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Mayor Adams, City Council Announce Agreement on $107 Billion City Budget


Mayor Adams & Speaker Adams shake on the budget deal (photo: @NYCMayor)


Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced on Thursday a deal on a massive $107 billion budget for the 2024 fiscal year, just days before the July 1 deadline, marking the conclusion of months of contentious negotiations between the two sides of City Hall. The full Council is scheduled to vote the budget through on Friday morning.

This budget is the largest at adoption in city history, adding $6 billion in spending compared to the budget adopted last June, largely because of spending on municipal labor contracts and the costs of services for the large influx of migrant asylum-seekers.

“The agreement we reached today comes in the midst of a budget cycle dominated by great challenges and unexpected crises,” Mayor Adams said, after a particularly tense “budget handshake” with the speaker at City Hall. “But I'm proud to say we have successfully navigated through these many crosscurrents to arrive at a strong and fiscally responsible budget that uplifts everyday New Yorkers and their families.”

The mayor acknowledged that while the city did not make “big dollar investments” across the board, there were nonetheless “smart, strategic” allocations to youth services, mental health, public safety, education, seniors, cultural institutions and libraries, sanitation, and more that will have major impacts.

Unlike recent years, the budget negotiations came down to the wire, after tense battles over the mayor’s recurring attempts to make sweeping if mostly modest cuts across city agencies, which the Council repeatedly opposed as it sought to boost the city’s social safety net.

Speaker Adams acknowledged that the bulk of the budget fight was spent on restoring proposed cuts, and expressed disappointment that the Council wasn’t successful across the board. “These negotiations were not easy and, in fact, they were uniquely challenging because of how much it focused on restoring cuts to so many important programs,” she said, speaking just after the mayor as he looked on.

Many in the Council also had to contend with the primary election earlier this week, since all 51 seats are up for election this year, adding another complication in the middle of the budget process. In a sign of the fraught relationship with the more moderate mayor and challenging budget negotiations, many of the Council’s Progressive Caucus members were absent from the annual City Hall celebration of a budget deal.

In contrast with last year, when the city was also flush with revenue and federal aid, the administration faced additional fiscal pressures this year. Several major municipal labor contracts have been settled while others remain pending, which accounted for most of the added spending – in total, the administration allocated $16 billion across the next four fiscal years for all labor settlements.

About $2.9 billion in the next fiscal year will go to the costs of sheltering and providing services to asylum seekers, which has already cost the city about $1.4 billion in the current fiscal year — though there is some state and federal aid coming to help with those costs. More than 81,000 migrants have arrived in the city in the last year, and more than 51,000 remain in the city’s care, according to the Adams administration.

Other areas where the city added funding, though they pale in sum comparison, include a $20 million baseline increase for the Fair Fares discounted MetroCard program, bringing the total there to $95 million; a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for nonprofit human service providers, with funding baselined at $100 million in the 2024 fiscal year and growing to $150 million baselined in fiscal year 2025; a $46 million increase for legal service providers, including for Right to Counsel cases in eviction proceedings; and $30.3 million for supportive programs for K-12 students including mental health services, arts education, shelter-based coordinators, Immigrant Family Engagement, and community schools; $16 million in total for childcare for undocumented families via the Promise NYC program launched this fiscal year; and $15 million more to expand 3K, by converting nearly 1,900 school day/school year seats to extended day/extended year seats.

The Adams administration took several steps to cut spending over the last several months, including successive Programs to Eliminate the Gap (PEGs) and a vacancy reduction initiative, which together saved more than $4.7 billion between the current and next fiscal year. Revenues also came in higher than expected by about $2.1 billion in the current fiscal year, helping balance the budget for next fiscal year with the opportunity for the Council to secure restoration of some of the mayor’s proposed reductions.

“We achieved this without cutting services, laying off employees or raising taxes,” Mayor Adams said of the balanced budget for fiscal year 2024.

The budget also sets aside $8 billion in reserves, including $1.2 billion in the General Reserve, $2 billion in the Rainy Day Fund, $4.58 billion in the Retiree Health Benefits Trust fund, and $250 million in the Capital Stabilization Reserve.

