amNY Year in Review: A look at the top 10 web stories of 2021

From tracking COVID-19 infection rates and mask issues to hockey trades and conversations about the cost of living, it has been a busy year for New York City.

Our website has reached great heights this year, thanks to your ongoing support and readership. As of Dec. 20, 2021, AMNY.com has reached 17,002,233 views.

Here’s a run-down of the top 10 most-viewed stories that were published this year on AMNY.com.

1. In October, Vitali Kravtsov was looking for a fresh start, but the Rangers weren’t going to be so quick to let him go. Though Kravtsov was given permission by the team to start pursuing other hockey clubs, the Rangers wanted nothing other than a “top prospect” to take his place.
2. 11 New York City zip codes were maintaining a 10% infection rate for COVID-19 in March, even one year after the start of the pandemic in New York City. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said they have made efforts to put these numbers in line with the rest of the five boroughs at the time, but that it was ultimately in the hands of New Yorkers going forward.
3. How much does it really cost to live as a single person in New York City? In November, RentHop released a report that details the cost of living in the Big Apple if you are looking for a one-bedroom apartment to rent compared to other cities — spoiler alert, it’s not very affordable.
4. In April, COVID-19 was still ravaging the city. However, not a single neighborhood reached over a 9% infection rate, giving the city a glimmer of hope now that vaccines were becoming more readily available.
5. New York City’s annual Restaurant Week was back in full force this summer, starting the five-week culinary experience in July. However, not a single restaurant from Washington Heights was listed as a participant — even the one restaurant that was listed in the Heights was actually in Inwood.
6. As New York City continued to reopen, ridership on public transportation began to surge as well. On April 23, the MTA reached a ridership of over 2.1 million subway trips, a record high since the start of the pandemic.
7. In 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray announced that the city would roll out new mental health check-ups to public school students during the fall semester in 2021. However, this past November New York City public school teachers, and their union, the United Federation of Teachers, were raising concerns about these screens, saying they looked very different from how City officials initially described them.
8. In April, nine zip codes in Brooklyn and Queens were over a 10% infection rate for COVID-19. Data showed that neighborhoods where testing was higher had some of the lowest infection rates citywide.
9. In June, it was reported that New York City neighborhoods had COVID-19 positivity rates of 1 percent or less during the week of May 28-June 3. Despite this, vaccination rates in poor and Black neighborhoods were still low compared to the rest of the city.
10. A rider was pushed out of the 8th Street station in Greenwich Village one morning in October by maskless police officers. The rider had asked them to comply with the rules and put on a face covering while filming the encounter, which went viral on social media.