CITY Gotham Gazette is an online publication covering New York policy and politics as well as news on public safety, transportation, education, finance and more. https://www.gothamgazette.com/city 2023-06-08T19:12:27+00:00 Webmaster [email protected] Joomla! - Open Source Content Management Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso Advances Comprehensive Planning Effort 2023-06-07T13:00:00+00:00 2023-06-07T13:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12025-reynoso-comprehensive-plan-brooklyn Samar Khurshid [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/5-reynoso-mbbpresident.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso outside Borough Hall (photo: office of Brooklyn Borough President)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed and exacerbated widespread disparities in communities across the city, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso launched an effort to create a comprehensive plan that would drive long-term decisions in the borough with a focus on public health outcomes. Later this month, Reynoso is expected to release the final recommendations from that effort after months of soliciting input on the public’s priorities for Brooklyn’s future.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unlike some major cities across the world and even other municipalities in the United States, New York City does not have a single comprehensive plan that guides its development, addressing everything from housing to transportation, school seats, firehouses and police precincts, parks and open space, and much more.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Successive administrations have created various planning documents over the years – </span><a href="https://climate.cityofnewyork.us/initiatives/planyc-getting-sustainability-done/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">PlaNYC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, </span><a href="https://onenyc.cityofnewyork.us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">OneNYC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, and most recently, </span><a href="https://climate.cityofnewyork.us/initiatives/adaptnyc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">AdaptNYC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and yet another iteration of </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/274-23/mayor-adams-releases-planyc-getting-sustainability-done-new-york-city-s-strategic-climate-plan#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">PlaNYC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> under Mayor Eric Adams – while the city charter also includes more than a dozen other such guidelines and mandates that affect zoning, development, and infrastructure. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Proponents of comprehensive planning, including Reynoso, argue that this patchwork of rules and regulations should give way to a plan with some central logic of the various needs of communities, where land use decisions are based on broader strategic goals.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This city for too long has been focused on zoning…but what we don't do is planning,” said Reynoso, a Democrat and former City Council member, in a phone interview. “What ends up happening is that we have huge gaps in infrastructure, services and resources in mostly poor neighborhoods that are getting developed at a higher rate than more affluent areas.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reynoso has long talked about more equitable housing growth across the borough, with more growth in whiter, wealthier areas that have often been unwelcoming to development. While previously serving in the City Council, he passed major waste management equity legislation, and has also been a long-time proponent of more expansive and equitable transit infrastructure in the borough. His comprehensive plan combines all those efforts, while prioritizing housing affordability and better health outcomes, two major needs that have deepened as a result of the pandemic.   </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2019, Reynoso and his Council colleagues, along with a coalition of advocacy groups, </span><a href="https://anhd.org/project/thriving-communities-coalition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thriving Communities</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, urged a Charter Revision Commission to propose a ballot measure on comprehensive planning. After that effort failed, Council Speaker Corey Johnson issued a </span><a href="https://council.nyc.gov/news/2020/12/16/planning-together/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in December 2020, proposing a comprehensive planning framework through legislation. That too was unsuccessful amid pushback from the mayoral administration and hesitancy among some Council members, prompting Reynoso to undertake his own initiative once he was elected Brooklyn borough president, taking office in January 2022.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reynoso partnered with the Regional Plan Association (RPA) and the New York Academy of Medicine to first create an </span><a href="https://www.brooklynbp.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Optimized-Planning-for-Public-Health-in-Brooklyn-RPA-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">existing conditions report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on Brooklyn’s long-term needs. The report provides a detailed breakdown of the demographics of the borough, health outcomes, socioeconomic indicators and trends, land use and built conditions, the housing landscape, transit infrastructure, environmental conditions, and neighborhood and public safety metrics. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Using various data sources and academic studies, the report points to the link between housing and health, concluding that “Advancing affordable housing is critical to achieving health equity. This will require nothing less than collaborative engagement from stakeholders including city planning and policy, neighborhood advocacy, architecture and construction, real estate development, and City government.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We shouldn't be negotiating off of how people feel, and their personal experiences related to resources and infrastructure. We should be doing it off of datasets,” Reynoso said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That report helped create the draft recommendations, which have been presented to the public for feedback that Reynoso’s office has been collecting through a </span><a href="https://form.jotform.com/231023324730138"><span style="font-weight: 400;">survey</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> over the past few months. For instance, on housing, the recommendations include requiring 100% affordable housing in perpetuity for projects receiving public subsidies, encouraging transit-oriented development in zones within half-a-mile of subway and rail stations, and designating the entire borough as a </span><a href="https://dos.ny.gov/cease-and-desist-zones" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">cease and desist zone</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that bans certain real estate solicitations from investors, developers, and speculators.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On healthcare, the draft recommendations include expanding Neighborhood Health Centers, creating an Office of Healthcare Accountability that provides price transparency for health services at hospitals, siting healthcare facilities in mixed-use development, and more. Environmental recommendations include a zoning text amendment to require new evacuation plans for new construction in floodplains and support for the NY &amp; NJ Harbor &amp; Tributaries Focus Area Feasibility Study (HATS), which is focused on coastal storm risk management. </span></p> <p><a href="https://form.jotform.com/231023324730138" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The survey</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday, June 7, and will help form the final report expected later this month. While the report could help shape Brooklyn’s future for years to come, it cannot require anything be done by the city given the limited powers of the borough president’s office. Still, Reynoso and partners are seeking to use the significant bully pulpit of the office and the weight of the planning effort to turn heads.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“New York is really unique in not having a comprehensive plan...We're really behind the times,” said Moses Gates, RPA’s vice president for housing and neighborhood planning. “A comprehensive plan is something that's not a small undertaking. It would take a lot of involvement. It’s something that would take some effort, but is well worth it.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Gates noted, in terms of population, Brooklyn would qualify as the fourth-largest city in the country. “This is the biggest comprehensive planning effort since Los Angeles updated its comprehensive plan in the early 2000s, if you're just talking about the size of an area,” he said. But the major difference being that Brooklyn will not have the power to implement its own plan. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the borough president’s office plays an important role in the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), its recommendations are strictly advisory. Borough presidents do allocate tens of millions of dollars in capital funding each year and make appointments to key boards, like the City Planning Commission. They can also work with City Council members to introduce legislation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reynoso says that his comprehensive plan will help him expedite the process by determining whether a developer’s proposal is beneficial to the borough. “In our process, if you fall within the principles and the guidelines of the comprehensive plan, we're going to be moving forward with approval very quickly,” he said, referring to the office’s role in the ULURP process, which is often decried as too long and involved, slowing down and sometimes torpedoing needed development. “We're trying to see that we can get that out in three days instead of 30 days.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It will also be a crucial tool that gives Brooklyn residents, and City Council members, clear and objective data on which they can base their own decisions on development issues, and which they can also use to hold the city accountable.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“For lack of a better word…it’s just shaming people,” Reynoso said. He cited the City Council’s oft-used tradition of “member deference” where the Council generally votes with the wishes of members whose districts will house a certain project. “They use member deference to shoot down projects that are extremely meaningful to the greater good, because in their local district, they have a lot of pushback, or they don't want to expend political capital,” said Reynoso, who faced some criticism of his own for his part in </span><a href="https://ny.curbed.com/2020/1/13/21064039/bushwick-brooklyn-rezoning-de-blasio-affordable-housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">stalling</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a proposed rezoning in Bushwick, in his Council district, amid negotiations with the de Blasio administration. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reynoso said the comprehensive plan will also preempt efforts by NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) officials and residents that have resisted more development in their communities. Lower-income communities of color, he said, have built tens of thousands of units of housing in North Brooklyn in the last decade, compared to paltry development in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods in South Brooklyn. “We won’t allow for that community to come to us and say that they don't want development to happen or that they're not excited about it,” he said. “We're going to make sure that people know. I think the information is going to be valuable for us to go to that community board and say ‘you've done nothing, and it's time you step up.’”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Advocates and experts are hoping that a successful effort by Reynoso will encourage other officials to follow suit, whether it's the four remaining borough presidents or even the mayoral administration. “Borough President Reynoso has been a great partner in working with the administration to deliver housing at all income levels and in all communities across Brooklyn, and we look forward to working with him in this process,” said a Department of City Planning spokesperson in a statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At least one other borough president, Manhattan’s Mark Levine, has undertaken a similar, though more targeted, effort. In January, Levine unveiled a </span><a href="https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Housing-Report-02.02.2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">housing plan</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for his borough that identified 171 locations that can accommodate more than 73,000 new units of housing, 41% of which would be affordable homes, and suggested a list of areas for rezonings. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I really feel like a comprehensive plan can build trust,” Reynoso said. “We can show people that there's a larger picture out here that we're looking at, not just housing, and that we're going to take care of everything else you need as well.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Council Member Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn Democrat and co-chair of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, said Reynoso initiative is “a tremendous opportunity to advance equity in Brooklyn.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Antonio is using his bully pulpit, his policy operation, his outreach and organizing capacity at Borough Hall to ask every community in the borough to step up and contribute to working together to address the public health and housing inequities between too many Brooklyn communities,” he added. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Restler pointed, for example, to the stark disparity in life expectancy in the borough. In Brownsville, a predominantly Black neighborhood, the life expectancy is 74.1 years, more than a decade lower than in Borough Park, a predominantly white neighborhood where the life expectancy is 84.2 years, according to the existing conditions report. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I believe that Antonio is advancing a vision that is resonant with a diverse cross-section of leaders across North Brooklyn, Central Brooklyn, Downtown Brooklyn, and Southern Brooklyn, and he has the potential to bring us together to buy in on the sensible comprehensive planning goals that his office will eventually release,” Restler said. (Several other Brooklyn Council members did not respond to requests for comment on the planning effort.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chris Walters, senior land use policy associate at the nonprofit Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, is hopeful that Reynoso’s initiative can demonstrate that comprehensive planning is “not this crazy idea.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I’m hopeful that it can serve as a model for process and then as a model for outcomes, for showing how a comprehensive plan can make decisions more transparent and make decisions more democratic,” he said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Walters said the plan can move the city away from a “project-by-project focus” towards a broader vision where investment in communities is informed by equity objectives. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Skeptics of comprehensive planning in the past have said the city already conducts such a strategic analysis through its fair share criteria, which are established in the city charter and that require a fair distribution of the burdens and benefits associated with city facilities” such as schools, homeless shelters, waste management facilities, and jails, to name a few. Those criteria have largely failed to meet their stated goals and there are communities across the city, particularly low-income communities of color, that have often been overburdened with what they see as undesirable infrastructure such as shelters and simultaneously suffered underinvestment in facilities in high-demand like parks and libraries. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The previous administration’s opposition to comprehensive planning was expressed by Vicki Been, then Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, at a City Council hearing in February 2020. “Much of the criticism of the fair share criteria is that they are like an environmental impact review, all you have to do is show that you considered the fairness of the distribution. You don't have to meet any numerical or other target because one wasn't set because it's too difficult of a question,” she </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/9100-city-council-pursues-comprehensive-planning-legislation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said in her testimony</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “And so there's no reason to believe that moving the question into what we call a comprehensive planning system would accomplish anything other than what is accomplished in the conversation about fair share.” Been, now an NYU professor, did not respond to a request for comment for this article. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Department of City Planning’s executive director at the time, Anita Larement, said at the hearing that comprehensive planning wouldn’t solve the problem of local community opposition. “On the one hand, people are looking for more community control over decision-making, which actually we know will lead to more problems in regards to siting things that people don't want in their neighborhoods. And this notion that somehow on the other hand if we can do comprehensive planning that we will solve these problems? What I would really submit is that, that is not correct,” she said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“To say that fair share hasn't worked doesn't mean that we don't need this comprehensive equity focused approach,” Walters said. The next step, he said, is to try to ensure that the comprehensive plan is “more than just a roadmap” and involves binding actions that the city should take. At the local level, he said Council members should put forward their own district plans and principles, with proactive steps for equitable development rather than reacting to each individual project that comes across their desks. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Gates said, those decisions often “get made on an ad hoc basis with no context as to the greater needs of the city. And that's what the plan is there for. It’s there to illustrate the greater needs of the city and how we plan on meeting them.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think this is a model that could be workable at the city level,” said Council Member Restler, “and if the borough president proves it here in Brooklyn then we should consider legislation in the Council that could give this more teeth.”</span></p> <p>“It's an important document because Brooklyn obviously continues to evolve, continues to change, continues to grow. So to really look at the borough comprehensively is something that borough presidents should be doing at least every year or two,” said Carlo Scissura, President &amp; CEO of the New York Building Congress, in an interview, praising Reynoso’s initiative.</p> <p>Howard Slatkin, a former top City Planning official under de Blasio and currently executive director of Citizens Housing and Planning Council, a nonprofit policy group, had a more measured take on comprehensive planning. “What the Borough President [Reynoso] is doing and what Borough President Levine has done are totally legitimate and valid ways of trying to provide a context for decision making,” he said.</p> <p>But, he said strategic plans need to be living documents that can also accommodate policies and development that don’t meet their stated objectives.“Plans are not gospel…The plan is a way of coming up with some targets for public policy to hit. And just because something doesn't hit your target doesn't mean it shouldn't happen.”</p> <p>He also pointed out that plans are only as good as the people in charge who will implement them, and that elected officials need flexibility for their own priorities. “The plan doesn't substitute for the decisions. The decisions are the responsibility and the right of the people who are elected to office today,” he said. “You can't pass a plan and say that your successor in office doesn't get to change it. That's not the way democracy works.”</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[LISTEN: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11774-max-politics-podcast-brooklyn-borough-president-antonio-reynoso-vision" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Max Politics Podcast: Borough President Antonio Reynoso's Vision for Brooklyn</a>]</span></p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p> <p>Note - This article has been updated with comments from Carlo Scissura and Howard Slatkin. </p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/5-reynoso-mbbpresident.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso outside Borough Hall (photo: office of Brooklyn Borough President)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed and exacerbated widespread disparities in communities across the city, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso launched an effort to create a comprehensive plan that would drive long-term decisions in the borough with a focus on public health outcomes. Later this month, Reynoso is expected to release the final recommendations from that effort after months of soliciting input on the public’s priorities for Brooklyn’s future.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unlike some major cities across the world and even other municipalities in the United States, New York City does not have a single comprehensive plan that guides its development, addressing everything from housing to transportation, school seats, firehouses and police precincts, parks and open space, and much more.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Successive administrations have created various planning documents over the years – </span><a href="https://climate.cityofnewyork.us/initiatives/planyc-getting-sustainability-done/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">PlaNYC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, </span><a href="https://onenyc.cityofnewyork.us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">OneNYC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, and most recently, </span><a href="https://climate.cityofnewyork.us/initiatives/adaptnyc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">AdaptNYC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and yet another iteration of </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/274-23/mayor-adams-releases-planyc-getting-sustainability-done-new-york-city-s-strategic-climate-plan#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">PlaNYC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> under Mayor Eric Adams – while the city charter also includes more than a dozen other such guidelines and mandates that affect zoning, development, and infrastructure. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Proponents of comprehensive planning, including Reynoso, argue that this patchwork of rules and regulations should give way to a plan with some central logic of the various needs of communities, where land use decisions are based on broader strategic goals.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This city for too long has been focused on zoning…but what we don't do is planning,” said Reynoso, a Democrat and former City Council member, in a phone interview. “What ends up happening is that we have huge gaps in infrastructure, services and resources in mostly poor neighborhoods that are getting developed at a higher rate than more affluent areas.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reynoso has long talked about more equitable housing growth across the borough, with more growth in whiter, wealthier areas that have often been unwelcoming to development. While previously serving in the City Council, he passed major waste management equity legislation, and has also been a long-time proponent of more expansive and equitable transit infrastructure in the borough. His comprehensive plan combines all those efforts, while prioritizing housing affordability and better health outcomes, two major needs that have deepened as a result of the pandemic.   </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2019, Reynoso and his Council colleagues, along with a coalition of advocacy groups, </span><a href="https://anhd.org/project/thriving-communities-coalition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thriving Communities</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, urged a Charter Revision Commission to propose a ballot measure on comprehensive planning. After that effort failed, Council Speaker Corey Johnson issued a </span><a href="https://council.nyc.gov/news/2020/12/16/planning-together/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in December 2020, proposing a comprehensive planning framework through legislation. That too was unsuccessful amid pushback from the mayoral administration and hesitancy among some Council members, prompting Reynoso to undertake his own initiative once he was elected Brooklyn borough president, taking office in January 2022.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reynoso partnered with the Regional Plan Association (RPA) and the New York Academy of Medicine to first create an </span><a href="https://www.brooklynbp.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Optimized-Planning-for-Public-Health-in-Brooklyn-RPA-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">existing conditions report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on Brooklyn’s long-term needs. The report provides a detailed breakdown of the demographics of the borough, health outcomes, socioeconomic indicators and trends, land use and built conditions, the housing landscape, transit infrastructure, environmental conditions, and neighborhood and public safety metrics. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Using various data sources and academic studies, the report points to the link between housing and health, concluding that “Advancing affordable housing is critical to achieving health equity. This will require nothing less than collaborative engagement from stakeholders including city planning and policy, neighborhood advocacy, architecture and construction, real estate development, and City government.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We shouldn't be negotiating off of how people feel, and their personal experiences related to resources and infrastructure. We should be doing it off of datasets,” Reynoso said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That report helped create the draft recommendations, which have been presented to the public for feedback that Reynoso’s office has been collecting through a </span><a href="https://form.jotform.com/231023324730138"><span style="font-weight: 400;">survey</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> over the past few months. For instance, on housing, the recommendations include requiring 100% affordable housing in perpetuity for projects receiving public subsidies, encouraging transit-oriented development in zones within half-a-mile of subway and rail stations, and designating the entire borough as a </span><a href="https://dos.ny.gov/cease-and-desist-zones" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">cease and desist zone</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that bans certain real estate solicitations from investors, developers, and speculators.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On healthcare, the draft recommendations include expanding Neighborhood Health Centers, creating an Office of Healthcare Accountability that provides price transparency for health services at hospitals, siting healthcare facilities in mixed-use development, and more. Environmental recommendations include a zoning text amendment to require new evacuation plans for new construction in floodplains and support for the NY &amp; NJ Harbor &amp; Tributaries Focus Area Feasibility Study (HATS), which is focused on coastal storm risk management. </span></p> <p><a href="https://form.jotform.com/231023324730138" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The survey</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday, June 7, and will help form the final report expected later this month. While the report could help shape Brooklyn’s future for years to come, it cannot require anything be done by the city given the limited powers of the borough president’s office. Still, Reynoso and partners are seeking to use the significant bully pulpit of the office and the weight of the planning effort to turn heads.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“New York is really unique in not having a comprehensive plan...We're really behind the times,” said Moses Gates, RPA’s vice president for housing and neighborhood planning. “A comprehensive plan is something that's not a small undertaking. It would take a lot of involvement. It’s something that would take some effort, but is well worth it.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Gates noted, in terms of population, Brooklyn would qualify as the fourth-largest city in the country. “This is the biggest comprehensive planning effort since Los Angeles updated its comprehensive plan in the early 2000s, if you're just talking about the size of an area,” he said. But the major difference being that Brooklyn will not have the power to implement its own plan. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the borough president’s office plays an important role in the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), its recommendations are strictly advisory. Borough presidents do allocate tens of millions of dollars in capital funding each year and make appointments to key boards, like the City Planning Commission. They can also work with City Council members to introduce legislation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reynoso says that his comprehensive plan will help him expedite the process by determining whether a developer’s proposal is beneficial to the borough. “In our process, if you fall within the principles and the guidelines of the comprehensive plan, we're going to be moving forward with approval very quickly,” he said, referring to the office’s role in the ULURP process, which is often decried as too long and involved, slowing down and sometimes torpedoing needed development. “We're trying to see that we can get that out in three days instead of 30 days.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It will also be a crucial tool that gives Brooklyn residents, and City Council members, clear and objective data on which they can base their own decisions on development issues, and which they can also use to hold the city accountable.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“For lack of a better word…it’s just shaming people,” Reynoso said. He cited the City Council’s oft-used tradition of “member deference” where the Council generally votes with the wishes of members whose districts will house a certain project. “They use member deference to shoot down projects that are extremely meaningful to the greater good, because in their local district, they have a lot of pushback, or they don't want to expend political capital,” said Reynoso, who faced some criticism of his own for his part in </span><a href="https://ny.curbed.com/2020/1/13/21064039/bushwick-brooklyn-rezoning-de-blasio-affordable-housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">stalling</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a proposed rezoning in Bushwick, in his Council district, amid negotiations with the de Blasio administration. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reynoso said the comprehensive plan will also preempt efforts by NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) officials and residents that have resisted more development in their communities. Lower-income communities of color, he said, have built tens of thousands of units of housing in North Brooklyn in the last decade, compared to paltry development in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods in South Brooklyn. “We won’t allow for that community to come to us and say that they don't want development to happen or that they're not excited about it,” he said. “We're going to make sure that people know. I think the information is going to be valuable for us to go to that community board and say ‘you've done nothing, and it's time you step up.’”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Advocates and experts are hoping that a successful effort by Reynoso will encourage other officials to follow suit, whether it's the four remaining borough presidents or even the mayoral administration. “Borough President Reynoso has been a great partner in working with the administration to deliver housing at all income levels and in all communities across Brooklyn, and we look forward to working with him in this process,” said a Department of City Planning spokesperson in a statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At least one other borough president, Manhattan’s Mark Levine, has undertaken a similar, though more targeted, effort. In January, Levine unveiled a </span><a href="https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Housing-Report-02.02.2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">housing plan</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for his borough that identified 171 locations that can accommodate more than 73,000 new units of housing, 41% of which would be affordable homes, and suggested a list of areas for rezonings. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I really feel like a comprehensive plan can build trust,” Reynoso said. “We can show people that there's a larger picture out here that we're looking at, not just housing, and that we're going to take care of everything else you need as well.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Council Member Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn Democrat and co-chair of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, said Reynoso initiative is “a tremendous opportunity to advance equity in Brooklyn.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Antonio is using his bully pulpit, his policy operation, his outreach and organizing capacity at Borough Hall to ask every community in the borough to step up and contribute to working together to address the public health and housing inequities between too many Brooklyn communities,” he added. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Restler pointed, for example, to the stark disparity in life expectancy in the borough. In Brownsville, a predominantly Black neighborhood, the life expectancy is 74.1 years, more than a decade lower than in Borough Park, a predominantly white neighborhood where the life expectancy is 84.2 years, according to the existing conditions report. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I believe that Antonio is advancing a vision that is resonant with a diverse cross-section of leaders across North Brooklyn, Central Brooklyn, Downtown Brooklyn, and Southern Brooklyn, and he has the potential to bring us together to buy in on the sensible comprehensive planning goals that his office will eventually release,” Restler said. (Several other Brooklyn Council members did not respond to requests for comment on the planning effort.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chris Walters, senior land use policy associate at the nonprofit Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, is hopeful that Reynoso’s initiative can demonstrate that comprehensive planning is “not this crazy idea.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I’m hopeful that it can serve as a model for process and then as a model for outcomes, for showing how a comprehensive plan can make decisions more transparent and make decisions more democratic,” he said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Walters said the plan can move the city away from a “project-by-project focus” towards a broader vision where investment in communities is informed by equity objectives. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Skeptics of comprehensive planning in the past have said the city already conducts such a strategic analysis through its fair share criteria, which are established in the city charter and that require a fair distribution of the burdens and benefits associated with city facilities” such as schools, homeless shelters, waste management facilities, and jails, to name a few. Those criteria have largely failed to meet their stated goals and there are communities across the city, particularly low-income communities of color, that have often been overburdened with what they see as undesirable infrastructure such as shelters and simultaneously suffered underinvestment in facilities in high-demand like parks and libraries. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The previous administration’s opposition to comprehensive planning was expressed by Vicki Been, then Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, at a City Council hearing in February 2020. “Much of the criticism of the fair share criteria is that they are like an environmental impact review, all you have to do is show that you considered the fairness of the distribution. You don't have to meet any numerical or other target because one wasn't set because it's too difficult of a question,” she </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/9100-city-council-pursues-comprehensive-planning-legislation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said in her testimony</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “And so there's no reason to believe that moving the question into what we call a comprehensive planning system would accomplish anything other than what is accomplished in the conversation about fair share.” Been, now an NYU professor, did not respond to a request for comment for this article. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Department of City Planning’s executive director at the time, Anita Larement, said at the hearing that comprehensive planning wouldn’t solve the problem of local community opposition. “On the one hand, people are looking for more community control over decision-making, which actually we know will lead to more problems in regards to siting things that people don't want in their neighborhoods. And this notion that somehow on the other hand if we can do comprehensive planning that we will solve these problems? What I would really submit is that, that is not correct,” she said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“To say that fair share hasn't worked doesn't mean that we don't need this comprehensive equity focused approach,” Walters said. The next step, he said, is to try to ensure that the comprehensive plan is “more than just a roadmap” and involves binding actions that the city should take. At the local level, he said Council members should put forward their own district plans and principles, with proactive steps for equitable development rather than reacting to each individual project that comes across their desks. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Gates said, those decisions often “get made on an ad hoc basis with no context as to the greater needs of the city. And that's what the plan is there for. It’s there to illustrate the greater needs of the city and how we plan on meeting them.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think this is a model that could be workable at the city level,” said Council Member Restler, “and if the borough president proves it here in Brooklyn then we should consider legislation in the Council that could give this more teeth.”</span></p> <p>“It's an important document because Brooklyn obviously continues to evolve, continues to change, continues to grow. So to really look at the borough comprehensively is something that borough presidents should be doing at least every year or two,” said Carlo Scissura, President &amp; CEO of the New York Building Congress, in an interview, praising Reynoso’s initiative.</p> <p>Howard Slatkin, a former top City Planning official under de Blasio and currently executive director of Citizens Housing and Planning Council, a nonprofit policy group, had a more measured take on comprehensive planning. “What the Borough President [Reynoso] is doing and what Borough President Levine has done are totally legitimate and valid ways of trying to provide a context for decision making,” he said.</p> <p>But, he said strategic plans need to be living documents that can also accommodate policies and development that don’t meet their stated objectives.“Plans are not gospel…The plan is a way of coming up with some targets for public policy to hit. And just because something doesn't hit your target doesn't mean it shouldn't happen.”</p> <p>He also pointed out that plans are only as good as the people in charge who will implement them, and that elected officials need flexibility for their own priorities. “The plan doesn't substitute for the decisions. The decisions are the responsibility and the right of the people who are elected to office today,” he said. “You can't pass a plan and say that your successor in office doesn't get to change it. That's not the way democracy works.”</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[LISTEN: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11774-max-politics-podcast-brooklyn-borough-president-antonio-reynoso-vision" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Max Politics Podcast: Borough President Antonio Reynoso's Vision for Brooklyn</a>]</span></p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p> <p>Note - This article has been updated with comments from Carlo Scissura and Howard Slatkin. </p>
