| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | Presented by Harry's | There are now 6,147 people hospitalized for Covid-19 in New York state, a level not seen since the middle of May. For weeks now, the mayor and the governor have been warning every day that things are getting worse, and it's easy to get lost in a sea of numbers. But to put that figure in perspective, as the Wall Street Journal notes, it is six times the number of New Yorkers hospitalized just two months ago. Hospitals are filling up, and the number of people dying on a daily basis is on the rise again: 120 deaths were reported on Thursday. "Hospital capacity will be a major battle," Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in a letter to hospitals this week, predicting that the number of patients would continue to grow through mid-January. And nurses say that nine months in, their hospitals still aren't prepared for the surge. New York City's public hospitals this week resorted to a crisis measure used in the spring, temporarily suspending elective surgeries to make room for Covid-19 patients. The city-run hospitals have also transferred 100 coronavirus patients from strapped hospitals to facilities with more space. In one silver lining, patients showing up at hospitals are generally not as sick as they were in the spring, when officials urged all but the sickest New Yorkers to stay away from overwhelmed hospitals and many died in their homes. With over 2,700 new coronavirus cases each day, the city's average positive test rate has now hit 6 percent, and it's climbing. IT'S FRIDAY. 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 Hot 97, MSNBC's Morning Joe, and WNYC's Brian Lehrer show. ABOVE THE FOLD: "AS THE CORONAVIRUS ravaged New York this spring, state officials faced a terrifying prospect: Casualties were mounting, and the reserve of ventilators and masks was dwindling. As doctors considered rationing lifesaving treatment, the state rushed into $1.1 billion in deals for supplies and equipment. Now, New York wants much of that money back . State officials are trying to get at least partial refunds on a third of that spending, by clawing back millions paid to vendors that they said failed to deliver on time, and working to extricate the state from deals now that stockpiles are sufficient, an analysis by The New York Times shows. The same is true in New York City, where officials have canceled $525 million in agreements for virus-related goods — more than a quarter of the total virus spending for the city's primary procurement agency — and are trying to recover nearly $11 million from vendors they said did not deliver. The reversals follow a frantic buying spree during the virus's ferocious surge through New York." New York Times' Michael Rothfeld and J. David Goodman | | | | A message from Harry's: Introducing Harry's new, sharper blades: From past experience with other brands, we've grown used to razor innovations often leading to higher price tags. Not this time around. Men's grooming startup Harry's just came out with their sharpest blades ever—without raising prices, breaking the traditional pattern of upcharging used by many razor companies. Learn more about Harry's new, sharper blades and how you can give them a try, 100% risk-free. | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | MOUNT SINAI'S decision to give a young marketing staffer one of the first Covid-19 vaccinations is raising concerns at the state health department as well as among hospital staffers over the system's priorities, as thousands of frontline workers wait to be inoculated. The staffer, who does marketing and outreach at Mount Sinai Doctors Brooklyn Heights, posted several photos of himself getting vaccinated Tuesday on Instagram — photos that were quickly taken down as people began to notice he did not meet federal, state and local policies that prioritize health care workers who work directly with Covid-19 patients for the first vaccinations. In response, Mount Sinai said it was reviewing its processes for determining who gets the vaccinations first … Hospital workers who were actually treating patients on the front lines of the pandemic and have yet to receive a vaccine, complained to managers and hospital executives after the photos began to circulate. "The message this photo sends is that those employees who have shown up daily, continually put themselves and their families at risk, work short-staffed because the care has to be done are less valued and taken for granted," said an ICU nurse who requested anonymity for fear of retribution. "It's insulting." POLITICO's Amanda Eisenberg — The city projects that it will take until June for every New Yorker who wants a vaccine to be able to get one. — "What It's Like To Be A COVID Vaccine Guinea Pig" — A judge ruled that City Hall must turn over documents sought by Comptroller Scott Stringer for his investigation into the city's pandemic response. "GAVIN FLORENCE was returning to New York City from vacation last fall when his flight got delayed. He said he called his manager at a