Mountains of garbage crawling with rats have overtaken streets surrounding Gracie Mansion, leaving nearby residents furious as the mayor’s immediate block appears meticulously cleared, according to a report by the New York Post.
In the Upper East Side neighborhood surrounding the mayor’s residence, locals say they are navigating filthy sidewalks lined with trash bags, scurrying rodents, and snowbanks soaked with dog urine more than a week after Winter Storm Fern. Meanwhile, the stretch outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home on East 88th Street has been cleared with what residents described as extraordinary care.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw yesterday — a whole army of sanitation workers plowing and shoveling every bit of snow off of that side of the street,” resident Nick Rivers told The Post on Sunday as he walked his black Labrador past garbage-strewn sidewalks near the mayor’s residence.
“Clean as a whistle for the mayor,” Rivers said. “Look at this side.”
The contrast, he said, could not be sharper. Nearby blocks are dominated by towering piles of trash reaching as high as six feet, which residents say have been sitting for days and drawing rats. The scene unfolded even as Mamdani publicly praised the city’s response late last week, asserting that things were under control despite residents struggling through frigid conditions.
On surrounding streets, some of the debris mounds are even worse, with trash stacks reportedly climbing to nearly eight feet.
“I’m new to the job,” the mayor said Friday. “I know the burdens will get heavier, but right now I struggle to imagine how it could be better.”
Residents say he need only step outside his immediate surroundings to see otherwise.
“Don’t get me started. I think his wife must have complained about the pee in the snow,” said Attel, who lives on West 88th Street. “I don’t even look when I come out of the building.
“It’s gross!” he added. “The rats are inside the recycling bags.”
Another neighbor described similar conditions, saying, “My street is lined with bags, many of them opened with crap all over the street.
“My daughter had to dodge a used sanitary pad.”
The spotless conditions outside Gracie Mansion stand in stark contrast not only to nearby blocks but to other areas of the city, where uncollected trash and rodent-infested snowbanks have become commonplace in the aftermath of the storm.
In a statement issued Sunday, a spokesperson for the city’s Sanitation Department said that clearing snow and ice from sidewalks is the responsibility of property owners, not the city, though garbage collection remains a municipal duty.
The spokesperson added that roughly 2,500 sanitation workers are currently working 12-hour shifts to clear bus stops, crosswalks, and fire hydrants, which has pushed garbage collection a day behind schedule.
“We are prioritizing trash and composting — stuff gets gross — over recyclables,” the statement said. “But we are picking up all streams, all across the city, just on slight delay.
“Most New Yorkers will recall that this is standard practice during and after winter weather events.”
A representative from the city parks department echoed similar remarks, saying crews are focused first on bus stops, crosswalks, wheelchair ramps, and fire hydrants.
“Once that has been addressed we will be able to resume our standard maintenance schedule.”
Those explanations offered little comfort to residents living amid the mess.
“It’s the most vile thing,” said Josh Tepper, a lifelong New Yorker who overlooks Gracie Mansion from his apartment.
“I think it’s the worst in New York history.
“His one strip is nice, but where all the ‘civilians’ live, it’s a complete disaster,” Tepper said of Mamdani. “The socialist king gets to have a clean driveway. It just makes me enraged.”
Others echoed the frustration.
“It’s very dirty,” said Upper East Side resident Frederick Radie. “Actually, we have people visiting, and it’s a little embarrassing.”
Chris Kendal, another local resident, described the situation as “very concerning.”
“They usually pick the recycle up on a Monday … so it’s almost been a week,” Kendal said over the weekend.
“I don’t know why they can’t pick it up. I mean, buses are still running, and the city is still operating. So I’m not sure why they’re not able to reduce some of the garbage on the streets.”
Similar scenes were reported elsewhere in the city. In The Bronx, trash was piled along the Grand Concourse just a block from where Mamdani held a public event yesterday.
“Every time it snows, it gets worse,” a nearby resident said. “Right now, the people in the neighborhood they cleaned up as much as we could, but the city hasn’t really being doing much.
“Like down the block by the courthouse, they clean that up,” the resident added. “The garbage attracts more rats, and it makes the neighborhood look bad.”
