| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | Presented by Uber Driver Stories | New Yorkers can now walk in and get their shots appointment-free at all city-run Covid-19 vaccination sites. The strategy change announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio is the biggest policy shift yet marking the move to the next phase of the vaccination push: less worry about scrambling for supplies and more attention to convincing enough people to get jabbed so the city can return to something close to normal. So far, the tally is 6 million shots and counting. New York resumed using the Johnson & Johnson shot this weekend, removing another hurdle after the federal government lifted a pause it imposed in response to a small number of women experiencing blood clots, including three who died. The hope now is to bring in stragglers who aren't exactly against getting vaccinated, but aren't quite motivated enough to spend hours refreshing websites. Or if that doesn't do it for you, you can get vaxxed under a giant whale sporting a six-foot long bandaid at the American Museum of Natural History site, which opened Friday and is one of the city sites now accepting walk-ins. The state is continuing to require appointments for now for people under 60 at the sites it runs. But a new program will be sending vaccines to pop-up sites at supermarkets and bodegas around the five boroughs, aiming to get essential workers vaccinated on the job. A few weeks back, when all adults became eligible for the vaccine, the inoculation drive had not put much of a dent in New York's infection numbers, but that is finally changing. The city's positive test rate hit 3.84 percent on Sunday and has been steadily falling, while the state's (measured differently) is now around 2 percent. 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 yet. WHERE'S BILL? Holding a media availability and appearing on NY1's Inside City Hall. | | A message from Uber Driver Stories: Meet Olivia. Because of her multiple sclerosis (MS) and fibromyalgia, Olivia has trouble standing for long periods of time. A traditional 9-to-5 job just won't work for her. Driving with Uber gives Olivia the flexibility to decide when to work, when to spend time with her family, and when to focus on rest. Watch her story in her own words below. | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | "New York City School Buildings Still Missing 582,000 Students," by Wall Street Journal's Lee Hawkins: "New York City hits a milestone Monday: Another 51,000 students are returning to schools for in-person learning, most for the first time in a year. But about 582,000 students, or 61%, are choosing to continue remote learning, according to estimates from the city's Department of Education. Many students took a pass on returning to classrooms during the final opt-in period of the school year. Some are worried about their health and safety and commuting, some have to take care of siblings, some are working at jobs, and some have just gotten into a routine learning remotely, teachers and parents say. Some teachers say the number of students in schools won't ever reach pre-pandemic levels until children are required to learn in person." — "Tensions rise at some of NYC's top high schools over 'Zoom in a room' for on-campus students," Chalkbeat's Amy Zimmer: "After months of learning outside of a school building, students were eager to step inside Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School when it reopened in March. The scene that met them, several parents said, was bleak. Small groups of teens sat silently in classrooms or hallways, hunched over laptops for virtual lessons, as their teachers worked from home or other classrooms, the parents described. Even during lunch, students stared at their phones rather than chatting. Many families at this and other high schools — particularly large, sought-after ones — are asking why on-campus students are doing what they call 'Zoom in a room' if so many teachers have been vaccinated." "NYC Will Pay Back Week-Long Furlough To 9,500 City Employees, De Blasio Says," by Gothamist's Sydney Pereira: "Thousands of city workers who took unpaid furlough days will get that money back starting this summer, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Saturday. About 9,500 city employees were forced to take five days of furlough between October 2020 and March as the city faced an unprecedented budget crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It would have saved the city about $21 million, de Blasio announced back in September. The furlough applied to managerial positions, non-union jobs, and City Hall staffers. On Saturday, the mayor said the federal stimulus puts the city in a 'much better place,' allowing for the employees' payback." — The city has spent more than $200 million to make municipal office buildings compatible with coronavirus safety measures as 80,000 additional city workers are set to return. "Corey Johnson joins comptroller foe to stop NYPD hiring rogue cops," by New York Post's Georgett Roberts and Mary Kay Linge: "Two Democrats battling each other to become city comptroller agreed on one thing Saturday: to push legislation that would bar the NYPD from hiring officers who were drummed out of another police department. