Call it Hell Gate 4.0. New podcast studio, new office, new team. In March we welcomed legendary editor Julianne Escobedo Shepherd. Now, we're psyched to share that we're bringing on Holly Pretsky to join Julianne and Chris to complete our editing trifecta.
Holly is joining us after six-and-a-half years at the indispensable New York politics publication City & State, where she had many different titles, most recently city editor. In that role, she guided coverage of the 2025 mayoral race, the downfall of Eric Adams, and the early months of the Mamdani administration. She was twice baptized in the political networking cesspool that is the Somos Puerto Rico annual conference, which mutated her into a local politics sicko. Among other hits, she wrote cover stories about where oppo research comes from, how the race for New York City Council speaker works, Mamdani's elusive chief of staff, New York City dogs, and a longshot congressional candidate named Darializa Avila Chevalier.
She also had the privilege of first describing at length the phenomenon that was Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar and of pointing out the many policy decisions on which our current mayor and his predecessor actually agree. In addition to all that, Holly revamped and stewarded City & State's robust internship program, recruiting and mentoring more than 30 incredible interns.
Before City & State, Holly was a reporter at the Vineyard Gazette on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, which was almost as idyllic as it sounds. She lives in Park Slope with her husband and (pregnancy reveal) future daughter.
Holly is so excited to bring her nerdy sensibility and her deep knowledge of state and City government to Hell Gate. We're able to hire Holly because so many of you support worker-owned, independent journalism. Subscribe today!
Send Holly tips, gossip, complaints and compliments to holly@hellgatenyc.com.