NYC jails have $250,000 sniper rifles, but no training

Plus: How we tracked NYC's new short-term rental rules this year [View this email in a browser.]( Our Gift to You! Get this T-shirt when you [donate & help fund]( our non-profit newsroom. [Donate Now]( [Today's newsletter curated by Emily Nadal]( Please enjoy a “lite” version of Early Addition this week as we all recover from the holidays and prepare for a new year. We’ll be back to normal on Jan. 2, 2024! Here's a look at today's stories: - The city’s Department of Correction has not trained its officers on how to use the $250,000 worth of sniper rifles it purchased a year ago. [See more details from training records.]( - Migrants living in homeless shelters are running into a problem many longtime New Yorkers face: figuring out how to pay for childcare. [Read more about the familiar hurdle.]( - Manhattan prosecutors have charged a Bronx man with attempted murder and assault as hate crimes for allegedly stabbing two teenage girls at Grand Central Terminal on Christmas after using an anti-white slur. [Read more about the charges.]( - New Yorkers insured through UnitedHealthcare and Oxford Health Plans could soon lose most in-network coverage at Mount Sinai Health System, unless Mount Sinai and United resolve a dispute over the cost of medical services before the new year. [Find out how the dispute could affect you.]( - Emma. Mia. Liam. Noah. Among the nearly 100,000 babies born in New York City in 2022, these names reigned supreme. [See the other most popular baby names.]( - Fear not, New Yorkers: It’s easy to bid farewell to your Christmas tree, and it may even get another chance at life as garden mulch. [Find out where and how you can get rid of your tree.]( 2023 in review: Tracking New York City's new short-term rental rules by [Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky]( and [David Brand]( Earlier this year, we spent more hours than we would care to admit poring over Airbnb listings in New York City. We weren’t just doing this for fun (although we did turn up some interesting listings). We were tracking, in real-time, the effect of the city’s new short-term rental rules on the multimillion-dollar vacation rental market that has reshaped entire neighborhoods over the past decade by, in many cases, turning apartments into de facto hotel rooms. To do that, we dove into listings data, knocked on doors, rifled through the city code and court documents, and even attended a block party on a Bed-Stuy street deeply affected by the rise of short-term rental giants like Airbnb, VRBO, and others. We wrote about a dozen stories on the topic, [focusing on the people and places most impacted]( by the vacation rental business [and the new law](. We stayed on the story for months, tracking every twist and turn along the way. Our stories provoked discussion, surprise, national coverage, and plenty of impassioned comments from homeowners who can no longer rent apartments as short-term rentals and New Yorkers who feel those rentals have displaced them. None of that would have happened without the contributions of Gothamist readers like you. This work takes tons of time and resources; to keep it up, we need your continued support. [If you can chip in before the new year, it would make a huge impact.]( ICYMI: A few of this year's most read stories [second image]( [The African American exodus from New York City]( From February: While the city’s overall population grows, the number of non-Hispanic Blacks continues to tumble; an epicenter of the change is Bed-Stuy. [Grand Central Madison, 15 stories underground, saves LIRR riders little time compared to Penn Station commute]( From January: The new terminal is so far down that commuters must walk more than 11 minutes to get to the nearest subway platform. [We Rely On Your Support]( [Listen: George Santos eviction tapes show him begging to feed pet fish, mulling public assistance]( From March: A former roommate says the congressman was a serial fabulist who did not have any pet fish at the time. [NYC's best techno club ‘vibe checks’ you at the door. So I tried to get in.]( From August: To enter Basement, you have to prove you’re there for the music. Our reporter definitely was. [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [New York Public Radio] [WNYC]( | [WQXR]( | [NJPR]( | [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( | [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 [TERMS OF USE]( You can update your [PREFERENCES]( or [UNSUBSCRIBE]( from this list.