26 minute read
FIRST READ
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared this the “Summer of NYC” as vaccinations continue and New Yorkers increasingly gather in person.
MAYORAL CANDIDATES DUKE IT OUT IN PERSON
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Democrats vying to be the next mayor of New York City faced off in a raucous debate, the second of the election cycle, and the first to be held in person. Crime and policing took center stage in the debate as candidates offered differing views of how to address concerns around raising crime and calls to reform the New York City Police Department. Candidates including Andrew Yang and Ray McGuire reiterated their opposition to the defund movement, with Yang saying that the NYPD needs to go on a recruitment drive and increase the size of the force. Yang and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, the two frontrunners, bore the brunt of the attacks during the debate, with Adams questioned over his recent support for the return of stop and frisk,
METRO CN
METRO FINAL
Thursday, June 3, 2021
NEW YORK’S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER BIBI FOES STRIKE DEAL TO END REIGN PAGE 4
THETAKINGOF TRANSIT12 3! SHUTTERSTOCK Suspected China hackers tap into MTA servers PAGE 5
SERVICE DISRUPTION
Cyberattacks have been a costly scourge during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the latest victim of malware. A report revealed that MTA systems were infiltrated in April by suspected Chinese hackers. Although transit officials said no damage was done, the Daily News depicted the massive breach as a new kind of transit heist.
– Eric Adams, in last week’s mayoral debate, to Andrew Yang
– Andrew Yang, firing back at Adams in the debate and Yang questioned over his qualifications. During a particularly tense back and forth between the front-runners, Yang accused Adams of being the subject of multiple corruption investigations, with Adams hitting back on Yang’s lack of participation in municipal elections.
ADULT SURVIVORS ACT PASSES IN STATE SENATE
A follow-up to the Child Victims Act made it through the state Senate, one of several bills the chamber passed as the session draws to a close. The Adult Survivors Act is similar to the Child Victims Act – reforming statutes of limitations for sexual assault and creating a look-back window to bring cases. The Adult Survivors Act is for those who were older than 18 when they were abused. The bill has not yet passed in the Assembly. The Sexual Harassment Working Group wrote a letter blasting the Assembly for what they considered stalling this and other recently passed state Senate bills to strengthen sexual harassment laws. The state Senate also passed legislation, introduced after the Cuomo administration reportedly circulated personnel documents about Lindsey Boylan in the wake of her allegations of sexual harassment against the governor, that would outlaw the
retaliatory release of employees’ personnel files. It still awaits a vote in the Assembly. The upper chamber also passed a slate of gun control legislation, including a 10-day waiting period and a bill that would increase the penalties for illegal gun sales and manufacturing.
OPPOSITION TO COURT OF APPEALS PICK
Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced his picks to fill two empty Court of Appeals seats, nominating Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas and state Supreme Court Justice Anthony Cannataro, who is also the administrative judge for the Civil Court of New York City. They now need to go to the state Senate for confirmation, but opposition to Singas is brewing among progressives who don’t want to see another career prosecutor on the state’s top court. Left-wing activists are organizing a campaign to convince the state Senate to vote against her confirmation, and it seems to have begun to gain traction. State Sens. Julia Salazar, Gustavo Rivera and Jabari Brisport have already said that they oppose Singas’ nomination and would vote against her. If eight more Democrats join in opposition, they could successfully block her from the Court of Appeals. But for now, her confirmation is moving along as discussions are beginning for the special election to replace her in Nassau County.
Cuomo recently nominated Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas to the state Court of Appeals.
Will magic mushrooms be legalized next?
New York’s move to legalize recreational marijuana earlier this year signaled the state’s shifting perspective on drugs. Already, state lawmakers have introduced legislation to decriminalize psychedelics, such as psilocybin and psilocyn, in addition to decriminalizing the possession of all controlled substances. Both drug policy experts and local politicians feel that these proposals could be adopted as early as the next legislative session based on the state’s softening stance on drugs.
