Berkovitz said the electoral endorsements are the first for the group, which is fundraising to hire an executive director. The Council determines rezonings, which substantial residential projects routinely seek in New York City.
On Wednesday, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson released a comprehensive plan to overhaul the city’s approach to land use decisions. The 10-year plan sets long-term goals for housing, transportation and public space, and adds opportunities for the public to weigh in.
Two of Open New York’s candidates are challenging Democratic incumbents. Juan Ardila, a Legal Aid Society employee, is taking on Council member Robert Holden, who has opposed homeless shelters in his Queens district. It is also backing Marjorie Velázquez, a Bronx community board member who is running against Mark Gjonaj, another conservative-leaning Council Democrat. Both insurgents have also been endorsed by the Working Families Party.
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It won’t be doomsday for subway riders quite yet, after the MTA
approved a $17 billion budget holding off on the drastic service cuts it has threatened because of its pandemic-induced financial crisis.
Instead, the transit agency’s
budget assumes fingers crossed that it will get a $4.5 billion cash infusion from the federal government. That’s roughly the amount Sen. Chuck Schumer has been
trying to secure for the transit system in recent stimulus bill negotiations. So gone, for now, are the 40 percent reduction in subway service the MTA had proposed. If the money comes through, it would be enough to close the MTA’s deficit for 2021 but still leave an $8 billion deficit in the following years. If it doesn’t come through, the service cuts and large scale layoffs could be resurrected in the new year.
As local politicians gnash their teeth over the outbound migration of New York City’s wealthiest residents, the city’s hundreds of thousands of lower-income renters are still at risk of mass eviction with little concrete relief in sight.
Many of their landlords could be forced to sell their properties to large corporate buyers if help doesn’t come soon, which tenant and landlord advocates alike fear would make the city less affordable.
With rent debt on the rise, landlords struggling to pay their mortgages and thousands of eviction notices already filed, an extension of the statewide moratorium will only buy the city time to see if Congress steps in with comprehensive relief, including back pay for the months that renters went without support. Without direct rental assistance, the city will be left with irreparable wounds in its rental market that only a painful correction could cure, housing experts say.