Target's mascot Bullseye greets visitors at the retailer's newly remodeled SoHo store.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
Target just remodeled its SoHo store with a larger emphasis on style and design.
The store showcases a curated sample from Target's full merchandise assortment.
Target invited Business Insider for an exclusive first look ahead of the location's reopening.
Target is doubling down on its SoHo concept store.
Less than a year after remodeling the store's main floor, the bullseye retailer went back in to reimagine the rest of the footprint that anchors Target in one of the world's top shopping districts.
"It was probably more of a glorified convenience store," Target's chief brand officer Michelle Mesenberg told Business Insider during an exclusive walkthrough ahead of Thursday's reopening.
Located at the corner of Broadway and East Houston Street, the SoHo store shares the block with trendy shops like Prada, Arc'teryx, and Allsaints. While last year's renovation bumped up the store's aesthetics, Mesenberg said it was still more of a spot for people to grab essentials on their way to somewhere else.
"Nearly 70,000 people cross this corner every single day," she said. "We wanted to make sure that we were putting our best foot forward when it came to our brand."
Last year's remodel featured an extended entrance experience that calls to mind a deconstructed Target logo.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
It's now stocked with apparel-forward displays that also feature select merchandise from other categories.
"It's focused on apparel, but you'll see us mix in the best of beauty, the best of home, and so we're really completing the picture for a guest," Target's director of curation, Matthew Arrington, told Business Insider.
Further back on the main floor, a new section features a more immersive presentation of seasonal merchandise.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
"What this space does is it puts a point of view on our edit for the season, and that allows people to come in and see our product through a different lens," Mesenberg said.
Last year's remodel of the SoHo store's beauty section also set the tone for this year's broader launch of Target's Beauty Studio, which has replaced the retailer's partnership with Ulta.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
"We've been able to also bring in other beauty founders and creators and celebrity makeup artists to the space, and so it gives them a place to continue to tell that beauty story across Target," Arrington said.
Mesenberg said Target sees its stores serving in part as studios for content creators, and no store does it quite like the SoHo store.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
"Brands want to be in this location — this is prime real estate," she said.
The newly remodeled lower level features a futuristic discovery section that features trending items across several categories like toys, sports fandom, and gadgets.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
"We take a high-curation lens here, based upon what's happening in culture at any given point in time." Mesenberg said.
Imagine distilling an entire aisle from a typical suburban Target store and distilling it into one shelf of the trendiest items — that's the SoHo store's "Explorer's Lab."
The store has to navigate a balancing act to meet the expectations of the various kinds of customers it serves.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
From college students at NYU who need dorm snacks, to international tourists who need a new suitcase, to local New Yorkers simply trying to grab a roll of paper towels, the SoHo store still carries the essentials and more.
Almost everything in the SoHo store is also available at Target stores across the US, but the intense focus on curation and fresh features is meant to elevate items that shoppers might not realize are right at their fingertips.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
For Arrington, that means making very tough choices about which colors, brands, or pack sizes get display space. Shoppers can still get Target's full selection online or at another store.
Even as Target leans harder into style and design, the SoHo store still aims to deliver on the basics shoppers expect when they walk in the door.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
"People still want their Tide pens. Tide pens are one of the top sellers in the store. Bananas are one of the top sellers in the store. We have a very big, bold, proud assortment of both," Mesenberg said.
It's an approach that yields interesting outcomes on the shelves. Established national brands shoppers expect are next to emerging ones they might have heard about on TikTok.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
"When we have a founder-led or celebrity-led or creator-led brand that we want to celebrate, this becomes a destination for them," Arrington said.
Mesenberg said that while brand awareness for Target is a particular focus of the SoHo store, that's not at the expense of going after strong sales.
Dominick Reuter/Business Insider
The SoHo store is and will remain a "one of one" format for Target, Mesenberg said, but it is playing a growing role in the company's overall strategy.
"We're pulling elements of what we're learning here. It may not translate exactly one for one, but the influence is coming into the chain," she said.
Correction: October 22, 2026 — An earlier version of this story misspelled Michelle Mesenberg's last name.
A progressive congressional candidate backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was detained by the Israeli military in the West Bank on Wednesday morning.
