Issue #001 · March 22, 2026
Your NYC week, all in one place.
The best of what happened and what's coming up, curated for the people who live here.
🖥 Tech & Startups
This Week's Reads
The idea that the AI agents running your company might need their own security layer finally has a well-funded NYC company behind it — Onyx, built by ex-Unit 8200 veterans, is betting that keeping AI agents supervised is the next big problem to solve.
via SecurityWeekLegal AI Startup Legora Hits $5.55B Valuation After $550M Series DNYC's Legora just tripled its valuation in one raise — the legal profession's reckoning with AI is officially being funded at Big Law prices, even if the tool is theoretically there to replace them.
via BloombergHousehold Robotics Startup Sunday Is Now a Unicorn. Your Roomba Has Anxiety.Sunday's $165M Series B takes the humanoid home-robot company past a $1B valuation, with beta deliveries of its "Memo" robot expected by late 2026 — which means by next winter, some very early adopter in Brooklyn will have a robot doing their dishes.
via TechCrunchNYC Healthtech Conduit Is Using AI to Fight Insurance Bureaucracy for Medicare PatientsConduit Health closed a $17M Series A to keep scaling its platform that handles the nightmare of getting insurance to cover medical supplies — a problem so unglamorous that 50,000 patients are apparently thrilled someone finally addressed it.
via PR NewswireNYC Is Planning a Selective AI High School. The City's AI Rules Are Still Not Ready.The Department of Education is moving ahead with a new tech-focused high school meant to produce "builders and ethical users of AI," even as civil society groups keep pointing out the city doesn't have actual guardrails for AI use in schools yet.
via GothamistUpcoming Events
🎨 Art & Culture
This Week's Reads
After years of construction and considerable hype, the New Museum opens its 60,000-square-foot expansion on Saturday — free admission all weekend, 200+ artists in the inaugural show, and a genuine reason to brave the Bowery crowds.
via Time Out New YorkMoMA Opens Its Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Exhibition This SaturdayThe museum is opening what's expected to be its biggest show of the year — a deep look at both Kahlo and Rivera that goes well beyond the greatest-hits prints your college roommate had on their wall.
via HyperallergicTwo 30-Foot Reflective Steel Sculptures Just Appeared in Flatiron and the Meatpacking DistrictCharlotte Colbert's "Chasing Rainbows" dropped a pair of monumental mirrored sculptures on Manhattan this week — the kind of public art that makes you stop mid-commute and feel briefly like you live in a real city.
via Time Out New YorkThe Jewish Museum Is Showing Paul Klee's "Angelus Novus" — Walter Benjamin's Favorite PaintingThe Jewish Museum's new Klee retrospective opens Thursday, including the haunting 1920 watercolor that Benjamin famously interpreted as the "angel of history" being propelled backward into the future — still feels relevant, somehow.
via HyperallergicIt's Art Fair Week: Affordable Art Fair and Outsider Art Fair Are Both Happening Right NowTwo of the more approachable NYC fairs are running simultaneously — the Affordable Art Fair at Starrett-Lehigh through Sunday, the Outsider Art Fair at Metropolitan Pavilion — which means this weekend is legitimately a good time to buy something instead of just looking.
via Artnet NewsUpcoming Events
New Museum Grand Opening — Free Admission
New Museum, 235 Bowery
Sat–Sun, Mar 21–22
Free all weekend
Frida Kahlo + Diego Rivera — Opening
MoMA, Midtown
Sat, Mar 21
Through Sept 12
Affordable Art Fair Spring
Starrett-Lehigh Building, Chelsea
Through Sun, Mar 22
Closes this weekend
Outsider Art Fair
Metropolitan Pavilion, Chelsea
Through Sun, Mar 22
Closes this weekend
🎭 Entertainment
This Week's Reads
The city's inaugural Cinema Week runs March 20–26 with deeply discounted screenings and 5,000 free tickets distributed across independent theaters citywide — a genuine excuse to finally see that film you've been meaning to watch since it had Oscar buzz.
via NYC Mayor's Office of Media and EntertainmentLady Gaga's MAYHEM Ball Kicks Off at MSG This WeekGaga plays Madison Square Garden Thursday and Friday night as part of her massive new tour — tickets for the back half of her run are still available if you move fast and are willing to sacrifice your dinner-out budget for the month.
via Broadway World / MSGJohn Lithgow Plays Roald Dahl in "Giant" — Opens Sunday at Music Box TheatreThe new Broadway play "Giant" about Roald Dahl's complicated legacy opens Sunday with John Lithgow in the title role, and based on early word it does not shy away from the complicated parts — which is exactly what Broadway should be doing more of.
via New York TheaterDrag Reimagining "Cats: The Jellicle Ball" Now In Previews at BroadhurstThe much-buzzed retelling of Cats with an all-Black and queer cast began previews this week, and even skeptics of the source material are finding it hard to argue with a production that sounds like it finally figured out what the show is supposed to be about.
via New York TheaterRocky Horror Show Returns to Studio 54 Starting ThursdayA new production of The Rocky Horror Show begins previews at Studio 54 this Thursday — the venue that once hosted the actual debauchery the show fantasizes about, which at minimum makes it the most thematically appropriate casting decision of the season.
