News : POLITICO New York Playbook: Mayor blasts MTA for congestion pricing delays — Lawmaker has ties to BOE staffers

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

POLITICO New York Playbook: Mayor blasts MTA for congestion pricing delays — Lawmaker has ties to BOE staffers — Cuomo aide’s calls get probed

Jul 21, 2021

By Erin Durkin, Anna Gronewold and Téa Kvetenadze

It's been more than two years since the state Legislature approved a plan to make New York City the first in the nation to adopt congestion pricing, charging drivers a fee to enter the most crowded parts of Manhattan. That was supposed to take effect at the beginning of 2021, a timeline that has come and gone.

For a while, everyone could kind of vaguely agree that this was Donald Trump's fault, as his administration withheld guidance on what kind of environmental review the project would need. But the Biden administration gave the green light in March, kicking off an environmental assessment that by some estimates should take only three months. So what's the deal now?

Mayor Bill de Blasio is pointing the finger squarely at the MTA, run by his archrival Gov. Andrew Cuomo. More precisely, he's waving a giant $15 billion prop check in their faces, representing the sum he says the transit agency is squandering by slow-walking the congestion plan.

"When you look at the state of New York, when you look at the MTA, you hear the sound of crickets because nothing is happening," de Blasio told reporters on Tuesday. "The state and the MTA are sitting on their hands."

The mayor's particular beef is that the MTA has not made appointments nor convened a board that will determine important particulars like how high the fee will be. They also haven't met with the folks in New Jersey. The MTA says it's just working its way through the environmental review, and there's nothing to see here.

If congestion pricing seems to be going nowhere fast, a different transit project near and dear to Cuomo's heart is on a glide path. His $2.1 billion LaGuardia AirTrain, though much maligned by local pols for taking Manhattan-bound passengers in the wrong direction, got the OK from the Federal Aviation Administration after an earlier delay. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is among the most prominent opponents, but it looks like Cuomo will now get the big groundbreaking he's been looking for, perhaps by the end of the summer.

IT'S WEDNESDAY. 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 no public events scheduled.

WHERE'S BILL? Appearing on CNN's New Day and holding a media availability.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio holds a spoof check written out to the MTA in the amount of $15 billion, a sum he says the transit agency is squandering by slow-walking a congestion pricing plan. Tuesday, July 20, 2021.

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WHAT CITY HALL'S READING

De Blasio to require testing for unvaccinated health workers, by POLITICO's Amanda Eisenberg: New York City will require all workers at its public hospital system and clinical staff at its Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to submit to weekly Covid-19 testing if they have not received a vaccine. Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to announce the news Wednesday morning, taking a step toward a more aggressive vaccine policy after months of employing an approach focused on incentives. New York, the early center of the pandemic in the U.S., runs the largest public hospital system in the country. The policy, which takes effect in August, will require workers to provide a one-time proof of vaccination if they wish to avoid the weekly testing, said Bill Neidhardt, a spokesperson for the mayor.

— De Blasio lashes out at vaccine holdouts as virus cases rise, by POLITICO's Erin Durkin: Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed frustration Tuesday at New Yorkers who have failed to get vaccinated, as the number of new Covid-19 cases in the city rose past a key threshold for the first time in months. "What more do we have to do at this point? This is getting insane," de Blasio said at a press briefing. The city reported 576 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, higher than the threshold of 550 officials consider a safe level for the first time since mid-May. The positive test rate rose to 1.72 percent, while 90 new patients were hospitalized. De Blasio has rejected bringing back an indoor mask mandate for New York City … "We've been really nice," the mayor said. "Come on people, it's time to step forward. And we're going to make that real clear."

"All in the family: Lawmaker who oversees Elex Board has ties to 4 on payroll," by New York Post's Nolan Hicks, Joe Marino, and Bernadette Hogan : "The state lawmaker tasked with oversight of the scandal-plagued city Board of Elections has at least four people close to her who are currently or were previously employed by the patronage-laden agency, The Post has learned. Despite the apparent conflict of interest, Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn) chairs the body's Election Law committee and helmed its hearing this week examining the Big Apple's ranked-choice voting system in the aftermath of the BOE botching the preliminary tallies from the Democratic mayoral primary."

