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(CNN) — New York Jets cornerback Kris Boyd was shot outside a New York City restaurant early Sunday morning, according to a law enforcement source briefed on the situation.
The source said Boyd was shot in the stomach and later was rushed to Bellevue Hospital.
Earlier on Sunday, the New York Police Department told CNN a 29-year-old male was in “critical but stable condition” after being transported to the hospital. The police did not mention Boyd’s name.
In a statement to CNN, the Jets said they were “aware of the situation” involving Boyd, but “will have no further comment at this time.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a message on X he was praying for Boyd and his loved ones.
“Although we’ve gotten shootings to historic lows in our city, we must continue to work to end gun violence,” Adams added. “Too many young lives have been tragically altered and cut short by this epidemic.”
According to the source, the incident happened around 2 a.m. ET outside of a restaurant on 38th Street, near 7th Avenue after a dispute escalated and two shots were fired.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The law enforcement source said two cars were spotted on a surveillance camera leaving a parking garage near the restaurant.
Both vehicles pulled over and interacted with Boyd and his group, the official told CNN.
Moments later, the gunman opened fire, striking Boyd and then sped off in one of the vehicles.
The official added investigators are expected to get access to the garage’s surveillance footage and are getting some cooperation from witnesses to the incident.
CNN has reached out to Boyd’s agent for comment.
The New York Post was first to report on the situation.
Boyd was drafted in the seventh round of the 2019 NFL Draft out of the University of Texas by the Minnesota Vikings. He has also played for the Arizona Cardinals and Houston Texans before signing with the Jets this past offseason.
In August, Boyd was placed on the injured reserve with a shoulder injury.
Jets teammates including linebacker Jermaine Johnson and defensive tackler Harrison Phillips asked for prayers for Boyd.
“Everybody please send prayers to my brother and teammate Kris Boyd and his family!!! Lord please hold your healing hand over Kris and guide him back to health and safety,” Johnson said on X.
“Lord, place your mighty hand on him as he fights lord God. Guide every doctor, nurse, and surgeon who touches him lord,” Phillips said on X. “Give his family strength! Kris is a fighter and we’re all here for him.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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With the mayoral election in the rearview, Big Apple politicos have turned their attention to another important contest: the race for City Council speaker.
The current speaker, Adrienne Adams, is term-limited at the end of this year, meaning the body’s 51 members must choose her replacement come January. Next to the mayor, the City Council speaker may be the most influential figure in city politics — as the chamber’s leader sets the body’s agenda, works with other parts of the municipal government, controls what legislation gets voted on, and wields great power in negotiating the yearly budget, which the Council controls.
So far, five candidates are running to replace Speaker Adams, who was first elected to the post in early 2022 and has served for the duration of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams’ (no relation) tenure: Council Members Julie Menin (D-Manhattan), Crystal Hudson (D-Brooklyn), Amanda Farias (D-Bronx), Selvena Brooks-Powers (D-Queens), and Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan).
Although there is still over a month to go, the race appears to have narrowed down to two candidates: Menin and Hudson. Whoever becomes speaker will need a majority (26) of the 51-member council in the election at the start of the new session in January.
A council source told amNewYork it is hard to say exactly how many members currently support Menin and Hudson. However, they provided an assessment of where the members from each borough stand, noting that Queens is mostly aligned with Menin, Brooklyn and Staten Island are mostly aligned with Hudson, and Manhattan and the Bronx are split between the two.
Julie Menin: Why she’s running
City Council speaker candidate Julie MeninEmil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit
Menin took office in 2022 and represents a significant portion of the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island. She told amNewYork she is vying for the post both to counter aggressive federal actions by Republican President Donald Trump toward the five boroughs, such as his threats to send in the National Guard, and to lower soaring costs across the city.
“We’re clearly in a crisis in New York City in terms of some of the threats that we face from Washington with draconian federal cuts, the risk of ICE raids, the potential for military deployment,” she said.
Menin said her experience of serving as commissioner of the Departments of Consumer and Worker Protection, Media and Entertainment, and as census director under former Mayor Bill de Blasio — prior to being elected to the council — has prepared her for this fraught moment.
“I’m running for speaker based on my experience running three city agencies, my legal experience in these very choppy waters that we’re in right now,” she said.
Crystal Hudson: Why she’s running
City Council Speaker candidate Crystal HudsonGerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit
Hudson is a progressive who has represented Brooklyn neighborhoods, including Crown Heights, Fort Greene, and Clinton Hill, since 2022.
