Queens power cut in heat emergency; 4,991 sleep outside. New York Explained for July 4, 2026.

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July 4, 2026
The Front Page
Con Edison deliberately cut power to 9,800 customers in Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, and South Ozone Park on July 3, and reduced voltage 8% for nearly 400,000 more across Brooklyn and Queens, as the heat index hit 115 degrees. [64]
NYC's annual street count found 4,991 people sleeping outside, the highest in more than a decade, while the city ended Mainchance's $3.8 million contract and closed Midtown East's only drop-in center during the heat emergency. [21][51]
Mayor Mamdani delivered an America 250 address from behind George Washington's desk at City Hall, flanked by 10 newly naturalized citizens, criticizing "masked agents terrorizing our streets." [22]
MTA Chair Janno Lieber declined to sign Amtrak's collaboration agreement for the Penn Station rebuild; Andy Byford told Gothamist that Amtrak's construction timeline proceeds regardless. [52]
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce married at Madison Square Garden Thursday night, with Adam Sandler officiating and tourists stumbling into blocked streets outside. [9][31]
The Queens BlackoutPhoto: bronx times

The Queens Blackout

Transit & StreetsThe Bronx1 newsroomRead the story →
Record Homelessness on the StreetPhoto: el diario

Record Homelessness on the Street

Public Safety & JusticeManhattan2 newsrooms
 Mamdani's America 250Photo: spectrum

Mamdani's America 250

Politics & GovernmentCitywide2 newsrooms
Story: the day’s big ones, in their own words and numbers

The Queens Blackout

The Queens Blackout
Photo: bronx times

Con Edison cut power to 9,800 customers in Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, and South Ozone Park on July 3, and reduced voltage 8% for nearly 400,000 more across Brooklyn and Queens, as the heat index hit 115 degrees. [64] A prior wave of outages had knocked out more than 80,000 customers from Thursday into Friday morning. [64] THE CITY reported the grid line built to cushion heat emergencies, the $6 billion Champlain Hudson Power Express (339 miles of cable from Quebec to a converter station in Astoria), had tripped offline at 5:30 a.m. on July 1, its first day under state contract, staying dark for most of the day as the heat index broke 105.

“Set your AC to 78°F and power off all non-essential electronics.”
Con Edison customer advisory · [64]
By the numbers
  • 9,800customers deliberately cut off in southwest Queens, neighborhoods from Howard Beach to South Ozone Park [64]
  • ~400,000more customers hit with an 8% voltage reduction across Brooklyn and Queens [64]
  • 80,000+customers knocked out in a prior round of outages, Thursday through Friday morning [64]
  • 115 degreespeak heat index recorded citywide, July 3 [64]
The thread
  1. Feb 2010Blackstone-backed Transmission Developers announces the Champlain Hudson Power Express, 339 miles from the Canadian border to Astoria, to carry Quebec hydropower to New York City.
  2. May 2026The line enters commercial operation, 16 years after it was first proposed; the state says it can cover up to 20% of NYC's power needs, enough for over a million homes.
  3. Jul 1, 2026CHPE trips offline at 5:30 a.m. on its first day under contract; grid managers issue conservation warnings and cut power to Riverdale as the heat index breaks 105.
  4. TodayCon Ed cuts 9,800 southwest Queens customers and reduces voltage for 400,000 more as the heat index climbs to 115. [64]
WatchFriday is forecast to hit 101 degrees, the heat wave's peak; Hydro-Quebec says the line is back online, and it faces its first full test at summer demand. ---
FromBronx Times

Record Homelessness on the Street

Record Homelessness on the Street
Photo: el diario

NYC's annual HOPE count found 4,991 people sleeping outside, the highest in more than a decade and 11% above last year's tally. [21] On June 30, the Department of Homeless Services ended its $3.8 million annual contract with Mainchance, the drop-in center at 120 East 32nd Street in Midtown East that fed about 300 people daily and provided 72 chairs for rest, the only such hub in that neighborhood, closing it during a heat emergency. [51] The city stationed two vans outside to redirect displaced clients to drop-in centers on 14th Street, 52nd Street, and West 30th Street. [51]

“I don't think these folks are going to go to downtown or way over to the West Side.”
Council Member Gale Brewer · [51]
“It's the only drop-in center...that provides such services. What's going to happen to these clients?”
Marc Gross, Mainchance Board Chair · [51]
By the numbers
  • 4,991people counted sleeping outside, highest in over a decade [21]
  • 11%increase from last year's HOPE count [21]
  • $3.8 millionannual contract the city ended with Mainchance [51]
  • 300people fed daily at Mainchance; 72 chairs for daytime rest [51]
WatchWhether DHS's three alternative drop-in sites can absorb 300 daily Mainchance clients before the heat breaks. ---
FromEl Diario NYGothamist