“[The budget] is on time, balanced and fiscally responsible. It strategically directs our resources to programs that will support everyday New Yorkers and it represents a balance of administration and Council priorities,” the mayor said.

Last year, the mayor and Council clashed over cuts to individual school budgets over declining enrollment that were approved as part of the budget, though the Council tried to argue that the administration had been misleading. But this budget will not reduce any school budgets at the start of the school year, the mayor reiterated on Thursday, though he said that could change (with funding up or down) in midyear adjustments when final enrollment numbers are tallied.

Speaker Adams gave a sobering assessment of how the final budget deal unfolded. “Our focus in this budget has been to protect the essential services that the people of this city rely on to be healthy, safe and successful,” she said, decrying the cuts that the Council had to fight hard to restore.

She noted that the Council’s first-ever female majority informed its budget priorities. “The inequities that women, and particularly women of color, face throughout our lives that undermine us, our communities and the city are issues that must be addressed. Resolving these inequities was the focus of many of our budget priorities,” she said.

Among the many cuts that the Council was successful in reversing were $36.2 million from public libraries; $32.4 million from the City University of New York; $40 million for other cultural institutions; $32.9 million from the New York City Housing Authority’s Vacant Unit Readiness Program; $22 million for litter basket collection; and $7 million from older adult meals.

With federal covid relief funding running out in the next few years and with revenues also expected to slow, the speaker conceded, “The reality is we're heading into more challenging years.” But she emphasized that the administration and Council need to collaborate more closely on the budget, rather than replicate the budget dance that characterized this year’s process.

“While the Council's focus this year was to restore cuts to essential services, our city must shift away from this counterproductive budgeting approach and move forward through the lens of expanding upon what New Yorkers need, not what they can do without,” she said.

“A budget is more than just an itemized list of expenditures, it's a values document,” said Council Member Justin Brannan, chair of the Council’s finance committee, emphasizing the “thoughtful, surgical investments” made in the budget. “You can tell me what you care about, but you prove it to me by showing me what you spend your money on, especially when times are tough and money is tight. It all comes down to priorities and from the start of these negotiations, the Council was laser focused on protecting what New Yorkers need to recover, succeed, be healthy and safe. New Yorkers don't run and hide, we stand and fight. The city's best days are ahead of us and I would never bet against New York City.” 

One of the major successes for the Council was shifting $175 million in capital funding for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development into the earlier years of the city’s capital strategy, and achieving a $4 billion capital allocation for housing in fiscal year 2024, by which the Council’s insistence helps the mayor meet a campaign promise he had yet to fulfill.

Questions remain, however, about whether the personnel will be there at HPD and other city agencies to adequately provide city services, meet major goals, and address several crises. The new budget funds more than 20,000 vacant positions across city agencies, indicative of an ongoing personnel crisis that has already hurt service-delivery and the Adams administration has only recently begun to take modest steps toward addressing.

Reactions
Comptroller Brad Lander, the city’s chief financial officer, said in a statement that the budget agreement did not tackle major long-term challenges while also including “short-sighted cuts” like $17 million from restorative justice programs at Rikers Island and some $9 million to CUNY.

He also noted that the administration did not take any steps to address the costs of the migrant crisis. “The Administration wields the high cost of providing shelter for asylum seekers as a rationale for belt tightening, yet did not provide significant funding for urgent legal assistance that would significantly reduce the City’s long-term costs,” Lander said. “City Hall announced a plan to connect asylum seekers with pro bono legal support to apply for status and work authorization, but this budget does not allocate meaningful dollars to scale up legal services that will help people gain employment, exit the shelter system, and contribute to our local economy. This is a shortsighted approach to a pressing budget and human issue.”

Lander — whom Mayor Adams on Thursday again criticized for not traveling to Washington D.C. to push for federal asylum-seeker support — has also continued to urge the city to put away more funding in reserves and to back revenue-raising measures, which require state approval, to fund critical future needs.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams expressed relief that many of the proposed cuts in the budget were prevented. “Unfortunately, a necessary focus on restoring cuts meant that many new and necessary investments were not able to be made,” he said in a statement. “Maintaining public school funding and supporting libraries should be a given, but so should strengthening and expanding services to meet the moment and the needs of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.”