Max Politics Podcast: Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan on City Budget Negotiations 2023-06-08T12:00:00+00:00 2023-06-08T12:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12041-max-politics-podcast-city-council-finance-brannan-nyc-budget Gotham Gazette [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/mp-402-council-finance-brannan-600px.jpg" /></p> <p>City Council Member Justin Brannan (photo: Gerardo Romo/NYC Council Media Unit)</p> <hr /> <p><strong>June 5, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan on City Budget Negotiations<br /></strong></p> <p>City Council Member Justin Brannan, a Brooklyn Democrat and chair of the Council's Finance Committee, joined the show to discuss city budget negotiations with just weeks to go until a new spending plan is due by the July 1 start of the new fiscal year. He also discussed his participation in a small Council delegation trip to Washington, DC, to pursue a variety of priorities, including more federal funding for asylum-seeker services.</p> <p>Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TweetBenMax">@TweetBenMax</a>. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.</p> <p class="feed-readmore"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12041-max-politics-podcast-city-council-finance-brannan-nyc-budget">Read More ...</a></p> <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/mp-402-council-finance-brannan-600px.jpg" /></p> <p>City Council Member Justin Brannan (photo: Gerardo Romo/NYC Council Media Unit)</p> <hr /> <p><strong>June 5, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan on City Budget Negotiations<br /></strong></p> <p>City Council Member Justin Brannan, a Brooklyn Democrat and chair of the Council's Finance Committee, joined the show to discuss city budget negotiations with just weeks to go until a new spending plan is due by the July 1 start of the new fiscal year. He also discussed his participation in a small Council delegation trip to Washington, DC, to pursue a variety of priorities, including more federal funding for asylum-seeker services.</p> <p>Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TweetBenMax">@TweetBenMax</a>. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.</p> <p class="feed-readmore"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12041-max-politics-podcast-city-council-finance-brannan-nyc-budget">Read More ...</a></p> City Council to Examine Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years 2023-06-07T04:00:00+00:00 2023-06-07T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12046-city-council-voter-turnout-elections-even-years Ethan Geringer-Sameth [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/city-consider-resolution.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams at the polls (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>In the last municipal election in 2021, only one out of every four registered voters cast ballots for mayor and other city offices, a major drop-off from the 2020 presidential election and little more than half the turnout seen in the 2022 state and congressional elections. The poor showing was the latest in a decades-long trend of dropping voter participation in local elections, in both the party primaries and general contests.</p> <p>On Wednesday, the New York City Council will hold an oversight hearing examining ways to boost civic participation in local elections from mayor to district leader. At the center of the discussion is a <a href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6211521&amp;GUID=81B70D65-0B93-4238-98FB-96F211A2C77F&amp;Options=&amp;Search=">resolution</a> to move city elections from odd to even years, in line with the state and federal cycles.</p> <p>"It's important to have higher turnout and I think making even year elections for [municipal] elections would be a great way to start," said City Council Member Sandra Ung, a Queens Democrat, the resolution's prime sponsor, and chair of the Committee on Governmental Operations, which is holding the hearing.</p> <p>The hearing comes just weeks before the June primaries in this year's elections for all 51 City Council seats. Turnout is expected to be incredibly low in what will likely be many decisive contests in the overwhelmingly Democratic city, as is turnout for the general election when there is expected to be a handful of competitive races but little else on the ballot this year to help draw people to the polls.</p> <p>Proponents of moving city elections to even years argue it would lead to a larger and more diverse electorate and reduce administrative costs. Some election observers and political consultants have raised concerns that making the change could lead to more confusion, creating longer ballots with less information about down-ballot races.</p> <p>The Council doesn't have the power to make the change on its own. The resolution calls for state lawmakers to amend New York’s constitution to allow the city to move its elections to even-numbered gubernatorial election years. That would require passage in successive state legislative sessions and then approval by voters statewide; the soonest that could happen is November 2025. Depending on how such an amendment is written, it would then require changes to state law and the New York City Charter, which could be done by City Council passage and the mayor's signature or a charter revision commission and passage by voters.</p> <p>The resolution was introduced in May and currently has four Council sponsors, including Ung. Last fall, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said she would <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11604-city-council-speaker-adams-outlines-priorities">"definitely"</a> support the move to even-numbered years at a breakfast hosted by good government group Citizens Union, which supports the resolution (and is cited in it for its recent research on the subject). In May, the New York City Campaign Finance Board recommended city elections be moved to either presidential or gubernatorial years. According to the CFB's annual voter analysis <a href="https://www.nyccfb.info/pdf/2022-2023_VoterAnalysisReport.pdf">report</a>, average turnout in mayoral elections over the past 20 years has been just 29.5%, significantly lower than the 35.6% and 60.8% average turnout for gubernatorial and presidential elections, respectively.</p> <p>The six largest cities with even-year elections have average turnout that far exceeds their odd-year counterparts, according to an analysis from Citizens Union that is also cited in CFB's recommendation. Big cities that recently consolidated elections, including Phoenix, Austin, El Paso, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, saw mayoral turnout nearly double and in some cases increased by 460%, according to Citizens Union.</p> <p>"There is no better way to boost voter turnout in New York City than by moving our municipal elections to even-numbered years," said Ben Weinberg, policy director at Citizens Union, which put out a <a href="https://citizensunion.org/portfolio-item/cu-report-moving-municipal-elections-to-even-numbered-years/">report</a> last December arguing for the switch. The report cites studies that found voters in off-year elections tend to be older and "skew whiter and wealthier." Spokespeople for good government groups Common Cause New York and Reinvent Albany said those organizations also support the resolution.</p> <p>According to Ung, part of the problem stems from a lack of information about the different levels of elected government and the timing of their contests.</p> <p>"One of the biggest, on-the-ground comments I always get from people [when campaigning] is, 'didn't we already vote?'" Ung said.</p> <p>The issue is heighted in the election cycles following the decennial U.S. Census count, when the entire City Council goes up for election twice in four years, once under the last decade's district lines and again two years later under new ones. This year, all 51 City Council seats are up for election again just two after the 2021 election when the current officeholders were all first elected or re-elected. "A lot of people were thinking of City Council as four years," Ung said. Another concern is a drop-off in enthusiasm for off-year elections: "Voter fatigue is real," she said.</p> <p>The news publication City &amp; State New York reported <a href="https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2023/05/new-york-city-elections-presidential-years-consultants-dont-it/385926/">some campaign consultants</a> oppose changing the political calendar on which they make their living after CFB published the recommendation in May. Those in opposition primarily cited the potential for voter confusion and the shrinking local news market; with fewer reporters covering local races, opaque independent expenditures will have a greater influence on down-ballot elections.</p> <p>Election lawyer Sarah Steiner told Gotham Gazette that having multiple ballot configurations is already a burden for election administrators. Consolidating state and city elections could compound that problem by adding multiple ballot styles to a single district including, in the case of primaries, ballots with both traditional and ranked-choice voting methods, she said (New York City uses ranked-choice voting for party primary and special elections for municipal seats). That would be exacerbated further if the courts approve a city law allowing non-citizen permanent residents to vote in city races.</p> <p>Steiner also said making this change would require county parties from all five boroughs to align their voting on partisan positions like district leader.</p> <p>"There are a lot of things that this resolution doesn't anticipate and doesn't account for," Steiner said.</p> <p>That also includes the long ballots such a system would produce. "These are going to be easily four-page ballots and my experience with voters is that they trail off," she said, meaning some voters might not even cast a preference for down-ballot races. According to Citizens Union, potential drop-off wouldn't undermine the likely increase in overall voter turnout. "The number of new voters gained in consolidated elections far exceeds the votes lost due to ballot-off," the report states.</p> <p>According to the CFB's own recommendation, consolidating elections could mean general election voters rely more on a party line in down-ballot races. "Another concern is that on-cycle elections would increase the amount of influence that national partisanship has on local elections," the report states. CFB representatives are expected to testify at the oversight hearing Wednesday.</p> <p>It is unclear exactly what elected offices the resolution would apply to or how state lawmakers may interpret it. The resolution only specifies "New York City elections," which could be up for interpretation. While it would clearly apply to the City Council and citywide offices of mayor, comptroller, and public advocate, it may not apply to state and party offices that also fall on odd-year municipal election years. For example, district attorneys are technically state positions, even though their elections occur in odd years.</p> <p>According to Ung's office, CFB and Citizens Union were invited to testify, along with advocacy groups Democracy Now and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. It is unclear if other government entities were invited or plan to testify, including the New York City Board of Elections, which administers city, state, and federal elections, and the Civic Engagement Commission, which is responsible for increasing voter participation. Those testifying may offer any number of ideas for increasing voter turnout in New York City, including, for example, moving to open primaries.</p> <p>On Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s still-new Civic Engagement Commission announced a $2 million public education campaign about ranked-choice voting and language access in the June primaries.</p> <p>"I expect a robust hearing about it," Ung said of the notion of moving to even-year city elections. "It actually has increased voter turnout in other states, other cities, that have tried this so I'm hoping for the same for New York."</p> <p>Also at Wednesday’s hearing the governmental operations committee is scheduled to consider unrelated bills on campaign finance and city employee identification requirements.</p> <p>

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p> <p> Note: Gotham Gazette is an independent publication of Citizens Union Foundation, sister organization of Citizens Union. </p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/city-consider-resolution.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams at the polls (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>In the last municipal election in 2021, only one out of every four registered voters cast ballots for mayor and other city offices, a major drop-off from the 2020 presidential election and little more than half the turnout seen in the 2022 state and congressional elections. The poor showing was the latest in a decades-long trend of dropping voter participation in local elections, in both the party primaries and general contests.</p> <p>On Wednesday, the New York City Council will hold an oversight hearing examining ways to boost civic participation in local elections from mayor to district leader. At the center of the discussion is a <a href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6211521&amp;GUID=81B70D65-0B93-4238-98FB-96F211A2C77F&amp;Options=&amp;Search=">resolution</a> to move city elections from odd to even years, in line with the state and federal cycles.</p> <p>"It's important to have higher turnout and I think making even year elections for [municipal] elections would be a great way to start," said City Council Member Sandra Ung, a Queens Democrat, the resolution's prime sponsor, and chair of the Committee on Governmental Operations, which is holding the hearing.</p> <p>The hearing comes just weeks before the June primaries in this year's elections for all 51 City Council seats. Turnout is expected to be incredibly low in what will likely be many decisive contests in the overwhelmingly Democratic city, as is turnout for the general election when there is expected to be a handful of competitive races but little else on the ballot this year to help draw people to the polls.</p> <p>Proponents of moving city elections to even years argue it would lead to a larger and more diverse electorate and reduce administrative costs. Some election observers and political consultants have raised concerns that making the change could lead to more confusion, creating longer ballots with less information about down-ballot races.</p> <p>The Council doesn't have the power to make the change on its own. The resolution calls for state lawmakers to amend New York’s constitution to allow the city to move its elections to even-numbered gubernatorial election years. That would require passage in successive state legislative sessions and then approval by voters statewide; the soonest that could happen is November 2025. Depending on how such an amendment is written, it would then require changes to state law and the New York City Charter, which could be done by City Council passage and the mayor's signature or a charter revision commission and passage by voters.</p> <p>The resolution was introduced in May and currently has four Council sponsors, including Ung. Last fall, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said she would <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11604-city-council-speaker-adams-outlines-priorities">"definitely"</a> support the move to even-numbered years at a breakfast hosted by good government group Citizens Union, which supports the resolution (and is cited in it for its recent research on the subject). In May, the New York City Campaign Finance Board recommended city elections be moved to either presidential or gubernatorial years. According to the CFB's annual voter analysis <a href="https://www.nyccfb.info/pdf/2022-2023_VoterAnalysisReport.pdf">report</a>, average turnout in mayoral elections over the past 20 years has been just 29.5%, significantly lower than the 35.6% and 60.8% average turnout for gubernatorial and presidential elections, respectively.</p> <p>The six largest cities with even-year elections have average turnout that far exceeds their odd-year counterparts, according to an analysis from Citizens Union that is also cited in CFB's recommendation. Big cities that recently consolidated elections, including Phoenix, Austin, El Paso, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, saw mayoral turnout nearly double and in some cases increased by 460%, according to Citizens Union.</p> <p>"There is no better way to boost voter turnout in New York City than by moving our municipal elections to even-numbered years," said Ben Weinberg, policy director at Citizens Union, which put out a <a href="https://citizensunion.org/portfolio-item/cu-report-moving-municipal-elections-to-even-numbered-years/">report</a> last December arguing for the switch. The report cites studies that found voters in off-year elections tend to be older and "skew whiter and wealthier." Spokespeople for good government groups Common Cause New York and Reinvent Albany said those organizations also support the resolution.</p> <p>According to Ung, part of the problem stems from a lack of information about the different levels of elected government and the timing of their contests.</p> <p>"One of the biggest, on-the-ground comments I always get from people [when campaigning] is, 'didn't we already vote?'" Ung said.</p> <p>The issue is heighted in the election cycles following the decennial U.S. Census count, when the entire City Council goes up for election twice in four years, once under the last decade's district lines and again two years later under new ones. This year, all 51 City Council seats are up for election again just two after the 2021 election when the current officeholders were all first elected or re-elected. "A lot of people were thinking of City Council as four years," Ung said. Another concern is a drop-off in enthusiasm for off-year elections: "Voter fatigue is real," she said.</p> <p>The news publication City &amp; State New York reported <a href="https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2023/05/new-york-city-elections-presidential-years-consultants-dont-it/385926/">some campaign consultants</a> oppose changing the political calendar on which they make their living after CFB published the recommendation in May. Those in opposition primarily cited the potential for voter confusion and the shrinking local news market; with fewer reporters covering local races, opaque independent expenditures will have a greater influence on down-ballot elections.</p> <p>Election lawyer Sarah Steiner told Gotham Gazette that having multiple ballot configurations is already a burden for election administrators. Consolidating state and city elections could compound that problem by adding multiple ballot styles to a single district including, in the case of primaries, ballots with both traditional and ranked-choice voting methods, she said (New York City uses ranked-choice voting for party primary and special elections for municipal seats). That would be exacerbated further if the courts approve a city law allowing non-citizen permanent residents to vote in city races.</p> <p>Steiner also said making this change would require county parties from all five boroughs to align their voting on partisan positions like district leader.</p> <p>"There are a lot of things that this resolution doesn't anticipate and doesn't account for," Steiner said.</p> <p>That also includes the long ballots such a system would produce. "These are going to be easily four-page ballots and my experience with voters is that they trail off," she said, meaning some voters might not even cast a preference for down-ballot races. According to Citizens Union, potential drop-off wouldn't undermine the likely increase in overall voter turnout. "The number of new voters gained in consolidated elections far exceeds the votes lost due to ballot-off," the report states.</p> <p>According to the CFB's own recommendation, consolidating elections could mean general election voters rely more on a party line in down-ballot races. "Another concern is that on-cycle elections would increase the amount of influence that national partisanship has on local elections," the report states. CFB representatives are expected to testify at the oversight hearing Wednesday.</p> <p>It is unclear exactly what elected offices the resolution would apply to or how state lawmakers may interpret it. The resolution only specifies "New York City elections," which could be up for interpretation. While it would clearly apply to the City Council and citywide offices of mayor, comptroller, and public advocate, it may not apply to state and party offices that also fall on odd-year municipal election years. For example, district attorneys are technically state positions, even though their elections occur in odd years.</p> <p>According to Ung's office, CFB and Citizens Union were invited to testify, along with advocacy groups Democracy Now and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. It is unclear if other government entities were invited or plan to testify, including the New York City Board of Elections, which administers city, state, and federal elections, and the Civic Engagement Commission, which is responsible for increasing voter participation. Those testifying may offer any number of ideas for increasing voter turnout in New York City, including, for example, moving to open primaries.</p> <p>On Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s still-new Civic Engagement Commission announced a $2 million public education campaign about ranked-choice voting and language access in the June primaries.</p> <p>"I expect a robust hearing about it," Ung said of the notion of moving to even-year city elections. "It actually has increased voter turnout in other states, other cities, that have tried this so I'm hoping for the same for New York."</p> <p>Also at Wednesday’s hearing the governmental operations committee is scheduled to consider unrelated bills on campaign finance and city employee identification requirements.</p> <p>

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p> <p> Note: Gotham Gazette is an independent publication of Citizens Union Foundation, sister organization of Citizens Union. </p>
Where is the State Legislation at Center of Mayor Adams’ Jordan Neely Response? 2023-06-04T04:00:00+00:00 2023-06-04T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12038-legislation-mayor-adams-jordan-neely-intervention Ethan Geringer-Sameth [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/eg-leg-rep.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams releases a mental health plan (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On May 10, Mayor Eric Adams made his first extended remarks on the death of Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man with a history of mental illness who was killed on the subway ten days earlier by Daniel Penny, a white Marine veteran.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams called Neely's killing a "tragedy," and said he "did not deserve to die." But Neely didn't receive critical mental health care, Adams said, which left him decompensating and calling for help on a subway car in the minutes before Penny choked him to death. Neely himself said he was hungry and thirsty and unafraid to die or go to jail, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/nyregion/subway-chokehold-death.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">according to witnesses</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. (Penny was later charged with manslaughter by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and maintains his innocence, claiming that Neely was a danger.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams, a first-term Democrat, has released at least </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/087-22/mayor-adams-releases-subway-safety-plan-says-safe-subway-prerequisite-new-york-city-s#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">five</span></a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/25/nyregion/eric-adams-homeless-encampments.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">plans</span></a> <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/773-22/mayor-adams-governor-hochul-major-actions-keep-subways-safe-address-transit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">to</span></a> <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/870-22/mayor-adams-plan-provide-care-individuals-suffering-untreated-severe-mental#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">address</span></a> <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/140-23/mayor-adams-ambitious-mental-health-agenda-focused-improving-family-child-mental#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">mental health</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and subway safety. He said to solve the crisis Neely's death embodied state lawmakers must make it easier for clinicians and judges to commit people or otherwise order treatment, even against their will. That means changing the standards of risk-to-self in New York's Mental Hygiene Law through what Adams called "the Supportive Interventions Act."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But there is no record of the Supportive Interventions Act and little evidence that Adams has made a serious push for something resembling it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We are urging our partners in Albany to act on the legislative agenda that I first announced in November, which we have now put forward as a bill entitled the Supportive Interventions Act," Adams said in the May 10 live-streamed address that was closed to the press.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We need the tools to get people into treatment at critical moments when they are simply unable to self-direct," the mayor said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams was widely criticized by New York Democrats for waiting over a week after Neely's killing to speak publicly about it at any length, and for his failure to condemn Penny's actions in any way. Meanwhile, many civil rights watchdogs and mental health advocates have raised alarms about the moves toward forced hospitalization and more coercive methods of treatment.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With just days left in the state legislative session due to end June 9, the Mayor's Office would not provide specific legal language or even say whether the would-be bill has a sponsor or a number in the Legislature, a necessary step for legislation to be considered. A search for the act in the Assembly's legislative database yields no results.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A spokesperson for Assemblymember Edward Braunstein, Chief of Staff Suzanne Monteverdi, confirmed that his office was working with the Assembly bill-drafting unit to introduce a bill "regarding psychiatric care" along the lines of the Supportive Interventions Act. But those efforts could be stymied by an "end-of-Session bill drafting backlog," she wrote by email.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A </span><a href="https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/a812" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">similar bill</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, introduced by Braunstein and State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton earlier this year, The New York State Mental Health Reform Act, would do some of what the mayor is seeking, including changes that would make it easier for hospitals to admit and hold psychiatric patients. That legislation was previously championed by former State Senator Diane Savino – a Staten Island Democrat who is now a senior advisor to Adams – but never passed. Brian Stettin, who helped draft the bill as a policy director for Treatment Advocacy Center, a national nonprofit focused on expanding court-ordered treatment laws, is now Adams' Senior Advisor for Severe Mental Illness.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The current bills have no co-sponsors in either house of the Legislature. The administration is backing different legislation that has yet to be introduced, according to a spokesperson for Adams.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This legislation is going to change the way we approach mental health intervention here in New York State,” Scarcella-Spanton said in a statement. “By establishing court-ordered in-patient medical treatment, we will be breaking down the barriers that hinder access to care for individuals with severe mental illness. It aims to create better opportunities for successful mental health intervention and lower the chances of extreme outcomes for those seeking out help during a crisis.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The legislative language may be included in an end-of-session omnibus deal, known as "the Big Ugly," that typically clears both chambers with little time for public review or debate. And it could have the support of Governor Kathy Hochul; last year, she pushed for a similar playbook in an eleventh-hour memo to state legislators during budget negotiations. The push contributed to a late budget agreement that included the expansion of involuntary outpatient treatment via Kendra’s Law, but no changes to the self-danger standard.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the bill "being drafted at the request of NYC" is still in the works, Monteverdi wrote in an email, referring to the Supportive Interventions Act. Braunstein's office directed further inquiries to the Mayor's Office.</span></p> <p><b>The Would-be Supportive Interventions Act<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">​​Adams has repeatedly pushed for more forced hospitalizations after a stream of attacks on and by homeless New Yorkers with severe mental illness in recent years.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the live-streamed address, the mayor said the Supportive Interventions Act would codify language to allow people to be civilly committed or involuntarily hospitalized if a mental illness prevents them from taking care of basic needs, even without committing a dangerous act. Police and EMTs </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11717-adams-nypd-subway-mental-illness-removals-hospitals" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">already do that</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> under the vagaries of the existing law, a practice reinforced in the courts and by guidance from state Mental Health Commissioner Ann Marie Sullivan last year. Adams issued a controversial directive last November to police and outreach workers to ramp-up those "removals" from public spaces.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mayor said he is also seeking further changes to Kendra's Law, </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11233-state-budget-decisions-mental-illness-policy-kendras-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a recently-expanded state statute</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that enables court-ordered outpatient mental health treatment for people who meet the self-danger standard. And he wants state law to require hospitals to consider an individual's long-term mental health when deciding to admit or discharge them, even if they appear stable.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We'll be making a major push on this legislation in the remaining weeks of the session," he said on May 10.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since then, there has been no apparent public effort. The Mayor's Office has not provided specifics on the status of discussions or who the administration was lobbying to get the legislation passed.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The Adams administration has invested significantly in support of New Yorkers living with serious mental illness and our legislative agenda complements that effort," a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement to Gotham Gazette on May 23. "While we don't discuss private conversations, we are working closely with partners in Albany to push these goals forward."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spokespeople for the mayor's office would not comment on the efficacy of the ongoing forced removal policy or provide details on how many people had been taken to a hospital, how many admitted, or how many received shelter or another form of housing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In mid-March, NYPD Chief of Interagency Operations Theresa Tobin testified to the City Council that 1,332 people had been transported under the directive so far this year, representing a 4.6% decline from the same period last year. Forty-seven percent were Black and 19% were white, Tobin said, despite white residents outnumbering Black residents nearly two to one. The proportion of removals is nearly identical to mandated treatment under Kendra's Law, where 44% of city residents under a court order are Black and 17% are white, according to state data. Those figures track closely with the city's homeless population; roughly half of the single adults in city shelters are Black.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At the time of the directive in November, the NYPD had already </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11717-adams-nypd-subway-mental-illness-removals-hospitals" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">executed 1,300 removals</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the subway system. The administration has never provided information on how many of those people actually met the criteria for a psychiatric hold or ended up in shelter or supportive housing.</span></p> <p><b>Adams' Psychiatric Crisis Care Legislative Agenda<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">In response to requests for details about the Supportive Interventions Act, the Mayor's Office pointed to Adams' "</span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/press-releases/2022/Psychiatric-Crisis-Care.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Psychiatric Crisis Care Legislative Agenda</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">," announced last November with the involuntary removal directive.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The 11-point state-level action plan includes similar provisions to the ones Adams described for the Supportive Interventions Act, along with measures that would improve discharge planning, and expand where and by whom an individual may be evaluated for a psychiatric removal or involuntary commitment or outpatient treatment. It would also make it easier to require treatment under Kendra's Law, which Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature expanded in 2022, in part at Adams’ urging.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But that agenda, too, appears to have taken a back seat to other city priorities in Albany throughout the legislative session.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams did not mention it in his State of the City address in January or in his February testimony before the State Legislature when he outlined the city's priorities for the state budget during one of the most consequential periods of the political calendar.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">His 72-page mental health plan, released in March with city Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, includes only a single bullet point on the state legislative agenda. After the state budget passed in April, the mayor’s office discussed the administration's </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11984-mayor-adams-albany-agenda-state-budget-hochul" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">successes and defeats</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in a statement to Gotham Gazette without broaching psychiatric care or safety. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Tuesday of this week, top administration officials, including Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and outgoing Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz, went to Albany to push for more affordable housing tools and other pieces of legislation. Absent from their public remarks, which included a press conference in the State Capitol, was any reference to Kendra's Law, psychiatric commitment, or the Supportive Interventions Act. Jonah Allon, a spokesperson for Adams, would not provide a list of legislation the administration was lobbying for this week but referred Gotham Gazette to a </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/373-23/adams-administration-labor-civil-rights-leaders-advocates-unite-behind-albany-housing-push" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">press release</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> about the mayor's housing agenda. It did not discuss mental health policy.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This year Hochul and the State Legislature included over </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11982-state-budget-mental-health-care-psychiatric-beds-hochul" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">$1 billion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in the state budget for mental health, with funding going to supportive housing, </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11973-psych-beds-hospitals-new-york-upstate" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">shuttered psychiatric beds</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, outpatient services, and mobile crisis response, among other services. It did not include language along the lines of the mayor's agenda. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aja Worthy-Davis, a spokesperson for Hochul, would not say whether administration officials were in touch to lobby for the psychiatric agenda, or whether the governor supported it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Governor Hochul continues to work with the Mayor to ensure that all residents of New York City can have access to the mental health services they need," Worthy-Davis wrote by email. "The Governor launched an historic, $1 billion plan that will transform, enhance, and strengthen the State’s mental healthcare system by increasing access to inpatient and outpatient services, expanding housing opportunities for people living with mental illness, and closing gaps in insurance coverage for behavioral health services. The Governor’s plan will also expand mental health services for children and youth, as well as suicide prevention and crisis intervention services. Governor Hochul will review all legislation that passes both houses of the Legislature."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spokespeople for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, both Democrats, like Hochul and Adams, did not return a request for comment.</span></p> <p>

