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City Council

City Council

  • City Council to Hold Oversight Hearing on 'Disparate Impacts of COVID-19 on Communities of Color'

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    Mayor de Blasio visits health care workers (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Though the coronavirus pandemic has ravaged New York City, causing more than 17,000 deaths and untold devastation on the lives of residents, the impact has been worse for communities of color where existing disparities in economic status and access to health care have only been exacerbated. On Thursday, the New York City Council will hold a remote oversight hearing to examine those disparities, their causes, and the steps that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is taking to

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  • The Coronavirus Crisis Reinforces the Climate Emergency, Our City Budget Must Recognize That

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    City Council Member Antonio Reynoso, the author (photo: Emil Cohen/City Council)


    These months will go down as one of the most trying periods in our city’s history. We are consumed by the grief of lost loved ones, colleagues, and neighbors, while facing a level of economic uncertainty not seen in generations. In this moment of crisis, many of us feel compelled to put on blinders and focus solely on addressing the present situation, and there is no doubt that efforts to combat COVID-19 will require vast resources and attention from our best

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  • 'No New Yorker Goes Hungry': De Blasio Announces Next Steps to Combat Food Emergency

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    De Blasio visits a food pantry in Brooklyn (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    As the coronavirus crisis was unfolding in New York City last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio named his sanitation commissioner, Kathryn Garcia, as the new “food czar” to lead the implementation of a massive effort to ensure New Yorkers don’t go hungry. With the city already home to over a million “food insecure” people, the scale of the need accelerated quickly as hundreds of thousands of New

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  • Amid 'Really Tough Process' Adjusting to Coronavirus Recession, De Blasio Set to Release Executive Budget

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    Mayor de Blasio gives a budget presentation (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    For his first six years in office, Mayor Bill de Blasio enjoyed the fruits of a booming economy and massively increased the size and cost of city government. But this week, he will present his executive budget proposal for the 2021 fiscal year facing a possible $6 billion revenue shortfall, hundreds of millions in cuts and cost shifts from the state, and almost complete uncertainty about the future as the coronavirus outbreak continues with New York

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: City Council Member Carlina Rivera on Hospital Oversight Amid Coronavirus

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    Council Member Rivera visits a hospital (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    April 08, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: City Council Member Carlina Rivera on Hospital Oversight Amid Coronavirus

    carlina rivera 150wbaiCity Council Member Carlina Rivera, chair of the Council's hospitals committee, joined the show to discuss her oversight of the city's response to the

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  • It’s More Important Than Ever for the City to Take Care of Those Who Care for the Most Vulnerable New Yorkers

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    Council Member Helen Rosenthal, the author (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    To address the coronavirus crisis and save lives, New York City government and New Yorkers are mobilizing in ways never seen before. The City swiftly sent an unprecedented message to our human services sector -- the 250,000-plus employees who provide housing access, child and elder care, shelters, emergency food relief, mental health counseling, and disaster response. These workers -- traditionally undervalued, underpaid, and unappreciated -- were told that

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  • After Years of Community Organizing, Nonprofits Now Get Much-Needed Relief from Dangerous Tax Lien Sale

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    Nonprofits have a lot less to fear now as a new law takes effect (photo: @596Acres)


    Our interconnectedness has rarely been more pronounced than it is in this moment. The fact that we can take so many of our life-sustaining connections into the digital sphere is an unprecedented miracle. But if you’re missing New York’s places of physical gathering, where many of those connections were first forged, you’re not alone.

    At its core, New York is a city of communities precisely because of its bounty of gathering places. As we reflect on the ones we

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: The City's Developing Public Health Response to Coronavirus

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    Council Member Levine gets a flu shot (photo: Jeff Reed/City Council)


    March 25, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: The City's Developing Public Health Response to Coronavirus

    mark levinewbai150City Council Member Mark Levine, chair of the Council's health committee, joined the show to discuss the city's developing response to the coronavirus outbreak.

