| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | The many, many Democrats running for mayor of New York City are fighting for every vote. There's also a less visible contest underway for the 10-ish viable candidates in the race: a scramble for big endorsements that could differentiate a candidate from the rest of the crowded field. The contenders are getting aggressive, and perhaps even a little desperate, our Sally Goldenberg reports. "I gotta change my phone number, 'cause somehow my phone number got out," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, whose phone has been blowing up. Rev. Al Sharpton says he has five candidates calling, allegedly just to chat, two or three times a week. "They call and ask me how I'm doing, call and ask about whatever issue I'm working on," he said. "We've been in this long enough to know why they're really calling." The big gets — all still up for grabs — include the Hotel Trades Council, the Working Families Party, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and health care workers union 1199SEIU, whose backing was important in Mayor Bill de Blasio's win in 2013. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's backing is also coveted, but she has indicated she's unlikely to endorse in the primary any time soon, if ever. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, for his part, has turned the courting process into a "dining with Donovan" series of sorts, featuring outdoor lunches at his borough's diverse eateries. There was Maya Wiley at Queens Bully in Forest Hills, Andrew Yang at Szechuan Mountain House in Flushing, and next week he plans to dine with Kathryn Garcia in the Rockaways. "I'm enjoying all this caloric intake at this moment," he said. IT'S THURSDAY. 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? In Albany, with public events scheduled. WHERE'S BILL? Holding a media availability. ABOVE THE FOLD: "Indoor dining at restaurants in New York City, which has been suspended since early December to help limit the spread of Covid-19, may reopen soon. The state is considering a plan that would permit indoor dining at a capacity of 25%, and 'how and when you do that,' New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. A decision will come by the end of the week, he said, after consultation with local health officials and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. 'I fully understand how difficult it is that they are closed,' said Mr. Cuomo of the city's restaurants. 'On the flip side is how fast this virus can take off.'...Mr. Cuomo also on Wednesday lifted localized economic and social-gathering restrictions in most areas of the state, including in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Nassau and Suffolk counties, and counties that include Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. Those restrictions were part of a so-called microcluster strategy, and the level of restriction was associated with the colors yellow, orange or red." Wall Street Journal's Melanie Grayce West | | | | TRACK THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: A new president occupies the White House and he is already making changes. What are some of the key moments from Biden's first week in office? Find out in Transition Playbook, our scoop-filled newsletter tracking the appointments, people, and emerging power centers of the first 100 days of the new administration. Subscribe today. | | | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | "THE NUMBER OF public school students has fallen sharply across New York City this year, declining 4%, or roughly 43,000, according to new city and state data that offer the most detailed portrait yet of enrollment trends during the coronavirus pandemic. Though the nation's largest school district has been shrinking in recent years, amid declining birth rates as well as rising charter enrollment, New York City's traditional public schools lost more students this year than the previous 14 years combined. Enrollment now stands at roughly 960,000, the preliminary figures show. Almost three-quarters of traditional public schools enrolled fewer students than the previous year, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state data. One in four lost at least 10% of their enrollment." Chalkbeat's Alex Zimmerman and Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee THE CITY COUNCIL is expected to dramatically expand the number of street vending permits with a bill set to pass today, despite continued opposition from brick and mortar business groups — some of whom blame Council leadership for rushing the measure. The legislation would create 4,000 new vending permits over the next decade, with an eye towards legalizing vendors who are currently operating without the proper certification, and curbing a black market for permits that has thrived as rules governing the industry have gone unchanged for decades. POLITICO's Janaki Chadha — Council Member and Brooklyn BP candidate Robert Cornegy Jr. opposes the timing of the measure and co-wrote an op-ed in Bklyner with Chamber of Commerce President Randy Peers saying passing the bill now "delivers a deathblow to the restaurants, bodegas, neighborhood grocers and other small businesses that are the lifeblood of New York City's economy." "A YEAR-LONG stalemate that threatened to add more chaos and confusion to the first year of ranked-choice voting in New York City's elections, including the high-stakes June primary, broke on Wednesday after the State Board of Elections agreed to come up with a plan to certify tabulation software for the city. The move came the same day Gothamist / WNYC first reported on an impasse between the city and state boards, based on partisan disagreement, that was forcing the city to shelve its plan to rely on software to count the results in the ongoing special election in 24th City Council district and instead rely on a hand tally for the final results." WNYC's Brigid Bergin "NEW YORK CITY will receive about 17,000 extra doses of the coveted coronavirus vaccine starting next week under President Biden's new push to get out more shots, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. Biden on Tuesday bumped up the total federal allocation from about 8.6 million doses per week to approximately 10 million, in response to state and local leaders' pleas for enough shots to keep their inoculation efforts humming." New York Post's Nolan Hicks and Aaron Feis FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: At least five Democratic candidates for mayor and a slew of Council candidates have signed onto an extensive policy agenda to cut city emissions and spur the creation of green jobs. Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley, Dianne Morales, Shaun Donovan and Carlos Menchaca have all taken the pledge. Other candidates are still mulling, but the groups who designed the Green New Deal for New York City are launching a push to get others on board — and go after those who don't. The pledge, designed by the Sunrise Movement, Food & Water Action and New York Communities for Change calls on would-be city leaders to expand the city's landmark building emissions law, oppose any expansion of natural gas infrastructure in the five boroughs and push for publicly owned utilities, as part of 20 items listed on the agenda. "New York City faces an existential crisis. Our city is going to drown while baking in relentless heatwave ... unless the climate crisis is addressed immediately," said Pete Sikora of NYCC. — David Giambusso ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Andrew Yang was back on the campaign trail Wednesday after being temporarily grounded last week when a staffer tested positive for Covid-19. Yang took a stroll through Little Italy and Chinatown, with a battery of TV cameras and even a correspondent from TMZ in tow. Council Member Margaret Chin endorsed Yang's mayoral bid and the pair endorsed Gigi Li, who is campaigning for Chin's seat. Yang and Chin then swung by the Alfred E. Smith Houses on the Lower East Side to meet with tenant leaders. Yang got ripped over the weekend after his campaign put out a video with him greeting people waiting in the cold on a food line. "People living in poverty are not pawns or props for your campaign," tweeted state Sen. Julia Salazar. The crowd at the Smith Houses seemed a little more welcoming. "I remember in the last mayoral race [that] it took a while until they started to talk about public housing so I hope that this gets more candidates down here," said local district leader Jonathan Gardenhire. — Amanda Eisenberg and Jonathan Custodio | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "HIT by the pandemic, the amount of tax revenues the state is raising from the gambling sector has plummeted, as casinos, other betting halls and even the state's own Lottery have seen business stumble amid shutdowns and people limiting their travels. Then there is one line item deep within the newly proposed budget by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo showing a huge boost in gambling revenues — all thanks to the Seneca Nation of Indians . The governor is anticipating that the Seneca Nation will pay the state at least $450 million that Albany says it is owed since the tribe stopping making revenue-sharing payments in 2017 on proceeds from slot machines at its three casinos in Western New York. And Cuomo is projecting the money to come before the end of the current state fiscal year, which is March 31. But the dispute, which began in the spring of 2017, is still under appeal by the Seneca Nation in the federal courts and there is no clear indication when a final decision in the case might come." Buffalo News' Tom Precious "A HUDSON VALLEY lawmaker contends a state legislative hearing on the health budget has been delayed by the governor's office as some senators threatened to invoke subpoena powers to compel state officials to provide answers on coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes. 'The state has proven time and again that it has no intention of freely releasing the real number of New Yorkers who died from COVID-19 in our nursing homes. Empty threats only lead to more delays,' state Sen. Sue Serino, R-Hyde Park, said in a news release Wednesday… Serino and others have for months been calling on Cuomo and state health Commissioner Howard Zucker to release data on COVID-19 fatalities associated with nursing homes. The state has refused to publicly release the detailed data, particularly how many nursing home patients died in hospitals after testing positive for COVID-19 in their long-term living facilities. "Hudson Valley Democratic Sen. James Skoufis, who chairs the Senate's Investigations and Government Operations Committee, invoked subpoena power last year to compel testimony from Long Island realtors in a housing discrimination investigation. Skoufis has pledged to use the power if Zucker does not provide answers… Skoufis had warned he'd support using subpoena power to get answers on nursing home COVID-19 deaths on Monday in a WXXI story. The next day the health budget hearing was rescheduled from Feb. 3 to Feb. 25." Times Union's Amanda Fries — "CUOMO on Wednesday finally released detailed figures of nursing-home coronavirus vaccination rates amid criticism over the lack of information — revealing that less than half of workers at Big Apple facilities have received the jab. Following a query from The Post, the governor's office posted regional data on inoculation rates for nursing home workers and residents on its vaccine tracking website. The state said it also plans to soon release vaccination rates for individual nursing homes — as it has long done for hospitals. 