Good Morning, New York!
Did you know? More people pass through Grand Central Terminal on December 22–23 than on almost any other days of the year outside Thanksgiving.
In today’s NYC Newsletter:
Last minute gift ideas, best events this weekend, NYC history.
Let’s get to it.
– Sofia Kurd.
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New York Question Of The Day
Want to participate? Reply directly to this newsletter. No cheating!
The answer to last weeks trivia: Sidewalk sheds are legally classified as buildings under NYC code.
NYC TRIVIA:
Which of these is officially considered Manhattan’s southernmost neighborhood by the City of New York?
A) Financial District
B) Battery Park City
C) South Street Seaport
D) Tribeca
The answer will be revealed in the next newsletter.
Pet Holiday Outfit Contest — Win A $10 Chewy Gift Card:
🎄🐶Is your pet dressing up this holiday season?🐶🎄
Reply to this email with an image of your pet in their best holiday outfit.
—> Best outfit wins a $10 Chewy gift card and will be featured in a future newsletter!
Best Events
Thru 12/24 – Small Works Show at Fountain House Gallery: Hundreds of original artworks priced at $100 or less at Fountain House Gallery + Studio in Hell’s Kitchen.
Thru 12/25 – It’s a Wonderful Life with Mary Owen: Frank Capra’s holiday classic screens at IFC Center, with select shows introduced by Donna Reed’s daughter ($15–18).
Thru 12/28 – Westbeth Winter Show: Westbeth resident artists present new work in an annual group exhibition at Westbeth Gallery (free).
Thru December – Autophoto Vintage Photobooth Museum: The world’s first museum dedicated to analog photobooths opens on the LES, part archive, part gallery, part portrait studio (free entry; photos ~$8–12).
Thru the Season – Grand Central Holiday Train Show: Model subway cars and Metro-North trains loop past NYC landmarks in the New York Transit Museum’s pop-up gallery inside Grand Central Terminal (free).
Thru 12/21 – Brooklyn Flea at DUMBO Archway: Vintage, antiques, and local design vendors set up beneath the Manhattan Bridge on weekends, one of the city’s best outdoor winter markets (free).
Thru 12/22 – Times Square’s 2026 Numerals: The massive “2026” digits appear early at ground level in Duffy Square for photos before their New Year’s Eve debut (free).
Thru 12/24 – Carlo Rambaldi Film Series at MoMA: A tribute to the legendary creature designer behind E.T., Alien, and Dune screens at Museum of Modern Art (included with admission).
Thru 12/28 – Times Square New Year’s Eve Wishing Wall: Add a written or digital wish that will be shredded into the official confetti dropped on New Year’s Eve (free).
Thru the Season – Bargemusic Winter Concerts: Free chamber music concerts return weekends to Brooklyn Bridge Park, hosted indoors with floor-to-ceiling river views (doors open 20 minutes before showtime).
Last Minute Gift Ideas
Local News
Snow & rain are forecast to hit NYC before Christmas, with a First Alert Weather Day issued for Tuesday, raising travel concerns. CBS News
Powerful storms recently brought heavy rain and gusty winds to the NYC area before temperatures dropped. NBC New York
NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s appointee resigns after old antisemitic social posts surface, drawing scrutiny ahead of the new administration. AP News
The NYC Council passed the Construction Justice Act aiming to shape labor and community requirements on city-assisted housing projects. NYC Labor Council
Two separate subway stabbing incidents in Midtown have heightened safety concerns in the transit system this month. New York Post
NYPD Santas are delivering free toys to children across all five boroughs as part of the annual holiday community outreach. New York Post
A retired Manhattan prosecutor files a federal lawsuit claiming wrongful arrest during a protest outside a Midtown law firm, raising First Amendment POPS questions. Reuters
Calls in city policy circles renew for an expanded public realm role — including an advocate or deputy mayor focused on urban space equity. Streetsblog NYC
Chorus performance tradition: the Young People’s Chorus of NYC shared a holiday “Deck the Halls” performance this weekend. CBS News
New Yorkers Through History
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
In the mid-20th century, Ruth Bader Ginsburg helped reshape American law from New York long before she ever reached the Supreme Court. As a professor at Columbia Law School and a founder of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, she built a legal strategy that dismantled sex-based discrimination by arguing that it harmed everyone—men and women alike. Many of the cases she litigated or inspired rewrote workplace rules, credit access, housing protections, and family law, changes that still govern everyday life in New York City offices, courts, and households. When she later joined the Supreme Court, she carried New York’s pragmatic, precedent-driven legal culture with her, turning incremental arguments into lasting national doctrine. Her influence isn’t symbolic—it’s structural, embedded in the rules that quietly shape how people work, live, and are treated under the law every day.
New York City Fact
New York City sits on one of the most valuable pieces of geology in the world. Much of Manhattan is built directly on Manhattan schist, an extremely hard bedrock that allowed engineers to anchor skyscrapers deep into the ground without prohibitively expensive foundations. This is why the city’s tallest buildings cluster in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, where the rock is closest to the surface, while large parts of Upper Manhattan and Queens developed with lower skylines. In a very literal sense, New York’s global skyline exists because the rock beneath it could handle the weight.
NYC Predicts
Take this month’s prediction survey and share your take on major NYC and national storylines. At the end of each month, we randomly select one respondent to receive a $75 gift card.
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