| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | Presented by Uber | There are plenty of reasons why next year's mayoral election will be an unusual one to say the least: There's the pandemic, which has largely done away traditional forms of campaigning. There's the fact that for the first time, the primary will be held in June, months ahead of the traditional September date. And then there's ranked-choice voting, the new system that will ask voters to line up multiple mayoral hopefuls by their order of preference and conduct an automated runoff if no one gets a majority. Now a push is emerging to delay the new balloting system. As our Sally Goldenberg and Joe Anuta report, leading mayoral candidate Eric Adams is backing a delay, saying the more complicated system will be bad for Black and Latino voters. "Everyone knows that every layer you put in place in the process, you lose Black and brown voters and participation," said the Brooklyn borough president, who previously supported ranked-choice voting. "We can't disenfranchise those voters." The City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus is pushing for the Council to "indefinitely defer" the new system, arguing in a letter to Speaker Corey Johnson that the problem-plagued city Board of Elections has little hope of implementing it competently. And opponents including Kirsten John Foy, who founded the civil rights organization Arc of Justice and previously worked for Rev. Al Sharpton, are considering a lawsuit to block ranked-choice voting. "This is the wrong environment to be upending a known, reliable system — although imperfect — with an unknown, untested and consequently unreliable system," Foy said. Ranked-choice voting was approved by New Yorkers by a nearly three to one margin last year, and it enjoys strong support from good government groups. Others in the mayoral field continue to back it as well: Scott Stringer said he would oppose any move to halt it, while Maya Wiley was a leader of the push to enact the new system. Assuming no last-minute changes, the system will get its first test in Queens with a City Council special election in February. IT'S MONDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: EDurkin@politico.com and agronewold@politico.com, or on Twitter: @erinmdurkin and @annagronewold WHERE'S ANDREW? No schedule available by press time. WHERE'S BILL? Holding a media availability and appearing on NY1's Inside City Hall. PROGRAMMING NOTE: New York Playbook will not publish on Thursday, Nov. 26, and Friday, Nov. 27. After the hiatus, we'll be back Monday. Please continue to follow POLITICO New York. | | A message from Uber: CA voters & app workers voted overwhelmingly to protect workers' flexibility and provide new benefits. Time for New York to follow, see how here. | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | "UPPER MANHATTAN, parts of Staten Island and Long Island are set to land back into restrictive COVID-19 zones this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned Sunday. The targeted areas have been recently grappling with worrisome rising infection rates. 'We have several communities that are in the warning track,' Cuomo said at a press briefing. 'Right now … unless they dramatically change the trajectory of the infection rate, this week, they will go into those zones. Parts of Staten Island will go into an orange zone. Parts of Staten Island will go into red zone at the current rate,'' he said... Meanwhile, 'Upper Manhattan will go into a yellow zone,' as will Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island if their numbers trends don't change drastically, the governor added." New York Post's Kate Sheehy — "Last week, a group of health organizations and doctors sent a letter to Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Cuomo warning that they were waiting too long to impose new restrictions 'to reverse the tide of new infections.' The group, which calls itself the Covid-19 Working Group-New York, had urged Mayor de Blasio in early March to impose social distancing measures and restrictions, only to see the city wait, possibly costing thousands of lives. Now the group sees the current hesitancy for new restrictions — including the closures of indoor dining and gyms, which are both thought to give rise to a disproportionate number of infections — as a repeat of the spring… "Over the last two weeks, city health officials have put a number of options before the mayor and his aides, according to one city official familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Options included closures of gyms and indoor dining at restaurants and other indoor gathering spots. Another has been for the mayor to simply drastically change his public tone and to encourage people to work from home and avoid indoor dining at restaurants, the official said. But days kept passing without the mayor taking action. The mayor has largely acquiesced to the idea that restrictions on businesses must come from the governor." New York Times' Joseph Goldstein — Another report on why the city and state infection rates and case numbers don't match : The city counts tests on the day they're administered, whereas the state counts them toward the day results come back. And the state includes rapid antigen tests, but the city does not. They also have different methods for counting an individual who tests negative or positive multiple times. "SEVERAL WEEKS before Mayor Bill de Blasio shut New York City's school system, the nation's largest, amid a surge in coronavirus cases, he handed parents a daunting deadline: They had only a few weeks to decide if their children would return to classrooms this school year, and likely until at least next fall. This week, New Yorkers returned their verdict: Only about 35,000 children who had been learning remotely at the start of