{Matzav.com}
Andrew Cuomo is making a return to the public arena, this time behind a radio microphone rather than in elected office.
The former New York governor has secured a weekly Sunday program on 77 WABC, The Post has learned, marking his first sustained media role since leaving office.
The one-hour show, titled “The Pulse of the People,” is scheduled to debut this Sunday at 5 p.m. and will air weekly.
According to a source familiar with the arrangements, Cuomo will not be paid for the role, a decision intended to allow him full freedom of expression while avoiding potential conflicts of interest.
“This is a moment when our country has rarely felt more divided, politics more polarizing and public discourse more toxic,” Cuomo said in a statement to The Post.
“Pulse of the People is about cutting through the noise and the rancor to have real, substantive, fact-based conversations about the issues that actually affect people’s lives. I’ve spent my career focused on making government work and getting results, and that’s the same straight-forward, problem-solving approach I’ll bring to this program.”
The move was welcomed by John Catsimatidis, the owner of WABC, who emphasized the interactive nature of the broadcast.
“The show will focus on listener calls and open discussion about the issues, concerns, and views of New Yorkers. WABC believes in bipartisan conversation and thoughtful discussion of solutions, and we invite listeners to tune in and be part of the discussion,” Catsimatidis said.
Cuomo is expected to begin the program with opening remarks before taking calls from listeners.
The radio show represents Cuomo’s first significant step back into the public spotlight since his unsuccessful attempt to revive his political career last year. He lost the Democratic primary for mayor to Zohran Mamdani and was defeated again in the general election after running on an independent line.
Cuomo served as New York governor from 2011 until 2021, when he resigned amid allegations of misconduct, which he has denied. Earlier in his career, he held the posts of New York state attorney general and U.S. housing secretary during the Clinton administration.
{Matzav.com}
A brief but highly charged incident unfolded on Sunday in the Ramot Gimmel neighborhood of Yerushalayim, where a talmid from Yeshivas Ohel Yosef was detained in public and later released following swift legal intervention. After his release, it became clear that a key detail reported at the outset of the incident was incorrect.
The episode began in the early afternoon, when a patrol vehicle identified the yeshiva student standing outside his home after returning from a Shabbos break. Officers approached him and detained him in full view of passersby, sparking confusion and alarm in the neighborhood.
As news of the detention spread, the legal department of Chayei Olam immediately became involved. Attorneys Shlomo Haddad and Itay Cohen acted quickly with the relevant authorities, and within a short time, confirmation was received that the student had been released and returned home.
Following his release, additional details emerged that clarified the circumstances of the incident and corrected earlier reports. Contrary to initial claims that the arrest had been carried out by the Military Police inside the neighborhood, it was determined that the bochur had in fact been detained for questioning during a routine check conducted by officers of the Border Police and was then transferred to military authorities.
The earlier reports, which fueled a wave of concern and anger, were the result of confusion at the scene amid the commotion surrounding the detention.
In a statement issued after tensions had subsided, Chayei Olam clarified the sequence of events, saying that “the report that the detention was carried out by the Military Police stemmed from a case of mistaken identification at the time of the incident, and we apologize for the error.”
The organization noted that despite the clarification, the public detention of a yeshiva bochur in broad daylight in a chareidi neighborhood remains a serious matter. However, they emphasized that the rapid legal response prevented a prolonged detention and brought the episode to a swift conclusion.
{Matzav.com}
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has submitted a bill that would formally designate Qatar as an “enemy state,” a move that would impose sweeping economic and criminal restrictions on the Gulf emirate similar to those applied to Iran and Syria.
The legislation is expected to be brought to a vote in the Knesset on Monday. If adopted, all provisions of Israeli law that apply to enemy states would also apply to Qatar, significantly altering the legal and diplomatic framework governing Israel’s relations with the country.
According to the explanatory notes attached to the bill, while Israeli law does not contain a single, comprehensive definition of the term “enemy state,” multiple statutes already address relations with enemies, either directly or indirectly. The proposal cites the Trading with the Enemy Ordinance of 1939—adopted from the British Mandate—which authorizes the finance minister to determine countries with which trade is prohibited, currently including Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon. It also references Section 91 of Israel’s Penal Code (1977), which defines an enemy as any entity engaged in hostilities or a state of war against Israel, whether formally declared or not, including terrorist organizations.
