NYC Failing to Keep Migrants Safe + Barboncino Unionizes!
No. 333 | Monday, July 31, 2023
The NYC Thorn is a weekly roundup of local political news compiled by members of NYC-DSA.
Local News
The City is forcing migrants to sleep on the streets and in buses throughout sweltering temperatures after turning them away from its intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel. Meanwhile, the City is shipping other migrants and asylum seekers upstate or leaving them in dangerous, uncooled shelters.
Con Ed asked New Yorkers to reduce energy use during a heat wave that has sent increasing numbers of people to the hospital. This is after announcing huge increases to electricity rates despite the utility company’s own profits. The increases will impact low-income New Yorkers and fixed-income seniors the most.
Data suggests a possible new wave of COVID-19 infections in the city.
A crane collapsed in midtown Manhattan and damaged a building across the street, injuring four civilians and two firefighters. The company that owns the crane, New York Crane, was also involved in the deadly crane collapse on the Upper East Side nearly 15 years ago and has historically neglected workers’ safety.
Real estate speculators are targeting properties of homeowners who die without a will, stealing wealth from their families and community.
A National Labor Relations Board regional director rejected a National Right to Work-backed effort to oust the union from the Starbucks Reserve Roastery.
Staff at Crown Heights pizzeria Barboncino successfully unionized.
Despite Citi Bike’s popularity, Lyft is looking for a bailout or someone to take the program off its hands.
The New York Police Department is moving forward with a plan to encrypt police radio communication, further limiting accountability from journalists and the public.
Residents of the Long Island town of Huntington spoke out in bigoted and racist terms against a modest bill that would have allowed the conversion of basements into rental units.
The City will unveil a memorial bearing the names of the 146 workers who died in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire this fall.
Elections
Former GOP City Council candidate Dany Chen (District 20, Flushing) filed a lawsuit against the winner of last June’s Republican primary, James Pai, alleging hundreds of fraudulent absentee ballots had been filed on his behalf. Pai faces Democratic incumbent Council Member Sandra Ung in a potentially competitive general election this November.
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