The Food and Drug Administration has already given both psychedelics “breakthrough therapy status,” which has allowed scientists and medical professionals to study them for medicinal or psychiatric applications. New York University and Mount Sinai have psychedelic research programs. So far, clinical studies conducted across the U.S. have shown that psychedelics can be extremely effective at treating depression, anxiety, PTSD and substance use issues.
“There’s been a sea change in attitudes about what not long ago was considered fringe science,” Michael Pollan, author of a best-selling book on psychedelics, “How to Change Your Mind,” told The New York Times. “Given the mental health crisis in this country, there’s great curiosity and hope about psychedelics.”
State Sen. Gustavo Rivera is currently sponsoring several bills to not only decriminalize all controlled substances but to decriminalize the possession of syringes – a Class A misdemeanor in New York – and establish a program to create supervised injection sites. “These are programs that save lives, that meet people in a destigmatized way where they are,” Rivera told City & State. “That is the way that we actually deal with an addiction crisis, we cannot arrest our way out of it – and that has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt for the drug war over the last couple of decades.”
While Rivera is grateful for all of the attention and support that drug reforms have received over the past year, he feels most of these efforts would most likely not have happened if white people had not been affected by the growing drug crisis that has plagued Black and brown New Yorkers for years. “I am thankful that now my colleagues are here with me and folks who may have once thought that criminalization was the only way to try to solve the problem,” Rivera said. “Now they view this with a sense of compassion, (they view) individuals who are addicted to drugs with a sense of compassion and think of options for treatment as public health solutions.” – Amanda Luz Henning Santiago
THE WEEK AHEAD
MONDAY 6/7
Leading Democratic New York City mayoral candidates make a rare appearance together in-person for a 7 p.m. forum hosted by City & State, PIX11 and the 92nd Street Y. WEDNESDAY 6/9
Liberals. Moderates. Conservatives. All will join City & State for a 5 p.m. virtual event recognizing the Albany Power 100. INSIDE DOPE
A keynote address by Assembly Member Ron Kim highlights how much prominence he has gained in Albany in recent months. THURSDAY 6/10
The leading Democratic New York City comptroller candidates take the stage in the race’s first official debate from 7-8 p.m. on NY1.
CityAndStateNY.com6 BILL'S BRIGHT
FUTURE AFTER SERVING AS NEW YORK CITY MAYOR FOR EIGHT YEARS, BDB CAN EXPLORE SOME OF HIS OTHER PASSIONS. BY CAITLIN DORMAN
WITH ALL THE attention on the Democratic mayoral primary this month, it’s easy to forget that another momentous occasion is upon us: Bill de Blasio is about to be out of a job! Despite what Mike Bloomberg may have told you, New York City mayors are generally only allowed to serve two terms. To lend a helping hand, we came up with some suggestions for de Blasio’s new gig.
FOOD BLOGGER
Eating a Shake Shack burger and fries live at a 10 a.m. press briefing is just the beginning. So many delicious snacks await Bill if he goes down this path. We’re personally looking forward to some Nathan’s hot dog #sponsoredcontent.
HYPE MAN FOR THE NETS
In the words of his own Twitter profile, “dress for the job you want.”
GUEST CORRESPONDENT ON MSNBC
What is being a lame-duck politician if not one long audition to be a talking head on cable news? Maybe they’ll even let him become a regular on “Morning Joe.”
FITNESS INSTRUCTOR AT THE PARK SLOPE YMCA
Hizzoner has pledged not to return to his infamous workout spot until the end of his tenure, but all bets are off on Jan. 1, 2022. After holding the highest office in the city, could it be time to pursue something he’s truly passionate about?
STARTING A BAND WITH DAVID PATERSON
Think of all the great songs they could write bashing Cuomo. If de Blasio wants to pick up an instrument, Dan Smith could teach him guitar too.
GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE FOR 2022
A Cuomo versus de Blasio primary is a terrifying prospect, and while we’d be remiss not to include it in our list of unlikely future jobs, we are not obligated to write about it until we absolutely have to. #selfcare
UNDERSTUDY ON 'SESAME STREET'
Titles like “Hizzoner” come and go, but even de Blasio admits that nicknames like “Big Bird” are forever. The role of giant yellow avian is currently taken on the show, but it never hurts to have someone waiting in the wings!
A Q&A with New York City Chief Democracy Officer LAURA WOOD
Are people surprised when they hear the city has a chief democracy officer? Actually, the response has been very positive. I think people are really happy that the administration and the mayor has prioritized voting and elections. We obviously have the Board of Elections, which administers the elections, but this role is really the only one that is truly votercentric and voter-focused.
What do you think a democratic city looks like? In the rest of the country, but even here in New York, for too many years there have been barriers in the way of making it easy to vote. Whether it’s a cumbersome voter registration process, making it hard to request an absentee ballot, not providing information in languages other than English or some of the other Voting Rights Act languages. A huge part of the ranked-choice voting campaign is making sure that information and resources are available in multiple languages, that we are working with community-based organizations and other partners to help reach New Yorkers where they are. What priorities do you have for the $15 million voter outreach initiative? It will enable us to have a very big investment in a citywide media campaign. We are working on a robust TV, radio and print advertising campaign which will include a very significant investment in community and ethnic media. Our TV and radio ads will ultimately be available in up to 10 languages, some of the digital ads and other resources will be available in even more languages than that. One thing I would love to call your attention to, it’s an interactive online app that we developed with a company called RankedVote, which actually mimics the New York City ballot and helps New Yorkers practice and understand how rankedchoice voting works. That tool is available in up to 16 languages, and is on our website.
I was going to ask whether this was an educational initiative about how RCV works, or if there would be getout-the-vote elements? It sounds like it’s kind of both. Our view is that those things go hand in hand. We need to educate New Yorkers about how the system works, but a lot of New Yorkers, especially given the past 15 months we’ve had with this pandemic, have so much else on their minds that we also need to reach out directly and remind them of what’s at stake. The primary election will probably determine who the next mayor will be, it will likely determine the other citywide leaders. If people care about public safety, schools, health care, this is the time for them to be tuning in. – Natasha Ishak
An advocacy campaign including City & State First Read provides a targeted way to reach decision makers in New York government and politics. Campaigns Include:
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Upstate incumbent mayors face challenges from the left
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is seeking a fifth term.
By Justin Sondel
INCUMBENT MAYORS ARE facing challenges in upstate New York’s four largest cities, and with overwhelmingly Democratic enrollment in Buffalo, Rochester and Albany, the next mayor will likely be decided in the June 22 primary. (Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh is an independent.)
All four cities are connected by I-90, and they have a lot in common besides holding local elections in odd years. These races are largely following a pattern found in recent Democratic primaries in New York, especially in New York City: More moderate incumbents are being challenged by opponents who say they have failed to address injustices like police brutality and income inequality.
Shana Kushner Gadarian, a political science professor at Syracuse University, said these mayoral races reflect the rise of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. “I think what you’re seeing in upstate is pretty similar to what the discussion is at the national level in the Democratic Party, which is the progressive wing being more prominent than what you’ve seen in the past, and progressive Democrats running quite clearly on being progressive,” she said.
In most of the races, the challengers have a steep hill to climb, with the advantages of incumbency – name recognition, fundraising, institutional support – magnified in a low turnout, off-year election cycle.
One difference between the mayoral races in these upstate cities and some of the congressional races where upsets have played out, or even in the Democratic primary in New York City’s mayoral race, is that while some of the bigger national issues like police accountability and health care disparities will play a significant role in the campaigns, so too will hyperlocal issues like snow removal.
Gadarian, who has hosted a virtual meetand-greet event and donated to the campaign of Syracuse Common Councilor-at-Large Michael Greene, one of the mayoral candidates, said that the issue of city sidewalk maintenance and snow removal could resonate with primary voters. A measure to expand a program to repair sidewalks and remove snow from walkways throughout the city was recently introduced by Greene and voted down by the council. “Those are the kinds of things that local politics can actually help with,” she said.
