| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | The city's halal carts , hot dog vendors, and coffee stands — dependent on a steady stream of office workers and tourists in areas like Midtown — have seen their business dry up during the pandemic and are struggling to survive. But the city's brick and mortar restaurants and businesses, who view the vendors as competition, have also taken a major blow. And in the social distancing era, competition for street space is fiercer than ever. All of that has complicated a push in the City Council to overhaul street vendor permits, our Janaki Chadha reports. The legislation would, over the next decade, nearly double the 5,100 vendor permits the city issues — a cap that has not budged since the 1980s, with a waitlist that's been closed for more than ten years. That would be a boon for vendors like MD Alam, who sells biryani and tandoori chicken at Sixth Avenue and West 44th Street, a spot that was, until nine months ago, one of the busiest areas in the city. Now his customers are gone, but he's still on the hook for $18,000 he must pay for a permit on the black market. It's a common situation for vendors, who find themselves paying a huge markup to the owners of permits the city issues at a nominal fee. "There is no money to pay him," Alam said. "Whatever savings I have, I'm dumping into this. Without my business, how can I support my family?" Despite opposition that has only intensified, the reforms may be on the verge of moving forward. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson says he supports the bill and expects it to come up for a vote next year. IT'S WEDNESDAY and it's the last Playbook of 2020. We'll be back in your inboxes next month. Thank you for sticking with us through a tumultuous and traumatic year. Happy New Year, and here's to a better 2021. 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 public schedule available by press time. WHERE'S BILL? Holding a media availability. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Covid conga lines are not smart. That's my official position." — Gov. Andrew Cuomo , on holiday festivities PROGRAMMING NOTE: New York Playbook will not publish again until Monday, Jan. 4, when we return to our regular schedule. Please continue to follow POLITICO New York. | | | | EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT TRANSITION PLAYBOOK, SUBSCRIBE TODAY: A new year is quickly approaching. Inauguration Day is right around the corner. 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 the new administration and one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, this scoop-filled newsletter breaks big news daily and analyzes the appointments, people and emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming Biden administration. Subscribe today. | | | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | "NEW YORK CITY wants the state to authorize 24-hour speed camera enforcement amid a rise in traffic crashes, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. 'We're appealing today to New York state to the legislature to help us do more. To help us save lives,' Hizzoner said during his daily press briefing. 'Help us with the most fundamental step, which is taking what works — speed cameras, they work.' The city's speed camera program has grown exponentially since de Blasio took office, and currently consists of thousands of cameras across the city. But state law limits camera enforcement to 750 designated school zones from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays — neglecting some of the most deadly times and locations. The city saw a surge of traffic fatalities in 2020, driven by upticks in motor vehicle and cyclist deaths. Three-quarters of the year's deaths occurred in times or places where state law prohibits camera enforcement, the mayor said." New York Post's Nolan Hicks and David Meyer "SHARON ESCOBAR couldn't recognize her father. His face was so badly decomposed that she and her mother were eventually able to identify him only because of a scar on his leg. Ms. Escobar had paid a funeral home in Brooklyn to tend to the remains of her father, Elisha Magosha, after he died in mid-April from complications of Covid-19. Two weeks later she learned that his body had been disintegrating alongside more than a dozen others inside two U-Haul trucks parked in front of the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home, a small building squeezed between a sex shop and a dollar store. Odors seeping from the trucks were the clues to what was going on at the funeral home on Utica Avenue, prompting passers-by to complain to the authorities. The discovery in early May, as the pandemic held a firm grip on New York, shocked and angered a traumatized city, and in November, the home's director, Andrew Cleckley, had his license revoked by the state for improperly handling the remains of pandemic victims." New York Times' Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura "KEVIN RILEY, an aide to state Assembly Member Carl Heastie, has declared victory in the special election to replace Andy King in the City Council. Riley faced Pamela Hamilton-Johnson and public defender Neville Mitchell in the District 12 special election. Riley took to Twitter to thank voters. King had named Brian Melford as his preferred successor, but his name was not on the ballot because his paperwork was too late. The former councilman and his predecessor Larry Seabrook were both marked by corruption charges. King was expelled from the City Council on ethics violations. This was the first of five special elections before the new class of council members takes to the floor of the City Council." News 12 The Bronx "ABOUT 12,000 city students will be switched to fully remote learning after failing to provide COVID-19 testing consent forms, The Post has learned. Roughly 190,000 kids in pre-K, 3-K, grades K-5, and some special needs learners were eligible to return to classrooms this month when Mayor Bill de Blasio reopened 850 city schools. All