Crain's New York Business

POLITICS

SUBURBAN STANDOFF

Gov. Hochul’s proposals targeting New York City’s suburbs for housing density, transit funding could have far-reaching political consequences

BY NICK GARBER

Along, uneasy stando between the city and its suburbs is coming to an end.

Following a pandemic that shook up old patterns, Gov. Kathy Hochul and other leaders are thinking regionally about housing, employment hubs and how to move people between the two. e push, undertaken in the name of a ordability and livability, has resurfaced old fears of urban disorder dating back to the “white ight” era that

gave rise to population surges in the suburbs.

Suburban lawmakers are revolting against three policies at the center of Hochul’s new budget: compelling towns and neighborhoods to build more housing, upzoning areas near transit stations and raising taxes on downstate businesses to help fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Meanwhile, projects that connect the city and the suburbs such as the Long Island Rail Road’s arrival at Grand Central Madison and the Gateway rail tunnel to New Jersey under the

Hudson River have opened or moved forward after years of delays.

e struggle, still in its early stages, is likely to show itself in increasingly expensive and contentious political campaigns. An opening salvo came in November 2022, when suburban voters broke up Democrats’ relative downstate monopoly. In a red wave, Republicans ipped congressional and legislative seats on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley.

POLITICS

Met Gala keeps getting NY politicians in trouble

The chic event has raised ethics concerns for lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Carolyn Maloney

BY NICK GARBER

The Met Gala is known for ostentatious out ts, celebrity guests and, lately, for getting congresswomen representing the city ensnared in ethics probes.

e O ce of Congressional Ethics recently said it was investigating whether Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez improperly accepted gifts associated with the 2021 gala, in which she famously wore a white gown emblazoned with the phrase “Tax the Rich.”

e news came months after the o ce revealed an investigation of then-Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who was months away from wrapping up her 30-year tenure in Congress. e investigation involving Maloney also centered on her attending a Met Gala—in her case, an allegation of soliciting an invitation to the 2016 event.

It may be no coincidence that the two most recent ethics probes involving New York’s congressional delegation have stemmed from the same star-studded event.

“It shows your status in the celebrity world,” said Kedric Payne, a vice president at the Campaign Legal Center. “You can see how it then draws someone to want to be invited to con rm their status or to show their status.”

Even lawmakers who strain to abide by ethics rules could be

NASSAU COUNTY elected of cials held a March 2 press conference against Hochul’s plan to increase housing density near transit stations. HOCHUL

After legal battle, nearly 9% pay boost for Uber, Lyft drivers to take effect starting this week

BY CAROLINE SPIVACK

Uber and Lyft drivers will get a much-anticipated pay bump beginning this week.

The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission approved a roughly 9% pay increase compared to last year’s rates for drivers last Wednesday, following a legal fight with Uber that blocked a similar raise from taking effect in December.

Minimum pay increases to the per-mile and per-minute rates mean that a 7.5 mile, 30-minute trip

The pay increase voted on Wednesday brings driver pay up by roughly 9% since the start of this year.

No waiting period

The TLC waived the standard 30day wait period; this will allow the changes to take effect March 13.

“We are excited that we have come to a rule that works for everyone,” TLC Commissioner David Do said during last Wednesday’s vote.

“The rule will increase minimum pay to account for increased driver expenses and changes the way utilization rates [time drivers spend without a passenger] are calculated and applied.”

Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which organized the strikes, praised the new pay minimums as giving drivers some much-needed relief.

“You can’t turn back the clock and feed a hungry belly. This is something that should have happened in real time by the companies themselves,” Desai said.

will result in a base fare of $26.76 for drivers. The raise is an increase of $2.16—or 8.78%—from the rates in effect as of January. The increase, TLC officials said, is to account for gas, car payments and other ballooning driver expenses that outpaced inflation last year. Uber and Lyft are expected to pass the pay increase on to passengers.

In February drivers received a 6% fixed raise to account for inflation.

EVENTS CALLOUT THURSDAY, APRIL 27

POWER BREAKFAST

Join us for a live interview with New York’s top federal prosecutor, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. He’ll share his priorities, outlook and impressions since he took over the office in late 2021.

DETAILS

Time: 8:30 to 10 a.m.

Location: 180 Central Park S. CrainsNewYork.com/pb_williams

CORRECTION

■ Nancy Hagans currently lives in Ward Hill. This information was incorrect in Asked & Answered, published March 6.

E-hail drivers outraged by Uber’s lawsuit that prevented a bigger pay increase from taking effect hosted three strikes in the past few months, including one at LaGuardia Airport. Hundreds of participating drivers demanded higher wages to account for inflation.

“Every little bit helps,” said Ahmed Mohamed, who supports his wife and two children on his earnings as a driver for Uber and Lyft. “This is about being respected and getting what we should have already had.”

“But at least with this raise, some of the debt that drivers incurred will be addressed, and moving for ward this year, they will be able to keep up with their expenses.”

Uber and Lyft had raised concerns about proposed changes to the utilization rate, which accounts for the time that drivers spend without a passenger in their vehicle, as part of the equation for calculating the increased rates.

An earlier version of the rules proposed a utilization rate that assumes drivers spend at least 56% of their time with passengers.

Do said the TLC decreased that rate to 53% to “further reduce the incentive for driver lockouts”— when Uber and Lyft restrict the number of drivers who can log on to their systems at any given time.

In an email, a spokesperson for Uber called the new pay rules “more reasonable then what was previously proposed.” A represen-

tative from Lyft agreed.

“The TLC’s proposal includes changes that will ensure fairer competition within our industry,” Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin said in a statement. “We are appreciative of them listening to our concerns and look forward to continued engagement on ways we can improve rideshare overall.” ■

Crain’s New York Business wins award for general excellence in business journalism

Crain’s New York Business has won the 2022 Best in Business prize for general excellence from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, one of the most prestigious honors in business journalism.

“The judges unanimously agreed that Crain’s New York Business produced excellent work across a diverse range of stories that told unique tales about money and New York City. The depth of reporting was a cut above, as were the presentation and storytelling,” the judges commented. “In a competitive field, Crain’s New York stood out.”

SABEW announced the winners last week, noting its Best in Business Awards attracted 1,182 entries from 193 news organizations. Top winners included The New York Times, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal

Crain’s senior reporter Aaron Elstein was also awarded, for Best Range of Work, joining Ben Cassel-

man of The New York Times, who won the Range of Work award in the large category.

In the general excellence category, fellow winners included Bloomberg and Nikkei Asia.

The Crain’s coverage that won recognition in the general excellence category broke news, influenced policy and looked to captivate readers.

Maya Kaufman’s investigative

feature, “Fatal Neglect,” showed how policy decisions and inaction over decades deprived homeless New Yorkers with serious mental illnesses of care and resulted in two senseless deaths.

“Failure to Plan,” by Matthew Flamm, kicked off a year of coverage of the housing shortage by pointing out that the city is alone among its peers in lacking a comprehensive development strategy.

Keith Kelly’s “High-powered PR firm secretly bought an industry news site to tout itself, bash rivals” delivered exactly what it promised.

Elstein’s “No place to go” explained why New York is one of the worst cities for public restrooms anywhere.

And Elstein’s article on the city’s casino proposals handicapped which developers are best positioned to win a license estimated to be worth $2 billion a year.

Crain’s New York Business last won SABEW’s general excellence award in 2016. ■

CRAIN’S STAFF

TAYLOR NAKAGAWA

“THE DEPTH OF REPORTING WAS A CUT ABOVE. IN A COMPETITIVE FIELD, CRAIN’S STOOD OUT”

THE INCREASE, TLC OFFICIALS SAID, IS TO ACCOUNT FOR BALLOONING EXPENSES

Harlem bank puts status as meme stock to good use

After the murder of George Floyd, Carver Federal Savings Bank raised cash, which is helping overlooked entrepreneurs

BY AARON ELSTEIN

Diane Da Costa was a successful hairstylist well before she opened a salon called Simplee Beautiful in Harlem four years ago. She had written a pioneering book, Textured Tresses, served clients such as Lauryn Hill and was “hair guru to thousands of African queens, Latinas and women of all colors,” according to her Amazon page.

One thing Da Costa couldn’t do was get a bank loan for her business.

Her credit score was too low, apologetic lending o cers told her, or her income wasn’t high enough. She kept her salon going with loans from nonpro ts. She concluded banks didn’t really mean it when they claimed they wanted to help

minority- and women-owned businesses.

“It was hype,” she said.

Last year a bank took a chance and gave Da Costa a small loan, which she used to install a brow bar. A few months later the bank awarded a $5,000 grant to make her shop more energy e cient.

e bank, Harlem-based Carver Federal Savings, has specialized in serving clients shunned by other lenders since its founding in 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. As a federally designated community lender, Carver seeks to balance its quest to maximize pro t with its mission to provide nancial services to the underserved. In the past three years its loan book has grown at an unprecedented rate, up 40% or $160 million.

One reason for that is Carver took advantage of becoming a

meme stock.

Soon after the police murder of George Floyd in 2020, stuck-at-home investors discovered Carver, one of three Black-run banks to trade publicly. Only 19 such banks remain, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ese banks were once the only option for customers, but 60% of them have disappeared in the past 20 years because the small institutions lack capital.

Carver’s hitherto-ignored stock price abruptly soared from $2 a share to $22 in the summer of 2020, retreated, then surged again, to $42.50, a year later, the same phenomenon that momentarily sent GameStop and AMC Entertainment to the moon. Carver raised $8 million in capital by selling shares

BUCK ENNIS

PRICE AND ALEXANDER were able to serve a big new client after a Carver loan.

WHO OWNS THE BLOCK

Shuttering of West 14th Catholic church has preservationists looking for a miracle

BY C. J. HUGHES

With shrinking congregations, many city churches have been cutting deals with developers to allow apartments in exchange for new sanctuaries, or have sold their properties outright.

Against that backdrop, the shuttering in January of a Catholic house of worship on West 14th Street has alarmed some preservationists, who are urging the city to protect the site.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, founded in 1902 in adjacent row houses at 229 and 231 W. 14th, near Eighth Avenue, is believed to be the first to serve the city’s Spanish-speaking immigrants.

Although a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York says the property is not for sale and may continue to be used for “secular purposes,” preservationists and some officials are skeptical and are urging the Landmarks Preservation Commission to act. The LPC is now evaluating the church, one of thousands of buildings it considers a year, a spokeswoman said.

A Feb. 22 letter to the commission from Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and other local leaders reads, “This review should be calendared as soon as possible, before the opportunity to do so is lost. Although New York City now contains the largest Hispanic population of any city in the country ... it has very few designated [Hispanic] landmarks.” The Preservation League of New York and Village Preservation have also joined the cause.

Developers might indeed salivate to get their hands on No. 229, a 10,600-square-foot structure on a 3,000-square-foot lot, and No. 231, a 8,100-square-foot building on a similar-size parcel. Though both are on a busy street once considered rough, the sites straddle the border of the trendy West Village and Chelsea, and are close to the Meatpacking District.

But the church at one time anchored its own neighborhood, Little Spain, a once-thriving enclave with bookstores, restaurants and markets that appears to have faded from memory even as monikers like Little Italy have endured.