Lapid’s bill goes beyond general definitions and spells out specific criminal offenses that would apply to interactions with Qatar, including aiding the enemy during wartime, serving in enemy forces, and transmitting information to the enemy. The proposal further notes that Section 7 of Basic Law: The Knesset prohibits anyone from running for parliament if they support an enemy state or have unlawfully stayed in one during the seven years preceding their candidacy.
The rationale behind the legislation, as outlined in the bill, centers on Qatar’s alleged ongoing activity against Israeli interests. The explanatory text states that Qatar supports and finances terrorist organizations fighting Israel, foremost among them Hamas, and notes that senior Hamas leaders are hosted in Qatar and operate from its territory. The proposal also points to the use of Al Jazeera as what it describes as a propaganda apparatus serving hostile objectives.
If passed, the bill would mark a significant escalation in Israel’s formal stance toward Qatar, with far-reaching legal, economic, and political consequences.
{Matzav.com}
In his weekly shiur last night at the Yazdim Shul, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef shared a personal and little-known family story explaining why his father, Chacham Ovadia Yosef zt”l, made a lifelong decision to decline serving as sandek at the bris of twins.
Rav Yosef revealed that the decision stemmed from a traumatic incident many years earlier. According to his account, his father once served as sandek for twin boys. Several weeks later, one of the infants tragically passed away. The event left a profound mark on Rav Ovadia, who feared that serving as sandek for two children in succession might involve ayin hara.
“After that,” Rav Yitzchak Yosef related, “my father was afraid. He said perhaps it was ayin hara, that one person was sandek for two children one after the other.” From that point on, whenever Rav Ovadia was invited to such a bris, he firmly declined to serve as sandek for both infants, saying, “I will sit for one—bring someone else for the second.” Rav Yosef added that his father carried genuine pain over the episode and consistently refused thereafter.
During the same shiur, Rav Yosef offered practical guidance regarding the laws and customs of bris milah. He emphasized the importance of choosing a sandek who is a talmid chacham, while noting that the primary requirement for the mohel is professional competence. “A sandek, it is important to choose a talmid chochom,” he said. “As for the mohel, what matters most is that he knows how to perform the milah. If he is also a talmid chochom and available, that is preferable, but otherwise one may choose a skilled mohel.”
Rav Yosef also addressed tefillah customs on the day of a bris, stating clearly that when a bris milah takes place on Tu B’Shevat, vidui is not recited. He mentioned having heard a stringent ruling from another rov who suggested that if a bris is held late in the afternoon, vidui should still be said, even proposing a “penalty” for delaying the bris. Rav Yosef rejected that approach.
He concluded with sharp criticism of the practice of postponing a bris milah until the afternoon hours. Citing the ruling of the Or Zarua, he stressed that delaying the milah is considered a ביזוי מצוה, a degradation of the mitzvah. “Why do a bris at two in the afternoon?” he asked pointedly. “A person waits years, davens, perhaps has many daughters and finally merits a son—and then he delays the bris until the afternoon?” He urged parents to perform the bris before midday whenever possible, reiterating that delaying it unnecessarily diminishes the honor of the mitzvah.
{Matzav.com}
The White House stands about 70 feet tall. The Lincoln Memorial, roughly 100 feet. The triumphal arch President Donald Trump wants to build would eclipse both if he gets his wish.
Trump has grown attached to the idea of a 250-foot-tall structure overlooking the Potomac River, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his comments, a scale that has alarmed some architectural experts who initially supported the idea of an arch but expected a far smaller one.
The planned Independence Arch is intended to commemorate the United States’ 250th anniversary. Built to Trump’s specifications, it would transform a small plot of land between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery into a dominant new monument, reshaping the relationship between the two memorials and obstructing pedestrians’ views.
