THE CITY gets action

In early 2021, THE CITY exposed that Manhattan’s first state-sponsored COVID vaccine center, in Washington Heights, was almost exclusively being patronized by people living outside the neighborhood, with many arriving by car from the suburbs and wealthy Manhattan neighborhoods. As a result of our reporting, the state started prioritizing access for residents of the heavily working-class area. A year later, Columbia University Medical Center found a sharp rise in the share of Black and Latino patients getting shots at the site.

Reporters Claudia Irizarry Aponte and Josefa Velasquez won the 2022 James Beard Award for Investigative Reporting for their series of stories on the working conditions of delivery workers in New York City.

LAist used THE CITY’s “Meet Your Mayor” software code to build a voting guide for LA’s 2022 mayoral election.

Hours after THE CITY inquired about how Edu Hermelyn, the spouse of the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s chair and a county party leader, had secured a $190,000 job at the city social service agency despite a law barring political officials from government jobs, Hermelyn quit his city position.

An associate of Mayor Eric Adams, Carlo Scissura, was not appointed to head the city Economic Development Corp. after THE CITY exposed evidence he was advocating for the city to buy pricey property from a client without disclosing that he was a paid lobbyist.

After THE CITY exposed the use of unlicensed security at city-funded hotels housing people released from Rikers Island jails during the pandemic, the city comptroller rejected a new contract for the nonprofit Exodus Transitional Community. Before year’s end, founder and CEO Julio Medina resigned.

Food delivery workers are on their way to getting a pay raise, under a law passed by the City Council after THE CITY brought drivers’ poor pay and grueling working conditions to public attention.