There seem to be no shortage of recent examples of churches bulldozed to make way for apartment buildings. After being empty and run down, the Church of the Redeemer in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, was demolished so 561 Pacific Ave., a 62-unit luxury condo from Adam America Real Estate, could be built. Hybrid projects also exist, such as 10 Lenox Ave., a 29-unit Harlem condo that also contains a new gathering place for the property’s former owner, the Second Canaan Baptist Church.

But the demand for housing has only intensified in the years since those developments, suggesting that preservation efforts might face longer odds than before.

Indeed, Andrew Berman, executive director of Village Preservation, wrote that Guadalupe is in “imminent danger” in his own letter to the commission. ■

Besides Guadalupe, a major relic of West 14th’s Little Spain era is this 4-story brownstone, home to the Spanish Benevolent Society, a nonprofit that began life in 1868 as an immigrant aid organization. An early focus of the group was on arrivals from Spain’s Galicia region, though it later catered to Cuban, Mexican and Puerto Rican immigrants. At this spot since the 1920s, the structure, which records show also has eight apartments, is mostly a social hub today. Flamenco dancing lessons are $12, and a public restaurant, La Nacional, offers tapasstyle garlic chicken and lobster rice, and, of course, sangria. But though there were about a dozen Latino businesses along “La Catorce” in the mid-1970s, there are almost none now. A onetime Puerto Rican bookstore at West 14th and Seventh, for instance, is today a Duane Reade pharmacy.

In the mid-1800s wealthy Manhattanites flocked to West 14th Street, putting up stately townhouses. But as even-trendier neighborhoods arose to the north, the busy thoroughfare turned into a working-class area just a few decades later. Those former single-family houses added multiple apartments in the process. This 5-story walk-up has nine rentals, while the basement space features the Crooked Knife, a gastropub offering a $53 “boozy brunch” (though just for 90 minutes). The Dinhofer family sold No. 232 for $4.7 million in 2008, according to a deed; the buyer was a limited liability company based on Broadway in NoHo. Records with the city’s Housing Preservation and Development agency indicate the owner is Steven Croman, a regular on “worst landlord” lists who went to prison in 2017 for mortgage fraud tied to inflating his buildings’ value. The city values No. 232 at around $4 million, down from $4.3 million last year, though official estimates are usually low.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Spanish Colonial Baroque-style church founded here in 1902 and renovated in 1921, stopped being an official church in January. Preservationists have since rushed to turn it into a landmark to stave off development, though city officials in charge of protecting buildings have so far not shown much interest. Before adjacent brownstones were combined to create Guadalupe, the buildings were elegant homes belonging to the Delmonico restaurant family, according to research by the Village Preservation advocacy group. The church merged with nearby St. Bernard’s at 328 W. 14th St. in 2002 and is today known as the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Saint Bernard-Saint Veronica.

In the mid-1980s Sackman Enterprises, a developer that began life as a restorer of brownstones on the Upper West Side, converted these side-by-side, 5-story row houses into a 22-unit condo called Armistead. Unit sales have been sparse in recent years, but a one-bedroom did tradefor almost $1.7 million in early 2020, according to StreetEasy. But rentals are easier to come by. An Armistead two-bedroom rental, last listed at $7,500 a month, was snapped up in January. In an apparent bid to update its antique look, the condo added a sugar-white facade with black-trimmed windows during the pandemic. The condo’s base has two retail spaces, the westernmost of which has cycled through an eyeglasses store and a pharmacy in recent years and currently appears vacant. When the area was still Little Spain, a Puerto Rican bookstore called Macondo operated there.

The 1980s development of Zeckendorf Towers, on the site of a long-vacant department store at Union Square, signaled to builders that down-at-its-heels 14th Street might be ready for a rebound. In Zeckendorf’s wake came Royal Realty, a Long Island-based firm that in 1987 built the 15-story residential tower here. Packing in 132 apartments, the red-brick, doorman tower, named the Sequoia (as in the tall tree), has studios starting around $725,000 based on a recent transaction. A satellite office of Mount Sinai Hospital with primary care, cardiology and pulmonology divisions is at the base. In the 1990s the Sequoia appears to have been among the first buildings to welcome a slimmed-down hospital outpost, which are fixtures of New York today. Hospitals embraced the outposts as a way to provide convenience while also lowering overhead costs.

This narrow, brick, 5-story apartment building found itself in the news a few years ago when a man allegedly broke in and sexually assaulted a tenant. The tenant later sued the owner, the Tawil family of Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, because the building had “inadequate/defective locks, intercom, surveillance and security,” according to the tenant’s complaint. The Tawils denied the charges, and the two sides settled the case last summer. In 2015 the Tawils paid $3 million in cash for the 16-unit property, buying it from a New Rochelle-based shell company, according to the City Register. There are no active listings.

Among the tallest older buildings on the block, this 8-story, 54,000-square-foot mid-rise office building, completed in 1916, is home to a New York chapter of the Teamsters union, Local 237, which property records suggest has been based there since 1966. Local 237, which has 24,000 members, including those who work in New York’s public housing and public hospitals, is the Teamster’s largest chapter in the country. In 2014 Local 237 won a major wage-discrimination lawsuit on behalf of women school-safety officers, who were making less than their male counterparts. Union halls pop up along 14th Street, and nearby Union Square has historically hosted pro-labor demonstrations, though the square was apparently named for its location at a major intersection.

Some officials are skeptical that the property will not be sold to a developer and want to see the site landmarked instead

239 W. 14TH ST.

222 W. 14TH ST.

219 W. 14TH ST.

229-231 W. 14TH ST.

232 W. 14TH ST.

215 W. 14TH ST.

216 W. 14TH ST.

Leading NYC’s Leaders to the Top of Their Game.

To rise to the top in an executive coaching community like ours — and a city like this — is no small feat. You have to have consistently served at the highest levels for over a decade, helping to elevate Vistage CEO members, their companies, their teams, your peers and beyond. Guiding 127 New York City business leaders in seven peer advisory groups while helping his fellow Chairs excel, Mark has set the bar sky high for what is possible, inspiring us all to dig deeper and be better. Here’s to the 2022 Don Cope Award winner. In a city that demands the best, here you have it.

Vistage is the world’s largest CEO coaching and peer advisory organization. For 65 years, we’ve been helping CEOs, business owners and key executives solve their greatest challenges. Today, more than 45,000 members in 35 countries rely on Vistage.

Congratulations to Mark Taylor on achieving the highest honor as a CEO mentor.

Mark Taylor Vistage Chair since 2009 2022 Don Cope Award Winner

ASKED & ANSWERED

ARIEL PALITZ New York City Of ce of Nightlife

INTERVIEW BY SHELBY ROSENBERG

Starting in the 1980s, Ariel Palitz became a regular on the city’s bar and club circuit. She soon began promoting parties in iconic clubs such as Tunnel and Sound of Brazil, and in 2004 she became the owner of Sutra Lounge in the East Village. She also spent seven years on Community Board 3’s liquor licensing committee, interfacing regularly with government agencies. In March 2018 former Mayor Bill De Blasio appointed Palitz to head the city’s Of ce of Nightlife, established in September 2017 as a division of the Mayor’s Of ce of Media and Entertainment. In the role, Palitz helped the agency streamline regulations so nightlife businesses could open and operate more smoothly. She also sought to ensure fair residential enforcement policies and implement strategies to make going out safer. In February Palitz announced she is exiting the of ce to focus on other projects. The search for a new director is underway, and Palitz will stay on to facilitate the transition.

The city’s 25,000-plus nightlife establishments supported nearly 300,000 jobs and contributed $35.1 billion in total economic output in 2016 (the most recent year for which standardized data sets were available), according to the Mayor’s Of ce of Media and Entertainment’s 2019 economic impact report. Why is nightlife so important to the city?

A lot of people talk about nightlife as if it’s a separate part of the culture of New York, but it’s integral. Almost everyone here is a social creature who wants to go out after work, to meet with friends and to let off steam. It’s a work-hard, play-hard city, so it’s important for people’s wellbeing to have a vibrant social life. It’s so important for New York City because we’re the largest and most diverse city in North America, and it’s that diversity that comes together on a dance oor or at a bar.

DOSSIER

WHO SHE IS Former senior executive director, New York City Of ce of Nightlife

AGE 52

GREW UP Upper East Side

RESIDES East Village

EDUCATION Bachelor’s in cultural anthropology, University of Hartford

GREAT NIGHT OUT Palitz says going dancing is a favorite pastime of hers.

NIGHTLIFE TO DAY JOB She says owning a nightclub can open doors in the future, even a career in the mayor’s of ce.

Many people consider Manhattan to be the epicenter of the city’s nightlife. Are you noticing any shifts in neighborhood activity? The industry is spreading to the corners of all ve boroughs, to places with fewer residential areas where larger-format venues can operate with minimal impact on residential life. The for-hire vehicle boom also helped remove a barrier of apprehension about going to the border of Queens or Brooklyn and getting home safely and easily at 4 and 5 in the morning. In Brooklyn, the drag and LGBTQ community has organized a robust community, and across the city we’re seeing a rise in beautiful little

curated places like piano bars and cocktail spots, as well as larger nightclubs with specialized music genres.

What are some of the challenges facing those in the nightlife industry right now?

What we’re hearing is the industry needing some handholding to navigate city agencies to get the permits they need to open, to schedule inspections that might have been delayed because of the pandemic, etc., so the ONL helps them do that. Another challenge is that if you have a bar or club and you’re in a residential neighborhood, there’s a chance you’ll have a neighbor with quality-of-life concerns. Most enforcement is complaint-driven via 311, which doesn’t necessarily address the issue directly. ONL’s mediation and con ictresolution program, which offers free mediation between residents and venues, is a nonenforcement solution to help them coexist without triggering escalated enforcement to simply turn down the music.

The agency is relatively new. How have businesses responded to it?

From December 2022 to January 2023, we had around 1,200 registrations for our Nightlife Industry Training and Education school, a monthly series of courses to educate owners, staff and patrons about city agency resources, best practices, and safety and harm-reduction programs. During that month, we also had over 33,000 engagements with ONL’s newsletter, and more than 9,000 clicks on social media. There’s been an incredible sense of gratitude from the industry and community. The more they learn about the resources, the more they use them.

Three years into the pandemic, how are things looking for nightlife operators?

We’re absolutely seeing a healing of the industry. The creative sectors like theater, lm and television, and music are resurrecting, which means more people are taking jobs as bartenders and servers while they get a foothold in New York in their chosen professions. And based on what we’re hearing from community boards and the state Liquor Authority, there’s been a big increase in the amount of liquor license applications. There’s plenty of interest in opening up a bar, club or restaurant right now— people are seeing it as a really great idea. ■

Hilton New York JFK Airport hotel set to close in June

BY C. J. HUGHES

Proli c hotel developer Sam Chang is no stranger to selling properties. What hasn’t happened as much in his portfolio are outright closures. But it’s lights out for one of his properties in Queens, as a plunge in foreign tourism has killed business, according to a

the notice said.

And Chang and his co-owners, including Soundview Real Estate Partners of Connecticut, are in contract to sell the 207,000-squarefoot property, the source said.

e source declined to name the buyer or say if it’s a hotel-related landlord. But the hotel’s property, near the airport’s entrance and the Belt Parkway, sits among other lodgings including outposts of Marriott, Hampton Inn and Radisson.

