Tuesday, June 30, 2026
In today’s digest, a city budget deal, Jalen Brunson’s venture play, and the state of New York’s electric vehicle industry. ⚡
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council reached a handshake agreement on the city’s budget just ahead of the fiscal year deadline, expanding housing vouchers and broadening access to discounted subway and bus fares. 🏛️ (Gothamist)
The agreement adds $300 million to the CityFHEPS housing voucher program over two years and ends the city’s legal fight over the Council’s authority to expand the benefit.
The budget also raises eligibility for the Fair Fares program for New Yorkers living at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, to 200%, allowing more low-income New Yorkers to receive half-priced transit fares.
New York is going all out for America’s 250th birthday, with everything from the Macy’s Fireworks 50th anniversary to a parade of tall ships sailing into New York Harbor. 🎇 (ABC New York)
The city is giving away 100,000 tickets to the fireworks via lottery, and the Times Square ball will drop eight times — once for every U.S. time zone.
The Sail4th 250 flotilla will also salute the Statue of Liberty.
Looking for other ways to celebrate the Fourth in the city? We’ve got you covered here. 🫡
Private sector 🤝 public good. A Midtown subway station just received the city’s first developer-funded elevators, offering a new blueprint for making the system more accessible without relying solely on public dollars. 🛗 (The City Reporter)
The new elevators at the 57th Street M station were paid for by a real estate firm in exchange for additional building rights under the city's Zoning for Accessibility program.
The MTA hopes similar deals will help reach its goal of making 95% of stations accessible by 2055.
➕ One more thing: With the nation’s largest public school system and as one of the world’s leading technology hubs, New York has an opportunity to set the standard for how AI is integrated into education responsibly, writes Tech:NYC President and CEO Julie Samuels in amNY. More here.
In other reading:
A guide to what NYC’s rent freeze means for you (Gothamist)
Buy a book, get a free burger in NYC in July: Here’s where (PIX 11)
Just Salad wins investment from Knicks MVP Jalen Brunson (Nation’s Restaurant News)
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Tech:NYC is accepting Digest advertising inquiries! Get in front of the founders, builders, and operators shaping NYC.
If you or your company are a good fit for our audience of 13,000+ highly engaged NYC tech leaders, fill out our form here and we’ll be in touch. 🤝
New York Is in the EV Fast Lane
As federal support for electric vehicles has been scaled back, states are increasingly setting the pace.
A new Brookings scorecard ranks how prepared each state is to support EV adoption. Spoiler alert: New York lands near the top thanks to its broad mix of incentives, charging policies, and public-sector commitments. ⚡
Let’s dig in:
New York is near the front of the pack: The Empire State earned 10 out of 13 possible points, tying with seven other states for the nation’s second-highest tier behind only California and Massachusetts. 🗽
Brookings found the highest-scoring states are concentrated in the Northeast and West Coast, with New York joining Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Maryland, Delaware, Colorado, and Oregon at 10 points.
📊 By the numbers:
131,250: Total EV registrations in New York (or 14 EVs per 1,000 vehicles), good for 12th in the nation.
21,254: Public chargers in the state.
161.9: Chargers per 1,000 EVs in the state (also 12th).
➕ Companies like It’s Electric (a Tech:NYC member!) have been increasing curbside chargers throughout New York.
The strongest-performing states succeed by combining multiple policies rather than relying on just one.
New York earned full marks for consumer incentives, charging infrastructure, and government procurement, but received no points for market access policies, proving there are many ways to go green. 🔋
More policies, more EVs: States with broader EV policy portfolios also tend to have higher adoption rates.
States scoring 9 or higher average 17 EVs per 1,000 registered vehicles, compared with just 4 per 1,000 in states scoring between 0 and 2.
Brookings notes that New York combines a high policy score with above-average EV adoption.
⚠️ Yes, but: The work isn’t finished.
For high scoring states like New York, the report recommends preserving existing policies while continuing to expand purchase incentives and charging infrastructure as federal support becomes less certain.
The takeaway: As EV policy shifts increasingly to the states, New York has positioned itself among the country’s leaders.
To keep this momentum, building a broad ecosystem — from consumer incentives to charging infrastructure — may matter more than any single policy on its own.