He also faulted the mayor for using asylum-seekers as a “scapegoat” for failing to invest in services for all New Yorkers and the mayor’s continued opposition to raising taxes on the wealthy. “"As I have said many times – investment, not austerity, is the most effective means of meeting the compounding crises our city faces, and we just cannot point to our challenges as a reason to prevent investment,” he said.

Andrew Rein, president of Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal watchdog, reiterated warnings about the administration and Council compounding fiscal problems in the years ahead. “It is essentially a one-year budget that again unfortunately delays the wise but hard choices needed to stabilize the City’s fiscal future,” he said in a statement. “With the coffers temporarily bulging, the budget increases fiscal cliffs, widens future budget gaps, and misses the opportunity to deposit money into the Rainy Day Fund.”

“This burgeoning habit of funding major programs one year at a time is effectively putting the budget dance of years’ past on steroids, potentially creating massive annual service crises. Cliff dancing is dangerous and should stop,” Rein added.

Advocates expressed mixed feelings about the budget, and those who were disappointed mostly directed their ire at the mayor.

The heads of the three library systems – Brooklyn Public Library President Linda Johnson, Queens Public Library President Dennis Walcott, and New York Public Library President Anthony Marx – were ecstatic that their funding had been restored. “This is true and responsive civic leadership, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Mayor and the Council to address some of the most pressing challenges facing our city, including assisting asylum seekers, supporting teens, preparing people for the workforce, and helping kids recover from pandemic learning loss,” they said in a joint statement.

“Today, a simple handshake has upended the lives of thousands of people detained in our city jails, whose hopes for a better future rested in crucial programs that—up until June 30—supported our most vulnerable and marginalized communities,” read a statement from the Fortune Society, referencing the $17 million cut to programs in city jails that it helps provide. “These vital, life-saving services included reentry planning, nonviolent conflict resolution, hard skills training and certifications, and cognitive behavioral interventions. To say the ending of this funding is short-sighted and cruel is an understatement—it threatens to cause generational damage and trauma for decades to come and portends a decline in public safety.”

Michelle Jackson, executive director of the Human Services Council, which represents nearly 200 nonprofit human service providers, said the COLA in the budget was far below what organizations require. “This budget is not good, and it is not just,” she said in a statement. “Almost two-thirds of our workforce lives near poverty, and this agreement will not fundamentally change that - even though the Mayor found plenty of money to give generous raises to other workers.”

The Professional Staff Congress–CUNY, which represents 30,000 faculty and professional staff, praised the Council for pushing back against cuts to the system.

“Without the Council's intervention, the Mayor's budget would have dramatically compounded years of City cuts to community colleges,” said PSC-CUNY President James Davis, in a statement. He pointed out that, despite the restorations, previous cuts (based on student enrollment drops) have already hurt CUNY’s finances, leading community colleges to lose more than 300 full-time faculty and staff since 2020. “It is well documented that CUNY lifts the economic prospects of thousands of New Yorkers, including two-time CUNY graduate Mayor Adams,” Davis said. “Thankfully, the Council was able to stop the Mayor pulling the ladder of opportunity up behind him in this budget. Because these restorations were not baselined by the Mayor in this budget, the Mayor will have to decide again if he will continue to target CUNY students for cuts.”

Betsy Plum, executive director of Riders Alliance, and David Jones, president of Community Service Society, praised the expansion of the Fair Fares program. “Expanding the nation's largest low-income transit discount program will help it achieve its full potential to combat poverty and promote economic security,” they said in a statement. “We look forward to working with City Hall to make the expansion as impactful for as many people as possible.”

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Proposed NYPD Rule Could Allow Widespread Drone Activity in New York City


Drones ready to fly (photo: Caroline Rubinstein-Willis/Mayoral Photography Office)


A new proposed rule by the NYPD could pave the way for private drone flights over much of New York City, opening a new frontier for anything from high-altitude advertising to spying.