“We are in a pivotal political moment, locally, nationally, even globally,” Hudson told amNewYork about why she is running.
“I think it’s really important that we have strong and steady leadership that’s rooted in action and accountability,” she continued, “that shows New Yorkers that they have strong leadership in City Hall that will always stand up for them, that will fight back against any interference with the laws of this land.”
Prior to being elected in 2021, Hudson was a staffer in both the Council and the Public Advocate’s office. Before entering government, she worked in sports marketing and advertising, and then was inspired to become a public servant after having to navigate complex bureaucracies for her mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Working with the new mayor
Perhaps the biggest question looming over the race is who, if anyone, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will throw his support behind.
The new 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor-elect will need a willing partner as council speaker to help accomplish his sweeping affordability proposals — including fare-free buses and universal child care. Outgoing Mayor Adams had a very contentious relationship with Speaker Adams that often led to public fights over legislation and the balance of power in City Hall.
Hudson, who endorsed Mamdani in the mayor’s race, said she wants to be a speaker who balances a working relationship with the new mayor with the ability to also push back when necessary.
“I think that New Yorkers have made a clear mandate that they want and need a more affordable New York City,” Hudson said, referring to Mamdani winning the mayoral general election by just over 50%.
“We need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make the city a livable, affordable city for them,” she continued. “Now that doesn’t mean, of course, that we’re going to agree with everything that the mayor proposes, and when we don’t, I think it’s important that we are loud and clear about our opposition.”
While Menin is more moderate than Hudson, she sought to highlight the “many areas” where she and Mamdani can work together. She said those include countering the Trump administration and making the city more affordable — specifically by implementing free universal child care.
“We’ve got to focus on the issues and the threats that we have coming from Washington,” Menin said. “We need to focus on the affordability issues around universal child care and housing. We also need to focus on lowering skyrocketing health care prices…These are all areas of alignment.”
However, Menin also noted she would still ensure the council holds the new administration accountable through its oversight hearings.
Who’s backing Hudson and Menin?
When it comes to the level of support Hudson and Menin have at this point, they both project confidence in their ability to win — but declined to give specific counts of how many members are backing them.
Hudson said she has “support all across the city.”
The Progressive Caucus member has the vocal backing among many of the body’s more left-leaning lawmakers, including Brooklyn Council Members Lincoln Restler, Sandy Nurse, and Rita Joseph. Also standing with Hudson is Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who abandoned her own speaker bid to stand with her colleague.
Nurse said she believes Hudson should be the next speaker based on the diversity of her district and her ability to balance being a progressive with standing up to parts of the left when they do not have “a clear path for solving a problem.”
“I think in that way, she represents a healthy check on the Zohran [Mamdani] administration,” Nurse said of Hudson. “I think she will be both a collaborative partner, but also someone who will work to build the council’s agenda and assert our agenda.”
Meanwhile, Menin said she has a “broad, diverse coalition of support,” including a mix of progressive and moderate Council members such as Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan), Kevin Riley (D-Bronx), and Linda Lee (D-Queens). Menin also has the powerful Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, which supported Mamdani in the general election, and U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks — the Queens County Democratic Party chair — standing with her.
One of Menin’s Council member supporters, Erik Bottcher (D-Manhattan), said he thinks she is “the right leader for our time.”
Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani delivered an address on Islamophobia in the Bronx. Firday, Oct. 24, 2025.
Photo by Ethan Stark-Miller
The 2025 NYC Mayor’s race rivalry between Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo grew even more personal on Friday.
Following a spate of recent controversial actions by Mamdani’s mayoral election rivals that he and others have condemned as Islamophobic, the Muslim Democratic nominee delivered an emotional, 10-minute address on Friday in which he described his own experience with anti-Muslim discrimination and vowed to address the issue head-on going forward.
During Mamdani’s address outside of the Muslim Cultural Center of the Bronx, he called out his chief rival Cuomo, Republican opponent Curtis Sliwa, and current Mayor Eric Adams for what he described as making Islamophobic remarks part of the closing messages of their campaigns and time in office.
Cuomo responded in his own fiery Friday news conference with Muslim leaders in Jackson Heights, Queens, where he charged that Mamdani is “an actor playing the victim,” but in reality, “he’s the offender.”
