Could a New ‘New Deal’ Put Artists to Work Shaping the City?

City Limits — Oct. 13, 2020

Artists, historians and even some lawmakers imagine a time where artists and builders seed the five boroughs with transformative monuments, murals and music — and they get paid for it, through government-funded programs that put unemployed residents back to work and shape how New Yorkers see themselves and their city. It’s a new New Deal for New York City artists. And there’s a precedent.

Significant racial disparities affect every community board in Queens

Queens Daily Eagle — Dec. 20, 2019

I worked with the organization Measure of America to examine racial, ethnic and gender disparities on all 14 Queens Community Boards.

Queens Man Impeached, Queens Man Evicted, Queens Man Impeached — Again

The hometown headlines that went viral and even earned a profile in The New York Times.

NYC Has a Family Homelessness Crisis. Who are the Families?

City Limits — Dec. 10, 2019

Families, advocates and experts capture the actual human scope of New York City’s family homelessness crisis.

More than 370 people have died in NYC jails since 2001

Queens Daily Eagle

New York City’s most expansive review of jailhouse deaths over the past 20 years.

Mapping COVID in Queens: Testing expands but gaps remain in former crisis ‘epicenter’ 

Queens Daily Eagle — July 7, 2020

The organization Measure of America and I worked together to plot every single COVID-19 testing site in Queens through July and to examine gaps in testing.

Scoop: Man hospitalized for COVID-19 after Queens Republican club Christmas party

Queens Daily Eagle — Dec. 30, 2020

He survived. But he and two others got sick after attending a maskless indoor holiday party intended to flout COVID rules.

He’s backed by AOC, Greg Meeks and Joe Crowley. But could Jeff Aubry lose to Hiram Monserrate?

Spoiler Alert: He couldn’t. But this in-depth look at a hot Assembly race was one a several Gotham Gazette x Queens Daily Eagle collaborations from 2020.

Jamaica Hospital 'flooded' by COVID-19 patients, doctors say

Queens Daily Eagle — March 27, 2020

Jamaica Hospital staff described the dire circumstances inside the medical center during the early days of the COVID pandemic.

Architect of NYC hospital closures says city still has ‘plenty of hospital beds,’ despite coronavirus crisis

April 15, 2020

The investment banker who chaired a state cost-cutting commission that initiated a wave of hospital closures in New York City maintains that there are still enough beds to serve patients in need — even as the city and state scramble to build makeshift medical centers to fight the coronavirus.

Ex-Queens prosecutor who kept non-whites off juries is now NYC PBA lawyer

Queens Daily Eagle — Dec. 11, 2020

A former Queens prosecutor who sought to eliminate Black, Latino and female New Yorkers from jury pools in the 1990s has spent the last 13 years as legal counsel to the New York City Police Benevolent Association, records show.

Online Learning Means New Barriers for NYC’s Homeless Students

City Limits — March 27, 2020

Students experiencing homelessness begin remote schooling — without internet or devices.

Why do Some NYC School Kids Still Eat Lunch Before Some of Us Have had Breakfast?

City Limits — June 11, 2019 and Feb. 6, 2019

For this two-part series, I logged the lunchtime data for all 2,535 schools located in a Department of Education database because my FOIL requests were taking far too long to fulfill (more than two years later, I’m still waiting). The first installment analyzed the current situation at schools with the earliest lunchtimes in 2014, based on previous Department of Education information. The second installment packaged and analyzed the information into a searchable database.

Ever More Children Are Facing the Nightmare of Immigration Court on Their Own 

The Nation — July 3, 2018

For this deeply reported story, I visited Manhattan immigration court several times, analyzed immigration data and interviewed several attorneys, judges and young immigrants facing deportation in New York City and New Jersey. I conducted interviews with the children and young people in Spanish.

Prosecutorial misconduct lawsuits prompt depositions of Acting Queens DA, top prosecutors

Queens Daily Eagle — Nov. 4, 2019

My exclusive on three lawsuits, each filed by men who were wrongfully convicted in Queens Supreme Court, that prompted unprecedented depositions of various top officials in the Queens DA’s Office. The lawsuits claim executives in the DA’s Office implemented an “office policy that was indifferent to misconduct and rewarded prosecutors for ‘winning’ cases.” And, “as a result, trial prosecutors would either deliberately, recklessly, negligently, or ignorantly” withhold discovery materials, according to the complaints.

I visited the WNYC studios to discuss the story on Morning Edition.

Queens' Diversity Is Underrepresented in the DA's Office, Staff Data Shows

Queens Daily Eagle — March 5, 2019

A perceived lack of diversity was a key focus among the seven Democratic candidates for Queens District Attorney, as well as local bar associations and community activists who say the staff composition should better represent the borough’s population. I analyzed the demographic statistics from the Queens DA’s office and found that people of color, especially black and African American men, are significantly underrepresented among prosecutors in the world’s most diverse county. This is the first installment in my three-part series that helped shaped the Queens DA race.

‘Overworked and underpaid’ council staffers want a living wage

Queens Daily Eagle x Brooklyn Daily Eagle — Nov. 14, 2019

New York City Council members voted in 2016 to raise their own wages by $36,000 — a bump that is more than dozens of council staffers make in a year. At least 81 full- and part-time district staffers earn less than $36,000 in base salary, according to an analysis of staff pay by the Eagle. I obtained a master list of 408 council staffers and logged all their salaries using public records determine average staff by position and Council district. Check out the spreadsheet to see how your councilmember pays their staff.

Queens leads NYC in marijuana cases, public defender data finds

Queens Daily Eagle — May 9, 2019

Queens leads the five boroughs in low-level marijuana possession cases — misdemeanor charges that have drastically decreased in volume under new NYPD protocols but are still marked by stunning racial disparities.

'You can't have cops watching cops' — NYPD officer, ex-cop lawyer sue NYC

Queens Daily Eagle — May 20, 2019

An NYPD sergeant who uncovered blatant corruption in the 109th Precinct during the course of an 18-month undercover operation says top brass ignored his findings and then engaged in a “campaign to harass” him. The attorney representing him is an ex-cop who says he can relate.

DOC Fails to Uphold Young Adult Housing Directive

Queens Daily Eagle — Dec. 3, 2018

In part four of my series on the implementation of New York’s Raise the Age law and the young people too old to qualify, I reported on the Department of Correction's gradual rejection of a oversight agency’s mandate to house young people aged 18-21 "separate and apart" from other adult inmates. I have continued reporting on the DOC’s response to these directives.

NYC’s Cultural Plan Spurs Disabled Artists in Fight for Roles and Respect

City Limits — Oct. 20, 2017

I earned a 2018 Ippies Award in the category of Best Social Issues Story for this piece about advocacy among artists with disabilities who are ignored by institutions and often physically prevented from participating in the the city’s cultural scene. The advocate-artists have pressured the city to fund artists with disabilities, hold art spaces accountable for inclusion and pay for accessibility measures, especially at smaller art spaces as part of the CreateNYC Cultural Plan.