Changes in New York City

New York City faces an affordability crisis. Rents have soared. The century-old subway needs to be modernized, and buses are painfully slow. Piles of trash bags often line the sidewalks. The person tasked with fixing these problems, Mayor Eric Adams, faces a major corruption scandal.

His criminal case has obscured better news — that officials are advancing several ambitious proposals that hope to improve life in the city. The Democrats who run New York are crafting new policies because voters are concerned about their quality of life. The cost of living has become a campaign issue in Adams’s re-election next year, and his rivals are highlighting affordability.

Here are the proposals and how they could make things better for New Yorkers:

The proposals

Better transit: The streets of Manhattan are choked with traffic and double-parked delivery trucks. The nation’s first congestion pricing plan will charge vehicles entering Manhattan south of Central Park to reduce traffic and raise money for the struggling transit system. Drivers pay to enter the tolling zone using electronic passes on their windshields or photos of their license plates.

The plan has been decades in the making. It still requires federal approval, and the Biden administration is poised to sign off before leaving office. Donald Trump and suburban lawmakers have vowed to kill it, arguing that it could hurt the city’s economic recovery from the pandemic. But New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, recently lowered the toll to $9 to help rally public support.

Lower rental costs: Right now, if you rent an apartment in New York City, you have to pay thousands of dollars to a broker to secure a lease. A proposal in the City Council would shift that fee from renters to landlords. A progressive young lawmaker proposed the bill, which just passed despite opposition from the real estate industry. Critics argued that landlords would pass along the cost by raising rents. The law will probably take effect next summer.