibited ADUs in flood-prone areas and historic districts, as well as for rowhomes.

Before the DOB will permit ADUs, several city agencies need to make rules to regulate them. The Department of Environmental Protection, for example, has to come up with maps showing flood-prone areas so it’s clear where basement apartments can’t go. 

So how did DOB approve the permits for the three projects in Staten Island, which all included ADUs?

Each one applied for its permits through a streamlined review process, which enables applicants to self-certify that the projects comply with zoning, code and other regulations. DOB typically approves these applications within 24 hours, relying “on the integrity of the community of New York State licensed architects and engineers,” according to a spokesperson.

But upon closer look, the DOB found the three projects were not in full compliance with current regulations, and required applicants to change the filings. If they do not submit code-compliant paperwork, the department warned them, they could be faced with a stop-work order on the in-progress projects.

The architect who spoke with THE CITY was confused, since the City of Yes updated the zoning in 2024. He’d filed his application and began building without a problem. He said he didn’t realize there was more to the program before he’d be able to build a house with an ADU, and now fears getting a stop-work order. He could eliminate the ADU to comply with current regulations, or wait for the new program to take effect.

“Everything is in limbo,” the architect said. “I can’t move forward, nor can I amend my plans to go backward because that might be wasted effort.”

The architects and developers associated with the other projects declined to comment or did not return calls. All of the projects are in the construction process.

On the island’s South Shore, bordering a lush park, one of the three projects is located on a secluded street lined with stately homes on large lots. On a recent visit, the frame was nearly complete for a massive, one-family home with an ADU along with an attached one-car garage.

A construction worker at the site told THE CITY there would be a one-bedroom apartment in the basement with its own entrance on the side of the house.

Almost six miles north, in the neighborhood of Travis-Chelsea, a row of three skinny, detached homes stand where just one house had stood previously. The three homes, each with a peaked roof, match many others in the neighborhood. Plans for the new homes showed that each will include a basement apartment in addition to the main house upstairs. 

The same is true for a third project on a quiet block with many Cape-style homes in Great Kills. A foundation in progress is surrounded by green fencing.

Popular Demand

Despite the local resistance to City of Yes opening the doors to ADUs, Staten Island appears to be fertile ground for the small apartments. An expeditor — a professional who leads projects through the DOB’s process — told THE CITY she had heard from a few Staten Island homeowners interested in adding an ADU to their homes, and multiple architects indicated they had been fielding inquiries about ADUs from local developers ever since City of Yes passed.

“I’ve never seen news travel so fast,” a Staten Island-based architect said. “Now I can put more house on a piece of property. I don’t have to worry about providing all the parking for it.”

Under City of Yes, one- and two-family houses that add an ADU are still considered single and two-family houses — rather than new two- and three-family homes — and do not have to include additional parking. 

Chris Goldammer, a researcher developing an online zoning information platform and who alerted THE CITY to one of the permitted projects, said he’s not surprised to see ADUs pop up in Staten Island, given the space and types of houses there.

“Staten Island will be a big driver of it. Manhattan will be basically zero,” he said. “ADUs will basically fit into the most suburban neighborhoods.”

Meanwhile, the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development is standing up a loan program to help about 35 lower-income homeowners afford to add ADUs to their properties. HPD officials said more than 2,800 households across all boroughs — mostly from Staten Island, Queens and The Bronx — expressed interest in the program. HPD has yet to make any loans, but plans to start this year, according to a spokesperson.

It remains to be seen if ADUs will, following California’s lead, become a meaningful piece of New York City’s housing stock.

“This is an important moment,” said Marcel Negret, director of land use at the Regional Plan Association. “These first years will determine whether the framework, as is, works or doesn’t — and you need to rethink or make tweaks to it — and whether ADUs have a future in New York City or not.”

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For Staten Islanders lined up for MTA buses outside the St. George Terminal on a recent evening, the occasional announcements during their waits sounded familiar.