the school year asked to switch into some in-person learning whenever city schools reopen. The number of families choosing to return to classrooms represents both a major disappointment and surprise for the mayor, who has said he has a mandate from parents to reopen schools." New York Times' Eliza Shapiro — City Council Member Joe Borelli on Staten Island joined parents in filing a second lawsuit seeking an emergency injunction to reopen public schools. — Only 117,000 of the 335,000 city kids enrolled in the city's suspended in-person learning have returned Covid-19 testing consent forms. — It will be at least another month before thousands of students who still lack devices for remote learning receive them. "THE BODIES OF hundreds of people who died in New York City during the Covid-19 surge in the spring are still in storage in freezer trucks on the Brooklyn waterfront. Many of the bodies are of people whose families can't be located or can't afford a proper burial, according to the city's Office of Chief Medical Examiner. About 650 bodies are being stored in the trucks at a disaster morgue that was set up in April on the 39th Street Pier in Sunset Park. Before the pandemic, most if not all of the deceased would have been buried within a few weeks in a gravesite for the indigent on Hart Island, which is located in the Long Island Sound near the Bronx. But Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged in April that mass burials wouldn't take place following reports that New York City was considering the use of temporary graves on Hart Island." Wall Street Journal's Paul Berger "A HASIDIC SYNAGOGUE in Brooklyn planned the wedding of a chief rabbi's grandson with such secrecy it was able to host thousands of maskless celebrants without the city catching on. Despite a surge in COVID-19 cases, guests crammed shoulder-to-shoulder inside the Yetev Lev temple in Williamsburg for the Nov. 8 nuptials — stomping, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs without a mask in sight, videos obtained by The Post show. Organizers schemed to hide the wedding of Yoel Teitelbaum, grandson of Satmar Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelman, from 'the ravenous press and government officials,' says a detailed account in the Yiddish newspaper Der Blatt, the publication of the Satmar sect." New York Post's Susan Edelman — Mayoral candidate and Brooklyn BP Eric Adams addressed campaign donors inside an Upper West Side bar and restaurant on Friday night — as the city was bracing for the imminent closure of indoor dining while the coronavirus outbreak surges anew. Then, he held another indoor fundraiser Saturday in a "yellow zone" neighborhood in Queens. — City Hall issued harsh criticism Friday of a birthday party attended by a slew of Brooklyn political officials and other prominent leaders who flouted Covid-19 regulations, as the city stands on the brink of a second wave of the virus. An indoor birthday party for New York Building Congress head Carlo Scissura last weekend was attended by at least two dozen people who largely didn't wear masks... "This party was asinine, counterproductive and insulting to all New Yorkers. Every attendee should apologize and then match their words with actions," mayoral spokesperson Mitch Schwartz in a statement on the event. POLITICO's Janaki Chadha "NEW YORK CITY residents packed COVID-19 testing sites Sunday — ahead of traveling to visit family over Thanksgiving against the urging of officials. At the CityMD on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, a 43-year-old IT specialist, Michael, waited with his 16-month-old daughter in the three-block, three-hour-long line, saying his wife has just spent more than two hours getting tested there... At another site in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, where the wait to get tested was at least four hours, Tom, a 52-year-old graphic designer with a wife and two kids, said the family is planning to go to Maryland to visit his 82-year-old mom." New York Post's Kevin Sheehan and Kate Sheehy — Some New Yorkers who are staying put in the city are turning to rooftops and parks for outdoor feasts. | | | | TRACK THE TRANSITION : President-elect Biden has named his chief of staff and several other key White House positions. What's next? Treasury secretary? Secretary of State? These and other crucial staffing decisions made in the coming days send clear-cut signals about President-elect Biden's administration agenda and priorities. Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition. Subscribe today. | | | | |
| | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "SINCE New York's first novel coronavirus case in March, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued executive orders closing offices and restaurants, schools and fitness centers. And courts have backed him up almost every time. More than 30 cases challenging various restrictions were either dismissed or decided in the state's favor, according to a tally provided by a Cuomo administration official. These include lawsuits filed by restaurateurs, gym owners and even the mother of a teenager who challenged the state's decision to ban high-school football... "A law enacted in the pandemic's earliest days bolstered the Democratic governor's position, according to Patricia Salkin, a former dean of Touro Law Center on Long Island. But Mr. Cuomo's orders still face challenges from religious organizations and some state lawmakers who now say there should be limits on the authority they ceded in March. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected this week to say whether it will hear a challenge by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn to the restrictions that Mr. Cuomo placed on parts of the borough in October." Wall Street Journal's Jimmy Vielkind — Yes, it's true, Cuomo's Covid-19 briefings are getting an Emmy. AFTER PROP 22 IN CALIFORNIA, tech companies are looking to New York: The state Business Council sent a note to Cuomo last week promoting similar action in the Empire State when it comes to an "independent" rather than traditional employee labor classification for gig workers like those who make up Uber, Lyft and food delivery services: "We believe New York can learn from California's example, and instead of trying to force workers into a narrow employment classification, find a way to let these workers stay independent, maintain their flexibility and guarantee them important benefits and protections that they deserve." Read the letter here. "A WHITE INMATE in a New York prison is significantly more likely on average to be released on parole than a Black or Hispanic person — and that gap has widened in 2020, according to a Times Union analysis of the nearly 19,000 parole board decisions over the last two years. The disparities continue despite steps by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to make the parole board more diverse. That initiative began about four years ago, after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered an investigation by the inspector general's office into revelations in a New York Times series that exposed the racial imbalances in parole and prison disciplinary proceedings. The investigation has languished and no public report has been released. The inspector general's office, in an email response to questions, asserted without providing any data that racial disparities have gone down in recent years. They offered a list of policy changes that have been made, including changes to sentencing guidelines, appeals processes and implicit bias training." Times Union's Edward McKinley and Amanda Fries "The AKWESASNE Mohawk Casino isn't paying out. When the casino shut down, so did revenue sharing. It's taking a toll on counties, towns and the tribe. Gambling at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino helps fund things like road building in two counties and four towns. At least up until March it did. That's when the casino closed due to COVID-19 and revenue sharing with localities stopped. 'It has been a huge impact,' said Massena Town Supervisor Steven O'Shaughnessy. 'We didn't pave roads and we didn't have summer help. We cut back on when the library was open and how it was staffed.'" WWNY's Keith Benman #UpstateAmerica: A Buffalo-based graphics company is making it possible to still be at the Thanksgiving table — kind of — with a life-size cutout of yourself. | | A message from Uber: In order to raise the standard for independent work for all, government and business need to work together. That's why Uber created our Working Together Priorities, which can help people who earn through app-based work receive more security, protection, and transparency. This work is already underway in California, where voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 22. | | |
| | ... 2020 VISION ... | | "CENTRAL New Yorkers who voted in one of the most competitive House races in the nation still don't know the results 18 days after the election, whether their vote counted, or exactly what's happening in a courtroom where the outcome may be decided next week.Since the polls closed Nov. 3, the 22nd Congressional District election between Rep. Anthony Brindisi and Claudia Tenney has been shrouded in secrecy as lawyers for the campaigns fight behind the scenes over hundreds of absentee ballots that could tip the election." Syracuse.com's Mark Weiner NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS took down a moderate Democrat to become the only Republican in New York City's congressional delegation — but she's already got her eyes on another foe: fellow New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Staten Island Republican, whose mother emigrated from Cuba, says she'll seek to be a prominent counter to Ocasio-Cortez's democratic socialist views. Riding a pro-Trump, pro-police platform to victory, Malliotakis plans to use her new perch to push back against issues like bail reform and the movement to defund the police, which Democrats themselves are struggling to cope with in their own party. She's even teaming up with her own "squad" of freshman Republicans hostile to socialism, hoping to provide a foil to Ocasio-Cortez's cadre of allies on the left. "She obviously is pushing a socialist agenda. I'm someone who takes that very seriously ... There's certainly a stark contrast," Malliotakis said in an interview this week, citing her Cuban heritage. "And the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn, I believe, voted for me in part because they did want someone who was going to push back on the far left agenda taking over New York City." POLITICO's Erin Durkin "SHORTLY AFTER the Rev. Al Sharpton left a May anti-racism march on Staten Island, several frustrated young Black demonstrators joined together to block traffic at the site of Eric Garner's 2014 death at the hands of police. Some of those involved didn't know each other then. But they bonded that day to form the Young Leaders of Staten Island –– and soon began organizing marches throughout the summer that drew thousands to protest police brutality. The group quickly got a lesson in politics: Footage of one peaceful march — interspersed with doctored images of police cars ablaze — became the centerpiece of an attack ad touting Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis and trashing Rep. Max Rose in her successful bid to oust the freshman Democrat from the Staten Island's House seat. Now, the Young Leaders of Staten Island are determined to play a key political role — on their own terms. Their aim: to increase voter participation among the North Shore's Black and brown residents to rival that of the borough's mostly white South Shore, which reliably votes Republican — and went for Malliotakis and President Donald Trump Nov. 3." The City's Clifford Michel | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — Katie Moore, political director of the city's Hotel Trades Council, will be campaign manager for Eric Adams' mayoral campaign. — A gathering of about 50 business owners and their supporters inside an Orchard Park gym shut down by Covid-19 restrictions turned into a confrontation with Erie County authorities. — Experts are again questioning the value of overnight cleaning that has shut down the subway system overnight. — Former Sen. Al D'Amato has been hospitalized for the coronavirus. — Restaurateur Danny Meyer opted to close all his restaurants for indoor and outdoor dining because of the virus spike. — An illegal sex club in a Queens yellow zone was busted by the city sheriff's office. — More New Yorkers are getting shoved onto the subway tracks. — A law legalizing electric scooters takes effect today. — Columbia University temporarily banned 70 students for violating its travel policy with a trip to Turks and Caicos. — Cuomo is clinging to the idea of a LaGuardia AirTrain despite the Port Authority's financial crisis. — A packed subway train drew social distancing complaints on Saturday. — Binghamton schools will continue testing students even though it's no longer mandatory under state rules. — A hospital in Buffalo will name a wing after the grandmother of Bills' quarterback Josh Allen. — USA Today Network New Jersey took a deep dive into the future of New York's Penn Station. | | | | DON'T MISS THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT 2020: POLITICO will feature a special edition Future Pulse newsletter at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators determined to confront and conquer the most significant health challenges. Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses across our health systems, particularly in the treatment of our most vulnerable communities, driving the focus of the 2020 conference on the converging crises of public health, economic insecurity, and social justice. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage from December 7–9. | | | | |
| | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is 7-0 … Carolyn Ryan, NYT deputy managing editor … Geoff Morrell, EVP for comms and advocacy at BP … ABC's Pierre Thomas … Sheara Braun, producer for MSNBC's "All In" … Charlie Goodyear … HuffPost overnight editor Jade Walker … Amy Schatz, VP at Glen Echo Group … Danny Cevallos … Mary Rutherford Jennings … ... (was Sunday): Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-N.Y.) turned 42 … The Daily Beast's Harry Siegel … CNN's Cassie Spodak … ABC's Matthew Mosk … Robert Christie, partner at Brunswick Group (h/t George Little) … Andy Stern turned 7-0 … Donny Deutsch turned 63 … Natasha Lennard … TheSkimm's Jessica Turtletaub … TJ Cholnoky … Fred Wilpon ... Sally Katzen … Peggy Orenstein turned 59 … … (was Saturday): NYU's Mitchell Moss (h/t Tammy Haddad) … Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) turned 56 … Catherine Edmonson, associate at Teneo … Bret Stephens turned 47 … Tina Brown, founder and CEO of Tina Brown Live Media/Women in the World … Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, turned 5-0 … OMB's James Braid (h/t Melissa Brown) … ABC's Rick Klein turned 44 … Valerie Berlin of BerlinRosen … T.J. Tatum, VP at Sard Verbinnen … Edelman's Alexis Weiss (h/t Ben Chang) … Bloomberg's Max Abelson turned 36 … Shawna Shepherd, producer for "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" … POLITICO's Samantha Maldonado … Alexander Freeman ... Amir Korangy ... Jonathan Wornick ... Tom Rothman turned 66 ... Evan Allen MAKING MOVES — Kate Welk is now director of corporate communications at educational tech company 2U. She is the former director of impact and policy comms at WeWork and is also an alum of the College Board. — Sean Dugar is now Rank the Vote NYC's education campaign program director. He was formerly NAACP regional director. | | REAL ESTATE | | "NEW YORK STATE has just six weeks left to distribute tens of millions of dollars in rent relief before a federally-imposed deadline could force the state to return the cash. The $100 million COVID-19 rent relief program was designed to reduce the burdens on renters by providing payments to their landlords, but just $40 million of the $100 million has been distributed so far. To qualify for the relief, tenants must earn less than 80% of the area median income—which in New York City is $90,960 for a family of four—and pay more than 30% of their income towards rent before the pandemic, regardless of how coronavirus has altered their circumstances. The strict requirements have created a scenario in which $60 million in rent relief could be returned to the federal government under a December 30th deadline set up by Treasury Department under the CARES Act. '[The] program was really set up to make it very difficult for any tenant to qualify,' Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told Gothamist." Gothamist's Sydney Pereira "NEW YORK City's Buildings Department failed to follow up on more than half of 'immediately hazardous' violations it issued last year within the legally-mandated timeframe, a new city comptroller's audit shows. The audit, obtained by the Daily News, found that the Department of Buildings did not attempt 3,582 of the 6,381 initial inspections it's required to perform after it has issued a violation for dangerous conditions. The agency also failed to perform 53% of the follow-up inspections required within 60 days. Comptroller Scott Stringer called the failures 'a direct risk to public safety.'" New York Daily News' Michael Gartland
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