In other reading:
The top reasons VCs pass on founders (Andrew Yeung/X)
Could AI find Brazil’s next Pelé? (New York Times)
Remote work is making it harder for grads to find (and keep) jobs (Wall Street Journal)
Welcome to our weekly jobs section, where we spotlight a selection of the NYC tech jobs from Tech:NYC’s Jobs Board — all recently posted. 🔥
Today, we’re highlighting a few operations roles.
Senior IT Operations Manager — Brigit ($135k-$155k / year): You’ll build, mature, and scale internal IT Operations while partnering closely with their VP of Engineering, Security, Compliance, and People teams to develop and execute Brigit’s IT strategy. Apply here.
Launch Operations Principal — Via ($120k-$160k / year): You’ll sit at the intersection of operational strategy and execution, launching a growing pipeline of new, complex services across markets. For each launch, you’ll serve as the leader of a transit network transformation, taking full ownership of the technology and operational transition. Apply here.
Senior Manager, New Verticals — DoorDash ($170k-$250k / year + equity): You’ll own the operational engine behind DoorDash’s ground truth AI platform — responsible for building and scaling the technology that collects in-store data — and translating that data into measurable improvements. You’ll also design the systems that capture real-time shelf data to define how that data flows into downstream product experiences for customers, Dashers, and merchants. Apply here.
➕ Tech:NYC is hiring! We’re looking for a Director of Policy to play a central role in developing and advancing Tech:NYC’s policy agenda, and a Decoded Futures Communications Consultant to help build a mission-driven owned media presence at the epicenter of AI for Impact. More details here.
LeapXpert, an NYC-based startup that helps companies to monitor external messaging apps, raised $180 million led by Riverwood Capital.
Nebex, an NYC-based market infrastructure platform for the global space economy, raised $30 million in seed funding. GV led the round and was joined by others.
Taxwire, an NYC-based sales tax automation platform, raised $25 million in seed and Series A funding from Headline Ventures, XYZ VC, Vinyl, Recall Capital, and Nomo Ventures.
July 2: NYC Tech & Startup Mixer, putting founders, engineers, investors, recruiters, freelancers, and mentors in the same room for a night of straight‑up networking. Register here.
July 3: TechWalk | NYC, a chance to network, share ideas, and build relationships in a healthy alternative to the average happy hour. Register here.
July 4: July 4th NY Founders Gathering, for New York founders who want to meet peers and enjoy July 4th with good company. Register here.
July 5: Founders, Funders, or Just Finders, a takeover of the Seville Hotel for an evening of cocktails, candid conversation, and the kind of warm intros that beat any cold email. Register here.
July 8: NYC Fintech Coffee, for fintech founders, investors, and enthusiasts to gather around and talk everything fintech. Register here.
July 8: Blind Tasting, Expert Vision: An Evening at Macallan HQ with Baselayer, a gathering of NYC’s best founders, bankers, and agentic commerce leaders for an intimate evening of high-end pours and high-stakes competition. Register here.
July 8: The NYC Breakfast Club: Checkout the Future, a room of DTC operators talking through what's actually shifting in how people (and machines) buy. Register here.
July 8: Fierce Founders Coworking Day, a day of working alongside the FF team and other female founders in the community, because everything’s better IRL. Register here.
July 14: Assets & Access NYC at Pubkey, a founder, operator, and investor meetup. Register here.
July 16: Founders Basketball New York City, a growing community of startup founders and investors who love to connect over business and buckets. Register here.
July 19: West Village Pizza Crawl, a four-stop journey through NYC’s most iconic slices — no pitches, no panels, just passion and pizza. Register here.
July 22: Common Table NYC Book Club, a book club dinner just for founders (the first book will be Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo). Register here.
July 24: After Hours: NYC Tech Social at Maxwell Tribeca, where professionals across tech and fast-growing startups can step away from work, meet beyond their usual circles, and enjoy a great night out together IRL. Register here.
September 16: Primary’s NYC Tech Summit, an annual gathering for builders, backers, and operators shaping the future. Apply to attend here.
October 13-15: EdTech Week, where the brightest minds and the boldest innovators gather in a technological playground dedicated to transforming education. Register before EOD today (June 30) for early bird tickets here.
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