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and state Sen. Brian Benjamin heaped praise on each other during a joint visit to Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, where they announced parallel bills that Benjamin will introduce in Albany and Johnson will support at City Hall... The bills would create databases to track police officers who have been fired, forced to resign, or faced serious discipline in other jurisdictions, Johnson said — and would prevent any such 'wandering officers' from being hired by any police force in New York State." — More than 5,300 NYPD uniformed officers retired or put in their papers to leave in 2020, a 75 percent increase from the year before. " NYC mayoral candidate Yang and his loyal 'Gang' under fire for attacking foes online," by New York Daily News' Michael Gartland: "Of all the mayoral candidates, Andrew Yang is the only one with a legitimate claim to having his own Gang. And while that has its advantages, it has also cast Yang in a harsh light at times. The Yang Gang — his crew of rabid supporters who defend him online and attack detractors — can be an unruly bunch and have come under criticism of late for, among other things, posting a video of Yang laughing along as a man asks him: 'Do you choke b----es,' calling a rival campaign operative racist and telling one campaign's spokeswoman she has 'vanilla sex.' Other questionable statements include calling mayoral candidate Maya Wiley 'the Kamala of the East' — a reference to Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also Black; telling New York State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi that her 'sex life sucks so bad' she has to 'slander Yang;' and likening one Jewish campaign operative to an insect." "In N.Y.C. Jail System, Guards Often Lie About Excessive Force," by The New York Times' Jan Ransom : "One New York City Correction officer struck a jailed person in the face for no legitimate reason. Another put a detainee in a banned chokehold several times. A third failed to stop subordinates from using unnecessary force, according to newly released discipline records. But what was equally notable was what happened after the encounters: In each case, the guards lied or provided inaccurate information about what had occurred. In fact, more than half of the officers in New York City's jail system who were disciplined over a 20-month period gave false, misleading or incomplete accounts on official forms or in statements to investigators, according to a New York Times analysis of records recently made public after a long court battle." ON THE TRAIL — Mayoral hopeful Scott Stringer got the endorsement of a coalition of Muslim groups, while Eric Adams got the backing of the Bangladeshi American group Rise Up New York in separate campaign events Sunday. The Advancing the Muslim Agenda for 2021 & Beyond coalition, comprised of more than 30 community leaders, got behind Stringer, the city comptroller, at a Foley Square press conference. "This endorsement was made on merit, not on the popularity in the polls," said Dr. Debbie Almontaser, senior adviser at Emgage PAC, citing Stringer's pledge to bring halal food to all public schools. Members of Rise Up cited the spike in gun violence, an issue Adams has been emphasizing Emgage PAC, and said they don't want a mayor who will defund the NYPD. "The crimes in New York City has been going up. The shootings have been going up. These things should not happen," said co-founder Shamsul Haque. "We want to make sure that our families are safe." — Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is endorsing Adams today. | | | | JOIN TODAY FOR A PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW WITH ENERGY SECRETARY GRANHOLM : President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan includes boosting investment in clean energy and significantly cutting fossil fuel emissions. Can the administration meet its climate targets? Join Playbook co-author Tara Palmeri for a virtual interview with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on the administration's plans to embrace renewable energy, electric vehicles and new solar technologies as part of Biden's call for an energy transition. REGISTER HERE. | | | | |
| | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "Stewart-Cousins again calls for Cuomo's head as he accuses her of playing politics," by New York Post's Bernadette Hogan: "State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, despite standing with Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this week, was prodded to reiterate her call for his resignation Friday when the governor accused her of playing politics. Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) stood next to Cuomo and thanked him repeatedly on Wednesday at a vaccine-related event in her district, which drew sharp criticism of the top Democrat as she had previously led the charge in calling for him to step down amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment, including from several former staffers. But just two days later, on Friday, Cuomo slammed her call for him to step down as 'political.'" "Major shakeup to 'safe staffing' bill for hospitals, nursing homes," by Spectrum's Morgan McKay: "Legislation that would require safer staffing levels at both hospitals and nursing homes could get voted on as soon as [this] week, but major changes to the bill were made overnight. The original safe staffing bill, which has been languishing for over 20 years, would have created a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio for both hospitals and nursing home facilities. Lawmakers instead decided to split up the legislation, focusing one bill on staffing levels in just hospitals and the other on just nursing homes. Pat Kane, the executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, called it a win for both nurses and those receiving care in the state." "Continued closure of state Capitol begins to grate on Albany," by POLITICO's Bill Mahoney: Gov. Andrew Cuomo says it is now safe for scores of people to gather in indoor movie theaters, maskless for however long it takes to eat an industrial-sized tub of popcorn. But as most of New York returns to some degree of normalcy, there's one location that's conspicuously absent from the announcements of places that can safely reopen — Cuomo's own workplace, the state Capitol building. The continued closure has made life more difficult for lobbyists and activists, who say it hinders their fundamental right to petition government. It also, one suggested, runs afoul of language in the state constitution guaranteeing that "the doors of each house [of the Legislature] shall be kept open." "If you can show proof of vaccination or a test to get into Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks, it seems kind of crazy you can't use it to get into the Capitol, especially when it's the state running the vaccination passport," said one lobbyist who asked to remain anonymous. "The only thing that makes sense as an explanation is the governor doesn't want daily protests inside the Capitol directed at him." "Cuomo's Pandemic Powers Remain Unchecked, Republicans Say ," by Wall Street Journal's Jimmy Vielkind: "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's recent extension of a statewide curfew on bars and restaurants shows the limits of a law intended to curtail the unilateral powers he received in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Republican lawmakers say. The law was enacted in early March, as the Democratic governor grappled with accusations that he sexually harassed former female aides and requests for documents from federal prosecutors about the state's policies around Covid-19 in nursing homes. Facing public pressure to respond, state lawmakers voted to amend a March 2020 law that gave Mr. Cuomo the power to issue unilateral directives necessary to cope with any declared disaster." #UpstateAmerica: A Syracuse native who learned to brew in Central New York is about to open one of the first American-owned and operated craft breweries in London. | | | |   | | |
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | "AOC rips Cuomo air train project as a wrong-way boondoggle," by New York Post's Carl Campanile: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed Gov. Andrew Cuomo 's $2 billion LaGuardia Airport Air Train project as a wrong-way boondoggle that would encourage travelers to use cars instead of transit. 'It is billions and billions and billions of dollars on an infrastructure project that doesn't make logistical sense,' Ocasio-Cortez said during a virtual town hall meeting Friday night. The Air Train will cut through East Elmhurst, which is part of Ocasio-Cortez's district. AOC mocked the proposal, which goes past Citi Field to connect to the subway instead of heading directly toward Manhattan. — Ocasio-Cortez rallied against a natural gas plant proposed for Astoria. "Staten Island's Answer to AOC Drawing Outside Money in Early Bid to Oust Malliotakis," by The City's Clifford Michel : "Nearly six months after beating a moderate Democratic incumbent for Staten Island's House seat, Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is already facing a challenge from an unapologetic progressive raising money from across the country. Political newcomer Brittany Ramos DeBarros, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America's Staten Island chapter, pulled in nearly $129,000 in just over two months, with nearly 80% of her itemized donations coming from outside of New York. Meanwhile, Malliotakis notched $358,263 in the first three months of the year, with 63% raining in from beyond the state." | | | | Did you know that POLITICO Pro has coverage and tools at the state level? All the state legislative and regulatory tracking, budget documents, state agency contact information, and everything else you need to stay ahead of state policy movement integrate into our smart and customizable platform. Learn more and become a Pro today. | | | | |
