| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin, Anna Gronewold and Deanna Garcia | New York City is adding one more item to its growing roster of vaccine mandates and requirements: pre-kindergarten, child care, and after-school staff in city-contracted programs will have to get the shot by Sept. 27. The new group, covering about 25,000 people, will be part of an expanded mandate after the city previously ordered teachers and public school staff to get vaccinated, with the first day of school looming next week. The devil with all of this will remain in the details. After ordering educators to get the shot, the city remains locked in a dispute with the United Federation of Teachers over what will happen to those exempted from vaccination for medical or religious reasons. The city now says they'll keep their paychecks, after initially saying they would have to use sick time and then go on unpaid leave, which prompted a complaint from the union. What will happen to teachers and school staff who refuse to get vaccinated without securing an exemption remains unclear. The rest of the city workforce has not been subject to an outright vaccine mandate, at least not yet. But they'll be required to either be vaccinated or get weekly Covid-19 testing effective next week — and so far, more than a third of the city workforce remains unvaccinated, according to figures reported by Gothamist. At the NYPD, which has one of the lower vaccination rates at just over half, cops have been told they'll have to get tested outside of work hours and won't get paid if they don't comply. Police unions now say they'll fight the mandate, challenging the finer points like whether testing should happen on or off duty. There's one vaccine mandate Mayor Bill de Blasio won't embrace : for students at public schools. School officials in Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest K-12 education system, voted unanimously Thursday to require shots for eligible students over the next few months. But the mayor firmly rejected the idea a day after Gov. Kathy Hochul said it was something she would consider. De Blasio said the bigger priority is to get all kids back to school, even those whose parents are resisting the shot. "We just don't think that's the right thing to do," he said. IT'S FRIDAY. And it's been 20 years... There'll be no shortage of think pieces, remembrances and big speeches over the next few days. We all know where we were (granted, there are now college students who weren't born by then) when it happened, thinking of those loss and the near-misses, but we have each found our own habits — be they positive and/or negative — about how we reflect on it. That's the beauty of humanity, right? 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 KATHY? Holding a 9/11 security briefing with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Mayor de Blasio and NYPD leadership. WHERE'S BILL? Appearing on WNYC's Brian Lehrer show and the security briefing. |  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | Andrew Yang to launch a third party, by POLITICO's Alex Thompson : Former presidential and New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang is set to launch a third party next month, according to two people familiar with the matter. Yang is expected to start the party in conjunction with the Oct. 5 release of his new book, "Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy." It's not clear what the name of Yang's third party will be or how he plans to deploy it in 2022 or 2024. Yang and his team did not respond to requests for comment. But the book's publisher, Crown, did give some clues about the type of platform Yang may pursue. It writes that the book is an indictment of America's "era of institutional failure" and will introduce "us to the various 'priests of the decline' of America, including politicians whose incentives have become divorced from the people they supposedly serve." "'I feel betrayed': Some 9/11 responders still face major health care obstacles," by NBC News' Kenzi Abou-Sabe, Yasmine Salam and Kate Snow : "As a volunteer firefighter after 9/11, Kevin Maxwell spent seven months carrying out search and rescue operations at ground zero, filling up buckets of debris to create pathways into the rubble. It wasn't just a job for Maxwell but 'a calling'; he was searching to find some of the 18 friends from the fire department he lost in the attacks. Maxwell, 72, eventually retired and moved to Virginia in 2011. By then he'd been diagnosed with asthma, sinusitis and an anxiety disorder — common conditions for first responders and survivors of 9/11. So when he began feeling a sharp pain in his right lung in 2018, his pulmonologist immediately recommended an X-ray. Maxwell's service meant he was entitled to free health care for any ailments deemed medically connected to his exposure at ground zero. Relieved that he didn't have to worry about whether he could afford the scan, Maxwell scheduled it. His relief, however, dissolved when a letter from a collection agency landed on his doorstep." — "As the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks arrives just over 1 ½ years into