Gotham Gazette

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Brad Hoylman

Brad Hoylman

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

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


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

    Today, private drone flights are allowed in only a handful of areas on the outskirts of the city, tightly regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NYPD to ensure safe and unfettered airspace in the nation's

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  • New York Must End the Sale of Menthol Cigarettes and Protect LGBTQ Lives

    State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (photo: @bradhoylman)


    For decades, Big Tobacco companies like R.J. Reynolds have insidiously pushed menthol cigarettes onto our most vulnerable communities, perhaps most infamously withBlack Americans. Menthol cigarettes are mint-flavored and highly addictive because they soothe the throat and mask the

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  • The Solution to Our Labor Shortage is Clear: Remove Barriers to Immigrant Employment

    A naturalization ceremony at City Hall (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    The economy was the top issue on American voters’ minds this election season, with 9 out of 10 citing it as one of their biggest concerns. Especially in an era of increased partisanship, this serves as a rare moment of national agreement.

    Unfortunately, that’s where the consensus stops.

    The economy isn’t a simple, standalone issue, and many complex forces affect its condition.

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  • The Facts About the Grieving Families Act

    Facing life and death (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Just the facts, ma’am.

    That’s what fictional Dragnet detective Joe Friday used to ask for on TV decades ago. Today, the phrase is best known as a meme, but it’s still a good approach to decision-making in government. My colleagues and I should always look at the facts because that will point us towards the best course of action.

    Rarely is this more apparent than in the discourse around the Grieving Families Act,

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  • Finally Compensating New York's Wrongfully Convicted

    Cleaning up at Rikers (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The United States is the world’s largest jailor. As a result of our criminal justice system, we regularly put innocent people behind bars.Conservative estimates say 20,000 people are currently in jail or prison throughout the nation for crimes they did not commit.

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  • Stringer Preps State Senate Primary Challenge to Hoylman

    Scot Stringer, left, and Brad Hoylman (photo: @bradhoylman)


    New York State Senator Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, is running for reelection in a redrawn district after a chaotic state redistricting process. But the incumbent could face serious competition in the August primary as former New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Scott Stringer is gearing up to challenge him.  

    Hoylman had previously considered a bid for an open seat in New York’s 10th congressional district, which is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, who is now running in the redrawn 12th

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  • We Must Support Research to Help Combat Long-Haul COVID-19 and the Next Pandemic

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    Taking on covid (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    By now, every New Yorker knows someone who has been infected with COVID-19 or has had it themselves. Since the start of this pandemic, over 800,000 New York City residents have had a positive test. And a year into the fight against this disease, we know that the battle is far from over, as New Yorkers grapple with the effects of ...

  • Mend the Health Care Safety Net for LGBTQ New Yorkers

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    The NYC LGBT Community Center (photo: LGBT Community Center)


    LGBTQ New Yorkers are facing a unique and urgent health care challenge. We already experience significant health disparities, and as a result of COVID-19, the organizations that exist to address those disparities statewide are hanging by a thread. Lawmakers have worked with the community for years to ensure these organizations can serve the nearly 1 million of us who call this state

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  • Manhattan Borough President Candidates Pitch West Side Democrats

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    Lower Manhattan (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)


    The six Democratic candidates running for Manhattan Borough President in this year’s election appeared Thursday night at a forum hosted by the West Side Democrats. The five Democratic candidates running for City Council District 6, based on the Upper West Side, also appeared before the club, following the borough president hopefuls. Both primaries are among those happening for all of city government in June and will feature the first full citywide round of ranked-choice voting,

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  • Borough President Candidates Talk Future of Manhattan Economy, Small Businesses

    Manhattan Borough President candidates 2021 MBP

    (l-r) Mark Levine; Elizabeth Caputo; Brad Hoylman; Kim Watkins; Ben Kallos


    The five Democratic candidates running to be the next Manhattan Borough President via the upcoming 2021 election gathered by Zoom on Wednesday for a candidate forum hosted by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, with topics focused on the devastated local economy and small businesses in the borough.