Sliwa’s camp also took exception to Mamdani’s statements, alleging that he was “weaponizing accusations of Islamophobia for political gain.”
A spokesperson for Adams has yet to respond to requests for comment.
Mamdani: ‘No amount of redirection is ever enough’
Mamdani, a democratic socialist Queens lawmaker, said his adversaries’ comments were emblematic of the persistent Islamophobia he has experienced throughout his year-long mayoral campaign.
“Every day, super PAC ads imply that I am a terrorist, or mock the way I eat,” Mamdani said. “Push polls that ask New Yorkers questions like whether they support invented proposals to make halal food mandatory, or political cartoons that represent my candidacy as an airplane hurtling towards the World Trade Center.”
Mamdani said that hate has persisted despite his attempt not to be seen as the “Muslim candidate,” but rather as the one who would represent all New Yorkers.
“I thought that if I could build a campaign of universality, I could define myself as the leader I aspire to be, one representing every New Yorker,” he said. “I was wrong. No amount of redirection is ever enough.”
But, he continued, “I do not want to use this moment to speak to them any further. I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City.”
Mamdani spoke to the discrimination he personally faced growing up in the aftermath of 9/11,” such as being called by the name “Mohammed” or ending up in an airport interrogation room for questioning about whether he planned on attacking the city. He also spoke to the experiences of other Muslims he knew who suffered even more extreme forms of hate.
“I was never pressured to be an informant like a classmate of mine, I’ve never had the word ‘terrorist’ spray-painted on my garage as one of my staff had to endure, my Mosque has never been set on fire,” he said. “To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity. But indignity does not make us distinct. There are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does.”
Cuomo says he ‘didn’t take’ terror remark ‘seriously’
Mamdani also chided Adams for seeming to paint him as an Islamic extremist who seeks to “burn churches” and Sliwa for claiming that he supports “global jihad.”
The former governor defended his response to Rosenberg during his Friday event by saying he “didn’t take it seriously.”
“I can see where, if you took it seriously, it was offensive,” he said. “I didn’t take it seriously at the time, period.”
Cuomo also rejected the concept of Mamdani’s speech, contending that the Queens lawmaker is the one dividing people, not himself. He suggested that Mamdani is calling all New Yorkers Islamophobic.
“What he is doing is the oldest, dirtiest political trick in the book: Divide people,” Cuomo said. “It’s the cheapest trick … divide New Yorkers as a political tactic. It won’t work. New Yorkers won’t let you divide them.”
When asked by amNewYork whether he believed his past statements on Palestine had contributed to the campaign attacks he condemned Friday, the Mamdani campaign referred us back to his statement today about being subjected to discrimination as a Muslim New Yorker.
As for Sliwa, campaign spokesperson Daniel Kurzyna charged that Mamdani was attempting to smear his rivals as bigots merely to gain a political edge.
“Curtis Sliwa has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Muslim New Yorkers for 50 years, working to protect their communities from violence and hate, and he will continue to do so as mayor,” Kurzyna said. “To weaponize accusations of Islamophobia for political gain is wrong and desperate, and New Yorkers deserve a campaign based on facts and solutions, not smears.”
Tens of thousands of New Yorkers saw some medical debt relief thanks to an $18 million investment from the city, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday. Now, even more New Yorkers are set to get additional help.
The mayor also announced the opening of eight new financial centers at city-run hospitals in four of the five boroughs.
The move will relieve some or all of the medical debt for 500,000 New Yorkers on a one-time basis. It is part of a program Adams launched last year with Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys medical debt to acquire debt portfolios from healthcare providers, hospitals, and collection agencies.
Since the program launched in 2024, it has thus far canceled $135 million in medical debt for 75,000 New Yorkers.
Eligibility for the program
There is no application process for the program. The nonprofit purchases a bundle of qualifying medical debt at “pennies on the dollar,” the mayor’s office explained. Debt relief recipients will then be notified that their debt has been bought by a third party and erased, the mayor’s office said, adding that recipients will owe nothing on the debt and face no tax penalty.
New Yorkers who fit one of the two eligibility criteria will qualify for the debt relief if their debt has been acquired:
Having an annual household income at or below 400% of the Federal Poverty Line
Having medical debt equal to 5% or more of their annual household income.