Today, private drone flights are allowed in only a handful of areas on the outskirts of the city, tightly regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NYPD to ensure safe and unfettered airspace in the nation's highest skyline. The drones currently roving the night sky are government operated or flown illegally by civilians and subject to criminal charges and major fines.

The police department, which has the authority to make rules governing the take off and landing of aircraft, says the private use of drones would be a public good with a host of cultural, academic, and law enforcement applications. But as with other technological advances, civil rights experts say the proliferation of drones – unmanned mini-helicopters that can fly hundreds of feet in the air and carry anything from a piece of mail to a high-definition camera – could expose New Yorkers to previously unimagined invasions of privacy.

That apprehension could set the stage for a battle between the City Council and the administration of Mayor Eric Adams over the proposed rule, which can go into effect under city law after a public hearing.

“I am concerned about the introduction of these proposed safety tools in our community," said Council Member Nantasha Williams, a Queens Democrat and chair of the Council’s Committee on Civil and Human Rights, in an email to Gotham Gazette.

"I am committed to utilizing my oversight to ensure that community concerns around privacy are heard and addressed, and to work towards finding a balance that upholds both security and the fundamental rights of our residents,” Williams added.

The rule would require permits to operate a drone for a police-approved purpose with few limits. It would make it a fine – $250, for a first violation, up to $1,000 – to fly a remote aircraft without one. Currently, taking off and landing in New York City is a misdemeanor, except in an emergency. The rule comes after a settlement between the city and Xizmo Media Productions, a company that specializes in drones for film and TV, after the firm sued over the city's restriction on federally regulated air space.

A hearing on the proposal is scheduled for July 7 at One Police Plaza. Members of the public may submit a written comment or sign up to testify through the city's online portal.

The NYPD cites drones' use in film, rescue efforts, "research projects, and…surveys," to justify the new proposal.

"As drones have been increasingly used to film stunning cinematic videos, support first responder rescue efforts, aid in research projects, and conduct surveys, it is clear that the City must balance the ever present safety and privacy concerns inherent in widespread drone use against the important gains that may result from this new technology," reads the NYPD's proposed rule.

The department would not say whether there would be limits on the number of private drone flights in total or by a single permit-holder.

Civil rights advocates have pointed out that while there are some First and Fourth Amendment limitations on the way police can use drones to watch people inside their homes or at protests and other political or social gatherings, there are few restrictions on the way police can later use footage obtained by a third party.

"We already see stationary cameras all across the city, feeding our data to private vendors and data brokers that are willing to sell it to the highest bidder," said Albert Fox Cahn, a privacy lawyer and executive director of Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP). "There's nothing in the proposal to stop drones from taking off as the next form of surveillance capitalism."

While the FAA currently prohibits some drone flights over people without permission, Cahn warned the rule could enable a new form of mass surveillance in the nation's most densely-populated city. A private drone hovering thirty storeys in the air may capture footage through a bedroom window that could later become admissible as evidence in court, he said.

Others have raised concerns that, coupled with biometric tools like face and gait recognition technology, private corporate drone flights could give rise to even more invasive forms of data tracking.

"Billionaires and corporations have seized on new technologies like facial recognition and artificial intelligence to make record profits and discriminate against those they see as ‘undesirables,’ and the ability to take to the skies will only supercharge their surveillance capabilities," said State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Manhattan Democrat, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. "There may be legitimate uses for unmanned aerial vehicles on an extremely limited case by case basis, but the negatives appear to outweigh the positives in New York City.”

"Should this proposed rule move forward, we would certainly discuss potential legislation to address the privacy concerns" of civil rights advocates, added Hoylman-Sigal's chief of staff, Kenan Kurt, in an email.

Hoylman, who sponsors multiple bills to regulate the use of biometric data in law enforcement, public accommodations, and housing, said "noise and annoyance" from drones is also a major concern. (The State Senator was among the critics of a popular digital app company that used 500 light-up drones to advertise in the night sky off the coast of Manhattan last fall. That stunt also raised alarms among environmentalists who said the drones could endanger migratory birds.)

