9 minute read
FIRST READ
Responding to two recent mass shootings in Texas and New York by 18-year-old men, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed raising the age to own an AR-15-style assault rifle to 21.
MORE GUN PROPOSALS ON THE AGENDA
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Following a horrific mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would work with the state Legislature to approve legislation to raise the age to purchase an AR-15. Currently, a buyer only needs to be 18 years old, but Hochul wants to raise it to 21. But she will likely face an uphill challenge considering that California’s semiautomatic weapons ban for people under the age of 21 was recently struck down by a federal appeals court. New York did, however, gain a victory on its gun laws. A federal judge upheld a state law that makes it easier to sue gun manufacturers when violence is committed with their weapons.
ANOTHER LG IS ON THE JOB
The job of lieutenant governor may not have much weight or responsibility, but it’s far from a political dead-end job, as Govs. Kathy Hochul and David Paterson would tell you. But as Antonio Delgado gave up his seat in Congress to be sworn in as New York’s next second-in-command last week, he likely had one thing on his mind. To use the position as a political springboard, Delgado first has to win the Democratic primary next month and the general election in November.
“I’ve never seen so many rats in my life.”
– New York City Council Member Erik Bottcher, who introduced a bill meant to curb the rat population, via the Daily News
– New York City Mayor Eric Adams, expressing confidence that his state-level priorities will be passed before state lawmakers break for the year, via the Daily News
REDISTRICTING (FINALLY) FINALIZED
After commissions and lawsuits and so many draft maps, New York finally has new district lines for the state Senate and Congress. The lines came after a long process that saw the maps drawn by Democrats in the state Legislature thrown out by a judge – the congressional lines were tossed due to gerrymandering and the state Senate lines on procedural grounds. So the process went to a court-appointed special master to draw new maps, the final versions of which came out after he heard from New Yorkers about his original drafts. The new districts will shake up a number of races, including by pitting Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney against each other and creating a new open seat in lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. That 10th District race has already attracted some high-profile candidates, including Rep. Mondaire Jones from the Hudson Valley, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou. In the state Senate, a number of incumbents found themselves drawn out of their districts, with several already announcing their plans to move to a nearby district without an incumbent to avoid primarying their colleagues.
ASSEMBLY RACE A BLOW TO ADAMS
A special election to fill the former seat of N. Nick Perry, who left the Assembly to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, ended with the loss of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ preferred candidate Hercules Reid, whom Adams endorsed over the choice of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, Monique Chandler-Waterman. She handily won the seat by over 60 percentage points. Chandler-Waterman and Reid will face off again in the June 28 Democratic primary.
ADULT SURVIVORS ACT SIGNED
After it stalled in the Assembly last year, the chamber approved the Adult Survivors Act, which Hochul quickly signed into law at an event attended by advocates and survivors of sexual abuse. The new law is similar to the 2019 Child Victims Act, opening up a one-year lookback window for people who experienced abuse as adults to bring civil lawsuits against their alleged abusers.
RIKERS GETS A REPRIEVE
New York City officials got a little more time to come up with a plan to solve the myriad problems at the Rikers Island jail complex, long plagued by violence and now exasperated by staffing shortages. A judge granted Adams and his Correction Department commissioner two more weeks to figure out how they will address the issues at Rikers before the federal government potentially takes away control of the jails. The prospect was raised several weeks ago because violence at Rikers has increased in recent months, despite years of attempts to solve the issues. If the city can’t quickly show that it has a workable plan, a federal monitor will take control of the jails away from city officials.
New York City has two more weeks to work on a plan that demonstrates it can solve the violence on Rikers Island, or else the federal government is going to take it over.
