11 minute read
FIRST READ
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is bringing back a controversial police unit to tackle gun violence in areas of the city that have seen a rise in gun-related crimes.
NYPD’S ANTICRIME UNIT IS OFFICIALLY BACK
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Making good on his campaign promise, New York City Mayor Eric Adams officially rolled out the revamped anti-crime unit of the NYPD, which his predecessor Bill de Blasio had disbanded due to its controversial history. The previous iteration consisted of plainclothes officers who were involved in a disproportionate number of deadly shootings. The new unit of uniformed officers will focus more specifically on guns as concerns over increasing crime rates and high-profile incidents grow. The deployment comes after a short delay, with the first wave getting sent to areas that have seen an increase in gun violence in recent years, with the rest of the roughly 500-member unit to be deployed as they complete their training.
STATE LAWMAKERS RESPOND TO THE GOVERNOR’S
TWO YEARS LATER
Last week marked two years since New York shut down to control the spread of the coronavirus. New York was hit earlier and harder than almost any other part of the country, with nearly 55,000 deaths since March 2020. Hospitalizations and deaths plummeted with the arrival of effective vaccines. As we embark on our third pandemic year, health experts warned that loosening restrictions should not mean getting complacent, as new variants could still pose a risk.
– New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Department Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, on his last day in office, via Twitter
– Global Strategy Group President Jefrey Pollock, in an email response to a draft memo from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s team fighting back against a scathing editorial in The New York Times, via Vice
BUDGET
Budget season is alive and well in Albany as state lawmakers passed their one-house nonbinding budget resolutions in response to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s initial fiscal plan. Both the state Senate and the Assembly proposed budgets that differed in a number of key aspects compared to what came out of the Executive Chamber. They both include more spending despite the already high price tag of Hochul’s plan thanks to a surplus from federal pandemic aid. Lawmakers also removed many of the governor’s nonfiscal policy items, perhaps most notably a bill to legalize to-go cocktails, although they also dropped other big-ticket items like term limits for statewide elected officials with a promise to revisit the issues as separate items after the budget. Both chambers also proposed funding for universal child care as well as an extension of state-funded health care to undocumented New Yorkers, both of which Hochul did not include.
HOCHUL DECIDES TO TAKE ON BAIL REFORM
After repeatedly insisting that she would defer to the state Legislature on the matter, Hochul has changed course and has decided she would like to revisit the bail reform law from 2019 in order to make more crime bail
eligible and give judges greater discretion. That includes allowing judges to set higher bail based on criminal history and making attacks against public transit workers bail eligible. Both state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie have said they have no appetite to make further changes to the law after some rollbacks in 2020 and made clear they didn’t intend to address the issue during session. However, Republicans have continued to blame a rise in crime on bail reform, pointing to individual cases and anecdotal evidence as proof that the reform has failed, despite insufficient data to gauge success one way or the other. Moderate Democrats have also begun criticizing Hochul and others, seeking modifications to the bail law. So Hochul has finally taken a position on the controversial issue, aligning herself with Adams, who has called on her to make changes.
CUOMO UNDERREPORTED NURSING HOME DEATHS: REDUX
As disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo attempts to make a comeback, a new audit from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has brought fresh attention to one of the nonsexual harassment scandals that plagued him when he left office. The audit concluded that his administration and the state Department of Health under its command intentionally misled the public about the number of COVID-19 deaths that occured in nursing homes. This revelation is not new, but DiNapoli’s report marks the third one from state officials that found Cuomo lied about the true toll of COVID-19 on nursing homes, refreshing the public’s memory of malfeasance from the former governor at a time when he has decided to reenter the public sphere.
Protesters rallied a year ago on behalf of family members who died in nursing homes from COVID-19.
Will Eric Adams be a factor in the June primaries?
Eric Adams dipped his toe into electoral politics as mayor of New York City with three Assembly endorsements, and progressives have noticed a trend: He backed Nikki Lucas and Brian Cunningham of Brooklyn and Assembly Member Eddie Gibbs of East Harlem, who are each facing opponents endorsed by the Working Families Party.
“This speaks to the difference between movement politics and machine politics,” WFP spokesperson Ravi Mangla told City & State. “We want candidates who will be responsive to their communities. Adams wants candidates who will be responsive to him.”
And WFP-backed Wil López is fundraising off the fact that Adams endorsed his opponent, saying it means that Gibbs and Adams “want to return our city to the days of ‘stop and frisk.’” Adams is popular right now in most parts of the city – and won Gibbs’ district in the 2021 primary – but there’s a strong anti-Adams faction out there, and they might donate.
Adams will be an in-demand endorser this year, but insiders said, so far, he’s not going out on a limb, and only supporting folks he knows and likes. Cunningham, who has the support of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, which is close to Adams, wouldn’t get into specifics about how the endorsement came about. But Gibbs’ team said the Assembly member and the mayor talk often, and that Adams offered up the endorsement himself. And despite opponents’ assertions, it’s not like Adams’ picks are all centrists. Cunningham has some progressive support and was the WFP’s candidate the last time he ran for office (while Adams endorsed his 2017 opponent, incumbent Council Member Mathieu Eugene). Cunningham said Adams’ support of him over Jelanie DeShong, who was endorsed by the WFP, “was more of a validation of work that people have done in communities before the election cycle.”
