City-wide races heat up + Medicaid cuts threaten NYC public healthcare
No. 428 | Wednesday, May 28, 2025
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Local News
NYC’s public hospital system is at risk of eliminating specialty patient care - such as cardiology - if Congress passes Medicaid cuts approved by the House last week. The city’s 11 public hospitals and large network of clinics primarily serve low-income patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
A recent audit revealed that a third of 911 calls - more than 13,000 calls - for mental health crises in NYC go unanswered. The city-operated emergency response program that dispatches mental health workers, the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, or B-Heard, began as a pilot in 2021; advocates say the program is chronically underfunded and understaffed.
Mahmoud Khalil recently testified in an asylum hearing that his deportation could lead to “assassination, kidnapping, torture” by Israeli authorities. Only hours before he appeared in court, Khalil met his newborn son and was briefly reunited with his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, whom he has not seen since his arrest and detention in a Louisiana ICE jail complex in March.
Former MTA President Andy Byford, aka “Train Daddy”, has been tapped by the Trump administration to lead the long-stalled redevelopment of Penn Station. Byford earned his nickname for implementing service improvements following 2017’s “summer of hell” when commuters suffered long delays and track fires under the watch of then-Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Election News
Check out highlights from the May 15 mayoral forum hosted by New York Focus and HellGate.
Tensions are building in the Council District 4 race as candidates scrutinize their rival, Virginia Maloney, for capitalizing on the influential political network of her mother, former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, whose district overlaps with the same East Side neighborhoods she is running to represent. “Many days, it feels like I’m running against Carolyn Maloney,” said one rival candidate, as reported in City&State. The district race has already garnered attention for one candidate opting out of matching public funds, becoming the only City Council candidate to rely on private financing.
It’s no secret that powerful real estate and finance interests are backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid. A new investigation shows how some of these same wealthy special interests - like AirBnb, Uber, and the Real Estate Board of NY (REBNY) - are also heavily spending in city council races to tip outcomes in their favor.
Don’t miss out on this deep dive from The City on the expensive, “weirdly acrimonious” race for Public Advocate between incumbent Jumaane Williams and Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. Their explainer on the borough president office and this year’s “beep” candidates is excellent, as well.
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