Police routinely use footage from CCTV cameras in and around stores and buildings, and its Domain Awareness System has a live feed from tens of thousands of private cameras around the city. The NYPD also has a history of unlawful searches and surveillance, including the stopping-and-frisking of hundreds of thousands of mostly Black New Yorkers and spying on Muslim residents for years after September 11, 2001 (in the latter case, a judge ruled the NYPD has a “systemic inclination” to ignoring constitutional protections).

Meanwhile, the sale of personal information – everything from cell-phone location data to reading habits – has become big business in the digital age. Corporations and private data brokers use and sell personal information to track and restrict behavior, target advertising, and set prices. A recently declassified report for U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines showed federal intelligence agencies routinely use commercially available personal data – even without suspicion of a crime – that would otherwise require a warrant to obtain.

Companies like Uber, AT&T, and the Motion Picture Association of America have in the past lobbied city officials to open up the skies to private drones, according to City & State New York. A so-far unsuccessful 2018 bill sponsored by City Council Member Justin Brannan, a Brooklyn Democrat, would have allowed unmanned flights under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation. Brannan did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The NYPD did not expand upon the rule's applications after inquiries by Gotham Gazette. "The City must balance the safety and privacy concerns of its citizens with the increased interest in the use of drones," a spokesperson wrote by email.

A spokesperson for Mayor Adams said the rule was reviewed by the city's Chief Privacy Officer, Michael Fitzpatrick, and referred Gotham Gazette to the statement of purpose included in the proposed rule text.

Under the proposal, applicants must apply for a permit to fly a drone in city airspace (in areas not otherwise restricted by the FAA) within 30 days of each flight. Private fliers must be insured and certified with the FAA, and will have to specify the time, site, and purpose of the flight. The NYPD may reject an application if the proposed mission violates the law, or if the drone site would be in use "for an unreasonable length of time longer than 24 hours." Permit-holders must notify the local community board and post bulletins before a flight recording video, audio, or still images.

The rule would require applicants to submit a data privacy policy but doesn't stipulate any minimum standards of protection, leaving discretion entirely within the NYPD.

"It's quite concerning that not only is that an ongoing blind spot in New York law but that it's the NYPD that's being entrusted with making these rules," Cahn said. "It's hard to imagine an agency with a worse privacy track record being entrusted with this task."

Adams' spokesperson said the NYPD would reject applications with weak data policies but wouldn't respond to concerns that the department is left to essentially police itself when it comes to ensuring footage doesn't fall into the wrong hands, including its own.

While the FAA has jurisdiction over the airspace, city law regulates the take-off and landing of aircrafts within the five boroughs and gives the police commissioner the power to make rules as they "deem necessary to enforce the provisions of this section" (the section itself, known as the Avigation Law, outlaws take-offs and landings in New York City outside airports and helipads, "except in an emergency," along with parachuting and external advertising like banners and pamphlet-dropping).

The rule has the sign-off of Steven Goulden, senior counsel in the city's Law Department, and Francisco Navarro, senior policy advisor in the Mayor's Office of Operations.

The proposed expansion comes as city and state leaders take increasing steps to expand digital surveillance in virtually every public corner of the city. Both Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul have embraced the symbol of "Big Brother," the faceless dictator in George Orwell's dystopian classic 1984 who controls the citizenry through total surveillance.

“It blows my mind how much we have not embraced technology, and part of that is because many of our electeds are afraid. Anything technology they think, ‘Oh it’s a boogeyman. It’s Big Brother watching you,’” Adams told Politico in December. “No, Big Brother is protecting you.”

“You think Big Brother’s watching you on the subways? You’re absolutely right,” Hochul said in September at a press conference announcing a plan to place security cameras in every subway car.

"Omnipresence, what a great word," said Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), at a press conference with Hochul and Adams in Grand Central Terminal a month later, where they announced the latest phase in a plan to flood the subway system with cameras and police officers as part of an effort to address crime and untreated mental illness.

