| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | State Sen. Gustavo Rivera endorsed Scott Stringer for mayor on Sunday. Pretty standard stuff, except that Rivera also endorsed Dianne Morales for mayor on Sunday — as his second pick — making it the race's first ranked-choice endorsement. The unusual endorsement came as New Yorkers were casting their first ranked-choice ballots in a City Council special election in Queens. And it illustrated how the new system will transform campaign dynamics: Rivera backed both Stringer, the city comptroller who is viewed as one of the frontrunners in the race, and Morales, a first-time candidate with positions further to the left and with history-making potential. Both rivals joined him for a joint endorsement event in the Bronx. "There's a couple of things that these folks have in common: First of all they're both born and raised New Yorkers. They both have a tried and true experience; it means they can both run the city," Rivera said. Morales, a former non-profit executive who would be the city's first Afro-Latina mayor, said the new system — which allows voters to rank up to five candidates in order of preference — will open new doors for campaigns like hers. "Candidates like me — political outsiders, first-timers, women of color — are often overlooked during our races," she said. While Rivera's is the campaign's first ranked-choice endorsement, it is unlikely to be the last. More double and perhaps triple, quadruple or quintuple endorsements may be on tap as alliances and rivalries develop in an unprecedented campaign season. 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 public schedule available by press time. WHERE'S BILL? Holding a media availability and appearing on NY1's Inside City Hall. | | | | 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 | | "EVEN AS NEW York City officials focus on vaccinating millions of residents, the coronavirus continues to spread, with more than 50 ZIP codes showing a positive test rate over 10 percent . Each day recently has typically seen about 5,000 new cases of the virus and has recorded more than 60 new deaths. While the numbers of deaths and hospitalizations are nowhere near what they were during the city's peak of the epidemic in the spring, public health experts wonder how much worse the data needs to get before officials consider new steps and restrictions. 'I feel like people are numbed by the numbers; I worry about the complacency and fatigue,' said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. 'I worry about the focus on vaccines, rather than what's happening with the virus.' The 54 ZIP codes in New York City with seven-day average positivity rates of over 10 percent span every borough, city statistics showed on Friday. Two more ZIP codes were at 10 percent. Bronx, Queens and Staten Island have positive test rates higher than 9 percent." New York Times' Sharon Otterman "NEW YORK CITY is expected to receive another 'paltry' 100,000 new doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday — a fraction of what is needed, officials said Sunday. As of last week, the Big Apple was administering 30,000 to 40,000 shots a day, eating up its supply to the point where even a single blip in a manufacturer's delivery chain forced the city to delay at least 23,000 upcoming appointments...The city said last week that it had to temporarily shut down 15 vaccine hubs between Thursday and Sunday because of the supply snafu of doses from Moderna. Asked if all of the centers would reopen as planned this week, city officials told The Post on Sunday that it all depends on the flow of new doses." New York Post's Kate Sheehy — The opening of a mass vaccination site at Citi Field could be delayed. — City politicians are demanding data on the race and ethnicity of those who have received the vaccine. — Mayoral hopeful Andrew Yang called for using ice cream trucks as vaccination sites. "WORKERS AT the Hunts Point Produce Market on Saturday morning approved a new three-year contract that will net them a raise and get them back to work Sunday. Some 97% of workers voted in favor of the pact, ending a strike that disrupted the Bronx-based hub — which touts supplying 60% of the region's produce — for almost a week. "They'll be able to feed their families," said Teamsters Local 202 President Daniel J. Kane Jr… Over 1,400 workers voted to go on strike at midnight last Sunday over a wage dispute. The workers had asked management for a $1-an-hour raise several weeks ago, arguing that they had worked nonstop to keep the city's food supply going throughout the pandemic. Negotiations disintegrated last week when management offered a 32-cent hourly boost instead. Under the deal, workers will get a minimum 70-cent-per-hour raise in the first year, eventually rising to a $1.85 bump by the third year, Kane said." The City's Claudia Irizarry Aponte "AFTER A two-year wait, the City Council is expected next week to pass a fiercely debated bill that would more than double the number of street vendor permits over a decade. The measure would create 4,000 new sidewalk and street food-selling permits by 2032, in addition to 3,000 currently issued by the city's health department. While would-be vendors hope to move off a years-long waiting list, struggling restaurant owners say the change would further undercut their