An NYPD E-Bike Raid Called Off After Officers Spotted Two Reporters, Mushrooms Growing Out of New York Ceilings, a 307-Foot Mural in the Bronx, and Nicki Minaj Calls the Governor Evil

Vinnie clocks four New York scenes from the week of October 26 – November 1, 2026: the NYPD calls off an e-bike seizure on an East Village corner after officers spot two reporters standing there, mushrooms come up through New York ceilings, the tallest mural in the United States lands on a Bronx housing tower, and the governor's race turns into a rap beef less than a week before Election Day.

Wednesday, October 28, about 9 a.m.: police arrived at East 11th Street and First Avenue for a scheduled e-bike cleanup, the latest round in a fight that has run since delivery workers began parking at that corner in February 2024. The operation was prompted by complaints from residents and businesses and by concern over the concentration of lithium-ion batteries there, and had already been pushed back a week from October 21 to let advocates coordinate with the workers. Officers inspected the corner and looked over some bikes. During the operation one officer could be heard on a cellphone saying, "There are two people with press passes here" — an amNewYork reporter and a journalist from another outlet were standing nearby. The officers left without removing a single bike. Police returned that afternoon and junked abandoned ones. Hector Dutan, superintendent of a nearby building, says the bikes stack up on the sidewalk and block his trash: "I can drop my garbage back over here, and sanitation doesn't pick up, and the rats come. It's all obstructed here, it's dangerous." Winston Featherly, who told amNewYork he is glad they are there, disagrees: "Personally, I'm happy they're here. They have got to go somewhere; otherwise, you know, their bikes will get stolen." Workers park there because the bikes will not be taken, and Jamy Bah, who speaks for them, says the last seizure under the Adams administration left riders unable to prove ownership of used bikes they had bought with cash, and that many cannot read the notices posted around the block. Veniero's co-owner Robert Zerilli says a sidewalk full of bikes hurts the shops; Christine Renzi of the East Village Beautification Project wants bike racks to cap the numbers. Community Board 3 district manager Susan Stetzer put it this way: "All of a sudden, we're taking bikes, and then we're not taking bikes." 12

The mushroom in your ceiling has a name. Coprinellus domesticus is the common one in New York apartments, coin-sized caps curling out of water-damaged plaster, and the New York Mycological Society says it is non-toxic — which is not the same as edible. "You definitely shouldn't eat mushrooms that grow in most places in your house," said Ethan Crenson, the society's president. "Because mushrooms can accumulate environmental pollutants, you probably shouldn't eat mushrooms that grow in most places in your house." In Greenpoint, Daniel Moyer, co-owner of Daniel/Oliver Gallery, found a two-inch mushroom above his shower; a friend suggested he eat it and he declined ("What Lovecraftian nightmare is under the ceiling?"). He married his partner in August, and the two of them discovered they had each separately written the mushroom into their vows. The fix is not a knife and a pan: it is finding the leak and replacing the wood. Andrew Stern, press secretary for the city's housing department, is blunt about what the mushroom means: "If you have mushrooms, you almost certainly have mold. And mold is definitely a violation." 3

"Un MAR de Gente / From Every Shore," by the Dominican artist Néstor Omar García — Angurria — runs over 307 feet up the flank of NYCHA's Morrisania Air Rights development in the South Bronx: 29 stories, the tallest mural in the United States. ArtBridge commissioned it, and Angurria, Bronx native Fernando Ortiz and MAR Resident Association president Tanya Pedler spent about five months running workshops with residents, asking how they wanted to be represented. A local Muslim girl asked to see a woman in a hijab, so there is one; a child in earmuffs sits at the top as a nod to community members with special needs. "When we began we hoped to create the tallest mural in The Bronx," Pedler said. "Then we learned it would be the tallest in New York City. Now, we're celebrating the tallest mural in the United States." The project had support from the Public Housing Community Fund and a $165,000 grant from the M·A·C VIVA GLAM Fund, and it was unveiled at a launch event on October 27. 4

On Wednesday evening, October 28, Nicki Minaj — who grew up in Jamaica, Queens — called Gov. Kathy Hochul "an evil woman" on X, said the Democratic Party should forfeit the governor's seat even if Hochul wins, and added: "She will not escape God's wrath. She did not denounce evil when she had the chance." She did not say what evil she meant. Asked about it, Hochul said the rapper "ought to get outside, and be offline a little more. And stop going to Trump rallies, it's kinda poisoning your mind." Republican candidate Bruce Blakeman sided with Minaj: "Nicki is probably the best female rapper of all time, while Kathy is the worst governor in the history of New York." The exchange came less than a week before the November 3 election, with Siena putting Hochul ahead 54% to 40% among likely voters and Marist 53% to 42%. 5

Sources: amNewYork (East Village e-bike war, October 28 and 29, 2026; Hochul and Minaj, October 29, 2026), Gothamist (mushrooms in New York ceilings, October 30, 2026), Bronx Times (the tallest mural in the United States, October 28, 2026).