“For too long, and for too many, medical debt has not only been a barrier for those looking to get the health care they need, but also a major financial and emotional stressor for families through no fault of their own,” the mayor said. “Working-class New Yorkers shouldn’t have to live in fear that getting sick will break their bank, and, thanks to our administration, they won’t have to.”
Healthcare debt in the United States is an ongoing problem. Many people struggle to pay for healthcare, and approximately 9% owe over $250 due to health costs, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Financial experts have said carrying medical debt can undermine financial stability by affecting credit scores.
It can also put individuals and families in difficult positions to choose between care and other necessary expenses, Michelle Morse, M.D., NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene acting commissioner, said.
“Erasing medical debt isn’t just a gesture of compassion, it’s a necessity when so many New Yorkers are often forced to choose between their health and basic needs like food or housing,” she said. “We must create a more equitable and affordable system so that New Yorkers do not fear financial ruin after seeking necessary medical care. By relieving debt burden, we’re providing people with the freedom to prioritize their health while making our city stronger and more accessible for everyone.”
Preventing medical debt
These free one-on-one financial counseling and coaching services are now open at the following NYC Health and Hospitals locations:
BRONX
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Tremont
1920 Webster Avenue, Bronx, NY 10457
Mondays and Tuesdays, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi
1400 Pelham Pkwy. S, Building 8 Atrium, Bronx, NY 10461
Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. BROOKLYN
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, East New York
2094 Pitkin Ave., 2nd Floor, Room 202, Brooklyn, NY 11207
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County
451 Clarkson Ave., E Building, Main Lobby, Brooklyn, NY 11203
Mondays and Wednesdays, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. MANHATTAN
NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
462 First Ave., New York, NY 10016
Finance Department, First Floor, Hospital Building
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Gouverneur
227 Madison St., 5th Floor Lobby, New York, NY 10002
Mondays and Wednesdays, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. QUEENS
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst
79-01 Broadway, Main Lobby, Broadway Entrance, Elmhurst, NY 11373
Mondays and Wednesdays, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens
82-70 164th St., Main Building, Conference Room D, Jamaica, NY 11434
Democratic Nominee for New York City Mayor and State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, joins MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss his leadership style and actions if he wins the mayoral election, President Trump’s threats to send National Guards to NYC, Mayor Eric Adams on not dropping out of the race, matchup with former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and many more.
Caribbean Americans celebrated their culture as they paraded up Eastern Parkway at the West Indian Day Parade. File Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
At a press conference at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch outlined the NYPD’s security measures for one of the city’s largest annual events, J’Ouvert and the West Indian American Day Parade on Aug. 29.
Mayor Eric Adams held a security briefing ahead of J’Ouvert and the West Indian Day Parade on Labor Day. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
The vibrant traditions draw hundreds of thousands of spectators every year. While Adams and Tisch announced that, at this time, there were no known specific, credible threats to the J’Ouvert Festival or the West Indian American Day Parade, both emphasized that thousands of NYPD officers would be out in full force to ensure “safe, secure, and peaceful celebrations.”
“There is nothing like Carnival,” Adams said. “We’re excited about the music, the energy, the fashion, and fun that is associated with it. And this community knows how to throw on a great party, and we want to make sure that everyone can enjoy it in a very safe way.”
“This will be the largest police deployment of the year, even bigger than our deployments for New Year’s Eve in Times Square, even bigger than our deployments for July 4,” Tisch noted.
NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch shared the security and safety measures the NYPD put in place for J’Ouvert and the West Indian Day Parade on Labor Day. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Spectator access to J’Ouvert, the pre-dawn celebration marking the start of Carnival, will begin at 2 a.m. — four hours before the event kicks off at 6 a.m.
Tisch announced that there will be 13 security checkpoints along Empire Boulevard and Nostrand Avenue, where all spectators will be screened with handheld metal detectors by NYPD personnel before entering the viewing areas. Street closures in the area will begin at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31, and will remain in effect until 11 a.m. on Monday.
Flatbush Avenue will be closed from Grand Army Plaza to Empire Boulevard. Empire will be closed from Flatbush across to Nostrand; Nostrand Avenue will be closed from Empire Boulevard down to Rutland Road.
Some of the security measures for the West Indian American Day Parade, which kicks off at 11 a.m. at Rochester Avenue and Eastern Parkway, include the NYPD’s Emergency Services, Counterterrorism, Bomb Squad, canine units, and field intelligence officers. Additionally, helicopters and drones will surveil the parade route, assisting NYPD officers on the ground. The Joint Operations Center will monitor fixed and mobile cameras along the route and surrounding areas, while intelligence teams will monitor social media for potential threats.