pandemic-slammed businesses." The City's Christine Chung "THE ONGOING resurgence of COVID-19 infections and deaths virtually ensured that December would be a terrible month for hospitality job losses across the country, but New York City was hit particularly hard, according to a new state report. Even as the overall unemployment rate improved to 11.4 percent throughout the five boroughs in December — a decrease of 0.7 percent from the previous month — bars and restaurants still shed 11,400 jobs , per the latest data released by the state labor department. That represents a 5.8 percent drop in hospitality employment over a single month, erasing any minimal gains the local industry had made since the late summer as its recovery sputtered." Eater's Ryan Sutton — De Blasio has yet to release an economic recovery plan. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: City Comptroller Scott Stringer may soon make good on his pledge to divest city pension money from fossil fuel companies. At least one firm hired to study the pension system's fossil fuel investments over the past 15 years found that the bets were poor ones, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the results. The consulting firm, Meketa Investment Group, concluded that the best course of action would be to divest. In 2019, Mayor Bill de Blasio repeatedly claimed that the city had divested $5 billion from fossil fuels during his ill-fated presidential run — but that had not actually happened. It was not until last year that the city and three funds — New York City Employees' Retirement System, the Board of Education Retirement System and the city Teachers' Retirement System — announced that Meketa would study the matter. The teacher's system also hired BlackRock Financial Management. The pension funds are controlled by trustees who would need to vote on any action, but the reports set the stage for divestment to move forward. — Joe Anuta FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Former state Comptroller Carl McCall will endorse state Sen. Brian Benjamin for city comptroller today. McCall said Benjamin "is the only candidate we can trust to protect the pensions of New York City's retirees and handle the very serious challenges our city is facing. And his long record of advocating for affordable housing and criminal justice reform shows he holds the values we need in our next Comptroller." | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "THE STATE UNIVERSITY of New York will be reopening its campuses for the spring semester Feb. 1 . SUNY officials announced Sunday that in-person classes will resume for students next Monday. To further prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campuses, Chancellor Jim Malatras announced students, faculty and staff who regularly come to campus will be required to test for COVID-19 on a weekly basis now. Students have not been in person on many campuses since before Thanksgiving. Ahead of the first day of classes, students are being moved to campus housing for COVID testing and quarantining. Students also will not have a spring break this semester." Times Union's Massarah Mikati "GOV. ANDREW CUOMO'S administration will allow basketball, football and other higher-risk sports competitions to proceed beginning Feb. 1 so long as county health departments sign off on it. The state issued updated COVID-reopening guidelines Friday for sports and recreational activities, clearing the way for all high school and recreational sports leagues to begin as soon as next month. But the new rules come with a significant caveat: The local health department will first have to approve competitive play within its jurisdiction for sports deemed higher risk by the state, including basketball, football, competitive cheer, ice hockey and men's lacrosse." USA Today Network's Jon Campbell, Mike Dougherty, Bob Chavez and Ben Birnell "IN A YEAR like 2020, it only seems fitting that New York's ski season started off with a catastrophe . It was early Christmas morning when snow from a trail on Belleayre Mountain loosened and plummeted into a mid-mountain lodge, smashing doors and windows. Although the incident wasn't technically an avalanche, its aftereffect certainly looked like one. 'I have worked here for 20 years, and I haven't heard anything like this happening in the Catskills,' said Joe McCracken, the marketing manager at Belleayre. 'We never would have even thought about this happening.' The bizarre holiday snowslide is just one of the many challenges facing the ski resorts of New York state as they approach obstacle after obstacle while trying to function during a pandemic." New York Times' Alyson Krueger WAIT, HOW DOES THAT WORK? "Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned this week that New York was about to 'exhaust' its coronavirus vaccine supply, with only a few thousand doses left. But is it really running on empty? Not entirely. Here's how the math breaks down: The Democrat said Friday that after administering vaccines to more than 1 million people, the state had only around 28,000 doses left over for people getting their first of two shots. But that was a reference to how much vaccine was available out of the stockpile of first doses the state had at the start of the week. Cuomo wasn't including another nearly quarter-million doses from new shipments sent