the pandemic, the official count of 9/11 survivors and first responders who have died of COVID-19 is nearing 100." OPINION: "9/11: A Childhood Fractured By History," by Village Voice's Ross Barkan: "Like the more than one million other New York City kids on a Tuesday in early September, I headed off to school, just a short bus ride away from the apartment where I grew up. My parents went to work, and unlike a decent chunk of the neighborhood, they were not Irish- or Italian-Catholic cops and firefighters. They were Jewish employees of the federal government. My mother, then as now, worked at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, across the street from the courthouse where Law & Order films and just a brief, wending walk to the World Trade Center. My father, now retired, worked out of Six World Trade Center, a squat eight-story building in the shadow of the behemoths. Sometimes he would take me rocketing up the elevator to the famous observation deck of the WTC, never venturing toward the edge. When my mother turned 50, we celebrated, like many New York families, at Windows on the World. On that Tuesday, my father had a breakfast meeting scheduled at the restaurant with a man named Neil Levin, the executive director of the Port Authority." — The Architects of the Post-9/11 World Have Some Regrets, by POLITICO's Bryan Bender and Daniel Lippman: After two decades, 17 prominent players reflect on the decades of war they helped wage and the domestic defenses they helped erect. | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | SCOOP: Proud named DOH's new executive deputy commissioner, by POLITICO's Shannon Young: Kristin Proud, a former state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance commissioner, will take over as the state Department of Health's new executive deputy commissioner, officials have confirmed. Proud takes over for Lisa Pino, who became the second-highest official at the agency leading New York's coronavirus response in July, 2020. The move comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul mulls a series of staffing shakeups as she settles into her executive role. " NY marijuana board picks up a member from the Hudson Valley," by USA Today Network's Jon Campbell: "New York took another step Thursday toward setting up a regulatory system for marijuana as Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins made her pick for the state's cannabis board. Former Sen. Jen Metzger, an Ulster County Democrat, is Stewart-Cousins' pick for the Cannabis Control Board, which is tasked with regulating and overseeing the legal marijuana and hemp markets in the state. Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, unveiled her selection Thursday, a day after Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, appointed Buffalo-area attorney Adam Perry to the same board." "Hochul Faces $5 Billion Choice as Tax Boost Arrives Amid Cuomo Unemployment Debt," by THE CITY's Greg David: "In just the first four months of the state's fiscal year, tax revenues for New York exceeded projections by more than $5 billion. At the same time, the state owes the federal government $9 billion for loans used to pay unemployment benefits — a debt that could send employers' taxes skyrocketing as they attempt to recover from the pandemic. And, as Cuomo appointees continue to run key fiscal agencies, the state has again missed deadlines to reveal details of spending and revenues, infuriating experts. As new Gov. Kathy Hochul begins to put her own imprint on the state's finances, she will have to make a series of decisions that show whether she is prepared to make a sharp break with the policies of the Cuomo administration. "State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and fiscal experts are already calling for her to commit to building up the state's reserves to avoid severe budget cuts for the next downturn. Business groups want her to use the surplus to help pay down the unemployment benefit to limit tax increases. Many groups are calling on Hochul, who pledged 'a new era of transparency' in Albany, to make good on forging an un-Cuomo-like openness on budget issues. 'We need to be cautious,' DiNapoli told THE CITY as he released a report on the unemployment insurance debt. 'That means not spending it like the tax revenues are forever. Build up reserves for when the next downturn comes.'" "Cuomo under fire for re-hiring flack, good-government groups demand probe," by Daily News' Michael Gartland: "Four good-government groups filed a complaint Thursday with the New York State Board of Elections demanding that it investigate former Gov. Cuomo's use of campaign funds to continue to pay for a spokesman. The groups — which include Common Cause New York, Reinvent Albany, the state League of Women Voters and the NY Public Interest Research Group — made the demand to Elections Board Chief Enforcement Counsel Michael Johnson in a letter outlining 'a potential violation of election law.' 