    The participating candidates, seeking to replace term-limited Democrat Gale Brewer, were Elizabeth Caputo, a former community board chair on the Upper West Side;

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  • With 5 Candidates Declared, 2021 Manhattan Borough President Race Has Begun

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    (L-R) Mark Levine, Elizabeth Caputo, Brad Hoylman, Kimberly Watkins, Ben Kallos


    As 2021 creeps closer, so does the most consequential municipal election in possibly decades, one that will decide the entire political roster that represents the city with few incumbents eligible to run for their current seats due to term limits. In overwhelmingly Democratic New York, the Democratic Party primary in June is all but certain to determine the winner of almost every seat. In Manhattan, nearly half of the borough’s 1.6 million registered voters are Democrats, more than seven times the

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  • The NYPD's Facial Recognition Policy Leaves A Lot of Leeway the Department Says It's Not Using

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    An NYPD command center (photo: Edward Reed/Mayor's Office)


    In the four months since the NYPD first published protocols limiting its use of facial recognition software, the coronavirus-caused state of emergency and recent civil unrest over police brutality made the considerable leeway in the policy all but total. Absent any formal legal framework at the city, state or federal level, the internal, non-binding departmental protocols are the only public policy governing New York's lawless frontier of biometric surveillance.

    The police department has insisted it

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  • Voters Should Be Able to Track Their Absentee Ballots, Lawmakers Say

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    Voting has changed dramatically in New York (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)


    As hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots are being counted more than two weeks after the June 23 primary elections, state lawmakers are pushing a bill that would allow absentee voters to track their ballots and would require election administrators to provide an individual explanation when a ballot is disqualified.

    The latest effort to pass the legislation, which was first introduced in 2013, comes amid an unprecedented increase in absentee voting due to

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  • 'Open' Government Amid an Outbreak

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    Wrestling with government during a pandemic (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo suspended aspects of the state's Open Meetings Law with an executive order Friday, as officials grapple with how to keep government running during a pandemic without jeopardizing public health or sacrificing accountability.

    As state and city officials continue to prepare for the long haul of coronavirus (COVID-19) management, and as most public events are postponed to limit the virus’ reach, one emerging question is how government agencies will continue to hold

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  • Penn Station Needs a Complete Overhaul. We Must Start Now.

    Cuomo Penn Station

    (photo: Don Pollard/Governor's Office)


    For decades, Penn Station has wreaked havoc on the lives of hardworking New Yorkers, and seriously stained our city’s reputation as a global cultural and economic hub. But all hope is not lost; the door is opening for significant improvements to finally be made.

    We’re now just a few short years away from the opening of Moynihan Train Hall and East Side Access. These two important projects, which will temporarily reduce the number of passengers travelling through Penn, present a brief window for significant

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  • New York May Soon Reverse 1992 Ban on Having Children Through Surrogacy

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    Sen. Hoylman, middle, with his husband & daughter, & Gov. Cuomo, right  (photo: governor's office)


    When Marisa Horowitz-Jaffe and her husband, Doug Jaffe, wanted to have a baby, they faced numerous obstacles before the birth of their twins via a surrogate in a Dallas hospital eight years ago.

    Their twins were born in a Texas hospital because the couple was forced to travel out of state in order to use a surrogate. New York is one of only two states in the country to criminalize surrogacy, a fact Horowitz-Jaffe

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  • Crafting a State Budget to Enhance Nurse-Family Partnership and Support Vulnerable New York Families

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    (photo: John McCarten/NY City Council)


    We live in a state with enormous resources, and a $175 billion annual budget—yet many New Yorkers still lack access to adequate maternal care. New York's maternal mortality rate is higher than the national average, and even worse in communities of color. Black women are over three times more likely to die from complications during childbirth than their white

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  • A 'Green New Deal' for New York and More: Where the Climate Change Conversation is Headed in 2019

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    (Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    This is part of AGENDA 2019, a joint Gotham Gazette-City Limits project
    Find the rest of the series here

    After an election where the issue ...

  • New York’s Next Climate and Community Protections

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    A major shift in the climate debate is taking place across New York and a new front in the discussion is emerging. No longer faraway images of drowning polar bears and epic glacial melt, climate change has moved into our own backyards, devastating our local neighborhoods. And no one knows this better than New York’s working families.

    Extreme weather destroys upstate farmers’ crops and keeps hourly employees from getting to work. Air pollution exacerbates chronic health conditions, triggering asthma attacks and other health problems, such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

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  • Concerns Over Proceedings as De Blasio Administration Faces Second Mayoral Control Hearing

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    De Blasio testifying in Albany (photo: Demetrius Freeman/Mayor's Office)


    It was supposed to be the grilling to end all grillings: Mayor Bill de Blasio seated at a small table, staring up at glowering Republican state Senators carrying major grudges for his work to oust them from power in the 2014 elections, all carrying the fate of his ability to enact education policy in the palm of their hands. That wasn’t what took place.

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