10 minute read
CONTENTS
EDITOR’S NOTE
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RALPH R. ORTEGA
Interim editor-in-chief
AT CITY & STATE, we are committed to reflecting all of New York’s diverse communities in our coverage of New York state politics and government. That commitment extends to how we put together our power lists. These lists are meant to reflect who is powerful, influential or noteworthy within various industries, but inclusion on a list does not equal an endorsement or moral judgment on a person’s record in their industry.
Because we believe that transparency is important, City & State would like to share our criteria for inclusion and ranking on power lists: • Track record: What policies has the person shaped? What programs has the person run, and how effectively? • Diversity: Do the people on the list reflect New
York’s diverse communities, and does this list as a whole reflect those who exercise power and influence the industry or shape the conversation around policy within it, including (but not limited to) race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, immigrant communities, socioeconomic status and geography? • Importance and size of the group or constituency that someone serves: Business executives, lobbyists, labor leaders and journalists all represent industries, clients, employees or customers – and with that responsibility comes some degree of power. • Proximity to power: Is the person in the inner circle of informal advisers and backers to top and influential elected officials? • Thought leadership: Do the people on the list shape the conversation around policy within the
industry, whether through media, advocacy, lobbying or activism? • Economic power: Does the person on the list have economic power, and does it translate into policy changes or influence? • Insiders vs. outsiders: Does the list include grassroots activists who are having an impact in addition to establishment figures in traditional power roles?
We invite your feedback on these criteria and how they can be improved. In the days ahead, you’ll learn about City & State’s first advisory board, to be headed by Chair Sheryl Huggins Salomon. She is currently the chief communications officer for the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research. Sheryl’s previous posts include serving in editorial leadership positions at news outlets focused on the interests and achievements of Black people, as managing editor of The Root and AOL Black Voices, as well as editorial director of NewsOne.com. Together with her journalistic experience at mainstream news outlets such as Dow Jones Newswires, Fortune’s erstwhile FSB.com digital outlet, and the Asbury Park Press, these experiences shaped her understanding of truly inclusive coverage. She has worked for Gizmodo Media Group, The Washington Post Company, AOL, Time Inc., Dow Jones and Urban One, and she has taught journalism at CUNY York College.
We’re excited to welcome Sheryl and will soon announce the names of our other board members, who will provide valuable insights that will help maintain and improve our focus on diversity and inclusion within our power lists and rankings.
Carlina Rivera has her eyes on the New York City Council speakership.
CONTENTS
FIRST READ … 4
The week that was
AMAZON … 8
New York’s latest labor fight
REDISTRICTING … 12
Do Democrats dare gerrymander?
CARLINA RIVERA … 18 One of the leading speaker candidates endorses
COVID-19 STRAIN … 20
Hospitals barely weathered the pandemic
MEDICAID SPENDING … 24
The data behind where costs are rising
Manhattan borough president candidate Lindsey Boylan detailed her unsettling experiences with the governor in a Medium post.
CUOMO ACCUSED OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has accused the governor of sexual harassment during her time in his office. In an essay posted to Medium, Boylan detailed inappropriate behavior by Cuomo and several uncomfortable situations, including an unwanted kiss. Boylan first went public with more general sexual harassment accusations against Cuomo in December. The Cuomo administration denied Boylan’s allegations, though Cuomo did not immediately offer public comment on Boylan’s essay – skipping the press briefing that he said would be scheduled for the day Boylan went public with her accusations. The essay comes as the latest in what can only be described as a reckoning about Cuomo’s alleged abusive behavior toward lawmakers, staffers and journalists. His domineering personality and penchant for allegedly threatening critics has
– Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who grew up in Queens, at a virtual mayoral candidate forum
NOT OVER YET
Vaccinations and gradual reopenings may be giving off the impression that we’re finally putting the coronavirus pandemic behind us, but as the Feb. 21 cover of The New York Times makes clear, we are still in the thick of it. With dots representing deaths on a timeline growing more and more opaque, the paper illustrated that the country has now surpassed 500,000 deaths. New York state is still logging more than 6,000 new cases per day.
– state Senate Majority Leader Andrea StewartCousins, giving a Legislative Legacy Award to former state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery long been an open secret in Albany, coming more into the public eye after Assembly Member Ron Kim said he was the recipient of one such call. Kim – a frequent critic of the governor’s handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic – said that Cuomo threatened to “destroy” him. Since then, more stories of this kind of behavior by Cuomo – old and new – have come up. Although many people have accused Cuomo and his administration of being generally abusive, Boylan is the first to make specific sexual harassment claims. Former Cuomo aide Karen Hinton also published an op-ed that, while not explicitly saying that the governor harassed her, said he practiced “penis politics” and likened working for him to a 1950s marriage. In the wake of Boylan’s accusations, several lawmakers have called for an investigation into Cuomo, or expressed belief in Boylan’s claims.