    Listen to the

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  • New York City Must Act Immediately to Strengthen Our Nonprofit Social Safety Net

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    Amid coronavirus outbreak, the social safety net must hold (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    Daily home-delivered meals for home-bound seniors. Case-management to help make sure people have medicine and essential supplies, and reduce the harm of social isolation. Emergency food for people who are unemployed or homeless. Child care for those who still have to go to work.

    All services we utterly need right now. And all provided by New York City’s remarkable network of not-for-profit human service providers.

    These

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  • As NYCHA Teeters, Calls for More Funding in City and State Budgets

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    NYCHA is on the brink (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Despite significant attention from Mayor Bill de Blasio and some from Governor Andrew Cuomo, the New York City Housing Authority, public housing home to more than 400,000 New Yorkers, continues to crumble. While both the mayor and governor, as well as many others, point to federal disinvestment in NYCHA, dissatisfied elected officials say that initial drafts of next fiscal year’s state and city budgets aren’t sufficiently addressing the problem.

    As they push for more funding 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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  • Spread of Coronavirus Heightens Concerns About Especially Vulnerable Seniors

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    Department for the Aging Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    “We’re going to protect our senior centers,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday during his latest briefing on the spread of the new coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, adding that city health department officials are visiting all of the city’s 600 such centers to ensure proper protocols amid the virus outbreak that has now led to 20 confirmed cases in the city, with more expected.

    According to the federal ...

  • Containing Coronavirus; Council Speaker's State of the City; City Budget Hearings; Early Voting for Queens BP; & More: The Week Ahead in New York Politics, March 9

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    New York City Hall


    What to watch for this week in New York politics:

    The week begins with continued focus on the spread of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, in New York, with more cases confirmed in the city and state, and new guidance from government leaders as they try to contain the virus’ spread without taking drastic measures. On Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency, allowing the state to suspend certain rules around procurement, personnel, and facilities,

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  • NYPD Watchdog Set for Personnel Boost as Voter-Approved Mandate Begins

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    NYPD officers (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The Civilian Complaint Review Board will be increasing its capacity to investigate police misconduct thanks to a City Charter amendment approved by voters last fall, agency officials explained on Wednesday.

    At one in a series of City Council hearings on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $95.3 billion preliminary budget, CCRB Chair Fred Davie and Executive Director Jonathan Darche said the city plans to add 17 additional staff members to the currently 206-person agency to meet a new formulaic mandate now written

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Coronavirus in New York - Assessing the Threat & Response

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    Health officials must manage the coronavirus in New York (photo: Jeff Reed/City Council)


    March 4, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Coronavirus in New York - Threat, Preparation, & Response

    levin gershonDr. Robyn Gershon of NYU School of Global Public Health and City Council Member Mark Levine, chair of the Council's health committee, joined the show to discuss the new coronavirus

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  • City Council Members and De Blasio Planning Chief Spar Over Neighborhood Rezonings at Budget Hearing

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    Mayor de Blasio makes an announcement (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


    What was ostensibly meant to be a City Council hearing on the proposed preliminary budget for the Department of City Planning on Tuesday turned into a debate about the de Blasio administration’s approach to neighborhood rezonings. Several Council members expressed their displeasure with rapid gentrification and resident displacement, and what they believe are the city’s insufficient efforts to stop those trends while at times exacerbating them through rezonings, while Mayor

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  • Corey Johnson: Master Planner?

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    City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    New York City doesn’t have a comprehensive plan for the future. There is no single guiding document that determines how housing will be built over the next decade, for example, overlaid with a strategy for meeting infrastructure needs like transit options and school seats, with unifying visions for social services and economic development. But such planning should exist, according to City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who is making several moves toward the type of planning that has mostly

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  • More Savings, Better Planning: City Council Begins Examination of Mayor's $95.3 Billion Budget

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    Council Members Dromm & Gibson with Speaker Johnson in between (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    The City Council held its first hearing on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $95.3 billion preliminary budget on Monday, calling on the administration to find more agency efficiencies and savings and to fund the Council’s own priorities, while also asking for a contingency plan should potential state budget cuts and cost-shifts go through this year.

