Paul Campbell has been a sanitation truck driver for 18 years. His most recent route has him lugging 300-pound bins filled with watermelon rinds, coconut shells and other compost onto a truck in the dead of the night. He sees a part of New York that few ever get the chance to glimpse: its vast food waste.

While the city sleeps, Mr. Campbell drives around picking up compost from restaurants and markets. As the sun rises, he deposits his haul at a warehouse, to be eventually turned into electricity, generated from biogas, for New York and New Jersey.

“On the Job With Priya Krishna” is a series about labor and the people who shape what we eat and how we eat, and whose jobs often go unseen.

After Hurricane Sandy, New York invested $7.6 billion dollars into flood-proofing the subway – yet it still floods. So now, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is seeking a further billion dollars to deploy new tactics, like those used in Taipei and Tokyo, where tsunamis are prevalent but their networks were designed with flooding in mind. WSJ spoke with an MTA engineer to see how the city is looking to improve subway flooding to keep some four million daily NYC subway riders moving.

Welcome to the Elizabeth Street Garden. Look at the flowers, hear the birds chirping, smell the fresh air, and the controversy. That's because this tiny little park in downtown Manhattan is one of the most hotly contested lots in the city. Subject to over a decade of disputes over whether it's going to stay a park or whether it's going to be this building. The issue has divided members of the community, mayoral candidates, and even self-identifying Yimbies.