via New York TheaterUpcoming Events
Lady Gaga — The MAYHEM Ball
Madison Square Garden, Midtown
Thu–Fri, Mar 19–20
8:00 PM
NYC Cinema Week — 30+ Indie Theaters
Citywide (IFC, Metrograph, Angelika + more)
Mar 20–26
Discounted + free tix
Giant — Opening Night (John Lithgow as Roald Dahl)
Music Box Theatre, Broadway
Sun, Mar 23
7:00 PM
The Rocky Horror Show — First Previews
Studio 54, Upper West Side
Thu, Mar 26
8:00 PM
🍜 Food & Drink
This Week's Reads
The semifinalist list is always the most interesting moment in the Beard cycle — before the politics and the campaigning, it's just a snapshot of what the city's food community actually thinks is excellent right now.
via Time Out New YorkTwo-Michelin-Star Chef Gabriel Kreuther Just Opened a Live-Fire Brasserie in Hudson YardsKreuther's new restaurant Saverne brings a modern Alsatian brasserie to Hudson Yards — a neighborhood that has been valiantly trying to develop a food identity, and finally has a serious chef taking a crack at it.
via Time Out New YorkUgly Baby Is Back — The Beloved Williamsburg Thai Spot Just Reopened as Ugly Baby 2.0The Carroll Gardens cult Thai restaurant relocated and relaunched in Williamsburg with an updated menu and the same commitment to heat levels that made its regulars so annoyingly evangelical about it.
via The InfatuationBar Susanne Opens in Williamsburg With a Riverfront Patio and a Serious Martini ListThe new Williamsburg bar at 6 River St is positioning itself as the answer to "where do I go when I want a very good drink and can see water," with a seafood-forward menu and a martini selection that reportedly justified the rent.
via The InfatuationJAPAN Fes Is Back Next Weekend — Takoyaki, Yakisoba, and 30+ EventsThe massive annual Japanese street food festival returns March 28 to Astor Place before moving to Midtown on March 29, and if you've never had fresh takoyaki from a street stall in the East Village, this is a pretty good time to fix that.
via Time Out New YorkUpcoming Events
🗳 Politics & Civic
This Week's Reads
Civil liberties groups are sounding the alarm over a City Council proposal that would create buffer zones limiting demonstrations near schools and religious sites — the kind of restriction that sounds reasonable in the abstract until you remember what protest restrictions have historically been used to suppress.
via GothamistTWU Local 100 Is Suing the MTA Over Subway Booth Closures — AgainThe transit workers' union filed another lawsuit this week claiming the MTA closed subway station booths without the public hearings legally required first, and also that the closures disproportionately harm riders with disabilities — two fairly strong arguments that deserve more attention than they're getting.
via THE CITYMayor Mamdani Creates NYC's First Standalone Office of LGBTQIA+ AffairsThe new office will be led by Taylor Brown, making her the first transgender person to lead a New York City office or agency — a genuinely notable first in a city that has not always moved as fast on these things as its reputation suggests.
via NYC Mayor's OfficeMamdani Adds 1,000+ Free Pre-K Seats Across All Five BoroughsThe mayor announced a major expansion of 3-K programs reaching 56 ZIP codes, with Governor Hochul also coming in on free 2-K seats — the kind of unglamorous but substantive childcare policy that doesn't trend but actually matters.
via NYC Mayor's OfficeCity Council Found Nearly $1.7 Billion the Mayor's Budget Didn't Account ForThe Council's budget analysts identified $1.4B in debt service adjustments and additional resources that could fund city services without touching the rainy day fund — a finding that tends to go unnoticed by everyone except the people who will spend the next six months arguing about it.
via NYC City CouncilUpcoming Events
🏃 Sports & Fitness
This Week's Reads
The United Airlines NYC Half went off last Sunday with 30,000 runners crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, running through Times Square, and finishing in Central Park — a reminder that this city contains a subculture of people who voluntarily do this at 7am, and they are thriving.
via NYRRJosh Hart Dropped 33 Points on 12-of-13 Shooting and the Knicks Are Looking SeriousHart's near-perfect shooting performance in the 136-110 blowout of Indiana on Monday is exactly the kind of game that makes Knicks fans — a people conditioned by decades of heartbreak — start to quietly believe this year might actually be different.
via NBA.comIgor Shesterkin Made 46 Saves and the Rangers Have Won 4 in a RowShesterkin's performance against Minnesota last week — stopping 46 of 48 shots in a 4-2 win — was the kind of goaltending display that makes you understand why the Rangers built their entire franchise identity around one man's ability to stand in a crease.
via NHL.comSt. John's Got a No. 5 Seed in the NCAA Tournament — Queens Is Locked InThe Red Storm earned the program's best seed in years and will enter March Madness with genuine upset potential — a fact that will be treated with cautious optimism by everyone from Queens who's learned not to celebrate too early.
via amNewYorkNYCFC Opens Its Season with a 3-1 Win Over Colorado — Nicolas Fernández Scores TwiceThe Cityzens look sharp in their home opener at Yankee Stadium, with Fernández's two-goal first half setting the tone for a comfortable win and making a strong early case for why this might finally be NYCFC's year to push deep.
via NYCFC / amNewYorkUpcoming Events
Knicks vs. Nets — Battle of NY
Barclays Center, Brooklyn
Fri, Mar 20
7:30 PM
NYCFC vs. Inter Miami — Messi at Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium, The Bronx
Sun, Mar 22
5:00 PM
Rangers vs. Winnipeg Jets
Madison Square Garden, Midtown
Sun, Mar 22
12:00 PM
Monumental Women Run — NY Flyers Run Club
Central Park (meet at NYRR HQ)
Sun, Mar 22
9:00 AM · Free