With the primary almost here, candidates are out pushing their messages on issues big and small, hoping to get their supporters to the polls.
BUFFALO
In New York’s second-largest city, history will be made one way or another. Mayor Byron Brown, who became the first Black mayor in the city’s history with his 2005 victory, would now become the first fiveterm mayor if he is able to beat his challengers. But he will have to fend off a strong campaign from community activist India Walton. If she or the lesser known political newcomer Le’Candice Durham, also running for the Democratic nomination, were to pull off what would be a significant upset, either would become the first woman elected to the city’s highest office.
With almost 16 years as Buffalo’s top elected official, Brown’s name is universally known in town and he has a deep war chest. In the pre-primary filing, Brown reported raising $178,000 for the period and spending nearly $75,000, leaving him with almost $275,000 on hand going into the final weeks of the race. He also has the backing, financially and institutionally, of the Erie County Democratic Party and a finely tuned political apparatus, one that includes many loyal city workers who have done well under his reign.
Walton has stepped up her fundraising game recently, with her pre-primary filing showing more than $38,000 spent so far this year and another $53,000 on hand. While impressive amounts for a political newcomer, they are dwarfed by Brown’s.
The mayor touts his record on economic development, pointing to additions to the downtown area such as the new children’s museum and the Harborcenter hockey complex and the public amenities now available at Canalside. He also boasts of the police reforms that have been implemented in recent years, including the formation of a pilot program that partners mental health professionals with police officers when responding to mental health calls and the issuance of body cameras across the department.
The mayor said Buffalo was experienc-
But are there enough progressives in these cities to topple them?
ing “something of a renaissance” before the pandemic.
“I want to build that back better than before, and make sure that the prosperity that was rising in the city reaches every single neighborhood in the city of Buffalo,” Brown told City & State.
But he has also faced a litany of problems. In the protests that followed George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, a septuagenarian was shoved to the ground by police as they moved to clear the remnants of a protest. The elderly man’s head bouncing off the ground sent him to the hospital for a month. When the police department first made a statement about the incident, they claimed the man, Martin Gugino, had tripped, putting out a press release before a video showing the shove was posted to the local NPR affiliate’s website. The video and the ugly fallout with the police union after officers were charged by the Erie County District Attorney made international headlines. The two officers who pushed Gugino were suspended without pay, and Brown took heat from the police union, a powerful entity in city politics, after criticizing members of the department’s emergency response team, who all resigned from the special events unit in protest of the suspensions.
And before the murder of Floyd, a string of deaths during interactions with the Buffalo police drove a movement among activists and other city leaders for reforms.
The city’s fiscal health is among the worst in the country, in part due to poor budgeting practices – inflated revenue projections, using spending reserves to fill budget holes – according to a financial analysis published in the National Tax Journal.
The mayor noted in an interview with City & State that he urged federal officials like U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to secure money for cities suffering shortfalls because of the pandemic.
However, those one-shot funds will not address the city’s underlying fiscal issues.
Brown has often touted downtown development, but has been criticized for a lack of development in some of Buffalo’s economically struggling neighborhoods.
And while the mayor has not been accused of any crimes, federal agents raided City Hall in 2019, taking carts of boxes with them.
Walton, a registered nurse, community activist and organizer, who has compared herself to Rep. Cori Bush, the first-term member of Congress from St. Louis who excited progressives nationwide with her 2020 campaign and is also a registered nurse and organizer. A single mother of four, Walton spent last summer rallying crowds with stirring speeches on police reform, expanding affordable housing opportunities and access to health care.
She challenged the mayor on his assertions that he has handled the scrutiny of the police department and the pandemic well.
“I think a lot of people feel like I feel: tired – tired of waiting for real leadership,” Walton told City & State.
She views Brown as vulnerable, with voter fatigue setting in, pointing to a lack of progress on some of Buffalo’s most intractable issues, like persistently high levels of poverty and segregation.
