> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 2025: A Look Back - URL: https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/2025-a-look-back-most-read/ - Published: 2025-12-29T17:08:36.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-26T18:35:32.000Z - Description: Your Vital City favorites and ours from the year gone by - Author: Vital City - Tags: Crime, Justice, City Government, Infrastructure, Government Operations, Politics, #Import 2026-02-26 13:34, #ImagesUploaded The year just passed was a busy one for New York City: We elected a new mayor, said a long goodbye to the current one, implemented congestion pricing, obsessed over housing affordability, saw a federal judge call for a receiver to oversee the city’s jails, fended off Trump administration provocations, and more. Here's what our readers read the most — and some selections our editors found especially compelling. ‎ ‎ # Your favorites [**Zohran Mamdani’s Real-World Constraints**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/zohran-mamdanis-real-world-constraints) **by Carl Weisbrod** The incoming mayor has grand plans — and serious logistical obstacles. [**State of the City on Crime 2024**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/vital-signs-state-of-the-city-on-crime-2024) **by Vital City and Paul Reeping** New York City may be getting safer, but it lags prepandemic conditions in many categories. [**Just the Facts on New York City Subway Crime**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/just-the-facts-on-new-york-city-subway-crime) **by Aaron Chalfin, John Hall and Paul Reeping** The city’s subway system is far safer than many people think, though stubborn problems remain. [**How Zohran Mamdani Could Succeed as Mayor**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/how-zohran-mamdani-could-succeed-as-mayor) **by Bradley Tusk and Jamie Rubin** Two pragmatic political veterans chart the course for the young, ideologically ambitious mayor to serve the city well. [**The State of Crime in New York City at Midyear 2025**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the-state-of-crime-in-new-york-city-at-midyear-2025) **by Vital City** Despite major declines in shootings and murders, felony assaults remain at 20-year highs. [**Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo Aren’t as Different as You Might Think**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/zohran-mamdani-and-andrew-cuomo-arent-as-different-as-you-might-think) **by Josh Greenman** The two leading contenders for mayor made unions and others big promises that will be very hard to keep when reality comes calling. [**Guess What? Government Is Already in the Grocery Business**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/government-is-already-in-the-grocery-business) **by Nevin Cohen** Many have made Mamdani’s proposal to create a few low-cost, publicly owned supermarkets into a punchline — but is the idea really that radical? [**New York Is Not Broken**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/is-new-york-broken) **by Greg Berman** Federal leaders and even some local aspirants speak as though the city needs an urgent rescue. That’s at odds with basic indicators, and of the enduring feel of city life. [**My First Adult Apartment**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/my-first-adult-apartment) **A Survey** Our [housing issue](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/issues/issue-14) presented a range of concrete solutions to the city’s most pressing crisis. Here, a range of New Yorkers shared their experience paying the rent for the first time. [**New York’s Housing Crisis: Self-Inflicted and Solvable**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/new-yorks-housing-crisis-self-inflicted-and-solvable) **by Annemarie Gray** How did New York get so unaffordable, and how do we get out of the bind? A sweeping overview of the problem. ‎ # Our favorites [**What To Do (and Not To Do) About People in Crisis on Streets and Subways**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/what-to-do-about-people-in-crisis-on-streets-and-subways) **by Vital City** Pragmatic recommendations for the incoming administration for how to address one of thorniest problems in New York City life. [**Jane Jacobs 2.0: Training AI to Make Cities More Humane**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/training-ai-to-make-cities-more-humane) **By Edward Glaeser and Carlo Ratti** Two leading academics explain how they used AI to analyze historical film footage, revealing that modern pedestrians walk faster and linger less than they did in William Whyte’s era. [**What Mamdani Can Learn from a de Blasio Administration Safety Innovation**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/nstat-should-be-key-to-mamdani-public-safety-plan) **by Renita Francois and Abdul Nasser Rad** Two public policy practitioners argue that the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and NeighborhoodStat, if built up, could serve as foundational blueprints for the incoming mayor [**A Department of Community Safety: Theory Meets Practice**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/mamdani-department-of-community-safety-where-theory-meets-practice) **by Gloria Gong** A leading government practitioner diagnoses some of the operational hurdles of shifting public safety responsibilities from the NYPD to an alternative civilian agency. [**Percy Sutton, Eric Adams and the State of Black Political Power in New York**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/percy-sutton-eric-adams-and-the-state-of-black-political-power-in-new-york) **by Basil Smikle Jr.** A political veteran compares Percy Sutton’s mastery of "inside-outside" politics with Eric Adams’s struggles, warning that Adams’s decline creates a vacuum in Black political power. [**Reality Check: Who’s the Guard Really Guarding in U.S. Cities?**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/reality-check-whos-the-guard-really-guarding-in-us-cities) **By Vital City** President Trump sent the National Guard to a number of U.S. cities — and blustered about sending them to more. Are these really the most dangerous places in America, in desperate need of federal help? [**New York City’s Catholic Church at a Crossroads**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the-catholic-church-at-a-crossroads) **by Eileen Markey** The first American pope arrives at a time when New York’s parishes are on the defensive, protecting their increasingly immigrant congregations from federal hostility. [**A Tale of Two New Yorkers: Didarul Islam and Zohran Mamdani**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/a-tale-of-two-new-yorkers-didarul-islam-and-zohran-mamdani) **by Brandon Del Pozo** What a fallen police officer taught a political aspirant about the changing face of the much-pilloried NYPD. [**Mamdani’s Facilitators, Frenemies or Foes**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/mamdanis-facilitators-frenemiesor-foes) **by David Schleicher** Mamdani’s success will hinge not only on his political acumen, but on allies, friends and political opponents with their own incentive structures. [**Andrew Cuomo Sees a City in Crisis. Do Voters?**](https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/andrew-cuomo-sees-a-city-in-crisis-do-new-york-voters) **by Harry Siegel** The former governor ran on a message that New York City, teetering on the brink, needed a strong hand to bring it back to safety. Was the city he sought to lead the same city New Yorkers are living in? ‎ ‎ ‎ # Charts that defined our year **How government helps — and fails to help — people in crisis on streets and subways** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/8c/208caa48-0e58-40ee-862f-e5f1276ae3d0/content/images/2026/04/atw_z3nyclf9ohtj_bridgestonowhere-12-8-png-auto-format-compress-1776259660443.jpg) **The progress made — and yet to go — on serious crime** **An overstretched NYPD?** **Where Trump sent (or wanted to send) the cavalry** **The truth about youth crime**