Trump has considered smaller versions of the arch, including 165-foot-high and 123-foot-high designs he shared at a dinner last year. But he has favored the largest option, arguing that its sheer size would impress visitors to Washington, and that “250 for 250” makes the most sense, the people said.
Architectural experts counter that the size of the monument – installed in the center of a traffic circle – would distort the intent of the surrounding memorials.
“I don’t think an arch that large belongs there,” said Catesby Leigh, an art critic who conceived of a more modest, temporary arch in a 2024 essay – an idea that his allies championed and brought to the White House. His allies also passed along Leigh’s recommendation of an architect, Nicolas Leo Charbonneau, who has been retained by the White House to work on the project.
Charbonneau did not respond to requests for comment.
Asked about the arch’s height, the White House on Saturday referred to the president’s previous comments.
“The one that people know mostly is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. And we’re gonna top it by, I think, a lot,” Trump said at a White House Christmas reception in December.
The Arc de Triomphe – already one of the world’s largest triumphal arches – measures 164 feet.
Trump also told Politico in December that he hoped to begin construction of the arch within two months, a timeline that appears unlikely given that White House officials have yet to make the final plans public or submit them to federal review panels. Memorial Circle, the plot of land that the president has eyed, is controlled by the National Park Service.
The White House reiterated the president’s desire to have an iconic monument.
The arch will become “one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C., but throughout the world,” spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement sent to The Washington Post after this article’s publication. “President Trump’s bold vision will be imprinted upon the fabric of America and be felt by generations to come.”
Washington does not have a triumphal arch, making it unusual among major cities that have built arches to commemorate wars and celebrate milestones, and some historians and civic leaders have long argued that such a monument is needed.
Rodney Mims Cook Jr., an Atlanta-based developer and president of the National Monuments Foundation, proposed a peace arch to Washington leaders in 2000 before the plans were withdrawn in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Cook later built a monumental arch in Atlanta, the Millennium Gate Museum, intended to celebrate Georgia’s history.
Trump this month appointed Cook to the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal panel that would be set to review and approve the design of new monuments in Washington – including the president’s potential arch.
Trump on Jan. 23 also posted images on his Truth Social platform with no comment that depict three versions of a large triumphal arch, including one option with gold gilding – a hallmark of Trump’s construction projects. Asked about the president’s post, White House officials said that the arch design continues to be refined. The White House also said the plan to put a large Lady Liberty statue atop the arch, which was included in previous concepts presented by Trump and Charbonneau but not in the president’s Truth Social post, has not been abandoned.
City planners have eyed the land around what is now Memorial Circle for more than a century. A 1901-1902 report overseen by the Senate Park Commission, which laid the groundwork to construct the National Mall and beautify much of the city’s core, appears to envision some sort of structure in the circle, drawings show. Architect William Kendall in 1928 also presented plans to the Commission of Fine Arts to construct a memorial there.
Local historians and architectural experts have said that a large arch could change the relationship between several historic sites, including Arlington Memorial Bridge itself, which was intended as a bridge between North and South in the wake of the Civil War, and memorials for Lincoln and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
“It’s a very somber corridor,” said John Haigh, the chair of Benedictine College’s architecture program, who visited Memorial Circle with his students last year to consider the arch project. “We discussed the gravity of putting an arch there,” particularly one intended to be triumphal.
The structure as planned could obstruct views of Arlington House, the former Lee estate that sits on a hillside in Arlington National Cemetery.
“I would be very concerned about the scale,” said Calder Loth, a retired senior architectural historian for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, warning that a 250-foot-high arch could alter pedestrians’ views as they approach Arlington National Cemetery from Washington. “It would make Arlington House just look like a dollhouse – or you couldn’t see it all, with the arch blocking the view.”
They also cautioned that, barring major changes to the circle, it could be difficult for pedestrians to visit a potential monument there, given the busy motor traffic.
Loth also invoked the vantage point from Arlington National Cemetery, where visitors often look across the river toward the Lincoln Memorial and the capital beyond – a view he said the proposed arch would reshape.
“How does it impact the panorama of Washington?” Loth said, invoking a question that he said should guide designers of monuments. “What is supposed to be doing the speaking?”