Chipotle in Manhattan to say he was going to miss his shift. A co-worker covered for him. The next day, Mr. Florence said he was fired. Yeral Martinez, who worked at a different Manhattan Chipotle, said he was also dismissed after calling out sick because of back pain. After losing his job, he said he lost his apartment and ended up in a homeless shelter. Fast food workers have long complained that they have little job security and are often fired for a single transgression or for seemingly trivial reasons, like not smiling enough. The challenges they face have come to the forefront during the pandemic, as they have emerged as essential employees who have been asked to continue working even as the city went into lockdown. But New York will soon make it harder for restaurants to dismiss them: The City Council on Thursday approved a bill that protects fast food workers from being fired without a valid reason and allows them to appeal terminations through arbitration. New York would be the first major American city to provide such job security to workers in a large industry, labor law experts said, and could set a template for other cities and states." New York Times' Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura "LIFE IN COMMUNITIES across the Tri-State area is returning to normal Friday morning, after a nor'easter dumped significant amounts of snow. Despite the amount of snow on the ground, New York City school buildings are back open for in-person learning Friday. Students were at home for remote learning yesterday. Today elementary students will have to trek through potentially treacherous black ice situations to get back in the classroom. Meantime, the storm's impact on outdoor dining has come to an end, with restaurants allowed to resume Thursday at 6 p.m. But those restaurants have added restrictions , after the city advised restaurants that they can't allow people inside to use restrooms. Nor will customers be allowed to go inside to pick up their orders. Only curbside pickup is allowed. The New York City Hospitality Alliance issued statement writing in part that the new guidance is another example of the government purposely kicking them in the gut and then stomping on their hand when they're already down." ABC7NY "THE WAR ON drugs in New York City is fueled by a little-known but powerful office: the special narcotics prosecutor (SNP), whose powers derive in part from the good will of the Manhattan district attorney's office. Manhattan's election for DA next year could severely curtail the SNP. Some of the candidates in the crowded field vying to replace DA Cy Vance, who has not yet indicated if he will seek re-election, say they would push for abolishing or weakening the office.The Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor was created in 1971 as part of Governor Nelson Rockefeller's effort to fight the new war on drugs, which also included the infamous 1973 Rockefeller drug laws. Since 2005, the earliest year for which complete records are publicly available, the office has prosecuted over 20,000 individuals and secured thousands of prison or jail sentences." New York Focus's Sam Mellins "BEFORE 26-YEAR-OLD Jose Contla was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Bensonhurst late last February on his way to work, his wife had an unsettling feeling. 'Six months before he passed, all those six months, everything was perfect,' Marisol Contla told Gothamist/WNYC. 'One day I told my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law, I'm scared that something may happen to him, because he seems to be perfect.'... This year is on track to be the deadliest year on New York City streets since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office in 2014 and pledged to end traffic deaths by 2024 under his ambitious Vision Zero initiative. As of December 14th, 234 people have been killed in crashes citywide, up from 208 at the same point in 2019. At a recent press conference, de Blasio blamed the increase in deaths on a 'horrible, perfect storm moment,' prompted by the pandemic." Gothamist's Christopher Robbins and Jake Dobkin and WNYC's Stephen Nessen THE NYPD WILL no longer oversee enforcement against nearly 2,000 street vendors starting Jan. 15, 2021, City Hall announced Thursday night. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection will take over those duties, while the city health department will continue to respond to food vending permit and health code violations. "Our officers must be able to focus on the real drivers of crime," de Blasio said in a statement. "Having Department of Consumer and Worker Protection coordinating the City's vending policy and enforcement efforts strikes the right balance as we rethink how law enforcement resources are used in our city." The change comes about six months after Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to remove cops from interacting with vendors, who are often immigrants and people of color, in the wake of protests against police brutality and calls to decrease the NYPD's $5.2 billion operating budget (it has been reduced to $4.9 billion for the 2021 fiscal year). — POLITICO's Amanda Eisenberg FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Make the Road Action, New York Communities for Change, and VOCAL-NY Action Fund are endorsing City Council Member Brad Lander for city comptroller. They are also endorsing Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for re-election. Lander is running against several competitors in the Democratic primary for the open comptroller's seat. Make the Road Action co-executive director Make the Road Action cited his work "to solve the problems facing our communities, from abusive policing to dangerous conditions and harassment facing tenants to the profound vulnerability of low-wage workers." | | | | NEW EPISODES OF THE GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS PODCAST: Our Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded over the past year amid a global pandemic. This podcast helps us identify and understand the impediments to smart policymaking. Subscribe for Season Two, available now. | | | | |
| | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "IN ALBANY, an outbreak of the coronavirus erupted among nurses and patients in the cancer unit of a hospital. Across the state, nurses at hospitals in the Buffalo area bought their own masks and face shields out of concern about the quality of supplies in stock. And when an emergency room nurse in New Rochelle began her shift, she was asked to care for 15 patients after her co-workers called out sick. The accounts recall the early days of the pandemic, when the virus ravaged New York — but these scenes took place over the past several weeks . Nurses and other health care workers in the state have begun to warn about the conditions in hospitals, as virus patients are checking in at an alarming rate. 'We're worse off in some ways than we were in the beginning,' said Shalon Matthews, an emergency room nurse in New Rochelle. 'We need staff, we need help, we need resources. I'm fearful for my patients and I'm fearful that the same thing that happened back in March, it's going to happen again — and once again, we're not prepared.'" New York Times' Troy Closson — An Ogdensburg nursing home has lost 17 people and all of its residents have tested positive. "OVER 2,000 New York prisoners have tested positive for coronavirus since the onset of the pandemic, state data shows — yet continued confusion over how the Correction Department reports COVID-19 cases has led to fervent calls for more transparency. The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision issues daily reports on the number of people behind bars who have tested negative one time, have tested positive, or have pending test results, among other parameters. Yet those reports do not disclose the total number of tests conducted, according to a spokesman for the agency. Without providing the total number of tests, it's impossible to discern the virus's positivity rate in the prisons based only public data. 'What is there to be gained by not reporting the actual number of tests?' said Alexander Horwitz, executive director of New Yorkers United for Justice. We know how many tests were conducted in New York, we know the rate of positivity...and here we have a population of over 35,000 New Yorkers [in prison] and we don't have that data.'" Daily News' Chelsia Rose Marcius "THE PORT AUTHORITY of New York and New Jersey on Thursday approved a 15% reduction in spending for 2021 because of budget cuts and delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Libby McCarthy, the Port Authority's chief financial officer, told commissioners that the bistate transportation agency has lost $1.5 billion in revenue so far because of the pandemic and expects to have lost a total of $3 billion through March 2022. Ms. McCarthy said the agency has slowed spending for capital projects not already in construction and is reviewing its long-term spending plan." Wall Street Journal's Paul Berger "FORMER Rochester Police Chief La'Ron Singletary claims Mayor Lovely Warren asked him to provide false and incomplete testimony in a City Council investigation into the Daniel Prude case. The allegation, and Singletary's detailed timeline of events, are spelled out in a Notice of Claim filed with the city. Such notices indicate an intent to sue and typically are very brief, with a basic synopsis of the allegations being made. Singletary's is 20-plus pages, providing the first accounting of his version of the events leading up to his departure. Singletary has refused to answer questions of the City Council investigator who, late Wednesday, sought a court order to compel his testimony. 'I repeatedly refused to lie for Mayor Warren,' Singletary stated in a recently filed notice of claim to the city alleging defamation of character, hostile work environment and wrongful and retaliatory termination. 'Pressure to support Mayor Warren's narrative also came from other city officials.'" Democrat and Chronicle's Brian Sharp and Will Cleveland #UpstateAmerica: Binghamton got a LOT of snow, even from the perspective of we who reside Beyond the Wall. | | | |   | | |