Brad Lander, a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), scored an upset primary victory this year against Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y. But he was far from the New York City-area district this week, posting on X that he and others were being held by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while on a trip to help Palestinian farmers harvest olives in disputed territory.
"I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers. We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank. The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know," Lander posted on X.
Lander is one of several anti-establishment candidates who Mamdani backed in New York City Democratic primaries this year. And he's not the first to get into a dust-up with law enforcement, either.
Socialist candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., in their primary race, said she was knocked to the ground by NYPD officers during a protest against federal immigration authorities shooting an illegal immigrant in the Bronx this month.
The group he was with in the West Bank, Rabbis for Peace, posted a photo of Lander and said he was detained "by Israeli police for standing with Palestinians during the olive harvest" along with others.
"The Palestinians whose land this is have a right to harvest it in peace," Lander, who is Jewish, said in a video posted by the group.
It's not clear if Lander has been released or what the terms of his detention are. Fox News Digital reached out to his campaign and to Mamdani's office for comment.
New York's 10th Congressional District is overwhelmingly Democratic, meaning he is all but assured to win his general election and come to Congress next year.
FLUSHING, N.Y. — Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz confronted employees at two New York City senior care centers over suspected Medicaid fraud, challenging their billing practices as Fox News Digital got an exclusive look at the crackdown in action.
Oz, accompanied by senior federal health officials, delivered warning letters to Kent Senior Care and Evergreen Adult Day Care in Flushing, Queens, during a broader fraud crackdown that involved the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the NYPD and other agencies.
The letters notified the facilities that their billing practices had raised concerns among federal authorities. The two visits by Oz were part of a broader crackdown in which CMS officials conducted more than 80 visits and delivered warning letters to providers across New York City on Tuesday.
Fox News Digital accompanied Oz as he pressed employees about questionable billing records and challenged their explanations for how taxpayer dollars were being spent.
"The whole experience was suspicious," Oz told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview following the visits.
Oz said federal authorities were conducting a broader crackdown that included arrests, search warrants and efforts to stop certain operators from billing Medicaid, although Fox News Digital did not independently witness those enforcement actions at either Queens facility.
Kent Senior Care declined comment during a phone call with Fox News Digital on Tuesday. Evergreen Adult Day Care did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Oz questions senior center director: 'We don't believe you'
The first stop came around 8:30 a.m. at Kent Senior Care, where Oz entered the facility and personally handed its director a letter from the federal government notifying the business that its billing practices were under scrutiny.
"The bills are much higher than they should be," Oz told the director. "The billing is for more people. It doesn't look very crowded here."
The director pushed back during the exchange, explaining that it was still early and additional seniors would arrive later in the morning, as Oz questioned whether the facility's Medicaid billing records accurately reflected its actual attendance.
The occupancy of the space was 70 persons, according to an observe posted maximum occupancy sign on the wall.
"The bills we're getting are as though it's completely full all the time," Oz said.
The director maintained that the facility billed only for seniors who actually attended, and that it required participants to sign attendance sheets.
"You're getting this letter from the U.S. Government because we don't believe you," he told the director.
During the exchange, Oz also questioned why the center's billing records appeared to reflect seniors attending five days a week when the director acknowledged that many participants typically attended only two or three days.
The director insisted the facility billed for actual attendance and said some seniors attended more frequently than others.
The confrontation intensified when Oz and other federal officials raised questions about specialized transportation services billed for seniors using wheelchairs.
"I don't see any wheelchairs here," Oz told the director.
Fox News Digital observed seniors inside the facility, including individuals using walking aids, but did not see anyone using a wheelchair during the visit.
Another official said billing records included charges for specialized wheelchair transportation, raising questions about whether the services had been provided and which company was responsible for submitting the charges.
The director said some seniors had mobility difficulties, including those recovering from strokes, and that the facility had wheelchairs available. He also said that workers could have copied information from previous files instead of properly updating the billing codes as it applied to wheelchair use.
"Probably he just copy and pasted," the director said.
During the visit, Oz walked over to several mahjong tables set up inside the facility, questioning whether taxpayer dollars were being properly spent on the recreational activities offered through the Medicaid-funded program.
"Should the American taxpayers be paying so folks can play mahjong?" Oz asked the director.
