November 30, 2020
next month. Trottenberg is currently serving on President-elect Joe Biden’s transportation transition team, and it is already being speculated that she may be considered for the role of U.S. transportation secretary. Trottenberg was behind the creation of the city’s Vision Zero program, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths. She also helped install numerous speed cameras and created bus and bicycle lanes throughout the city.
BROOKLYN CONGREGATION FINED $15,000
The Yetev Lev D’Satmar congregation in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has been fined $15,000 by New York City for hosting more than 1,000 maskless guests at an indoor wedding. The congregation also received
City & State New York
a written warning from the city’s Health Department regarding any future indoor events. De Blasio called the event “amazingly irresponsible” and said that it was “deeply immoral as lives were put at risk in a blatant disregard of the law and public health.” However, this wedding is just one in a series of several strictly prohibited indoor events that occurred recently. On Saturday, a swingers club in Astoria, Queens, was busted for hosting a party with 80 guests and for serving liquor without a license. It is also facing a $15,000 fine. Several city politicians have been criticized for gathering at an indoor birthday party for New York Building Congress President and CEO Carlo Scissura, where numerous people were photographed mingling without masks earlier in November.
Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris announce the supermajority.
THE
WEEK AHEAD
MON. 11/30 New York City public schools will stay closed until the Monday after Thanksgiving at the earliest, though it depends on whether fewer New Yorkers test positive in the meantime.
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State Senate Democrats proved the haters wrong One-party rule in Albany appears to be assured for years to come, with Democrats now declaring victory in their efforts to win supermajorities in both chambers of the state Legislature. It will be the first time in modern political history that one party has had two-thirds of the seats in both chambers and the governor’s mansion. “We know that on election night many people wrote us off, they said it was a big red wave, and they were already predicting our shrinking majority, and as we know the red wave turned out to really be more of a red mirage,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters after announcing that Democrats won a competitive Westchester County race between freshman state Sen. Pete Harckham and GOP challenger Rob Astorino, which ensured Democrats would have at least 42 seats in the chamber next year. Democratic candidates Samra Brouk and Jeremy Cooney flipped longtime Republican seats in Rochester, while Sean Ryan and Michelle Hinchey picked up seats in Buffalo and the Catskills. The GOP bet heavily on voter backlash to bail reform that failed to put them over the top against Democratic incumbents like state Sens. Kevin Thomas and Jim Gaughran on Long Island as well as Andrew
INSIDE DOPE
Mayor Bill de Blasio has stuck by the 3% test positivity rate as the metric for reopening schools. Political pressure, though, is pushing him to adopt a more nuanced approach.
Gounardes in Brooklyn, despite millions of dollars spent by conservative donors such as Ronald Lauder. Another strategy used by Republicans has been to warn that voting for Democrats will just empower the political left in New York City. That has been a recurring argument wielded by Republicans against the Democrats, who historically have not had much of an upstate presence in the state Senate. That is changing now with Brouk, Cooney, Ryan and Hinchey joining the conference. And freshman Democrats like state Sens. James Skoufis of the Hudson Valley, Anna Kaplan of Long Island and Rachel May of Syracuse cruised to reelection. In theory, supermajorities can override a governor’s veto. But if Cuomo disagreed with his party’s legislative majorities, it is unlikely that all the suburban moderates would frequently go against him and vote to override. Supermajorities in both chambers could nonetheless mark a shift in the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches and will further sideline state Republicans for years to come. That suggests Republicans are going to have even greater difficulty in picking up seats in the decade ahead. – Zach Williams
THURS. 12/3
FRI. 12/4
City & State and AARP host a virtual state legislative forum at 10 a.m discussing health care issues with lawmakers from the Bronx, including state Sens. Luis Sepúlveda, Gustavo Rivera and others.
The New York City Council Committee on Health and Committee on Hospitals hold a virtual joint oversight hearing at 10 a.m. on the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.