Leigh initially proposed a 60-foot arch that could pop up as a temporary structure to mark America’s 250th. Trump instead wants a permanent arch, more than four times larger, funded with leftover private donations to his White House ballroom project, which he has said could cost about $400 million. Publicly identified donors to the ballroom project, such as Amazon, Google and Lockheed Martin, collectively have billions of dollars in contracts before the administration.
Any construction plan for the arch would probably need to go through several review panels and potentially require the sign-off of Congress, given laws around constructing monuments in Washington.
Trump’s interest in enlarging the arch mirrors his desire to expand the White House ballroom, which last year sparked clashes with James McCrery II, the architect initially tapped for the project. Shalom Baranes, the architect now leading that work, told federal review panels this month that White House officials have halted plans to make the ballroom even larger.
Leigh suggested a compromise location that could allow Trump his large monument without imposing on other structures.
“If you’re going to build an arch that big, you should build it in another part of town and one possible site that comes to mind is Barney Circle,” Leigh said, referencing a site in Southeast Washington next to Congressional Cemetery, overlooking the Anacostia River. “There’s nothing around it competing with it.”
(c) 2026, The Washington Post
{Matzav.com}
Anger is mounting across New York City as residents confront growing piles of trash lining sidewalks more than a week after a major winter storm buried the city under over a foot of snow, with garbage collection still lagging behind, according to the NY Post.
The scope of the problem was on full display overnight, when a Post reporter encountered stacks of garbage bags and flattened cardboard boxes clogging sidewalks in multiple neighborhoods, the result of sanitation crews struggling to keep up after the storm.
On the Upper East Side, one resident complained that a trash pile near his home has grown “higher than a car.”
“It’s very dirty,” Frederick Radie, 55, told The NY Post, saying garbage has gone untouched “since the first snowfall last weekend.”
The longtime resident, who has lived in the area for 35 years, said the situation has become awkward with guests in town. “Actually, we have people visiting, and it’s a little embarrassing,” he said, while his partner, Mirys Rosa, blasted Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s calls for patience.
“This was like two weeks ago,” the 61-year-old said angrily, describing the trash-filled streets as “so gross, it’s disgusting.”
City sanitation officials said Wednesday that limited garbage collection had resumed and instructed residents to place trash curbside as normal, though recycling should be held back. Officials cautioned that delays would continue as snow removal efforts remain ongoing.
By Saturday, the Department of Sanitation acknowledged to The Post that operations were still running behind schedule, citing only “slight delays.”
“We are prioritizing trash and composting (the stuff that gets gross), but New Yorkers can follow their regular schedule,” a department spokesperson said.
“We are running hundreds of collection trucks each day in addition to ongoing snow operations. We just ask for patience as we catch up.”
For many residents, however, that patience is quickly evaporating.
“It’s very concerning,” said Chris Kendal, 38.
“They usually pick the recycle up on a Monday, so it’s Saturday, so it’s almost been a week. I don’t know why they can’t pick it up. I mean, buses are still running, and the city is still operating. So I’m not sure why they’re not able to reduce some of the garbage on the streets.”
Not everyone was critical. Another Upper East Side resident said that while the trash buildup is an “eyesore,” sanitation workers have been overwhelmed for much of the month.
In the Bronx, conditions were no better. Garbage bags were scattered along the Grand Concourse, just a block from where Mamdani appeared at a public event Saturday afternoon.
A 51-year-old resident of the 5.2-mile historic boulevard said trash has been accumulating for nearly three days and warned that the problem is escalating as homeless individuals rip open bags searching for usable items.
“Every time it snows, it gets worse,” said the Local 157 union member.
“Right now, the people in the neighborhood, they cleaned up as much as we could, but the city hasn’t really been doing much, like down the block by the courthouse, they clean that up. The garbage attracts more rats and it makes the neighborhood look bad.”
Similar complaints surfaced on the Upper West Side, where recycling bags have crowded streets. Doorman Angel Martinez said nothing has been removed since Jan. 19, close to two weeks ago.
“Once in a while that happens where there is a big storm,” he said.
“Hopefully they’ll come soon.”
{Matzav.com}