by the federal government. He also wasn't including hundreds of thousands of doses being distributed to nursing home patients and staff through a federal program. And he also wasn't including a big stockpile of doses reserved for people getting the second of the two shots they need." Associated Press' Marina Villeneuve — The new director of the CDC acknowledged the federal government does not have enough doses to send to New York and other states that are claiming to have run out of vaccine. "THE DEBATE ABOUT raising taxes as part of New York's budget is shaping up to be a test of how far Democrats in the state Legislature will go to take on their party mate Gov. Andrew Cuomo. After last year's elections, Democrats have the two-thirds majority in both the state Assembly and Senate — enough to override a gubernatorial veto. Advocates of raising taxes are pushing rank-and-file lawmakers to flex their muscles during the budget process, which will dominate the Capitol until the next fiscal year begins April 1. Mr. Cuomo proposed a $193 billion spending plan that includes $1.5 billion from raising taxes on people reporting $5 million or more in annual income. But one breath after describing the plan, he fretted about its potentially negative consequences if wealthy people leave the state." Wall Street Journal's Jimmy Vielkind #UpstateAmerica: Is Thompson Park in Watertown upstate's version of Area 51? | | | | HAPPENING TUESDAY - DRAWING THE ETHICAL LINE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: As AI becomes increasingly ingrained in our everyday lives, there are concerns about biases in these systems and ethical standards to guide their fair use. Without an international framework or set of principles governing AI, the ethical guidelines for its use vary across countries and cities and sometimes even come down to individual policymakers, elected leaders, the private sector, and grassroots advocates' work. Join POLITICO for a conversation to explore the pace of global AI innovation and development and what it means for the future of ethical standards in this space. The virtual program features an executive conversation between POLITICO CEO Patrick Steel and Workday EVP of corporate affairs Jim Shaughnessy. REGISTER HERE. | | | | |
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | CHUCK SCHUMER has finally realized his dream of becoming majority leader. And given the circumstances, it's a bit of a nightmare. Schumer is facing down a hard-nosed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is refusing to cut a deal to govern the 50-50 Senate without a commitment to protecting the filibuster. He must marshal Donald Trump's impeachment trial through the Senate while also trying to get President Joe Biden's Cabinet confirmed. And he has to figure out how to respond to a crippling pandemic and struggling economy while Republicans have already rejected Biden's relief proposal. POLITICO's Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine — "One veteran Albany and D.C. lobbyist described the Cuomo-Schumer relationship as a chilly 'co-existence .' 'It's not a warm, friendly relationship. You have two highly competitive, larger than life personalities. Cuomo comes from Queens. Schumer from Brooklyn,' the lobbyist said. Schumer now is the Senate majority leader, with more leverage to deliver for New York. But Cuomo continues to publicly keep the pressure on Schumer and President Biden to deliver for New York. He threatened to sue them if they don't provide $15 billion in federal aid to help balance the state budget. While discussing his budget plan last week, Cuomo continued to needle Schumer, sources said." New York Post's Carl Campanile "THE FEUD between the 'Freedom Force' and 'The Squad' in Congress is just getting started, but two of its respective members — Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — have been critical of each other since before Staten Island's new congresswoman even took office. The criticism escalated on Friday when Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx/Queens) took a shot at Malliotakis on Twitter after a recent interview with CNN's Erin Burnett. 'Rep. Malliotakis deliberately amplified a known lie and tried to overturn our election on it, which incited an insurrection of white supremacists that killed 5 people. Her district is 30-40% people of color. How safe do you think they feel under her leadership?' Ocasio-Cortez tweeted." Staten Island Advance's Kristin F. Dalton — The Lincoln Project has a new ad out against Rep. Elise Stefanik. A TEXAS MAN charged with illegally storming the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6. threatened to kill Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a Capitol Police officer, according to federal prosecutors . Garret Miller, of Dallas County, Texas, posted often on social media about his involvement in the deadly riots during which insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, including sending a tweet saying "Assassinate AOC," according to charging documents. Miller was charged with several federal crimes and arrested Wednesday in Texas, Department of Justice filings show. POLITICO's Ben Leonard — A Long Island Rail Road conductor has been suspended as the MTA investigates whether he was involved in the Capitol insurrection. | | Biden and the Boroughs | | "THE ROAD TO a fiscally sound MTA runs through soon-to-be Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's desk, according to New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. Johnson on Friday implored Buttigieg to 'immediately authorize' the MTA's plans to toll downtown Manhattan car trips, which would raise $1 billion per year for the cash-averse transit agency. 