FAQ NYC

"You simply can't trust Eric Adams nor those that are closest to him," former assemblymember and Mayoral candidate Michael Blake said as he sat down with FAQ NYC hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel on Tuesday. "And when you have four deputy mayors who have quit on him after Eric Adams quit on New Yorkers on MLK Day, it's a clear indication that it's time for us to quit on him and move on. And so where do we go from here? I'm laying out a very different vision of what can be for New York City." In a wide-ranging interview — part of a series with each of the mayoral candidates — Blake dug into his idea of a guaranteed livable income, his plans to significantly increase public-school spending and slash the NYPD's overtime bill, his case for why he's the right candidate to meet this moment in New York City, and much more.

The author joins Harry Siegel and guest host Brian Berger of Straus News for a deep dive into his latest book, the excellent and almost undefinable Brooklyn Crime Novel. Lethem digs into his reasons on re-reexamining the Brooklyn he wrote about 20 years earlier in The Fortress of Solitude, but doing so this time with the tools of a journalist including long interviews conducted amid the dislocation and isolation of the COVID lockdown, and much more:

When Katie Honan called in to discuss the latest New York City news Monday morning with co-hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel, she did so while posted outside of the David Dinkins Municipal Building where Mayor Eric Adams had convened his top commissioners and officials. Katie hopped off the call mid-way through the episode to get back to reporting, and then broke then news that Hizzoner had told his team to trust him and refrain from criticizing Trump or interfering with ICE. Hours later, the memo dropped with Trump’s Justice Department suspending the mayor’s criminal trial on corruption charges that had been scheduled to begin in May. Here’s an instant-vintage glimpse back at what the state of the city seemed like on Monday morning.

“I've always represented a community that knew we could hold two things together at the same time: that we want to hold officers accountable when they step over the line but also that we need them as part of our public safety ecosystem,” state Senator and mayoral candidate Zellnor Myrie said in a wide-ranging interview. “I've never been a defund-the-police Democrat, because my community has never been a defund-the-police community. We have always asked for police officers, but my mom doesn't want her son getting pepper sprayed. She wants to feel safe, and that is what this plan is about.”

When Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy put out the news Sunday night that Mayor Eric Adams wasn't feeling well and was clearing his public schedule, it came just a week after City Hall's late-night news that he'd cancelled his Martin Luther King Jr. Days plans and was driving to D.C. to attend Donald Trump's inauguration. Sally Goldenberg, the senior New York Editor at Politico, joins hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel to talk about the embattled mayor's surprising news and much more, including why Andrew Cuomo remains the non-candidate to beat, why socialist Zohran Mamdani's early surge isn't likely to continue without significant pushback, and much more from another jam-packed week in New York City.

“I think this election is about who can put the city back together, and I don't think people are going to buy the woe-is-me Eric Adams story,” Stringer said in a sitdown interview. “Maybe Trump will buy it, but I don't think voters are going to buy it.” In a wide-ranging conversation —the first in a series with all of the declared candidates — the former comptroller who lost to Adams in the 2021 primary explained what he’s been doing since then as “a New Yorker without portfolio,” laid out his view of a city in crisis (“we have a crime issue, and it’s real”), and pitched himself as the right person to connect with voters and to turn things around

A new poll shows the former governor with 32% support among likely voters. It's not just name recognition, though, or the mayor vying for a second term wouldn't be at just 6%, tied with Socialist Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, and behind State Senator Jessica Ramos at 7%, Comptroller Brad Lander at 10% and former Comptroller Scott Stringer leading the declared challengers at 12% — putting all of them way behind "Unsure" at 18%. The FAQ NYC hosts discuss all this, and much more, about the awfully uncertain and unstable election that's not even six months away, as it gets late early here.

On the first weekday of NYC’s new congestion-pricing era that's already being threatened by the incoming Trump administration, Jose Martinez, THE CITY’s senior reporter covering transportation, offers some perspective on what this means for the trains and streets inside the zone and throughout the five boroughs: "Politicians use the words historical a lot, but I do think that when they flipped the switch on this thing Saturday night, yeah, that was a bit of history here in New York. It's something that has just been brewing for years — now it's here."

