New York City

An employee arranges Apple iPhones as customer shop at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue shortly after new products went on sale in Manhattan, in New York City, March 18, 2022.Mike Segar | ReutersDeirdre O'Brien, Apple's head of retail and human relations, told employees in a video this week that joining a union has downsides, and that Apple believes that unions are not committed to its employees.Apple hasn't publicly said that it opposes the recent union drives in multiple retail stores across the U.S., but the message to…

Many renters believe that a cost-of-living crisis is brewing in America's major cities.New York City is showing up as a hotspot of rent inflation. The average rent for 1-bedroom apartments in Manhattan rose to $3,995 a month in May 2022 — a 41% increase from one year ago, according to Zumper.Sudden, double-digit rent spikes are hitting other hubs, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas. Zumper data shows that growth is particularly strong in Sun Belt cities such as Miami, where rents have risen to $2,700 a…

Workers remove the final New York City payphone near Seventh Avenue and 50th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on May 23, 2022.Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty ImagesIt's the end of an era: New York City removed its last public payphone on Monday.The boxy enclosures were once an iconic symbol across the city. But the rise of cellphones made the booths obsolete.The effort to replace public pay telephones across the city kicked off in 2014 when the de Blasio administration solicited proposals to reimagine the…

At Sunday Motor Co. Café in Madison, New Jersey, customers are sampling the latest in biodegradable non-plastic utensils. Specifically, straws made of seaweed. The dispenser says, "Designed to Disappear," which is exactly what the co-founder of sustainable start-up Loliware envisioned.Chelsea Briganti, who goes by "Sea," was born and raised in Hawaii, where, as a child, she remembered pristine shorelines."And I noticed steadily over the years, as I got older, that there was a ton of plastic pollution in the ocean and on…

Customers shop at the new Apple Store at the World Trade Center shopping mall in New York City.Getty ImagesThe Communications Workers of America is accusing Apple of violating federal labor law at its World Trade Center store in New York City.The CWA alleged in an Unfair Labor Practice filing with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday evening that Apple interrogated and surveilled staff, restricted them from posting union fliers and made them attend mandatory anti-union speeches.The charge comes as Apple…

Americans moved around a lot over the past two years, and those destinations also now happen to have the highest inflation rates in the U.S."We saw right away that inflation was highest in Phoenix and lowest in San Francisco," Redfin deputy chief economist Taylor Marr told CNBC.The relationship between migration and inflation has strengthened significantly as more people relocate from expensive coastal cities to more affordable metro areas, according to an analysis released by Redfin, the real estate broker.Phoenix is one…

When Lucy Yu was 7 years old, she told her mom she wanted to retire and open a bookstore one day. She'd always loved reading and, as the only child raised primarily by her single mother who immigrated from China, turned to books as a source of comfort.Now, at age 27, Yu is living that retirement dream as her full-time job. In December, she opened Yu and Me Books in Manhattan's Chinatown, New York City's first Asian American woman-owned bookstore that centers works from authors of color, immigrants and people from…

Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO, Citadel (L) and Blue Origin New Shepard rocket lifts off (R)ReutersKen Griffin, billionaire founder and CEO of hedge fund Citadel, placed the winning $8 million bid in an auction Monday for a seat on a spaceflight with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.Bezos' company donated two seats on its New Shepard rocket for a "buy one, give one" auction at the nonprofit Robin Hood's annual benefit for New York City, with the second seat going to a city teacher.But Griffin will not launch to space himself,…

A JetBlue airliner lands past a Spirit Airlines jet on taxi way at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport on Monday, April 25, 2022. (Joe Cavaretta/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)Joe Cavaretta | Sun Sentinel | Getty ImagesJetBlue Airways is at a nearly quarter-century crossroads.The airline's first flight took off from New York City for Fort Lauderdale in February 2000. Twenty-two years later, JetBlue executives again set their sights on South Florida with a surprise bid for Spirit Airlines.…

Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, left, speaks next to Christian Smalls, founder of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), during an ALU rally in the Staten Island borough of New York, U.S., on Sunday, April 24, 2022.Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAfter years of declining influence, unions are having a resurgence. Employees from companies across the country are increasingly organizing as a means of asking for more benefits, pay and safety from their employers.Between October 2021 and March of this…