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/eg-leg-rep.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams releases a mental health plan (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On May 10, Mayor Eric Adams made his first extended remarks on the death of Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man with a history of mental illness who was killed on the subway ten days earlier by Daniel Penny, a white Marine veteran.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams called Neely's killing a "tragedy," and said he "did not deserve to die." But Neely didn't receive critical mental health care, Adams said, which left him decompensating and calling for help on a subway car in the minutes before Penny choked him to death. Neely himself said he was hungry and thirsty and unafraid to die or go to jail, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/nyregion/subway-chokehold-death.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">according to witnesses</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. (Penny was later charged with manslaughter by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and maintains his innocence, claiming that Neely was a danger.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams, a first-term Democrat, has released at least </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/087-22/mayor-adams-releases-subway-safety-plan-says-safe-subway-prerequisite-new-york-city-s#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">five</span></a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/25/nyregion/eric-adams-homeless-encampments.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">plans</span></a> <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/773-22/mayor-adams-governor-hochul-major-actions-keep-subways-safe-address-transit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">to</span></a> <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/870-22/mayor-adams-plan-provide-care-individuals-suffering-untreated-severe-mental#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">address</span></a> <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/140-23/mayor-adams-ambitious-mental-health-agenda-focused-improving-family-child-mental#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">mental health</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and subway safety. He said to solve the crisis Neely's death embodied state lawmakers must make it easier for clinicians and judges to commit people or otherwise order treatment, even against their will. That means changing the standards of risk-to-self in New York's Mental Hygiene Law through what Adams called "the Supportive Interventions Act."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But there is no record of the Supportive Interventions Act and little evidence that Adams has made a serious push for something resembling it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We are urging our partners in Albany to act on the legislative agenda that I first announced in November, which we have now put forward as a bill entitled the Supportive Interventions Act," Adams said in the May 10 live-streamed address that was closed to the press.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We need the tools to get people into treatment at critical moments when they are simply unable to self-direct," the mayor said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams was widely criticized by New York Democrats for waiting over a week after Neely's killing to speak publicly about it at any length, and for his failure to condemn Penny's actions in any way. Meanwhile, many civil rights watchdogs and mental health advocates have raised alarms about the moves toward forced hospitalization and more coercive methods of treatment.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With just days left in the state legislative session due to end June 9, the Mayor's Office would not provide specific legal language or even say whether the would-be bill has a sponsor or a number in the Legislature, a necessary step for legislation to be considered. A search for the act in the Assembly's legislative database yields no results.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A spokesperson for Assemblymember Edward Braunstein, Chief of Staff Suzanne Monteverdi, confirmed that his office was working with the Assembly bill-drafting unit to introduce a bill "regarding psychiatric care" along the lines of the Supportive Interventions Act. But those efforts could be stymied by an "end-of-Session bill drafting backlog," she wrote by email.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A </span><a href="https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/a812" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">similar bill</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, introduced by Braunstein and State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton earlier this year, The New York State Mental Health Reform Act, would do some of what the mayor is seeking, including changes that would make it easier for hospitals to admit and hold psychiatric patients. That legislation was previously championed by former State Senator Diane Savino – a Staten Island Democrat who is now a senior advisor to Adams – but never passed. Brian Stettin, who helped draft the bill as a policy director for Treatment Advocacy Center, a national nonprofit focused on expanding court-ordered treatment laws, is now Adams' Senior Advisor for Severe Mental Illness.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The current bills have no co-sponsors in either house of the Legislature. The administration is backing different legislation that has yet to be introduced, according to a spokesperson for Adams.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This legislation is going to change the way we approach mental health intervention here in New York State,” Scarcella-Spanton said in a statement. “By establishing court-ordered in-patient medical treatment, we will be breaking down the barriers that hinder access to care for individuals with severe mental illness. It aims to create better opportunities for successful mental health intervention and lower the chances of extreme outcomes for those seeking out help during a crisis.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The legislative language may be included in an end-of-session omnibus deal, known as "the Big Ugly," that typically clears both chambers with little time for public review or debate. And it could have the support of Governor Kathy Hochul; last year, she pushed for a similar playbook in an eleventh-hour memo to state legislators during budget negotiations. The push contributed to a late budget agreement that included the expansion of involuntary outpatient treatment via Kendra’s Law, but no changes to the self-danger standard.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the bill "being drafted at the request of NYC" is still in the works, Monteverdi wrote in an email, referring to the Supportive Interventions Act. Braunstein's office directed further inquiries to the Mayor's Office.</span></p> <p><b>The Would-be Supportive Interventions Act<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">​​Adams has repeatedly pushed for more forced hospitalizations after a stream of attacks on and by homeless New Yorkers with severe mental illness in recent years.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the live-streamed address, the mayor said the Supportive Interventions Act would codify language to allow people to be civilly committed or involuntarily hospitalized if a mental illness prevents them from taking care of basic needs, even without committing a dangerous act. Police and EMTs </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11717-adams-nypd-subway-mental-illness-removals-hospitals" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">already do that</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> under the vagaries of the existing law, a practice reinforced in the courts and by guidance from state Mental Health Commissioner Ann Marie Sullivan last year. Adams issued a controversial directive last November to police and outreach workers to ramp-up those "removals" from public spaces.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mayor said he is also seeking further changes to Kendra's Law, </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11233-state-budget-decisions-mental-illness-policy-kendras-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a recently-expanded state statute</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that enables court-ordered outpatient mental health treatment for people who meet the self-danger standard. And he wants state law to require hospitals to consider an individual's long-term mental health when deciding to admit or discharge them, even if they appear stable.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We'll be making a major push on this legislation in the remaining weeks of the session," he said on May 10.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since then, there has been no apparent public effort. The Mayor's Office has not provided specifics on the status of discussions or who the administration was lobbying to get the legislation passed.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The Adams administration has invested significantly in support of New Yorkers living with serious mental illness and our legislative agenda complements that effort," a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement to Gotham Gazette on May 23. "While we don't discuss private conversations, we are working closely with partners in Albany to push these goals forward."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spokespeople for the mayor's office would not comment on the efficacy of the ongoing forced removal policy or provide details on how many people had been taken to a hospital, how many admitted, or how many received shelter or another form of housing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In mid-March, NYPD Chief of Interagency Operations Theresa Tobin testified to the City Council that 1,332 people had been transported under the directive so far this year, representing a 4.6% decline from the same period last year. Forty-seven percent were Black and 19% were white, Tobin said, despite white residents outnumbering Black residents nearly two to one. The proportion of removals is nearly identical to mandated treatment under Kendra's Law, where 44% of city residents under a court order are Black and 17% are white, according to state data. Those figures track closely with the city's homeless population; roughly half of the single adults in city shelters are Black.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At the time of the directive in November, the NYPD had already </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11717-adams-nypd-subway-mental-illness-removals-hospitals" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">executed 1,300 removals</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the subway system. The administration has never provided information on how many of those people actually met the criteria for a psychiatric hold or ended up in shelter or supportive housing.</span></p> <p><b>Adams' Psychiatric Crisis Care Legislative Agenda<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">In response to requests for details about the Supportive Interventions Act, the Mayor's Office pointed to Adams' "</span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/press-releases/2022/Psychiatric-Crisis-Care.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Psychiatric Crisis Care Legislative Agenda</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">," announced last November with the involuntary removal directive.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The 11-point state-level action plan includes similar provisions to the ones Adams described for the Supportive Interventions Act, along with measures that would improve discharge planning, and expand where and by whom an individual may be evaluated for a psychiatric removal or involuntary commitment or outpatient treatment. It would also make it easier to require treatment under Kendra's Law, which Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature expanded in 2022, in part at Adams’ urging.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But that agenda, too, appears to have taken a back seat to other city priorities in Albany throughout the legislative session.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams did not mention it in his State of the City address in January or in his February testimony before the State Legislature when he outlined the city's priorities for the state budget during one of the most consequential periods of the political calendar.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">His 72-page mental health plan, released in March with city Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, includes only a single bullet point on the state legislative agenda. After the state budget passed in April, the mayor’s office discussed the administration's </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11984-mayor-adams-albany-agenda-state-budget-hochul" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">successes and defeats</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in a statement to Gotham Gazette without broaching psychiatric care or safety. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Tuesday of this week, top administration officials, including Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and outgoing Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz, went to Albany to push for more affordable housing tools and other pieces of legislation. Absent from their public remarks, which included a press conference in the State Capitol, was any reference to Kendra's Law, psychiatric commitment, or the Supportive Interventions Act. Jonah Allon, a spokesperson for Adams, would not provide a list of legislation the administration was lobbying for this week but referred Gotham Gazette to a </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/373-23/adams-administration-labor-civil-rights-leaders-advocates-unite-behind-albany-housing-push" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">press release</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> about the mayor's housing agenda. It did not discuss mental health policy.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This year Hochul and the State Legislature included over </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11982-state-budget-mental-health-care-psychiatric-beds-hochul" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">$1 billion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in the state budget for mental health, with funding going to supportive housing, </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11973-psych-beds-hospitals-new-york-upstate" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">shuttered psychiatric beds</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, outpatient services, and mobile crisis response, among other services. It did not include language along the lines of the mayor's agenda. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aja Worthy-Davis, a spokesperson for Hochul, would not say whether administration officials were in touch to lobby for the psychiatric agenda, or whether the governor supported it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Governor Hochul continues to work with the Mayor to ensure that all residents of New York City can have access to the mental health services they need," Worthy-Davis wrote by email. "The Governor launched an historic, $1 billion plan that will transform, enhance, and strengthen the State’s mental healthcare system by increasing access to inpatient and outpatient services, expanding housing opportunities for people living with mental illness, and closing gaps in insurance coverage for behavioral health services. The Governor’s plan will also expand mental health services for children and youth, as well as suicide prevention and crisis intervention services. Governor Hochul will review all legislation that passes both houses of the Legislature."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spokespeople for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, both Democrats, like Hochul and Adams, did not return a request for comment.</span></p> <p>

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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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</p>
Mayor Adams Loses Series of Top Appointees in First Year-and-a-Half 2023-05-29T04:00:00+00:00 2023-05-29T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12029-mayor-adams-administration-departures-top-officials Samar Khurshid [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/city-series-appointees.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams makes personnel announcements (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p>New York City’s chief housing officer, Jessica Katz, is set to step down in July, marking the latest high-profile departure from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration in barely eighteen months.</p> <p>A growing list of the Democratic mayor’s top appointees have left the administration, including senior officials who announced their resignations before the mayor’s first year in office had even concluded. It’s an unusually high level of turnover at the highest levels of city government, particularly for a mayor who has prided himself on the promise of being a good manager.</p> <p>The administration continues to struggle with footing as it faces several challenges, chiefly the migrant asylum-seeker crisis that has overshadowed most of the mayor’s other priorities, while city services overall have been hamstrung by the broader agency personnel shortage that Adams has yet to solve.</p> <p>Along with his chief housing officer, Adams has already seen the departure or announced departure of his first chief of staff, first deputy mayor, social services commissioner, buildings commissioner, communications director, chief counsel, and others.</p> <p>Katz, who also served in the administrations of both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, made her resignation public in an interview <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-chief-housing-officer-set-to-resign-amid-dual-crises-of-homelessness-migrant-arrivals">with Gothamist</a> this past week. She helped craft the mayor’s housing plan, with an ambitious “moonshot” goal of creating 500,000 units of housing over the next ten years and a multitude of planks. But the administration continues to struggle with a ballooning homelessness crisis exacerbated by the influx of migrants, sky-high rents and increasing unaffordability. Accomplishing the housing plan requires significant state action, which has largely been elusive.</p> <p>Katz subsequently told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/nyregion/eric-adams-homeless-jessica-katz-resigns.html">New York Times</a> that she had achieved her goals with the administration and wished to spend more time with her family. But the Times cited two unnamed sources that pointed to confusion about who was leading the administration’s housing policies and Katz’s frustration with the mayor over his opposition to a housing rental voucher bill before the City Council. Adams has also faced widespread criticism over his attempts to rollback the city’s long-established right to shelter, part of the ongoing emergency effort to house tens of thousands of new arrivals.</p> <p>The Times also reported on the resignation of Melanie La Rocca, who Mayor Adams named as the city’s chief efficiency officer, a new position he created to make city government leaner and more streamlined.</p> <p>Besides those most recent announcements, two other officials are also headed for the door this summer. Last month, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/28/two-top-city-hall-officials-exit-00094363">Politico New York reported</a> that Chief Counsel Brendan McGuire and Communications Director Maxwell Young are leaving. Both are expected to be part of the mayor’s campaign operation as he looks toward a 2025 reelection bid.</p> <p>In a WABC interview on Thursday, Adams brushed off the notion that officials were abandoning a sinking ship. “People come and go in government,” he said, when asked about Katz’s resignation, and offered praise for her work in his administration.</p> <p>“People will try to spin it any way they want,” he added. “Brendan is leaving this year. My comms person, Max, is going on to do some great things. People come in, sacrifice their lives to be in government and then they transition to other things. This is a grind. Don't let nobody kid you.”</p> <p>“We appreciate every moment each of these individuals has spent serving this city and its residents,” said Fabien Levy, the mayor’s press secretary, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. “These are extraordinarily difficult and time-demanding jobs, and we never expect anyone to dedicate an unlimited amount of time serving in these roles. Many of our employees enter city service with a list of goals they want to get done alongside Mayor Adams for the people of New York, and decide to leave when they have accomplished those goals. We appreciate every second given by all of our employees to the greatest city in the world, and each of these individuals remain close friends of Mayor Adams and the administration.”</p> <p>The exodus of top officials from City Hall began late last year with Frank Carone, Adams’ chief of staff and longtime ally — and a controversial figure given his many legal entanglements prior to joining the administration and plans to cash in on his connections upon leaving it. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/nyregion/frank-carone-eric-adams.html">New York Times first reported</a> that Carone planned to resign by the end of 2022. An attorney and Brooklyn power broker, Carone is now working on the mayor’s reelection campaign and running a new consulting business where he helps high-powered clients.</p> <p>Following closely after that news, the <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-nyc-mayor-adams-advisers-frank-carone-resigns-20220919-5gaoaognyrbkrndrrkg55vn2yi-story.html">New York Daily News reported</a> that Lorraine Grillo, first deputy mayor to Adams, was also stepping down before the year was up. (At the end of September, Roberto Perez, head of the city’s intergovernmental affairs office, also left the administration to join the private sector. Perez had remained in his role from the de Blasio administration. Intergovernmental affairs has been one of Adams’ biggest challenges.)</p> <p>“Carone leaving the way he did wasn’t unexpected. Grillo, that was unexpected that she left the way that she did,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic consultant.</p> <p>Sheinkopf also said that some turnover after the first year isn’t unusual, comparing it with Ed Koch’s administration that saw several deputy mayors replaced in his second year. “What is unusual is [Mayor Adams’] management style,” Sheinkopf added, “which is, he's definitely in control more so than most mayors. Decisions don't get made without him, even at what appears to be the more granular levels.”</p> <p>He said Adams’ management style is akin to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani “who was a much more forceful manager” and Mayor de Blasio, who had a reputation for micromanaging his top officials. But it stands in stark contrast to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who “was one of the best managers...because he knew how to manage, he would delegate when appropriate.” So despite who serves in the highest echelons of Adams’ administration, “He is the decision maker. He’s in total control.”</p> <p>“People come and go in every administration,” said George Arzt, also a veteran Democratic political consultant.</p> <p>Both Carone and Grillo wanted to get the administration on the right path before moving on, Arzt said. “In every administration, there are changes, sometimes massive changes. Sometimes the mayor wants them, sometimes the [appointees] want them.”</p> <p>The pattern doesn’t strike everyone as business as usual. “Several high profile departures from the Mayor’s administration does not inspire confidence when double digit vacancies and the Mayor’s budget cuts plague the city’s ability to deliver core essential services,” said Zara Nasir, executive director of The People’s Plan, a progressive coalition. “We need the administration to start taking the job of governing more seriously, and that means buckling down and getting agencies the resources and leadership they need to do the important job of serving New Yorkers in need of housing and essential services.”</p> <p>Some of the administration’s early major departures have been especially controversial.</p> <p>In November, Eric Ulrich, a former City Council Member from Queens, resigned as commissioner of the Department of Buildings while he was being investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for illegal gambling.</p> <p>In February of this year, Gary Jenkins, commissioner of the Department of Social Services, also stepped down amid scandal. Jenkins had faced widespread criticism for his management of the city’s homelessness crisis, and was under scrutiny by the Department of Investigation for incidents involving homeless families having to stay overnight in an intake office in the Bronx.</p> <p>The previous administration saw some early top resignations, but not nearly as many as the current one. For instance, in February 2015, barely into the second year of Mayor de Blasio’s administration, his chief of staff Laura Santucci left City Hall for a job with the United Nations and senior advisor Peter Ragone departed for California where his family lived.</p> <p>“We're approaching the 18-month period, so I don't think it's unusual to see some changes at this stage,” said Eric Phillips, a former de Blasio press secretary turned political consultant, by email. “Senior-level jobs in city government are grueling. Frankly, most people stay in them a little longer than they should. When you're out of gas, it's the responsible thing to admit it and pass the torch to the next person."</p> <p>City Council Member Joe Borelli, a Staten Island Republican, said in a text message, “I have always had more problems with commissioners that have overstayed their welcome and usefulness than those who left before they went sour.”</p> <p>On Friday, Mayor Adams appointed Ana Almanzar as the new Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives, a position that went unfilled for nearly half a year, since January when Sheena Wright, who previously held the post, was elevated to First Deputy Mayor.</p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/city-series-appointees.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams makes personnel announcements (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p>New York City’s chief housing officer, Jessica Katz, is set to step down in July, marking the latest high-profile departure from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration in barely eighteen months.</p> <p>A growing list of the Democratic mayor’s top appointees have left the administration, including senior officials who announced their resignations before the mayor’s first year in office had even concluded. It’s an unusually high level of turnover at the highest levels of city government, particularly for a mayor who has prided himself on the promise of being a good manager.</p> <p>The administration continues to struggle with footing as it faces several challenges, chiefly the migrant asylum-seeker crisis that has overshadowed most of the mayor’s other priorities, while city services overall have been hamstrung by the broader agency personnel shortage that Adams has yet to solve.</p> <p>Along with his chief housing officer, Adams has already seen the departure or announced departure of his first chief of staff, first deputy mayor, social services commissioner, buildings commissioner, communications director, chief counsel, and others.</p> <p>Katz, who also served in the administrations of both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, made her resignation public in an interview <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-chief-housing-officer-set-to-resign-amid-dual-crises-of-homelessness-migrant-arrivals">with Gothamist</a> this past week. She helped craft the mayor’s housing plan, with an ambitious “moonshot” goal of creating 500,000 units of housing over the next ten years and a multitude of planks. But the administration continues to struggle with a ballooning homelessness crisis exacerbated by the influx of migrants, sky-high rents and increasing unaffordability. Accomplishing the housing plan requires significant state action, which has largely been elusive.</p> <p>Katz subsequently told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/nyregion/eric-adams-homeless-jessica-katz-resigns.html">New York Times</a> that she had achieved her goals with the administration and wished to spend more time with her family. But the Times cited two unnamed sources that pointed to confusion about who was leading the administration’s housing policies and Katz’s frustration with the mayor over his opposition to a housing rental voucher bill before the City Council. Adams has also faced widespread criticism over his attempts to rollback the city’s long-established right to shelter, part of the ongoing emergency effort to house tens of thousands of new arrivals.</p> <p>The Times also reported on the resignation of Melanie La Rocca, who Mayor Adams named as the city’s chief efficiency officer, a new position he created to make city government leaner and more streamlined.</p> <p>Besides those most recent announcements, two other officials are also headed for the door this summer. Last month, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/28/two-top-city-hall-officials-exit-00094363">Politico New York reported</a> that Chief Counsel Brendan McGuire and Communications Director Maxwell Young are leaving. Both are expected to be part of the mayor’s campaign operation as he looks toward a 2025 reelection bid.</p> <p>In a WABC interview on Thursday, Adams brushed off the notion that officials were abandoning a sinking ship. “People come and go in government,” he said, when asked about Katz’s resignation, and offered praise for her work in his administration.</p> <p>“People will try to spin it any way they want,” he added. “Brendan is leaving this year. My comms person, Max, is going on to do some great things. People come in, sacrifice their lives to be in government and then they transition to other things. This is a grind. Don't let nobody kid you.”</p> <p>“We appreciate every moment each of these individuals has spent serving this city and its residents,” said Fabien Levy, the mayor’s press secretary, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. “These are extraordinarily difficult and time-demanding jobs, and we never expect anyone to dedicate an unlimited amount of time serving in these roles. Many of our employees enter city service with a list of goals they want to get done alongside Mayor Adams for the people of New York, and decide to leave when they have accomplished those goals. We appreciate every second given by all of our employees to the greatest city in the world, and each of these individuals remain close friends of Mayor Adams and the administration.”</p> <p>The exodus of top officials from City Hall began late last year with Frank Carone, Adams’ chief of staff and longtime ally — and a controversial figure given his many legal entanglements prior to joining the administration and plans to cash in on his connections upon leaving it. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/nyregion/frank-carone-eric-adams.html">New York Times first reported</a> that Carone planned to resign by the end of 2022. An attorney and Brooklyn power broker, Carone is now working on the mayor’s reelection campaign and running a new consulting business where he helps high-powered clients.</p> <p>Following closely after that news, the <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-nyc-mayor-adams-advisers-frank-carone-resigns-20220919-5gaoaognyrbkrndrrkg55vn2yi-story.html">New York Daily News reported</a> that Lorraine Grillo, first deputy mayor to Adams, was also stepping down before the year was up. (At the end of September, Roberto Perez, head of the city’s intergovernmental affairs office, also left the administration to join the private sector. Perez had remained in his role from the de Blasio administration. Intergovernmental affairs has been one of Adams’ biggest challenges.)</p> <p>“Carone leaving the way he did wasn’t unexpected. Grillo, that was unexpected that she left the way that she did,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic consultant.</p> <p>Sheinkopf also said that some turnover after the first year isn’t unusual, comparing it with Ed Koch’s administration that saw several deputy mayors replaced in his second year. “What is unusual is [Mayor Adams’] management style,” Sheinkopf added, “which is, he's definitely in control more so than most mayors. Decisions don't get made without him, even at what appears to be the more granular levels.”</p> <p>He said Adams’ management style is akin to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani “who was a much more forceful manager” and Mayor de Blasio, who had a reputation for micromanaging his top officials. But it stands in stark contrast to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who “was one of the best managers...because he knew how to manage, he would delegate when appropriate.” So despite who serves in the highest echelons of Adams’ administration, “He is the decision maker. He’s in total control.”</p> <p>“People come and go in every administration,” said George Arzt, also a veteran Democratic political consultant.</p> <p>Both Carone and Grillo wanted to get the administration on the right path before moving on, Arzt said. “In every administration, there are changes, sometimes massive changes. Sometimes the mayor wants them, sometimes the [appointees] want them.”</p> <p>The pattern doesn’t strike everyone as business as usual. “Several high profile departures from the Mayor’s administration does not inspire confidence when double digit vacancies and the Mayor’s budget cuts plague the city’s ability to deliver core essential services,” said Zara Nasir, executive director of The People’s Plan, a progressive coalition. “We need the administration to start taking the job of governing more seriously, and that means buckling down and getting agencies the resources and leadership they need to do the important job of serving New Yorkers in need of housing and essential services.”</p> <p>Some of the administration’s early major departures have been especially controversial.</p> <p>In November, Eric Ulrich, a former City Council Member from Queens, resigned as commissioner of the Department of Buildings while he was being investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for illegal gambling.</p> <p>In February of this year, Gary Jenkins, commissioner of the Department of Social Services, also stepped down amid scandal. Jenkins had faced widespread criticism for his management of the city’s homelessness crisis, and was under scrutiny by the Department of Investigation for incidents involving homeless families having to stay overnight in an intake office in the Bronx.</p> <p>The previous administration saw some early top resignations, but not nearly as many as the current one. For instance, in February 2015, barely into the second year of Mayor de Blasio’s administration, his chief of staff Laura Santucci left City Hall for a job with the United Nations and senior advisor Peter Ragone departed for California where his family lived.</p> <p>“We're approaching the 18-month period, so I don't think it's unusual to see some changes at this stage,” said Eric Phillips, a former de Blasio press secretary turned political consultant, by email. “Senior-level jobs in city government are grueling. Frankly, most people stay in them a little longer than they should. When you're out of gas, it's the responsible thing to admit it and pass the torch to the next person."</p> <p>City Council Member Joe Borelli, a Staten Island Republican, said in a text message, “I have always had more problems with commissioners that have overstayed their welcome and usefulness than those who left before they went sour.”</p> <p>On Friday, Mayor Adams appointed Ana Almanzar as the new Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives, a position that went unfilled for nearly half a year, since January when Sheena Wright, who previously held the post, was elevated to First Deputy Mayor.</p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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</p>
