| | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin, Anna Gronewold and Julian Shen-Berro | When New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced plans for a tent city to shelter migrants at the Bronx's Orchard Beach, critics quickly pointed out that the area was prone to flooding and called the idea all wet. The city pressed forward anyway, erecting large white tents at the site. Then came three straight days of nonstop rain. And now, sure enough, the emergency shelter site has flooded and the city has scrapped the Orchard Beach plan. Late Monday night, Adams announced that instead of a 1,000-person site in the Bronx, the city will set up a camp half that size on Randall's Island. "Safety for those seeking asylum remains our top priority," Adams said. "Following this weekend's storms, New York City Emergency Management determined that, while we would be able to put in place the necessary ponding mitigation measures, relocating the Orchard Beach humanitarian relief center to Randall's Island is the most efficient and effective path forward." Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson was among those voicing concerns that the Bronx site was prone to flooding before construction began. Assemblymembers in the borough also objected, saying the site was an hour by bus from the nearest grocery store and wouldn't be habitable in the winter months. As the remnants of Hurricane Ian hit the city over the weekend, South Bronx Mutual Aid reported that the site was swamped after just over half an inch of rain. Randall's Island is already home to several homeless shelters and safety net facilities, and while reachable by bus and pedestrian bridge, does not have subway access. Changing the location has not halted criticism of the emergency shelter plan. State Sen. Julia Salazar noted that the new site is also vulnerable to floods. "This sounds like a disaster. Please abandon the refugee camp idea and place people in real housing instead," she tweeted. 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? In Albany with no public events scheduled. WHERE'S ERIC? Visiting the Pratt Industries Paper Mills in celebration of its 25th anniversary, making an education announcement, presenting a proclamation to the World Boxing Council in honor of Louis 'Battling Siki' Fall, and appearing on MSG Network.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don't miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | |  | What City Hall's reading | | "New 'Ghosts' Haunt Brooklyn Machine as Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn Barely Claims Second Term," by The City's George Joseph and Yoav Gonen: "Brooklyn Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn secured reelection as party boss with a narrow victory in a closed executive session, after a day of heated public deliberations marred by allegations of 'ghost' appointments to the County Committee of people with no idea they'd been added. In a packed ballroom at the Marriott in downtown Brooklyn, delegates fought for hours on Monday over appointments to the County Committee that's supposed to give a hyper-local voice to roughly 4,000 Democrats across the borough and that decides on party rules." " Contender for top NYC City Hall post left trail of penalties and debt as a lobbyist," by New York Daily News' Michael Gartland: "Before coming to City Hall, one of the top contenders to become Mayor Adams' next chief of staff ran a lobbying firm that was fined often and repeatedly for failing to comply with lobbying disclosure requirements, a review of public records shows. Tiffany Raspberry, who currently serves as a senior adviser for external affairs in Adams' administration, is one of several names that's come up in internal discussions about who will succeed Frank Carone, the mayor's current chief of staff. Carone plans to step down at the end of the year." Adams eyes freight at noisy Lower Manhattan heliport, by POLITICO's Danielle Muoio Dunn: Mayor Eric Adams wants to bring freight deliveries to the city's Lower Manhattan heliport, where the thunder of sightseeing helicopters already has lawmakers and residents pushing to ban tours that regularly lift off there. The city's Economic Development Corporation is seeking a new operator for the 80,000-square-foot facility on Pier 6, and it's encouraging plans that could allow the heliport to act as a last-mile marine cargo facility, according to a recent request for proposals. The EDC wants to push greener deliveries using the heliport — which is the largest of two owned by the city, and the only one that can accommodate Marine One when the president visits. "NYC to Use Vacant Newsstands as Hubs for Food-Delivery Workers," by Bloomberg's Deante Washington: "New York City has secured $1 million in federal funds to turn vacant newsstands and other empty spaces into street hubs for its more than 65,000 food-delivery workers. The hubs will provide shelter, resources for bicycle repairs and battery-charging stations, Mayor Eric Adams and US Senator Charles Schumer said at a briefing Monday. The money for the project is included in the federal budget awaiting congressional approval, Schumer said." " Sanitation Department Hires McKinsey for Containerization Study," by Streetsblog's Eve Kessler: "The city has hired the controversial consulting firm McKinsey & Company to study its waste containerization needs and design a citywide pilot program, Streetsblog has learned. For the next 20 weeks, the global management consulting firm will assess streets across the city with an eye toward what could work in a large, diverse urban environment and identify models for a such as program from among the many different solutions around the world — working with the Sanitation Department to figure out