2019 New York welcomed 13.5 million, the group said.

Messages left with Avalon Hospitality Group, the hotel’s manager, as well as Hilton and Chang were not returned by press time.

Selling spree

source close to the deal.

e Hilton New York JFK Airport, a 360-room property in Jamaica, will shutter June 1, according to a layo notice posted last Monday on the state Labor Department’s website. All 125 workers at the 12-story property, which is at 14402 135th Ave., will lose their jobs,

What caused the closure and sale is the pandemic-related drop in international tourism, whose numbers are still below prepandemic levels and are not expected to rebound until at least 2024. is year 10.9 million foreign tourists are expected to visit the city, according to NYC & Company, the city’s o cial tourism arm. But in

In the past couple of years, Chang, one of New York’s most active hotel developers, has been on a selling spree, with at least ve properties changing hands in Manhattan, including a Fair eld Inn and Suites at 100 Greenwich St., a SpringHill Suites at 140 W. 28th St. and a Hyatt at 350 W. 39th St. Chang has said the sales had nothing to do with Covid and everything to do with his retirement to race pigeons.

But retirement seems distant based on the developer’s recent schedule. Indeed, he has spent the past few months cutting ribbons on new projects. In July he opened a 30-room SpringHill Suites at 111 E. 24th St. near Madison Square Park. And Chang’s rm, McSam Hotel

Group, completed Le Meridien, a 21-story, 196-room Marriott property at nearby 292 Fifth Ave., last year.

Chang appears to have bought a stake in the JFK Hilton for $1.6 million in 1998, according to a deed. e property, which was previously a Holiday Inn, was constructed in

1988, so it’s also one of the few properties Chang owns that he did not build himself. e property offers an airport shuttle, gym and rooms with king-size beds that last Monday started at $173 per night, though the hotel’s restaurant closed during the pandemic and never reopened. ■

WHAT CAUSED THE HOTEL’S CLOSURE AND SALE IS THE PANDEMIC-RELATED DROP IN INTERNATIONAL TOURISM

City’s Municipal Labor Committee votes to approve Medicare Advantage health insurance plan for retirees

BY JACQUELINE NEBER

The city’s Municipal Labor Committee has voted to approve Aetna’s proposed Medicare Advantage plan for municipal retirees.

According to an MLC source, 79% of the committee voted in favor of the plan. ere are more than 100 unions represented by the MLC, and the vote is weighted based on how many members each union has. is vote is the latest installment in a con ict involving the city, unions and retirees about privatizing health insurance for more than 200,000 retirees—a con ict that began in 2018. e city has said that switching retirees from supplemental, city-sponsored health insurance to Medicare Advantage could save the city up to $600 million per year in premiums, because the federal government would then cover those costs.

Aetna’s plan, proposed recently, appears to include zero-dollar copays and wider coverage than the SeniorCare supplemental plan that many retirees are on, which is administered by EmblemHealth. But

under the terms of the agreement between Aetna and the city, approving the plan would eliminate the SeniorCare option for retirees.

e New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, which has more than 17,000 members and has disproved of the switch from the jump, has decried Aetna’s proposal and encouraged the City Council to amend the administrative codes related to the plans so seniors could still access the SeniorCare plan. e organization has argued that Medicare Advantage could o er worse coverage than the supplemental plans, and that retirees should be entitled to the same bene ts they were offered upon deciding to work for the city.

e City Council has not yet voted on whether to change the codes.

Meanwhile, the MLC and the city have said the proposed plan will allow the city to save money while it o ers retirees more coverage options and an out-of-pocket cost maximum, which the SeniorCare plan does not have.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers union, which is part of the MLC,

said that the unions will monitor how the plan is implemented to ensure it delivers on its objectives.

From the city’s perspective, the Medicare Advantage plan represents an opportunity to continue providing retirees with quality, free coverage.

“ e plan approved by the MLC

DOESN'T KILL TO ASK

today improves upon retirees’ current plans, including a lower deductible, a cap on out-of-pocket expenses and new bene ts, like transportation, tness programs and wellness incentives. We also heard the concerns of retirees and worked to signi cantly limit the number of procedures subject to

prior authorization under this plan,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement to Crain’s. “In the coming days, we will communicate with all city retirees to provide details and next steps for the plan, and Aetna will be providing additional resources to answer any questions about the plan.” ■

A REVOLUTION IN WOMEN'S HEALTH HAS BEGUN

Guns

MUNICIPAL RETIREES at a rally for better bene ts at City Hall in October

City should seize opportunity to develop in ll housing on NYCHA campuses

There’s a reason multiple mayors have pushed for the construction of in ll housing on the sprawling campuses of the New York City Housing Authority.

It just makes sense: e land around these “towers in the park”–style developments is underutilized, publicly owned and proximate to services and transit.

NYCHA campuses across the ve boroughs occupy 2,457 acres— nearly three times the size of Central Park—presenting the city with a critical opportunity to ease a crisis-level shortage of housing.

So we applaud City Council

urgency among elected o cials and civic leaders—may provide the boost necessary for an idea that’s encountered entrenched resistance in the past.

Adams called for building public housing that would be occupied by existing NYCHA residents and a ordable and mixed-income units to spread out costs. at’s in contrast to some prior e orts that included market-rate apartments. e latter projects, intended to help fund repairs for decrepit NYCHA buildings, sputtered amid opposition from tenants and elected o cials.

THE CITY CAN ILL AFFORD TO OVERLOOK ANY STRATEGY TO ADDRESS OUR SHARED HOUSING CRISIS

Speaker Adrienne Adams for breathing new life into the idea during her State of the City speech last week. A handful of recent “in ll” e orts, including in Harlem and Chelsea, have inched forward slowly. But a broader consensus on the city’s housing needs—and a renewed sense of

Adams’ NYCHA proposal could be transformative, but it won’t be easy to implement. e abundant land open to development on NYCHA campuses (including parking lots, playgrounds and lawns) has tempted past mayors, including Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio, to oat building housing. But NYCHA tenants balked, arguing in ll would block sunlight and eliminate green space.

e federal government since

1999 has banned any net increase in public housing nationwide— but Adams’ plan would be permitted because the city has fewer public housing units than it did then, thanks to current programs that hand over buildings to private management. at’s no guarantee, though, that the project could secure funding from city, state and federal sources.

Last year NYCHA sold o a chunk of a West Harlem housing campus to a private developer, whose planned apartment tower would help fund repairs to the

adjacent Manhattanville Houses.

e agency also is considering tearing down and rebuilding deteriorating public housing buildings in Chelsea.

Dozens of similar opportunities could be pursued across the city, with the added bene ts of helping NYCHA make a dent in the estimated $40 billion it needs to repair its buildings, and creating a better living environment for its residents.

e city can ill a ord to overlook any strategy to address our shared housing crisis. ■

In the gaming license competition, Empire City in Yonkers is a sure bet

BY MIKE SPANO

Since state gaming o cials issued application guidelines for three downstate casinos, New Yorkers have cooed over conceptual drawings and heard lofty promises.

Missing from developers’ grand visions are proven results, which are what Yonkers can highlight at MGM Resorts’ Empire City, a racino contending for one of three full gaming licenses. Almost 17 years of impressive tax revenues, totaling billions of dollars for New York’s education fund, demonstrate why state o cials must grant Empire City one of the region’s gaming licenses. Still, there are more reasons why Empire City and Yonkers are sure bets.

e thorniest challenge for the competing casino proposals will be securing the required community support, which is not a given for about a dozen anticipated proposals within the ve boroughs.

We’ve seen Queens residents reject Amazon’s proposal for a headquarters in Long Island City, while Manhattan community boards are notorious for thwarting entertainment venues that attract noisy crowds. In contrast, Yonkers residents have successfully coexisted with this historic gaming facility since 1899.

Casino is welcome here

Equity should determine where the new casinos operate. Many of the proposals for downstate casinos, however, do not target disadvantaged communities. e median household income in Yonkers is $72,403 and in the Bronx it is $43,726, according to the census.

Empire City’s average employee compensation package is over six gures, and the casino provides hundreds of primarily union jobs to Bronx and Westchester residents. A full-gaming license may add an additional 2,000 employees, plus thousands of indirect and

induced positions because of the resulting economic activity.

New York’s third-largest city needs more support to build on a positive economic trajectory.

Most of Yonkers’ public school students live under the federal poverty line, yet Yonkers has increased high school graduation rates to the highest level among the big- ve New York districts. We have positioned our city to welcome thousands of new housing units on our waterfront that address the region’s housing crisis. Yonkers is also reinventing itself as Hollywood on the Hudson by allowing the construction of the largest lm and television complex on the East Coast, which will employ thousands of workers.

Our city has proved that a casino is welcome by our residents, we

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can easily accommodate growth, and we have the infrastructure in place to allow Empire City to begin full gaming and generate signicant new revenue in a matter of a few months instead of years, which is what other proposals require.

New York needs these gaming revenues now, not in 2026. ■

Mike Spano is the mayor of Yonkers.

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ISTOCK

Let’s unlock the state’s potential to become the next lm capital

BY HOPE KNIGHT

What do Succession, Poker Face and A Quiet Place I and II have in common?

ey were all lmed in New York. For years we’ve brought silverscreen blockbusters and smallscreen hits to our state, drawing in lm crews, creating thousands of good-paying jobs and generating billions of dollars in economic investment statewide.

But as nearby states upped their incentives to give their lm indus-

jobs on the table.

ankfully, Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed an overhaul of New York’s lm tax credit program as part of her executive budget to rebuild our lm industry and reposition our state as the Hollywood of the East. e changes, which include increasing the annual cap, making more costs eligible for the credit and encouraging television series to relocate here, will have an enormous impact on building the state’s economy.

e lm industry is one of our state’s major economic drivers. In

have made their programs even more generous. New Jersey, for instance, increased its tax credit to cover 39% of allowable costs and added new coverage for directors, actors, writers and conductors. is led to booming sound stage construction, major studio partnerships and, in turn, a windfall of private dollars in its state co ers.

Paying dividends

tries a boost, New York has failed to keep up. A Quiet Place: Day One is now lming in London. After extensively scouting New York state, White Noise chose to lm in Cleveland. Even Wu-Tang: An American Saga, which is set in New York, is being lmed on the other side of the Hudson.

Without adequate industry support, we’re leaving major private investment and thousands of union

2019 and 2020 the lm industry generated more than $20 billion in spending and created 57,300 direct jobs, including production workers, caterers, hospitality workers and other union jobs. ese jobs are available to a wide range of New Yorkers—44% of jobs are available to New Yorkers without a four-year degree—and pay $90,000 per year on average. Investment in this industry is an investment in our state’s economic health and good, middle-class union jobs.

At the same time, other states

New York’s lm tax credit is a sound, strategic investment that’s paying dividends. e state received nearly $4 for every dollar in tax credits it provided for the pilot of New Amsterdam; Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods brought in more than $5 for every dollar in state incentives. And when season 6 of Power lmed in New York, it created more than 6,000 jobs, and the state saw a nearly $90 million return on its investment. Overall, according to the last independent audit, every public dollar that New York issues in lm tax credits generates $9 in return in economic activity. is translates into a positive impact on the state as a whole and on individual communities. I saw this rsthand when I welcomed the lming of Power to southeast Queens during my time as president of the Greater Jamaica Devel-

MTA needs a new revenue model to achieve scal sustainability

BY BETSY PLUM AND TOM WRIGHT

Every day millions of people rely on the region’s public transit. It’s the lifeblood that keeps the nation’s largest economy moving. New York cannot function without its transit system, but we face a grim reality that the system itself soon may not function.