The director defended the activity, explaining that mahjong helps seniors exercise their fingers, socialize and improve their memory, particularly those experiencing cognitive difficulties.
"It's free for them, not free for the taxpayers," Oz responded. "Is that what our federal tax dollars for Medicaid is supposed to go to? Or is it life-saving heart surgery? Or, you know, new therapies for cancer?"
Oz raises concerns over seniors entering without signing in
Oz raised additional concerns about the facility's attendance records after observing seniors entering without signing in, despite the director's insistence that participants were required to document their attendance.
"People were just walking in there without signing anything," Oz said. "And then after I showed up and he saw what we were doing with my team, he started collecting these documents to be signed."
Oz said the apparent inconsistencies raised further questions about whether the facility's attendance records accurately reflected the services being billed to Medicaid.
Fox News Digital also witnessed several seniors enter Kent Senior Care without immediately signing attendance sheets. Additional seniors who arrived later were instructed to sign in.
Social adult day care programs can provide eligible seniors with structured activities, supervision, meals and social support. Medicaid reimbursement depends on applicable program rules, individual eligibility and documentation of services provided.
At the second stop, Evergreen Adult Day Care, Oz confronted a floor manager over another set of billing discrepancies before examining the facility's attendance records.
The manager told Oz that approximately 200 seniors attended the facility on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, compared with about 150 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, although it was unclear whether those figures represented total daily attendance or the number of seniors present at one time.
But Oz questioned those numbers after walking through the facility and observing significantly fewer people.
"So I look at maybe 25 people in the whole space now," Oz said.
The manager disputed that estimate, explaining that some seniors were participating in classes while others had left to shop, visit a pharmacy or attend medical appointments.
"The numbers don't seem to add up," Oz responded.
Oz also questioned the manager about wheelchair-related billing, asking how many participants used wheelchairs.
The manager initially indicated that none did before acknowledging that a small number of seniors used them.
"But you said there weren't any, were you?" Oz pressed.
He subsequently discussed the apparent discrepancy with other federal officials accompanying him.
"I'm struck by how few people are here as well," Oz said. "This makes me wonder how they sustain these billing levels."
The visit took another turn when Oz examined the facility's attendance books, which he said contained "fraud."
Fox News Digital observed sign-in sheets that appeared to contain names entered for Oct. 22, and Oct. 23, dates that had not yet occurred at the time of the visit.
The entries dated Oct. 22 and Oct. 23, both after the visit, raised questions about whether the facility was documenting attendance in advance, although Fox News Digital could not immediately establish whether the entries were completed attendance records or advance schedules.
Oz alleges organized crime ties to NYC Medicaid fraud
Oz said federal authorities believed organized criminal networks were exploiting the Medicaid-funded programs by offering seniors money to attend facilities and then billing the government for services that were not actually provided.
Oz alleged that individuals he described as being connected to the "Chinese mafia" were paying some seniors between $1,000 and $1,200 to participate in fraudulent billing arrangements, though the administrator did not identify a specific criminal organization or provide supporting evidence during the interview.
Oz said the federal government had identified significant spikes in billing across the industry and claimed that annual spending on the programs had approached $1 billion.
"We know from the billing here that there's no way this business is running in the way that they claim to be running without something being wrong," Oz told Fox News Digital.
"Is it an innocent mistake? A hundred times in a row, I don't think so."
Oz alleged that proceeds from fraudulent Medicaid billing schemes were being used to finance other criminal activities, including money laundering and human trafficking, although Fox News Digital had not independently verified those connections or established any such link to the two facilities visited.
"It's really a clubhouse for crime," Oz said while describing the alleged broader scheme.
He said fraud accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and criticized the previous administration for failing to address what he described as rapidly rising spending and suspicious billing.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged the crackdown on Tuesday, calling it part of a "massive effort to combat fraud and abuse" in Medicaid and confirming that state health officials had joined federal and state law enforcement in targeting suspected fraud at social adult day care programs.
While Oz personally delivered warning letters to the two Queens facilities, state, local and federal law enforcement officials were simultaneously conducting searches at other locations across New York City as part of the coordinated crackdown.