“Why do we keep giving you more chances?” Walton said of Brown. “You had 16 years and our community still looks this way.”
Brown defended his record on creating opportunity in the city, pointing to state investment in the Northland Workforce Training Center, a sprawling high tech manufacturing training center that graduates hundreds of students a year, about half of them people of color, with average starting salaries upward of $45,000.
“Rhetoric, talking, making promises, it doesn’t work when you’re the incumbent, when you’re the officeholder,” Brown said. “People want to see the work getting done from the officeholder.”
Walton and Durham must also contend with the widespread perception that Buffalo is enjoying a renaissance, a narrative that has been pushed by Brown, Gov. Andrew
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren trails her primary opponent in the polls.
Cuomo and other city, county and state leaders, as ice rinks and hotels went up in a previously dead downtown.
Brown has fended off previous challengers, but none of them were leaders of the progressive movement. Walton points to her endorsement from the Working Families Party – the first time that Brown has not received the WFP’s support – as a sign that change is afoot.
Durham, a city employee who lists Brown as a role model on her campaign website, is running on a platform of making City Hall more engaged with the public, supporting community groups and development on the east side of Buffalo, a part of the city that has suffered from disinvestment for decades.
Brown has been a dominant force in Western New York politics for a long time, but the political winds are shifting.
ROCHESTER
The bad news just keeps coming for Mayor Lovely Warren. The two-term incumbent has had a year to forget, and when her house was raided by state police last month – part of an investigation into her estranged husband Timothy Granison, who was arrested on May 19 on gun and drug charges – it was just the latest in a long list of scandals.
After news broke that state police were searching her home, Warren held an extraordinary press conference in which she recounted personal and professional hardships from what she described as her “Job year,” referencing the biblical parable, before calling into question the timing of the search and her husband’s court date the day before the primary.
Now her reelection is in peril. A WROC/ Emerson College poll conducted just after her husband’s arrest found that Warren trails her primary opponent, City Council Member Malik Evans, by 10 percentage points.
Warren rode a progressive message to her historic victory in 2013, becoming the first woman mayor of Rochester.
In a series of videos recently released on the city’s website in lieu of a State of the City speech, Warren touts progress on the expansion of affordable housing availability, police reforms and economic development.
Like Brown, she has been under the microscope for her handling of police issues. In September 2020, an investigation authorized by the City Council found police had suppressed video from the death of Daniel Prude, a man having a mental health episode who died after police pinned him to the ground with a “spit hood” over his head, and that Warren lied when she claimed at a press conference she hadn’t learned about Prude until August when she reportedly spoke to then-Rochester Police Chief La’Ron Singletary on the day it happened in March. In a statement at the time, Counsel to the city of Rochester Carrie Cohen blamed any mayoral misstatements on Warren being misled by Singletary. “At all times, Mayor Warren spoke based on the facts known to her at the time,” Cohen said.
In the months that followed, police pepper-sprayed a handcuffed 9-year-old girl and tackled a mother to the ground and pepper-sprayed her in front of her toddler. Although Rochester recently created a non-police mental health emergency response team, they were not dispatched to the scene. Police bodycam footage of all these incidents accompanied news stories that made their way around the globe.
This all comes on top of Warren’s own legal troubles. The mayor was indicted on charges of state campaign finance violations in October for allegedly using a political action committee to exceed campaign contribution limits. Warren and her co-defendants pleaded not guilty and the mayor maintains her innocence.
Despite all that, Evans is trying to unseat her without the support of Monroe County Democrats. Warren secured the local county party’s endorsement earlier this year.
“We really have to work to try to rebuild trust with the community,” Evans said. And that message is not only resonating with potential voters, but with donors as well. While Warren has been outspending Evans so far, the candidates pre-primary filings show that Evans has outraised Warren during the filing period, reporting $83,000 in contributions to her $75,000. Still, all but one of Warren’s large donors are sticking by her or declining to criticize her publicly. Warren’s campaign did not make the mayor available for an interview by the time of publication.
