Friday, February 13, 2026
Welcome to another Friday edition of the Tech:NYC Digest, featuring our favorite five highlights in New York and tech this week.
Programming note: We’re off on Monday for Presidents Day. We’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday.
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Brooklyn high school becomes first in NYC to heat entirely with vegetable oil biofuel. Here's how it works (CBS News)
The 4,000-student Edward R. Murrow High School has ditched fossil fuels and is now heating its entire campus with what’s essentially repurposed French fry oil. 🍟
The result is a fully-heated school with a much lower carbon footprint.
The system passed its first brutal winter test without anyone noticing a difference (except for maybe a McDonald’s craving or two).
How to use data to fight for safe streets and stop super speeders (Streetsblog NYC)
Speeding causes roughly one in three traffic deaths in New York — and a handful of repeat offenders rack up ticket after ticket. 🚦
In December, a group of college coders won a hack-a-thon dedicated to using data to make streets safer.
They built a tool that takes in speeding and traffic violation data, cleans and standardizes it, and flags drivers that meet the definition of a super speeder.
Exhibition featuring amazing MetroCard-inspired artwork coming to Grand Central Transit Museum next month (amNY)
MetroCards may be out of stock, but they’re not out of style. 😎
In March, a new exhibit will showcase original art pieces that use MetroCards as canvases for paintings, building blocks for sculptures, and elements for collages.
Don’t worry, you won’t have to use your OMNY card to enter the exhibit. 😉
Safe house linked to Underground Railroad discovered in Manhattan (Spectrum News)
Architects uncovered a concealed vertical passage inside the Merchant’s House Museum on East Fourth Street — Manhattan’s first landmarked building — believed to have sheltered enslaved people seeking freedom in the 1800s.
Historians call the 2-by-2-foot hidden shaft and ladder a “generational find,” and the new discovery is poised to become part of the museum’s public narrative.
Five ways to spend Valentine’s Day in NYC (Gothamist)
Love it or loathe it, Valentine’s Day lands on a Saturday this year — which means it’s even harder to avoid.
Need some fun ideas? Try watching Sleepless in Seattle inside the Empire State Building or bundling up for a seafood-and-absinthe soirée inside the 44-degree Fulton Fish Market.
Is romance dead to you? The Bronx Zoo will let you name a cockroach after your ex. 🪳💘
Have a lovely weekend, New York! ♥️
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