Because of the pandemic, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority—and its network of subways, buses and commuter rail— has been plunged into an unprecedented scal crisis. Even

White-collar workers enjoy a work-from-anywhere exibility, but service workers must show up in person, often outside of the traditional rush hour. When that happens, these workers wait longer for public transit service. Rising rents and other costs have pushed service workers into more a ordable neighborhoods at the city’s periphery, with longer commute times and longer waits.

For subway and bus riders facing waits of 12, 15 or even 20 minutes, the bottom line is that the MTA requires a new revenue model to achieve scal sustainability that’s less dependent on individual fares.

new funding sources to keep the system reliable, with increases in sources such as the payroll mobility tax and city and state co ers—ensuring that everyone who bene ts from the system contributes to its success.

Better service needed

opment Corp. e ripple e ect for small businesses—bodegas, neighborhood restaurants and local stores—created a boon for the entire community. And with lm studios dotting the state from Bu alo to Syracuse to Woodstock, each of these cities stands to gain from bringing in these projects.

Expanding the lm tax credit will only bring more exciting projects to our state, deepen the industry’s investment in our local and state

economies, and spread the community bene ts further.

New York’s lm industry is ready for a change, and with the governor’s leadership and the help of our partners in the Legislature, we will unlock the state’s potential to become the next regional and nationwide lm capital. ■

Hope Knight is president, CEO and commissioner of Empire State Development.

after Covid relief packages came to the system’s rescue, the new normal of work-from-home has cut fare revenues, depriving the MTA of hundreds of millions of dollars and endangering the entire system’s reliability.

at’s why the “New New York” panel of business and civic leaders recommended both a sustainable operating budget model for the MTA and more frequent service during o -peak hours.

With ridership at 60% of prepandemic levels and a looming $1.2 billion scal crisis, Gov. Kathy Hochul has boldly proposed a package of

Both local and state governments can a ord to provide better service. As Comptroller omas DiNapoli recently reported, state tax receipts for the most recent quarter of the scal year exceeded projections by $7.7 billion. Meanwhile, the city’s Independent Budget O ce projected a surplus of $4.9 billion for the current scal year and $2.4 billion for the next one. is is all revenue that can be invested directly into better service for all commuters.

Reliable and frequent public transit service can be the foundation of the equitable economic recovery that New York needs. Service improvements would also enhance public safety—an urgent issue in recent years after a generation in which subway crime plummeted from historic highs to his-

toric lows.

New York can a ord to invest in transit; it can’t a ord to disinvest. e executive budget already draws on the payroll mobility tax, city funds and gaming revenue, all of which could be adjusted further. Splitting the gas tax evenly (public transit now receives just one-third of it) could fund even more frequent service, which would speed our recovery even faster.

According to an estimate from the city comptroller’s o ce, we need $300 million in additional public transit funding to increase the frequency of o -peak service, helping millions recover time that could instead be devoted to their families, communities and new op-

portunities. With highway funding up 40% under the federal infrastructure law, the time is ripe to revisit the formula.

is funding, along with multibillion-dollar surpluses, shows us that now is the moment to invest in our future and deliver a policy that will save millions of people precious time and produce many bene ts.

Let’s quit playing politics with people’s livelihoods—state leaders need to fund the MTA now. New York can’t a ord not to do it. ■

Betsy Plum is executive director of the Riders Alliance. Tom Wright is CEO of the Regional Plan Association.

IN THIS INDUSTRY IS AN INVESTMENT IN OUR ECONOMIC HEALTH

BUCK ENNIS BUCK ENNIS

FILMING a taxi scene in the city

New York is in desperate need of a bolder vision

Casino expansion can’t be the best idea that political leaders can come up with

Is this it?

The Strokes, one of New York’s great rock bands, posed the question (sans question mark) two decades ago, and it’s fitting when it comes to the current political vision for economic development here. The Democrats who run the city and state seem to believe that what New York needs, more than anything else, is more casinos. There is an ongoing bidding war for potential casinos in, among other places, Times Square, Hudson Yards, Willets Point, Coney Island and Trump Links in the Bronx. Nassau County wants a casino too.

Every Democrat of note believes fully in the myth of the casino as a grand economic development tool. Gov. Kathy Hochul has three new casino licenses to hand out, and local politicians are tripping over one another to get one in their backyard. Casino operators and various real estate interests are, of course, quite excited—if their bids win, they’re bound to make a lot of money for themselves—but the New York political class’s lust for new gaming options is, objectively, baffling.

Ever since Hochul’s predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, legalized casinos

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at select locations across the state, politicians have championed them as job creators that can revive, or at least help sustain, localities. Casinos have to be built, after all, and there are construction jobs to be had. People need to work inside of them too. If union labor is permitted, wages can be higher than average for certain employees. Additional tax revenue is generated for state coffers.

BARKAN

The trouble is that none of the casinos Cuomo authorized have lived up to their promise. Resorts World Catskills has been a money loser. Rivers Casino in Schenectady has struggled. In part, the problem is obvious for anyone with even an elementary understanding of the gambling industry: the market is oversaturated. Many states now have casinos. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut are stuffed with them.

Inevitably, a New York City casino would begin to cannibalize the gambling facilities that already exist—unless one of them, like Resorts World in Queens, actually wins a license and is transformed from a racino into a full-fledged casino with table games. But how exactly would that same racino in

Ozone Park fare if certain Queens politicians and Mets owner Steve Cohen get their wish and a casino rises next to Citi Field? How is Empire City in Yonkers going to perform if a casino is operating right out of Times Square?

Casinos rarely deliver

Beyond the oversaturation problem, casinos rarely deliver on their economic promise. Las Vegas was the exception, not the rule. Money spent in a casino is money not spent at a local restaurant, theater or clothing store. Successful casinos keep customers indoors, eat-

ing, drinking and gambling there. Midtown Manhattan businesses, struggling since the pandemic, will not benefit from a casino nearby. Instead, they will watch as precious tourist dollars are swallowed by slot machines and blackjack tables in Hudson Yards or Times Square. Left-leaning Democrats have to ask themselves, if they are so concerned about the plight of the poor and working-class, why they are aggressively championing the expansion of the casino industry. Casinos function, effectively, as a regressive tax on the problem gamblers that end up repeatedly returning. The

Following record-high overdose rates, mayor announces plan to fight, treat substance use

BY JACQUELINE NEBER

New York experienced unprecedented overdose rates in 2021, a growing crisis advocates and communities have called on the state and the city to address. In response, Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan on March 1 that aims to reduce overdose rates by 15% by 2025, while offering New Yorkers more substance use treatment options and support–including more overdose prevention centers.

According to provisional data from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released in January, 2,668 New Yorkers died of an overdose that year, a 78% increase from 2019 and a 27% increase from 2020. Fentanyl was present in 80% of overdose deaths, and racial and economic disparities between New Yorkers who died only widened—death rates in neighborhoods with very high poverty levels were 82% higher than the city average.

The city is the only place in the country where residents can access overdose prevention centers—facilities where people can use drugs

in safer ways and professionals can intervene in overdoses. Since opening in November 2021, the centers say they have saved more than 600 lives. Now the Adams administration wants to take this initiative a step further by creating legal pathways to operate and fund additional OPCs. The goal is to have five in operation by 2025.

The mayor’s focus on OPCs contrasts Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget plans for addressing the opioid crisis. Her plan involves investing in harm-reduction strategies, treatment and recovery programs, and supportive services. But it does not mention opening OPCs across the state—despite many stakeholders calling for New York to invest in the centers.

Allegra Schorr, the president of the Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates, called the governor’s lack of OPC financing “a big disappointment” and said that prevention centers could be a linchpin in fighting substance-use deaths.

“It’s a real loss,” she said. “The concept would’ve been that they would’ve come from the [Opioid Settlement Fund] dollars, but

they’ve been excluded. That’s a shame. We know they have a lot of evidence that shows they’re extremely effective.”

By contrast, Sam Rivera, the executive director of OnPoint NYC, the nonprofit that runs the OPCs, said he supports the Adams administration’s goals of reducing overdoses and expanding OPC sites.

“Every New Yorker should have access to this care, and I will continue working with the administration towards this goal,” he said.

Beyond opening more prevention centers, the mayor’s office also plans to invest in services that support the existing OPCs, with the goal of having them operate 24 hours per day, every day. For months stakeholders have suggested that the centers be open longer.

Additionally, Adams’ plan reads, officials will work to expand prevention services to high-risk areas while exploring whether OPCs can be housed in settings other than syringe service programs.

Although more OPCs were a focus of the mayor’s announcement, his plan to address opioid use also involves addressing inequities, ramping up treatment and recovery

house, over time, always wins. Casinos are a wonderful business for casino operators and miserable, eventually, for those who pad their bottom line.

New York is in desperate need of a bolder, and more moral, vision for what the city is going to look like. Parts of Midtown and downtown have been hollowed out since 2020. Housing costs have reached a crisis point, fueling record homelessness. It has never been harder, in the five boroughs, to enjoy a quasi-comfortable middle-class existence. These are the problems politicians must try to solve. Casinos are, at best, a distraction. And at their worst, they can introduce new social ills that are never taken seriously enough.

Quick takes

● Why are Democrats in the state Legislature abandoning campaign finance reform? Assembly Democrats are slow-walking a plan to implement a public matching funds system for state-level campaigns that was supposed to be in place for the 2024 elections.

● The City Council is growing restive under Mayor Eric Adams. Expect a far more contentious budget negotiating process this spring. ■ Ross Barkan is a journalist and author in New York City.

services, and investing in housing, employment, health care and family support for New Yorkers who use drugs. All of this factors into the goal of reducing deaths by 15% by 2025.

To lower the risk of death among people who use drugs, the city will expand naloxone distribution, aiming to distribute more than 150,000 free kits annually and centralize efforts in neighborhoods such as the South Bronx and east and central Harlem. At least four public health vending machines will be established to increase access to the medication, and the city will provide overdose training and naloxone to staff in bars, clubs and nightlife establishments, following up on a Brooklyn pilot program.

A far-reaching plan

Underlying the mayor’s focus on harm reduction is an understanding that New Yorkers who use drugs face barriers to meeting their basic needs, including housing, food and hygiene. Supportive or subsidized housing programs often limit participation based on peoples’ current drug use or past drug-related convictions

The mayor’s plan acknowledges that some of the city’s past drug policies subjected mostly Black and Latino communities to increased risk of criminal legal system involvement as well, according to the mayor’s plan. To that end, his plan focuses on expanding housing options for people who use drugs. City agencies will work to support community-based organizations that provide housing services to increase New Yorkers’ eligibility and participation. The mayor’s housing goals also include supporting people returning to their communities from jails and prisons so they can access naloxone and supportive housing.

Beyond supporting New Yorkers who already use drugs and their families, the mayor’s office is looking to reduce the number of people who develop substance-use issues. Certain groups of New Yorkers who use drugs at earlier ages, including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and gender nonconforming, are at an increased risk of engaging in problematic drug use and encountering harm because of it.

