What do you get when you mix E. Williamsburg factories with 20-somethings? Two decades of indoor skateparks, explosions, rooftop shows, building-wide ragers, hostel rackets, porn studios, bed bugs — and more! My latest Bio of a Building for
@NYMag
/
@Curbed
.
Some personal news: Just wrapped up my first official week as a reporter with the
@nypost
Sunday team! Thrilled to be diving into the weird and wild and everything in between across the city. Send me all your metro goss at msedacca
@nypost
.com.
“I’m not looking to have a huge insurance payout after this. I just want to reopen my doors and hire my staff back.” Amid the pandemic and mandated shutdowns, restaurants' insurance claims are getting rejected, cutting off a much-needed lifeline.
Some personal news: It's my first day as a fellow at
@TheCounter
! I'm excited to be joining such an incredible and smart team to track the winding Covid-19 recovery efforts in restaurants and agriculture. Holler at matthew.sedacca
@thecounter
.org.
There are a lot of bangers in
@ShawnMcCreesh
's report on DC's return, but few top this analysis of Biden having a good time: "Like a German shepherd running into an electric fence, Mr. Biden cuts himself off whenever he begins to hold forth too long."
The New York City rental market has become so hot that building superintendents are now getting burned. My latest for
@Curbed
/
@NYMag
on how a beloved McKibbin Lofts super is getting kicked out of his home.
We hear about closures and layoffs in this industry all the time, but this news was a total surprise and devastating to me and so many of my colleagues.
UWS Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal — who trumpets not being interested in building more market-rate housing for New Yorkers — has been living in a palatial, rent-stabilized apartment in a landmarked building for 40 years. Solid scoop by
@LevineJonathan
My last Biography of a Building this year for
@nymag
: Villa Charlotte Bronte in the Bronx, where neighbors while the hours away yacht-watching along the Hudson, and where a dinner party once determined entry into the co-op
For
@TheCounter
@hclaire_brown
,
@jesstiafu
and I spoke with food industry workers who posted "We All Quit" signs on their former employers' doors, and what that led to their collective breaking points this year.
Seances and talks on biopsychoanalysis in Buddhism were once the norm at the Master, built to honor the theosophist Nicholas Roerich. Today, its studios are home to qi gong practitioners, pianists and a sulcata tortoise. My latest for
@NYMag
/
@Curbed
.
For
@nymag
/
@Curbed
, I spoke with residents at Olympic Tower, an LLC hive obsessed with anonymity (yet filled with residents happy to dish about their homes). Oh did they have stories to tell—about deposed foreign leaders, quaaludes rings, and more!
Ellies 2021:
@NYMag
nominated in Leisure Interests category for three “Biography of a Building” articles by
@matthewsedacca
: “Graham Court: The Gilded Age Rental”
#ellies
. . .
Haven for skaters and ravers, or anarchical green space? Lately, everyone seems to have an opinion about Washington Square Park, so we spent 48 hrs in this 10-acre village to see what’s going on. W/
@louisgcheslaw
@spiccoli
@KevinTDugan
@jackwdenton
The California State Assembly passed AB 257 yesterday, which would give fast food workers the ability to negotiate with franchisees and corporations for better pay and working conditions affecting an estimated 557,000 individuals.
@TheCounter
Restaurant growth has boomed in the past decade, and number of jobs in the industry are at an all-time high. But salaries for cooks barely inched along, and head cooks and chefs are dipping out for other industries. My latest for
@Eater
.
Harlem’s Graham Court has evolved over a century from a ritzy Gilded Age apartment complex into a powerhouse of politicians, athletes and music teachers. For a new
@NYMag
series, I spoke with new and legacy tenants about this storied institution.
Honored to receive the Rev. Mychal Judge Heart of New York Award for the
@nymag
Biography of a Building series. Forever grateful to Katy Schneider,
@swerdle
and the staff that brought these stories to life!
Congratulations to all of the winners in this year’s
@NYPressClub
Awards for Journalism. We had a record number of entries this year! Here’s the list of winners:
Ellies 2021:
@NYMag
wins Leisure Interests category for three “Biography of a Building” articles by
@matthewsedacca
. Congratulations to David Haskell and team!
#ellies
. . .
One Fifth Avenue: where apartment-buying is sport, lobby renovations could spark revolutions, and the downstairs restaurant has gone from hosting SNL cast ragers to becoming an industry jinx. My latest Building Bio for
@nymag
/
@curbed
.
Chemotherapy often robs patients of their sense of taste during their battle against cancer. Several of them told me it was the hardest part of their treatment. My latest for
@taste_cooking
"At one McDonald’s in Santa Monica, 911 calls became so frequent that the city ultimately ordered the restaurant to shut down, before allowing it to open at reduced hours."
@jesstiafu
on the violence crisis plaguing fast-food workers.
I'm so lucky to be a part of this team that's been doing phenomenal work covering food and agricultural. If you enjoy the work we've been doing, please support our nonprofit newsroom!
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader support is what allows us to continue doing what we do best: investigating the forces shaping what and how America eats.
Give today to help us end our fiscal year strong.
Frank Trolly first hit the road as a cabbie when the meter started at just a quarter. 62 years later, the 89-year-old is still motoring around the city six days a week, 12 hours a day, fueled by tea and Queens deli subs.
Food banks and pantries have navigated a dizzying array of pandemic-era challenges to help feed their communities this Thanksgiving, from Hail Mary calls for coveted turkeys to paying nearly double for canned green beans.