Digital Literacy Programming for Older New Yorkers to be Required Under Bill Passed by City Council 2023-05-25T04:00:00+00:00 2023-05-25T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12021-council-digital-literacy-older-new-yorkers Samar Khurshid [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/1-council-to-pass-digital-literacy.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Seniors ready to learn (photo: John McCarten/City Council)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and forced a lockdown of physical access to many government agencies and services, it highlighted New York City’s stark digital divide. Some of the city’s most vulnerable people lacked access to high-speed internet connection or the knowledge and training to use them. Now, a City Council bill expected to pass on Thursday aims to address that gap for the city’s rapidly growing older adult population. </span></p> <p><a href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5839374&amp;GUID=2A7DA356-7191-4F82-BC95-1C7166D12C7E&amp;Options=&amp;Search=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Intro. 665</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, sponsored by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, a Brooklyn Democrat who chairs the Council’s Committee on Technology, will require the Department for the Aging (DFTA) and the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) to create an online digital literacy program for older adults aged 65 and above, who make up just over 15% of the city’s population. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The program would address issues such as accessing and navigating city telehealth services; navigating online platforms and websites, including social media, that provide lessons in technology; navigating the city’s websites and mobile applications that offer access to city benefits and older adult services; and training in spotting online scams, among other topics. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Under the bill, the program would be provided in person or through live interactive video instruction in at least one library or senior center in each of the city’s 59 community districts. It would be evaluated and updated every three years and offered in the city’s most prevalent languages</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Access to technology played a pivotal role during the pandemic, whether it was ensuring people could receive vital social services, or enabling families to stay connected,” Gutiérrez said in a statement. “It is not enough to simply hook someone up to the internet and consider our work done - true access means providing people with the necessary devices and empowering them with digital literacy to safely harness the full potential of this connection to the world.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2020, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio launched an Internet Master Plan that aimed to tackle the digital divide by building out municipal broadband infrastructure across the city with a $157 million investment of capital funds. But Mayor Eric Adams quietly abandoned that plan, as </span><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-kills-internet-master-plan-for-universal-public-web-access" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gothamist first reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, even as he evangelized about using technology to improve city government, consolidated the city’s various technology agencies into the new OTI, and launched a website that is meant to centralize access to city benefits and services. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams has, however, taken other steps on digital access including by launching Big Apple Connect in September 2022, a program where the city partners with private internet providers to give public housing residents free high-speed internet access and cable. In December, the administration also collaborated with DFTA to launch the Queens Gigabit Center at the Allen Senior Center, where older adults get access to digital literacy trainings. The Brooklyn Gigabit Center which launched in March at Digital Girl also provides similar programs.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At a January 12 City Council hearing on the older-adult digital literacy bill, OTI officials also testified that they are also already overseeing the Connected Communities initiative that provides digital literacy programs and free internet access through other city agencies and public institutions at 100 sites across the city. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“With respect to the older adult population, OTI recognizes that older adults need particular support to engage with the benefits of digital life,” said Brett Sikoff, OTI’s executive director of Franchise Administration, at the hearing. “We believe that digital literacy programming, when paired with devices and access, combat social isolation and mobility barriers, provide basic skills for staying safe online, and helps maintain civic engagement.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, he said that Gutiérrez’s bill would require OTI “to more directly administer digital literacy training for seniors in a singular program with broadly defined parameters.” Instead, he said OTI’s “best function is to leverage digital literacy practitioners and expertise, rather than either staff these programs with in-house personnel, or set limitations on the curriculum practiced by the City’s partners. We worry this bill could inadvertently compromise the incredible work already underway.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The bill has since been revised and requires DFTA to administer the program in collaboration with OTI, rather than OTI taking the lead. “We wholeheartedly support digital literacy – particularly for older adults – and are committed to continuing to collaborate with our partners at NYC Aging to ensure older New Yorkers are able to fully participate in our modern society,” OTI spokesperson Ray Legendre said in a Wednesday statement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">DFTA welcomed passage of the bill. “The pandemic underscored the importance of technology for older adults to stay socially connected and receive the services they needed to stay in touch with family and friends, and service providers,” said DFTA Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, in a statement to Gotham Gazette.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She noted that the administration has taken measures to spread awareness of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program, which helps reduce broadband costs, and that DFTA’s older adult centers provide digital literacy classes and training to its members. “This bill will formalize and expand these efforts, and the Department for the Aging looks forward to working with our colleagues in government and community partners to ensure we are giving even more older New Yorkers the skills they need to age in place,” she said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The bill is set to pass the Council's technology committee then the full Council on Thursday. It would then be up to the mayor to sign it into law or veto it.</span></p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/1-council-to-pass-digital-literacy.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Seniors ready to learn (photo: John McCarten/City Council)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and forced a lockdown of physical access to many government agencies and services, it highlighted New York City’s stark digital divide. Some of the city’s most vulnerable people lacked access to high-speed internet connection or the knowledge and training to use them. Now, a City Council bill expected to pass on Thursday aims to address that gap for the city’s rapidly growing older adult population. </span></p> <p><a href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5839374&amp;GUID=2A7DA356-7191-4F82-BC95-1C7166D12C7E&amp;Options=&amp;Search=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Intro. 665</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, sponsored by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, a Brooklyn Democrat who chairs the Council’s Committee on Technology, will require the Department for the Aging (DFTA) and the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) to create an online digital literacy program for older adults aged 65 and above, who make up just over 15% of the city’s population. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The program would address issues such as accessing and navigating city telehealth services; navigating online platforms and websites, including social media, that provide lessons in technology; navigating the city’s websites and mobile applications that offer access to city benefits and older adult services; and training in spotting online scams, among other topics. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Under the bill, the program would be provided in person or through live interactive video instruction in at least one library or senior center in each of the city’s 59 community districts. It would be evaluated and updated every three years and offered in the city’s most prevalent languages</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Access to technology played a pivotal role during the pandemic, whether it was ensuring people could receive vital social services, or enabling families to stay connected,” Gutiérrez said in a statement. “It is not enough to simply hook someone up to the internet and consider our work done - true access means providing people with the necessary devices and empowering them with digital literacy to safely harness the full potential of this connection to the world.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2020, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio launched an Internet Master Plan that aimed to tackle the digital divide by building out municipal broadband infrastructure across the city with a $157 million investment of capital funds. But Mayor Eric Adams quietly abandoned that plan, as </span><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-kills-internet-master-plan-for-universal-public-web-access" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gothamist first reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, even as he evangelized about using technology to improve city government, consolidated the city’s various technology agencies into the new OTI, and launched a website that is meant to centralize access to city benefits and services. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams has, however, taken other steps on digital access including by launching Big Apple Connect in September 2022, a program where the city partners with private internet providers to give public housing residents free high-speed internet access and cable. In December, the administration also collaborated with DFTA to launch the Queens Gigabit Center at the Allen Senior Center, where older adults get access to digital literacy trainings. The Brooklyn Gigabit Center which launched in March at Digital Girl also provides similar programs.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At a January 12 City Council hearing on the older-adult digital literacy bill, OTI officials also testified that they are also already overseeing the Connected Communities initiative that provides digital literacy programs and free internet access through other city agencies and public institutions at 100 sites across the city. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“With respect to the older adult population, OTI recognizes that older adults need particular support to engage with the benefits of digital life,” said Brett Sikoff, OTI’s executive director of Franchise Administration, at the hearing. “We believe that digital literacy programming, when paired with devices and access, combat social isolation and mobility barriers, provide basic skills for staying safe online, and helps maintain civic engagement.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, he said that Gutiérrez’s bill would require OTI “to more directly administer digital literacy training for seniors in a singular program with broadly defined parameters.” Instead, he said OTI’s “best function is to leverage digital literacy practitioners and expertise, rather than either staff these programs with in-house personnel, or set limitations on the curriculum practiced by the City’s partners. We worry this bill could inadvertently compromise the incredible work already underway.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The bill has since been revised and requires DFTA to administer the program in collaboration with OTI, rather than OTI taking the lead. “We wholeheartedly support digital literacy – particularly for older adults – and are committed to continuing to collaborate with our partners at NYC Aging to ensure older New Yorkers are able to fully participate in our modern society,” OTI spokesperson Ray Legendre said in a Wednesday statement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">DFTA welcomed passage of the bill. “The pandemic underscored the importance of technology for older adults to stay socially connected and receive the services they needed to stay in touch with family and friends, and service providers,” said DFTA Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, in a statement to Gotham Gazette.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She noted that the administration has taken measures to spread awareness of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program, which helps reduce broadband costs, and that DFTA’s older adult centers provide digital literacy classes and training to its members. “This bill will formalize and expand these efforts, and the Department for the Aging looks forward to working with our colleagues in government and community partners to ensure we are giving even more older New Yorkers the skills they need to age in place,” she said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The bill is set to pass the Council's technology committee then the full Council on Thursday. It would then be up to the mayor to sign it into law or veto it.</span></p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
Council Passes Bill Pushing Summer Youth Employment Program Across City Agencies 2023-05-25T04:00:00+00:00 2023-05-25T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12022-city-council-summer-youth-employment-program-agencies Ethan Geringer-Sameth [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/2-pass-bill-mandating.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Summer Youth Employment Program celebration (photo: John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)</p> <hr /> <p>New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) could be seeing a boost despite proposed budget cuts, thanks to legislation in the City Council that could lead to greater participation from city agencies.</p> <p>The Council is expected to pass a bill Thursday that would set a goal for each city agency to offer youth job slots as part of the landmark program, which connects tens of thousands of students with paid job opportunities in and out of city government during the summer months when school is out.</p> <p>The legislation would require each agency to offer a number of slots equal to .5% of its full-time staff. It is unclear exactly what that would mean for the overall number of SYEP slots in city agencies as many agencies already reach that threshold each year.</p> <p>"This collective effort maximizes the available resources and enables a wider range of job opportunities for SYEP participants, ensuring that the program meets the diverse needs and interests of young people while fostering workforce development city-wide," said Council Member Althea Stevens, a Bronx Democrat, the Council's youth services chair, and the bill's prime sponsor, in a statement to Gotham Gazette.</p> <p>The bill would also require annual reporting on the number of youth served in the public and private sectors, and a breakdown of city agency participation. Agencies that fail to meet the .5% goal would have to report why they failed to the mayor and City Council. The legislation would take effect 120 days after it becomes law, meaning the new thresholds likely wouldn't be in place until next summer at the earliest.</p> <p>SYEP had a record high 100,000 slots last year, of which 8,600, or close to 9%, were at 82 city agencies and offices, and 29 City Council offices, according to the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), which administers the program.</p> <p>When asked to respond to the bill and its likely passage this week, DYCD Commissioner Keith Howard touted SYEP's coordination with city agencies and the City Council but did not take a firm Adams administration position on the legislation.</p> <p>“A record 100,000 SYEP opportunities will return this summer, including thousands of young people placed in city agencies and mayoral offices," said Howard, an appointee of Mayor Eric Adams, in a statement. "One example of the great success we have had with cross-agency partnerships was NYPD opening their doors to more than 800 SYEP internships in law enforcement last year, and this summer that number will grow to more than a thousand."</p> <p>"We thank the City Council for supporting SYEP, and for once again encouraging its members to become worksites and exposing young people to the world of politics and civic engagement,” Howard added.</p> <p>Mayor Adams' proposed spending plan for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1, budgets for 302,000 full-time positions across city government; .5% of that total is only about 1,500, far lower than the 8,600 SYEP participants placed in city agencies in 2022. If the bill becomes law, some agencies will likely have to increase their number of SYEP offerings but the overall number of positions is unlikely to change. It would still set a new benchmark, a suggested floor for each agency, along with the accountability mechanism of the reporting requirements.</p> <p>The mayor’s executive budget includes $209.6 million for SYEP, a proposed spending cut of $18.7 million from this fiscal year's adopted budget. The spending reduction is the result of $11 million less allocated to a DYCD program called "Work, Learn, Grow" and the end of one-time MetroCard funding for SYEP participants, according to a report from the New York City Council. The rest comes from savings from wages that were lower than anticipated, the report said.</p> <p>Asked what impact the bill would have on agency participation rates, a DYCD spokesperson pointed out that the .5% standard was a goal, not a requirement. But the department would make efforts to see that agencies meet the threshold if it becomes law, they said.</p> <p>According to Stevens, the bill would expand the types of city agency offerings and bolster "a critical pipeline" to the public and nonprofit sectors, which are facing significant workforce shortages.</p> <p>Eli Dvorkin, policy director at Center for an Urban Future, a nonpartisan think tank focused on economic opportunity, said the Council's emphasis on SYEP was "encouraging" but criticized the program for being too heavily concentrated in low-paying fields and not oriented toward economically mobile career pathways.</p> <p>"It's understandable that this legislation is primarily focused on encouraging placements in city agencies -- that's where the Council has the most leverage," Dvorkin wrote by email to Gotham Gazette. "But to really improve the program, the city will have to do much more to recruit private sector employers in growing industries -- from tech and healthcare to finance and the creative economy."</p> <p>A Center for an Urban Future analysis of DYCD data found "placements are concentrated in low-paying industries like daycare providers and day camps (15.3 percent of all work sites), social services (7.5 percent), and retail (8.4 percent)," according to Dvorkin. A majority of SYEP government slots are in worksites at public schools.</p> <p>"That's a challenge that DYCD and SBS can't tackle on their own, and it's where much more progress will be needed even if this legislation becomes law," he added, referring to the city’s Department of Small Business Services, which under the Council bill would be required to coordinate with DYCD to promote SYEP to small businesses.</p> <p>Part of the problem, Dvorkin wrote, was that the program wasn't well-integrated with the year-round education system. The previous version of Stevens' bill included a year-long mentorship program for SYEP participants, but that was dropped from the final legislation. A spokesperson for Stevens did not say why it was removed.</p> <p>The bill will go before the Council's Committee on Small Business on Thursday, where it is likely to advance to a full City Council vote in the afternoon. If it passes, it will go to Mayor Adams for signature or veto.</p> <p>

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/2-pass-bill-mandating.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Summer Youth Employment Program celebration (photo: John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)</p> <hr /> <p>New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) could be seeing a boost despite proposed budget cuts, thanks to legislation in the City Council that could lead to greater participation from city agencies.</p> <p>The Council is expected to pass a bill Thursday that would set a goal for each city agency to offer youth job slots as part of the landmark program, which connects tens of thousands of students with paid job opportunities in and out of city government during the summer months when school is out.</p> <p>The legislation would require each agency to offer a number of slots equal to .5% of its full-time staff. It is unclear exactly what that would mean for the overall number of SYEP slots in city agencies as many agencies already reach that threshold each year.</p> <p>"This collective effort maximizes the available resources and enables a wider range of job opportunities for SYEP participants, ensuring that the program meets the diverse needs and interests of young people while fostering workforce development city-wide," said Council Member Althea Stevens, a Bronx Democrat, the Council's youth services chair, and the bill's prime sponsor, in a statement to Gotham Gazette.</p> <p>The bill would also require annual reporting on the number of youth served in the public and private sectors, and a breakdown of city agency participation. Agencies that fail to meet the .5% goal would have to report why they failed to the mayor and City Council. The legislation would take effect 120 days after it becomes law, meaning the new thresholds likely wouldn't be in place until next summer at the earliest.</p> <p>SYEP had a record high 100,000 slots last year, of which 8,600, or close to 9%, were at 82 city agencies and offices, and 29 City Council offices, according to the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), which administers the program.</p> <p>When asked to respond to the bill and its likely passage this week, DYCD Commissioner Keith Howard touted SYEP's coordination with city agencies and the City Council but did not take a firm Adams administration position on the legislation.</p> <p>“A record 100,000 SYEP opportunities will return this summer, including thousands of young people placed in city agencies and mayoral offices," said Howard, an appointee of Mayor Eric Adams, in a statement. "One example of the great success we have had with cross-agency partnerships was NYPD opening their doors to more than 800 SYEP internships in law enforcement last year, and this summer that number will grow to more than a thousand."</p> <p>"We thank the City Council for supporting SYEP, and for once again encouraging its members to become worksites and exposing young people to the world of politics and civic engagement,” Howard added.</p> <p>Mayor Adams' proposed spending plan for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1, budgets for 302,000 full-time positions across city government; .5% of that total is only about 1,500, far lower than the 8,600 SYEP participants placed in city agencies in 2022. If the bill becomes law, some agencies will likely have to increase their number of SYEP offerings but the overall number of positions is unlikely to change. It would still set a new benchmark, a suggested floor for each agency, along with the accountability mechanism of the reporting requirements.</p> <p>The mayor’s executive budget includes $209.6 million for SYEP, a proposed spending cut of $18.7 million from this fiscal year's adopted budget. The spending reduction is the result of $11 million less allocated to a DYCD program called "Work, Learn, Grow" and the end of one-time MetroCard funding for SYEP participants, according to a report from the New York City Council. The rest comes from savings from wages that were lower than anticipated, the report said.</p> <p>Asked what impact the bill would have on agency participation rates, a DYCD spokesperson pointed out that the .5% standard was a goal, not a requirement. But the department would make efforts to see that agencies meet the threshold if it becomes law, they said.</p> <p>According to Stevens, the bill would expand the types of city agency offerings and bolster "a critical pipeline" to the public and nonprofit sectors, which are facing significant workforce shortages.</p> <p>Eli Dvorkin, policy director at Center for an Urban Future, a nonpartisan think tank focused on economic opportunity, said the Council's emphasis on SYEP was "encouraging" but criticized the program for being too heavily concentrated in low-paying fields and not oriented toward economically mobile career pathways.</p> <p>"It's understandable that this legislation is primarily focused on encouraging placements in city agencies -- that's where the Council has the most leverage," Dvorkin wrote by email to Gotham Gazette. "But to really improve the program, the city will have to do much more to recruit private sector employers in growing industries -- from tech and healthcare to finance and the creative economy."</p> <p>A Center for an Urban Future analysis of DYCD data found "placements are concentrated in low-paying industries like daycare providers and day camps (15.3 percent of all work sites), social services (7.5 percent), and retail (8.4 percent)," according to Dvorkin. A majority of SYEP government slots are in worksites at public schools.</p> <p>"That's a challenge that DYCD and SBS can't tackle on their own, and it's where much more progress will be needed even if this legislation becomes law," he added, referring to the city’s Department of Small Business Services, which under the Council bill would be required to coordinate with DYCD to promote SYEP to small businesses.</p> <p>Part of the problem, Dvorkin wrote, was that the program wasn't well-integrated with the year-round education system. The previous version of Stevens' bill included a year-long mentorship program for SYEP participants, but that was dropped from the final legislation. A spokesperson for Stevens did not say why it was removed.</p> <p>The bill will go before the Council's Committee on Small Business on Thursday, where it is likely to advance to a full City Council vote in the afternoon. If it passes, it will go to Mayor Adams for signature or veto.</p> <p>

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
'A Day Without Human Services': Nonprofits Protest Lack of City Funding 2023-05-25T04:00:00+00:00 2023-05-25T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12023-human-services-contracts-city-funding-nyc Ethan Geringer-Sameth [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/3-day-without-protest.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Serving meals (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>The organizations that New York City contracts to deliver everything from essential health and homeless services to youth and senior programing are striking for better compensation in the next city budget.</p> <p>Over 100 human services providers will pause many non-life-saving activities on Thursday to demonstrate what they say are the consequences of underfunding the sector as inflation and compounding economic and social crises strain the system. Led by the Human Services Council of New York, the "day without human services” is aimed at securing a $200 million investment from the city, equivalent to a roughly 6.5% cost of living adjustment (COLA). It is part of the ongoing "Just Pay" campaign run by the Human Services Council and its members.</p> <p>Campaign representatives say thousands of nonprofit workers will rally at City Hall on Thursday morning with Comptroller Brad Lander and members of the City Council. Programs not legally or contractually mandated or considered essential – including a host of educational, legal, and clinical services – will be suspended for the day. Providers are encouraging their staff, boards, and clients to write to Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council in support of the COLA.</p> <p>"We're asking our members to consider closing up to 30% of their programs because that's how much our workforce is paid less than their government counterparts who do similar work," HSC executive director Michelle Jackson said in an interview with Gotham Gazette. "We are very concerned that if we don't get this COLA and more investment in future years, actual life-saving services will not be around next year."</p> <p>Human Service Council represents 175 providers, a vast majority with city or state contracts, serving 2.5 million New Yorkers each year.</p> <p>Adams and the City Council are negotiating over the mayor’s $106.7 billion executive budget proposal ahead of the July 1 start of the city fiscal year. Adams' proposed spending plan does not include a human services COLA. The Council, led by Speaker Adrienne Adams, pushed to double baseline funding for human services workers to $120 million in its response to the mayor's earlier preliminary budget. That money is still less than the $200 million providers are seeking to keep up with inflation.</p> <p>"Human services nonprofits play a vital role in our city by caring for our most vulnerable and the Council fully believes that they must receive an adequate COLA increase," wrote a Council spokesperson by email about the day of action.</p> <p>Speaker Adams has not taken a public stand on the higher funding ask from the coalition. "The Council is in negotiations with the Administration on the budget and remains committed to fighting for a healthy, functioning human services sector," the spokesperson wrote.</p> <p>Roughly 80% of New York City's human service workforce is people of color, with three out of five qualifying for some form of government assistance themselves, according to HSC.</p> <p>"Human services workers show up every day to make sure that residents are fed, housed, and have their most fundamental needs met—often while earning poverty-level wages themselves," Lander said in a statement to Gotham Gazette. "Fair compensation that matches the cost of living is what we owe the essential workers who provide these services.”</p> <p>Of the thousands of after-school programs, childcare centers, counseling services, supportive housing and shelter providers, domestic violence and eviction prevention programs, summer programs, and other social services across the five boroughs, the city government itself administers only a small number. The city runs some pre-kindergarten, shelters, and community health clinics, for example. But the vast majority are contracted to nonprofit providers around the city. Jackson estimated close to 9 out of 10 human services are provided by a contractor, including nearly all senior and youth, and most homeless services.</p> <p>Workforce shortages across the health and human services sector have significantly hampered a myriad of programs. The shortage has been at the center of city and state struggles to staff hospitals, <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11973-psych-beds-hospitals-new-york-upstate">psychiatric beds</a>, and <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12012-mayor-city-council-mental-health-care-workforce">street outreach programs</a>. Among other factors, pay is a key reason for the personnel challenges.</p> <p>In the state budget passed in early May, Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature included a 4% COLA for human services workers paid through state contracts, higher than the 2.5% Hochul had originally proposed, but less than the 8.5% advocates sought. To balance differences in pay, both between city and state contracts and between public and private sector competitors, nonprofits try to subsidize their employees' pay with private fundraising.</p> <p>"Our members are reporting 30 to 40% vacancy rates," Jackson told Gotham Gazette. "Which means at some point services are not being delivered when you cannot hire and retain talent. So the sector is in true crisis and this investment is one step to solving that," she said, referring to a city COLA.</p> <p>It is unclear how many New Yorkers will be impacted by the day of action but Jackson said providers are taking steps to ensure clients aren't left out in the cold.</p> <p>"You're certainly not going to see residential service close, but you might see wraparound services like case management…delayed until Friday," Jackson told Gotham Gazette. Court-mandated and contractually-binding programs will continue but others relied upon by tens of thousands of residents will pause. That includes many older adult centers, afterschool and youth programs, adult literacy and professional development courses, and counseling services, among many others.</p> <p>In the case of home-delivered meals, providers delivered an extra portion earlier in the week, Jackson said. The provisions organizations are making for Thursday are similar to the way they operate during natural disasters.</p> <p>"The sector is at this point where they realize if we don't take bolder and bigger action now…we will see communities in real suffering in future years, when programs close," Jackson said. "We have made every plea possible to government before getting to this point."</p> <p>

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/3-day-without-protest.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Serving meals (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>The organizations that New York City contracts to deliver everything from essential health and homeless services to youth and senior programing are striking for better compensation in the next city budget.</p> <p>Over 100 human services providers will pause many non-life-saving activities on Thursday to demonstrate what they say are the consequences of underfunding the sector as inflation and compounding economic and social crises strain the system. Led by the Human Services Council of New York, the "day without human services” is aimed at securing a $200 million investment from the city, equivalent to a roughly 6.5% cost of living adjustment (COLA). It is part of the ongoing "Just Pay" campaign run by the Human Services Council and its members.</p> <p>Campaign representatives say thousands of nonprofit workers will rally at City Hall on Thursday morning with Comptroller Brad Lander and members of the City Council. Programs not legally or contractually mandated or considered essential – including a host of educational, legal, and clinical services – will be suspended for the day. Providers are encouraging their staff, boards, and clients to write to Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council in support of the COLA.</p> <p>"We're asking our members to consider closing up to 30% of their programs because that's how much our workforce is paid less than their government counterparts who do similar work," HSC executive director Michelle Jackson said in an interview with Gotham Gazette. "We are very concerned that if we don't get this COLA and more investment in future years, actual life-saving services will not be around next year."</p> <p>Human Service Council represents 175 providers, a vast majority with city or state contracts, serving 2.5 million New Yorkers each year.</p> <p>Adams and the City Council are negotiating over the mayor’s $106.7 billion executive budget proposal ahead of the July 1 start of the city fiscal year. Adams' proposed spending plan does not include a human services COLA. The Council, led by Speaker Adrienne Adams, pushed to double baseline funding for human services workers to $120 million in its response to the mayor's earlier preliminary budget. That money is still less than the $200 million providers are seeking to keep up with inflation.</p> <p>"Human services nonprofits play a vital role in our city by caring for our most vulnerable and the Council fully believes that they must receive an adequate COLA increase," wrote a Council spokesperson by email about the day of action.</p> <p>Speaker Adams has not taken a public stand on the higher funding ask from the coalition. "The Council is in negotiations with the Administration on the budget and remains committed to fighting for a healthy, functioning human services sector," the spokesperson wrote.</p> <p>Roughly 80% of New York City's human service workforce is people of color, with three out of five qualifying for some form of government assistance themselves, according to HSC.</p> <p>"Human services workers show up every day to make sure that residents are fed, housed, and have their most fundamental needs met—often while earning poverty-level wages themselves," Lander said in a statement to Gotham Gazette. "Fair compensation that matches the cost of living is what we owe the essential workers who provide these services.”</p> <p>Of the thousands of after-school programs, childcare centers, counseling services, supportive housing and shelter providers, domestic violence and eviction prevention programs, summer programs, and other social services across the five boroughs, the city government itself administers only a small number. The city runs some pre-kindergarten, shelters, and community health clinics, for example. But the vast majority are contracted to nonprofit providers around the city. Jackson estimated close to 9 out of 10 human services are provided by a contractor, including nearly all senior and youth, and most homeless services.</p> <p>Workforce shortages across the health and human services sector have significantly hampered a myriad of programs. The shortage has been at the center of city and state struggles to staff hospitals, <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11973-psych-beds-hospitals-new-york-upstate">psychiatric beds</a>, and <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12012-mayor-city-council-mental-health-care-workforce">street outreach programs</a>. Among other factors, pay is a key reason for the personnel challenges.</p> <p>In the state budget passed in early May, Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature included a 4% COLA for human services workers paid through state contracts, higher than the 2.5% Hochul had originally proposed, but less than the 8.5% advocates sought. To balance differences in pay, both between city and state contracts and between public and private sector competitors, nonprofits try to subsidize their employees' pay with private fundraising.</p> <p>"Our members are reporting 30 to 40% vacancy rates," Jackson told Gotham Gazette. "Which means at some point services are not being delivered when you cannot hire and retain talent. So the sector is in true crisis and this investment is one step to solving that," she said, referring to a city COLA.</p> <p>It is unclear how many New Yorkers will be impacted by the day of action but Jackson said providers are taking steps to ensure clients aren't left out in the cold.</p> <p>"You're certainly not going to see residential service close, but you might see wraparound services like case management…delayed until Friday," Jackson told Gotham Gazette. Court-mandated and contractually-binding programs will continue but others relied upon by tens of thousands of residents will pause. That includes many older adult centers, afterschool and youth programs, adult literacy and professional development courses, and counseling services, among many others.</p> <p>In the case of home-delivered meals, providers delivered an extra portion earlier in the week, Jackson said. The provisions organizations are making for Thursday are similar to the way they operate during natural disasters.</p> <p>"The sector is at this point where they realize if we don't take bolder and bigger action now…we will see communities in real suffering in future years, when programs close," Jackson said. "We have made every plea possible to government before getting to this point."</p> <p>

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
