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Hate Crime Prevention; Jail Plan Hearings; First Day of School; & More: The Week Ahead in New York Politics, September 2


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

Mayor de Blasio was back in the city to march in a wet West Indian Day parade in Brooklyn on Monday after Nevada and California presidential campaign stops (and a family trip to Connecticut). The mayor is continuing with his presidential bid even as several others, such as New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, have dropped out recently. Neither de Blasio nor Gillibrand qualified for the Democratic primary debate set for September 12, which 10 candidates will take part in. (It is worth noting that the mayor entered the race in May whereas Gillibrand declared her candidacy in January.)

De Blasio is hoping to make the October debate, which has the same polling and fundraising thresholds as the September debate, while also saying that the debates are not as significant as other parts of the campaign. But de Blasio has been stagnant in the polls since entering the race and does not appear to be raising much money from many donors. He insists it’s still early, he’s still getting his message out, and he can break through by the time the first votes are cast in Iowa in February.

There’s a lot going for de Blasio to address back in the five boroughs: he must wrestle with major education recommendations put forth last week by his School Diversity Advisory Group; deal with increases in anti-Semitic hate crimes, NYPD officer suicides, and byciclist and pedestrian fatalities. It’s also the first week of school. And more (NYCHA, homelessness, and so on).

Under pressure from City Council members given recent anti-Semitic attacks in the city, de Blasio’s office has said it would open the new Office of Hate Crime Prevention earlier than mandated by law, and that it has gotten the ball rolling just ahead of an announcement set for Tuesday of this week.

There are also two very important hearings scheduled for this week in the process to close the Rikers Island jail complex and open or enlarge a jail in each of the boroughs other than Staten Island. The City Planning Commission is holding a meeting for its vote on the proposal on Tuesday and the City Council is holding an open public hearing on Thursday.

One of those hearings is that the City Planning Commission, the other at the City Council, which has a busy week after the usual end-of-August break.

There’s a lot happening this week -- see our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday, September 2
Monday is Labor Day as well as the annual J'Ouvert celebration and West Indian Day Parade. Many elected officials, including Mayor de Blasio, Governor Andrew Cuomo, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and others are participating.

Tuesday, September 3
Mayor de Blasio and City Council Members including Mark Levine, Donovan Richards, Chaim Deutsch, and others appear set to announce the early opening of the city's Office of Hate Crime Prevention.

On Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Manhattan, there will be a joint state legislative hearing on “Electric Power System Reliability,” held by the Senate and Assembly committees on energy and authorities.

School Chancellor Richard Carranza will appear on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on Tuesday morning.

At noon Tuesday, “The City Planning Commission (CPC) will hold a Special Meeting and vote on the New York City Borough-Based Jail System application. This session will be livestreamed.”

At 1 p.m. Tuesday the City Council Committee on Immigration will meet at City Hall to discuss several bills.

At 1 p.m. Tuesday, “elected officials, celebrities and supporters will hold a ‘server for an hour’” events at local restaurants in downtown Brooklyn “to call for an end to the subminimum wage for tipped workers. The event will also call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to enact One Fair Wage, a policy that would increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour for hundreds of thousands of tipped workers in New York. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries...will serve food and drinks to customers in support of One Fair Wage in New York and the Raise the Wage Act, which was historically passed in the United States House of Representatives on July 18, 2019, and is now waiting to bring the bill to a vote in the Senate. Elected officials—including NY Assemblymembers Michael Blake, Ellen Jaffe and Walter T. Mosley—as well as actress Erika Alexander, and Heather McGee will also join the “server for an hour” event. Dozens of restaurant workers and owners, community groups and labor allies, and other elected officials will address members of the press to ensure tipped workers will earn living wages to improve their lives, help professionalize the restaurant industry, support the many immigrant women and people of color workers, and boost the economy of New York City and the state.”

At 2 p.m. Tuesday in Flushing, “Council Member Peter Koo and the Glow Community Center will announce an upcoming free high school admissions seminar in Flushing. Students and parents will have the opportunity to learn about the admissions process, important deadlines, and what to know about recent proposals regarding the SHSAT. Participating organizations include InsideSchools and the Scholastic Merit Fund.”

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis will host Climate Disasters and the Green New Deal at the New School, a discussion of climate change and the “great challenge for society, academics, and policy makers,” featuring Professors Stephanie Kelton; Claudia Kemfert; Bob Kopp; and Stefan Mittnik.

At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will will host a community discussion on “placard abuse and related issues” at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

NYCHA Chair and CEO Gregory Russ will appear on NY1's Inside City Hall on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday, September 4
At the City Council on Wednesday:
-At 9:30 a.m. the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet.
-At 10 a.m. the Committees on Public Housing and on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction will hold a joint oversight hearing on “Accessibility in Public Housing.”
-At 10 a.m., the Committees on Environmental Protection, on Resiliency and Waterfronts, and on Consumer Protection will hold a joint oversight hearing on “Consolidated Edison Summer 2019 Service Outages.”