“There will be no S40 for this boat,” a voice said over a loudspeaker.

A few minutes later, the voice piped up again, instructing riders, “Do not wait for the [S]81, it will not show for this boat.”

Commuters on the island’s local bus routes, which last month carried close to 100,000 riders on weekdays, said they have grudgingly grown accustomed to such unwelcome service alerts. 

“It’s bad, you’re tired, you want to get home,” said Roberto Velez, 60, who was on line for a bus  to Bull’s Head after taking the subway from his job in Kips Bay, Manhattan, to the Staten Island Ferry. “And you have to stand here, which is especially bad in the wintertime.”

The scenes at the ferry terminal illustrate what riders describe as long-running frustrations with Staten Island’s 19 local bus routes, which last year delivered on 90.6% of peak-hours trips, according to MTA numbers, compared to 95.9% in the other boroughs.

“The service out here is very unpredictable, it’s unreliable,” True Brunner, 33, told THE CITY as he waited for a bus ride home to New Brighton at the ferry terminal. “There are times where I have to require myself to be up twice as early just to make sure that I’m going to get a ride on one of these buses to the ferry.”

THE CITY’s analysis of MTA data also shows that Staten Island local bus riders’ excess wait times — which measure how long riders are at a stop beyond the scheduled wait time — were nearly double the citywide average in 2024.

On Staten Island, the excess wait time averaged 4.1 minutes, compared with 2.2 minutes elsewhere in the city.

The spotty local service has led to protests from Borough President Vito Fossella and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 726, which represents New York City Transit bus operators on Staten Island, over what they say is a shortage of buses that are in working order. 

“The end result is the commuter is stranded, waiting longer than they need to be and taking more time to get from work to home or vice versa,” Fossella told THE CITY last week.

The MTA’s Customers Count Survey last fall showed that customer satisfaction among local bus riders declined in each borough except The Bronx from the spring. On Staten Island, 44% of local bus riders reported being “satisfied” with the service, a 7% drop and the lowest among the five boroughs.

“We feel abandoned,” said Filippa Grisafi, a rider advocate who commutes between Staten Island and Manhattan.

At MTA board meetings in recent months, students from the College of Staten Island as well as a priest from an Episcopal church in Rosebank have spoken out, saying that unreliable bus service is keeping students and churchgoers from arriving on time for class and services.

The Rev. Hank Tuell, rector of Saint John’s Episcopal Church, declined to comment for this story, but he told MTA board members in December that his concerns over bus service have “gone largely unaddressed.”

“I am losing church members because they cannot get to church,” he said at the time. “They cannot wait for an hour or more for buses that simply don’t show up.”

MTA officials pointed out that Staten Island’s local buses averaged 12.4 miles per hour in February, up from a citywide average of 7.8 mph and that service delivery on local routes ticked up to 92.9% between January and March, an increase credited, in part, to the hiring of 2,000 new bus operators last year.

Additionally, the MTA has plans to tweak schedules on the S46/96 routes between St. George and the West Shore Plaza shopping center in Travis, as well as on the S79 Select Bus Service that links the Staten Island Mall with Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. 

The agency is also planning to enhance service on four Staten Island express bus routes that run to and from Manhattan. An MTA spokesperson said the changes grew out of the January launch of congestion pricing, which put new tolls on motorists entering Manhattan south of 60th Street.

“With the implementation of congestion pricing, the MTA identified opportunities to further improve service on key local and express routes on Staten Island that will roll out in the spring and summer,” MTA spokesperson Kayla Shults said in a statement. “We remain committed to delivering fast and reliable service to all Staten Island bus riders.”

Brunner — whose daily commute between New Brighton and the Brooklyn Navy Yard involves local buses, the Staten Island Ferry and the subway — said the uncertainty of local bus service has repeatedly put him and other commuters in a bind.

“You really do have to stay 10 steps ahead and make sure you can have contingency plans or call an audible so you can be able to be where you need to be,” he said.

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