Specific details about the facilities targeted, individuals involved and evidence recovered were not immediately available as the investigations remained ongoing.
Louis Civello, a Suffolk County police officer and president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, detailed Tuesday a prior incident in which a protester he once arrested tracked him down and waited outside his home.
"We are at an inflection point. This job is harder than ever before," Civello said during a New York State Public Safety Alliance event advocating for stronger legal protections for law enforcement officers and other local officials.
Civello recounted an incident in early 2026 in which he arrested a protester who showed up at his office for trespassing.
"Well, that wasn't enough for this individual," Civello said.
"He then decided he was going to find my address, came to my home with a billboard truck. That's how much money these people are making. They can buy billboard trucks," Civello continued.
"Now, there's only one reason to come to my house, right? I'm a public figure. Everyone knows where my building is in Suffolk County. There are seven police precincts in Suffolk County that you can protest in front of if you so choose. You only come to my home to terrorize my family, to get at me via my wife and my children," Civello said.
He then explained that the harassment his family endured from the provocateur was far from an isolated incident, but rather the norm.
He used the moment as an example of why he believed New York state needed to enact stronger protections for police officers, particularly as it pertains to privacy.
"The laws are woefully inadequate, and they're gonna get worse if we don't work to fix them," he said.
"Right now, no law against it. No law against coming to my house. So if you are a rapist, and I as a police officer arrest you, you can sit at the edge of my driveway and greet my wife as she comes home. No law against it. No law is publishing my address. If you want to look me up, look any police officer up, look any of us up, it's a few clicks of a mouse," he continued.
Civello called for an anti-doxxing law, and also questioned why New York doesn't have a "Halo Law," the popular moniker assigned to a newly enacted Florida statute that protects first responders from harassment after they give an individual a warning.
"All we're asking for is fifteen foot," Scott Munro, the president of the Detectives' Endowment Association, said. "Fifteen foot, that's all we're asking for, for safety reasons."
Munro also highlighted the broader coalition the New York State Public Safety Alliance had cobbled together in an effort to protect public employees from civilian violence. The group, Munro relayed, included 99 unions. complete with firefighters, traffic agents, sanitation enforcement agents, environmental police, bus drivers and more.
"Those people get assaulted every day. Assaults are up, almost 2,500 assaults this year alone on police officers, felony assaults, and public servants in New York City. That's what's going on," Munro said.
Fox News Digital contacted the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association and the Detectives' Endowment Association, which runs the New York State Public Safety Alliance, for further comment.
Striking a Make America Safe Again tone, Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman blasted Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul as the "most pro-criminal governor" during a Monday campaign event riding the New York City subway system, which has been plagued by violent crimes and commuter safety fears.
"I have not heard from one person, and from all the people, that it's safer on the subways and public transportation in New York," Blakeman said as he rode the subway. "I've heard just the opposite. Everybody says they feel less safe."
Blakeman, a Nassau County executive, is a former commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Now running for governor, he was campaigning Monday in the densely populated city, which is overwhelmingly a Democratic stranglehold.
"Hire more police officers, hire more conductors, clean up our subways and get help for those who are emotionally ill – get them help that they need; not have them roam around our subways," Blakeman told reporters as he rode the subway, targeting both the governor and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the deep-blue area.
"The crime in the subways has gone up tremendously under Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani," Blakeman lamented. "They are not committed to public safety. I will be committed to public safety. I will make sure that our public transportation is safer and cleaner for the traveling public."
"That's how you get more people back in public transportation, not by putting a tax on them with congestion pricing, which is nothing more than a tax on the middle class," he added.
Blakeman hit Democrats for being negative influences on public safety, and Hochul specifically, for having "reduced the number of conductors on our trains and subways."
More police patrolling the subways and improving the lighting in dimly lit subway systems are on Blakeman's priority list, but he also discussed having more conductors manning the subways.
Hochul vetoed Albany legislation that would have required conductors on more subway trains, leaving the MTA’s one-person train operation program in place versus the June 2025 state-passed bill requiring at least two-person crews — an operator and conductor.
Hochul vetoed that bill on Dec. 5, 2025, arguing it would restrict MTA modernization efforts and cost up to $10 million annually.
