Kim Velsey

Subway ridership is at its highest numbers since the 1940s – 1.75 billion riders last year. But an increase in popularity does not mean an increase in quality.  

Long Island College Hospital was closed this year, emergency funding has kept Interfaith from closing, and a 2011 state report has identified at least three other Brooklyn hospitals on the brink of financial collapse.

In January, the city’s homeless population exceeded 50,000, the highest number since the Great Depression. Kim Velsey, New York Observer senior editor, talks about the growing number of homeless families that made up most of the city’s shelter population. She'll be joined by joined by Anne Pierre, a homeless mother Velsey wrote about in her article “The Return of Hooverville,” in the April 29 New York Observer.