Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Jennifer Gutierrez

Jennifer Gutierrez

  • Digital Literacy Programming for Older New Yorkers to be Required Under Bill Passed by City Council

    Seniors ready to learn (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    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. 

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  • How the Adams Administration is Thinking About Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

    Mayor Adams at a tech conference (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    At a February oversight hearing held by the New York City Council Committee on Technology, the city’s Chief Technology Officer, Matthew Fraser, defended blockchain as a useful tool for stimulating the economy and enhancing government services.

    As head of the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI), Fraser is at the forefront of the Adams administration’s plans to integrate blockchain and other digital tools into municipal operations while also continuing to evaluate the cryptocurrency marketplace. At the

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  • City Council Progressive Caucus Announces 2023 Legislative Agenda Focused on Solitary Confinement, Affordable Housing, Police Accountability, & More

    City Council Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs Hanif & Restler (photo: John McCarten/NYC Council)


    The New York City Council’s Progressive Caucus is announcing its legislative agenda for 2023 on Thursday, pursuing 20 bills in seven categories on criminal justice reform, police transparency, housing affordability, public banking, waste and emissions reduction, and gig worker benefits. 

    The Progressive Caucus’ membership, all Democrats, is the largest it has ever been in the 51-member City Council, with 35 members in its ranks, including Speaker Adrienne Adams as an ex-officio member, up from 12

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  • City Council Examines Digital Divide, Bills to Improve Internet Access

    Students getting connected (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The City Council’s Committee on Technology held a hearing Monday to examine disparities in internet broadband access across the city and to discuss legislation that would ameliorate that digital divide. The hearing took place just hours after Mayor Adams announced the new “Big Apple Connect” program to provide free internet and cable TV services to thousands of NYCHA residents to better connect

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  • Majority of City Council Declares Opposition to Reauthorizing NYC Tax Lien Sale

    City Hall (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


    New York City’s controversial tax lien sale program, which helps the city collect unpaid property debt, expired at the end of February and a majority of City Council members now say they will refuse to reauthorize it.

    The city government uses the tax lien sale program, created in 1996, to sell unpaid debts on property taxes and sewer and water bills to private entities, which pay the city about 75 cents on the dollar. Those private lien servicing companies then tack

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  • Public Safety Focus Could Look Different with Majority-Women City Council

    prospect ave occured

    (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photography Office)


    With women poised to take a majority of seats in the New York City Council for the first time come January, new ways of addressing public safety could be on the way.

    Jennifer Gutierrez, who won the Democratic primary by a wide margin in the 34th City Council District and is likely to win the general election easily, is among those expected to be part of that new Council majority. Gutierrez, who has worked in the office of term-limited Council Member Antonio Reynoso, the likely next

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  • Close Ally Has Inside Track in Race to Replace North Brooklyn City Council Member

    3 city race ref

    Council Member Antonio Reynoso (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Brooklyn and Queens residents in the 34th City Council District must vote on term-limited Council Member Antonio Reynoso’s replacement in this year’s election. The first and most important round of voting takes place in this month’s Democratic primary, the winner of which is all but certain to become the next Council member in January given the district’s overwhelming Democratic enrollment advantage.

    Voters have four candidates to choose from: Jennifer Gutierrez, Reynoso’s chief of

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