“Response units will be deployed to investigate any reports in real time,” Tisch said. “As always, there will be assets that you will see and others that you will not see. While cops will be out there to keep you safe, we ask everyone to stay alert. If you see something suspicious or something doesn’t feel right, tell a uniformed officer or call 911.”
Past celebrations, however, have been marred by violence. Last year, a gunman opened fire along the parade route, killing one person and wounding four others.
Tisch announced that this year, the NYPD will install two rows of barricades, as opposed to just one, along the parade route.
“Spectators may not jump barricades to join performers or marchers, and any unauthorized individuals on the route will be removed and may be subject to arrest,” Tisch warned.
The commissioner also urged spectators to use public transportation due to street closures, which will begin at 6 a.m. when Eastern Parkway will be shut down between Ralph Avenue and Utica Avenue, as well as the surrounding side streets. Rockaway Parkway, Buffalo Avenue, East New York Avenue, Portal Street, Rochester Avenue, and Union Street will also be closed. At approximately 10:30 a.m., Eastern Parkway will be fully closed from Utica down to Grand Army Plaza. All northbound and southbound streets feeding into the Parkway will also be closed.
Tisch and Adams further announced the deployment of 2,500 police officers to keep New Yorkers safe over the Labor Day weekend.
Building on the mayor’s effort to take guns off New York City streets and combat gang violence, the NYPD has identified parks where gang violence occurs.
“Those parks will have 24/7 police presence,” Tisch announced. “2,500 uniformed members of service who are going to be walking foot posts, both on our streets and importantly, in our parks.”
When asked about the mayor’s announcement to deploy 1,000 additional NYPD officers to patrol the Bronx, Adams wouldn’t provide any details on which areas of the Bronx the officers would be policing.
Mayor Eric Adams held a security briefing ahead of J’Ouvert and the West Indian Day Parade on Labor Day. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
“If we tell you where they’re located, then the bad guys will know where [the cops] are located. That’s the purpose of not broadcasting exactly how we’re going to implement our enforcement,” Adams said. “They’re going to be doing foot patrol. They’re going to be on the ground, interacting with the public, addressing quality of life issues, making sure our parks are safe.”
Former Gov. and independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo (left) and Democratic mayoral nominee and Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Democratic mayoral nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani continued his strong fundraising performance over the past month, having amassed more than $1 million in private, mostly small contributions since mid-July, according to newly updated filings with the city Campaign Finance Board (CFB) on Friday.
At the same time, independent candidates former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams lagged behind. Cuomo raised roughly half of Mamdani’s haul — $507,660, while Adams amassed $420,886.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist Queens Assembly member, raked in $1,051,200 between July 12 and Aug. 18, according to CFB records. The haul came from 8,461 donors – with an average contribution of $121. Just under half of those contributions — 48% — came from New York City donors, with the rest coming from outside the five boroughs.
CFB records indicate that Mamdani’s campaign submitted $281,270 of the sum in claims for the city’s public funds program, which matches eligible contributions 8-to-1. The campaign says it expects that amount to unlock over $3 million in matching funds.
With the new private and anticipated public funds, the campaign says it has already raised over $7 million in the general election.
“I’m thankful for the support of New Yorkers and for the fact that we continue to show that we are the choice of people across the five boroughs,” Mamdani, who won the June Democratic primary by nearly 13 points, said during an unrelated Friday news conference.
Mamdani’s spokesperson Dora Pekec, in a statement, said the campaign’s strong fundraising stems from his vast grassroots support, while taking a shot at Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams’ donors with connections to Republican President Trump.
“While Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams continue to rake in support from MAGA billionaires, our campaign is proud to be fueled by true grassroots support that speaks to the people-powered movement we’re building,” Pekec said.“With over 50,000 volunteers, thousands of small-dollar donors, and genuine enthusiasm for Zohran’s vision for a more affordable New York City, our momentum is surging.”
Mamdani’s campaign spent $848,918 over the same period and has a war chest of nearly $4.4 million.
The Assembly member was the first candidate to reach the $8.3 million spending limit in the Democratic primary. The spending cap has been reset for the general election.
Cuomo and Adams reports
The campaign for Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary, said it expects to add to its $507,660 raise by unlocking $525,384 in matching funds. The combined sum would bring his total fundraising for the cycle to over $1 million.