Max Politics Podcast: New York City's 'Green New Deal' Comes Into Focus, with Pete Sikora 2023-05-22T13:00:00+00:00 2023-05-22T13:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12013-max-politics-podcast-new-york-city-green-new-deal-local-law-97-sikora Gotham Gazette [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/mpp-green-nyc.jpg" /></p> <p>Pushing an NYC 'Green New Deal' (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)</p> <hr /> <p><strong>May 22 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: New York City's 'Green New Deal' Comes Into Focus, with Pete Sikora<br /></strong></p> <p>Pete Sikora, climate campaigns director for New York Communities for Change, joined the show to discuss implementation of New York City's "Green New Deal" — particularly Local Law 97 that deals with building emissions — and more related to climate action, green jobs, gas bans, and other topics.</p> <p>Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TweetBenMax">@TweetBenMax</a>. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.</p> <p class="feed-readmore"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12013-max-politics-podcast-new-york-city-green-new-deal-local-law-97-sikora">Read More ...</a></p> <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/mpp-green-nyc.jpg" /></p> <p>Pushing an NYC 'Green New Deal' (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)</p> <hr /> <p><strong>May 22 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: New York City's 'Green New Deal' Comes Into Focus, with Pete Sikora<br /></strong></p> <p>Pete Sikora, climate campaigns director for New York Communities for Change, joined the show to discuss implementation of New York City's "Green New Deal" — particularly Local Law 97 that deals with building emissions — and more related to climate action, green jobs, gas bans, and other topics.</p> <p>Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TweetBenMax">@TweetBenMax</a>. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.</p> <p class="feed-readmore"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12013-max-politics-podcast-new-york-city-green-new-deal-local-law-97-sikora">Read More ...</a></p> Mayor, City Council Negotiate Priorities for Mental Health Care Workforce Funding 2023-05-23T04:00:00+00:00 2023-05-23T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12012-mayor-city-council-mental-health-care-workforce Ethan Geringer-Sameth [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/3-council-alt.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mental health plans (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>The New York City Council is seeking greater investment in the behavioral health workforce as leaders at all levels of government grapple with the longstanding crisis of untreated severe mental illness.</p> <p>The Council and Mayor Eric Adams are negotiating the mayor's $106.7 billion executive budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. On the table is tens of millions of dollars to help boost staffing levels for a range of needed services – some new and some depleted by the pandemic — both in and out of city government.</p> <p>The Council, led by Speaker Adrienne Adams, is seeking to double the $60 million cost of living increase for human services workers included in the current city budget, along with greater funding for nonprofit providers, a social work fellowship at CUNY, and other priorities.</p> <p>Industry-wide staffing shortages caused by burnout and uncompetitive wages have stretched behavioral health services too thin, city health officials and providers say, threatening the city and state response to gaps in the social safety net. Mobile intervention, inpatient commitment, and outpatient services — the so-called continuum of care for those with serious mental illness — have become a defining focus for Mayor Eric Adams and <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11982-state-budget-mental-health-care-psychiatric-beds-hochul">Governor Kathy Hochul</a>, both Democrats. They have sought to respond to the subway killing of Jordan Neely this month and other attacks in recent years on or by people experiencing acute psychiatric episodes and homelessness.</p> <p>The Council's response to the mayor's preliminary budget for next fiscal year and its <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/mental-health-road-map/">Mental Health Roadmap</a> released shortly thereafter called for $117.4 million more in mental health care funding along with pay parity for the publicly-funded behavioral health workforce.</p> <p>Two days after release of the Council’s wide-ranging Roadmap, Mayor Adams released his $106.7 billion executive budget proposal, which contained an additional $40 million for the crisis response program B-HEARD, youth telehealth services, peer-led clubhouses, and a digital services access hub, according to his office’s summary of the plan.</p> <p>The mayor's latest budget proposal includes none of the city-level workforce development elements in the Council's Mental Health Roadmap, one of the central pillars of the plan. The Roadmap includes various Council bills, city spending priorities, requests of mayoral administration action, and state and federal policy changes aimed at bolstering mental health services and limiting the intersection with the criminal legal system.</p> <p>Asked whether the mayor supports any of the Roadmap's workforce-related proposals, an Adams spokesperson pointed to the mayor's own mental health blueprint, issued earlier this year, but no specific funding lines in the executive budget.</p> <p>“The ongoing mental health crisis in our city demands a strong response from all levels of government," the spokesperson wrote in a statement to Gotham Gazette after the executive budget was released. “We applaud the speaker for unveiling this agenda and thank her and the Council for their partnership,” the spokesperson added.</p> <p>Workforce pipeline issues have led to <a href="https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-care/more-1000-new-yorkers-await-spot-serious-mental-illness-programs">bottlenecks in mental health programs</a> throughout the state, frustrating proposals by the mayor and governor, including a marquee plan to <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11973-psych-beds-hospitals-new-york-upstate">restore hundreds of shuttered psychiatric beds</a>.</p> <p>The Council's Roadmap calls for more funding for nonprofit organizations providing culturally competent behavioral health services. The plan, which Speaker Adrienne Adams emphasized was an "ongoing roadmap" and a "pivotal start" as budget talks unfold, lacks specific funding targets. Last year, the Council allocated roughly $25 million in discretionary spending to mental health services, including autism awareness, programs for court-involved and LGBTQ youth, seniors, and other vulnerable populations, opioid treatment, and trauma recovery centers.</p> <p>Coalition for Behavioral Health represents over 250 local mental health and substance use providers. In testimony before the City Council in March, CBH representatives called for a 8.5% cost of living increase for publicly-contracted mental health workers to match a parallel push in the state budget (that was passed early this month).</p> <p>The money would help retain and recruit the psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers needed for Adams' various emergency and preventative programs, professionals often leaving for higher pay in other settings. The state included a 4% cost of living adjustment this year, which was less than the 8.5% advocates pushed for but more than the 2.5% Hochul initially proposed.</p> <p>Cara Berkowitz, acting director of the CBH and Association for Substance Abuse Providers Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers' Policy Center, said the cost of living increase is a matter of equal access to health care as much as it is a fair pay issue. "When social service providers, especially those helping those most vulnerable, cannot find workers it is the clients who suffer the most with little or no access to care," she wrote by email. "Facilitating access starts with paying city-contracted workers on par with the state, federal and private sectors."</p> <p>Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the city health commissioner appointed by Mayor Adams, called a cost of living increase for human services agencies "long overdue" in testimony before the City Council finance and health committees at a May 15 budget hearing. "As a former operator of a human service and community health organization this hits home," he said.</p> <p>"It is not an agency by agency decision on whether to fill those funding gaps," Vasan added. "It is a citywide decision in part because we're all working with human services agencies and often multiple [city] agencies are working with the same human service agencies, so that's really handled centrally by [the Mayor's Office of Management and Budget] to ensure consistency and equity."</p> <p>Hiring for the city's outreach teams has been particularly difficult because of the nature of the work and major shortages in social workers and doctors.</p> <p>"There is a huge problem right now for all mental health professionals across the city, across the country. COVID has really disrupted the mental health market," said Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of New York City Health + Hospitals (H+H), the city's public hospital network and largest behavioral health provider, in his own budget testimony on May 16.</p> <p>One of the city’s signature programs, B-HEARD, a non-police mental health crisis response pilot using H+H clinicians and FDNY EMTs to answer non-violent 911 calls, can't expand in part because of a shortage of social workers, Katz told the Council. B-HEARD is getting an additional $27 million in the mayor's executive budget proposal to bring it to the remainder of the Bronx and other parts of the city. The program, which only operates from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. in a limited number of police precincts, has been criticized for failing to respond to calls often leading to the deployment of police officers.</p> <p>"We are in favor of 24-hour coverage but we would need to be able to hire more people in order to do that," Katz told the Council. "The city has committed that if we are able to hire, they would provide the funding. The current funding we have is sufficient for the number of social workers that we are employing."</p> <p>"So it's a question of, can we recruit enough to go to nights?" he added.</p> <p>The Council Roadmap calls for subsidies for CUNY social work candidates, part of the speaker's State of the City agenda this year. Rendy Desamours, a spokesperson for Speaker Adams, said the body didn't have a specific dollar figure in mind but would be pushing for its inclusion in the final budget deal. Council Member Rita Joseph, a Brooklyn Democrat, introduced a resolution calling on the state to pay for the education and licensing fees of CUNY students who commit to working in the public sector in a mental health field. The resolution is sponsored by 13 City Council and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.</p> <p>In <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11995-max-politics-podcast-city-council-mental-health-roadmap-linda-lee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a recent podcast interview with Gotham Gazette</a> on the City Council Mental Health Roadmap, the Council's mental health committee chair, Linda Lee, said pay parity and subsidized education were key to priming the pipeline of mental health workers. But to fill vacancies in the immediate term, Lee pointed to action the state could take to authorize out-of-state clinicians to practice in New York. Doing so would inevitably increase the reliance on remote service delivery by phone or teleconference, she said. Whether and how telehealth could be used for street outreach remains an open question.<br /><br />"What we're asking is, can we increase the workforce pool, by actually allowing these folks from out of state to come. And we see that being tremendously helpful when it comes to telehealth," she told Gotham Gazette.</p> <p>The mayor’s executive budget also includes $66 million for other outreach and crisis response teams run by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, according to officials at the May 15 budget hearing. Recruiting for those positions has also been a challenge.</p> <p>"Building trust, engaging people over time, coming back and coming back and coming back, never leaving, is extraordinarily difficult work," Vasan told the committee. "It requires extraordinarily special people who want to do that every single day. We're lucky in this city to have hundreds of people who want to do this work, if not more."</p> <p>

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/3-council-alt.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mental health plans (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>The New York City Council is seeking greater investment in the behavioral health workforce as leaders at all levels of government grapple with the longstanding crisis of untreated severe mental illness.</p> <p>The Council and Mayor Eric Adams are negotiating the mayor's $106.7 billion executive budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. On the table is tens of millions of dollars to help boost staffing levels for a range of needed services – some new and some depleted by the pandemic — both in and out of city government.</p> <p>The Council, led by Speaker Adrienne Adams, is seeking to double the $60 million cost of living increase for human services workers included in the current city budget, along with greater funding for nonprofit providers, a social work fellowship at CUNY, and other priorities.</p> <p>Industry-wide staffing shortages caused by burnout and uncompetitive wages have stretched behavioral health services too thin, city health officials and providers say, threatening the city and state response to gaps in the social safety net. Mobile intervention, inpatient commitment, and outpatient services — the so-called continuum of care for those with serious mental illness — have become a defining focus for Mayor Eric Adams and <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11982-state-budget-mental-health-care-psychiatric-beds-hochul">Governor Kathy Hochul</a>, both Democrats. They have sought to respond to the subway killing of Jordan Neely this month and other attacks in recent years on or by people experiencing acute psychiatric episodes and homelessness.</p> <p>The Council's response to the mayor's preliminary budget for next fiscal year and its <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/mental-health-road-map/">Mental Health Roadmap</a> released shortly thereafter called for $117.4 million more in mental health care funding along with pay parity for the publicly-funded behavioral health workforce.</p> <p>Two days after release of the Council’s wide-ranging Roadmap, Mayor Adams released his $106.7 billion executive budget proposal, which contained an additional $40 million for the crisis response program B-HEARD, youth telehealth services, peer-led clubhouses, and a digital services access hub, according to his office’s summary of the plan.</p> <p>The mayor's latest budget proposal includes none of the city-level workforce development elements in the Council's Mental Health Roadmap, one of the central pillars of the plan. The Roadmap includes various Council bills, city spending priorities, requests of mayoral administration action, and state and federal policy changes aimed at bolstering mental health services and limiting the intersection with the criminal legal system.</p> <p>Asked whether the mayor supports any of the Roadmap's workforce-related proposals, an Adams spokesperson pointed to the mayor's own mental health blueprint, issued earlier this year, but no specific funding lines in the executive budget.</p> <p>“The ongoing mental health crisis in our city demands a strong response from all levels of government," the spokesperson wrote in a statement to Gotham Gazette after the executive budget was released. “We applaud the speaker for unveiling this agenda and thank her and the Council for their partnership,” the spokesperson added.</p> <p>Workforce pipeline issues have led to <a href="https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-care/more-1000-new-yorkers-await-spot-serious-mental-illness-programs">bottlenecks in mental health programs</a> throughout the state, frustrating proposals by the mayor and governor, including a marquee plan to <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11973-psych-beds-hospitals-new-york-upstate">restore hundreds of shuttered psychiatric beds</a>.</p> <p>The Council's Roadmap calls for more funding for nonprofit organizations providing culturally competent behavioral health services. The plan, which Speaker Adrienne Adams emphasized was an "ongoing roadmap" and a "pivotal start" as budget talks unfold, lacks specific funding targets. Last year, the Council allocated roughly $25 million in discretionary spending to mental health services, including autism awareness, programs for court-involved and LGBTQ youth, seniors, and other vulnerable populations, opioid treatment, and trauma recovery centers.</p> <p>Coalition for Behavioral Health represents over 250 local mental health and substance use providers. In testimony before the City Council in March, CBH representatives called for a 8.5% cost of living increase for publicly-contracted mental health workers to match a parallel push in the state budget (that was passed early this month).</p> <p>The money would help retain and recruit the psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers needed for Adams' various emergency and preventative programs, professionals often leaving for higher pay in other settings. The state included a 4% cost of living adjustment this year, which was less than the 8.5% advocates pushed for but more than the 2.5% Hochul initially proposed.</p> <p>Cara Berkowitz, acting director of the CBH and Association for Substance Abuse Providers Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers' Policy Center, said the cost of living increase is a matter of equal access to health care as much as it is a fair pay issue. "When social service providers, especially those helping those most vulnerable, cannot find workers it is the clients who suffer the most with little or no access to care," she wrote by email. "Facilitating access starts with paying city-contracted workers on par with the state, federal and private sectors."</p> <p>Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the city health commissioner appointed by Mayor Adams, called a cost of living increase for human services agencies "long overdue" in testimony before the City Council finance and health committees at a May 15 budget hearing. "As a former operator of a human service and community health organization this hits home," he said.</p> <p>"It is not an agency by agency decision on whether to fill those funding gaps," Vasan added. "It is a citywide decision in part because we're all working with human services agencies and often multiple [city] agencies are working with the same human service agencies, so that's really handled centrally by [the Mayor's Office of Management and Budget] to ensure consistency and equity."</p> <p>Hiring for the city's outreach teams has been particularly difficult because of the nature of the work and major shortages in social workers and doctors.</p> <p>"There is a huge problem right now for all mental health professionals across the city, across the country. COVID has really disrupted the mental health market," said Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of New York City Health + Hospitals (H+H), the city's public hospital network and largest behavioral health provider, in his own budget testimony on May 16.</p> <p>One of the city’s signature programs, B-HEARD, a non-police mental health crisis response pilot using H+H clinicians and FDNY EMTs to answer non-violent 911 calls, can't expand in part because of a shortage of social workers, Katz told the Council. B-HEARD is getting an additional $27 million in the mayor's executive budget proposal to bring it to the remainder of the Bronx and other parts of the city. The program, which only operates from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. in a limited number of police precincts, has been criticized for failing to respond to calls often leading to the deployment of police officers.</p> <p>"We are in favor of 24-hour coverage but we would need to be able to hire more people in order to do that," Katz told the Council. "The city has committed that if we are able to hire, they would provide the funding. The current funding we have is sufficient for the number of social workers that we are employing."</p> <p>"So it's a question of, can we recruit enough to go to nights?" he added.</p> <p>The Council Roadmap calls for subsidies for CUNY social work candidates, part of the speaker's State of the City agenda this year. Rendy Desamours, a spokesperson for Speaker Adams, said the body didn't have a specific dollar figure in mind but would be pushing for its inclusion in the final budget deal. Council Member Rita Joseph, a Brooklyn Democrat, introduced a resolution calling on the state to pay for the education and licensing fees of CUNY students who commit to working in the public sector in a mental health field. The resolution is sponsored by 13 City Council and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.</p> <p>In <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11995-max-politics-podcast-city-council-mental-health-roadmap-linda-lee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a recent podcast interview with Gotham Gazette</a> on the City Council Mental Health Roadmap, the Council's mental health committee chair, Linda Lee, said pay parity and subsidized education were key to priming the pipeline of mental health workers. But to fill vacancies in the immediate term, Lee pointed to action the state could take to authorize out-of-state clinicians to practice in New York. Doing so would inevitably increase the reliance on remote service delivery by phone or teleconference, she said. Whether and how telehealth could be used for street outreach remains an open question.<br /><br />"What we're asking is, can we increase the workforce pool, by actually allowing these folks from out of state to come. And we see that being tremendously helpful when it comes to telehealth," she told Gotham Gazette.</p> <p>The mayor’s executive budget also includes $66 million for other outreach and crisis response teams run by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, according to officials at the May 15 budget hearing. Recruiting for those positions has also been a challenge.</p> <p>"Building trust, engaging people over time, coming back and coming back and coming back, never leaving, is extraordinarily difficult work," Vasan told the committee. "It requires extraordinarily special people who want to do that every single day. We're lucky in this city to have hundreds of people who want to do this work, if not more."</p> <p>

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
What Advocates and Electeds Say Mayor Adams Should Be Doing Differently About the Asylum-Seeker Crisis 2023-05-18T13:00:00+00:00 2023-05-18T13:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12014-mayor-adams-nyc-asylum-seeker-crisis Samar Khurshid [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/what-critics-say.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams and others tour a HERRC (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As the migrant asylum-seeker crisis continues to escalate, and another surge of arrivals has begun after a federal pandemic-era border policy expired last week, Mayor Eric Adams is taking increasingly desperate steps to ease the impact on New York City.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While virtually everyone agrees that the federal and state governments should do more to help the city, critics say there are still several concrete measures the mayor has failed to enact that could have immediate beneficial results, including the humane treatment of people fleeing their home countries to create new lives in the United States.     </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Elected officials, advocates, and nonprofit groups have grown progressively more dismayed and outraged at the mayor’s response to the migrant crisis, which has seen more than 67,000 asylum-seekers arrive in the city over the last year, according to City Hall. About 41,500 are in the city’s care in shelters, which are now home to a record 80,278 individuals in sum.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“[W]e have been facing one of the single most significant humanitarian crises in recent memory, with more than 67,000 people seeking asylum coming through our system since last year,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, at a press briefing on Wednesday. The number of migrants, she pointed out, is “larger than the entire population of the city of Utica, New York” and “would fill Madison Square Garden three times.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Williams-Isom made an urgent plea for financial and logistical support from the state and federal governments, and a long-term policy solution on immigration, while stressing that the administration would “keep open lines of communication” with all elected officials, stakeholders and everyday New Yorkers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We only ask that in return we get a good faith effort for help. We've seen too many criticisms couched in half truth,” she said. “We've got to do this together for the benefit of all New Yorkers…If you don't like what we're doing, I can understand. We can have a difference of opinions, but we're asking for constructive, real suggestions, not idle talking points.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Various critics have questioned Mayor Adams' operational approach, which has included several misguided moves, what they’ve called his anti-immigrant rhetoric about the crisis, and ways in which he has lashed out at fellow Democrats whose help he needs — while Republicans have said he's been too welcoming of migrants. Advocates and Democrats want to see the mayor not only lower the temperature of his remarks about how the city is “being destroyed by the migrant crisis” and his criticism of President Biden, City Council members, and others, but also communicate far better with local officials as he opens shelters and takes other steps.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They have called on him to extend right-to-shelter protections, invest in immigrant legal services, cut red tape for housing rental vouchers, and other steps they say could help everyone involved and even the city’s bottom line, which has been the mayor’s main focus.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Democratic mayor has enacted cuts to city agencies and proposed more as his administration estimated a $4.3 billion cost of sheltering and providing services to migrants for the current and next fiscal years, though that number has been </span><a href="https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/snapshot-new-york-city-spending-for-asylum-seekers-may2023.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">questioned</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as an inflated projection by some. The city has only received about $30.5 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), though hundreds of millions more is projected.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And the state has appropriated $1 billion in its recently-passed budget, which includes $767 million to reimburse 29% of the city’s shelter costs for migrants (in line with its share of other shelter costs), $162 million for operational and logistical support from the New York State National Guard, $137 million for health care for migrants, a $25 million resettlement fund, $10 million in legal assistance, and more.</span></p> <p><b>Desperate Moves, Pushback, and Help<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last week, Adams signed an executive order suspending parts of the city’s right-to-shelter law, which mandates that the city provides a bed to any person who needs one. The order suspended portions of the law that require timely placement of families with children, require families to be placed in private rather than congregate settings, and certain eviction prevention protections.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The executive order comes shortly on the heels of the administration’s decision to bus hundreds of migrants to hotels in Orange and Rockland Counties, which was met with swift local opposition. Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a Republican, declared a state of emergency to prevent migrants from being brought to and sheltered in the county while Orange County officials filed two separate lawsuits in state Supreme Court over the plan, winning a temporary restraining order on Monday.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Adams administration has also </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/nyregion/ny-migrants-public-school-gym.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">housed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> migrants in a school gym in Coney Island, and is preparing to use several others for that purpose, though after outcry the city reversed course at least temporarily. “The city should not be using schools for intake and shelter,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of New York Immigration Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group. “We don't want to disrupt students’ school environment. And the city owns at least a million square feet of space across the city and we need to be prioritizing those spaces.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to a </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/11/adams-considers-housing-migrants-shuttered-prison-00096518" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Politico New York report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the mayor also considered potentially sheltering migrants in a shuttered correctional facility in Dutchess County and </span><a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-rikers-island-migrants-closed-jail-mayor-adams-20230517-m5yhriyoffdwtbzrlln63upxrq-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the Daily News</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> reported that he may use a shuttered jail facility on Rikers Island, something Adams did not deny on Wednesday as he told reporters that everything is on the table, prompting another wave of outcry. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Cutting migrants off from resources and support and handing them over to jail facilities is not safety,” said Eileen Maher, a leader with VOCAL-NY’s Civil Rights Union who was formerly detained on Rikers, in a statement. “This is just another attempt from Adams to use the carceral system to disappear people and it's unacceptable. Rikers must be ‘off the table.’”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In one bit of news welcomed by advocates, the mayor on Monday used his </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/406-23/emergency-executive-order-406" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">executive authority</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to suspend the required Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for siting and building homeless shelters, which he previously did for the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers (HERRCs) set up in response to the migrant influx. Besides shelters, the city has opened 150 emergency sites for migrants, many of which are hotels, and 8 HERRCs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While the mayor did release a </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/158-23/mayor-adams-releases-the-road-forward-new-blueprint-handle-asylum-seeker-crisis-moving-forward#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">blueprint</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in March to deal with the ongoing crisis, including by creating a new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, the plan was </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11868-city-council-immigrant-affairs-asylum-seekers-budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">immediately questioned</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as inadequate and misguided, including the question of why a new office was necessary beyond the existing Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The City Council has presented several solutions over the course of months. In September, 34 Council members </span><a href="https://twitter.com/galeabrewer/status/1570873235214077957" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wrote</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand asking them for help with expedited work authorization for migrants. In October, the Council identified 10 large hotels for use as HERRCs, a suggestion that the administration opposed at the time but eventually ended up using some of those proposed sites.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In December, the Council put out a </span><a href="https://council.nyc.gov/press/2022/12/21/2328/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">full report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> outlining short-term measures to address migrants’ needs before and when they arrive and long-term policies for housing, education, health care, food security and more. The Council also launched a public-private partnership in March to provide funding to community-based groups that are assisting migrants. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“New York City will always be a welcoming and safe harbor for people seeking asylum, who deserve to be treated with care, dignity, and compassion. Unfortunately, our City continues to shoulder the significant bulk and cost of this humanitarian response, which is unfair and unsustainable without the necessary funding from all levels of government,” said Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan, in a statement earlier this month after the city received FEMA’s initial round of funding. “Despite the City’s $350 million request, FEMA's initial grant provides a paltry $30.5 million, which is not anywhere close to enough to cover the cost of assistance for asylum seekers. New York City deserves much more support to continue providing services for more than 60,000 asylum seekers. The Council remains strongly committed to helping all those who seek refuge, and we look forward to working with our partners to secure this important additional funding.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The state and federal governments have appeared largely indifferent to the city’s challenges for most of the past year. There has been no coordinated strategy among the federal, state, and local governments. As </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/12/critics-say-hochul-is-mia-during-migrant-crisis-00096647" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Politico New York reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Democratic leaders believe that Governor Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat and staunch Adams ally, has been missing from the conversation – though she did write </span><a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/12/hochul-begs-biden-for-more-aid-to-confront-migrant-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a May 12 letter</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to President Joe Biden pleading for assistance, saw to the $1 billion for the city in the state budget deal reached early this month, and was in Washington D.C. on Wednesday to push for more federal help on the issue.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And while President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has taken some measures to address the ongoing crisis as well as the surge from the lifting of pandemic-era Title 42, which allowed for more expulsion of asylum-seeking migrants on public health grounds, in the divided Congress there has been almost no movement on immigration reform or related legislation. Congress appropriated $800 million in December for the migrant crisis with a significant amount expected to be allocated to New York City, but very little of that has flowed to the city yet through FEMA for unclear reasons.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We're at this point where we've been doing this for a year now, and really haven't had very much traction on a lot of the different areas that we need to,” said Awawdeh. “The simplest thing we can do and the first thing we need to do is actually invest in getting people out of emergency shelter and into permanent housing.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Even as the mayor continues to plead for aid from the federal government, expedited work permits for migrants, and a different operational approach at the border to help spread the influx of asylum-seekers around the country, critics have offered solutions, both short- and long-term, to address the overall crisis.</span></p> <p><b>Extend Right to Shelter Standards and Invest in Immigration Legal Services<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last week, City Comptroller Brad Lander and Council Member Shahana Hanif, who chairs the Council’s immigration committee, wrote a </span><a href="https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/letter-to-mayor-adams-re-prioritizing-immigration-legal-services-to-assist-asylum-seekers-on-pathways-out-of-shelter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">letter</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to the mayor, calling on him to invest an additional $70 million in the city budget for immigration legal services. That would include $10 million to scale up pro se legal clinics that help immigrants apply for asylum, work authorization, and Temporary Protected Status; and $60 million to provide legal representation to those in immigration courts, where there is a backlog of 127,000 cases. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mayor’s office did not respond to an inquiry about the funding recommendation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Those funds, Lander and Hanif said, could help expand the city’s existing programs for immigrants including ActionNYC, the Immigrant Opportunity Initiative (IOI), and the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP). And they said the city should work with law schools and law firms to enroll volunteers who can provide legal assistance to migrants, and enlist the help of nonprofit and religious organizations for outreach and translation services.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They urged the administration to take an “all hands” approach to the crisis by expanding direct outreach to asylum seekers in the HERRCs and DHS shelter system and to create systems for data collection, case prioritization, and follow-up contact. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“With a dedicated all-hands outreach effort and an investment of $70 million for legal services, the City can significantly reduce the shelter length of stay, redeploy existing shelter space for people newly in need or newly arrived, reduce the number of people otherwise in the shelter system, and save significantly on the costs of operating shelters,” Lander and Hanif wrote. “As immigrants have for generations, these new arrivals have the potential to contribute greatly to NYC’s economic and cultural vitality. Their success, and their contributions to NYC, depend on taking the next step now to help them establish new lives here.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The letter was sent just prior to a City Council budget hearing where Hanif questioned officials from the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and was left dissatisfied with their testimony. Though she agreed that the federal government has left the city to fend for itself, “a lack of federal support does not excuse some of the ways in which the City is failing to meet the needs of asylum seekers,” she said, in a statement after the hearing. She noted that the city has disbursed no new funds for asylum seeker legal services this year and that there still seems to be no long-term plan. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hanif also urged the passage of her bill, </span><a href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6047891&amp;GUID=84A59237-CFA0-4415-B52B-6889C47927F3&amp;Options=&amp;Search=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Intro. 942</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, which would require that emergency congregate housing, including the HERRCs, abide by the minimum standards required under the right-to-shelter law.</span></p> <p><b>Free Up Shelter Capacity by Eliminating 90-Day Rule for Housing Vouchers<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The migrant crisis has placed a particular strain on the city’s shelter system, with the daily shelter population </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dhs/downloads/pdf/dailyreport.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">ballooning</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to nearly 80,000 adults and children. According to city estimates from early May, that included about 37,500 asylum-seekers. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The city requires that families with children spend 90-days in a shelter before they can apply for the CityFHEPS program, which provides a rental assistance voucher to help families find permanent housing. An analysis released Monday by Win, the city’s largest shelter and services provider for families with children, found that repealing that 90-day rule could save the city tens of thousands of dollars per homeless family with children. The organization is one of several that have argued for easing access to housing vouchers</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"For decades, the 90-Day Rule has arbitrarily kept New Yorkers in shelter far longer than they should be — but right now, the City has a chance to end this illogical barrier,” said Christine Quinn, President &amp; CEO of Win, in a statement. “Repealing this rule could save the City up to $27,990 per family with children, while helping them leave shelter sooner. It’s the definition of a win-win.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the 90-day rule for this story, and has </span><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/citys-largest-shelter-provider-urges-mayor-to-scrap-90-day-shelter-stay-rule-for-housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">not taken a position</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in prior reporting by other outlets on the subject. “The administration is deeply grateful to the New Yorkers who have experienced homelessness and helped us develop our blueprint for housing and homelessness,” the mayor’s office told </span><a href="https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2023/02/advocates-decry-90-day-waiting-rule-affordable-housing-sheltered-new-yorkers-needless/383124/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">City &amp; State</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in a statement in February. “Just a few months ago, we announced a host of CityFHEPS reforms to cut red tape, reduce administrative burdens, and move more New Yorkers out of shelter and into affordable housing as quickly as possible, and we are doing that everyday.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Quinn, a former City Council Speaker, noted that eliminating the rule would free up shelter capacity while easing pressure on the city budget. “There is no good reason to keep this rule in place — but we think City Hall will agree there are plenty of reasons to repeal it,” she said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the mayor could unilaterally get rid of the regulation, there is also an effort before the City Council to do so. Council Member Diana Ayala, a Bronx Democrat, has sponsored </span><a href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5995863&amp;GUID=4F0FC024-E228-4E8D-809B-12A8007C4DA4&amp;Options=ID%7CText%7C&amp;Search=878" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">legislation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that would eliminate the need for a family to stay in a shelter at all before they can apply for a housing voucher.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Repealing the 90-day rule is not only good for the city financially, it’s the right thing to do,” Ayala said in a statement. “Families entering shelter should not have to wait 90 days to begin applying for vouchers that take months to process. If we intend to solve the bottlenecks within our shelter system, then we must take a look at all the policies in place that are contributing to that bottleneck, including the 90-day rule.”</span></p> <p><b>Renovate Private and City-Owned Vacant Apartments <br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">As a means to address the homelessness and housing crisis, elected officials and housing advocates have been urging the administration to invest in renovating vacant apartments owned by the city and also to provide incentives to private landlords to carry out similar fixes in dilapidated units that they own. Those solutions could, by extension, also assist in tackling the migrant crisis as they provide an avenue for people living in shelters to transition to permanent homes. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Open New York, a pro-housing group, conducted a survey and found over 200 vacant rent-stabilized units in buildings that the city either owns or subsidizes, according to </span><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/empty-nyc-owned-apartments-could-help-solve-housing-crisis-policy-group-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a Gothamist report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. The group is pushing the administration to get those apartments back in rotation by funding repairs. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the public housing agency, also has thousands of vacant apartments that elected officials and advocates say could be used to quickly provide housing to those in shelter if they are fixed and leased.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mayor did take one step </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/272-23/mayor-adams-invest-up-10-million-repair-rent-stabilized-homes-providing-roofs-heads#:~:text=NEW%20YORK%20%E2%80%93%20New%20York%20City,with%20access%20to%20those%20homes." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">last month</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to coax private landlords into bringing rent-stabilized homes back on the market by launching a $10 million program that will provide $25,000 each to renovate 400 “chronically vacant” rent-stabilized units and then connect those apartments with families receiving CityFHEPS vouchers. However, housing advocates and landlords have both said the program is a drop in the bucket considering what they say are tens of thousands of rent-stabilized units that lie vacant across the city. </span></p> <p><b>Lease Apartments on the Market for Homeless Families<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, a Democrat, has criticized the real estate industry for failing to support the city’s efforts, called out suburban lawmakers for their refusal to permit more housing development, and blasted the Biden administration’s relative inaction on a crisis that cuts across multiple states and cities.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“While Mayor Adams is doing the wrong thing in rolling back Right-to-Shelter, we must be careful to call even more loudly on those who are doing nothing at all: the real estate community that sits on thousands of vacant apartments while families sleep in the streets; our neighbors in the suburbs who hide behind racist zoning policies that prevent new affordable housing from being built; and the Biden administration that refuses to step up with meaningful aid despite immigration being a federal issue,” Reynoso said in part in a statement on Friday. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Wednesday, Reynoso proposed three legal options for the governor, mayor, and City Council that would simultaneously confront the housing and homelessness crisis to reduce pressure on the city’s shelter system. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Under his proposal the Council would pass a law adding the migrant crisis to the list of emergencies in the city’s Administrative Code, the mayoral administration would lease apartments for homeless families while landlords would be required to make it a priority to rent to the city at market-rate, and landlords would be prohibited from refusing to rent to the city when an emergency has been declared. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Additionally, Reynoso proposed that the mayor declare an emergency over the homelessness crisis and seek more assistance for it from the state.</span></p> <p><b>State Action<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Advocates have praised the governor and Legislature for allocating about $73 million in the recently approved $229 billion state budget for legal assistance and services for immigrants. But they have also criticized the failure of various pieces of legislation that could aid immigrants more broadly and help the newly-arrived asylum-seekers. The top relevant priority for advocates is the passage of the Access to Representation Act (ARA), which would ensure the right to legal representation in immigration cases. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It is imperative to use a portion of these additional funds to build the long-term infrastructure that the Access to Representation Act would provide,” said Shayna Kessler, state advocacy manager for the Vera Institute of Justice’s Advancing Universal Representation initiative, in a statement referencing the $73 million allocation. “The ARA guarantees in state law the right to legal representation in these complex immigration cases and ensures long-term stability for these life-saving services. It is the right thing to do, and we will redouble our efforts to ensure the bill is passed this year.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Borough President Reynoso urged the governor to offer the city the use of state personnel and facilities, while suspending local laws that municipalities such as Rockland County have used to block migrants from being housed in their jurisdiction, as well as those that counties have used to block new affordable housing creation. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In an </span><a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2023/05/17/hochul--n-y--working-to-find--welcoming--sites-for-migrant-housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">interview with NY1</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Hochul said the state is working with the city to identify sites to welcome migrants, including </span><a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2023/05/17/local-officials-told-suny-campuses--closed-psych-centers-possible-migrant-housing-options" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">potentially</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> SUNY campuses and shuttered psychiatric facilities. “The city has done an incredible job trying to find places to house them, but they are at capacity.” Hochul said. “So we’re helping [Adams] find places that will be welcoming.”</span></p> <p><b>Federal Action</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> <br /></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mayor Adams has pressed President Biden to not just provide funding but to take several executive actions on the migrant crisis. Last month, he called on the Department of Homeland Security to re-designate TPS for migrants from Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Sudan, South Sudan, and Cameroon, to expand access to humanitarian parole, and to increase the number of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers, or reassign existing ones, to reduce application processing times. Those measures would help migrants obtain expedited work authorization. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The president of the United States can give us the ability to allow people to work. This is in the lap of the executive branch of the United States of America, and that's what we are calling for,” Adams said at the time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams has often cast himself as standing alone on the migrant crisis, critiquing fellow Democrats, including Biden, and others for what he sees as lackluster support in lobbying the federal government for aid. While the mayor has been right that federal and state financial aid has been slow to materialize, he has falsely claimed that Biden has no </span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/05/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-border-enforcement-actions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">southern border policy</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and that City Council members and others have not helped lobby for federal and state support.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Besides the proposals the Council issued, Speaker Adams also advocated for more support from the state in her </span><a href="https://council.nyc.gov/press/2023/02/15/2353/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">budget testimony</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in Albany in February. On April 7, after the city submitted its application for FEMA funding on March 29, the speaker and Council Member Brannan </span><a href="http://council.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/4.7.23_NYC-Council-Letter-RE-FEMA-Asylum-Seeker-Funding-To-POTUS.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wrote a letter</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to President Biden in support of the request. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last month, in an effort Adams did acknowledge, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and members of New York’s Congressional delegation stood outside the U.S. Capitol with immigration activists and proposed a series of solutions, echoing demands that the mayor has also made of the federal government. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“For almost a year, New York City has been a focal point of the ongoing challenge of aiding asylum seekers – but this issue did not originate when the first bus arrived at Port Authority,” they said in a joint statement. “It is rooted in decades of inaction toward reforming our immigration infrastructure and agencies’ inability to adapt to the needs of people arriving in our country.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“New York City, a city of immigrants, needs aid in meeting the current crisis, and at the same time, we must implement real, achievable, sustainable changes to our federal systems of immigration to help ensure that people coming to our country for its opportunities do not find themselves arriving in a new crisis of our own inertia.,” they added.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Williams and the congressional representatives called for:</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Issuing new Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations, redesignations, and extensions to immigrants.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Passage of the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act to reduce the waiting period for work authorizations from 180 days to 30 days.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Passage of The New Way Forward Act to significantly reform the immigration system and its interactions with the criminal legal system that disproportionately hurt immigrants of color.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Ending all contracts with private immigration detention centers, repealing mandatory detention, ending family detention, and banning solitary confinement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Passage of the New Deal for New Americans Act to ease the naturalization process and address obstacles to employment and language barriers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Expanding eligibility for DACA recipients and undocumented immigrants to Medicaid, CHIP, and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges, while ensuring that access does not affect their ability to apply for citizenship under the </span><a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2022/09/08/dhs-publishes-fair-and-humane-public-charge-rule" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">public charge rule</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Creating a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship for Dreamers (including DACA recipients), those with Temporary Protected Status and those covered by Deferred Enforced Departure.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Passage of the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929 to expand pathways to permanent residency for eligible immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least seven years.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Clearing family and employment-based backlogs, recapturing unused visas, eliminating lengthy wait times for reentry, and increasing per-country visa caps.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Broad immigration court reform, increased funding for legal assistance, reduced immigration court backlogs, expanded training for immigration judges, and more.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Expedited processing of Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) applications to allow those without Social Security numbers to file taxes.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Expanded funding for language accessibility.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Williams, a Democrat, has been critical of the mayor, particularly in the wake of his executive order partially suspending right-to-shelter. “The mayor attempting to weaken those rights now—in a moment of immense need for so many asylum seekers—is a misguided and harmful action in the face of the real, urgent challenge exacerbated by a lack of decisive and timely state and federal action,” the public advocate said in a statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But he hasn’t reserved his criticism only for Adams. “Denying rights and resources to people arriving in desperate need and fervent hope will not replace action needed from the President, who has failed to provide sufficient federal funding or a national response, or the Governor, who has failed to support the city, and therefore the state, by coordinating with other municipalities,” Williams said. “Instead, this action will only harm our newest, aspiring and long-term New Yorkers and shift, not solve, the crisis. While it is clear that the current situation is unsafe and unsustainable, we need Democratic leaders on all levels of government to focus on getting the support needed to uphold the right to shelter, not undercut it.”</span></p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/what-critics-say.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams and others tour a HERRC (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As the migrant asylum-seeker crisis continues to escalate, and another surge of arrivals has begun after a federal pandemic-era border policy expired last week, Mayor Eric Adams is taking increasingly desperate steps to ease the impact on New York City.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While virtually everyone agrees that the federal and state governments should do more to help the city, critics say there are still several concrete measures the mayor has failed to enact that could have immediate beneficial results, including the humane treatment of people fleeing their home countries to create new lives in the United States.     </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Elected officials, advocates, and nonprofit groups have grown progressively more dismayed and outraged at the mayor’s response to the migrant crisis, which has seen more than 67,000 asylum-seekers arrive in the city over the last year, according to City Hall. About 41,500 are in the city’s care in shelters, which are now home to a record 80,278 individuals in sum.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“[W]e have been facing one of the single most significant humanitarian crises in recent memory, with more than 67,000 people seeking asylum coming through our system since last year,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, at a press briefing on Wednesday. The number of migrants, she pointed out, is “larger than the entire population of the city of Utica, New York” and “would fill Madison Square Garden three times.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Williams-Isom made an urgent plea for financial and logistical support from the state and federal governments, and a long-term policy solution on immigration, while stressing that the administration would “keep open lines of communication” with all elected officials, stakeholders and everyday New Yorkers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We only ask that in return we get a good faith effort for help. We've seen too many criticisms couched in half truth,” she said. “We've got to do this together for the benefit of all New Yorkers…If you don't like what we're doing, I can understand. We can have a difference of opinions, but we're asking for constructive, real suggestions, not idle talking points.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Various critics have questioned Mayor Adams' operational approach, which has included several misguided moves, what they’ve called his anti-immigrant rhetoric about the crisis, and ways in which he has lashed out at fellow Democrats whose help he needs — while Republicans have said he's been too welcoming of migrants. Advocates and Democrats want to see the mayor not only lower the temperature of his remarks about how the city is “being destroyed by the migrant crisis” and his criticism of President Biden, City Council members, and others, but also communicate far better with local officials as he opens shelters and takes other steps.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They have called on him to extend right-to-shelter protections, invest in immigrant legal services, cut red tape for housing rental vouchers, and other steps they say could help everyone involved and even the city’s bottom line, which has been the mayor’s main focus.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Democratic mayor has enacted cuts to city agencies and proposed more as his administration estimated a $4.3 billion cost of sheltering and providing services to migrants for the current and next fiscal years, though that number has been </span><a href="https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/snapshot-new-york-city-spending-for-asylum-seekers-may2023.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">questioned</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as an inflated projection by some. The city has only received about $30.5 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), though hundreds of millions more is projected.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And the state has appropriated $1 billion in its recently-passed budget, which includes $767 million to reimburse 29% of the city’s shelter costs for migrants (in line with its share of other shelter costs), $162 million for operational and logistical support from the New York State National Guard, $137 million for health care for migrants, a $25 million resettlement fund, $10 million in legal assistance, and more.</span></p> <p><b>Desperate Moves, Pushback, and Help<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last week, Adams signed an executive order suspending parts of the city’s right-to-shelter law, which mandates that the city provides a bed to any person who needs one. The order suspended portions of the law that require timely placement of families with children, require families to be placed in private rather than congregate settings, and certain eviction prevention protections.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The executive order comes shortly on the heels of the administration’s decision to bus hundreds of migrants to hotels in Orange and Rockland Counties, which was met with swift local opposition. Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a Republican, declared a state of emergency to prevent migrants from being brought to and sheltered in the county while Orange County officials filed two separate lawsuits in state Supreme Court over the plan, winning a temporary restraining order on Monday.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Adams administration has also </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/nyregion/ny-migrants-public-school-gym.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">housed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> migrants in a school gym in Coney Island, and is preparing to use several others for that purpose, though after outcry the city reversed course at least temporarily. “The city should not be using schools for intake and shelter,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of New York Immigration Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group. “We don't want to disrupt students’ school environment. And the city owns at least a million square feet of space across the city and we need to be prioritizing those spaces.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to a </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/11/adams-considers-housing-migrants-shuttered-prison-00096518" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Politico New York report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the mayor also considered potentially sheltering migrants in a shuttered correctional facility in Dutchess County and </span><a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-rikers-island-migrants-closed-jail-mayor-adams-20230517-m5yhriyoffdwtbzrlln63upxrq-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the Daily News</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> reported that he may use a shuttered jail facility on Rikers Island, something Adams did not deny on Wednesday as he told reporters that everything is on the table, prompting another wave of outcry. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Cutting migrants off from resources and support and handing them over to jail facilities is not safety,” said Eileen Maher, a leader with VOCAL-NY’s Civil Rights Union who was formerly detained on Rikers, in a statement. “This is just another attempt from Adams to use the carceral system to disappear people and it's unacceptable. Rikers must be ‘off the table.’”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In one bit of news welcomed by advocates, the mayor on Monday used his </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/406-23/emergency-executive-order-406" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">executive authority</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to suspend the required Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for siting and building homeless shelters, which he previously did for the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers (HERRCs) set up in response to the migrant influx. Besides shelters, the city has opened 150 emergency sites for migrants, many of which are hotels, and 8 HERRCs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While the mayor did release a </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/158-23/mayor-adams-releases-the-road-forward-new-blueprint-handle-asylum-seeker-crisis-moving-forward#/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">blueprint</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in March to deal with the ongoing crisis, including by creating a new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, the plan was </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11868-city-council-immigrant-affairs-asylum-seekers-budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">immediately questioned</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as inadequate and misguided, including the question of why a new office was necessary beyond the existing Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The City Council has presented several solutions over the course of months. In September, 34 Council members </span><a href="https://twitter.com/galeabrewer/status/1570873235214077957" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wrote</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand asking them for help with expedited work authorization for migrants. In October, the Council identified 10 large hotels for use as HERRCs, a suggestion that the administration opposed at the time but eventually ended up using some of those proposed sites.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In December, the Council put out a </span><a href="https://council.nyc.gov/press/2022/12/21/2328/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">full report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> outlining short-term measures to address migrants’ needs before and when they arrive and long-term policies for housing, education, health care, food security and more. The Council also launched a public-private partnership in March to provide funding to community-based groups that are assisting migrants. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“New York City will always be a welcoming and safe harbor for people seeking asylum, who deserve to be treated with care, dignity, and compassion. Unfortunately, our City continues to shoulder the significant bulk and cost of this humanitarian response, which is unfair and unsustainable without the necessary funding from all levels of government,” said Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan, in a statement earlier this month after the city received FEMA’s initial round of funding. “Despite the City’s $350 million request, FEMA's initial grant provides a paltry $30.5 million, which is not anywhere close to enough to cover the cost of assistance for asylum seekers. New York City deserves much more support to continue providing services for more than 60,000 asylum seekers. The Council remains strongly committed to helping all those who seek refuge, and we look forward to working with our partners to secure this important additional funding.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The state and federal governments have appeared largely indifferent to the city’s challenges for most of the past year. There has been no coordinated strategy among the federal, state, and local governments. As </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/12/critics-say-hochul-is-mia-during-migrant-crisis-00096647" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Politico New York reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Democratic leaders believe that Governor Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat and staunch Adams ally, has been missing from the conversation – though she did write </span><a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/12/hochul-begs-biden-for-more-aid-to-confront-migrant-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a May 12 letter</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to President Joe Biden pleading for assistance, saw to the $1 billion for the city in the state budget deal reached early this month, and was in Washington D.C. on Wednesday to push for more federal help on the issue.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And while President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has taken some measures to address the ongoing crisis as well as the surge from the lifting of pandemic-era Title 42, which allowed for more expulsion of asylum-seeking migrants on public health grounds, in the divided Congress there has been almost no movement on immigration reform or related legislation. Congress appropriated $800 million in December for the migrant crisis with a significant amount expected to be allocated to New York City, but very little of that has flowed to the city yet through FEMA for unclear reasons.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We're at this point where we've been doing this for a year now, and really haven't had very much traction on a lot of the different areas that we need to,” said Awawdeh. “The simplest thing we can do and the first thing we need to do is actually invest in getting people out of emergency shelter and into permanent housing.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Even as the mayor continues to plead for aid from the federal government, expedited work permits for migrants, and a different operational approach at the border to help spread the influx of asylum-seekers around the country, critics have offered solutions, both short- and long-term, to address the overall crisis.</span></p> <p><b>Extend Right to Shelter Standards and Invest in Immigration Legal Services<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last week, City Comptroller Brad Lander and Council Member Shahana Hanif, who chairs the Council’s immigration committee, wrote a </span><a href="https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/letter-to-mayor-adams-re-prioritizing-immigration-legal-services-to-assist-asylum-seekers-on-pathways-out-of-shelter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">letter</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to the mayor, calling on him to invest an additional $70 million in the city budget for immigration legal services. That would include $10 million to scale up pro se legal clinics that help immigrants apply for asylum, work authorization, and Temporary Protected Status; and $60 million to provide legal representation to those in immigration courts, where there is a backlog of 127,000 cases. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mayor’s office did not respond to an inquiry about the funding recommendation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Those funds, Lander and Hanif said, could help expand the city’s existing programs for immigrants including ActionNYC, the Immigrant Opportunity Initiative (IOI), and the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP). And they said the city should work with law schools and law firms to enroll volunteers who can provide legal assistance to migrants, and enlist the help of nonprofit and religious organizations for outreach and translation services.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They urged the administration to take an “all hands” approach to the crisis by expanding direct outreach to asylum seekers in the HERRCs and DHS shelter system and to create systems for data collection, case prioritization, and follow-up contact. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“With a dedicated all-hands outreach effort and an investment of $70 million for legal services, the City can significantly reduce the shelter length of stay, redeploy existing shelter space for people newly in need or newly arrived, reduce the number of people otherwise in the shelter system, and save significantly on the costs of operating shelters,” Lander and Hanif wrote. “As immigrants have for generations, these new arrivals have the potential to contribute greatly to NYC’s economic and cultural vitality. Their success, and their contributions to NYC, depend on taking the next step now to help them establish new lives here.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The letter was sent just prior to a City Council budget hearing where Hanif questioned officials from the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and was left dissatisfied with their testimony. Though she agreed that the federal government has left the city to fend for itself, “a lack of federal support does not excuse some of the ways in which the City is failing to meet the needs of asylum seekers,” she said, in a statement after the hearing. She noted that the city has disbursed no new funds for asylum seeker legal services this year and that there still seems to be no long-term plan. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hanif also urged the passage of her bill, </span><a href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6047891&amp;GUID=84A59237-CFA0-4415-B52B-6889C47927F3&amp;Options=&amp;Search=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Intro. 942</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, which would require that emergency congregate housing, including the HERRCs, abide by the minimum standards required under the right-to-shelter law.</span></p> <p><b>Free Up Shelter Capacity by Eliminating 90-Day Rule for Housing Vouchers<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The migrant crisis has placed a particular strain on the city’s shelter system, with the daily shelter population </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dhs/downloads/pdf/dailyreport.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">ballooning</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to nearly 80,000 adults and children. According to city estimates from early May, that included about 37,500 asylum-seekers. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The city requires that families with children spend 90-days in a shelter before they can apply for the CityFHEPS program, which provides a rental assistance voucher to help families find permanent housing. An analysis released Monday by Win, the city’s largest shelter and services provider for families with children, found that repealing that 90-day rule could save the city tens of thousands of dollars per homeless family with children. The organization is one of several that have argued for easing access to housing vouchers</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"For decades, the 90-Day Rule has arbitrarily kept New Yorkers in shelter far longer than they should be — but right now, the City has a chance to end this illogical barrier,” said Christine Quinn, President &amp; CEO of Win, in a statement. “Repealing this rule could save the City up to $27,990 per family with children, while helping them leave shelter sooner. It’s the definition of a win-win.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the 90-day rule for this story, and has </span><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/citys-largest-shelter-provider-urges-mayor-to-scrap-90-day-shelter-stay-rule-for-housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">not taken a position</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in prior reporting by other outlets on the subject. “The administration is deeply grateful to the New Yorkers who have experienced homelessness and helped us develop our blueprint for housing and homelessness,” the mayor’s office told </span><a href="https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2023/02/advocates-decry-90-day-waiting-rule-affordable-housing-sheltered-new-yorkers-needless/383124/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">City &amp; State</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in a statement in February. “Just a few months ago, we announced a host of CityFHEPS reforms to cut red tape, reduce administrative burdens, and move more New Yorkers out of shelter and into affordable housing as quickly as possible, and we are doing that everyday.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Quinn, a former City Council Speaker, noted that eliminating the rule would free up shelter capacity while easing pressure on the city budget. “There is no good reason to keep this rule in place — but we think City Hall will agree there are plenty of reasons to repeal it,” she said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the mayor could unilaterally get rid of the regulation, there is also an effort before the City Council to do so. Council Member Diana Ayala, a Bronx Democrat, has sponsored </span><a href="https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5995863&amp;GUID=4F0FC024-E228-4E8D-809B-12A8007C4DA4&amp;Options=ID%7CText%7C&amp;Search=878" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">legislation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that would eliminate the need for a family to stay in a shelter at all before they can apply for a housing voucher.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Repealing the 90-day rule is not only good for the city financially, it’s the right thing to do,” Ayala said in a statement. “Families entering shelter should not have to wait 90 days to begin applying for vouchers that take months to process. If we intend to solve the bottlenecks within our shelter system, then we must take a look at all the policies in place that are contributing to that bottleneck, including the 90-day rule.”</span></p> <p><b>Renovate Private and City-Owned Vacant Apartments <br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">As a means to address the homelessness and housing crisis, elected officials and housing advocates have been urging the administration to invest in renovating vacant apartments owned by the city and also to provide incentives to private landlords to carry out similar fixes in dilapidated units that they own. Those solutions could, by extension, also assist in tackling the migrant crisis as they provide an avenue for people living in shelters to transition to permanent homes. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Open New York, a pro-housing group, conducted a survey and found over 200 vacant rent-stabilized units in buildings that the city either owns or subsidizes, according to </span><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/empty-nyc-owned-apartments-could-help-solve-housing-crisis-policy-group-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a Gothamist report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. The group is pushing the administration to get those apartments back in rotation by funding repairs. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the public housing agency, also has thousands of vacant apartments that elected officials and advocates say could be used to quickly provide housing to those in shelter if they are fixed and leased.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mayor did take one step </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/272-23/mayor-adams-invest-up-10-million-repair-rent-stabilized-homes-providing-roofs-heads#:~:text=NEW%20YORK%20%E2%80%93%20New%20York%20City,with%20access%20to%20those%20homes." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">last month</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to coax private landlords into bringing rent-stabilized homes back on the market by launching a $10 million program that will provide $25,000 each to renovate 400 “chronically vacant” rent-stabilized units and then connect those apartments with families receiving CityFHEPS vouchers. However, housing advocates and landlords have both said the program is a drop in the bucket considering what they say are tens of thousands of rent-stabilized units that lie vacant across the city. </span></p> <p><b>Lease Apartments on the Market for Homeless Families<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, a Democrat, has criticized the real estate industry for failing to support the city’s efforts, called out suburban lawmakers for their refusal to permit more housing development, and blasted the Biden administration’s relative inaction on a crisis that cuts across multiple states and cities.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“While Mayor Adams is doing the wrong thing in rolling back Right-to-Shelter, we must be careful to call even more loudly on those who are doing nothing at all: the real estate community that sits on thousands of vacant apartments while families sleep in the streets; our neighbors in the suburbs who hide behind racist zoning policies that prevent new affordable housing from being built; and the Biden administration that refuses to step up with meaningful aid despite immigration being a federal issue,” Reynoso said in part in a statement on Friday. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Wednesday, Reynoso proposed three legal options for the governor, mayor, and City Council that would simultaneously confront the housing and homelessness crisis to reduce pressure on the city’s shelter system. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Under his proposal the Council would pass a law adding the migrant crisis to the list of emergencies in the city’s Administrative Code, the mayoral administration would lease apartments for homeless families while landlords would be required to make it a priority to rent to the city at market-rate, and landlords would be prohibited from refusing to rent to the city when an emergency has been declared. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Additionally, Reynoso proposed that the mayor declare an emergency over the homelessness crisis and seek more assistance for it from the state.</span></p> <p><b>State Action<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Advocates have praised the governor and Legislature for allocating about $73 million in the recently approved $229 billion state budget for legal assistance and services for immigrants. But they have also criticized the failure of various pieces of legislation that could aid immigrants more broadly and help the newly-arrived asylum-seekers. The top relevant priority for advocates is the passage of the Access to Representation Act (ARA), which would ensure the right to legal representation in immigration cases. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It is imperative to use a portion of these additional funds to build the long-term infrastructure that the Access to Representation Act would provide,” said Shayna Kessler, state advocacy manager for the Vera Institute of Justice’s Advancing Universal Representation initiative, in a statement referencing the $73 million allocation. “The ARA guarantees in state law the right to legal representation in these complex immigration cases and ensures long-term stability for these life-saving services. It is the right thing to do, and we will redouble our efforts to ensure the bill is passed this year.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Borough President Reynoso urged the governor to offer the city the use of state personnel and facilities, while suspending local laws that municipalities such as Rockland County have used to block migrants from being housed in their jurisdiction, as well as those that counties have used to block new affordable housing creation. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In an </span><a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2023/05/17/hochul--n-y--working-to-find--welcoming--sites-for-migrant-housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">interview with NY1</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Hochul said the state is working with the city to identify sites to welcome migrants, including </span><a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2023/05/17/local-officials-told-suny-campuses--closed-psych-centers-possible-migrant-housing-options" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">potentially</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> SUNY campuses and shuttered psychiatric facilities. “The city has done an incredible job trying to find places to house them, but they are at capacity.” Hochul said. “So we’re helping [Adams] find places that will be welcoming.”</span></p> <p><b>Federal Action</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> <br /></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mayor Adams has pressed President Biden to not just provide funding but to take several executive actions on the migrant crisis. Last month, he called on the Department of Homeland Security to re-designate TPS for migrants from Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Sudan, South Sudan, and Cameroon, to expand access to humanitarian parole, and to increase the number of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers, or reassign existing ones, to reduce application processing times. Those measures would help migrants obtain expedited work authorization. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The president of the United States can give us the ability to allow people to work. This is in the lap of the executive branch of the United States of America, and that's what we are calling for,” Adams said at the time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams has often cast himself as standing alone on the migrant crisis, critiquing fellow Democrats, including Biden, and others for what he sees as lackluster support in lobbying the federal government for aid. While the mayor has been right that federal and state financial aid has been slow to materialize, he has falsely claimed that Biden has no </span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/05/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-border-enforcement-actions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">southern border policy</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and that City Council members and others have not helped lobby for federal and state support.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Besides the proposals the Council issued, Speaker Adams also advocated for more support from the state in her </span><a href="https://council.nyc.gov/press/2023/02/15/2353/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">budget testimony</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in Albany in February. On April 7, after the city submitted its application for FEMA funding on March 29, the speaker and Council Member Brannan </span><a href="http://council.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/4.7.23_NYC-Council-Letter-RE-FEMA-Asylum-Seeker-Funding-To-POTUS.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wrote a letter</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to President Biden in support of the request. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last month, in an effort Adams did acknowledge, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and members of New York’s Congressional delegation stood outside the U.S. Capitol with immigration activists and proposed a series of solutions, echoing demands that the mayor has also made of the federal government. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“For almost a year, New York City has been a focal point of the ongoing challenge of aiding asylum seekers – but this issue did not originate when the first bus arrived at Port Authority,” they said in a joint statement. “It is rooted in decades of inaction toward reforming our immigration infrastructure and agencies’ inability to adapt to the needs of people arriving in our country.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“New York City, a city of immigrants, needs aid in meeting the current crisis, and at the same time, we must implement real, achievable, sustainable changes to our federal systems of immigration to help ensure that people coming to our country for its opportunities do not find themselves arriving in a new crisis of our own inertia.,” they added.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Williams and the congressional representatives called for:</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Issuing new Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations, redesignations, and extensions to immigrants.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Passage of the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act to reduce the waiting period for work authorizations from 180 days to 30 days.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Passage of The New Way Forward Act to significantly reform the immigration system and its interactions with the criminal legal system that disproportionately hurt immigrants of color.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Ending all contracts with private immigration detention centers, repealing mandatory detention, ending family detention, and banning solitary confinement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Passage of the New Deal for New Americans Act to ease the naturalization process and address obstacles to employment and language barriers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Expanding eligibility for DACA recipients and undocumented immigrants to Medicaid, CHIP, and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges, while ensuring that access does not affect their ability to apply for citizenship under the </span><a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2022/09/08/dhs-publishes-fair-and-humane-public-charge-rule" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">public charge rule</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Creating a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship for Dreamers (including DACA recipients), those with Temporary Protected Status and those covered by Deferred Enforced Departure.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Passage of the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929 to expand pathways to permanent residency for eligible immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least seven years.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Clearing family and employment-based backlogs, recapturing unused visas, eliminating lengthy wait times for reentry, and increasing per-country visa caps.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Broad immigration court reform, increased funding for legal assistance, reduced immigration court backlogs, expanded training for immigration judges, and more.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Expedited processing of Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) applications to allow those without Social Security numbers to file taxes.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">– Expanded funding for language accessibility.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Williams, a Democrat, has been critical of the mayor, particularly in the wake of his executive order partially suspending right-to-shelter. “The mayor attempting to weaken those rights now—in a moment of immense need for so many asylum seekers—is a misguided and harmful action in the face of the real, urgent challenge exacerbated by a lack of decisive and timely state and federal action,” the public advocate said in a statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But he hasn’t reserved his criticism only for Adams. “Denying rights and resources to people arriving in desperate need and fervent hope will not replace action needed from the President, who has failed to provide sufficient federal funding or a national response, or the Governor, who has failed to support the city, and therefore the state, by coordinating with other municipalities,” Williams said. “Instead, this action will only harm our newest, aspiring and long-term New Yorkers and shift, not solve, the crisis. While it is clear that the current situation is unsafe and unsustainable, we need Democratic leaders on all levels of government to focus on getting the support needed to uphold the right to shelter, not undercut it.”</span></p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
Three Downstate Casino Licenses are Up for Grabs: Everything You Need To Know 2023-05-18T04:00:00+00:00 2023-05-18T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12006-downstate-new-york-city-casino-licenses Kristian Burt [email protected] <p> <img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/downsate-cas-license.jpg" /></p> <p>A rendering for The Coney, a proposed casino in Coney Island</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature decided that Downstate New York—which includes New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County—could potentially get three full casino licenses on a faster timeline than originally planned, the application process has begun and concepts for proposals have been sporadically announced. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The availability of the three casino licenses and the process for awarding them were finalized in the state budget passed in April 2022, in part accelerating a plan from a prior casino law passed in 2013 that allowed for the more immediate opening of several Upstate casinos.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The formal application process for the three Downstate licenses began in January of this year, with the region’s two current “racinos” — the MGM Resorts International’s Empire City Casino in Yonkers and Genting Group’s Resorts World New York City in the Queens Aqueduct Racetrack complex — believed by some to be at the front of the line for licenses to become full casinos with table games. They are currently limited to a race track and slot machines, and since they are both already established their owners are hopeful that they can win full licenses, allowing them to expand significantly with games such as poker, blackjack, and more.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But they have serious competition from a series of groups that have put forward proposals across the city and beyond.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As of May 1, there have been 11 casino proposals announced in some form, including five in Manhattan (Midtown, Hudson Yards, Penn Station, Times Square, and adjacent to the United Nations building), two in Queens (Willets Point and Ozone Park), one in the Bronx (Throgs Neck), one in Brooklyn (Coney Island), one in Nassau County (Uniondale), and one in Westchester County (Yonkers).</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In order to formally apply for a casino license, the minimum capital investment for the project must be $500 million, applicants must submit a research study detailing the economic impact their casino would have on the surrounding community, and they must pay the $1 million application fee. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The casinos are intended to promote economic growth for the state through jobs at the venues and increased activity in surrounding communities, while also providing tax revenue that will fund education and financial assistance programs — as well as the MTA, per the new state budget passed in early May of this year. Along with the $1 million per proposal in application fees, each of the potential three casino license awardees will be required to pay a $500 million license fee to the state. Taxes will produce ongoing revenue, including but not limited to at least 25% on gross slot gaming revenue and 10% on all other gross gaming revenue.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">State Senator Joseph Addabbo, a Queens Democrat and chair of the Senate’s Committee on Racing, Gaming, and Wagering, said the casino licenses are a hot commodity for all involved.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The gaming industry gives about $3 billion on average every year to education,” Addabbo said in an interview with Gotham Gazette. “There is billions in revenue, there's thousands of construction and post-construction jobs. So the opportunity here doesn't come about every couple of years, this is a one-time shot. We're not talking about more licenses, this is three, and that's gonna be it for the foreseeable future.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Addabbo, and the state senate committee he chairs, will monitor the downstate licensing process and provide oversight, but does not have a role in the selection of the applicants.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are multiple governing parties overseeing New York’s gaming initiatives, including the gaming committee in each house of the Legislature and the ultimate decider, </span><a href="https://www.gaming.ny.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the New York State Gaming Commission</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Before final decisions by the Gaming Commission, the entity presiding over much of the downstate license application process is the New York Gaming Facility Location Board, which was created as part of the 2013 law allowing for new casino licenses upstate and, eventually, downstate. The commission elected new members in 2022 to oversee the downstate casino licensure process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Board is now composed of three members: Vicki Been, an NYU professor and former New York City deputy mayor; Quenia Abreu, President and CEO of the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce; and Stuart Rabinowitz, an attorney and former president of Hofstra University. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Its power ranges from setting the licensing fees to conducting investigative hearings at any stage of the application process. Ultimately, it will select up to three candidates to be reviewed for licenses by the Gaming Commission. It reports to Governor Kathy Hochul, though Hochul has indicated she is not involved in the process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On January 3, the Board released a Request For Applicants (RFA), which included guidance for potential bidders, evaluation criteria, and an outline of the entire process timeline. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That kicked off a casino bidding process that is split into two stages, and many proposals have emerged.</span></p> <p><b>Stage 1</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first stage of the formal process began with the Board’s RFA in January and a period in which potential applicants could ask questions.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As of March 2, the Board received “several hundred questions” and is working on responses, which will then be published. After the publication of those responses, there will be another round of question-and-answer as the process unfolds. The official deadline for applications will be 30 days after the Board’s second set of question-responses is published — a deadline expected to be sometime this summer or fall.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the meantime, a series of potential applicants have been announcing proposals for casinos across the five boroughs and in the suburbs. More are expected as the deadline approaches, while some that have been publicized may not officially enter the bidding process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After the official application period ends, applicants that choose to formally move forward in the process and pay the $1 million application fee will be reviewed based on their geography by a Community Advisory Committee (CAC). Each application will trigger the establishment of a CAC.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The CACs for each proposal in Westchester and Long Island are composed of five members—one each chosen by the governor, relevant mayor, and local state senator, State Assembly member, and City Council member. CACs in New York City will be composed of six members, with the addition of the relevant Borough President choosing one.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For example, for a proposed casino(s) in Coney Island, Brooklyn, the CAC would be made up of representatives of Mayor Eric Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul, Borough President Antonio Reynoso, State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny, and City Council Member Ari Kagan (or the official themself).</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">CACs will hold public hearings and review written responses to casino proposals under their purview, and must hold a vote to determine whether each proposal has local community support. CACs can also provide feedback for the proposals, asking questions or expressing concerns, which applicants can respond to prior to the vote.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In order for a casino proposal to move on in the process, the CAC vote must yield at least a two-thirds majority in the affirmative, meaning four votes. Proposals that are advanced move on to the Gaming Facility Location Board.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first stage of the process will end after all applicants are approved or disapproved by the CACs, and those approved are submitted to the local zoning authorities to begin the relevant review process by which a potential casino could win the necessary zoning changes.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Senator Addabbo said the creation of the CACs is a new function for New York when reviewing casino proposals, and called them an integral part of the process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“That is a critical first step, something we did not do back in 2013 when we did the initial four licenses upstate, there was no community input,” Addabbo said. “And even when they were doing a racino for Aqueduct, the community had very little input, not even advisory, but just whenever we had the opportunity, we gained input. But this is something new for this go around of the three licenses downstate, and it's a critical step, without that CAC approval, they can't go forward.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aside from adding the CACs, the state is retaining most of the structure from the 2013 upstate casino licensing process, during which the Gaming Facility Location Board selected three casinos out of 16 applicants: Montreign Resort and Casino in Thompson, Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady, and Lago Resort Casino in Tyre. </span></p> <p><b>Stage 2<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stage two will begin once the aforementioned application and zoning process is completed, after which the Gaming Facility Location Board will announce the remaining applicants, who will publicly present their proposals to the Board and hear comments from a public audience.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Board will then select “up to three applicants” to be reviewed by the State Gaming Commission, which will ultimately finalize casino license winners.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the RFA, the Gaming Facility Location Board will select applicants based on a weighted system, with “economic activity and business development” being 70%; “local impact siting” 10%; “workforce enhancement” 10%; and “diversity framework” 10%.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Gaming Commission is composed of five people, including Chair Brian O’Dwyer. The other members are John Crotty, Peter Moschetti Jr., Marissa Shorenstein, and Jerry Skurnik.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Commission will review applicants' ability to fund their casino projects in full, meet all the state's requirements, fund any proposed community outreach programs proposed, and otherwise follow through.</span></p> <p><b>Making Progress<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the process remains in Stage 1 going into the summer, Senator Addabbo is hopeful that it will be finished by the end of the year.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I know they have the wherewithal and the professionalism to do the downstate licenses even though it is a different process,” Addabbo said of the Gaming Facility Location Board. “But nevertheless, I am keeping an eye on the progress they are making in terms of ultimately accepting these submissions by the proposed sites, and then evaluating them. So we're not there yet, but hopefully soon.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another major proponent behind the process has been New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former state senator who was chair of the Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee when the racino licenses were being awarded. At the time, Adams </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/nyregion/22casino.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wound up as part</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of an ethics investigation into the process and though he was never charged with a crime, he was reprimanded by the New York State Inspector General for working with figures tied to one of the bidders, including revealing internal information and attending a victory celebration, and not adequately responding during the Inspector General’s investigation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/169-22/transcript-mayor-eric-adams-makes-social-services-related-announcement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has said he would like</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> at least two licenses to go to proposals in the city, citing the economic benefits they could bring.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We would love to have two in New York City,” Adams said in March 2022. “I think it would be a great boost for the economy, and we are evaluating what's the best location, so we can weigh in with some type of communication. We're looking forward to doing so.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But Adams </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/10/nyregion/adams-timothy-pearson-casino-salaries.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has also come under scrutiny</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> around his casino-related relationships, including hiring his long-time friend Timothy Pearson as a senior advisor. At the time, Pearson was also a vice president of Resorts World Casino handling security. More recently, Adams’ former chief of staff, Frank Carone, </span><a href="https://www.amny.com/news/former-adams-chief-of-staff-to-aid-sl-green-in-its-times-square-casino-bid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">signed a consulting contract with Greenberg Traurig</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the legal firm representing SL Green in its Times Square casino bid. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Referencing the mayor’s time as chair of the Senate Racing and Wagering Committee, Senator Addabbo said Adams surely “understands the economic growth involved, the jobs, the revenue, and everything else that comes along with these casinos. So he's saying, 'Yeah, I want two' because he sees the potential economic growth and again, the jobs.”</span></p> <p><b>Proposals<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">There have been proposals announced and hinted at in all five boroughs except Staten Island, one on Long Island, and to expand the existing MGM casino in Westchester.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Manhattan appears that it will have the most bids, with five current proposals in the works. Borough President Mark Levine, who will select one member of any CAC in Manhattan or serve himself, has remained neutral to the bidding war while in its early stages, but is focused on making sure any casino would benefit the surrounding community.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“On the one side, there are benefits for jobs and economic development, so we have to look at what any proposal would mean for a neighborhood, good and bad,” Levine said on </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11813-max-politics-podcast-manhattan-borough-president-mark-levine-housing-plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in February. “We have to weigh concerns about gambling addiction and what it would mean to local residents, so there's a lot to consider.” </span></p> <p><em>Midtown East</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Soloviev Group, in partnership with one of the largest casino companies in the country, Mohegan, </span><a href="https://www.costar.com/article/1465567390/soloviev-group-bets-manhattans-largest-undeveloped-lot-will-help-it-win-coveted-casino-license" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is hoping to build</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a casino on one of the biggest undeveloped lots in Manhattan.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adjacent to the United Nations building in Midtown along the East River, according to the draft plan the 6.7 acre plot would host a massive ferris wheel along with four acres of green space, two residential towers, a hotel, and a museum devoted to democracy. The casino itself would be situated mostly underground with windows overlooking the water. The project is initially being dubbed Freedom Plaza.</span></p> <p><em>Times Square </em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Caesars Entertainment </span><a href="https://deadline.com/2022/12/jay-z-roc-nation-caesars-palace-times-square-new-york-1235192668/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has partnered with</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> realty-company SL Green and Jay Z’s entertainment business Roc Nation to try to bring a Caesars Palace casino to Times Square.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The companies </span><a href="https://www.curbed.com/2023/02/times-square-casino-slgreen-caesars-jay-z-security-bratton.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">argue the casino</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> would be a central player in the revival of the Theater District, with $117 million in funds going to initiatives around education, theater tickets for children in underserved communities, and more. The casino would be smaller than some of the other proposals, which the companies say will lead customers to also see Broadway shows and other attractions in and beyond Times Square.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the proposal has come with some of the harshest pushback yet. The ‘No Times Square Casino’ coalition </span><a href="http://www.notimessquarecasino.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is a group</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of community groups in the Times Square area banding together to prevent a casino. The coalition officially denounced any applicants in the area on April 14, citing congestion, economic disruption, and social harm as main concerns.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Manhattan Community Board 5, which includes the Times Square area, has also passed </span><a href="https://www.citybiz.co/article/404258/no-times-square-casino-community-coalition-forms-to-oppose-gambling-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a resolution</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> pushing for the local City Council Member, Erik Bottcher, to oppose a casino bid for Times Square.</span></p> <p><em>Hudson Yards</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Related Companies, one of the real estate firms behind the Hudson Yards redevelopment project, </span><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-07/nyc-hudson-yards-developer-pitches-1-500-room-resort-in-casino-bid#xj4y7vzkg?leadSource=uverify%20wall"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is partnering with</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts to bring a casino next to the Javits Center. The casino would be part of a larger project located on the western half of Hudson Yards, platformed on top of the MTA rail yard, and potentially consist of public parks, a school, a hotel, many restaurants, and the casino. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The project is being pitched as an apt extension of Hudson Yards as it currently exists — </span><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/s/largest-real-estate-project-in-u-s--is-being-built-above-a-train-yard-162054332.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJWcFUdxGZz-wxcD1jjc8PtehU9tRAQQs8MDJuSAXnfRXPxVYNHf4imofOADF-o0lOYV0Nv2ZleX53VcEnoTSFsVQeGeHDhQUCUFmatF1dv8m3MBJolmgVKfwwCsUaIiF1HVBPnnYI-PjUPt9FzF7X_NN46ZLJERu-dFER2zddTP#:~:text=The%20Hudson%20Yards%20project%2C%20on,was%20constructed%20in%20the%201930s." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the largest</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> private real estate development in American history with multiple tourist attractions, a mall, public space, event venues, and more — and neighbor to The Javits Center, the massive convention center whose attendees would be natural potential patrons of a new casino.</span></p> <p><em>Fifth Avenue</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Saks Fifth Avenue owner Hudson’s Bay Company </span><a href="https://www.6sqft.com/new-renderings-of-saks-fifth-avenue-casino-in-midtown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is hoping to bring</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a high-end casino to its flagship store at 611 5th Ave. The company wants to use 200,000 feet of existing space from the ninth through the 11th floors of the store to bring a luxury casino, which would include a rooftop terrace overlooking Rockefeller Center. The upper floors are currently used as temporary swing spaces.</span></p> <p><em>Penn Station</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">City real estate giant Vornado Realty </span><a href="https://www.usbets.com/report-nyc-casino-proposal-near-penn-station-emerges/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is looking to build</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a casino on the lot that currently houses Hotel Pennsylvania. The hotel, which sits across from Penn Station, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/nyregion/hotel-pennsylvania-nyc.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is currently being demolished</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, part of a major potential redevelopment plan for the entire Penn Station area that has hit significant roadbumps.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vornado is proposing a casino to complement any future upgrades to the station and surrounding neighborhood, though the future of those plans, championed by Governor Hochul, has become uncertain given the company’s reevaluation of its proposal, which relied heavily on new office towers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The company has not publicly announced any partners for the project, and no renderings or detailed plans have been published.</span></p> <p><em>Ferry Point</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The only current bid in the Bronx is at Ferry Point Park in Throggs Neck, connected to the Trump Links Golf Course. Gaming company Bally’s </span><a href="https://www.bxtimes.com/ballys-makes-a-bid-for-a-casino-at-trump-golf-links-in-throggs-neck/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is hoping to put</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a casino where the golf course clubhouse now stands. The casino would use about ten acres of land, with seven more for public green space and potential housing for employees.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The casino proposal has come with mixed feelings. Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson is worried about how the Throgs Neck and larger Bronx community would be affected by the casino, but she’s intrigued by the economic development potential.</span> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I want to be able to make sure that there's a real community benefit, but you understand when you’re building out casinos, you're going to have a hotel, restaurant, parking, small businesses, retail,” Gibson said recently on </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11863-max-politics-podcast-bronx-borough-president-vanessa-gibson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “So you're building a whole new neighborhood within a neighborhood and you're bringing in clientele, I want to make this beneficial for the Bronx.”</span></p> <p><em>Coney Island</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The only current proposal in Brooklyn </span><a href="https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/here-is-what-a-casino-on-coney-island-might-actually-look-like-030723" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is for a beachfront casino</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in Coney Island, near famous long-standing attractions. Real-estate investment firm Thor Equities Group is partnering with Saratoga Casino Holdings and The Chickasaw Nation, as well as Legends Hospitality.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The casino would include a hotel across from the boardwalk, a convention hall, and a large entertainment venue. Part of the pitch is to help make the area a place with year-round attractions.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said he is open to the prospect of a casino in Coney Island, but he has questions about benefits for the surrounding community.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We need a reinvigoration of some sort,” Reynoso said on </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11774-max-politics-podcast-brooklyn-borough-president-antonio-reynoso-vision" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in January, speaking about Coney Island in general. “I don't know if a casino answers that, but I don't want to dismiss it outright, especially if this casino could provide, within five years, can every single [public] housing development in Coney Island be repaired and be dignified housing? Can they do that? Are they going to bring more people? We're talking about one of the highest rates of unemployment. Coney Island, unemployment, almost 12%, especially for Black and brown people. Are we talking about full-time jobs that they can get? Those are all things you can't just push aside.”</span></p> <p><em>Mets-Willets Point</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aside from the already-established Resorts World casino, there is one other proposal announced for Queens, with a big push underway. New York Mets owner Steve Cohen </span><a href="https://nypost.com/2022/11/19/mets-owner-steve-cohen-betting-big-on-nyc-casino/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is looking to capitalize</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on the already-announced $780 million development project in Willets Point, which will bring a stadium for New York City Football Club, housing, retail, and more, and put his own casino adjacent to the Mets’ Citi Field.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cohen has named the proposal “New Green Willets” and <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/5/18/23727795/mets-steve-cohen-parking-soccer-stadium" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hopes to put the casino</a> where some of the Mets parking lots are currently, though he will need the city to remove the current zoning designation in order to begin construction — it is technically city-owned park land.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Members of the community have already </span><a href="https://patch.com/new-york/flushing-murray-hill/new-yorkers-rally-against-casino-citi-field" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">begun protesting</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the proposal, which will set the table for the CAC’s deliberations.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For his part, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is hoping to get both a Willets Point casino license and the expanded Resorts World license. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think it would be a homerun, perhaps to have two,” Richards said on </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11721-max-politics-podcast-borough-president-donovan-richards-queens-updates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in December. “But the jobs, what's happening at Willets, transportation improvements — I will take it all coming out of this pandemic. But let me end by saying this on the casino: one of the things we've been clear about is right across the train tracks is neighborhoods, like Corona, have been hit hard during this pandemic. And we want to make sure that even as Willets is developed, even with the possibility of a casino, that we're also focusing in on a lot of the community benefits that need to also be a part of this plan.”</span></p> <p><em>Nassau</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Casino and resort company Las Vegas Sands </span><a href="https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/construction-development/las-vegas-sands-pitch-nassau-coliseum-for-new-casino-117190" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has proposed to buy</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the lease of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and use the 80 available acres of land to build a casino, hotel, community spaces, a performance venue, and celebrity chef restaurants. Las Vegas Sands is collaborating with RXR Realty, which has been working on the Coliseum site.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sands </span><a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/casinos-gaming/las-vegas-sands-takes-another-step-toward-ny-resort-project-2768285/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">announced on April 26</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that Nassau County signed a 99-year preliminary agreement with the company to use the Coliseum site for the casino, a major first step in the bid’s chances. Sands will also need approval from the Nassau County Legislature, which is scheduled to meet around the proposal on May 22.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While the proposal is in its early stages and there is growing institutional support, community pushback has started. A petition ‘Say No To The Casino’ has </span><a href="https://www.change.org/p/say-no-to-the-casino" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">garnered</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> more than 2,000 signatures. Hofstra University </span><a href="https://www.liherald.com/stories/hofstra-university-sues-county-planning-commission-over-4-billion-nassau-hub-casino-proposal,174397" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is suing</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the Nassau County Planning Commission for not adequately notifying the public of a hearing to consider the Las Vegas Sands casino, which it says violates the state Open Meetings Law.</span></p> <p><em>Existing Casinos</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">MGM Resorts’ Empire City Casino in Yonkers and Resorts World Casino in Queens, the two current downstate ‘racinos’ — meaning race tracks and some gambling via slot machines but not table games — have been seen as likely frontrunners to win licenses to expand to become full-fledged casinos and offer far more amenities.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Addabbo, the Queens state senator and gaming committee chair, has been a major figure in the development and oversight of Resorts World, which is not far from his district. He said that though Resorts World has acres it is looking to expand upon with a new license, MGM will be applying with more space and the ability for a larger expansion project.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“With Resorts World, they already built their hotel, they already built an expansion, and they still have acres to build upon, but they still have about a billion-dollar investment,” Addabbo said, indicating his view of a disparity between the two in terms of their status and growth potential. “MGM, basically waiting for that license, they have great potential with their acreage, they’ve got a lot of room to expand and build upon and certainly improve that area, which means a thousand construction jobs, as well as the thousand post-construction jobs.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">