In December, MTA New York City Transit President Richard Davey said in testimony before the City Council that the MTA was looking at integrating artificial intelligence into its video security, to "focus us in.” A spokesperson for the MTA would not elaborate on the AI under consideration, citing "security reasons" to Gotham Gazette. By January, the NYPD was receiving live feeds from 5,100 of the MTA's 11,500 security cameras with footage from the rest accessible remotely, according to an MTA spokesperson at the time.

More recently, Adams came under fire after he announced the relaunch of K-9-style police robots, known as "Digidogs," and another autonomous surveillance android, the K-5 – two years after the NYPD backed off the program following a public backlash. That announcement, in April, was criticized for apparently circumventing the POST Act, a city law that requires new police technologies to first go through a public review process.

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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Initial 2023 New York City Primary Election Results


 

At the polls (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


Initial New York City primary election results are in for City Council, District Attorney, and other races on the ballot in this off-year, low-turnout election.

Among the top headlines of the primary are the apparent wins by Yusef Salaam in the open Democratic primary for Harlem's 9th City Council District and Susan Zhuang in the open Democratic primary for the new 43rd City Council District in South Brooklyn; and the lead by challenger Chris Banks in the 42nd City Council District Democratic primary over incumbent Council Member Charles Barron.

The entire 51-seat City Council is again up for election this year given the decennial Census and redistricting process, just two years after the last set of contests when most Council seats turned over due to term limits.

Now, in 49 of the 51 seats an incumbent is seeking reelection — the exceptions being the 9th and 43rd districts. Many incumbents either have nominal or no competition, whether in the primary, the general, or both. But, there were dozens of primary contests, including several competitive races where incumbents faced stiff challenges and the two open seats with robust primaries — including both a Democratic and Republican primary in the new 43rd. (There will be somewhere around ten potentially competitive general election races set to unfold between now and November.)

Meanwhile, both Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark were on the ballot and faced spirited Democratic primary challenges (Katz from her right, Clark from her left), but both are set to win their nominations handily.

As is virtually always the case in New York City, most of the primary election action was on the Democratic side, though there were a handful of Republican primaries and the GOP has been somewhat ascendent in recent years in certain parts of the city, with hopes to hold and add to 2021 gains in the City Council this year. There are currently 45 Democrats and 6 Republicans in the Council, though several conservative Democrats are often more aligned with their GOP colleagues.

There were no primaries at all on Staten Island.

As expected, turnout is very low across the city, though some City Council districts saw far stronger voter participation than others.

Along with City Council and District Attorney primaries, there were also district leader, civil court, judicial delegate, and other positions on the ballot.

Not all results are in yet: some absentee ballots are still arriving, and the New York City Board of Elections will tabulate ranked-choice voting results where applicable beginning July 5.

In the two years since the current class of Council members was seated, districts have been redrawn to accommodate an increase in the city’s population and a series of more specific demographic shifts. Some districts saw few changes and others saw drastic ones, while an entirely new “Asian opportunity” district (Council District 43) was created in South Brooklyn as part of the response to the new population data.

That and Council District 9, based in Harlem, are the only two seats without incumbents seeking reelection — Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan dropped out of the District 9 race as she faced three prominent challengers in the Democratic primary, including Salaam, the apparent victor, and two sitting Assembly members, Inez Dickens and Al Taylor.

Though all 51 Council seats are up for election this year, there are only 24 primary races. While there are 50 incumbents seeking reelection this year, after redistricting two are now running the same district, the new 47th Council District in Brooklyn. There, Democratic Council Member Justin Brannan and Republican Council Member Ari Kagan are now set for what will be a bruising general election battle after Brannan was unchallenged in the primary and Kagan won his by a wide margin.

The City Council party primaries with more than two candidates all use ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference up to five. This is only the second time that the new voting method is being put to use after it was introduced for the 2021 citywide election. It only comes into play in deciding the result if there are more than two candidates and if no candidate wins more than 50% of first-place votes in the initial tally — in that case, an “instant runoff” occurs where some voters’ second choices (and perhaps third and beyond) begin to matter and a cycle of elimination unfolds.

