Housing Justice for All Gains Support + De Blasio Covers Up Car Crash
Local News
- Many of the State’s most powerful unions—even some that rarely cross the Governor—publicly came out in support of the Housing Justice for All platform to pass nine bills that expand New York’s rent regulations next month.
- Building contractors protested at a state Senate hearing on rent reform, expressing concern that eliminating rent increases for Major Capital Improvements, one of the major planks of the Housing Justice for All campaign, will cut down on their business from landlords.
- A Daily News investigation revealed that the Mayor and the NYPD covered up a 2015 incident where his motorcade sped the wrong way down a local street and crashed into a truck.
- In an official press conference that looked awfully like a presidential campaign rally, Mayor de Blasio advertised the City’s recently passed environmental regulations on buildings by highlighting the steep fines that the Trump Organization will have to pay if they do not retrofit their buildings by 2030
- Assembly Member Felix Ortiz (District 51, Sunset Park), and State Senator John Liu (District 11, Northeast Queens) have introduced legislation that would fine pedestrians who text while crossing the street.
- Comptroller Scott Stringer released to a plan to expand child care to children from birth to age-3, funded through a new payroll tax. The plan would have to be approved by the State legislature.
- The Green Light Act, which would grant New York driver’s licenses to noncitizen residents, now supposedly has the support of the State Assembly and Governor Cuomo, but is being held up in the Senate.
Elections
- Council Member Danny Dromm (District 25, Jackson Heights) has endorsed Speaker Corey Johnson for Mayor in 2021, one of the first major endorsements in that race. Johnson has not yet officially announced his candidacy, but has formed an exploratory committee.
- Lumarie Maldonado Cruz, an attorney for the State Supreme Court, is challenging the weakened Queens Democratic Machine by running in this June’s Queens Civil Court primary against an incumbent establishment judge. Judge primaries are often uncontested.
- Dawn Smalls, who finished sixth with 4% of the vote in this year’s special election for NYC Public Advocate, is considering a challenge to US Rep. Carolyn Maloney in 2020.
Comic by Annalisa Wilde
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