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy show will air on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org, and feature a discussion about education policy and city schools. Specifically, the show will examine recently-released recommendations from the School Diversity Advisory Group, assembled by Mayor de Blasio in late 2017, to desegregate city schools and improve the overall education system. Guests will include DSAG member Matt Gonzales and City Council Member Mark Treyger, who chairs the Council’s education committee.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Manhattan Institute will host the 2019 James Q. Wilson Lecture: The Entrenched Vs. The Newcomers, given by Harvard professor of economics Edward Glaeser. “Glaeser will address the conflict between entrenched interests and newcomers in its economic, political, geographic, and generational dimensions. The question for policymakers is whether they enhance the gains that flourish from the proximity and openness that cities offer, or double-down on the advantages secured by exclusion and anti-competitive behavior.”

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, City & State NY will host its 2019 Labor Power 100 reception, spotlighting “distinguished public officials, labor organizers, activists, academics, industry leaders, and others, as they come together for a unique networking opportunity.” State Senator Andrew Gounardes will be among the speakers.

Thursday, September 5
Thursday is the first day of school for most New York City public school students. Expect a busy day for Chancellor Richard Carranza and Mayor de Blasio.

At 8:15 a.m. Thursday, the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School will host a CityLaw breakfast with Dr. Oxiris Barbot, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, on “Measles: NYC Policy and Thoughts on Anti-Vaccine Movement.”

At 10 a.m. Thursday, the City Council Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses will hold a public hearing on the borough-based jail system plan.

At 12:45 p.m. Thursday, New York Law School will hold Privacy Talks: Regulation and Innovation with Zachary Hecht, who is the current policy director for Tech:NYC and former policy director for City Council Member Ritchie Torres.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, the Vera Institute of Justice will host Incapacitated, Indigent, and Alone: A Conversation on New York State’s Guardianship System. “With guardianship such a challenging role, involving the coordination of complex legal, health care, case management, and property issues, it is more important than ever that NYS develop a coherent plan to support qualified guardians.” Speakers will include City Council Member Rory Lancman, Richmond County Supreme Court Justice Richard Troia, and others.

Friday, September 6
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show at 10 a.m.

At 10 a.m. Friday in Manhattan, two Assembly committees will hold a joint hearing on “Robocalls, spoofing and nuisance calls.”

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Max
@GothamGazette

Drug Overdose Deaths Drop for First Time in 8 Years, City Reports


mayor bdb first lady chirlane

(photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


The New York City Health Department announced on Monday that the city’s efforts to curb the ongoing opioid crisis are showing progress, with 38 fewer drug overdose deaths in 2018 compared to the previous year. It is the first year over year drop in eight years, the city said.

There were 1,444 drug overdose deaths last year, down 3% from 1,482 in 2017, according to Health Department data. And the first three months of this year saw 331 overdose deaths, down 45 from the same time last year, and two fewer than the last three months of 2018.

“The decrease in drug overdose deaths is promising, but far too many New Yorkers are still dying,” Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said in a statement. “We are closely monitoring the trends of the epidemic as they evolve and responding to upticks in emergency department visits and deaths with targeted strategies and community engagement. We remain firmly committed to expanding life-saving services and caring for New Yorkers who use drugs.”

The announcement from the city did not include comment from Mayor Bill de Blasio, though First Lady Chirlane McCray was quoted saying, in part, “There is no one solution to the pain and tragic consequences of the opioid epidemic and New York City’s multi-faceted response reflects that.”

Although there was a reduction in overdose deaths citywide, disparities exist across boroughs. Deaths rose in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island but dropped in Brooklyn and Queens. Among New Yorkers between the ages of 55 and 84, overdose deaths increased for the fourth year in a row. The rates of overdose increased by 5% for Latinos, and decreased 13% for black New Yorkers and 5% for white New Yorkers.

In 60% of all drug overdose deaths in 2018, the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl was detected.

The city has been undertaking a concerted effort for the last two years to decrease accidental overdose deaths. In March 2017, de Blasio and McCray launched HealingNYC, which has since invested $60 million in overdose treatment, prevention, and outreach measures, according to Monday’s announcement.

Since then, the city has distributed 230,000 kits of naloxone, a drug that can counter an overdose, for free through programs across the city. The Health Department also conducts free trainings in administering naloxone and has launched nonfatal overdose intervention programs in 11 city hospital emergency departments, and will expand it to 15 private hospitals by June 2020. 

The city has undertaken a broad outreach effort as well, working with 374 community-based venues, 88 substance use treatment programs, 140 pharmacies, and nine shelters in the Bronx and northern Manhattan.

The Health Department has trained 1,800 individuals to prescribe buprenorphine, which can reduce opioid dependency, and has funded 14 syringe service programs that helped 18,274 last year. Prior Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett has identified expanded use of buprenorphine as one essential key to bringing down opioid addiction and overdoses. The city also wants to open safe injection sites, but has yet to receive state approval to do so.

