Mayor Adams meets with Trump’s “deportation czar” + Campaign Finance Board to discuss first round of matching funds
No. 405 | Monday, December 16, 2024
The NYC Thorn is a weekly roundup of local political news compiled by members of NYC-DSA. We Are Looking for New Volunteers to Join our Editorial Team! If you are interested, please contact us:
Local News
The City Council bill passing broker fees onto whoever hired the broker is officially law. The new rules will take effect in June. The Real Estate Board of New York may sue to block the law, which it did successfully for the previous attempt in 2019.
Governor Kathy Hochul has until December 24th to sign or veto a bill that would add new labor protections for warehouse workers in New York State. Warehouse owners such as Amazon, UPS, and FedEx have expressed opposition.
Governor Hochul is set to hold a virtual meeting with nearly 200 corporate representatives to discuss sharing security resources, such as state police, homeland security, and domestic counterterrorism intelligence, for executives in the wake of the shooting of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, amidst state officials’ concerns that private sector leaders may leave New York.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is likely going to name long-time Assembly Member Gary Pretlow as the new chair of the Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for the Assembly budget.
The MTA is soliciting proposals to study the psychology of fare evasion, with the goal of developing pilot programs based on behavioral interventions.
Mayor Eric Adams met with Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s incoming “deportation czar”. At a press conference a few hours later, Adams spoke nonspecifically about doing away with the city’s “sanctuary city” protections for migrants.
Daniel Penny was acquitted last week of his lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, after being acquitted of manslaughter the week before. Penny’s case has become a cause célèbre among Republicans, and he has been invited by Vice President–elect JD Vance to attend the 2024 Army–Navy Game.
Election News
The NYC Campaign Finance Board is set to meet today to discuss the first round of public matching funds for the 2025 Mayoral race. Eric Adams may be denied access to matching funds due to his indictment for fraud in his 2021 campaign. DSA-endorsed candidate Zohran Mamdani entered the race too late to be considered for the first round, but will likely be eligible at the next meeting in January.
Mayor Adams’s Department of Transportation Commissioner, Ydanis Rodríguez, is said to be eyeing a run for his old City Council seat in District 10 (Washington Heights, Inwood), currently held by Carmen De Le Rosa.
The NYC Local
Our chapter's labor newsletter, The Local, arrives every other week with a focus on labor organizing, bargaining, and local legislation that impacts NYC's workers. Give them a follow here.