"Police are very important, but I think people feel very comfortable and very safe when they see a conductor," Blakeman said. "I want to increase the numbers so that people feel safe."
Blakeman called Hochul "the most pro-criminal governor in the United States of America," citing several criminal-justice and immigration policies.
"Whether it’s cashless bail, Raise the Age, the HALT Act, Clean Slate, or refusing to cooperate with ICE and federal agents, she has made us less safe," he said, striking at Democrat-backed legislation long rebuked by police groups and Republican public safety hawks.
Cashless bail limits when judges can require defendants to put up money to be released. Raise the Age generally keeps 16- and 17-year-olds out of adult criminal court, while the HALT Act limits solitary confinement and changes prison disciplinary practices. The Clean Slate law seals certain criminal convictions from public view after a designated waiting period.
I visited an NYC coworking space, where startups spend up to $9,000 a month for a spot.
There was a private chef, a robot, and a love for in-person work.
The overall vibe more closely resembled a college campus than a midtown office.
I've been following and interviewing tiny team founders for the last year. As part of my ongoing research, I popped into the Series HQ workspace last month to observe how these founders are running their small teams.
As the elevator doors opened on the top floor of the Chelsea office building, the Series HQ office manager, a 21-year-old NYU student, greeted me. Balancing on a skateboard, the tall, young, and very casually dressed Gen Zer fit right in among the cohort of founders he works for.
Most of the founders at Series HQ are either straight out of college or under 30, with many of their startups being in early funding rounds.
"I do honestly think if you're 35 or 40 thinking about starting a company now, it's probably too late," Nathaneo Johnson, the 22-year-old Series cofounder, said. He recognizes that as a "harsh belief" but believes the average founder age at Series HQ reflects a growing community of young entrepreneurs.
Series itself was launched in 2024 by Johnson and Sean Hargrow as an AI social networking app for iMessage. After they both graduated from Yale and raised $5.1 million in pre-seed funding, the pair signed a lease for over 10,000 square feet of office space. They tacked on "HQ" to distinguish between the coworking space and the business.
When they moved their company into the building last October, they had roughly eight to 10 people on their team. The pair was preparing for growth, but AI has helped to keep their head count lean, and their tenants operate with similarly sized staff.
As I scanned the still mostly empty office, it seemed the tiny teams didn't require much to function. What stood out to me — more than the young, mostly male office demographic — was each company's desire to be around more people, despite operating with as few employees as possible.
The tiny teams here can spend up to $9,000 a month for shared space
I was at the office around 3 p.m. on a Thursday, and about a dozen people from at least five different companies were working, mostly young men and a few young women. The space usually hosts about 15 to 20 startups, and members have 24-hour access when possible, Johnson said.
Founder work pods at Series HQ.
Agnes Applegate/BI
In August, Series HQ charged between $1,250 and $4,000 for workstation pods that hold up to four people. For more privacy, founders can rent the glass pods for $5,000 to $9,000 a month. The more expensive rental options include meals cooked on-site by the private chef they hired last year to curb their takeout costs.
The kitchen at Series HQ
Agnes Applegate/BI
In the massive main room, across from the scattered row of founder workstations, was a basketball hoop and a roughly $21,000, beat-up robot holding a football.
The robot propped up in the Series HQ main office room.
Agnes Applegate/BI
When they talked about their robot, which was slightly broken during my visit, the room lit up.
It fascinated me that these founders would incur the expense to work in such a large office. They didn't need all of this physical space — which was, in some ways, obvious, as most of it still looked sparse with objects.
The main office room at Series HQ.
Agnes Applegate/BI
Many of the founders I talked to are around my age — 23 — and graduated from high school during the pandemic, when so much social and work interaction moved online. Now building companies, the appeal of Series HQ seemed to be less about the fancy office with a private rooftop and chef, and mainly about having like-minded coworkers to build in-person with.
Long hours mean more time together
Zain Ahmad, who was a summer tenant at Series HQ, works at the AI startup Evos. He said Evos found Series from the promotional drone videos that took over their social media platforms all summer.
"We figured if they're good enough to end up on both of our For You pages and get this much traction, there's a lot to learn from them and be in that space," he said.