| | AROUND NEW YORK | | — The NYPD will deploy dozens of officers to commercial districts in Manhattan as part of the city's push to encourage the return of workers to offices and help tourism rebound. — A 61-year-old Asian man was beaten into a coma in an unprovoked attack while he was collecting cans. — Four Bronx synagogues were vandalized this weekend , and city and state hate crimes task forces are investigating. — Andrew Yang released his plans to combat the opioid crisis. — Ray McGuire is proposing large-scale, outdoor art installations to each of the five boroughs. — A car-free busway on 181st St. is launching today. — A City Council candidate in Brooklyn is biking every block of his district. — Hamilton is the favorite Broadway show among mayoral candidates. — Volunteer fire departments throughout New York were on a recruiting mission this weekend. — Protesters urged the Roman Catholic diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island to release the names of clergy accused of sexual abuse. — The Steuben County Legislature is poised to back a study designating the Finger Lakes as a national heritage area. — Ulster County has launched its Green New Deal website. — The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe issues a cease-and-desist order against unregulated pot shops in the tribe's jurisdiction. — A 72-year-old woman has been charged with attempted murder in the Adirondacks. — National polls show that Republicans are far less likely than Democrats to want a Covid-19 vaccine, a trend you can see in Central New York. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: former first lady Melania Trump is 51 … NPR's Domenico Montanaro and Ben Fishel ... NYT's Russell Goldman … Bloomberg's Colin Wilhelm … WSJ's Eliot Brown … The New Yorker's Madison Heuston … CNN's Jessica Schneider … Sandy Gottesman ... Dick Fuld is 75 … NBCUniversal's Phil Tahtakran … … (was Sunday): Patrick Mellody … Geoff Bennett, WH correspondent at NBC News … Mike Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute … Jaclyn Rothenberg ... Meredith Dragon ... Adam Silver (h/ts Jewish Insider) … (was Saturday): Lawrence S. Kramer … Vanity Fair's Abigail Tracy … Megan Sowards Newton of Jones Day … Edelman's Luis Betanzo … Andrew Kirtzman ... Charles Scharf … Reed Rayman ... Molly Boigon WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Erica Hinsley, deputy director of communications at The New Yorker, and Chris Losak, senior manager at Deloitte Consulting, recently welcomed Malia Losak Hinsley. She joins big brother Brooks. Pic PODCAST DU JOUR — From the Bush Center: "Dina Powell McCormick — From Cairo to the White House" | | A message from Uber Driver Stories: When Olivia was diagnosed with MS in 2017, it became clear to her that having a regular job would no longer be possible.
"I drive with Uber because I love to drive," she says. "It just puts the MS far out of my head. There's no way I could work a regular 9-5."
With Uber, Olivia can choose when, where, and how long she wants to drive. This flexibility lets Olivia be there for her daughter and for her own health needs.
If she's not feeling well, or her daughter needs her, she doesn't have to worry about asking her boss or requesting time off—she can take the time she needs to focus on herself and her family.
To see more stories like Olivia's, click here.
*Driver earnings may vary depending on location, demand, hours, drivers, and other variables. | | |
| | REAL ESTATE | | "Legislators Look To Extend Eviction Moratorium To August 31st For New Yorkers Affected By Pandemic," by Gothamist's David Cruz: "Nearly one week before the state's eviction moratorium is set to expire, two state lawmakers have introduced a bill to extend the deadline to August 31st, aiming to provide further relief to New Yorkers who continue struggling to pay rent. 'This will keep people from being thrown out onto the streets,' Assemblymember Jeff Dinowitz, a sponsor of the bill, told Gothamist/WNYC on Saturday. 'We don't want more people made homeless, especially during a pandemic.' Dinowitz, who represents the northwest Bronx, and Manhattan/Brooklyn state Senator Brian Kavanaugh introduced the legislation on Friday, which would mandate landlords provide a hardship declaration form to any tenant they seek to evict." "New York City rents hit record lows in first quarter of 2021 amid COVID-19 pandemic," by New York Daily News' Noah Goldberg : "It's a renter's paradise out there — at least, for now. Most New York City rents fell over the last three months to a low not seen in a decade, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to hammer the city's once-robust housing market, according to a report Friday from real estate website StreetEasy. In Manhattan, the median price of a one-bedroom apartment plummeted to $2,700, the lowest average price since StreetEasy began tracking rents in 2010. Since the start of the pandemic last march, the average one-bedroom rental in Manhattan dropped $700 — down from an average high of $3,417."
| | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment