Nicole Gelinas

Nicole Gelinas

Background

Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, focusing on urban economics. Her book on New York City transportation history is due to be released in late 2024.

Latest Articles

Hochul's new plan: congestion pricing for thee, not for me

Higher “prices” in the form of this new tax aren’t for everyone, of course: Only the private sector must pay.

NY should follow UK's lead and jail unlawful protesters

In Britain, prosecutors and judges are applying the law so that the illegal actions of demonstrators of all political stripes have real consequences.

Don't romanticize Europe's unreliable high-speed rail

One reason high-speed rail “works” in Europe is that its customers will put up with inconvenience and uncertainty that Americans would never tolerate.

What's the real migrant crime rate in NYC? We have no idea

Last Monday, Venezuelan migrant Sandra Serrano was shot and killed outside the Randall’s Island migrant shelter, caught in the crossfire in what police think was a retaliatory shooting for a robbery.

Adams' e-bike boondoggle does nothing for public safety

City Hall is rewarding delivery apps' irresponsible corporate behavior by subsidizing it, spending taxpayer money to do what employers should do: give workers safe equipment.

NYPD's whack-a-mole: crime drops in subway, spikes outside

New York’s public-safety resources are stretched thin, something Eric Adams has never addressed with a long-term plan.

City needs a jailbreak to escape pricey plan to close Rikers

Mayor Adams should scrap de Blasio's flawed program to build “smaller, safer, fairer" borough jails — before it sucks up even more money needed to fix bridges, schools and parks.

City's migrant debit-card spending balloons — as no-bid vendor rakes in a fortune

According to the city's no-bid contract, more than $250,000 went in fees to the company providing the cards.

City Council takes Adams for a ride on risky budget 'plane'

Mayor Adams brandished a toy airplane to boast of his $112.4 billion budget agreement with the City Council — but the deal showed he'd had no flight plan.

Mayor Adams quietly makes city's 'migrant crisis' permanent with budget spending

In his budget proposal, the mayor has finally admitted to reality — the migrant “crisis” is here to stay, to the tune of $4.7 billion next year.

How City Hall frittered away $41M on no-bid migrant shelter deal with dodgy DocGo

The secret no-bid contract with the dodgy company is paying $1,100 a day for a single social worker and $65 an hour to security guards.

No, the MTA won't collapse without congestion pricing cash

Gov. Hochul’s cancellation of congestion pricing weeks before its start has thrown the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority into a crisis that requires an immediate solution: She must either reverse course or enact...

Broadway sings New York's blues as post-COVID comeback lags

New York’s failure to control crime is slowing its tourism recovery, as new statistics from Broadway’s theater industry show.

Progressives’ next goal: normalizing sexploitation with legal 'sex work'

New York will never eradicate prostitution. But that doesn’t mean New York should normalize and encourage it, as it is has done with marijuana.

Adams needs to make NYC livable NOW — before complicating it with problematic new zoning

Mayor Adams' "City of Yes" rezoning push can have benefits, but the mayor must understand that without competent enforcement of existing laws and rules, different uses don’t so much mix...

Alvin Bragg can help end protest violence — by throwing the book at the perps

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has never been shy about being an activist prosecutor who uses the discretion his office affords him to decide what behavior Manhattan will put up...

Even the 'peaceful' campus protests are actually violent bullying

Students and other campus protesters are free to engage in nonviolent protests. But that’s not what they’re doing: This isn’t free speech via peaceful protest, but threatening and menacing the rest of...

Mayor Adams' new budget sets NYC (and him) up for big trouble in Summer 2025

By using city tax receipts to fund education and migrant spending, Mayor Adams' new budget is increasing the hole he'll have to close in his next budget, even as he...

A Democrat's last-minute maneuvering shows just how dysfunctional Albany is

New York has a $237 billion state budget, three weeks late. Lawmakers added $4 billion in spending above the $233 billion Gov. Hochul proposed in January.

Mayor Adams' half-baked LockerNYC program gives for-profit companies taxpayer resources

The mayor Wednesday channeled a “universal concern” of New Yorkers: “When our packages are dropped off” at our houses, “they are taken. You got to love New York, man,” he...