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Remember when Rikers needed a Receiver? What will Mamdani do?
First-week actions included two relating to Rikers, but neither weighed in on the broader issue of the need for a true Receiver to enforce the Rikers Consent Decree, not the current prospect of a weak tea “Remediation Manager,” the measure that the judge presiding over the case intends to pursue.
Peter Moskos on "Back From the Brink" and today's issues of public safety
The profound changes in policing in New York City starting in the mid-1990's that Moskos wrote about in his book, and the dramatic drop in crime that ensued, along with Moskos's views of current public-safety issues in the city.
The ludicrous "it's not part of the platform" dodge
"Non-platform" issues come to the Mayor's attention every single day. "What will the candidate do once in office about X, Y, or Z?" is not an unreasonable inquiry. We tried to get answers to 13 questions; the Mamdani campaign didn't respond.
Cuomo fails to answer questions about his new promises
Three basic inquiries arising out of a campaign-reboot walk-and-talk with Errol Louis on Inside City Hall go unanswered.
Walden really is a true believer in "free markets" -- with a lot of government assistance
Extended audio interview focuses on housing plans; education, civil rights, and Walden's consolidation-of-the-field scheme also discussed.
Hochul's "Pro-Housing Community" program so far falling flat
A large percentage of municipalities in Westchester and Nassau Counties — two of the beating hearts of exclusionary zoning in the New York City metropolitan area — are saying in effect, “No, thank you, we like our exclusion just the way we have it.” The lack of progress is especially apparent in municipalities with the lowest percentages of non-Hispanic Black residents.
“If it can be successfully done 20, 30, 35 years down the road, then I don't see a reason why it couldn't be done and set up from the onset.”
Market-rate condos as an affordable housing tool?
Legislation recently enacted by New York State as part of its budget process directly offers the prospect of preserving several thousand affordable housing units at risk for losing their tenant protections, and indirectly raises the question of why an obvious set of tools aren’t being used to change the day-to-day reality of luxury condominium buildings being developed with zero percent affordable units included.
Federal employment adjusted for population tells a different story
Even before any Trump or GOP Congress cuts this year, overall executive branch civilian employment as adjusted for population is materially down from its peak.
Even the easy stuff isn't so easy
How hard should it be to get broad agreement on “unless and until you get the rules changed, follow them”? Not very. But achieving that consensus sometimes seems an impossible dream in New York City, a place where you’re generally not doing your rule-breaking in splendid isolation but rather in ways that have real impacts on others.
A win is a win is a win, right? Yes and no.
New poll shows that things are not a lock for Zohran Mamdani, but that he is clearly in the best position. But, if he does win, how big or small that victory is will be quite consequential.
Three housing pilots Mamdani should jump on (and be judged by)
Let's put together a wider range of tools and prove that they can work.
“The brief is a study in manipulating the law and burying the facts to persuade the judge that there is only one course of action properly open to him”
Did Paul Clement play it straight?
Assigned by the presiding judge in the Mayor Adams case to grapple with issues raised by alleged improper conduct by DOJ in seeking dismissal, former Solicitor General appears to falsely pretend that "all roads" lead to a dismissal with prejudice (and not denial of leave to dismiss). We annotate the brief and ask you to consider: did Clement fairly make his case?