Mamdani's America 250

Mamdani's America 250
Photo: spectrum

Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered an America 250 address from behind George Washington's desk at City Hall on July 3, standing alongside 10 recently naturalized American citizens holding American flags. [22] He named the Trump administration's immigration enforcement tactics in blunt visual terms, criticizing both the agents' methods and the conditions that built the city's undocumented population. [22] The New York Post reported obtaining an early draft of the speech showing the press team's internal editing debates over phrasing, turning a story about what the mayor said into a story about how carefully his staff crafted it. [38]

“For generation after generation, we have been told that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, City Hall · [22]
“We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani · [22]
“We see a nation whose immense wealth has been built by those with calloused, dirt-streaked hands.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani · [22]
By the numbers
  • 250years since the Declaration of Independence [22]
  • 10recently naturalized citizens present at the City Hall address [22]
WatchHow the White House responds, and whether Mamdani's framing of enforcement sharpens the city-federal standoff over sanctuary policy through the holiday. ---
FromPolitics | Spectrum News NY1Breaking NYC News & Local Headlines | New York Post

Around the Boroughs

  • Manhattan (Harbor): Nearly 100 ships parade the East River today in Sail4th, the July 4 tallship fleet review marking America's 250th. [41]
  • Citywide: The Macy's show over the Hudson tonight fires 85,000 fireworks shells, with displays reaching from Manhattan into the Bronx, Brooklyn, and New Jersey, and street closures starting this afternoon. [5]
  • Queens (Astoria): Elected officials broke ground July 3 on a battery energy storage facility at 24-51 49th Street, adding grid capacity the city badly needed this week. [24]
  • Queens: A New York City Council staffer was allegedly assaulted by a contractor at NineDot Energy's battery storage site; police are investigating. [39]
  • Citywide: The Empire Bins containerized-trash program will eliminate about 30,000 parking spots by 2032; Manhattan's upscale blocks get hit first. [40]
  • Citywide: Open primary advocates delivered 45,000 petition signatures to the Board of Elections on Thursday, enough to force a referendum question onto the November ballot. [53]
  • Brooklyn (Coney Island): Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo return this morning to defend their Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest titles on Surf Avenue. [29]
  • Statewide: A bill letting pharmacies charge patients a $10 fee per prescription sits on Governor Hochul's desk; pharmacies say it saves the industry, advocates say patients pay more. [56]
  • Brooklyn (Red Hook): A housing lottery opened for 88 affordable units at 498 Columbia Street (Columbia Commons 1); income-qualified applicants apply through NYC Housing Connect. [62]
  • Brooklyn (Bushwick): Saint Vitus Bar is reopening at 428 Troutman Street this fall, moving the metal and punk venue out of its longtime Greenpoint home. [79]
  • Bronx (Yankee Stadium): Trent Grisham went 3-for-4 in his return from the injured list Thursday, snapping the Yankees' seven-game losing streak against Minnesota. [102]
  • Bronx/Queens: Moishe Parkash, the city's perennial "worst landlord," was forced to sell three Bronx buildings in a deal with his lender. [50]
  • Manhattan (Statue of Liberty): Artists projected anti-deportation messages onto the base of the Statue of Liberty overnight, reclaiming the monument on the eve of America's 250th. [85]
  • Manhattan: The Knicks signed veteran center Andre Drummond to a one-year deal, adding a physical big man for next season. [111]
  • Brooklyn (Barclays Center): The Liberty host the Minnesota Lynx tonight in a WNBA Finals rematch, fresh off a win over Las Vegas on Thursday. [100]

Only in New York

Only in New York
Photo: qns

Robert Pozarycki went back to Aqueduct Racetrack on June 28 with his brothers, Chris and Steve, for the last card ever run at The Big A. His son David came too. Three generations in the apron, or nearly: their father, who used to press a $5 bill into Robert's hand when a bet paid off ("$10 if he really had a good day"), died on June 29, 2021. One day shy of the five-year mark.

The track opened in 1894. In its time it was the world's largest racetrack. It closed on a Friday afternoon in late June with the family watching from the apron. Pozarycki writes that as a kid he had to strain his neck over the chainlink fence to see the toteboard, that "television could not do it justice." He still went back. "That money disappeared long ago," he writes of his father's little gifts, "but in some ways, it has always remained with me." [68]