When asked about how much money the city would invest in its overdose-prevention goals, the mayor did not provide a specific amount, but said federal and state dollars will be needed to fund programming. The city’s fiscal 2024 budget will be finalized in June. ■

ROSS

A RENDERING of SL Green’s proposed casino in Times Square.

Gauging New York’s climate progress—and the road ahead

“ en we can design our projects as responsibly as possible.”

Local governments can be important partners in that process, according to Wilson. “If you live in legacy housing with poor insulation and are told you should electrify your heating, how do you know you’re not being taken for a ride?” he posed. “Local leaders can serve as trusted advisors, helping their constituents understand new energy options as we roll them out.”

Speakes-Backman, for one, takes solace in increased climate change understanding among the masses. “People realize our climate is warming,” she said. “And the way consumers use energy is changing.”

Popular buy-in for the energy transition might swell if consumers understood how greening the grid could prove an economic godsend, not only an environmental one.

“New energy investments ignite new opportunities,” said Perkins. “ ey result in the localization of global industries.”

at their current low was in the 1890s—New York has an opportunity to accomplish the same in a more coordinated fashion, Wilson said.

Writ large, that coordination includes not only private sector and governmental stakeholders but also underserved populations that may be impacted by infrastructure development.

“When we work on any project, from Long Island to upstate, we strive to include all parties on that journey,” said Perkins. “Disadvantaged communities are o en the ones bene ting from clean energy investments. O shore wind projects, for instance, reduce emissions that have disproportionately impacted these populations in the past.”

Where does New York stand on its ambitious climate goals—and how should it be advancing the clean energy sector?

ese questions were at the crux of a lively February 9 event, presented by Crain’s New York Business, titled “New York’s Clean Energy Economy.” e gathering featured a conversation between Doreen M. Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and Cory Schouten, editor-in-chief of Crain’s. Following was a sponsored panel discussion moderated by Fred P. Gabriel, publisher and executive editor of the publication.

In the main, panelists were optimistic about the state’s progress toward climate goals but tempered that hopefulness with respect for the challenge at hand.

“We can do this. We can have a zero fossil electricity system by 2040,” said Ben Wilson, chief strategy and external a airs o cer for National Grid. “But we must focus on building o shore wind and solar capacity. e grid will need to be twice its current size.”

between states,” she said. “ at will accelerate permitting and on-theground progress.”

To Doug Perkins, president and project director at Community O shore Wind, garnering community support for infrastructure projects

Where does New York stand on its ambitious climate goals—and how should it be advancing the clean energy sector?

To that end, said Kelly SpeakesBackman, executive vice president of public a airs at Invenergy, improved coordination is key. “We need collaboration across agencies and

is vital to the entire green energy transition. “We take a hyperlocal approach at our company, heading out into the communities that will host our facilities to truly listen to and understand their concerns,” he said.

Speakes-Backman agreed. “Since the In ation Reduction Act, private companies have invested heavily in the clean energy space,” she said. “ at extreme growth shows this is the future of energy.”

at shi is more than anecdotal. In Europe, which is generally agreed to be ahead of the U.S. on these matters, clean energy is already a reality.

Wilson, whose company operates in both the U.S. and Britain, shared successes achieved across the pond. “ e U.K. has really built out renewables,” he said. “ at includes 14 gigawatts of o shore wind—the most in the world a er China—and signi cant strides in nuclear energy.”

National Grid also maintains the world’s largest portfolio of o shore interconnectors, which link electricity systems between countries.

But while Europe may have made signi cant inroads in reducing emissions—the last time carbon dioxide emissions in the U.K. were

Speakes-Backman o ered a general blueprint for achieving environmental justice. “First we need to understand the patterns of health and economic disadvantage endured by low-income communities, o en those of color, due to climate change,” she said. “Only then can we lay out programs to minimize gaps and invite private companies to join the e ort. It will take time.”

roughout, the panelists straddled the fence between visionary and quixotic. ey agreed, for instance, that while e orts toward sustainability continue apace, the reliability of current energy systems must be top of mind.

“For now, gas keeps the lights on,” said Wilson. “We need to focus on keeping legacy systems resilient while we’ve still got them.”

Speakes-Backman lauded the state’s e orts to keep homes and businesses running even while adding solar and wind power. But she also pointed to a new form of resiliency on the horizon:

“We’re building up the transmission grid across this country, so that wind power from the West Coast, for example, can be sent east,” SpeakesBackman said. “If the sun is not shining in one region, we’ll bring in energy from another.”

From left to right: Frederick P. Gabriel, Publisher and Executive Editor, Crain’s New York Business; Kelly SpeakesBackman, Executive Vice President Public Affairs, Invenergy; Ben Wilson, Chief Strategy and External Affairs Of cer, National Grid; Doug Perkins, President and Project Director, Community Offshore Wind.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

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Leading the efforts of our New York of ce, Paraic Morrissey was promoted to Principal. Paraic is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and brings 13 years of experience in the construction industry. Paraic has provided an array of construction consulting services for different clients in New York and across North America since 2012, focusing on diverse aspects of project controls, cost management and project management.

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Rider Levett Bucknall

Himanshu Bhagat is a now an Associate, based out of our New York of ce. He has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Mumbai and a Master of Science from Northeastern University. Himanshu brings a decade of cost management experience to clients in both the private and public sector, for projects ranging from $8M to $450M.

To place your listing, visit www.crainsnewyork.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

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Rider Levett Bucknall

David Eivers is now an Associate. David has a Bachelor of Science in Quantity Surveying. Based out of our New York of ce, he brings over 10 years of experience in the construction industry. David is an adaptable and multi-faceted consultant whose broad experience across multiple sectors gives him a wellrounded understanding of what is required to make every project a success.

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The IMA Group

The IMA Group (IMA), a leading technology-enabled provider of clinical trials and medical and psychological screening and evaluation services, announced today that industry veteran Dana Poff would lead IMA’s Clinical Research Division as Executive Vice President. IMA Clinical Research is a exible, full-service clinical trial network consisting of geographically diverse clinical trial sites and over 150 satellite sites that conduct site-based, hybrid and decentralized clinical trials.

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Latham & Watkins LLP

Gabe Fleet has joined the New York of ce of Latham & Watkins as a partner in the Connectivity, Privacy & Information Practice. He is a leading deal lawyer in the music space, representing entertainment, digital media, and technology companies in connection with large-scale licensing transactions and related strategic guidance.

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Latham & Watkins LLP

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IDB Bank

James Dunlevy has joined IDB Bank in the role of SVP & Manager, Sponsor & Leverage Finance. Leveraging over 35 years of industry experience, he oversees critical cash ow and lending practices to further IDB’s strategic growth within the middle market space. A seasoned executive, he joins the Bank following an eightyear tenure with Investors Bank, where he launched the Sponsor Finance group, growing the loan portfolio to in excess of $600 million in senior credit facilities.

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IDB Bank

Tom Savage has joined IDB Bank in the role of SVP, Originations & Sr. Relationship Manager of the Sponsor & Leverage Finance team. Bringing forward over 30 years of experience within the nancial services sector, he specializes in the origination, underwriting and management of cash ow loans for U.S. domestic companies.

Tom joins IDB as part of the Bank’s strategic expansion within the middle market space, an area of growth for IDB over the next several years.

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IDB

Bank

Michael McIntyre has joined IDB Bank as the FVP, Sr. Relationship & Portfolio Manager to the Sponsor & Leverage Finance team. A seasoned corporate nance executive, he comes to IDB with more than 30 years of extensive experience in structuring, underwriting, negotiating and closing senior cash ow loans for portfolio companies located nationwide. Michael joins IDB as part of the Bank’s strategic expansion within the middle market space, an area of growth for IDB over the next several years.

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IDB Bank

Paul Muzzio has joined IDB Bank as VP, Relationship & Portfolio Manager to the Sponsor & Leverage Finance team. Paul comes to IDB with nearly a decade of industry experience, most recently serving as AVP, Sponsor Finance with Investors Bank. In his new role, he will drive cash ow underwriting and deal closings across diverse nancing opportunities. Paul joins IDB as part of the Bank’s strategic expansion within the middle market space, an area of growth for IDB over the next several years.

Ian Nussbaum has joined the New York of ce of Latham & Watkins as a partner in the Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. He represents public and private companies in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, corporate governance, and shareholder activism and takeover defense matters, and has extensive experience advising across some of the most active industries in M&A, including technology, healthcare, life sciences, nancial institutions, consumer, gaming and leisure, and industrials.

RECOGNIZE INDUSTRY ACHIEVERS IN CRAIN’S

Council kicks off budget talks opposing mayor’s ‘doom-and-gloom’ cuts to city services

BY NICK GARBER

The City Council kicked off its monthslong budget dance with the mayor’s office last week, armed with an encouraging new financial forecast that lawmakers say should stave off drastic cuts to city services.

The first round of hearings came days after the council released its own report concluding that revenues will be $5.2 billion higher in fiscal 2023 and 2024 than what Mayor Eric Adams’ Office of Management and Budget had projected. The difference is due mostly to higher expectations of property tax, personal income tax and sales tax collections.

“For all the ‘doom-and-gloom’

reductions to some city services. That includes more than $30 million in cuts to public libraries, $567 million slashed from the universal 3–K program, and plans to keep shrinking worker headcounts at city agencies—all of which have sparked an outcry from advocates.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has been publicly wary of those cuts. She said the council’s new forecasts show the city could weather a recession without compromising important services. She criticized the mayor’s plan to preserve its 4,300-person reduction in the city’s workforce, pointing to a council study in the fall of 2022 that found key agencies suffering disproportionately from the short staffing.

“These reductions call into question the city’s ability to provide essential services that support New Yorkers, to say nothing of the goals laid out by the administration in housing, economic opportunity and public safety,”

spare for “additional investments by the city,” the report reads.

tation Authority.

fiscal projections by OMB, our economists paint a different picture with the same numbers,” Justin Brannan, the council’s finance chair, said in a statement. “The council’s economic experts have been proven more accurate many times over the years, and as was true last year, OMB seems to again be underestimating the durability of our city’s economy as measured in tax revenue and wage growth.”

In its January $102.7 billion budget proposal, the Adams administration warned of a looming economic downturn that would force

Speaker Adams said at the start of today’s hearing.

The City Council report still expects a mild recession to hit this year, costing about 61,000 New Yorkers their jobs—although it projects the jobs would be regained within a year.

Council’s calculations

Compared to City Hall’s figures, the council calculates $2.4 billion higher revenues in fiscal 2023 and $2.8 billion in 2024, meaning both years’ budgets should be “easily balanced”—with some room to

But the out-years of 2026 and 2027 may be tougher: The city’s new labor deal with District Council 37 sets a pattern for wage growth among municipal workers, and annual tax revenue growth of about 3% will fail to keep up with inflation over the next four years, the council predicted.

Jacques Jiha, the mayor’s budget director, defended the mayor’s plan during his testimony. He said the city’s finances were under strain from several sources, led by $4.2 billion in asylum-seeker costs and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to impose a new $500 million city contribution to the Metropolitan Transpor-

“We are in a very difficult situation,” Jiha said.

He also tried to rebut criticism of the mayor’s staffing cuts, saying City Hall has restored hundreds of formerly vacant positions—mainly in the Department of Social Services—in response to the council’s feedback. Agencies still have the budget authority to fill more than 23,000 vacant positions citywide, Jiha noted—but hiring has so far failed to keep up with attrition.

