New York City has long been considered a writers’ town, attracting aspiring authors from all over the world. WNYC’s Amy Pearl visited the Bronx Library Center, where librarian Belarmino Ortega has started a writer's club for teens.

New York City is a notoriously noisy place, and all that noise can come out a cost. Prolonged exposure to loud sounds can have serious health effects. According to the EPA, it can cause high blood pressure, speech interference and stress related illnesses. In the first four months of this fiscal year, the NYPD found "unreasonable noise summonses" increased by 170% when compared to the first four months of fiscal year 2022. Councilmember Gale Brewer talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson about the bills she introduced last week to tackle noise pollution in the city. One would require emergency vehicles to use a "low frequency siren," and the second would ban the sale and use of "loud gas-powered leaf blowers."

Mayor Eric Adams wants to build a half million homes over the next decade, but that will be impossible without new tax incentives meant to spur housing development—and maybe even changes to current building codes to allow for single-room occupancy units, he said Monday. With budget negotiations underway in Albany, Adams said state lawmakers risk compounding the housing crisis if they fail to take up a tax break similar to the expired, and controversial, 421a program, which waives most property taxes in exchange for some income-restricted housing . “There is a complete drying up of the pipeline,” he said. “We can’t be so idealistic that we’re not realistic.”

It’s a family’s worst nightmare. After years of battling addiction, Leford Williams, 55, fatally overdosed in a Starbucks bathroom in the East Village on a cocktail of fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin. Police arrived, and EMS workers rushed him to Mount Sinai Hospital. But he couldn’t be saved. But for 53 days in 2022, Williams’ family had no idea what happened to him. They searched the streets, parks, rehab centers and hospitals, not knowing if he was dead or alive. When his remains were finally returned to them, they were “badly decomposed,” according to a letter from the funeral parlor. Read the full story on Gothamist.com.