Lucas’ commanding special election win over WFP candidate Keron Alleyne must have felt good for Adams after his political team’s failure to crown their preferred candidate for City Council speaker. But there’s a lot of primary season left, and observers were eager to see how involved Adams gets in these races and others.
Sources close to Adams don’t expect him to get too deeply involved in this year’s primaries. As he was getting into his car after an unrelated event Wednesday, City & State asked Adams if more endorsements were coming. “Focus,” he said with a laugh, “focus.” – Jeff Coltin
THE WEEK AHEAD
TUESDAY 3/22
City & State hosts a 1 p.m. digital roundtable titled, “Establishing A Successful Cannabis Marketplace: Best Practices for A Collaborative Approach.” WEDNESDAY 3/23
The New York City Council holds a virtual 2 p.m. preliminary budget hearing on sanitation and solid waste management, which has become a key issue in budget negotiations. THURSDAY 3/24
City & State hosts Above & Beyond, honoring 50 women who exhibit exemplary leadership, at 6 p.m at Sony Hall in Manhattan. INSIDE DOPE
Who will be spotted on City & State’s first red carpet? The event will also feature New York City’s nightlife mayor, Ariel Palitz, as the emcee.
WELCOME TO SUE JERSEY
New York should claim its bagel crown and Frank Sinatra in the courts.
By Jeff Coltin
New York sued New Jersey on March 14 for trying to pull out of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. The bistate commission is meant to crack down on dockside organized crime, but leaders in Trenton claimed it has outlived its usefulness. But if New York is going to go after our neighbor in court, we’ve got some other ideas for lawsuits.
Claiming to have better bagels
All the best bagels shops in New Jersey are just trying to replicate what New York bagel shops already do better.
When Jersey people say they’re from New York
“Where are you from?” “New York.” “Oh really, what neighborhood?” “Uh, well, technically I live in Teaneck.”
Taking most of Ellis Island
The states have tussled before, and the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1998 that 83% of Ellis Island is part of New Jersey. Let’s have the court revisit – and take it back.
Not taking Staten Island
Staten Islanders keep on voting to secede from the city. Would they be happier with New Jersey? We love our southernmost county, but it’s a long ride to the rest of New York, while New Jersey’s close enough for a deer to swim there.
Traffic problems in Fort Lee
OK, “Bridgegate” already made it through the courts, but people trying to flee New Jersey for the city makes for the worst traffic in the nation. And once Jersey drivers make it into New York City? Oy vey.
Claiming Frank Sinatra
Start spreading the news – he was born in Hoboken, but he’s a New Yorker.
Delaying the Gateway Program For taking the Jets and Giants
The Meadowlands stole our local football teams decades ago, leaving New York with just one team. (Go Bills!) Now some random fan is suing for $6 billion to get the teams to move back to New York, and the whole state should join him.
It’s not just car traffic. Then-Gov. Chris Christie pulled the plug on a new Hudson River rail tunnel in 2010, and it’s been a headache to make progress on the expensive project ever since.
A Q&A with state Comptroller
THOMAS DINAPOLI
As the state’s chief fiscal officer, you ensure the state and local governments use taxpayer money effectively. Your office also monitors New York City’s fiscal health. Could you please provide an update on where the recovery stands? Overall, I’d say we’re in a much better place both for New York City and New York state today than we thought we would be in, if you go back even just a few months ago. There’s no doubt that the federal money has been incredibly impactful. It’s obviously not the only reason for our stronger financial condition and the strength of our recovery, but it is a big part of it. Certainly from a government revenue perspective, both for local governments and for the state government, the money that we’ve gotten from Washington has really turned what was expected to be a year of budget cuts and retrenchment to a year of, at least at this point, budget surpluses. As Albany works on getting the budget done for the coming year, it’s very different than it was a year ago. That is certainly directly attributed to the impact of the federal aid that we’ve gotten. You know, we have to keep in mind the broad context. New York as a state and New York City were hit first and hardest by COVID. So it’s no surprise it has taken us longer to recover than other parts of the country. The last numbers I saw from a job recovery perspective showed the state (has gained) back about 74% of the jobs that we lost. If you look at the 2 million jobs we lost at the depths of the impact of COVID on the economy, the national numbers are more like 90% or above. So we’re lagging the national numbers. And New York City, I believe, is around just around 70%. So the city’s job recovery is lagging the state. The state numbers are lagging the nation. So we have a ways to go. But there’s no question that the federal money targeted for certain industries and sectors has made a huge difference.
After the challenges of the past couple years, what have you seen emerge as the strongest economic drivers for New York state? I would say particularly for New York City, the restaurant, retail, broadly defined hospitality and recreation sector, is key. I think one of the challenges to New York City’s recovery is that those sectors have had a hard time coming back, because so much of it is tied to tourism. While certainly you’re seeing more people going into New York City, domestic travelers and day trippers from the region, but a lot of the city’s tourism was tied to foreign travel. Clearly that’s not coming back because of the COVID concerns. That’s creating a struggle for those sectors. about that campaign. – Ralph R. Ortega
THINKSTOCK IMAGES, CAVAN IMAGES, DREW ANGERER, GAB ARCHIVE/REDFERNS, TIMOTHY T LUDWIG, ELSA/GETTY IMAGES; OFFICE OF THE STATE COMPTROLLER
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