How a developer worked her way into the mayor's orbit

And it's SUMMER! #83

Hello and happy Friday before the big introduction-to-summer weekend. If you were looking for a long read before you get to where you’re going, how’s this opus from us at THE CITY (and Documented and The Guardian) about real estate developer Weihong Hu.

Hu threw fundraisers for the mayor in 2021 and is now reaping millions of city tax dollars through contracts, including using her Fresh Meadows hotel as a shelter for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers.

But as my colleagues found out through dogged reporting, the hotel also housed mayoral staffer Winnie Greco for months on the taxpayer’s dime, and mayoral son Jordan Coleman and a woman at least once. The mayor even visited Greco at the hotel, sources said.

There’s a lot more — too much to recap — and I encourage you to just sit back and read the whole thing.

This week I also wrote about the mayor’s announcing a charter review commission helmed by by Carlo Scissura. The announcement came after the council said they wanted to put a referendum on the ballot focused on transparency — but you can’t have charter revisions questions and ballot referendums on the same ballot.

You can read more here.

A few other great stories from THE CITY:

Regulated apartments are vanishing
A fascinating story about groundwater
The latest on the state cannabis licensing, with changes spurred by THE CITY

And other interesting stories

Greenpoint is getting a Jackson Heights classic [EATER]
New Jersey got another earthquake today [NJ.COM]
The Sherpas who made there way to Queens want another crack at the world’s tallest mountain [WSJ]

🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

Weegee took this before I was born and I’m just sharing the postcard.

Also: it’s (unofficially) summer!

We launched Summer & THE CITY this week, with a focus on the crew of Parks Department staffers who make sure the Coney Island boardwalk gets fixed. Our newsletter also included a Q+A with the carpentry supervisor who oversees it all. If you haven’t signed up yet, it’s not too late! You can get 11 more summer issues in your inbox every Wednesday afternoon.

I’m going all in on summer this year. Reporting on the boardwalk repairs last week had me wistful for my youth spent biking up and down the Rockaway boardwalk. The sound was so familiar (I talked about it on this week’s FAQ) and I later reflected on my luck to be raised in New York City but at the beach, surrounded by friends and neighbors and block parties and that favorite tradition of passing the jug of iced tea or lemonade around on the short walk back home, drinking the sugary sediment.

I wrote a fake Q+A last year about visiting Rockaway, focused on being safe and having fun and not drowning. It all still stands.

A friend posted a work of art on Instagram and shared that “maybe this is your invincible summer” and it seemed a little hopeful amidst the realities of the world. But that’s what I’ll bring into Memorial Day weekend, and I hope you will, too.

Thanks for reading!