The council will hold hearings throughout March, summoning different agencies to testify about the mayor’s plan. Mayor Adams will release a revised executive budget

in late April, and negotiations with the council should produce a final budget deal by July 1.

Signs point to this year’s budget being especially contentious, with a City Council increasingly critical of Adams’ agenda and differing perspectives on New York’s fiscal health

“This will be a challenging budget,” the council report concludes. The council’s forecast is not the first to paint a rosier picture of the city’s finances. Last month, the Independent Budget Office likewise found that the city would have greater surpluses than City Hall had projected, thanks mostly to larger tax receipts. ■

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

Manhattan’s luxury real estate market is gaining momentum, with 31 contracts signed for homes priced $4 million and above during the week of Feb. 27, according to a report from Olshan Realty.

This marks the second week this year that more than 30 deals were made—a boost for a market that has had a rocky few months. During one week in October, sales had cratered to 12 contracts, and the last week of January reported 29 deals.

The increased demand was com-

plemented by a higher rate of negotiability on prices—the average difference between the asking price and the actual sales price was 12%, Olshan data shows, up from 10% the previous week and an average of 5% in 2022 and 9% in 2021.

The largest contract signed during the week was for a unit at the Park Imperial, a star-studded luxury building at 230 W. 56th St. The apartment spanning the 64th floor sold for $14.5 million after eight years on and off the market. It was once owned by the fugitive CEO of Comverse Technologies, Jacob Alexander, who fled the country in 2006 after being charged with multiple counts of fraud relating to trading his company’s stock.

He sold the unit in 2010 for $35.2

million to satisfy a settlement agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Relisted in 2015

When it was relisted in 2015 by its subsequent owner, it was asking

$39 million and went through three different brokerages before it found a buyer at one-third of the price.

The apartment has six bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms and measures nearly 8,000 square feet. It offers 360-degree views of the

Manhattan skyline, Central Park and the Hudson River. The New Year’s ball drop in Times Square can also be seen from its windows.

The week’s second-largest deal was for a condo unit at Extell’s 50 W. 66th St. on the Upper West Side.

The 3,900-square-foot unit sold for $12 million, though the building is still under construction. At 70 stories, it is slated to be the Upper West Side’s tallest residential tower.

The unit has a private landscaped terrace measuring 3,260 square feet. The indoor space comprises five bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms. Amenities in the building include a terrace on the 20th floor with an outdoor saltwater pool and Jacuzzi, a fitness center, an indoor lap pool, a regulation-size basketball court, a pickleball court, a screening room, a game room and pet-grooming facilities. ■

Luxury sales pick up steam; Billionaires Row penthouse once owned by a fugitive CEO trades for $14.5 million

JOHN MCCARTEN/NYC COUNCIL MEDIA UNIT

THE 64TH FLOOR UNIT at 230 W. 56th St.

“THE CITY cOULD WEaThEr A RECESSION WIThOUT cOMPrOMISING IMPORTANT SERVICES.”

COUNCIL SPEAKER ADRIENNE ADAMS BROWN HARRIS STEVENS

THE APARTMENT HAS SIX BEDrOOMS AND SIX aND a haLF BATHROOMS

Author and advocate Alissa Quart on the power of underrepresented voices

INTERVIEW BY RAINA LIPSITZ

When Alissa Quart joined forces in 2013 with journalist and author Barbara Ehrenreich to create the current iteration of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, the voices of working-class and poor people in the news media remained few and far between. Inspired by initiatives that grew out of the Great Depression, their goal was to showcase the voices and support the work of writers and photographers from underrepresented communities. People who’d experienced inequality and financial precarity could cover such stories intimately and well with the proper editorial and financial support, the co-founders figured. Quart and Ehrenreich (who died last year) hoped to counteract demeaning stereotypes of the working poor and people with financial struggles. Quart spoke with Crain’s about alternative ways of thinking about power and the secret to building an exceptional team.

Tell me about the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and what you’ve been able to do and still hope to do as executive director.

I joined EHRP early, within a year of Barbara Ehrenreich coming up with the idea. Our budget was really small, like $70,000 a year. I couldn’t pay myself very well, so I just wrote for us so we could build up clips as an organization. Basically, I was only paying myself for the work I was writing, and that way we had something in the bank in terms of journalism. And then we got our first big grant from the JPB Foundation, and we just started to expand.

Takeaway for business

professionals

Under Quart’s leadership, EHRP helped writers place more than 500 stories about financially struggling and poor people in major publications last year. EHRP aims to change systems that perpetuate economic hardship by bringing nontraditional reporters and overlooked stories into mainstream media.

Our mission is to support people who are lower-income—“financially struggling” is the term I’ve been using lately because I find that more expansive, but that includes people who are experiencing homelessness or have experienced homelessness—to write about their own lives and report on related issues. We’ve had two different writers, one in D.C. and one in New York, report on their own evictions while also reporting on the eviction crisis and what’s happening locally in terms of housing.

One of our writers was living in Alaska unhoused. He didn’t have a bank account, so we paid him in gift cards. Sometimes our writers work in factories [or other low-wage jobs]. What these financially stressed writers have in common a lot of times is that they are professional writers: They defined themselves that way. Some of them had gotten MFAs, they’d worked in newspapers, they’d published essays, maybe not in mainstream publications, but I often found them on creative-writing blogs and places like that.

The main project is to get these writers contributing and covering inequality and poverty and not just cosmetic surgery or trends—to get us out of writing superficial stuff and give them the space and time to do it properly, and to change the media landscape and what other publications are publishing.

What does power mean to you?

Power is everywhere. It comes from everywhere. I believe in distributed power; it’s not just top-down, and it’s not just bottom-up, either. We can find it in different spheres. The internet has made a lot of this possible, but so has a lot of recent organizing, where you find power in different parts of the country, in

different spheres of life and in the media. You have EHRP and other groups that are organizing writers, and I do consider us an alternative labor organization—we’re doing kind of union-y work, but we’re not a union. That’s an example of distributed power.

Part of the thesis of your forthcoming book, Bootstrapped, is that there is power in relying on others. Could you expand on that?

I call it the art of dependence. It’s the power of being dependent on other people, and the idea that there’s power and skill and craft in learning how to, for example, rely on caregivers—which is something I’ve experienced as a parent. If you do have any kind of disability, there’s power in having a relationship based on mutual aid or having skill swaps with groups of friends. That happens a lot in journalism in my experience. There are also more profound examples, like relying on social services, and the “time tax” and the actual intelligence that it takes to get

the services that you need when you’re lower-income. We could actually see that as a kind of skill. It’s knowing how to organize people and how to lean on people and how to ask for help. I consider that a kind of power.

Why do you think Americans tend to view power as something that’s achieved individually rather than collectively?

I write about this in my latest book. It’s inscribed in the work of our favorite authors, people like Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horatio Alger and Laura Ingalls Wilder. It’s also been spoken about by our favorite political figures over the eras, from Herbert Hoover, who either coined or popularized the term “rugged individualism,” to [Ronald] Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton. I started to do these close readings of their political speeches, and they were all stressing individualism. And then, obviously, our actual system of government stresses individualism in

POWER MARKS

EMPLOYEES Three (plus nine contractors)

ON HER RÉSUMÉ Executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project; editor at The Atavist Magazine; columnist for the Columbia Journalism Review and The Guardian; and author of books including Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream, forthcoming from Ecco on March 14

BORN New York City

GREW UP New York City and London RESIDES Brooklyn

EDUCATION Brown University with a major in English literature; Columbia University graduate school of journalism BREAKING THE MOLD Quart has written five books of nonfiction and two books of poetry. She has been honored with an Emmy, a Society of Professional Journalists award and a Nieman fellowship.

the sense that we devote around 0.5% of our GDP to early-childhood education and child care, whereas in Sweden, it’s 1.6%, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. I look at some of the international differences in my book.

Some of the greatest moments of supposed individualism were actually moments of dependence. [Look at] the Homestead Act of 1862 or the GI Bill. This is what people who were brave pioneers or brave soldiers got in return. What’s the best way for people with less power in an organization or workplace to influence people who have more?

Obviously we’ve seen in the “great resignation” people withholding their labor. In the film I recently produced, Insecurity, one of the main characters was working at a sandwich place called Zaxby’s, where she was making $12.50 an hour. She’s not resigning—she has a disabled kid; she needs the work. So when people talk about the “great resignation,” they’re not always thinking about people like the woman we profiled. That’s true of a lot of people, if you look at the numbers. And I think [speaking out about inadequate pay] is one way people can influence how they’re treated in the workplace. The other way is just to be excellent. That’s a huge way that someone gets power. ■

ASHLEY HOLT

Manhattan borough president releases plan to clear out the ‘blight’ of temporary sidewalk sheds

BY AARON ELSTEIN

The laws of physics say what goes up must come down.

But the even more powerful law of sidewalk sheds says these ugly steel and plywood structures can go up and stay in place for years.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine has become the latest public official to find ways to bring down the sheds that have become permanently temporary features of city streets. Last Monday Levine unveiled a plan that would offer financial assistance and other measures to discourage sheds from swallowing up sidewalk space.

“We appreciate the borough president’s recommendations and look forward to reviewing his specific proposals,” a Department of Buildings spokesman said, noting that the mayor is “laser-focused on reclaiming valuable public space for New Yorkers [and] strengthening oversight of longstanding sidewalk sheds.”

The Real Estate Board of New York said it looks forward to working with Levine to identify “effective solutions.”

Levine described sheds as “a blight on our neighborhoods” at a news conference with City Council members.

Mayor Eric Adams is listening.

Sidewalk sheds cover up dozens or hundreds of feet of pedestrian space and pop up anytime a building needs renovation. There are more than 9,000 sheds across the city, including 4,000 in Manhattan, covering 2 million linear feet. The sheds protect pedestrians from bricks and other falling debris while building facades are fixed.

But after rising up, they can’t come down until the city determines facade work is complete.

That means sheds linger for years when landlords can’t or won’t pay for repairs. A shed has stood at West 96th Street and Central Park West since 2008, but it’s not even the oldest, according to city records.

Sidewalk sheds can become sites for passersby to covertly relieve themselves. Laurent Delly, who fought to get rid of a shed that stood for 14 years at West 123rd Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, raised the issue in a letter he wrote to Adams last month.

“Many people who do not reside in the areas where these neglected scaffolds are found make it their public bathroom on a daily basis,” the letter, reviewed by Crain’s, said.

BUTTON TEXT

Under Levine’s plan, low-interest loans would be extended to buildings that can’t afford extensive facade repairs under a new city program that would require state legislative approval. Permitting would be streamlined and fines increased for buildings that fail to complete renovation work. Drones

BUTTON TEXT

would be used to inspect facades, and buildings that undergo major renovations wouldn’t be subject to a new inspection for seven years instead of the normal five.

Levine called on the city to examine why sheds surround municipal buildings for so long. The shed surrounding the Department of Buildings office in Lower Manhattan lingered for 11 years before coming down in 2019.

More inspectors

Since topping out at more than 11,000 in 2020, the number of sheds has fallen by 20%, thanks in part to the city’s hiring of more inspectors and its follow-up with building owners, the Buildings Department said.