the kinds of containers it needs, find appropriate vendors, and structure costs." "The Influential Group Helping Eric Adams Identify a Vision for New York," by The New York Times' Jeffery C. Mays and Dana Rubinstein: "A group of New York City business and civic leaders is backing an initiative to create a handful of important, realistic policy goals for Mayor Eric Adams, filling what they believe is a critical hole in his administration's vision for the city. The proposed policy framework, which will be announced on Tuesday, would center on three areas: using day care as an economic development tool; strengthening the city's mental health infrastructure; and developing incentives to recruit and train teachers. "The initiative is being run by the 5Boro Institute, founded earlier this year by Tom Allon, a publisher and a close ally of Mr. Adams, and Richard Ravitch, a former lieutenant governor of New York who helped rescue the state's bankrupt Urban Development Corporation and resurrect the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 'I've never seen anything or heard anything that spells out what his agenda is,' Mr. Ravitch said in an interview last week, adding that 'was one of the main things that motivated us in creating our new organization.'" POLICE MATTERS: Mayor Eric Adams, who has staked his young tenure on reducing crime, embraced enhanced camera use on buses and at bus stops during a town hall Monday night. "I love cameras," Adams said in response to an audience question at the public-safety focused meeting in Queens. "Not only do they help the police solve cases but also they're great deterrents. ... The faster we get a bad guy off the street, this prevents them from actually committing another crime." He said Deputy Mayor Phil Banks, who oversees public safety, has been tasked with researching expanded use of technology for crime-fighting. Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced cameras would be installed on every subway car. — Sally Goldenberg
| | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "NYC casino process moves ahead as key siting board gets members," by WNYC's Jon Campbell: "A business leader, a former university president and a former New York City deputy mayor will oversee the bidding process for New York's three remaining casino licenses, which are expected to be awarded in New York City and the surrounding area. The state Gaming Commission on Monday unanimously approved the first three members of the Gaming Facility Location Board, a powerful five-member panel that will analyze any proposals for the potentially lucrative casino licenses and choose the three that will ultimately move on for final approval. … The appointments mark the latest milestone in the process for awarding casino licenses in New York City, each of which will require the winner to pay a licensing fee of at least $500 million. By law, the facility board now has 90 days to begin formally soliciting proposals from casino developers." "Cuomo-era office for faith groups has 'little accountability,'" by Times Union's Raga Justin: "Only two program staffers are still listed as working with the office. Two high-level positions, the executive director and deputy commissioner, remain vacant. In an email, one staffer said there are no future events scheduled. The staffer did not respond to requests for previous events that had been hosted, as well as general questions about the office's activities. Justin Henry, a spokesman for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the administration remains 'deeply committed' to supporting faith-based organizations through the agency." " 'Somebody needs to go to jail on this.' RCSD inflated student grades, auditor finds," by Democrat & Chronicle's Justin Murphy: "High school students in the Rochester City School District saw their grades systematically inflated through outdated weighting practices and a general lack of attention to process, the district's internal auditor found in a new report. The inaccuracies did not improperly affect the district's graduation rate, the auditor, Anissa Henry-Wheeler, concluded. Still, the school board reacted with alarm to her findings, and Interim Superintendent Carmine Peluso said a comprehensive plan is in place to change the faulty processes by January." #UpstateAmerica: In the old days, police occasionally contacted psychics for assistance in unsolved cases, according to one of Albany's most well-known mediums, who allegedly identified a killer in 1976.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | FROM THE DELEGATION | | Weak rural turnout could hurt GOP in November, by POLITICO's Holly Otterbein and Jessica Piper: The Democratic Party's newest star has an unlikely group to thank for his upset victory: rural voters. Rep. Pat Ryan prevailed in a close race over his Republican opponent in an August special election in upstate New York in part because rural voters came out to the polls at lower rates than voters in more populated places in his bellwether congressional district. The race in New York's 19th District wasn't unique. A POLITICO analysis of turnout data before and after Roe v. Wade was struck down in June shows that voters in rural counties were less motivated to cast ballots than those in more Democratic-leaning suburbs and cities after the Supreme Court decision. "Former Rep. Max Rose Ties GOP Opponent To Deaths Of Pregnant Women," by HuffPost's Daniel Marans: "Former Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) has made support for abortion rights a central part of his campaign to retake New York's 11th Congressional District from Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), who unseated him in 2020. But on Tuesday, Rose's campaign is due to take its attacks on