Cuomo’s campaign shelled out $579,470 over the same period and has roughly $1.2 million in his campaign account, CFB records show. More than half of Cuomo’s donations came from outside New York City.
Cuomo appears to be lagging behind Mamdani in fundraising now that he is running as the underdog, instead of as the presumed frontrunner, as he was in the primary. The former governor was not only able to quickly raise large amounts during the Democratic contest, but was backed by tens of millions of dollars in super PAC spending.
The mayor spent big over the past month — to the tune of $850,668 — but still has nearly $4 million in its coffers, according to the board.
amNewYork reached out to both campaigns for comment and is awaiting responses.
Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa’s campaign brought in $407,332, of which the campaign claimed $208,021 could be matched, CFB records show. He spent $345,314 and has $2 million cash on hand.
Meanwhile, independent attorney Jim Walden reported raising just over $8,222 over the same period, records indicate. About $4,329 of that amount is eligible for public matching funds, records show.
Walden’s campaign has spent $318,566 since mid-July. He has a balance of over $1.2 million in his campaign account.
NEW YORK (WABC) — First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright has resigned Tuesday, and is expected to be replaced by Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Work Force Maria Torres-Springer, who has decades of government experience.
The announcement is expected to be made by Mayor Eric Adams at his weekly briefing later Tuesday morning.
Wright could serve for the rest of the month.
“We are grateful for First Deputy Mayor Wright’s years of service to the city and all she has done to deliver for children, families, and working-class New Yorkers. She is an exceptional leader who assembled a strong team and constantly demonstrated a bold vision for this city,” Adams said in a statement.
Wright has served in the administration since January 2022 and moved into her current role in January of 2023. She worked alongside the mayor very closely on a number of initiatives.
FILE – Mayor Eric Adams, right, is flanked by deputy mayor Sheena Wright, left, during a press conference at City Hall in New York, Dec. 12, 2023.
AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File
Last month, federal investigators seized her phones and searched her home — along with several other officials who have since resigned.
The announcement that Wright is stepping down comes after her brother-in-law, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Philip Banks, announced his resignation Monday.
Joining the deputy mayor leaving Monday were Winne Greco, Rana Abbasova and Mohammed Bahi.
Greco and Bahi resigned, and Abbasova was terminated. All three served as community liaisons for the administration.
Other notable names to step down from their roles previously include former police commissioner Edward Caban, outgoing school chancellor David Banks, health commissioner Ashwin Vasan, advisor to the mayor Tim Pearson, and legal advisor Lisa Zornberg.
“This comes directly from Governor Hochul. She said to clean house. She wants to see changes and that’s what she’s seeing right now,” he said.
Meanwhile, David Birdsell, Kean University Provost, said many people are under the assumption that the corruption within the administration is being carried out by people with key roles.
“It looks like, right now, that administration is losing its most senior officials. At least many people believe because there is some corruption at the heart of the administration,” Birdsell said.
It all comes as the Mayor continues to reassure residents across New York City that he can govern while defending himself against the federal government.
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The Lafayette Avenue brownstone owned by Mayor Eric Adams in Bedford-Stuyvesant, outside of which neighbors voiced their gripes on Thursday amid corruption allegations.
Outside Mayor Eric Adams’ Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone on Thursday, neighbors backed calls for his resignation.
The mayor is accused of bribery, soliciting illegal campaign donations, and wire fraud as part of an alleged years-long relationship with Turkish officials.
Emerson Iannone, 24, who lives down the block from Adams’ Lafayette Avenue property, expressed a lack of surprise regarding the indictment, viewing the alleged corruption in the current administration as pervasive across the city and broader U.S.
In a video message released Wednesday, Adams claimed the case against him is “based on lies” and suggested he had been made a “target” for his criticisms of the Biden administration’s support for New York City’s migrant crisis. Iannone said Adams’ rebuttal was indicative of “who he is as a mayor” and that he is “not a good reflection of the city.”
“Should he resign just because of this? I think he should have resigned for a lot of other things,” Iannone told Brooklyn Paper. “After the budget cuts to parks and libraries, I’ve wanted him to resign for a while.”
Meanwhile, Allisa Zladimir was shocked to learn that Adams owns the Lafayette Avenue brownstone that she passes every day with her dog.