" New York City Board of Elections Certifies Results; Two Council Races Go To Hand Counts," by WNYC's Brigid Bergin: " Four weeks after Primary Day, the New York City Board of Elections finalized the results for primary elections including the Democratic contests for mayor, comptroller, all five borough presidents, the Manhattan district attorney, other party positions and all but two City Council races where there will be a manual recount triggered by narrow margins in the races. The certified results published by the Board after close of business on Tuesday, showed Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams defeated Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, by 7,197 votes in the Democratic mayoral primary. That makes Adams margin of victory less than one percent."

WHAT ALBANY'S READING

"New York Reaches A $1.1 Billion Opioid Deal With The Nation's Big Drug Wholesalers," by NPR's Brian Mann: "New York's attorney general has reached a $1.1 billion settlement with three of the nation's largest drug distributors linked to their alleged role in the prescription opioid epidemic. '...Over the course of these past two decades, McKesson, Cardinal Health, and Amerisource Bergen distributed these opioids without regard to the national crisis they were helping to fuel,' New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement sent to NPR. The companies, which rank among the largest corporations in the U.S., will spread their payments out over the next 17 years. They will also admit no wrongdoing. This development came as the companies faced the prospect of a lengthy civil trial in New York. A separate trial against the drug distributors is underway in West Virginia, with closing arguments expected next week. As part of the New York settlement, the companies have agreed to take part in a new tracking system designed to better control the amount of opioids sold and shipped to pharmacies nationwide."

"Ethics agency investigating Cuomo aide's calls," by Times Union's Chris Bragg: "New York's ethics oversight agency is investigating a series of phone calls made by a former top aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, which some county executives felt improperly mixed politics with vaccine distribution efforts. An investigator from the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has been calling Democratic county executives around New York to set up fact-finding interviews concerning their interactions with Larry Schwartz, who is one of Cuomo's most trusted advisers and had served as New York's 'vaccine czar' during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter. The recently initiated JCOPE investigation is notable because the ethics oversight agency has been criticized for being influenced by the Cuomo administration. Investigations into matters touching Cuomo have rarely publicly surfaced, and the recently initiated probe directly touches a matter sensitive to the governor."

"Gov. Cuomo's team promotes fishy story about Preet Bharara as smokescreen," by New York Post's Emily Smith: "Gov. Andrew Cuomo's people have been putting out a very fishy story that Preet Bharara is putting out feelers about a run for governor in 2022 — as a way to undermine the investigation into Randy Andy. Insiders in Cuomo's camp are whispering loudly that Bharara, the former federal prosecutor who served as the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017, is making inquiries in New York Democratic circles about a possible run next year. But this April, Bharara, 52, just sold his company Cafe Studios, the podcast-first publisher, to Vox Media. Insiders say Bharara has made a commitment to Vox to stay with the company and develop fresh projects as well as continue to build his flagship show, 'Stay Tuned with Preet.' Which means he can't run for office. So why are Cuomo's people loudly suggesting Bharara is going to run? Because Bharara's former deputy and successor, former acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim, was appointed by Attorney General Letitia James to lead the inquiry into the sexual harassment and misconduct allegations that have shadowed Cuomo for many months."

— Bharara's comment on Twitter? " Can confirm."

"Albany passes good cause eviction bill. Tenant advocates vow rest of NY is next," by The Real Deal's Kathryn Brenzel: "First Albany, next the entire state? That is the hope of tenant advocates encouraged by the passage of a 'good cause eviction' measure by Albany's Common Council Monday night. The bill caps annual rent increases at 5 percent and lays out other conditions that must be met for a landlord to evict a tenant. The bill's passage is a major victory for tenant advocates, who have been pushing for a statewide version of good cause eviction for the past three years. The measure is the first of its kind to be passed in New York."

#UpstateAmerica: Local officials want to lure businesses to their Hudson Valley and Southern Tier communities with abandoned IBM campuses and the infrastructure the company left behind.

FIRST IN NY PLAYBOOK — Michael Dowling, the president and CEO of Northwell Health, the largest health care provider in New York state, is sending a letter to congressional leaders calling for Congress to fund President Biden's anti-gun violence plan. The letter calls for a $5 billion investment in hospital- and community-based violence intervention programs.

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AROUND NEW YORK

— Harvey Weinstein was extradited from New York to Los Angeles to face additional rape charges.