    The mayor’s budget proposal this year increases spending by $2.5 billion over last year’s adopted budget,

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  • Containing Coronavirus; City Council Budget Hearings Begin; & More: The Week Ahead in New York Politics, March 2

    New York City Hall

    New York City Hall


    What to watch for this week in New York politics:

    The week begins with news that New York has its first positive case of the new coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, with a Manhattan resident infected, reportedly from a trip to Iran.

    Governor Andrew Cuomo issued the following statement on Sunday evening:
    "This evening we learned of the first positive case of novel coronavirus — or COVID-19 — in New York State. The patient, a woman in her

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  • What to Expect as the City Council Begins Examining De Blasio's $95.3 Billion Preliminary Budget Proposal

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    De Blasio and the City Council talk budget (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    The New York City Council will on Monday begin its public examination of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $95.3 billion preliminary budget proposal for the 2021 fiscal year, which begins July 1. As in previous budget cycles, the Council and budget watchdogs are pushing the mayor to find more savings in city operations and sock away more money for fiscal emergencies.

    First with Monday’s overall discussion of de Blasio’s budget plans -- both the $95.3 billion annual operating budget and

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  • Attorney General Disrupts Progress on Taxi Loan Crisis

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    Taxi driver-owners protest at City Hall (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Last May I wrote a column criticizing the practice of including taxi medallion sales revenue in the city’s operating budget and pointed out the perverse incentive it creates to encourage high sales prices. My comments were triggered by the publication of a compelling investigative series on the New York City taxi medallion market ...

  • Far Too Many Classrooms are Overcrowded, It’s Time for City Leaders to Act

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    DOE Chancellor Richard Carranza visits a classroom (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    In the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case, the state’s Court of Appeals concluded in 2003 that class sizes were too large in New York City schools to provide our students with their constitutional right to a sound basic education, writing that “[T]ens of thousands of students are placed in overcrowded classrooms… The number of children in these straits is large enough to represent a systemic failure.”

    And yet despite this decision, and the fact that

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  • As Council Passes Bill to Require It, Department of Investigation Set to Launch Dashboard Tracking Agency Reforms

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    Council Member Ritchie Torres (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    The New York City Department of Investigation, a watchdog agency that monitors corruption and more broadly evaluates the functioning of city agencies, will launch a database next month to track each and every reform recommendation it makes, going back to 2014 when Mayor Bill de Blasio took office, and how agencies are complying with them.

    Every year, DOI issues hundreds, if not thousands, of Policy and Procedure Recommendations (PPRs) to city agencies to help them eliminate inefficiencies and

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  • Council Moves Bill to Require More Reporting on City Efforts to Address Gender Discrimination and Sexual Harassment

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    Council Member Helen Rosenthal (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    The City Council is set to pass a bill requiring more reporting from mayoral agencies “on efforts to prevent and address sex- and gender-based discrimination and harassment.” The bill, which passed the Council’s Committee on Women and Gender Equity Tuesday and is likely to pass the full Council on Thursday, deals with the city’s Commission on Gender Equity (CGE) and the Department of Education.

    According to Council Member Helen Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the

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  • New Bill Would Close Loophole for Reporting on Independent Expenditures to Influence Ballot Referenda

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    Brad Lander and others in support of ranked-choice voting (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    City Council Member Brad Lander, a Brooklyn Democrat, is introducing legislation on Thursday that would close a loophole in city campaign finance law that currently allows groups to hide their donors when they try to influence voting on a ballot referendum.

    The city’s campaign finance law is fairly robust, having been updated repeatedly over the years to reduce the effect of big money on politics, including independent expenditure groups that seek to sway elections. But

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