“I’ve never seen him,” Zladimir said. “I live here, and I walk down this street every day, and I’ve never seen him.”
Whether Adams resides at the property was a subject of scrutiny during his 2021 mayoral campaign, with the then-candidate even inviting reporters to tour it in a bid to dispel rumors that he was commuting from New Jersey.
While Zladimir was surprised by the news of Adams’ property ownership, the indictment did not catch her off guard.
“Everyone around him was going down, so I assumed it was inevitable at some point,” she said, noting that he was not her “candidate of choice” during the last mayoral election and that he has done little to win her over, pointing to his cutting of funding to several city services last year to address the cost of the migrant crisis — many of which have been partially restored.
“It doesn’t sound like he has any plans of stepping down, but it’s only day one, so we’ll see,” she added.
Another resident of Adams’ block, a 44-year-old woman who wished to remain anonymous, did not hold back in her criticism of the mayor, stating that his resignation is “a long time coming.”
“I think enough has gone on, on and off the record, as we’re starting to find out,” she said of the indictment. “So, I think it’s great; hopefully, I won’t continue to have to be part of the people paying his salary. I think it would be in his best interest, and it would be prudent for him to step down so they can begin to search for someone somewhat better.”
Mayor Eric Adams announces his latest initiative in the war on rats in NYC: the ‘Rat Pack.’ Earlier this summer, he told the press in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, that the program will train an army of rat catchers laser-focused on helping the city win its battle against rodents.File photo by Dean Moses
The woman, who works as an artist and poet, also criticized Adams as a neighbor and his handling of rat infestations at his property. The mayor has been waging a war on rats in the city but has faced five rodent violations at his property since he took office in 2022.
Last month, Adams had a $300 ticket dismissed after telling the court that the property next door caused the infestation on the block. Despite these claims, Adams’ neighbor of five years said she regularly sees rats around the property and will even take a B38 bus to avoid walking by it at night.
“He just owns it for street cred,” she said. “He could use it as affordable housing, or he could gift it in kind to the city and have it rehabilitated rather than own property that’s causing people to have to walk in the street because of the rats.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks to the press outside his official residence Gracie Mansion after he was charged with bribery and illegally soliciting a campaign contribution from a foreign national.REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
At a press conference outside of Gracie Mansion Thursday, Adams criticized prosecutors and the U.S. government and said he would not resign as he addressed the charges.
Adams, who appeared to be in good spirits, surrounded himself with local religious leaders as he addressed reporters just minutes after the 57-page indictment was unsealed.
“We are not surprised, we expected this, this is not surprising to us at all,” Adams said of the indictment, reiterating his stance that he is being “targeted” by the federal government. “I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments … I ask you to wait and hear our side to this narrative. From here, my attorneys will take care of the case so I can take care of the city. My day-to-day will not change. I will continue to do the job for 8.3 million New Yorkers that I was elected to do.”
Adams — the city’s second Black mayor — took office in 2022, after narrowly winning a ranked-choice primary the year prior. A former police captain, Adams is a centrist Democrat who won the mayor’s race on the promise of reigning in crime and has continued to make that the centerpiece of his mayoralty over his nearly three years in office.
One unnamed supporter outside of Gracie Mansion Thursday said the feds were just “after Adams” for addressing the city’s migrant crisis and assured Hizzoner that the Big Apple still has his back.
“We love you,” she told the mayor. “We know the truth.”
Talking to the congregation of Changing Lives Christian Center, located at 1848 Linden Blvd., Adams compared his ongoing trials and tribulations to that of Job, a Bible figure who undergoes a series of disasters designed to test his faith.
“A reporter said to me this morning, ‘Do I feel I am being prosecuted?’ I said, ‘No, I’m just in my Job moment.’ And when you come out of your Job moment and your faith is intact, you will receive blessings tenfold,” Adams declared. “I know what got me here, and I know what’s going to sustain me here.”
Mayor Eric Adams also delivered remarks at Power and Authority Evangelical Ministry’s Sunday service. 889 Sheffield Avenue, Brooklyn, on Sept. 8, 2024.NYC Mayoral Photography Unit
To reinforce blessings upon Hizzoner, Pastor Paul Mitchell led the prayer circle and called upon a higher power to assist the mayor in his time of trial.
“We know that when you’re a public servant, that Lord, the forces of evil want to come against you,” Pastor Mitchell said. “So, Father, strengthen his mind, help him.”
