
Revel saw a loophole as an opportunity for a new ridehail service. New York City is absolutely livid
CNN
Back in 2018, New York City regulators, tired of vehicles from Uber and Lyft making some streets so clogged that cars had to drive slower than streetcars and buggies once had, cracked down and said they would temporarily block new for-hire licenses. But in a fit of environmental-minded well-meaning, they left a loophole for electric cars. Now an upstart company is trying to use that loophole to bring new cars into Manhattan.
Revel, more commonly known for its fleets of rental mopeds, plans to launch a ridehail service in New York City next month. Its effort is just the latest chapter of venture capital-backed transportation startups using legal gray areas or loopholes to add more vehicles to streets. US cities have grown accustomed to startups arriving with cars, buses, bikes or scooters and grand promises of improving transportation. Uber and Lyft spoke of ending car ownership and making cities better places to live. Instead, streets ended up more congested, and more polluted. Public transit ridership fell nationwide as Uber and Lyft attracted transit riders with business models that subsidized rides and burned through billions. Neither company has reported a profit yet.
Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani bitterly clashed over age and experience Thursday in the final debate before New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, as Cuomo warned that electing the progressive state assemblyman is unprepared for the job and Mamdani hammered the former governor over scandals during his time in Albany.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security posted a striking graphic on its official X account. Uncle Sam, a symbol of American patriotism, is depicted nailing a poster to a wall that reads, “Help your country… and yourself.” Written underneath the poster is the sentence, “REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,” and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement hot line.