@TheCounter
@TIME
@ruddyroye
@WSJMag
ASME Awards 2022:
@NYMag
wins Best News and Entertainment Story category for “What’s Going On in Washington Square Park?,” photographs by Daniel Arnold and Daniel Galicia . Congratulations David Haskell, Daniel Arnold, Daniel Galicia and team!
#ASMEawards
I was overjoyed last year to start my fellowship at
@thecounter
alongside so many talented journalists who have doggedly reported on the food and agriculture spaces for years. It’s an understatement to say that the publication’s shuttering on May 20 will be a huge loss.
At the wine bar Rhodora, nothing that enters its premises will be sent to a landfill, and not a single traditional trash bin can be found on site. My latest for
@nytimes
.
.
@ShawnMcCreesh
finally tells us how he really feels: “Today’s media landscape is an artless and unsexy place…a lowveld of SPACs and substacks. Newsletters badly in need of editing lard inboxes, while journalists spend their days flinging mud on Twitter.”
With GrubHub and UberEats expanding, companies like
@SlicePizzaApp
are helping independent restaurateurs take a bigger bite out of the online food delivery market. My latest for
@nytimesbusiness
Now that my blood is more or less 85 percent rum, here are some of the best places to get tiki — and tiki-ish — drinks (including one served in a giant sea dragon pineapple shell that I named Sam).
It's been a big week for Starbucks organizers: Four more stores have filed for union elections in the last week alone, and another store in the Buffalo area has officially unionized.
@TheCounter
The prodigal
@AlexVadukul
wrote his magnum opus on City Island's former musical wunderkind Saul Chandler, who played Carnegie Hall by 13, but now spends his days on boats.
"I’m angry that I was protesting police brutality and fell victim to police brutality," said Balin Brake, who lost an eye after being hit by a tear gas canister.
As food industry employees continue stocking grocery shelves or serving coffee amid a pandemic, some say companies are wielding the public health crisis as a tool for cracking down on union and worker organizing. My latest for
@Eater
.
"If I don’t work, we don’t eat.” Grocery and delivery businesses have gone on coronavirus hiring sprees, but for some restaurants workers, switching to retail hasn't been so easy. My latest for
@eater
.
“The Post witnessed hundreds of bloodthirsty spectators cheering on five unlicensed matches near the park’s triumphal arch, including one contest that lasted six rounds.” Sounds like a good time tbh!
For those of us jonesing for Great NY Noodletown's legendary scallion noodles, an employee just confirmed that they're reopening tomorrow (
@remytumin
with the IG eagle eyes)
As restaurants face the industry’s worst labor crisis in decades, businesses are filling the void via on-demand staffing apps for cooks and oyster shuckers. Will this solve the shortage, or further hinder the field? W/
@yaffebellany
In his latest love letter to New York,
@AlexVadukul
chronicles the "Irish Forrest Gump," the battle against aging and a final 100-mile run across the Emerald Isle.
What can you do in just 15 minutes? Ignite a fiery brand war resulting in online pandemonium, extremely overworked employees and insatiable hunger for a chicken sandwich. Dive into what went down at Popeyes HQ and across the country. W/
@yaffebellany
Forget Atlantic City: High-rollers have transformed Columbus Park into an open-air casino, where grannies blast cigarette after cigarette while throwing down $1000s a hand without breaking a sweat. W/
@Rich_Calder
“Ms. Lazarus approached her inquiries from a more philosophical level as well, seemingly trying to answer a bigger question: Why exactly do people do what they do for a living during their relatively brief time on earth?”
From unions to collective bargaining mediated through Facebook groups, organizing is gaining steam in the food and beverage industries. My latest for
@Eater
The Biden administration announced pandemic relief grants of up to $600 program for meatpacking and farm workers, but it could take up to two years for workers to see the money. Story w/
@hclaire_brown
There are a number of incredible stories about workers in food service over on
@thecounter
today:
@TheTinaVasquez
on the multigenerational, multiracial coalition of workers organizing in a vehemently anti-worker state.
"Cars now drive past Zoltar blasting music from open windows and drunk friends take turns pushing dollar bills into him. And his words of wisdom, printed on yellow cards, are sputtering out again."
@AlexVadukul
on how Gem Spa lives on in Bushwick.
Following an inquiry from The Post, Prince Judaica pulled the late Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky’s pants down from its upcoming auction. “We demand they put the pants back on,” one prospective bidder fumed.
When Covid hit New York, tourism dried up, but pianist Colin Huggins continued the Sisyphean task of lugging his baby grand to and from Washington Square Park to eke out a living.
@AlexVadukul
on busking and life when the music stops.
Since the start of the pandemic, community fridges have popped up as a mix of social hubs and food distribution centers. Despite pushback and logistical hurdles, organizers hope these fridges will provide avenues for food access in the long-run.
From its inception, the building was marketed as a luxe crash pad for the global elite. There were various nobles and foreign billionaires, tin magnates and socialites, banking tycoons, Lebanese politicos, and even the manager of KISS.
I used to spill mustard on my shirt all the time as a kid. I wrote about wearing your food in a more fashionable way for
@Eater
, thanks to amazing editors
@whitneyfilloon
and
@superdaniela
!
"For over two years, Davilla had worked at Wash Supply, making $8.75 an hour at first and then increasing to $11 dollars by the time she was fired; well below New York’s minimum wage of $15-per-hour."
Despite Covid cases once again skyrocketing across New York City, heads of ER departments say they feel "cautiously optimistic" about handling the coming influx of patients.