City & State’s best stories of 2018

The past year was a pivotal one in New York politics, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo coasting to a third term, Democrats seizing a majority in the state Senate, and a number of New Yorkers playing key roles in the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives.

Here at City & State, we covered all of those storylines, and many more. We’re proud of the political journalism we have done in 2019, especially the deeply reported and well-written long-form stories that provide more insight and context than most outlets have the time or space to produce. Here’s our list of the top 10 City & State stories of the year.

Ever wonder what happens when someone gets arrested in New York City? So did we. Working closely with our top-notch design team, City & State’s Jeff Coltin assembled the definitive step-by-step guide to landing yourself in – and getting out of – Rikers Island.

The common wisdom has been that Republican control of the state Senate was due to Jeff Klein’s Independent Democratic Conference and state Sen. Simcha Felder, a Democrat who has only ever caucused with the GOP in Albany. But Grace Segers’ profile of Rich Schaffer, the Suffolk County Democratic Committee chairman and Babylon supervisor, shows that he has also played an integral role – and he’s not ashamed of delivering for local constituents by working across the aisle.

Cockroaches. Pigeons. Rats. They could be in your water – and NYC wouldn’t know. This piece of modern-day muckraking was part of an investigative series by Frank G. Runyeon, with additional stories on stunning water tank reporting gaps and inconsistencies in hospitals and public housing developments. While city officials downplayed the problems, Runyeon’s reporting caught the attention of the New York City Council – which launched an investigation, held a hearing and is drafting legislation in response. 

As New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s chief of staff, Emma Wolfe is not just his most trusted aide. She is also respected for her political intelligence and her ability to cultivate connections with elected officials and political figures as a critical conduit to City Hall, City & State’s Jeff Coltin writes in a profile of the influential city official.

 

The short answer was yes. In a prescient piece of reporting, City & State’s Rebecca C. Lewis analyzed how many state Senate seats Democrats might be able to pick up on Long Island, and explained how pivotal the region would be in the battle for control of the chamber. In the end, Long Island Democrats flipped four seats – and took back the state Senate in a landslide.

How public is New York Public Radio? Its flagship station, WNYC, markets itself on the presumption that as a nonprofit alternative to corporate media, it is driven by the public interest instead of a self-serving profit motive. But the station has become captive to a corporate worldview, writes freelancer and former WNYC reporter Bob Hennelly. The target of Hennelly’s reporting, WNYC’s President Laura Walker, announced this week that she will be stepping down from her post in the new year.

President Donald Trump’s New York brand of right-wing politics – a nonideological but reactionary and enraged attitude of outer-borough and suburban white New Yorkers – has become the dominant paradigm of the Republican Party. Call it the Belligerent Style in American Politics.

David Cruz, a longtime Bronx reporter and the editor-in-chief of the Norwood News, posed the question: Can Bronx boss Marcos Crespo and his Democratic machine survive the progressive insurgency?


 

City & State’s Zach Williams hit the road to cover the clash between Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney and Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, who were waging dueling populist campaigns in one of the most closely watched House races in the state – if not nationwide. In the end, Brindisi won in a pivotal pickup for Democrats.