1.
“City Haul” October 7-20, 2024
New York’s latest cover story, by Andrew Rice, examined Mayor Eric Adams’s ongoing corruption scandal and was illustrated with a grid of the Cabinet members under investigation. Many readers, including former mayor Bill de Blasio’s press secretary, Bill Neidhardt, noted that “it took 1 hour for this cover to be outdated (Phil Banks has now resigned).” In a NY1 interview, Rice said, “We should have distributed small stickers that said ‘Resigned’ or ‘Indicted’ on them so that readers could update the cover at home … Some people joked that it looked like an indictment Advent calendar.” @jtp2106 tweeted, “Damn, who could have predicted a cop mayor would be brazenly corrupt.” Adams was pressed on the story during a previously scheduled Fox5 Good Day New York segment: Host Rosanna Scotto said, “Mayor, this morning, New York Magazine came out, front cover, basically, ‘Last one out of City Hall, turn out the lights.’ They have, like, 20 of your people who’ve either been raided or forced to resign or fired. Now you add Philip Banks to the resignation list.” Adams responded, “As people leave, what they didn’t include is how many people are coming in. People want to serve in government.”
2.
“The Accidental Day Care in My Living Room”
In response to Atossa Araxia Abrahamian’s story on volunteering her apartment as a nursery after her son’s lost its license, many readers shared similar experiences. Writer Andrew Marzoni said, “I, too, have spent weeks in daycare purgatory, giving my small, unregulated apartment over to displaced toddlers for the sake of misguided and incompetent government bureaucracy, as have most other parents I know in Brooklyn.” Alexandra Scaggs said she was “sending this post to every person who asks why we moved out of the city.” Commenter @bberge3 saw it differently: “there is a lot of scorn in this article for public servants who helped bring an unlicensed day care into compliance and relicensure in 1.5 months … It is remarkably uncharitable for the author to mercilessly highlight every bureaucratic error she encountered, however minor, and suggest without any evidence that those civil servants, not the basic fact of an unlicensed daycare operating in a new location, were the cause of the ‘delay’ here.” Commenter serenyty agreed: “How can the author complain about the restrictions … while in the same article mention that a baby was allowed to roll off a changing table from a caregiver who was overwhelmed?” An anonymous reader who claims their child had a life-threatening incident at the day care in the story said, “I’m happy that the city makes you jump through hoops to be a licensed daycare. You should have to. The amount your daycare is organized and has resources to handle childcare properly is so important … Disorganization can put someone’s life at risk.” @nobodydotcom added, “this entire article makes me blackout with rage … Quality childcare for the masses is not a profitable business model. It does not scale. I firmly believe the only solution is for it to be heavily subsidized by the government (like it is in every other civilized country!!!!!!!!) … meanwhile our local city government is in a death spiral of corruption!!!!!! I hate this reality!!!!!”
3.
“Inside the Patriot Wing”
Tess Owen wrote about the D.C. cellblock for inmates charged in relation to the January 6 riot (“Inside the Patriot Wing”). David Roberts tweeted, “Here’s an absolutely infuriating story about the cushy treatment the J6 traitors are getting. They’re all buddied up in their own wing of prison, further radicalizing one another, feeling as resentful & entitled as ever.” Commenter mta1979 concurred: “I understand the nature of the ‘turn away’ sort of policy for gangs, but to actually cater to these men’s whims is another thing … Most federal prisoners are not allowed to dictate who gets to live in their unit.” Canadian Globe and Mail editor Mark Medley said the story “has so many WTF moments I lost count.” Of Owen’s attempts to learn why these rioters are incarcerated together, Brian Beutler wondered, “uh, yeah, I’d like answers to these questions.” If elected, Donald Trump has pledged to grant the prisoners pardons; quoting one who promised to “spend four years … dragging our nuts across your forehead,” Adam Smith of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said, “I’m just not sure pardoning these January 6th rioters is a good idea.” Ali Winston, co-author of The Riders Come Out at Night, an investigation of the Oakland PD, offered another ominous take: “a reminder that these inmates are just starting to hit the mainline federal prisons. This is just the start of their carceral saga.”
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