Capital Idea: Meet Our New Albany Correspondent, Amy Sohn

Some are born to greatness, others have Albany thrust upon them.

In the midst of unprecedented challenges to the livable streets movement, Streetsblog has hired journalist, novelist and former City Hall staffer Amy Sohn for the vitally important job of covering the state legislature and the Hochul administration for the remainder of the legislative session.

“This is the time to make a stand with top-quality journalism that holds our state leaders accountable … for holding our federal leaders accountable,” said Streetsblog Editor in Chief Gersh Kuntzman. “This is an unprecedented moment for transit, street safety, and basic livability, in which readers need to know what they can and can’t expect from their leaders.” 

Sohn will be focusing on the most-important stories — such as Sen. Andrew Gounardes’s effort to hold reckless drivers accountable or lawmakers’ effort to water down congestion pricing — and her presence will remind legislative leadership, as well as the staffers on the Second Floor, that they can hide, but they can’t, you know, really hide. Sohn will be watching.

Sohn is uniquely suited for this role. She’s been a New York Times-best-selling author and longtime journalist (that’s the easy part), but most recently, she was press secretary at the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice, where she drew attention to state and city climate goals and progress and launched the Adams administration’s first climate plan, and New York City’s first environmental justice report.

In a two-plus-decade career in the city, Sohn has been a columnist at New York magazine, the New York Post, and New York Press. She has reported for dozens of publications including The New York Times, Slate, The Nation, and The Week. Her most recent book is the award-winning work of non-fiction The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, & Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

Her novels include Prospect Park West, Motherland, and The Actress. 

She was once even named #3 on the list of reasons to love New York.

She lives in Albany and Brooklyn and can be reached at sohn@streetsblog.org. She rides a Trek Multitrack 700.

Editor’s note: Hiring top-quality talent, and deploying it across the state, takes money. We won’t be so crass as to blatantly suggest a donation, but we would be remiss if we didn’t point out that we put your donations to great use to fund top-quality, award-winning journalism that makes a difference. If you agree, there’s a handy donation widget below (all donations are tax-deductible). Thanks.