— A federal lawsuit alleges former state Supreme Court Justice Matthew Rosenbaum forced an assistant into sex acts in his office dozens of times.

— Four mass vaccination sites — at Binghamton University at Gannett Drive, Aviation Mall in Queensbury, Stony Brook Southampton, and the Diana Center at SUNY Orange — will close on Monday.

— A lawsuit charges that NYPD officers pinned a Brooklyn man at the neck with their knees until he lost consciousness in April 2020.

— A cop saved the life of a stabbing victim using an empty potato chip bag.

— Ten thousand bees were removed from a Times Square recycling receptacle.

— Locals filed 190 complaints between April 1 and June 15 about noise and partying at Washington Square Park.

— A Yankees fan made it onto the field during a game against the Phillies before being nabbed by security.

— Haze from the West Coast wildfires reached New York, leading to smoky conditions and poor air quality.

SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Fox News' Peter Doocy … Mick Mulvaney … former Rep. Ed Towns (D-N.Y.) … CNN's Mark Preston … Molly Oczkowski … Doug Mellgren ... Katherine Schneider … Edelman's Athena Johnson … Pip Deely … Benjamin Brafman … Jane Carol Ginsburg ... Eric Simonoff … Aniko Gomory ... Jon Lovitz

MAKING MOVES — Kerry Lynch is now PR manager for North America at Bang & Olufsen. She most recently was account director at Camron PR. … Per POLITICO Morning Tech: "Nicholas Garcia, recently of the Bronx County district attorney's office, joins Public Knowledge as policy counsel focusing on net neutrality and broadband."

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Haley Draznin, reporter/producer at financial media digital video platform Real Vision, founder and producer of HayNow Media and a CNN alum, and Jason Leibowitz, CEO of LeboBTC Cryptocurrency Ledger Group, on Friday welcomed Brody Jack Leibowitz. Pic ... Another pic

— Gillian Turner, Washington correspondent for Fox News, and Alex Kramer, VP of design at Oporto, welcomed Lucia "Coco" Rose Kramer on Saturday. She came in at 6 lbs, 13 oz. Pic … Another pic

REAL ESTATE

"World Trade Center's First Residential Tower Sparks Affordable-Housing Fight," by The City's Rachel Holliday Smith: "Two decades after Sept. 11, 2001, the last re-building block of the World Trade Center is coming together. A proposal for a 900-foot residential skyscraper on 'Site 5', formerly home to the Deutsche Bank Building, is in the works. It will include 1,325 apartments, a quarter of which will be so-called affordable, or rented below market rate. But as the 20th anniversary of the attacks arrives, some locals are pushing for something different: Why not make the building a place where survivors and their families can live, with all of the units set at income-adjusted, affordable rents?"

"Months After Massive Fire, Jackson Heights Tenants Struggle to Resettle in Queens," by The City's Christine Chung: "It took 12 hours for hundreds of firefighters to quell the eight-alarm blaze, which injured 21 people. Ultimately, the sprawling building's more than 140 households — about 500 New Yorkers — were displaced from their homes. A season later, more than 100 residents of the rent-stabilized, block-long apartment building are without a permanent home. By the tenant association's count, some 60 families remain in city-sponsored hotel rooms across Queens and Brooklyn, following Red Cross emergency relocation. They were told they could stay for a month — two months ago … After losing their homes and in many cases all their possessions, those former tenants are now confronting difficult choices on offer via the city's affordable housing program."

"Condo Fatigue on the Upper West Side," by The New York Times' Sydney Franklin: "Residents on the Upper West Side have never been shy about their opposition to new developments that they believe clash with the area's prewar sensibilities. The neighborhood's latest real estate battles include three luxury condos that have prompted petitions, opposition groups and lawsuits. Preservationists argue that the proposed towers simply don't belong in an area known for its stately prewar apartment buildings and townhouses. They also take issue with the way developers have taken advantage of loopholes in the zoning code to maximize the height of their projects and consequently their profits. The three contested buildings include: a 69-story condo at 50 West 66th Street where construction has been stalled by legal challenges since 2019; a 52-story condo at 200 Amsterdam where a judge ordered the developer last year to remove the top 20 floors, but is now slated to open at full height this summer; and a 20-story cantilevered building on 91st Street that neighbors oppose for its mass and design."

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