'Congestion pricing has the capacity to generate significant urgently-needed revenue that will help prevent our public transit system from going down a death spiral of service cuts and fare hikes,' Johnson wrote in a letter to President Biden's transportation nominee." New York Post's David Meyer | | TRUMP'S NEW YORK | | "PRESIDENT DONALD J. Trump's late-night commutation of a 10-year prison sentence being served by a drug smuggler named Jonathan Braun made the action sound almost routine. The White House said only that upon his release, Mr. Braun would 'seek employment to support his wife and children.' What the White House did not mention is that Mr. Braun, a New Yorker from Staten Island who had pleaded guilty in 2011 to leading a large-scale marijuana smuggling ring, still faces both criminal and civil investigations in an entirely separate matter, and has a history of violence and threatening people." New York Times' Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman and William K. Rashbaum "HIS PRESIDENT AND No. 1 client, Donald J. Trump, is no longer in office. His claims of election fraud, unfounded and disproved, were dismissed in courts across the country. He may still face criminal charges, and now there is a move to disbar him in New York. But Rudolph W. Giuliani still has a voice, amplified by a 50,000-watt radio station nestled in Midtown Manhattan. And there, Mr. Giuliani is his usual, unrestrained self. Think Mr. Trump lost the election? Mr. Giuliani vehemently disagrees. 'He won that election,' Mr. Giuliani said last week on his radio show on WABC-AM (770). 'You give me one hour. I will prove it to you with pictures, documents, votes and people we can call on the phone in five states.'" New York Times' Azi Paybarah | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — AG Tish James sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for denying the state a public hearing over the dismantling of the Indian Point nuclear power point. — The Cuomo administration will make good on an agreement to install murals celebrating Native American history on a new Interstate 87 overpass, a promise neglected for months past its due date. — Three New York ticket brokers agreed to pay $3.7 million in civil penalties to settle allegations that they bought tens of thousands of event tickets and resold them to customers at inflated prices. — The New York State Restaurant Association is pushing the state to allow eateries to stay open until midnight, rather than 10 p.m., during the pandemic. — City Council Member Rafael Salamanca dropped out of the Bronx borough president race. — The New York state court system will not say whether one of its officers is still on the job after he made a Facebook post that implied George Floyd 'deserved what he got.' — The races in Saratoga will run July 15 through Labor Day in 2021. No word on whether there will be fans. — Harlem's historic All Saints Church is set to be sold. — The city has recognized LGBT-owned businesses as eligible for its minority & women-owned business enterprise programs. — The co-owner of a Staten Island pub that defied Covid-19 safety regulations has avoided felony charges for allegedly driving into a sheriff's deputy. — Outdoor diners are still showing up, even in below-freezing temps. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Nancy Gibbs … Joe Conason is 67 … Mark Isaacson … Emily Passer … Dae Lim ... Mark Bottini ... Kevin Helliker is 62 … Angela Calman … Iva Benson … Tina Tchen (h/t Hilary Rosen) … Erika Reynoso … Dan Kaniewski … (was Sunday): Eric Schultz … Gerry Baker, WSJ editor at large … Abigail Disney … Mark Fields is 6-0 … Ian Bassin is 45 … Andrew Green … Melanie Trottman … Lisa Marie Pane … WSJ's Byron Tau … Elliott Abrams is 73 … former OMB Director and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan is 55 … Paige Terryberry … Dax Tejera … Jacqui Corba … (was Saturday): Norah O'Donnell (h/t Ben Chang) … Bruce Ratner is 76 … Seth Wickersham … Eric Koch … Kelsey Sutton … Vox's Alex Ward is 31 … Aaron Pellish … Erika Gudmundson MAKING MOVES: Tian Weinberg is joining Scott Stringer's mayoral campaign as editorial and policy manager. She was previously an account supervisor at BerlinRosen. | | REAL ESTATE | | "LAST MONTH, the New York State Legislature approved an emergency bill to ban evictions for at least two months — preventing thousands of New Yorkers from being booted during the winter amid a raging pandemic. The law was a tremendous relief for renters who are struggling or flat-out unable to pay their rent as they await federal aid. But behind the state's latest eviction moratorium is a percolating crisis of rent debt. Eviction bans and court mandates have kept many in their homes, but eviction proceedings will start up again in May and renters will be forced to either pay off their back rent or be pushed out." Curbed's Caroline Spivack and Valeria Ricciulli
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