'Former Gov. Cuomo is in clear violation of New York's election law. It is a misuse of campaign funds to keep a former spokesperson on payroll,' said Common Cause Executive Director Susan Lerner in a separate statement." "Brian Benjamin is sworn in as New York lieutenant governor," by The Associated Press' Karen Matthews : "New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin thanked Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul for choosing him as he was sworn in Thursday to join her 2-week-old administration. 'You asking me to join the administration is making it abundantly clear that you want upstate and downstate, every ethnicity, every culture to feel included,' Brian, formerly a state senator from Harlem, said after taking the oath of office at Hochul's New York City office. Hochul, the state's former lieutenant governor, took over as governor on Aug, 24 following Andrew Cuomo's resignation over sexual harassment allegations that he has denied." OPINION: "Will Jacobs continue as Dems' state chair?" by Newsday's Dan Janison: "Jay Jacobs first chaired the New York State Democratic Committee starting in 2009 during David Paterson's short tenure as governor. He stayed under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo until May 2012. In 2019, during Cuomo's third term, Jacobs returned for a second tour. So will Jacobs, who has also been Nassau County chairman for 20 years, stick around under Gov. Kathy Hochul? Nobody seems to know yet. Jacobs and Hochul have a smooth and cordial relationship, sources say. But New York governors become de facto leaders of their state parties and so get to pick the chairs and directors. Democratic insiders seem to expect that Jacobs, whose term runs until September 2022 as voted by the state committee, will at least stay on for the governor's transition." #UpstateAmerica's FAIR FIEND: The former treasurer for the Essex County Agricultural Society has been arrested for allegedly stealing more than $60K from the Essex County Fair. | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — Saratoga Springs police have arrested more Black Lives Matter protesters but the delay in timing and silence from elected officials is frustrating for activists. — A Manhattan judge ruled that two National Rifle Association members would not be permitted to intervene in AG Tish James' case to dissolve the association. — Delivery workers face danger from exploding e-bike batteries. — Legislation introduced in the City Council would make the Open Culture program permanent and year-round. — The Greenwich Village Halloween parade will be back this year. — Disgraced ex-city Council Member Andy King showed up at a Bronx ribbon-cutting with de Blasio and other pols. — New York landlords sue over the extended eviction moratorium. — Department of Correction commissioner reveals plans to address violence at Rikers. — Hochul says Excluded Workers Fund payments are being distributed ahead of schedule. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: POLITICO's Nahal "Halley" Toosi … Hunter Walker … Fox News' Trey Yingst … Jack Rivers ... Matthew Fried … NYT's Mara Gay … Josh Nass … MSNBC's Chuck Rosenberg … FleishmanHillard's Michael Moroney … CNBC's Hadley Gamble … Jonathan Soros ... Barbara Lippert … Charlie Szold ... Squarespace's Amanda Cowie … Stanley Gold … (Saturday): former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson ... POLITICO's Joe Schatz … WaPo's Ben Terris and Robin Givhan … Fox News' Maria Bartiromo … Jon Meyersohn … CNN's Barbara Starr ... Emily Esfahani Smith … DLA Piper's Tom Boyd ... NBC's Pete Breen … Andrew Sagarin MAKING MOVES — Sophie Pollock has been promoted to be director of operations/press secretary for Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). She most recently was press assistant/staff assistant for him. | | REAL ESTATE | | "Inside New York's Messy Push to Clean Up Concrete," by New York Focus's Colin Kinniburgh: "For climate activists, New York's 2021 legislative session was a bitter disappointment. Democrats failed to pass any major new climate laws, shrugging off bills that would have provided funding to meet the state's emission targets, among others. But the state legislature did pass at least one climate law, which has flown largely under the radar. Known as the Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act (LECCLA), the legislation requires New York to set an emissions standard for concrete used in public works. If Governor Kathy Hochul signs the bill into law, New York will become one of the first states in the country to start cleaning up this highly polluting sector of the economy." "Rent relief checks go out for the wrong amount," by Real Deal's Suzannah Cavanaugh: "The glitches and delays that have defined New York's rent relief program have spawned a new headache for landlords: relief checks that don't match their tenants' arrears. Overpayments have been common for landlords in the Rent Stabilization Association, said Olga Someras, the group's general counsel. But the extra money has meant more problems. The state's Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which oversees the program, sent checks to members in early August, then immediately phoned the recipients, asking them not to cash the overpayments and wait for a replacement."
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