Consumer Costs

Op-Ed: Creative Arts Therapy, A Lifeline for New Yorkers in Crisis

By MARIA PATUHAS
As a social worker working on an acute psychiatric unit in The Bronx, I see every day how creative arts therapists make a profound difference in the lives of some of our city’s most vulnerable residents. It’s time for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to make creative arts therapy accessible outside of the hospital, too, by signing S1001/A3391 into law [https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S1001].

UPDATE City Council Votes “Yes” on Latest Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment “The Kingsbridge Center”

By SÍLE MOLONEY
In the most hopeful sign yet for residents of Kingsbridge Heights, who have long awaited real momentum behind the redevelopment of the long-vacant, City-owned Kingsbridge Armory, the New York City Council voted “yes” on the latest redevelopment project, “The Kingsbridge Center (El Centro Kingsbridge),” on Wednesday, Oct. 29. The happy news follows dozens of envisioning meetings, surveys, outreach, workshops,, various hearings, set-backs, drama and more drama along the way.

UPDATE Funding Boost Helps Food Pantry Continue the Work of Lifting Others Up

By SÍLE MOLONEY
A simple sculpture of three people that sits in an upstairs office at Part of the Solution Inc. (POTS) food pantry in the Bedford Park section of The Bronx probably best illustrates the everyday work the nonprofit organization has carried out over 40 years to help countless Bronxites and other New Yorkers. It depicts two people on an elevated surface holding a rope. Further down the side of the sculpture, another person is seen hanging onto the rope and being hoisted to the top by the first two people.

UPDATE Amid Federal Shutdown Hochul Announces $30M in Emergency Food Assistance Funds

By SÍLE MOLONEY
New York Gov. Hochul held a rally on Monday, Oct. 27, with New Yorkers impacted by what were described as Washington Republicans’ devastating cuts to health care, food assistance and other critical programs. State officials said with nearly three million New Yorkers at risk of losing the food assistance they usually receive through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) starting Nov. 1 due to the GOP’s federal government shutdown, the governor announced the same day that she is also fast-tracking $30 million in State funds to support over 16 million meals.