NO CHARGES FOR OFFICERS IN THE DEATH OF DANIEL PRUDE
Months after disturbing body camera footage showed the death of Daniel Prude at the hands of police, a Monroe County grand jury decided that none of the Rochester police officers involved in his death would face criminal charges. Prude’s death sparked national outrage after the footage showed
police pinning a naked, hooded and handcuffed Prude into the pavement until he lost consciousness. He never regained consciousness and later died from complications of asphyxiation related to the arrest. Although Prude died in March 2020, the circumstances surrounding his death did not emerge until September. Some accused the city and police department of covering up Prude’s death, and documents made public as part of an investigation into the matter seemed to indicate officials suppressed widespread distribution of videos of the incident for months. State Attorney General Letitia James convened the grand jury to investigate Prude’s death, and expressed disappointment that it did not result in charges.
CARRANZA STEPS DOWN
With just under a year left in New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced that he’s stepping down. He oversaw an incredibly turbulent time for schools during the pandemic when schools initially went remote, and more recently began the process of reopening for in-person learning. Carranza did not offer a specific reason about why he decided to take his leave now, but said that the pandemic has been personally difficult for him as well – 11 of his family members and close friends have died of COVID-19 in the past year. Replacing him is Meisha Porter, a veteran Bronx educator who was previously the executive superintendent for the borough.
Richard Carranza didn’t say why he was leaving his post, just that the pandemic had been difficult for him personally.
NYC launches website to highlight social equity outcomes
It’s no secret that in New York City, like much of the country, Black and Latino people suffer from worse health outcomes than white people, or that women are less likely to participate in the labor force than men. These kinds of gaps in equitable access to health care, education, employment and more have only become more apparent and pronounced during the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, a new city resource promises to make it easier than ever to observe just how pervasive some of those gaps are, with the eventual goal of eradicating those disparities. On Feb. 23, the city launched EquityNYC, a website that pulls together data on social equity outcomes – in areas including health, education and economic security – with the data broken down by factors such as race, gender and income.
This year, for the first time, that data is accessible not just in a written report, but in easy-toread charts online. “Obviously, as we’re working on equity, we also need to be thinking about accessibility,” said Sara Shoener, special policy adviser in the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity.
The range of data available varies. Only two years of data for broadband internet access are available: 2017 and 2018. But the areas that do include new data from 2019 offer some interesting insights.
One metric measures diversity within city agencies themselves – broken down by race, ethnicity and gender, as of fiscal year 2019. While racial diversity within the city government’s workforce appears relatively strong, breakdowns by agency show variance. The Fire Department, for example, had the highest share of white members and among the lowest share of women. The share of Black employees was the highest in the city Department of Probation, where over 58% of employees identified as Black, African American or African. EquityNYC is a product of Executive Order 45, an order Mayor Bill de Blasio signed in 2019 that mandated the continuation and expansion of the Social Indicators and Equity Report, requiring the Office for Economic Opportunity to identify new metrics and data sources that could be incorporated into the report, disaggregated by race, gender, income and more. In addition to showcasing this data, the website links to city policies and programs relevant to each of the eight policy domains – which include core infrastructure and environment, economic security and mobility, and housing.
– Annie McDonough
THE WEEK AHEAD
MONDAY 3/1
The first anniversary of the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in New York state. INSIDE DOPE
Expect state lawmakers to begin making moves to repeal the sweeping emergency powers they granted Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the onset of the pandemic. FRIDAY 3/5
State officials are allowing New York City movie theaters to reopen at 25% capacity as COVID-19 cases continue to decline. FRIDAY 3/5
City & State and AARP New York host an online State Legislative Forum on supportive services for older people at 10 a.m., featuring state Sens. Samra Brouk, Rachel May and others.
CityAndStateNY.com
FROM THE
March 1, 2021
ANDREW YANG WANTS ELON TO SAVE NYC. HERE’S HOW THE TESLA BILLIONAIRE COULD TAKE US INTO THE 31ST CENTURY. MIND OF MUSK
ANOTHER WEEK, another controversial Andrew Yang tweet. The mayoral candidate recently shared his enthusiasm for New York City testing electric garbage trucks, and then inadvertently offered billionaire Elon Musk a no-bid contract? Musk already made a dubious promise to produce ventilators, and there was the subsidy fiasco with his Buffalo factory. We’ve drawn up some ideas on how the Tesla CEO could solve New York City’s greatest problems – if he comes through this time.
BY CAITLIN DORMAN
Replace all of the subway trains with underground cars, 5-person occupancy each, but actually they can only take you between Times Square and Grand Central.
Obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies, create a factory in one of the five boroughs, and then forget it exists and that you were supposed to hire people to work there.
Get rid of all the existing electric buses and replace them with ~cooler~ electric buses that occasionally self-combust. It will add some much needed excitement to New Yorkers’ routines.
Build affordable housing … on Mars.