New York’s oldest shed has stood since 2006 at 409 Edgecombe Ave. in Washington Heights. The building owners recently pleaded guilty in a criminal case to violating the city administrative code, a Buildings Department spokesman said.

“As part of the guilty plea agreement, they agreed to finish repairs at the building this year,” the spokesman said, “so the shed can be removed.” ■

Nominate a healthcare professional who has significantly expanded the business, service or technology side of healthcare and promotes diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

BUCK ENNIS

UNDER THE PLAN, LOWINTErEST LOaNS WOULD BE EXTENDED TO BUILDINGS THAT caN’T aFFOrD REPAIRS

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AWARDS

N O M I N AT E

the Champions of Diversity & Inclusion.

Crain’s annual Diversity and Inclusion Awards honors New York City individuals and organizations that promote diversity and have proven success with their diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Nomination Deadline: March 17

CrainsNewYork.com/D&I_Noms

City Council speaker proposes zoning changes to protect historic manufacturing districts

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called on the city to invest more in protecting industrial districts and jobs during her State of the City address last Wednesday.

Her plan targets historic manufacturing districts that have seen a loss in industrial activity, including Bushwick, Sunset Park, Long Island City and Hunts Point in the Bronx, where she called for zoning amendments that would ease parking, loading and bulk regulations that some say make it more difficult for industrial businesses to thrive.

“We are sitting on industrial goldmines that have been neglected,” Adams said, also referring to her own district, District 28 in Queens, where the 15-acre former Elmhurst Dairy site sits vacant. It closed in 2016 as the last of its kind in New York City. She also suggested that the city’s pandemic response might have been different if personal protective equipment could have been produced locally.

Her proposal also called for advancing legislation to help the city’s industrial businesses transition away from fossil fuels and toward green energy. She suggested reactivating the Elmhurst Dairy site for industrial use, such as manufacturing or green energy production.

Disappearing act

Since 1999 nearly half of all the manufacturing jobs in the New York metro area have disappeared, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, manufacturing jobs have declined by a quarter since that year.

Adams hopes the zoning changes will help preserve existing jobs and encourage industries to come back. Right now manufacturing zones allow for commercial uses, such as restaurants and bars, offices and even entertainment venues, which compete with manufacturing, Adams said. “There are other heavy industrial sites with access to maritime, rail or freight rail that are essential and should be protected,” a spokesper-

Century-old off-Broadway theater Cherry Lane sells to private equity firm

son for the City Council said in a statement.

One manufacturing district that is facing a crossroads is the Garment District in Midtown Manhattan. Mayor Eric Adams earlier this year proposed rezoning it to encourage the conversion of its office buildings to residential housing.

Once a hub for clothing manufacturing and wholesaling, the district went from supporting more than 10,000 garment manufacturing businesses in 1958 to half of that by 1977. By 2018 garment manufacturing represented just 4% of jobs in the district.

Critics of the mayor’s proposal, including Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who represents that area, want to prevent the conversions to preserve the remaining garment businesses and their workers. But the neighborhood is currently facing a vacancy rate of 20% among its office buildings.

Speaker Adams, however, has neither expressed support for nor opposition to the conversion proposals. ■

The Cherry Lane Theater, a century-old fixture in the West Village’s off-Broadway playhouse scene, has been sold for $10 million.

A partnership between entertainment company A24 and private equity firm Taurus Investment Holdings purchased the 14,400square-foot theater last month after mounting debt caused its longtime owner and former artistic director Angelina Fiordellisi to sell.

In 2021 there was a deal to sell Cherry Lane to the Lucille Lortel Foundation, which owns the nearby Lucille Lortel Theater, but it fell through, and the building was put back on the market for nearly $13 million.

The property, at 38 Commerce St., comprises the theater, studio space, a mezzanine and eight apartment units.

It was originally built in 1836 as a brewery and later served as a tobacco warehouse and box factory. The building was converted in 1923 into the Cherry Lane Playhouse by Evelyn Vaughn, William S. Rainey,

Reginald Travers and Edna St. Vincent Millay, creatives in Roaring ’20s-era New York City.

During the 1950s and 1960s, it was a hub for avant-garde works by various playwrights associated with the Theater of the Absurd. It hosted a play by the artist Pablo Picasso and even held performances by folk singer Bob Dylan before he became a star.

Fiordellisi bought the building for $1.7 million in 1996 and spent $3 million renovating it. Its new owners will again renovate the property, including facade repairs and restoration of key exterior components, the buyers said. The buyers say they plan to reopen the theater in 2024. N.S

Ironically, those Republican wins may weaken suburban strength in Albany. Democrats hold just two of nine seats on Long Island, for example, down from six in 2018. With Republicans in the minority in both the state Senate and Assembly, they may be vociferous in their opposition to Hochul’s agenda but ultimately powerless to defeat it.

“ e loss of in uential Democrats in the state Legislature in Nassau and Su olk [counties] has certainly impacted the clout of those communities as they attempt to stick up for local issues,” said Evan Stavisky, a Democratic political consultant.

It’s too early to say what the mood will be in 2024, when state and congressional lawmakers will face voters again. But signs point to the cycle being costly: In February a Democratic super PAC announced a $45 million fund aimed at reclaiming four New York congressional seats that were lost to Republicans and winning two swing districts.

Some Democrats are fatalistic about how Hochul’s plans will affect the party at the ballot box. Among them is state Sen. John Liu, who represents low-rise neighborhoods in Northeast Queens. On their merits, Liu fears the plans do too little to guarantee a ordable housing to be built, and he suggested the plans would do Hochul no favors electorally.

“Some of her housing proposals have the potential to upend bedroom communities around the city,” Liu said. “And perhaps that’s her intent, but it would be precarious—and maybe that’s why she’s choosing to do so early in her fouryear term.”

Something new brewing

Responses to the present-day convergence vary. It is either just the latest are-up in the age-old con ict between the urban and the suburban, or a genuinely new phenomenon that signals a shift in how

the city and its surroundings relate to each other.

Tom Wright, president of the inuential Regional Plan Association think tank, is among those who say something new is brewing.

“We’re kind of looking around saying, ‘Hey, all the issues we’ve been talking about for years are suddenly hot-button topics—everybody’s talking about them,’” Wright said. e RPA’s work, aimed at better connecting the region through transit, housing and economic development, now seems widespread as once-obscure terms such as “accessory dwelling units” and “transit-oriented development” pour forth from the mouths of activists and angry politicians.

To Wright, the new focus was sparked by the pandemic, which caused housing prices to fall and then skyrocket, tra c to worsen and transit ridership to fall. It also has to do with the rare alignment in priorities between Mayor Eric Ad-

ams and Hochul; Wright credits them with trying to tackle the thorny topics rather than kick the can down the road.

“I think what’s changed is [that] our political leaders are willing to step up [to] try to work on those issues,” Wright said. “It’s forcing them to think and talk more regionally because of the nature of the issues.”

Hochul’s policies take aim at obvious crises. e state is missing hundreds of thousands of housing units by most estimates, and the MTA has warned of scal disaster without the government stepping in to rescue it. Whether it is politically wise to force places to build, impose costs to drive into the city through congestion pricing or raise taxes to fund a much-maligned transit agency is another question.

Population trends may also give Hochul—New York’s rst upstate governor in a century—little choice but to focus her attention downstate. e ve boroughs and their closest suburbs all gained population between 2010 and 2020 while most upstate counties shrank, according to the most recent census.

“Elections are fundamentally about arithmetic,” Stavisky said. “ e math says that the ve boroughs are an increasingly large share of the statewide vote total.”

Liu, like many others, said crime was at the center of last year’s Republican resurgence—embodied by Lee Zeldin’s startlingly strong campaign for

governor.

“Zeldin’s pitch was, ‘Vote as if your life depended on it, because it does.’ In other words, ‘Vote for me, otherwise you’ll die,’” said Liu, who won re-election comfortably but more narrowly than in 2020. “ at resonated with people, even if it wasn’t based on actual facts.”

Not all Democrats see increased development as a losing issue for their party. Among the optimists is Alessandra Biaggi, a pro-development Democrat who gave up her Northeast Bronx state Senate seat last year to run for Congress in the Hudson Valley. She lost in a primary to Sean Patrick Maloney, who lost to a Republican in the general election.

Resistance to new housing was widespread in both places, she said—but her experience supporting a controversial project in roggs Neck showed her that the opposition was not as powerful as her fellow lawmakers imagined.

“What I realized, just by sticking to what I really believed, was that the people who are against it, while they may be very loud … they’re not the majority,” she said.

Wright of the Regional Plan Association said he often thinks about two polls his group conducted between the fall of 2021 and the spring of 2022—a period that overlapped with Hochul’s unveiling of her plan to legalize accessory dwelling units, then dropping the proposal amid an uproar from Long Island politicians opposed to “Queensifying” their districts.

Surprisingly, during that span, support grew signi cantly for “legalizing basement and garage apartments,” the RPA’s polls showed. e jump was led by double-digit increases in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island.

To Wright, the relative consensus shows a potential path forward— one that could bypass the loudest voices of opposition.

“ ere’s sometimes a real disconnect between what the political class is saying,” Wright said, “and what their constituents want.”

‘Screw New York City’

Still, the opposition is building. On Long Island, o cials descended on a Nassau County train station this month to decry what they called an “attack on the suburbs,” saying Hochul’s plans would strain local resources and “urbanize” lowrise areas.

“Transit-oriented development

the way she’s proposing [it] would destroy our communities,” said state Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, a Republican elected in the fall of 2022.

Some suburbs can say with credibility that the governor’s plans hold them to a di erent standard. O cials in Rockland County, which has just ve Metro-North train stops, lament that they will be pegged to the same 3%-everythree-years housing growth target as comparatively transit-rich places on Long Island and in the city.

Among last year’s Democratic casualties was Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, a state senator from Rockland County who lost his bid for a second term to a Republican. “I didn’t want to make my whole campaign about, ‘Screw New York City,’” said Reichlin-Melnnick, a son of former Manhattanites.

Still, the city loomed large in his bid. He began campaign stops by alluding to his opposition to congestion pricing, saying he would ensure “we’re not getting the short end of the stick so that New York City can get more money.”

In Reichlin-Melnick’s two-year term in Albany, no issue generated more angry feedback from constituents than Hochul’s short-lived proposal to legalize backyard accessory dwelling units. Many of the panicked people who called his ofce last year were older residents who had left the city during the darker days of the 1970s, he said.

“ ere’s a fear of things becoming denser at what people perceive to be urban levels,” he said.

New York’s suburbs were dominated by Republicans for much of the 20th century, which helped shore up the GOP’s hold over the state Senate. at dam broke in 2018, helping Democrats seize the chamber, but observers are now left to wonder whether 2022 signaled the start of a conservative comeback.

“Is that decadeslong trend of suburbs going to the left going to reverse and start going backwards?” Reichlin-Melnick said. “Was this representative of a new trend, or a one-o ?”

It’s “not impossible” that Republicans will make greater inroads in the suburbs, said Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic political consultant. Whether that happens could depend on how lawmakers act on Hochul’s budget proposals—and how they sell them to constituents.

“It’s all up to the Legislature,” he said. “ ey will determine their own destiny.” ■

PHOTOS: BUCK ENNIS

“ZELDIN’S PITCH WAS, ‘VOTE AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT, BECAUSE IT DOES.’ ”

STATE SEN. JOHN LIU, a Democrat who represents Northeast Queens, fears the plans will do Hochul no favors electorally.

