Friday, November 21, 2025
Welcome to another Friday edition of the Tech:NYC Digest, featuring our favorite five highlights in New York and tech this week.
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In a skyscraper city, they fix cobblestone streets by hand (New York Times)
Talk about next level IKEA skills: Meet the six bricklayers who preserve NYC’s last cobblestone blocks. These streets date back to Dutch-era New York and must be laid stone-by-stone, exactly as they were centuries ago.
Only 15 miles of cobblestone remain out of the city’s 6,300 — down from 140 miles in Manhattan alone in 1949.
So few people know how to lay cobblestones that the Transportation Department hires bricklayers and trains them in the specialty. 🧱
NYCEDC announces applications for 2026 Founder Fellowship program, addressing inequities in tech ecosystem and launch of founder alumni program (NYCEDC)
Get your applications in for the next Founder Fellowship, which will support 60 NYC startups across four cohorts and help underrepresented founders access networks, mentorship, and nearly $1 million in funding. 💪
Since 2022, the program has backed 393 founders across 243 companies — nearly 80% with a BIPOC founder — who’ve collectively raised over $170 million and hired more than 160 employees.
Universities need more AI, not less 🤖 (Wall Street Journal)
Fears of AI hurting higher education miss the point — the real threat is failing to prepare students for a world where AI fluency is already essential, argues Dr. Jerry Balentin, president of New York Institute of Technology.
He compares today’s pushback to the uproar over calculators and computers decades ago, noting that new tools didn’t kill learning then — and won’t now if students are taught to use them responsibly.
Why the New York bodega is here to stay (New York Times)
The humble corner store remains a beloved NYC icon, even as the city shifts around it. Born from immigrant food shops in the early 1900s, bodegas became “neighborhood anchors” selling nostalgia and community. 🥪
They’ve survived pandemic closures, thefts, and rising rents, and reflect NYC’s fusion culture (and need for a morning BEC).
Just don’t upset the bodega cat.
Here’s the full list of NYC Christmas light switch-on dates for 2025’s holiday season 🎄 (Time Out New York)
It may be getting dark earlier, but the city’s lights are brighter than ever this holiday season. 💡 Check out this round up of every major holiday light switch-on across the five boroughs.
Have a bright weekend, New York! 🔆
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