| | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin, Anna Gronewold and Julian Shen-Berro | Even the head of New York City's redistricting commission was shocked when the group voted down proposed City Council maps, an outcome apparently orchestrated from the top at City Hall. "Several of the commission members who we thought were yes votes decided to vote no," Dennis Walcott, chair of the commission, said Monday on WNYC. Why the last-minute reversals? As our Joe Anuta reported, a top City Hall aide contacted several commission members chosen by the mayor to push them to vote against the maps. Four of the Democratic mayor's seven appointees joined with representatives named by City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli to vote down the maps, which had irked the GOP because it would dilute their home base on Staten Island. The rejection came as a surprise to Walcott, who had called a vote on the maps expecting them to pass. "The conversations I've had with a variety of people I keep to myself, and my vote speaks for itself," he said. "I thought we did a comprehensive job." One upshot of the backroom dealing will be that from now on, the Council districting commission's mapping sessions will be held in public. They had been held behind closed doors on the theory that allowing private deliberation would promote candid communication between the commissioners. It didn't turn out that way, as last week's unexpected no vote showed. So newly public sessions set for Thursday and Friday may provide insight into different factions' priorities — including clues about what the Adams administration wants out of the lines. The dueling commissioners will have to come up with a new plan to vote on by Oct. 6. IT'S TUESDAY. 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? Making an economic development announcement. WHERE'S ERIC? Meeting with Lord Mayor Rohey Malick Lowe of Banjul and African women elected officials, holding a briefing on his trip to Puerto RIco and the Dominican Republic, touring the Lighthouse Guild and delivering remarks at the grand opening of the Urban Hawker.
| | | | HAPPENING 9/29 - POLITICO'S AI & TECH SUMMIT : Technology is constantly evolving and so are the politics and policies shaping and regulating it. Join POLITICO for the 2022 AI & Tech summit to get an insider look at the pressing policy and political issues shaping tech, and how Washington interacts with the tech sector. The summit will bring together lawmakers, federal regulators, tech executives, tech policy experts and consumer advocates to dig into the intersection of tech, politics, regulation and innovation, and identify opportunities, risks and challenges ahead. REGISTER FOR THE SUMMIT HERE. | | | | | |  | What City Hall's reading | | "NYC Mayor Adams' migrant tent camp plan panned by Bronx BP Vanessa Gibson: 'Not the ideal location,'" by New York Daily News' Chris Sommerfeldt: "Mayor Adams' plan to house hundreds of Latin American migrants in tents in a Bronx parking lot drew skepticism Monday from the Boogie Down's borough president, who charged that the site is not suitable for several reasons. The BP, Vanessa Gibson, said she's concerned that the parking lot at Orchard Beach is prone to flooding — a fact that could become especially problematic as hurricane season picks up. Gibson also said access to public transit is notoriously poor at the remote beach, with no nearby subway connections and scant bus service. Still, Gibson affirmed she won't stand in the way of the camp, which is expected to house upward of 1,000 migrants at a time." "Mayor Adams' early work itineraries show focus on COVID and crime, big role for Phil Banks," by New York Daily News' Tim Balk: "On a Sunday in late May, Mayor Adams met about 1 p.m. with his public safety czar, Phil Banks. Around 5 p.m., he joined a Zoom call with city agencies including the Police Department. Then, for good measure, he held another meeting about 5:30 p.m. with Banks and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, according to detailed schedules his office released this month. The day, May 22, was not out of the ordinary. In Adams' first six months, multi-meeting days with Banks — a scandal-scarred former chief of department whom Adams praises for his law enforcement know-how — were common, according to the schedules." — Adams began his average workday at 7:57 a.m. "Jails Boss Pushed for Dying Man's Release to Limit Rikers Death Count ," by The New York Times' Jan Ransom: "After learning that a man held at the Rikers Island jail complex had suffered cardiac arrest and was on the brink of death, Louis A. Molina, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction, issued a directive to his subordinates. 'Make sure we do what we can,' Mr. Molina wrote on Thursday in an email obtained by The New York Times, to ensure the man was 'off the Department's count.' Hours later, after the man, Elmore Robert Pondexter, was granted a so-called 'compassionate release' from detention, he was taken off life support and died at Bellevue Hospital. Because he had been freed, the Correction Department did not count his death as having occurred in its custody, issuing no news release and providing no notice to the city Board of Correction, a jails oversight panel. "Mr. Molina does not have the authority to free people from custody on his own, and how much weight his directive carried in the ultimate decision to release Mr. Pondexter was not clear. But the direct involvement of the city's top jail official appeared to show the lengths to which Mr. Molina was willing to go to keep the death figures down." " NYC's Affordable Housing Crisis Puts Deference to City Council and Local Opposition Under Scrutiny," by The City's Greg David: "Mayor Eric Adams went to Throgs Neck in The Bronx on Sept. 7 to make the case for a rezoning plan that would greenlight construction on four new developments with 349 apartment units — almost half of which would be affordable. And the neighborhood sorely needs more affordable housing. Throgs Neck has added only 58 affordable homes since 2014, according to the nonprofit New York Housing Coalition, the lowest of any neighborhood in the city. That's when the Bloomberg administration first pushed to have the area downzoned. But despite the area's housing shortage, the Adams-backed rezoning proposal has sparked heated local opposition from residents who claim the new buildings will bring unwanted density to an area already struggling with inadequate sewers and other failing infrastructure."
| | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "'Let's Do It Legit': Drug Arrestees Vie for First New York Pot Licenses," by The New York Times' Ashley Southall: "Mr. Bonilla, 42, a taxicab driver, said his criminal record haunted him for years and made getting work difficult. 'Now, over 20 years later, it's my free ticket to this,' he said, pointing to a laptop screen. Mr. Bonilla was applying for a license to open one of New York's first dispensaries to legally sell recreational cannabis. The four-year licenses are reserved for business owners who have been convicted of marijuana-related offenses in a New York State court, and will allow them to sell cannabis to any adult as early as this year. The licensing effort aims to atone for the damage inflicted during the war on drugs, which has been criticized for targeting communities of color and focusing on drug use as a crime and not a public health issue. … There are growing concerns, however, that the licensing process has been more difficult than expected and left eligible applicants without support." "Prisons Are Illegally Throwing People With Disabilities Into Solitary Confinement ," by New York Focus' Chris Gelardi: "Under the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, which went into effect across New York state on March 31, prisons and jails aren't allowed to hold people with physical or mental disabilities in solitary for any length of time, for any reason. But prison staff placed Doreen in solitary confinement, isolating her in a cell for some 20 hours a day, even though she had a decade-old diagnosis for bipolar disorder and, according to her mother, a doctor at a county jail diagnosed her with schizophrenia before she entered prison last year. … Data from the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), which runs the state prison system, show that since HALT went into effect nearly six months ago, prisons have sent hundreds of people with mental or physical ailments to solitary, including dozens with the highest levels of health care needs." "A kid-saving NY law almost no one enforces: How the flavored vape ban went up in smoke," by Syracuse.com's Marnie Eisenstadt : "Any flavor of vape you can think of, it's there, the clerk says. They're all illegal. New York first outlawed flavored vapes in 2019 in response to a teen vaping epidemic fueled by candy-flavored nicotine smoke. Kids come for the sour apple and cotton candy; they stay because they get addicted to the nicotine. Teens not old enough to drive were ending up in emergency rooms with lungs that looked like they belonged to 80-year-old smokers. They called it 'popcorn lung.' But the flavored vape ban has been largely ignored by county health officials and vape shops. The illegal vapes are still sold in dozens of shops around Central New York, openly on display on shelves to lure youths into the habit that has become a national child-health disaster." "Order over chaos: How Andrea Stewart-Cousins fixed the state Senate Democratic conference," by City & State's Rebecca C. Lewis: "The state Senate majority leader identifies with the broad strokes that astrological enthusiasts use to describe Virgos. She said she's meticulous about the words she chooses and took pride when her editor back in her journalism days did not need to correct her spelling or grammar. Virgos are generally described as Type A perfectionists who are very neat and organized. 'I'm not going to say that I'm, like, a neat freak,' she said. 'But I do prefer order to chaos.' She wasn't talking about her Democratic conference, but she might as well have been. … But she did more than simply bring political order to the fractured and chaotic Democratic conference. It didn't just survive, it has thrived under her leadership." "Sean Patrick Maloney is running where he lives," by City & State's Jeff Coltin: "Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney is just running for Congress where he lives. But it's never been that simple. The five-term Democrat is facing a difficult reelection battle against Republican Assembly Member Michael Lawler in a Lower Hudson Valley district. Maloney, who is chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, wants a convincing win to prove his vision for winning suburban swing seats and determining Democratic dominance. Lawler wants to provide a critical punch of the election cycle, helping to flip the House for the GOP by unseating the man whose job it was to keep it. This matchup, like so many others in the Empire State, was born of the redistricting fracas." "Hochul and Zeldin Turn Potential Debates Into a Game of Chicken," by The New York Times' Luis Ferré-Sadurní: "With six weeks until Election Day, the candidates in the New York race for governor have fully embraced a now-familiar rite of passage to the governor's mansion in Albany: the debate over the debate. Republican Lee Zeldin, a Republican from Long Island, had for weeks challenged Gov. Kathy Hochul, the Democratic incumbent vying for her first full term, to as many as five debates ahead of the general election on Nov. 8. The taunting played out in typical New York fashion: Mr. Zeldin incessantly accused Ms. Hochul of 'chickening out' on Twitter and in emails to supporters, while The New York Post ran a front page of Ms. Hochul — whom they called 'scaredy Kat' — in a bright yellow chicken suit. Despite the goading, Ms. Hochul remained noncommittal until last week, when she said she would apparently participate in only one debate: an event hosted by Spectrum News NY1 on Oct. 25." #UpstateAmerica: Casual trips to Canada are back, starting Saturday.