Also in her Monday statement, McCray said, “Individuals struggling with substance use disorders and families caught up in this scourge are our responsibility, and we will continue innovating to make sure communities have access to the lifesaving resources, services, and treatment they need.”

The city’s five district attorneys – Darcel Clark of the Bronx, Eric Gonzalez of Brooklyn, Michael McMahon of Staten Island, Cyrus Vance Jr. of Manhattan, and acting DA John Ryan of Queens – welcomed Monday’s news and called for greater action from the state to target the import of fentanyl and its variants, which remain largely unregulated. They called on the state Legislature to designate all those variants as Schedule I controlled substances and for increased funding for public awareness campaigns and police labs, coroners, and medical examiners.

“Fentanyl analogs serve no legitimate medical purpose and are produced by clandestine laboratories outside of the U.S. New types of fentanyl analogs are continually emerging as international labs slightly tweak chemical formulations. As long as fentanyl analogs in all their variants remain unregulated in New York State, they will proliferate unchecked and more lives will be lost,” the DAs said in a joint statement.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

De Blasio's Debate Fate, Cuomo Opens Another Bridge, AOC Town Hall, & More: The Week Ahead in New York Politics, August 26


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

This week, we'll find out whether Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York will qualify for the next Democratic presidential primary debate scheduled for September 12 and 13. The debate qualification deadline is Wednesday, August 28, and both candidates have struggled to meet the dual donor and polling threshold – each must hit at least 2% in 4 DNC-approved polls and at least 130,000 unique donors, including from at least 400 unique donors in at least 20 states. De Blasio said at a news conference last week that he wasn't "halfway there" yet in terms of the number of donors. Gillibrand has said she has just over 110,000 donors so far. On Sunday, de Blasio appeared at a CNN town hall, which could give him a bump in donors if not polling.

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday announced that the second span of the Kosciuszko Bridge would open to traffic on Thursday morning. Pedestrians and bikers will also be able to cross the bridge on Wednesday between noon and 6 p.m. The governor, who toured and surveyed the bridge on Sunday, will likely take a victory lap over the project as he touts its completion four years ahead of schedule and on budget. On Wednesday evening, the governor is hosting a cocktail reception to celberate the grand opening. "While the federal administration obsesses over building walls, in New York we are building bridges and other infrastructure critical to moving our 21st century economy forward," Cuomo said in a statement. "With the opening of the second span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge on Wednesday, we will once again demonstrate to the nation that it's possible to take on big projects and to get them done on time and on budget."

Overall, it's a relatively slow week in terms of events in New York politics, but there are some -- see our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
Governor Cuomo is in Albany without any public events scheduled.

At 11 a.m. Monday in the Madison County Board of Supervisors Chambers, the Joint Senate Task Force on Opioids, Addiction & Overdose Prevention will hold a roundtable that will “focus around challenges faced by rural communities.”

At 11:30 a.m. Monday, the East Bronx History Forum will hold a street co-naming for WWII POW 2nd Lieutenant John Sekul, on Newbold Avenue between Castle Hill and Havemeyer Avenues.

At 1 p.m. Monday, the City Planning Commission will hold a review session, which will be livestreamed.

At 6 p.m. Monday, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza will appear on a live interview on FOX 5.

Mayor de Blasio will make his weekly appearance on NY1's Inside City Hall on Monday in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.

At 7:30 p.m. Monday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will deliver remarks at a Rockaway Point Association meeting. At 8:15 p.m, he'll speak at a Point Breeze Association meeting.

Tuesday
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is in Syracuse. At 11 a.m., he'll be speaking at a 9-11 memorial ceremony at the Horticulture Building at the New York State Fairgrounds. At 1:30 p.m., he'll connect local residents and businesses with lost money at an Unclaimed Funds Booth at the Center for Progress Building.

At 12 p.m. Tuesday, the Real Estate Board of New York will host “The New Rent Laws - What We Know AND What We Don't Know" - this event is for REBNY members only.

At 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, the NY Metropolitan Transportation Council will hold a program, finance and administration committee meeting.

At 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Riders Alliance will hold a Bronx bus turnaround campaign meeting.

Wednesday
At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the NYS Business Council will hold an Energy Committee meeting “to discuss the PSC Resource Adequacy Review, Clean Energy Standard, Legislation, and other matters of interest to membership.”

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting, which will be livestreamed.

At noon Wednesday in Albany, the New York State Board of Elections will hold a tentative commissioners meeting.

On Wednesday at 5 p.m., this week's Max & Murphy show will air on WBAI radio, 99.5FM and streaming at wbai.org.

Thursday
At 7 p.m. Thursday, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will host a town hall “on public housing issues that impact our district and community” at NYCHA Boston Road Plaza in the Bronx.

Friday and the weekend
At 10 a.m. Friday, Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Joey Fox and Samar Khurshid
@GothamGazette



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