City Council Budget Vote + Yusef Salaam Wins City Council Primary
No. 329 | Monday, July 3, 2023
The NYC Thorn is a weekly roundup of local political news compiled by members of NYC-DSA.
Local News
The City Council approved a budget with most of the cuts initially proposed by Mayor Adams. Twelve members of the Council voted against the budget, including DSA-electeds Alexa Avilés (CD-38) and Tiffany Cabán (CD-22).
City & State released a breakdown of the key details in the $107 billion budget agreement reached by Mayor Adams and the City Council.
After being challenged by an elderly woman about the Rent Guidelines Board’s rent hikes at a town hall, Mayor Adams equated the constituent to a plantation owner. The woman who challenged him is Jeanie Dubnau, a Holocaust survivor and co-founder of the Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association (RENA), a tenants and housing rights advocacy organization in Upper Manhattan.
A Department of Education report found that 18 yeshivas are failing to provide secular education “substantially equivalent” to a public school education, as required by law.
Mayor Eric Adams personally intervened in an NYPD disciplinary matter, telling Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell to overrule the punishment recommended by the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) for an officer who abused his authority. Adams’ comments on the case were part of what led to Sewell's decision to step down last month.
Council Member Chi Ossé (CD-36) introduced a bill that would require whichever party hired a real estate broker to pay the broker’s fee.
According to emails obtained by New York Focus, Governor Hochul was consulting with the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), a landlord lobbying group, on tenant protections during this year's budget negotiations.
Elections
Yusef Salaam, one of the exonerated Central Park Five, won the City Council District 9 primary in East Harlem, one of the few open races last month, defeating Assembly Members Inez Dickens (AD-70) and Al Taylor (AD-71) and replacing outgoing socialist Kristin Richardson Johnson, who chose not to run for re-election.
Charles Barron, a Black socialist who has represented District 42 in East New York for over two decades, lost his City Council primary to Chris Banks, who has been running against the Barrons now for over a decade.
Susan Zhuang won an open primary for the Council’s new majority Asian American district (CD-43) in Southern Brooklyn, defeating two other candidates, including one endorsed by nearby Council Member Justin Brannan. Zhuang is expected to face a competitive general election in a district that has shifted towards Republicans in recent elections.
Melinda Katz and Darcel Clark, the District Attorneys in Queens and the Bronx respectively, each easily won re-election.
City Council Member Darlene Mealy won re-election despite criticism for missing votes and not responding to constituents.
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