Malliotakis' abortion rights record to a new level with a simple, hard-hitting television advertisement accusing Malliotakis of endangering pregnant women. Rose's 30-second spot, 'Coming Home,' opens with a black screen as the narrator says, 'I'm sorry there's nothing we can do for her.' ... The man's wife, we are led to believe, died in childbirth because she could not receive an abortion for health reasons." FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Robert Zimmerman, the Democrat running for Congress in the Long Island district currently represented by Rep. Tom Suozzi, is debuting three new TV ads today. One ad hits his Republican opponent, George Santos, for saying he "wrote a nice check" for the legal defense of rioters who breached the U.S. Capitol in the Jan. 6 insurrection and calls him "too extreme" for New York. Another spot goes after Santos for his support of a national abortion ban, while a third is a positive ad highlighting Zimmerman's positions. The campaign will spend $137,000 in the first week to run the ads on broadcast and cable channels, and plans to increase the ad buy as the election draws closer. — Erin Durkin
| | TRUMP'S NEW YORK | | "Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson testifies at Trump ally Tom Barrack's foreign lobbying trial," by NBC News' Dareh Gregorian: "Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took the witness stand Monday at the foreign lobbying trial of Tom Barrack and testified the longtime friend of former President Donald Trump had unsuccessfully sought an ambassadorship. Tillerson, who served as Trump's secretary of state for just over a year before he was fired by tweet in March 2018, said he first met Barrack when he was heading Trump's inaugural committee in early 2017. Prosecutors contend that Barrack, 74, acted 'to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the United States at the direction of senior UAE officials by influencing the foreign policy positions' of the U.S. government as an unregistered foreign agent during the Trump administration."
| | AROUND NEW YORK | | — Adams defended giving his deputy mayor for public safety, Phil Banks, a rare NYPD security detail. — The City Council redistricting commission does not have an ethics policy, despite once promising to come up with one. — The MTA finally finished the LIRR's third track project that eliminates one of New York's most cumbersome mass transit bottlenecks. — The parents of a murdered FDNY paramedic confronted Mayor Eric Adams at her wake. — The state is launching an Office of Language Access to help state offices provide services in the dozen most common non-English tongues. — "Is Newark Really a New York City Airport? Insults Fly Between Rival Hubs" — An NYU organic chemistry professor was terminated after students complained his grading standards were too hard. — An MTA executive was fired for arranging jobs for family members. — Comedian and Richmond County native Colin Jost announced the decommissioned Staten Island Ferry he co-owns will be called Titanic 2. — Buffalo's Kaleida Health and 6,300 of its workers have a tentative 3-year labor contract. — As the state awaits the first retail licenses to sell marijuana, tribal shops on Native land are thriving.
| | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: CNN's Pervaiz Shallwani … AP's Holly Ramer … Norm Pearlstine is 8-0 … J Strategies' Francisca Cruz … Josh Rothstein … ABC's Santina Leuci … Steve Capus … Annu Subramanian … Kristen Askin … Judge Robert David Sack … Lee Goldberg WEEKEND WEDDING — Robert Draper, contributing writer for the NYT Magazine and National Geographic, on Saturday night married Kirsten Powers, a senior political analyst at CNN. The wedding was a small gathering with family and close friends at Primrose restaurant in Brookland in D.C., where they were married by their friend Rev. Dana Corsello, the Vicar of the Washington National Cathedral. The couple met at Faith Angle Forum in November 2015 and started dating the week after. Pic ... Another pic
| | Real Estate | | "NY gets more federal rent aid — but only 6% of need," by The Real Deal's Suzannah Cavanaugh: "Another round of funding is set to replenish New York's depleted pool of rent relief. But once again, it won't come close to covering the state's estimated need. The U.S. Treasury Department will send $99.4 million more to help cover New York renters' pandemic arrears. Landlords have been unable to evict tenants with pending applications yet unable to collect aid since the fund was exhausted months ago. As of Sept. 22, the state had dished out $2.5 billion to fulfill 197,363 applications, an average award of $12,667, according to the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which oversees the rent relief program. But 135,634 applicants still await relief." "In a highly competitive rental market, is there room for working families in the ADKs?" by North Country Public Radio's Amy Feiereisel: "The Oppenshaws had been saving for a down payment to buy a home, but during that same time period, the average sale price of a home in Essex County increased by 55% – from $130,000 to nearly $200,000. They looked as far as Malone, Plattsburgh, and Ticonderoga, with no luck. They kept working, and paying their rent, and hoping their landlord would let them stay. Oppenshaw said she told the landlord, 'Look: don't you read the paper? This is a real crisis!' The Oppenshaw family represents a growing number of people across the Adirondacks and the North Country: those that are employed and working, who don't qualify for assistance under federal poverty guidelines, but who can't find or afford housing." | | | | 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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