Our most-read stories of 2024
The year 2024 was lots of things to us: it was the year the Eric Adams administration started to fall apart so fast you'd think it was a crypto meme coin scam, and it was our first full year as a publication. In that year, we brought you a wide variety of service journalism designed to help you be a better New Yorker, from analyzing the asylum-seeker crisis and explaining your civil rights on the subway, to telling you where to find the best vegan food and how to be less of a menace as a dog owner.
Here are our top 10 most popular posts of the year. We'll be back with a brand-new issue of The Groove next week:
10. Live Nation just took over the Bell House; what does it mean?
This New York Groove scoop broke the news that Live Nation — the company that owns Ticketmaster — quietly swallowed up beloved Gowanus venue The Bell House last year. Tim reported on what that means for the local entertainment scene, and why some artists are worried that another place for adventurous local art will become just a way station for national acts.
9. 2024 is the year of finally reading 'The Power Broker;' here are 4 hacks for doing it
The Power Broker, the biggest book you've ever seen (literally, it's as big as a bound book can be), turned 50 this year. And with that came a wave of appreciation and revisiting the tome and its descriptions of how so many problems we have today were not the natural entropy of a city’s growth, but rather the specific machinations of one guy, Robert Moses. To help you finally read the masterwork, Tim broke down four strategies for digesting it, including his preferred method of running along to the entire audiobook (a project he finished about two months ago).
8. 13 good things that happened this year
From congestion pricing almost starting to bold and powerful new tenant protections, we took Thanksgiving week to track 13 good things that happened across the city in 2024. We might be stuck with Eric Adams for now, but at least he's embracing the powerful technology known as "putting trash in a trash can" — and at least some potentially not terrible people are running to replace him. It was a bad year for Robocop shit and a good year for queer downtown art making it to Broadway.
7. Bag searches are coming back to the subway; what are your rights?
In March, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced they were addressing the perceived uptick in subway crime in the only way they know how: more security theater! They enacted a plan for more members of the NYPD and National Guard to flood the system and conduct random bag checks. We put together a guide to knowing your civil liberties in this situation, and what authorities can and can't do when it comes to bag checks (spoiler: they can't actually randomly search you on the train, despite what the train announcements say).
6. How to eat around Yankee Stadium (so you don't eat inside Yankee Stadium)
The Yankees started out their season with a more promising team than the Mets, and some high hopes for reaching the World Series. That means fans were flocking to the Bronx, but Bradford William Davis stepped in to save them from having to eat the food inside the cold and charmless stadium. He put together a guide to the best food to eat around Yankee Stadium, which also gives you a great reason to explore another neighborhood of the city for decent pizza, affordable burgers and more.
5. Dating events in NYC struggle with one major thing
It's a tale as old as Valentime itself: the city is full of speed dating events, meetups and singles mixers for straight people that are chockablock full of cute, smart women, but men never show up. In February, Tim dove into the issue to look at how it's become such a persistent problem and how people are trying to fix it — and found the one pocket of the dating world with gender equity.
4. A resolution-friendly guide to the best vegan food in New York City
Maybe you've resolved to start the year with a little less meat and dairy on your plate, maybe you've finally realized that billions of animals suffering and dying each year while creating carbon emissions that are going to choke the rest of us animals to death is not a great way to live. Either way, last January, resident vegan Tim put together a starter pack for the aspiring or curious New York City vegan, featuring a list of spots for reasonable people (i.e. less Eleven Madison Park, more Trini doubles). And obviously, it was popular; so hey, maybe consider having a vegan dish at your holiday party next year?
3. Where to find a real-life boogie and a real-life hoedown in New York City
This ain't Texas, it's Queens. As Beyoncé's country-ish album hit the streets in the spring, we sent resident Southerner Kate Mooney out to discover the best places in the city to have a country-fried, line-dancin', banjo-twangin', boot-scootin' good time. Turns out the answer is: a lot of places, so you can have a real rodeo of a time without having to travel anywhere near the Mason Dixon line.
2. New Yorkers are turning on dogs; what's a dog owner to do?
Dogs have enjoyed relative royalty status in the city for more than a decade, much like babies or anyone with in-unit laundry. But a boom in pandemic pet ownership caused some public perception of pooches to sour: there's undoubtedly more dog shit on the street, while some canines are tearing up green space in parks, and that is upsetting some of their dog-less neighbors. Tim spent some time talking to dog owners and getting to the bottom of the controversy to find out what a good-hearted dog owner can do to help.
1. The decades-old policy behind New York's failure on asylum seekers
You might remember that this year was an election year, and you might remember that the city's migrant crisis was used as a punching bag by some politicians who, in reality, don't actually give a shit about what happens to New York City. In March, Gaby Del Valle Felipe De La Hoz helpfully explained one of the policies that got us into this crisis in the first place: it turns out just saying "do not come" does not work!
Bonus! Check out our special holiday train video we released this week:
Ilan Cardenas-Silverstein
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