NEW YORK CITY AND ITS SUBURBS GREW FROM 2010-2020 AS UPSTATE COUNTIES LOST POPULATION

Change in population from 2010-2020

SOURCE: U.S. Census • Created with Datawrapper

ELIJAH REICHLIN-MELNICK, a former Democratic state senator from Rockland County, said fears of urbanization loomed large in his unsuccessful reelection bid.

tripped up by the gala, because its lavish trappings go beyond what is outlined in congressional gift-giving policies, Payne said.

“Those perks extend to free clothing, hair and makeup and other items to prepare for the event,” Payne said. “It’s a very complicated gift puzzle that members [of Congress] can find hard to piece together.”

The event, held since 1948, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is organized by Vogue magazine. Officially, it serves as a fundraiser for the museum’s Costume Institute— although it doubles as a place for the city’s elite to see and be seen.

Ocasio-Cortez’s case focused on the payments she owed vendors who supplied her dress, jewelry, handbag, makeup and shoes for the September 2021 gala, as well as makeup, transportation and a room at the Carlyle Hotel, where she got ready at the invitation of Vogue

She racked up a bill of nearly $2,300 to the fashion brand Brother Vellies—later revised upward to $5,580. Yet even as the vendors spent months hounding OcasioCortez’s staff for payments—at one point threatening to file a complaint with the city’s labor office— the vendors were not reimbursed by her campaign until March 2022, after the Office of Congressional Ethics had begun its probe, investigators said. The payments came

from her personal accounts.

“It just really seems that there was a ball that was dropped,”

Ocasio-Cortez told investigators in a subsequent interview, saying she had pressed her own staff to complete the reimbursements. “It is just a deeply regrettable situation. I feel terrible for especially the small businesses that were impacted.”

In the run-up to the gala, OcasioCortez’s staff took pains to ensure she was in line with ethics rules, according to emails released as part of the investigation. Her office of congressional ethics hired outside counsel and corresponded for days with the House Ethics Committee. Seeking a freebie?

Maloney’s case was comparatively straightforward. Though House ethics rules ban officials from soliciting free tickets to charitable events, investigators allege Maloney did just that in 2016, after she was unexpectedly cut from the guest list of that year’s event.

“I received a call this past week from Carolyn. She is unhappy to say the least that she is not receiving an invitation to the Party of the Year,” then-Met President Emily Rafferty wrote in an April 2016 email to colleagues later released by the Office of Congressional Ethics. “She went on about how much she does for the Met, always responsive when you call, and proactive re the institution’s concerns in D.C.”

Maloney ultimately won her invitation and attended that year’s gala,

plus several others in the ensuing years.

Payne, of the Campaign Legal Center, said what stood out in Maloney’s case was the brazenness with which she touted her government work as a basis for a personal invitation.

“That’s so beyond what you typically would see in writing because it’s clearly against the spirit and the letter of the law,” Payne said. “You can’t exchange official actions for any perks of that nature.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s alleged infractions are notable for just how simple they should have been to resolve, Payne said. “It’s really easy, how you solve a gift law violation,” he said. “You pay it back immediately and you say you’re sorry.”

The investigation involving Ocasio-Cortez was referred to the House Ethics Committee in June 2022 for further review. David Mitrani, an attorney for the congresswoman, said that the probe had found no ethics violations but “did identify that there were delays in paying vendors for costs associated with the congresswoman’s attendance at the Met Gala.”

“The congresswoman finds these delays unacceptable, and she has taken several steps to ensure nothing of this nature will ever happen again,” Mitrani said in a letter to the committee. “However, while regrettable, this matter definitively does not rise to the level of a violation of House rules or of federal law.”

No announcement has been

made about the investigation involving Maloney since it was referred to the House Ethics Committee in the fall of 2022. She left office in January following a primary loss to Rep. Jerry Nadler, and a spokesperson said last year that Maloney was confident the investigation would be dismissed.

Meredith McGehee, a Washington-based congressional ethics expert, described the Met Gala as a higher-brow version of another annual event that lands officials in hot water: the Super Bowl. During her tenures at good-government groups in Washington, the game came up constantly when lawmakers were offered free seats, she said.

Although their districts border each other, Maloney and Ocasio-Cortez may have had different motivations for attending the gala, McGehee argued. Ocasio-Cortez, one of the highest-profile members

of Congress, enjoys fame that far outpaces her on-paper status as an early career lawmaker from the Bronx—making her more akin to celebrity guests such as Jennifer Lopez and Frank Ocean, McGehee said.

“She has crossed over from being a backbench young member of Congress that would normally be very obscure into this blurred line between celebrity and actual politician,” McGehee said.

Maloney, on the other hand, represented the Upper East Side, where the Met is based, McGehee continued. Her attendance was not entirely different from a typical news conference or ribbon-cutting in a lawmaker’s home district, where visibility is key, she explained.

“Like most politicians, when they have a big event in their district or their backyard,” McGehee said, “they feel like it is their right, practically, to be included.” ■

WELL DRESSED: Ocasio-Cortez, left, and Maloney have used clothing to make a statement at the gala.

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at higher prices than would have otherwise been possible.

Some of that money went into Da Costa’s shop. An additional $150,000 helped reopen a restaurant in Crown Heights whose owners now plan to open a steakhouse in Harlem next to Minton’s Playhouse, where Ella Fitzgerald and elonius Monk performed. A $50,000 loan went to a fast-growing mother-and-daughter-run bakery in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

“Carver is an American story,” Chief Executive O cer Michael Pugh said. “Creating opportunity is what we do as Americans.”

Too important

Carver is only now nally emerging from a challenging period dating back to the nancial crisis. e bank got into serious nancial trouble 15 years ago by writing construction loans that went bust. It survived, thanks to $55 million in rescue nancing from Goldman Sachs and other big banks.

Carver “isn’t too big to fail, but it is too important to fail,” Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, said at the time.

But the bank wasn’t quite out of the woods. In 2016 federal regulators demanded it raise capital, shore up its back-o ce functions and dial down commercial real estate exposure. is “formal agree-

ment” with the bank was terminated in January.

Pugh, who became CEO in 2015, spent a few years tending to Carver’s wounds. e bank was ready when the pandemic locked everything down and business owners needed help.

“ at’s where this all started for

Carver,” said Lloyd Williams, president of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. “ e big banks just told clients here what they didn’t know, couldn’t do and didn’t have authority to do. Carver’s people actually answered questions and delivered help.”

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rst responders.”

Offering support

Pugh added: “We were nancial

Some customers began to seek out Carver because they wanted to support a Black bank. Existing business borrowers pressed the nancial institution to step up and help fund their plans.

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“After the Floyd murder, I decided I had to grow the business, make this more than it was,” said Angela Price, who founded the Black Cake Co. in 1987 and has been what she called “part of the family” at Carver since 2008.

A $50,000 loan from Carver in June 2022 enabled the company to supply a major new client in Bermuda that operates duty-free shops.

“We’ve had 50% growth year over year since 2019,” said Price’s daughter, Kamari Alexander, who joined the business last year after a successful career in law.

e Suite, a Caribbean restaurant in Crown Heights, was on death’s door when a $150,000 Carver loan two years ago revived it. Owners Joel Claken and Atiba Stevenson are bringing in a new partner to their Harlem steakhouse: a restaurant manager who started as a bartender.

“ e loan made possible everything good that’s happened,” Claken said.

And Andrew Simmons, CEO of A&S Rebar and Lashay’s Construction, said he would go back to Carver the next time he needed a loan, even though he could borrow elsewhere.

Simmons, who spent seven years in prison on drug and weapon charges, won’t forget how the bank helped during the pandemic’s darkest days.

“You need someone to believe in you,” he said. ■

DA COSTA had never been able to get a bank loan for her salon until Carver helped.

HOUSING WORKS’ Nutgent was signed to a record label before her role running the city’s rst legal cannabis store.

SASHA NUTGENT

RESIDES Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

GREW UP East Flatbush, Brooklyn

FAMILY TIES Nutgent’s parents both live close to her, and she has a younger brother who just graduated from college.

MUSIC TO HER EARS

Nutgent still enjoys the music industry but prefers to be in the background. She has worked as a freelance songwriter for about 20 years. She recently helped write a song called “Mrsissues” for the R&B artist NexXthursday. She sings on the track as well.

SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS

Housing Works makes sure the money from its cannabis sales goes to worthy causes, something Nutgent said is extremely important to her. “The proceeds go to our programs helping people who are negatively impacted by the War on Drugs, who need housing and who are experiencing homelessness and HIV and AIDS,” she said. “We’re not just generating cash for no reason.”

Finding commonality in cannabis

Marijuana dispensary manager enjoys helping diverse New Yorkers feel good

BY EDDIE SMALL

Marijuana had never been a big part of Brooklyn native Sasha Nutgent’s life. She hadn’t tried the drug before this year and had been focused on her musical ambitions growing up, even getting signed to a record label at one point before deciding she was too shy for a pop star’s life.

So her new role running one of the city’s recently opened recreational cannabis stores is still a little hard for her to comprehend.

“I never saw myself working in this industry, and I think that I don’t even know how I got here,” she said. “It oors me every day.”

Nutgent works as the store manager at Housing Works Cannabis Co., which opened to great fanfare on Astor Place in the Village at the very end of 2022, becoming the rst recreational dispensary in the city. Its arrival came a little less than two years after New York joined the growing number of states to have legalized the drug. Despite her initial lack of familiarity with weed, Nutgent has embraced her new job and particularly enjoys serving the

diverse array of customers that patronize the store.

ese range from locals to tourists to the occasional celebrity, such as former Late Night With David Letterman band leader Paul Sha er, she said.

At the store’s grand opening, Nutgent recalled, she saw one man wearing a hard hat decked out with spots for a bong on either side waiting in line next to someone who looked like he had just gotten o work from his corporate job, a stark juxtaposition that made her quite happy.

“ at just made me smile,” she said, “to see people from di erent walks of life truly enjoy what we sell and have something in common.”

Nutgent has a background in retail and had spent about seven years working at other Housing Works stores, starting in 2015 at its SoHo thrift shop. She was then promoted to manager of its agship location in Chelsea and also worked at the Park Slope and Gramercy locations before the organization approached her about running its marijuana dispensary.

She was nervous about taking the role, given how new the industry

was for the city overall. e business is much more heavily regulated than the prior types of retail she’s worked in, but the general idea of customer service being paramount holds true no matter what you’re selling, she said.

Sales are going strong at the store, although the long lines have abated somewhat since it started o ering deliveries and online preorders.

e city’s retail industry was facing major headwinds even before Covid hit, but marijuana and cosmetics—another sector she has worked in—will keep going strong even if other sectors falter, she said.

“People are just really excited to be back out again and appreciate that face-to-face experience,” she said. “ ings that make people feel good will always have a place to be successful.”

And Nutgent did recently try marijuana herself, at a sta -appreciation party in mid-January. She has come to nd the edible products to be helpful for her anxiety, although smoking pot sparked some uncertainty her rst time.

“I think I did it right,” she said. “I honestly don’t know, but I felt good afterwards.” ■

“THAT JUST MADE ME SMILE, TO SEE PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT WALKS OF LIFE TRULY ENJOY WHAT WE SELL AND HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON.”