Ex-Buildings Commissioner Indicted + Adam’s Austerity Intensifies
No. 340 | Monday, September 18, 2023
The NYC Thorn is a weekly roundup of local political news compiled by members of NYC-DSA.
Local News
Eric Ulrich, a former Buildings Commissioner and senior advisor to Mayor Eric Adams, was indicted on bribery charges stemming from a number of actions in both Adams's campaign and administration. Ulrich had never completed his City Hall background check and allegedly conspired with a developer to clear out fire victims from a Rockaway Park shelter in exchange for a deal on a luxury condo. While the district attorney was still investigating the case, Mayor Adams apparently warned Ulrich to "watch your back and watch your phones."
In These Times published an in-depth chronicle of NYC-DSA's four year fight to pass the Build Public Renewables Act.
Mayor Adams’s New York Police Department has dramatically increased criminal summons for minor offenses like public drinking and urination, after de Blasio’s previous administration dramatically slowed the practice. The jail population has also sharply increased under Mayor Adams.
New Yorkers are being crushed by astronomical childcare costs while childcare providers are struggling to make ends meet.
Timely processing of cash assistance and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Cash Assistance applications dramatically dropped in the last fiscal year under the austerity of the Adams administration.
The city has finalized a deal with the federal government to use Floyd Bennett Field in southeast Brooklyn to shelter migrants.
The Adams administration seeks to weaken and delay the enforcement of Local Law 97, a major climate reform passed in 2019 that mandates building owners to retrofit building energy systems for energy efficiency.
A popular street redesign of McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint was again delayed after an extraordinary amount of lobbying by local business owners and the public intervention of the Mayor's chief advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin.
A real estate trust bought up dozens of single-family homes in Brooklyn neighborhoods, renovated, and rented them out at a premium. With the trust now looking to liquidate the assets, tenants are in an uncertain position.
The Federal Transit Administration warned the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in 2017 that the LIRR had not purchased enough trains to prepare for the opening of the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal this past winter, but LIRR appeared to ignore their warnings, leading to a chaotic rollout of the new train service.
The City Council is considering a bill to require delivery apps like Grubhub and UberEats to purchase safe e-bikes for their workers.
The updated COVID-19 vaccine is hard to find in the New York City area at the same time that the city is experiencing a surge in the virus. Vaccination locations can be found here.
Job listings in New York will now have to disclose pay rates after a statewide salary transparency law goes into effect.
New York City rents continue to skyrocket.
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