Judge Halts City’s Move to Privatized Retiree Health Plan + Delivery Apps Sue to Block Driver Minimum Wage
No. 330 | Monday, July 10, 2023
The NYC Thorn is a weekly roundup of local political news compiled by members of NYC-DSA.
Local News
A Manhattan Supreme Court Justice placed a temporary restraining order on the City's plan to move hundreds of thousands of public sector retirees to a privatized Medicare Advantage plan, yet another wrench in Mayor Adams and municipal union leaders' plans to reduce healthcare costs by weakening retiree benefits.
Uber, DoorDash, GrubHub and other app-based food delivery companies filed lawsuits on Thursday seeking to strike down New York City's law to mandate a minimum wage for delivery workers, set to take effect July 12.
Mayor Adams named Lisa Bova-Hiatt and James Rubin as the new CEO and chair of the NYC Housing Authority board, respectively. Bova-Hiatt has been the interim CEO since her predecessor Gregory Russ resigned last September after a fumbled arsenic warning in the Jacob Riis Houses, and Rubin has been chief investment officer of the asset management firm Aligned Climate Capital since 2017.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg indicted six individuals, including one personal acquaintance of the Mayor, of defrauding the City's public finance system during the 2021 election and enabling Eric Adams to receive thousands of extra dollars in campaign donations.
Mayor Adams reversed course on a major bike lane project on McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint over the objection of advocates and local elected officials following an unusually aggressive and costly pressure campaign waged by prolific political donors and owners of film studios in the area.
A new report from the court-appointed monitor of Rikers Island found continued unsanitary and unsafe conditions, including blocked air vents and a lack of fire safety equipment that could have prevented the spread of a fire there in April.
A Hell Gate investigation found that none of the institutional leaders who urged Eric Adams to scrap a proposed Bx12 Fordham Road busway live in the Bronx. Five days after they sent a public letter citing their concerns with the proposal, the DOT announced they will not be moving forward with the busway.
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