Friday, July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Friday, July 25, 2025 

Welcome to another Friday edition of the Tech:NYC Digest, featuring our favorite five highlights in New York tech this week.

Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

TikTok loves the New York City he built out of balsa wood (New York Times)

  • Joe Macken is the first to admit he’s no architect. But that didn’t stop him from building most of New York City. Or at least a miniature version of it.

    • It’s taken 21 years and more than $10,000, but using an X-acto knife, Elmer’s Glue-All, balsa wood, and foam-core boards, he’s created a model of the five boroughs (and gone viral on TikTok as a result).

    • The one structure he didn’t build himself? The Statue of Liberty, which he’s never visited. “I’m a real New Yorker,” he said. “Real New Yorkers don’t go to the Statue of Liberty.” 🗽

NYC launches $3.2M Wi-Fi pilot program to bring free internet to 2,200 struggling families (New York Post)

  • The city has launched a three-year pilot program, named “Liberty Link,” to provide free or low-cost Wi-Fi to 35 affordable housing buildings, reaching 2,200 households in upper Manhattan and the Bronx. 🛜

    • The program will be run by New York Public Libraries and the city’s Housing and Preservation Department, which provides free one-on-one tech help based out of Big Apple book-lenders.

Why we chose 199 Water Street over Midtown (and what it taught me about building) (The Emotional Edge)

  • When Wei Chen (Archer) Chiang, Founder and CEO of Giftpack.ai, was looking for a new company office in NYC, he started walking throughout the city. He wanted to gain more insight into how NYC worked and where different types of companies clustered.

    • Despite others telling him to go to Midtown, he chose a downtown office spot with water views, Wall Street proximity, and where the “new money” crowd worked.

    • Ever since, his employees have loved working from the office “because they want to be part of the energy, the speed, the culture of building something meaningful in the most competitive city in the world.”

From bullied Bronx teen to yo-yo star: How Richard Pigkaso found his joy (Bronx Times)

  • Two weeks in a row with a yo-yo story in our Friday Digest! Despite being bullied as a kid, Bronx native Richard Pigkaso has found joy in an unsuspecting toy: A yo-yo. He’s now been yo-yoeing for over two decades, has collected over 3,500 yo-yos from across the world, and competed on the international yo-yo stage. 🪀

    • This October, he’s hosting the New York State Yo-Yo Contest at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, where players from across the region will compete. 

No, Steve Burns isn’t dead or a robot — ‘Blue’s Clues’ host is alive and baring his soul on an East Village Stage (amNY)

  • From 1996 to 2002, Steve Burns was best known for solving mysteries alongside his pet dog on Nickelodeon's ‘Blue’s Clues.’ But after his time on the show ended, the biggest mystery followed him around: What happened to him after he left the show? 🔍


Solve a mystery this weekend, New York! 🕵️

Daily Digest Rewards 🎁 

Treat yourself: Send subscribers our way, and we’ll send swag your way.

1 Referral: Shoutout in the Digest
5 Referrals: Obviously NYC Hat
10 Referrals: Obviously NYC Tote Bag
25 Referrals: Obviously NYC Sweatshirt

You currently have 0 referrals, only 1 away from receiving a Shoutout in the Tech:NYC Digest.

Or share your personal link with others: https://technycdigest.beehiiv.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

Any feedback or suggestions of things to add? Get in touch here.
Was this digest forwarded to you? Sign up to receive it directly here.