NYC to Albany: We’re ready for 24/7 speed cameras
Much like a driver speeding through a yellow light, the New York City Council called an emergency meeting on May 26 and passed a “home rule message” requesting that state legislators pass a bill that would expand the use of automated speed cameras in the five boroughs. That law would repeal time limits on when the speed cameras can operate, letting them catch fast drivers 24/7. Currently cameras don’t give out speeding tickets on weekends, or on weekdays between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. – the hours when most fatal car crashes happen. The City Council’s SLR 0006-2022 gives the state Legislature the go-ahead to pass S5602B/A10438, which also extends the speed camera program until July 1, 2025. It’s currently set to expire in a month.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ Albany agenda has been marred by missteps, but this bill would represent a minor victory. Getting more control of speed cameras has been one of Adams’ top priorities this legislative session. But the language in the bill – which lawmakers are expected to pass ahead of the last day of the legislative session on June 2 – wouldn’t go as far as he’d hoped. The mayor wanted full control of the cameras, without authorization from the state government. And stricter provisions in the original bill, including higher fines on repeat offenders, were stripped out, in order to win the council’s approval. As Streetsblog NYC reported, many city lawmakers had concerns about speed cameras, and council leaders were addressing them up until the last minute.
The bill passed 43-7, with most of the opposition coming from conservative members such as Council Member David Carr, who said the speed camera program was “more about revenue than traffic or pedestrian safety.”
While the speed camera extension was the highest profile bill, the council voted on seven other state legislation resolutions to be sent to the state Capitol. In a shocking turn, one of them failed. SLR 0008-2022, which would support a pension sweetener that would incentivize New York City Police Department officers to stay on the job longer failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority, after many progressive members either voted against it or abstained from voting. – Jeff Coltin
THE WEEK AHEAD
WEDNESDAY 6/1
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks at an Association for a Better New York power breakfast at 8 a.m. at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan. THURSDAY 6/2
It’s the last day of this year’s legislative session in Albany, and the state Capitol is going to be busy as lawmakers work to pass a final “Big Ugly” bill. INSIDE DOPE
Legislative leaders have “a mountain of work to do” before the end of the year, but they won’t want to extend the session – there are primary elections coming up. MONDAY 6/6
City & State kicks off Pride Month by honoring the Pride Power 100 at 6:30 p.m. at The Delancey on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
A Q&A with Times Square Alliance President
TOM HARRIS
It looks like midtown Manhattan, especially Times Square, is definitely on a comeback by the crowds visible on the street. How’s the recovery going? I think Times Square is doing well. (The week of May 9), we had more than 2.2 million people walk through Times Square, and two of the seven days exceeded 2019 numbers. We’ve got 35 Broadway shows open. We’re seeing an uptick in domestic visitors. We’re seeing a lot of New Yorkers rediscovering Times Square as well.
Contrast it to when COVID-19 impacted this area. Midtown was slightly unique in the pandemic. Everyone went home, and there aren’t many residents in Midtown, particularly in the Time Square area. South of 54th Street there’s not that many residents, at least in what we consider Times Square. We saw Broadway close when the pandemic hit. We saw visitors stop coming. And at the same time we saw the city, for all the right reasons, take residents that were in congregate shelters and move them into hotels. So Midtown saw a huge amount of people who were in congregate shelters put into those hotels. Unfortunately, those people came, but a lot of the services that they were provided with previously, didn’t come with them. That added challenges to the street. Areas outside of Midtown didn’t seem to suffer to the same extent as this part of the city.
The Midtown BID Coalition’s creation in late April signaled that the area was taking steps to work with government on the area’s recovery. What led to the decision to create this coalition? We saw the polarization that exists in our society now existing in public space and public safety. We had people on one extreme saying, “Take everyone out of jail – that’s a good thing – and just provide services,” and then we had folks on the other side saying, “No, no, no. What worked before is what’s going to work again. We need to put everyone in jail.”
The Midtown BID Coalition was formed by looking at this and saying it’s not either one or the other. It’s both. We need to provide support for those people who are in need on our streets, and at the same time we need to give law enforcement and judges the tools that are necessary to do their work effectively. Our fivepoint plan was born from that, and it was basically to increase proactive resources and support for people who sleep on the street, and proactive outreach for people with mental health issues.
How have Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams both responded to the coalition? Both the governor and mayor have been extremely responsive. They are really trying to do the right thing. We as citizens need to support them, and need to say we will not have the disorder that we have on our streets. Right now, there’s a tug of war over how much disorder we’re accepting. We need 2022 solutions for the challenges that we see on our streets. – Ralph R. Ortega
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