Evans stressed that police accountability and reform are necessary moving forward. But he also made it clear that he believes residents in all neighborhoods need to be able to work with police to make the city safer for everyone. “We see public safety as both an economic issue as well as a social justice issue,” Evans said. “It’s an economic issue because people will not want to relocate to Rochester to start their business or maintain their business if they see that there’s crime, but also that there’s unrest between the police department and the citizens.”
SYRACUSE
The most complicated of the races, Syracuse will see its first independent mayor in over a century try to defend his seat. Ben Walsh, who won election on two minor party lines, the Independence and Reform parties, in 2017, has collected the signatures he needs to secure the Indepence Party line again.
Walsh touted his ability to work with officials from all parties and communities, saying his status as an independent has allowed him to bring people together from all neighborhoods in the city and all levels of government, Democrats and Republicans alike.
He said that spirit is also reflected in what he called the most diverse government in Syracuse history. “Our vision is for Syracuse to be a growing city that embraces diversity and creates opportunity for all,” he said in an interview with City & State.
Meanwhile, two Democrats, Greene and fellow city Councilor Khalid Bey, are competing for the Democratic line. The winner of this contest will be Walsh’s biggest obstacle to a second term in the general election.
Walsh, the scion of a legendary family of Central New York Republicans, has governed as a centrist, more progressive on social issues, who is tied into the business community. Walsh’s business connections, family name and incumbency make him a formidable fundraiser.
Greene, a Cornell-educated real estate executive who worked for the Port Authority of New York before returning to his home town in 2016, gained the Onondaga County Democrats’ endorsement earlier this year.
While Greene has found room to work
with Walsh on some issues, he believes the mayor to be too timid in his approach to economic development, criticizing the mayor for being too supportive of generous tax breaks for developers. “You’ll see from me a little bit more of an economic populism.”
In response, Walsh said he has asked the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency to review its criteria for granting tax breaks in an effort to tighten restrictions on tax breaks for developers. “We’re always going to try to be supportive of businesses,” Walsh said. “But you always want to strike that right balance and never provide benefits that would be considered excessive.”
Greene proposes to work with developers to create more affordable housing, create a community land trust – a city run organization that will buy and manage vacant and neglected property – and to reform city zoning laws.
Bey, who has written several motivational books and spent time as a recording artist before being elected to the Council in 2004, told the Syracuse Post-Standard that his top priorities are providing opportunities for the chronically unemployed and improving the city’s housing stock.
“I believe in the promise of the city,” he told the newspaper. “I think we have potential we haven’t even realized yet.”
Two Republicans, economist Janet Burman and attorney Thomas Babilon, will fight for the GOP line, but Syracuse hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1997.
ALBANY
Mayor Kathy Sheehan is seeking a third term, but will have to fight for the Democratic nomination with the Rev. Valerie Faust.
Sheehan, who has the backing of the Albany County Democrats, is touting her record on investments in infrastructure and parks and on police reform.
“I believe that experience matters, and I also wasn’t able to accomplish things that we thought we were going to get done this year because of COVID, and I want to really see those things through, so I’ve decided that I am running again,” Sheehan told the Albany Business Review when announcing her run for reelection last year.
Like other upstate mayors, Sheehan and her police department have faced scrutiny. In April, local civil rights leaders criticized the mayor and the police after a group of protestors were cleared from an encampment near a police station, resulting in a clash.
At a press conference where police body cam footage was shared, Sheehan compared the protestors to the crowd that stormed the Capital on Jan. 6, comments she later apologized for.
Faust is making her third bid for mayor after defeats in 2009 and 2013. She believes that she has a better shot now, because so little has changed for the better during Sheehan’s time in office, she told WAMC, the local NPR affiliate.
“My stump speech and all of my concerns I used in 2009, I could still use today,” Faust told the radio station. “And that was because nothing really changed. And some things had gotten worse.” Republican radio host Alicia Purdy and comedian Greg Aidala are also running. ■
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh touts his status as an Independent.