of those families had signed up for the DOE's blended learning program that includes classroom instruction. Citing the need to guard against outbreaks, de Blasio required parents to submit coronavirus testing consent forms — but exempted the early learners and special needs kids. That left about 130,000 students in grades K-5 who were required to provide the document if they wanted to remain in classrooms for the rest of this year." New York Post's Selim Algar — Charter schools sued the city over their exclusion from the Covid-19 testing program. | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "IN THE SYRACUSE suburb of Manlius, police transparency carries a hefty price tag. In June, the Manlius Police Department received an open-records request from MuckRock, a nonprofit news site. The request sought documents detailing any allegations of misconduct against current or former officers and any discipline the department imposed. The department replied with a bill. For $47,504. Six months ago, New York lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo repealed Section 50-a of the state Civil Rights Law, a once-obscure provision that had been used to shield police disciplinary records from public view for decades. "The repeal came amid national and statewide protests following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died in police custody after an officer pressed a knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes. Since then, the USA TODAY Network New York has partnered with MuckRock, the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and Syracuse University journalism students to file more than 600 records requests with more than 400 police agencies in hopes of creating a searchable, first-of-its-kind database with disciplinary records from across the state. But in much of the state, police agencies have declined to provide the documents without a fight." USA Today Network's Jon Campbell and Beryl Lipton "NEW YORK state officials will close three upstate prison facilities in coming weeks, a move they said was justified by a declining inmate population and a looming budget deficit. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said Monday it would close the prisons at the end of March, after a required 90-day notice period. They are the Gowanda Correctional Facility in Erie County, the Watertown Correctional Facility on the outskirts of that city and the Clinton Annex near Plattsburgh. Republican politicians criticized the move, saying the closures would cause hundreds of job losses in struggling areas of the state. The administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said the closures would save roughly $89 million a year and that the nearly 1,500 inmates in the facilities would be transferred to other prisons." Wall Street Journal's Jimmy Vielkind "GUN VIOLENCE and its effects on residents' lives were flash points in Albany — and much of the United States — over the past year, as were questions about what prompted the surge in bloodshed that came as the coronavirus spread . As of Dec. 20, Albany saw a record 17 homicides. One hundred and twenty-nine people were shot in 100 separate incidents. In 161 other incidents, police found evidence of gunfire, but no victims. Albany was far from alone in the sharp increases in gun violence. In Troy, 36 people were shot and the city investigated an unprecedented 14 homicides. In Schenectady, six people were homicide victims and 40 people were shot. The violence hit suburban towns too. So far this year, Colonie town police have found a record 25 illegal handguns that resulted in arrests, with nine others pending or resulting in arrests elsewhere. Another 26 long guns were recovered. Over the past five previous years, the department averaged nine handgun recoveries a year. Police Lt. Robert Winn said the police department believes the spike is tied to people involved in violence in surrounding cities. 'They're staying in our motels and traveling on our roads,' he said. But finding definitive causes for the spike in violence has been elusive for police, academics and others." Times Union's Steve Hughes "GOV. ANDREW CUOMO gave a holiday present to voting rights advocates on Tuesday signing the state's first automatic voter registration (AVR) bill into law. Now eligible voters will automatically be registered when they interact with multiple state and city agencies that already collect the information required by the State Board of Elections. New York now joins 18 other states plus the District of Columbia with a policy that makes AVR the default option, requiring people who are eligible to vote to opt out if they do not want to register, instead of opting in. 'The establishment of automatic voter registration is a profound reform to our election laws,' the bill's lead State Senate sponsor, Deputy Leader Michael Gianari, told Gothamist/WNYC, noting there are more than a million eligible voters in the state who are currently unregistered that will be added to the rolls because of this law, which takes effect starting in 2023." WNYC's Brigid Bergin #UpstateAmerica: In 1937, Charles Howard opened the world's first Santa School that taught hundreds of Santa helpers how to look, dress, and act like the "Jolly Old Elf" for children. He's finally getting an Albion road named after him. | | | | TUNE IN TO NEW EPISODE OF GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS: 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 to identify and understand the impediments to smart policymaking. Subscribe for Season Two, available now. | | | | |
