10 stories that got New Yorkers’ attention in 2016

Sure, the presidential campaign and startling election results captured much of the spotlight in 2016 across the county, but New York City had its own share of big stories.

Karina Vetrano went out jogging on an August afternoon in Howard Beach and was discovered dead later that day. Her killer is still at large. What about the Hoboken train crash or the Chelsea bombing? Both of those events grabbed headlines.

Here are the top 10 stories that came out of New York this year.

Anti-Trump protests

The day after Donald Trump was elected president, anti-Trump protests exploded across the country, with the businessman-turned-politician’s hometown leading the charge. From Union Square to Columbus Circle to outside his Fifth Avenue residence in Trump Tower, the people took their grief to the streets.

Karina Vetrano

The 30-year-old Howard Beach woman didn’t return home from her nightly jog on Aug. 2, prompting her father to call the police. Vetrano’s body was discovered in a marsh near the jogging path; she had been strangled and sexually assaulted. Male DNA was later found under her fingernails, but because there was no match in any data banks, her killer remains free.

Post-it phenomenon

Messages of hope, tolerance and mourning in a post-election America popped up throughout New York’s transit system via Brooklyn actor Matthew “Levee” Chavez’s “Subway Therapy.” Thousands of colorful Post-it messages could be seen in subway stations at West 14th Street and Sixth Avenue, Union Square, Hunter College and Atlantic Terminal.

Tribeca crane collapse

Upper West Side resident David Wichs, 38, was killed on his way to work on Feb. 5 when a 565-foot crane crashed to the ground on Worth Street. Earlier this month, the operator was found responsible for the freak accident that also injured three others.

The year of the slashings

2016 got off to a cutting start with an outbreak of slashings that began in late 2015 culminating into two dozen incidents by March. Sadly, it was a trend that continued throughout the year.

The never-ending Second Avenue subway saga

After 98 years and countless delays, the first phase of the Second Avenue subway line is slated to open on Jan. 1. Construction began in 2007, with a missed target opening in 2013. A second phase of construction will take the line to 125th Street.

Cricket commuters

Straphangers sometimes wish to hear crickets when commuting, but they certainly don’t like being showered in them. On Aug. 26, a woman boarded a crowed D train with a box full of crickets and worms that went airborne, causing mass chaos — and one terrified New Yorker to pull the train’s emergency brake in the middle of the Manhattan Bridge. The woman was later arrested for what turned out to be a staged prank.

Hoboken train crash

One person was killed and more than 100 others were injured when a New Jersey Transit train crashed into the Hoboken station on Sept. 29. The train’s engineer, who said he was fully rested at the time of the crash, was later diagnosed with severe sleep apnea, which often causes drowsiness. The engineer had no recollection of the accident.

Weiner strikes again

Fallen congressman Anthony Weiner found himself a news item once again in 2016for allegedly having inappropriate texts with a teen girl. The allegations and subsequent FBI computer search discovered emails that had possible ties to Hillary Clinton’s private email serversince Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, was the former Democratic presidential candidate’s top aide. Weiner ended up going to sex rehab after his latest text tryst.

Chelsea bombing

On Sept. 17, a pipe bomb detonated along the route of a charity run in Seaside Park, New Jersey. No one was injured, but later that day, a homemade pressure cooker bomb exploded on West 23rd Street in Chelsea, injuring dozens. A second homemade bomb was found nearby, and several others were discovered on Sept. 18 in a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Ahmad Khan Rahimi was arrested for the bombingsafter a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey. He and two officers were injured. He faces state and federal charges.