Ben Beckett

Previously in @ligeiamag, @apcon_mag, @burnawayga, @jacobin, @dollars_sense, and more.

Contactbenbeckett at Gmail

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

Every year, the mayor goes before upstate and Long Island legislators to beg them to give us back more of our own money

[Andrew Giambrone @AndrewGiambrone]

new: Gov. Hochul's office is actively looking into any potential tax fraud revealed through the rollout of NYC's pied-à-terre tax, a spokesperson says. e.g., cases where someone claims to live here most of the time, but doesn't pay NYC taxes, or has their car registered elsewhere

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

provide care and recreation for children without subjecting them to a lottery, sell wine at grocery stores, ride a functioning subway on a Sunday. Suggest any of these and a true New Yorker will respond with bafflement and rage

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

New Yorkers are even worse than the rest of the US about getting enraged when you suggest some improvement that was easily done everywhere else decades ago.

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

Remove the twice weekly garbage mountains, ask people to live in town if they want a property tax exemption, establish a single library system for the entire city, establish a single park system for the entire city, give children the same right to be on the buses everyone else,

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

It’s lucky kids stop being difficult when they turn 1, otherwise it would suck that everyone stops offering to help

[Lydia Polgreen @lpolgreen]

Literally all you have to do is show your drivers license or tax return or voter registration...

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

This is more straightforward than literally any American tax form I have ever filed

[chris cross big apple sauce 🍎🗽🍕🥯 @notchrisvolpe]

This took me 30 seconds to find with a google search.

There’s a big orange box with links you can click to submit an exemption, and the only documents you need are tax returns or an ID and voter registration showing your address.

[Rich Mintz @richmintz]

If I were not filing as a New York City resident in order to avoid paying the New York City income tax I simply would not give interviews to the press complaining about how hard it was to prove my New York City home was my legal residence

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

And also owe back taxes, interest, and penalties

[GL @gldivittorio]

Once again, the pied-à-terre tax only applies to non-NYC residents. If you live here but filed your taxes with a primary residence somewhere outside the city to get a lower tax rate, guess what babe, you are not legally an NYC resident

[chris cross big apple sauce 🍎🗽🍕🥯 @notchrisvolpe]

The confusion being that a lot people living here full time have been using their vacation/other family’s homes out of the city to pay cheaper car insurance or skip out on city income taxes, and now they can’t update their license at the DMV in time to submit for an exemption

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

• No enforcement of people parking and idling in bus lanes, which is the biggest thing slowing them down

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

I ride the bus 10-12 times a week. So far “fast and free buses” means:

•Increase in fare enforcement. The opposite if making them free, it also makes buses slower. The collection agents relish giving me a hard time about having my kid in a stroller on half empty buses.

[Yoon @nicoscosc]

“Each present that happens drives into time like a wedge and lays a claim to eternity.”

— Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

@CarpenterLauraG Hockey has a stat that tries to measure this https://t.co/xqsnFgufnP

[Chris Somerville @chrisomerville]

This debut novelist is the real deal, the only drawback? can’t write. He is illiterate.

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

@TheDuhalde “Stonks” but for aggregate housing supply

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

My eternal question, has anyone ever shown a period where constructing new apartments led to lower rent?

[Ben Beckett @brbeckett]

On the other hand https://t.co/rKisytc4Ek

[The City Reporter @THECITYNY]

In 2025, there were about 57,000 vacant rent-stabilized apartments reported by landlords in the city, representing an approximate 5.6% vacancy rate.

About a decade before, in 2016, the citywide vacancy rate was 3.7%.

https://t.co/Js8WKJYWfk

[Patrick Marlborough/Bang Bang Bart (new account) @cormac_mccafe69]

really good rule of thumb re American 'alt lit' 'online lit' and 'cool kid' lit stuff is to never ever ever read it because it is never ever ever any good.

[And Other Stories @andothertweets]

They said nobody could do it, but we’re pleased to announce that we will be publishing David M. Smith’s translation of Thure Erik Lund’s THE MYSTERY OF WHAT BEFELL IN THE DITCH, a novel often spoken of as untranslatable. Publishes 20 October

Preorder now
https://t.co/quoZtGnSUM