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | PRESIDENT Donald Trump has pardoned former Rep. Chris Collins less than two months after he headed to prison for an insider trading scheme that led to his arrest and resignation from Congress. Collins was the first House member to endorse Trump's presidential candidacy in 2016. Trump pardoned Collins, along with 14 other individuals, on Tuesday night. The president also commuted part or all of the sentences of an additional five individuals. Collins, a Western New York Republican, pleaded guilty in October 2019 after he was accused of passing illicit stock tips to his son from the White House lawn during a Congressional picnic. He was sentenced in January and began serving a 26-month sentence in October at Federal Prison Camp Pensacola. Trump granted a full pardon to Collins, "at the request of many members of Congress," according to the White House. He also pardoned Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who was sentenced earlier this year to 11 months in prison and three years of supervised release on charges related to the misuse of more than $200,000 in campaign funds. POLITICO's Anna Gronewold THE CHANCES that New York will lose two congressional seats in the looming reapportionment have increased, if new estimates released by the Census Bureau on Tuesday prove accurate. The state's population was pegged at 19.34 million as of July 1. That's down from an estimated 19.46 million as of the same date in 2019, and 19.38 million in 2010 Census. The estimates are based on adjustments to the 2010 numbers for migration, births and deaths. New York's congressional delegation might take a hit if these estimates wind up being close to the official numbers. New York has 27 members in its delegation, a total that's decreased by at least two in each of the past seven decades. POLITICO's Bill Mahoney | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — President Donald Trump blasted the $900 billion coronavirus relief package passed by Congress, calling it a "disgrace" and asking for amendments to the bill to increase stimulus payments to Americans. — "NYC's Subway Used to Be for Everyone. What's Going to Happen Now?" — Sen. Andrew Lanza will be the new deputy minority leader in the state Senate's Republican conference. — New York has suspended the use of facial recognition technology at K-12 schools for two years. — Cuomo wants New York hospitals and labs to specifically test for the new, highly contagious Covid-19 mutation in the U.K. — Mayoral candidates stake out their positions on street design and Vision Zero, as well open streets and restaurants, the future of free parking, banning cars from Manhattan , policing of public spaces and other questions in a survey by Streetsblog. — A Brooklyn man is charged with obtaining a fraudulent PPP loan and spending the money on a Bentley and a Cadillac Escalade. — A federal court extended the tenure of acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss until after President-elect Joe Biden takes office. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Bill Kristol … Shannon Bream … Dentons' John Russell IV … Zina Bash … Hilary Novik Sandberg is 32 … Deloitte's Rasheq Zarif … Abe Sutton … Tom Powers … Lauren Kahn MEDIAWATCH — Per Talking Biz News' Chris Roush: "Bloomberg Industry Group has hired Donna Borak to cover tax issues in New York and New Jersey. She previously covered banking policy for The Wall Street Journal from the Washington news bureau, and was also a senior economics writer for CNNMoney." Some professional news — Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon): "Some personal news: I'm leaving The Forward next week, after 3 life-changing years. … I'm taking January off to finish my book (more on that very soon), and I am thrilled to be taking a job at @Newsweek as Deputy Opinion Editor, starting in February." | | REAL ESTATE | | "PANDEMIC-SLAMMED tenants got new hope for a lifeline last week when Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the state's limited COVID-19 rent-aid program would reopen for applications for some locked out previously. But legions will still find themselves unable to access the aid , tenant advocates warn. That's because emergency benefit payments earlier this year may have rendered many tenants ineligible. Patty McKee, 50, is concerned she will be rejected again, even though her household income and the rent on the Williamsburg apartment she shares with her husband had them figuring they were a shoo-in for the aid." The City's Allison Dikanovic and Josefa Velasquez "ONE BY ONE, the nation's biggest public housing authority is turning over management of tens of thousands of its 175,000 apartments to the private sector. And with every apartment that goes into private hands, long-awaited repairs are deemed 'closed' — even though the fixes haven't taken place , a housing advocacy group charged in court papers filed this week. Instead, tenants are instructed to tell the development's new management team about what work needs to be done. NYCHA officials — who have struggled for years to reduce a massive repair request backlog that recently hit a record 475,000 — then get to take those jobs off the books. This bureaucratic sleight of hand is taking place under an Obama-era program called Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) in which NYCHA turns building management over to a private company while retaining ownership of the property." The City's Greg B. Smith "A KINGS COUNTY Supreme Court Judge struck down the 2018 Franklin Avenue rezoning on Monday, after a years-long court battle waged by neighborhood activists. The ruling, issued by Judge Reginald Boddie, reverses the certification of the 2018 rezoning, which would have allowed for two 16-story developments at 40 Crown St. and 931 Carroll St. near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. In a 27-page ruling, Boddie agreed with neighborhood activists' assertions that the Department of City Planning did not conduct a thorough enough environmental review process when certifying the rezoning... Boddie's decision came the same week that Mayor Bill de Blasio effectively killed the contested 960 Franklin Avenue rezoning, which would have allowed for a mixed-use mega-development further down Franklin Avenue, and has also been the subject of lawsuits and public opposition from the Botanic Garden." Brooklyn Paper's Ben Verde
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