Friday, November 7, 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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Top New York political figures gather in Puerto Rico for Somos conference 🏝️ (Spectrum News)
Top New York officials, including Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, are in San Juan this week for the annual Somos conference — a yearly mix of policy talk and political networking.
🗣️ Overheard around town: Many are saying the highlight at Somos this year was Tech:NYC’s annual Tech ’Tinis party. (We promise we weren’t the ones who said it.)
The election is over. Now take the quiz (New York Times)
How closely do you think you followed this year’s New York City mayoral election? 📝 Can you answer these questions:
True or false: Zohran Mamdani was the youngest person elected mayor in modern New York, by about three months.
True or false: More than two million people voted, and Mamdani was the first candidate to win more than one million votes since Jimmy Walker in 1925.
Here’s your chance to put your knowledge to the test!
New York school phone ban has made lunch loud again (Gothamist)
At Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens, the state’s new phone ban has transformed lunch hour — board games, laughter, and actual conversation have replaced the silence of screens. 📵
Faculty say student engagement and focus are way up: 89% of staff statewide report improved school environments since the ban.
“When students put down their phones, they pick up books — and build friendships,” said New York State United Teachers president Melinda Person. 🤝
Season’s greetings on the subways! Nostalgia Rides on NYC vintage trains return this holiday season (amNY)
The New York Transit Museum’s Holiday Nostalgia Rides are back this December, featuring 1930s-era subway cars that once ran on the lettered lines through the 1970s. 🚂
The eight-car train will run Sundays in December from 10am to 5pm, traveling on the F and Q lines in Manhattan.
It’s not clear yet whether vintage subway delays are also included.
Last runner to finish New York City Marathon shares harrowing journey to triumph (ABC)
After losing both legs in a 2019 car accident, 26-year-old Venezuelan athlete Juan Pablo Dos Santos was told he’d never walk again.
This week, he defied every prediction, finishing the New York City Marathon, crossing the line just after midnight in 15 hours and 21 minutes.
Throughout the race, Dos Santos — who runs on prosthetic legs — had to stop every hundred steps to dry his liners and keep his skin from breaking.
“This is the proof that no matter if you arrive last, you have to cross the finish line,” he said.
Have an inspirational weekend, New York! 🗽
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