Nicole Gelinas, the author of Movement: New York's Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car, explains why she opens her epic account with the mayors who fought against the street-car system that once transported New Yorkers a billion times a year. From there, Gelinas talks with editors Harry Siegel of THE CITY and Ben Max of New York Law School about the promise of congestion pricing, the challenges to getting big things fixed let alone built here, the ghost of Robert Moses, and much more

The mayor’s right-hand woman was in cuffs, while Adams was taking part in a ridiculous perp walk that played out more like a glamor shot for a murderer. Hizzoner’s friend and ally in the NYPD, who Adams has gone to bat for again and again over charges of abusing his authority, resigned after being accused of using overtime to coerce a subordinate into sex. Even as there were two more terrible train murders on Sunday, Adams laid low. As the hits keep coming for an historically unpopular mayor who’s trying to duck the local press and ride out the end of the year while New Yorkers are otherwise occupied, hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry discuss all that and much more.

Author and veteran columnist Amy Sohn talks with Harry Siegel about her book, The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age, and explains why the “zombie” Comstock Law still on the federal books kept coming up during 2024’s presidential election. Sohn details how the lives of two “sex radicals,” Ida Craddock and Sarah Chase, were upended as they crossed paths with Anthony Comstock, the mutton-chopped celebrity behind the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and self-described “friend of women” who boasted about driving his enemies to suicide. It’s a story about how the government’s original anti-sex law — suppressing information about birth control as a form of obscenity — created mechanisms used to this day to suppress unpopular thoughts.

The mayor says he’s the same as he’s ever was even as his closest allies have left under fire and he’s executing what Trump’s incoming border czar says is “a complete 180” on immigration. In the last regular episode of 2024, hosts Chrissy and Harry discuss the mayor's maneuvering — "I don't know if the mayor is purging his old crew, or if his old crew is purging themselves before they have to perjure themselves." They also dig into the unprecedented number of car crashes following police pursuits on Eric Adams' watch, the Democratic challengers lining up early to take on Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2026, Brad Lander's sit-down with the New York Editorial Board, and more.

Just after Katie Honan and Harry Siegel recorded on Monday morning, a jury acquitted Daniel Penny of negligent homicide, the NYPD found the man they believe shot down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the City Council sued the mayor for declaring a state of emergency rather than implement the solitary confinement ban they passed into law. Ahead of all that, the hosts dug into how Trumpworld is reportedly laughing at a“Thirsty” Eric Adams, the limits of the mayor’s new “cancel me” appeal and his new talk about scaling back New York’s “sanctuary city” law even if lawmakers won’t go along, and much more, and much more.

Eric Adams seems to think so, and that Trump’s victory proves the left has lost its way. FAQ hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss the mayor’s solid political instincts and his dubious press strategy, why he’s still talking about Andrew Yang, and much more.

Why was Mayor Eric Adams swearing in Jessica Tisch as his fourth police commissioner in not even three years on Monday? FAQ hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss the historic turnover from an historically unpopular mayor, Rep. Ritchie Torrees' prospective challenge of Gov. Kathy Hochul, and much more. Plus, Katie digs into the Brooklyn diocese and the church that (sort of) tied together Sabrina Carpenter and Eric Adams.

She’s joined for this one by author Joel Kotkin, the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and director of its Center for Demographics and Policy as well as senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas in Austin. He’s been asking the same question for decades, highlighting Americans’ demonstrated preference for suburban life and the waning of “urban supremacy.” The two dig into New York City at the latest of its many historic crossroads, at a moment when the high cost and scarcity of housing mask troubling signs of decline and a need for grassroots renewal.

Eric Adams and Kathy Hochul have been tight to this point but the two centrist Democratic executives seem to be taking different approaches to dealing publicly and perhaps also privately with Donald Trump, who the mayor just hung out with at the UFC title fight at Madison Square Garden. FAQ NYC hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel talk about that and much more, including the evidently widening space between the electorate and the people they’ve elected in New York.

It wasn’t a secret that Trump could be president again, or that his plans — starting with a mass deportation push — would have a huge impact on our New York City. So what are there so few specifics about what City Hall and others plan to do in response? FAQ NYC hosts Christina Greer, Harry Siegel and Katie Honan discuss that, park fires, Weiner’s return talk and much more from another jam-packed week in New York City .

Guest Ben Max joins hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel to start sifting through what Donald Trump’s win and Republican gains in the city mean for New Yorkers, Mayor Eric Adams and next year’s elections here as there's red all across the deep blue city. . They also discuss the stages of mourning, a grandma’s advice, the difference between a socialist and a dentist and much more.

In the calm just before the election-day storm, hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss the screaming match at the Marathon, reportedly over a photo op, between the police commissioner and his newly appointed chief of staff still doing double duty as the department's (reporter loathing) press secretary.. They also talk about subway surfing and the NYPD's ongoing efforts to use drones to try and stop that, handing out beers to marathon runners, and much more.