***
by Kristian Burt, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

</span></p>
<p> <img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/downsate-cas-license.jpg" /></p> <p>A rendering for The Coney, a proposed casino in Coney Island</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature decided that Downstate New York—which includes New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County—could potentially get three full casino licenses on a faster timeline than originally planned, the application process has begun and concepts for proposals have been sporadically announced. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The availability of the three casino licenses and the process for awarding them were finalized in the state budget passed in April 2022, in part accelerating a plan from a prior casino law passed in 2013 that allowed for the more immediate opening of several Upstate casinos.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The formal application process for the three Downstate licenses began in January of this year, with the region’s two current “racinos” — the MGM Resorts International’s Empire City Casino in Yonkers and Genting Group’s Resorts World New York City in the Queens Aqueduct Racetrack complex — believed by some to be at the front of the line for licenses to become full casinos with table games. They are currently limited to a race track and slot machines, and since they are both already established their owners are hopeful that they can win full licenses, allowing them to expand significantly with games such as poker, blackjack, and more.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But they have serious competition from a series of groups that have put forward proposals across the city and beyond.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As of May 1, there have been 11 casino proposals announced in some form, including five in Manhattan (Midtown, Hudson Yards, Penn Station, Times Square, and adjacent to the United Nations building), two in Queens (Willets Point and Ozone Park), one in the Bronx (Throgs Neck), one in Brooklyn (Coney Island), one in Nassau County (Uniondale), and one in Westchester County (Yonkers).</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In order to formally apply for a casino license, the minimum capital investment for the project must be $500 million, applicants must submit a research study detailing the economic impact their casino would have on the surrounding community, and they must pay the $1 million application fee. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The casinos are intended to promote economic growth for the state through jobs at the venues and increased activity in surrounding communities, while also providing tax revenue that will fund education and financial assistance programs — as well as the MTA, per the new state budget passed in early May of this year. Along with the $1 million per proposal in application fees, each of the potential three casino license awardees will be required to pay a $500 million license fee to the state. Taxes will produce ongoing revenue, including but not limited to at least 25% on gross slot gaming revenue and 10% on all other gross gaming revenue.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">State Senator Joseph Addabbo, a Queens Democrat and chair of the Senate’s Committee on Racing, Gaming, and Wagering, said the casino licenses are a hot commodity for all involved.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The gaming industry gives about $3 billion on average every year to education,” Addabbo said in an interview with Gotham Gazette. “There is billions in revenue, there's thousands of construction and post-construction jobs. So the opportunity here doesn't come about every couple of years, this is a one-time shot. We're not talking about more licenses, this is three, and that's gonna be it for the foreseeable future.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Addabbo, and the state senate committee he chairs, will monitor the downstate licensing process and provide oversight, but does not have a role in the selection of the applicants.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are multiple governing parties overseeing New York’s gaming initiatives, including the gaming committee in each house of the Legislature and the ultimate decider, </span><a href="https://www.gaming.ny.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the New York State Gaming Commission</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Before final decisions by the Gaming Commission, the entity presiding over much of the downstate license application process is the New York Gaming Facility Location Board, which was created as part of the 2013 law allowing for new casino licenses upstate and, eventually, downstate. The commission elected new members in 2022 to oversee the downstate casino licensure process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Board is now composed of three members: Vicki Been, an NYU professor and former New York City deputy mayor; Quenia Abreu, President and CEO of the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce; and Stuart Rabinowitz, an attorney and former president of Hofstra University. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Its power ranges from setting the licensing fees to conducting investigative hearings at any stage of the application process. Ultimately, it will select up to three candidates to be reviewed for licenses by the Gaming Commission. It reports to Governor Kathy Hochul, though Hochul has indicated she is not involved in the process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On January 3, the Board released a Request For Applicants (RFA), which included guidance for potential bidders, evaluation criteria, and an outline of the entire process timeline. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That kicked off a casino bidding process that is split into two stages, and many proposals have emerged.</span></p> <p><b>Stage 1</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first stage of the formal process began with the Board’s RFA in January and a period in which potential applicants could ask questions.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As of March 2, the Board received “several hundred questions” and is working on responses, which will then be published. After the publication of those responses, there will be another round of question-and-answer as the process unfolds. The official deadline for applications will be 30 days after the Board’s second set of question-responses is published — a deadline expected to be sometime this summer or fall.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the meantime, a series of potential applicants have been announcing proposals for casinos across the five boroughs and in the suburbs. More are expected as the deadline approaches, while some that have been publicized may not officially enter the bidding process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After the official application period ends, applicants that choose to formally move forward in the process and pay the $1 million application fee will be reviewed based on their geography by a Community Advisory Committee (CAC). Each application will trigger the establishment of a CAC.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The CACs for each proposal in Westchester and Long Island are composed of five members—one each chosen by the governor, relevant mayor, and local state senator, State Assembly member, and City Council member. CACs in New York City will be composed of six members, with the addition of the relevant Borough President choosing one.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For example, for a proposed casino(s) in Coney Island, Brooklyn, the CAC would be made up of representatives of Mayor Eric Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul, Borough President Antonio Reynoso, State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny, and City Council Member Ari Kagan (or the official themself).</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">CACs will hold public hearings and review written responses to casino proposals under their purview, and must hold a vote to determine whether each proposal has local community support. CACs can also provide feedback for the proposals, asking questions or expressing concerns, which applicants can respond to prior to the vote.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In order for a casino proposal to move on in the process, the CAC vote must yield at least a two-thirds majority in the affirmative, meaning four votes. Proposals that are advanced move on to the Gaming Facility Location Board.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first stage of the process will end after all applicants are approved or disapproved by the CACs, and those approved are submitted to the local zoning authorities to begin the relevant review process by which a potential casino could win the necessary zoning changes.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Senator Addabbo said the creation of the CACs is a new function for New York when reviewing casino proposals, and called them an integral part of the process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“That is a critical first step, something we did not do back in 2013 when we did the initial four licenses upstate, there was no community input,” Addabbo said. “And even when they were doing a racino for Aqueduct, the community had very little input, not even advisory, but just whenever we had the opportunity, we gained input. But this is something new for this go around of the three licenses downstate, and it's a critical step, without that CAC approval, they can't go forward.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aside from adding the CACs, the state is retaining most of the structure from the 2013 upstate casino licensing process, during which the Gaming Facility Location Board selected three casinos out of 16 applicants: Montreign Resort and Casino in Thompson, Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady, and Lago Resort Casino in Tyre. </span></p> <p><b>Stage 2<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stage two will begin once the aforementioned application and zoning process is completed, after which the Gaming Facility Location Board will announce the remaining applicants, who will publicly present their proposals to the Board and hear comments from a public audience.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Board will then select “up to three applicants” to be reviewed by the State Gaming Commission, which will ultimately finalize casino license winners.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the RFA, the Gaming Facility Location Board will select applicants based on a weighted system, with “economic activity and business development” being 70%; “local impact siting” 10%; “workforce enhancement” 10%; and “diversity framework” 10%.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Gaming Commission is composed of five people, including Chair Brian O’Dwyer. The other members are John Crotty, Peter Moschetti Jr., Marissa Shorenstein, and Jerry Skurnik.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Commission will review applicants' ability to fund their casino projects in full, meet all the state's requirements, fund any proposed community outreach programs proposed, and otherwise follow through.</span></p> <p><b>Making Progress<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the process remains in Stage 1 going into the summer, Senator Addabbo is hopeful that it will be finished by the end of the year.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I know they have the wherewithal and the professionalism to do the downstate licenses even though it is a different process,” Addabbo said of the Gaming Facility Location Board. “But nevertheless, I am keeping an eye on the progress they are making in terms of ultimately accepting these submissions by the proposed sites, and then evaluating them. So we're not there yet, but hopefully soon.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another major proponent behind the process has been New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former state senator who was chair of the Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee when the racino licenses were being awarded. At the time, Adams </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/nyregion/22casino.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wound up as part</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of an ethics investigation into the process and though he was never charged with a crime, he was reprimanded by the New York State Inspector General for working with figures tied to one of the bidders, including revealing internal information and attending a victory celebration, and not adequately responding during the Inspector General’s investigation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/169-22/transcript-mayor-eric-adams-makes-social-services-related-announcement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has said he would like</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> at least two licenses to go to proposals in the city, citing the economic benefits they could bring.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We would love to have two in New York City,” Adams said in March 2022. “I think it would be a great boost for the economy, and we are evaluating what's the best location, so we can weigh in with some type of communication. We're looking forward to doing so.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But Adams </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/10/nyregion/adams-timothy-pearson-casino-salaries.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has also come under scrutiny</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> around his casino-related relationships, including hiring his long-time friend Timothy Pearson as a senior advisor. At the time, Pearson was also a vice president of Resorts World Casino handling security. More recently, Adams’ former chief of staff, Frank Carone, </span><a href="https://www.amny.com/news/former-adams-chief-of-staff-to-aid-sl-green-in-its-times-square-casino-bid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">signed a consulting contract with Greenberg Traurig</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the legal firm representing SL Green in its Times Square casino bid. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Referencing the mayor’s time as chair of the Senate Racing and Wagering Committee, Senator Addabbo said Adams surely “understands the economic growth involved, the jobs, the revenue, and everything else that comes along with these casinos. So he's saying, 'Yeah, I want two' because he sees the potential economic growth and again, the jobs.”</span></p> <p><b>Proposals<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">There have been proposals announced and hinted at in all five boroughs except Staten Island, one on Long Island, and to expand the existing MGM casino in Westchester.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Manhattan appears that it will have the most bids, with five current proposals in the works. Borough President Mark Levine, who will select one member of any CAC in Manhattan or serve himself, has remained neutral to the bidding war while in its early stages, but is focused on making sure any casino would benefit the surrounding community.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“On the one side, there are benefits for jobs and economic development, so we have to look at what any proposal would mean for a neighborhood, good and bad,” Levine said on </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11813-max-politics-podcast-manhattan-borough-president-mark-levine-housing-plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in February. “We have to weigh concerns about gambling addiction and what it would mean to local residents, so there's a lot to consider.” </span></p> <p><em>Midtown East</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Soloviev Group, in partnership with one of the largest casino companies in the country, Mohegan, </span><a href="https://www.costar.com/article/1465567390/soloviev-group-bets-manhattans-largest-undeveloped-lot-will-help-it-win-coveted-casino-license" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is hoping to build</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a casino on one of the biggest undeveloped lots in Manhattan.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adjacent to the United Nations building in Midtown along the East River, according to the draft plan the 6.7 acre plot would host a massive ferris wheel along with four acres of green space, two residential towers, a hotel, and a museum devoted to democracy. The casino itself would be situated mostly underground with windows overlooking the water. The project is initially being dubbed Freedom Plaza.</span></p> <p><em>Times Square </em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Caesars Entertainment </span><a href="https://deadline.com/2022/12/jay-z-roc-nation-caesars-palace-times-square-new-york-1235192668/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has partnered with</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> realty-company SL Green and Jay Z’s entertainment business Roc Nation to try to bring a Caesars Palace casino to Times Square.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The companies </span><a href="https://www.curbed.com/2023/02/times-square-casino-slgreen-caesars-jay-z-security-bratton.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">argue the casino</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> would be a central player in the revival of the Theater District, with $117 million in funds going to initiatives around education, theater tickets for children in underserved communities, and more. The casino would be smaller than some of the other proposals, which the companies say will lead customers to also see Broadway shows and other attractions in and beyond Times Square.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the proposal has come with some of the harshest pushback yet. The ‘No Times Square Casino’ coalition </span><a href="http://www.notimessquarecasino.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is a group</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of community groups in the Times Square area banding together to prevent a casino. The coalition officially denounced any applicants in the area on April 14, citing congestion, economic disruption, and social harm as main concerns.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Manhattan Community Board 5, which includes the Times Square area, has also passed </span><a href="https://www.citybiz.co/article/404258/no-times-square-casino-community-coalition-forms-to-oppose-gambling-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a resolution</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> pushing for the local City Council Member, Erik Bottcher, to oppose a casino bid for Times Square.</span></p> <p><em>Hudson Yards</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Related Companies, one of the real estate firms behind the Hudson Yards redevelopment project, </span><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-07/nyc-hudson-yards-developer-pitches-1-500-room-resort-in-casino-bid#xj4y7vzkg?leadSource=uverify%20wall"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is partnering with</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts to bring a casino next to the Javits Center. The casino would be part of a larger project located on the western half of Hudson Yards, platformed on top of the MTA rail yard, and potentially consist of public parks, a school, a hotel, many restaurants, and the casino. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The project is being pitched as an apt extension of Hudson Yards as it currently exists — </span><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/s/largest-real-estate-project-in-u-s--is-being-built-above-a-train-yard-162054332.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJWcFUdxGZz-wxcD1jjc8PtehU9tRAQQs8MDJuSAXnfRXPxVYNHf4imofOADF-o0lOYV0Nv2ZleX53VcEnoTSFsVQeGeHDhQUCUFmatF1dv8m3MBJolmgVKfwwCsUaIiF1HVBPnnYI-PjUPt9FzF7X_NN46ZLJERu-dFER2zddTP#:~:text=The%20Hudson%20Yards%20project%2C%20on,was%20constructed%20in%20the%201930s." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the largest</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> private real estate development in American history with multiple tourist attractions, a mall, public space, event venues, and more — and neighbor to The Javits Center, the massive convention center whose attendees would be natural potential patrons of a new casino.</span></p> <p><em>Fifth Avenue</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Saks Fifth Avenue owner Hudson’s Bay Company </span><a href="https://www.6sqft.com/new-renderings-of-saks-fifth-avenue-casino-in-midtown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is hoping to bring</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a high-end casino to its flagship store at 611 5th Ave. The company wants to use 200,000 feet of existing space from the ninth through the 11th floors of the store to bring a luxury casino, which would include a rooftop terrace overlooking Rockefeller Center. The upper floors are currently used as temporary swing spaces.</span></p> <p><em>Penn Station</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">City real estate giant Vornado Realty </span><a href="https://www.usbets.com/report-nyc-casino-proposal-near-penn-station-emerges/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is looking to build</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a casino on the lot that currently houses Hotel Pennsylvania. The hotel, which sits across from Penn Station, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/nyregion/hotel-pennsylvania-nyc.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is currently being demolished</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, part of a major potential redevelopment plan for the entire Penn Station area that has hit significant roadbumps.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vornado is proposing a casino to complement any future upgrades to the station and surrounding neighborhood, though the future of those plans, championed by Governor Hochul, has become uncertain given the company’s reevaluation of its proposal, which relied heavily on new office towers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The company has not publicly announced any partners for the project, and no renderings or detailed plans have been published.</span></p> <p><em>Ferry Point</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The only current bid in the Bronx is at Ferry Point Park in Throggs Neck, connected to the Trump Links Golf Course. Gaming company Bally’s </span><a href="https://www.bxtimes.com/ballys-makes-a-bid-for-a-casino-at-trump-golf-links-in-throggs-neck/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is hoping to put</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a casino where the golf course clubhouse now stands. The casino would use about ten acres of land, with seven more for public green space and potential housing for employees.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The casino proposal has come with mixed feelings. Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson is worried about how the Throgs Neck and larger Bronx community would be affected by the casino, but she’s intrigued by the economic development potential.</span> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I want to be able to make sure that there's a real community benefit, but you understand when you’re building out casinos, you're going to have a hotel, restaurant, parking, small businesses, retail,” Gibson said recently on </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11863-max-politics-podcast-bronx-borough-president-vanessa-gibson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “So you're building a whole new neighborhood within a neighborhood and you're bringing in clientele, I want to make this beneficial for the Bronx.”</span></p> <p><em>Coney Island</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The only current proposal in Brooklyn </span><a href="https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/here-is-what-a-casino-on-coney-island-might-actually-look-like-030723" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is for a beachfront casino</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in Coney Island, near famous long-standing attractions. Real-estate investment firm Thor Equities Group is partnering with Saratoga Casino Holdings and The Chickasaw Nation, as well as Legends Hospitality.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The casino would include a hotel across from the boardwalk, a convention hall, and a large entertainment venue. Part of the pitch is to help make the area a place with year-round attractions.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said he is open to the prospect of a casino in Coney Island, but he has questions about benefits for the surrounding community.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We need a reinvigoration of some sort,” Reynoso said on </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11774-max-politics-podcast-brooklyn-borough-president-antonio-reynoso-vision" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in January, speaking about Coney Island in general. “I don't know if a casino answers that, but I don't want to dismiss it outright, especially if this casino could provide, within five years, can every single [public] housing development in Coney Island be repaired and be dignified housing? Can they do that? Are they going to bring more people? We're talking about one of the highest rates of unemployment. Coney Island, unemployment, almost 12%, especially for Black and brown people. Are we talking about full-time jobs that they can get? Those are all things you can't just push aside.”</span></p> <p><em>Mets-Willets Point</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aside from the already-established Resorts World casino, there is one other proposal announced for Queens, with a big push underway. New York Mets owner Steve Cohen </span><a href="https://nypost.com/2022/11/19/mets-owner-steve-cohen-betting-big-on-nyc-casino/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is looking to capitalize</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on the already-announced $780 million development project in Willets Point, which will bring a stadium for New York City Football Club, housing, retail, and more, and put his own casino adjacent to the Mets’ Citi Field.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cohen has named the proposal “New Green Willets” and <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/5/18/23727795/mets-steve-cohen-parking-soccer-stadium" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hopes to put the casino</a> where some of the Mets parking lots are currently, though he will need the city to remove the current zoning designation in order to begin construction — it is technically city-owned park land.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Members of the community have already </span><a href="https://patch.com/new-york/flushing-murray-hill/new-yorkers-rally-against-casino-citi-field" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">begun protesting</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the proposal, which will set the table for the CAC’s deliberations.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For his part, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is hoping to get both a Willets Point casino license and the expanded Resorts World license. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think it would be a homerun, perhaps to have two,” Richards said on </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11721-max-politics-podcast-borough-president-donovan-richards-queens-updates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in December. “But the jobs, what's happening at Willets, transportation improvements — I will take it all coming out of this pandemic. But let me end by saying this on the casino: one of the things we've been clear about is right across the train tracks is neighborhoods, like Corona, have been hit hard during this pandemic. And we want to make sure that even as Willets is developed, even with the possibility of a casino, that we're also focusing in on a lot of the community benefits that need to also be a part of this plan.”</span></p> <p><em>Nassau</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Casino and resort company Las Vegas Sands </span><a href="https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/construction-development/las-vegas-sands-pitch-nassau-coliseum-for-new-casino-117190" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has proposed to buy</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the lease of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and use the 80 available acres of land to build a casino, hotel, community spaces, a performance venue, and celebrity chef restaurants. Las Vegas Sands is collaborating with RXR Realty, which has been working on the Coliseum site.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sands </span><a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/casinos-gaming/las-vegas-sands-takes-another-step-toward-ny-resort-project-2768285/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">announced on April 26</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that Nassau County signed a 99-year preliminary agreement with the company to use the Coliseum site for the casino, a major first step in the bid’s chances. Sands will also need approval from the Nassau County Legislature, which is scheduled to meet around the proposal on May 22.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While the proposal is in its early stages and there is growing institutional support, community pushback has started. A petition ‘Say No To The Casino’ has </span><a href="https://www.change.org/p/say-no-to-the-casino" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">garnered</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> more than 2,000 signatures. Hofstra University </span><a href="https://www.liherald.com/stories/hofstra-university-sues-county-planning-commission-over-4-billion-nassau-hub-casino-proposal,174397" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is suing</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the Nassau County Planning Commission for not adequately notifying the public of a hearing to consider the Las Vegas Sands casino, which it says violates the state Open Meetings Law.</span></p> <p><em>Existing Casinos</em><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">MGM Resorts’ Empire City Casino in Yonkers and Resorts World Casino in Queens, the two current downstate ‘racinos’ — meaning race tracks and some gambling via slot machines but not table games — have been seen as likely frontrunners to win licenses to expand to become full-fledged casinos and offer far more amenities.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Addabbo, the Queens state senator and gaming committee chair, has been a major figure in the development and oversight of Resorts World, which is not far from his district. He said that though Resorts World has acres it is looking to expand upon with a new license, MGM will be applying with more space and the ability for a larger expansion project.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“With Resorts World, they already built their hotel, they already built an expansion, and they still have acres to build upon, but they still have about a billion-dollar investment,” Addabbo said, indicating his view of a disparity between the two in terms of their status and growth potential. “MGM, basically waiting for that license, they have great potential with their acreage, they’ve got a lot of room to expand and build upon and certainly improve that area, which means a thousand construction jobs, as well as the thousand post-construction jobs.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">

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by Kristian Burt, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

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Max Politics Podcast: A Vision for a More Livable City, with Sara Lind of Open Plans 2023-05-16T13:00:00+00:00 2023-05-16T13:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12004-max-politics-podcast-livable-city-open-plans-streets-curb Gotham Gazette [email protected] <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/mpp-vision-city-600.jpg" /></p> <p>People in the street (photo: NYC Department of Transportation)</p> <hr /> <p><strong>May 15, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: A Vision for a More Livable City, with Sara Lind of Open Plans<br /></strong></p> <p>Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans, joined the show to discuss the group's vision for a more livable New York City, including specific programs, like Open Streets and Open Restaurants, state and city policy priorities, and more.</p> <p>Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TweetBenMax">@TweetBenMax</a>. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.</p> <p class="feed-readmore"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12004-max-politics-podcast-livable-city-open-plans-streets-curb">Read More ...</a></p> <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/mpp-vision-city-600.jpg" /></p> <p>People in the street (photo: NYC Department of Transportation)</p> <hr /> <p><strong>May 15, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: A Vision for a More Livable City, with Sara Lind of Open Plans<br /></strong></p> <p>Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans, joined the show to discuss the group's vision for a more livable New York City, including specific programs, like Open Streets and Open Restaurants, state and city policy priorities, and more.</p> <p>Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TweetBenMax">@TweetBenMax</a>. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.</p> <p class="feed-readmore"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/12004-max-politics-podcast-livable-city-open-plans-streets-curb">Read More ...</a></p>