Evos rented one of the private glass pods and, during my visit, gave me a tour of their space. Inside the small glass office, we stood in front of their two desks, chatting directly across from a small couch and coffee cart.
Evos rented one of the private glass pods at Series HQ.
Agnes Applegate/BI
In between investor calls, which he said were powered by cups of tea with creatine honey, Ahmad confessed he has taken quite a few naps on that couch. An average workday for them is around 8:30 a.m. to around 10 p.m., sometimes longer. As tenants of Series HQ, they were in the office around six days a week.
He explained the concrete environmental benefits for Evos, which creates specialized agentic AI workflows for traditional industries. Ahmad said they were able to meet a new hire because the new hire was another tenant at Series. They even learned about their most-used AI tool at the moment through the Series team: Aside, an AI-powered browser.
Turnover was high at the beginning of the experiment, Johnson said. Partly because some of the summer tenants were just in town between school semesters. But those tenants probably didn't feel too far from home, since the vibe here more closely resembled a college campus than a midtown office.
Nathaneo Johnson, Series cofounder, on the office's private roof.
Agnes Applegate/BI
The most important piece of growing an AI startup is still the human network
The majority of companies working in the space are AI or technology startups. Logan Milano, the 23-year-old founder of the drink brand Amryth, is one of the few non-tech founders. He recently graduated from college and said he spends well over 40 hours a week here despite living close by.
Milano said all he needs to operate his business is "my laptop, a good place to lock in, and being around other people who are building."
The main work room at Series HQ.
Agnes Applegate/BI
This was an overall sentiment I heard. Many of these young founders lived a hop, skip, and a jump away, based on the commutes they told me about. But simply being around others who are building is, in some ways, one of the biggest benefits.
"Even if we're getting dinner or going out or something, it's like you're still kind of thinking about work and it's all kind of related," he said about the Series community. Adding that "sourcing opportunities" everywhere likely drew them together and is their biggest similarity.
At a time when AI is making it possible to build companies with fewer employees and building solo can be the dream for many, these young founders don't need, or necessarily want to run their business with tons of employees, but they still seem to really want coworkers.
When I asked Milano if he's ever spent the night at the Series office, he smiled, looked over at one of the Series team members, and said, "Am I allowed to say?"
Do you have a story to share about working on a tiny team? If so, please reach out to the reporter ataapplegate@businessinsider.com.
On Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that 10,000 more seats under his signature free childcare for two-year-olds program will be covered in fall 2027. Under the expansion, all of the Bronx and Staten Island's school districts will be eligible.
"For far too many New York City families, the joy of welcoming a child comes with a terrifying set of questions: How will I afford child care? Will I need to give up my job? Will I be forced to leave the city I love?" Mamdani said in a statement. "Today, for 10,000 more families, we have an answer."
Those affordability questions loom large for urban parents around the country. Cities including New York have seen their under-five population fall since the onset of the pandemic.
Between April 2020 and July 2024, the population of children under five fell by 18% in New York City, per an analysis from the Economic Innovation Group. That population collapsed by 15% in San Francisco, 15% in Chicago's Cook County, and 14% in Los Angeles County over the same period. Lowering childcare costs, a key plank of Mamdani's platform, was one area where even CEOs agreed with the socialist.
In New York, families with kids under six were more than twice as likely to leave the city as families without younger children, according to a Fiscal Policy Institute analysis.
The share of two-year-olds in New York City's population fell as families fled the city during the pandemic, before rebounding somewhat in 2024 and 2025.
For parents still in the city, childcare costs for toddlers in care centers reached $23,400 annually in 2024, per an analysis from the comptroller's office. That means a New York family would have to earn at least $334,000 to pay only 7% of their family income for childcare, the federal definition of affordable.
The new 2-K program, which has reportedly faced implementation problems including funding and payment delays, initially targeted a handful of districts based on economic need and childcare demand.
Even as providers wrangle with funding issues and the program's rollout, children across the city recently started their first days in 2-K. At a Friends of Crown Heights center in Brooklyn, mother Jessica Arroyo said it meant "everything" to have her daughter accepted into 2-K.
"I can work in peace," Arroyo said. "She can learn, make new friends."
Are you a New Yorker or childcare provider involved with 2-K? Share your story with this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.
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