'Just like with our testing tracker it's being built out and will be continuously updated with more and more granular information as time moves on,' said Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi. New York Post's Bernadette Hogan and Carl Campanile "AFTER YEARS of not taking discrimination against homebuyers seriously, the State Senate has taken a major step forward with a new set of findings and recommendations for overhauling the practice of real estate , an anti-discrimination advocate said Wednesday. Elaine Gross, president of Syosset-based ERASE Racism, said the key is will the State Legislature follow through. At issue is a report the Senate issued Wednesday, which was sparked by 'Long Island Divided,' a special, three-year Newsday investigation, published in 2019, that found evidence of widespread unequal treatment of minority homebuyers… Democrats made 14 recommendations for changing laws and practices, ranging from launching an ongoing set of undercover testers to see if real estate agents are following the law to increasing penalties for violations to encouraging companies to hire more minorities and open branches in minority communities." Newsday's Yancey Roy and Maura McDermott SEN. PAM HELMING will be holding an in-person fundraiser in Albany on Feb. 9 . The Canandaigua Republican will host the event a block away from the Capitol at the Fort Orange Club, according to an invitation. Ticket costs range from $300 to $2,500. The event seems to signal an end to an informal moratorium on fundraisers in Albany that has lasted nearly 11 months. Legislators hosted several events in the first weeks of the pandemic, but those that were scheduled after the state recorded its first Covid deaths on March 14 were canceled. … There are likely to be some practical problems that could make drumming up the usual crowds difficult. On a typical Tuesday evening in February, the hotels in Albany would be filled with folks in town for the session week, and hundreds of lobbyists who work in the area would be a short walk away from any political events. With the Capitol now closed to the public, the surrounding area is uncharacteristically quiet. And it's a safe bet that even among those who have home offices a quick drive from the Capitol, more than a few people will be leery about gathering indoors. "You'd have to be crazy to attend," one lobbyist said about Helming's event. POLITICO's Bill Mahoney #UpstateAmerica: The only way to endure politics is to find the humor in it: 'Local comedian announces run for Albany mayor' | | | | GET THE SCOOP ON CONGRESS IN 2021 : Get the inside scoop on the Schumer/McConnell dynamic, the new Senate Bipartisan Group, and what is really happening inside the House Democratic Caucus and Republican Conference. From Schumer to Pelosi, McConnell to McCarthy and everyone in between, our new Huddle author Olivia Beavers brings the latest from Capitol Hill with assists from POLITICO's deeply sourced Congress team. Subscribe to Huddle, the indispensable guide to Congress. | | | | |
| | Scranton on the Hudson | | "THE Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to pay New York $934 million to cover the projected statewide costs of administering the COVID-19 vaccine. On Tuesday, FEMA advanced half the funds, $467 million, to New York, recognizing the state has been hard-hit by the virus and is struggling financially. The money will pay for transportation, storage, medical staff, personal protective equipment and public awareness campaigns associated with vaccine distribution. The funding comes as the state is attempting to inoculate over 7 million people in the current phase. Supplies of vaccine doses remain limited, and that is prompting cancellations, confusion and frustration in some parts of the state." Times Union's Emilie Munson | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — An upstate man who bragged in a video that he was in the "Capitol building smoking with all my people!" has been criminally charged. — An NYCLU digital privacy expert says Cuomo's proposed data protections aren't all they're cracked up to be. — Albany Medical Center is facing a federal lawsuit from a former cafeteria worker who says she was fired after accusing her direct supervisor of sexual harassment. — "A snowy owl paid a rare and possibly unprecedented visit to Central Park on Wednesday, delighting veteran bird-watchers and other New Yorkers who desperately just need a new hot bird in their life right now." — A candidate in the City Council special election in Queens is embroiled in a controversy surrounding Israel and anti-Semitism. — Homeless residents whose stay at the Upper West Side's Lucerne Hotel has been the subject of a longrunning battle during the pandemic are organizing their own mayoral forum. — A Bronx man was charged for shooting an NYPD officer. — A water main broke this morning and has flooded homes and cars on a Long Island City street. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-N.Y.) … Jay McMichael … former Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) … Maria Comella … Lael Brainard … Lynnette Johnson Williams … Alexandra Thornton … Justin Fox … Donna Redel … Perry Bloch IN MEMORIAM: George McDonald, the founder and long-time president of the homeless advocacy nonprofit The Doe Fund, died Tuesday after a battle with lung cancer. | | REAL ESTATE | | "WHILE NEW YORK reels from budget shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the city and state are leaving money on the table by failing to investigate shady landlords taking advantage of tax credits, a housing rights watchdog will argue Wednesday, announcing three new lawsuits. Aaron Carr of the Housing Rights Initiative says the city loses $1.5 billion each year through the 421-a tax benefit program for landlords with rent stabilized buildings. Carr says he's identified more than 1,500 landlords who accepted the benefits while not complying with rent stabilization rules, which could just be the tip of the fraudulent iceberg. His group filed lawsuits in State Supreme Court regarding three properties that allegedly received over $20 million in undeserved tax benefits." New York Daily News' Stephen Rex Brown "A COLLAPSE in apartment rent collection during the pandemic is forging one of New York's most unlikely political alliances . The Real Estate Board of New York, the property industry's main lobbying group, has joined with New York's Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit association that advocates on behalf of tenant rights. While these two groups are usually antagonists—and they are currently on opposite sides in a federal lawsuit over rent control—the pandemic has created common ground. Too many New York tenants can't pay rent right now, which is making it harder for landlords to pay back their loans and causing tenant debt to pile up. Both sides want to address the issue with more government action, mostly in the form of streamlined rental assistance." Wall Street Journal's Will Parker
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