| | | | DON'T MISS - MILKEN INSTITUTE ASIA SUMMIT : Go inside the 9th annual Milken Institute Asia Summit, taking place from September 28-30, with a special edition of POLITICO's Global Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive coverage and insights from this important gathering. Stay up to speed with daily updates from the summit, which brings together more than 1,200 of the world's most influential leaders from business, government, finance, technology, and academia. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | TRUMP'S NEW YORK | | "Oath Keeper charged in Jan. 6 attack texted with Andrew Giuliani about election," by NBC News' Ryan J. Reilly and Ben Collins: "A high-ranking member of the far-right Oath Keepers organization who has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol exchanged messages in November 2020 with former Trump White House aide Andrew Giuliani about election issues. That same Oath Keeper member, Kellye SoRelle, also tried to text a White House number on Dec. 20, according to a new book from Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, and journalist Hunter Walker. That text message went to a White House switchboard line, so it could not be delivered. Riggleman, who lost renomination for his congressional seat after expressing opposition to then-President Donald Trump in 2020, joined the Jan. 6 committee after leaving office. He served as a staffer for the committee from August 2021 to April."
| | AROUND NEW YORK | | — A City Council member will introduce legislation banning discrimination against people with tattoos by employers and landlords. — Public spending on the 2021 NYC elections far outpaced prior election cycles. — More than 50 state lawmakers demanded a public hearing on future Con Edison price hikes. — The state is cracking down on unemployment insurance scams after an investigation found $11 million lost in fraud last month. — The free shuttle to Adirondack leaf-peeping starts up this weekend. — A lawsuit challenges the review process for members of New York's new ethics panel as unconstitutional. — The Committee on Open Government says the Stretch Limousine Passenger Safety Task Force meeting should have been open to the press and public. — "Four decades after crime, a husband convicted in Brighton ax murder" — Military re-enactors are wary of the state's new gun laws, despite Hochul stating their events are free to continue.
| | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) (37) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) … Juleanna Glover … POLITICO's Meridith McGraw … ABC's Matthew Vann … Alexa (Wertman) Brown … CBS News' Ellee Watson … Meg Jones Margiotta … Sam Raskin … Pablo Gorondi … Misha Hyman … Spencer Sherrill MAKING MOVES — Charles Williams is now manager for advocacy and government affairs (federal) for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He most recently was legislative assistant for Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
| | Real Estate | | "12 storm surge gates: Army Corps proposes $52 billion barriers for New York-New Jersey waterways," by Gothamist's Nathan Kensinger : "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a report Saturday detailing their proposed $52 billion plan to protect the New York City metropolitan area from storm surges and coastal flooding. It marks a major step forward in a long-delayed study initiated in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The Army Corps report provides significant new details for a proposal that was picked from a range of five options, as part of the NY & NJ Harbor & Tributaries Focus Area Feasibility Study (HATS). The tentatively selected plan, Alternative 3B, now proposes a 14-year construction project that would build 12 storm surge gates across some of the largest waterways around the New York City region." "Fewer NYC Families Left Shelters for Permanent Homes Last Year. New Report Shows How to Ease More Moves," by City Limits' David Brand: "More than 5,200 New York City families moved from homeless shelters to permanent housing during the 2022 fiscal year, according to the latest mayor's management report. The vast majority of those families—about 80 percent—secured housing with a rental assistance voucher, like the municipal CityFHEPS program, which pays the bulk of their monthly apartment costs. The number of move-outs decreased significantly from June 2021 to July 2022 compared to recent fiscal years, down more than 27 percent from the year before alone. At the same time, families stayed an average of four months longer in shelters last year than they did in 2017." | | | | 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 | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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