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | "REP. KATHLEEN RICE has captured a prized seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee after a contentious showdown with fellow New Yorker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Rice and Ocasio-Cortez have been battling behind the scenes for weeks to secure one of the few open seats on the exclusive committee, which oversees everything from health care policy to climate issues. Tensions spilled into the open Thursday in a private meeting of the Steering and Policy Committee, where Democrats were forced to choose between the two members in a tense — and awkward — secret ballot vote. Rice ultimately won in a lopsided vote of 46-13, though it wasn't without some drama after some moderate Democrats openly criticized Ocasio-Cortez." POLITICO's Sarah Ferris and Heather Caygle — Rep.-elect Ritchie Torres was tapped for the Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Adriano Espaillat was added to the Appropriations Committee. | | | | BIG SCOOPS IN TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: In the runup to Inauguration Day, president-elect Joe Biden's staffing decisions are sending clear-cut signals about his priorities. What do these signals foretell? Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, this scoop-filled newsletter is breaking big news and analyzing the appointments, people and emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming administration. Subscribe today. | | | | |
| | AROUND NEW YORK | | — Outdoor dining on roadways was cleared to resume Thursday night, after some New Yorkers braved the storm to enjoy a sidewalk meal in the snow. — In New York, are 'record-breaking' storms the norm now? — Plenty of kids took a snow day unto themselves, ditching remote classes they were supposed to log in for to play in the snow. — The Brooklyn Democratic Party's first full virtual meeting devolved into a "13-hour Zoom call from hell." — A bill to protect municipal workers who act as whistleblowers passed the City Council. — An appeals court upheld a ruling denying an effort to grant Happy the Bronx Zoo elephant the rights of a human being. — The NYPD is investigating two officers for their roles in a potential coverup of a 2018 high-speed chase through Queens that ended in a fatal crash. — Sen. Joseph Griffo is stepping down as deputy minority leader at the end of this term. — The Jamboree in the Woods sponsor will pay $32,255 for defying Covid court order. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is 63 … WSJ's Jeanne Cummings and Andrew Restuccia, a POLITICO alum … Ali Main of CNN's D.C. bureau (h/ts Max Schwartz and Julie Gallagher) … John Leer, senior director for economic intelligence at Morning Consult … CNN's Lisa Respers France … Brunswick's Linus Turner … Rachel Streitfeld, senior producer for CNN's "State of the Union" … AP's Will Lester is 68 … Jon Prior MAKING MOVES — Per a release: "Rohit T. 'Rit' Aggarwala, a global leader in environmental, sustainability, and urban policies, has joined the Urban Tech Hub as a Senior Urban Tech Fellow … Aggarwala served as the Head of Urban Systems at Sidewalk Labs (where he remains Senior Advisor) and previously led the New York City Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability which created PlaNYC, the landmark sustainability plan for New York City." | | | | A message from Harry's: Harry's just came out with its sharpest blades ever. But what do sharper blades mean for you? Well, guys who shave four times a week say that, with Harry's new blades, their eighth shave is as smooth as their first. And yet, Harry's didn't raise prices—not even a little. Harry's new, sharper blades are (still) just $2 each for an 8-pack. But you don't have to take our word for it. Snag a Trial Set and decide for yourself. (And remember: if you don't love your shave, just let them know and get a full refund. That's their 100% Quality Guarantee at harrys.com). | | |
| | REAL ESTATE | | "A STORM is raging in Albany over how to protect tenants from evictions, as evictions continue to be filed across the state and statutory eviction protections face an end of month expiration date. And as negotiations between the Assembly and Senate Democratic conferences are hashed out behind closed doors, rank-and-file legislators say they've been shut out of the process. Multiple sources familiar with the negotiations from both within and without the legislature say that the Senate has proposed a blanket eviction moratorium, but that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has pushed for a narrower measure . Speaker Heastie has been pursuing "a position more in line with the Governor's approach" which would require tenants to prove financial hardship in order to secure protection against evictions, 'rather than a blanket prohibition on evictions,' one source said, asking not to be named." New York Focus' Morley Musick
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