Here is where the District Attorney and City Council primary races stand based on Board of Elections reporting as of 11 p.m. Tuesday night:

Bronx District Attorney - Democratic
Incumbent Democratic DA Darcel Clark is ahead of challenger Tess Cohen, 73%-27%.

Queens District Attorney - Democratic
Incumbent Democratic DA Melinda Katz is ahead of her two challengers with about 71% of the vote.

City Council

District 1 - Manhattan - Democratic
City Council Member Christopher Marté is winning with about 63% of the vote over several challengers; Susan Lee is in second with about 30%. 

District 2 - Manhattan - Democratic
City Council Member Carlina Rivera is winning with about 60% of the vote against challenger Allie Ryan, who has about 39%.

District 9 - Manhattan - Democratic
Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan dropped out of the race but not before her name would be certain to appear on the primary ballot.

Yusef Salaam is winning with about 50% of the vote, followed by Assemblymember Inez Dickens with 25%, Assemblymember Al Taylor with 14.5%, and Richardson Jordan with about 9.5%. The race could go to a ranked-choice instant runoff if Salaam's percentage of first-place votes slips to 50% or under. That will not be known until all eligible ballots are tallied.

District 10 - Manhattan - Democratic
Council Member Carmen De La Rosa is winning with about 85% of the vote.

District 12 - The Bronx - Democratic
Council Member Kevin Riley is winning with about 82% of the vote.

District 13 - The Bronx
Democratic
Council Member Marjorie Velázquez is winning with 66% of the vote over three challengers.

Republican
Kristy Marmorato and George Havranek are in a tight race for the GOP nomination. 

District 14 - The Bronx - Democratic
Council Member Pierina Sanchez is winning with about 76% of the vote.

District 19 - Queens - Democratic
Tony Avella, Christopher Bae, and Paul Graziano are in a tight race for the Democratic nomination.

Republican City Council Member Vickie Palladino did not face a primary challenge and now awaits the Democratic nominee, in what could be a potential rematch of 2021 with Avella, the former Council member and state senator.

District 20 - Queens - Republican
Yu-Ching James Pai leads with about 57% of the vote and appears set to win the Republican nomination.

Democratic Council Member Sandra Ung did not face a primary challenger. 

District 22 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Tiffany Cabán is winning with about 86% of the vote.

District 23 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Linda Lee is winning with about 63% of the vote over Steve Behar's 29% and Rubaiya Rahman's 7%. 

District 25 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Shekar Krishnan is winning with about 64% of the vote over two challengers.

District 26 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Julie Won is winning with about 61% over Hailie Kim's 38%. 

District 29 - Queens - Democratic
Council Member Lynn Schulman is winning with about 54% of the vote over Ethan Felder's 35% and Sukhjinder Singh's 11%.

District 34 - Brooklyn - Democratic
Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez is winning with more than 81% of the vote.

District 41 - Brooklyn - Democratic
Council Member Darlene Mealy is winning with about 61.5% over Isis McIntosh Green's 29.5% and two other challengers.

District 42 - Brooklyn - Democratic
Chris Banks is winning with about 50.5% over Council Member Charles Barron's 43% and Jamilah Rose's 5%.

District 43 - Brooklyn
Democratic
Susan Zhuang is winning with 59% over Wai-Yee Chan's 31% and Stanley Ng's 9.5%.

Republican
Vito LaBella and Ying Tan are in a close race for the GOP nomination. 

District 44 - Brooklyn - Republican
Council Member Kalman Yeger, unchallenged in the Democratic primary, is in a close race for the Republican nomination with Heshy Tischler.

District 47 - Brooklyn - Republican
Council Member Ari Kagan is winning with about 75% of the vote over two opponents.

Council Member Justin Brannan, a Democrat who represents the old District 43, saw his political base in Bay Ridge redrawn into the new District 47, where he is seeking reelection without facing a primary challenger. Kagan and Brannan will now face off in what will be among the most competitive general election contests in the city.

District 48 - Brooklyn - Republican
Council Member Inna Vernikov is winning with about 71% of the vote.

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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
     

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