The chant was recited as four pastors placed their hands on Hizzoner and uttered an incantation to cast away evil — going as far as to suggest that Adams had been cursed.
“I bind every demonic force, every curse that’s been leveled from every witch and every warlock,” Pastor Mitchell said.
On Sept. 4, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks, Police Commissioner Edward Caban and City Hall Senior Adviser Tim Pearson became just some of the latest figures in the mayor’s orbit to have their homes raided and electronics seized by federal investigators. Much is still unknown about the raids and whether they are part of the same investigation, but the probe(s) are reportedly being run out of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan.
Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Edward Caban had his electronic devices turned over to federal agents as part of an ongoing investigation connected to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — Marchers chanted for the release of hostages in Gaza on Sunday at a New York City parade for Israel that drew thousands of people under heightened security.
The parade came almost eight months after the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the deadliest in Israel’s history. The parade in the past was dubbed “Celebrate Israel,” but organizers said the exuberant atmosphere would be paused this year given the war and Israeli hostages still being held in captivity, as well as outbursts of antisemitism worldwide.
“Especially this year, after Oct. 7, it’s especially important to have this show of unity,” said Rena Orman, a Bronx native who took part in the parade as part of Mothers Against College Antisemitism. “Everybody wants hostages back. Everyone wants this to end. No one is cheering for this. Everyone wants peace.”
The parade, now called “Israel Day on Fifth” because of the route along Fifth Avenue from 57th Street to 74th Street in Manhattan, focused on solidarity, strength and resilience.
“This is not a mood of confetti and music,” CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council Mark Treyger said. “This is more of a mood of unwavering, ironclad solidarity with hostages to bring them home, and also our unwavering love and pride in our Jewish identity.”
The parade, which is in its 59th year, drew thousands of participants, including Israeli dignitaries, celebrities and some of the hostages’ families.
There was never a thought of cancelling the parade this year, Treyger said, despite what he termed an astronomical rise in antisemitism.
“This is a moment that we have to meet,” he said.
But there was significant security.
New York Police Department officials said Friday they plan to implement measures typically used for high-profile events such as New Year’s Eve and July 4. That includes drones, K-9 units, bike patrols, fencing and barriers and designated entry points for spectators all along the parade route.
Backpacks, large bags and coolers were prohibited. Spectators had to pass through metal detectors.
City officials stressed Friday there were no specific or credible threats to either the parade or the city and any protestors have the right to demonstrate so long as its done peacefully.
“We’re not going to allow any unlawfulness and any disruption of any celebration of one’s heritage in this city,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a security briefing.
Police did not report any parade-related arrests by late Sunday afternoon.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Police Commissioner Edward Caban spoke on the security measures being taken in preparation of the parade.
The parade represented the first large-scale Jewish event in the city since the war started, although there have been roughly 2,800 protests in the city, with about 1,300 of them related to the conflict, the Democrat said.
Israel faces growing international criticism for its strategy of systematic destruction in Gaza, at a huge cost in civilian lives. Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in the besieged territory have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Organizers said this year spectators won’t experience the music, bands, and the traditional mirth. The message of the parade will be “Bring Them Home,” referring to the hostages held by Hamas, nearly eight months after Hamas’ attack on Israel.
According to New York City’s Office of the Mayor, there have been nearly 2,800 protests across the city since Oct. 7, with almost 1,300 demonstrations related to the war in the Middle East.
This year’s parade carried an additional concern that scuffles could erupt between protesters and spectators, either during the parade or as they disperse afterward.
NYC Police Commissioner Edward Caban urged those attending this weekend’s parade to remain vigilant.
“The eyes and ears of New York play a vital role in protecting our city. So, if you see something that doesn’t feel right, please let a cop know,” Caban said.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams hosts a rally in support of his “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” zoning text amendment on the steps of City Hall on Monday, April 29, 2024.
Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
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For over two years, cities across the country have struggled to respond to the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In New York City, slowing tax revenue growth combined with low office occupancy rates, and the expiration of temporary federal stimulus dollars have put a strain on our city’s budget.
At the same time, as we all know only too well, the pandemic exposed cracks in education, health care, and housing that urgently need to be addressed, and we faced costs related to settling long-expired labor contracts with our dedicated municipal workforce. And in the midst of all these challenges, we have been tasked with managing a substantial influx of individuals and families seeking asylum.
New York City saw the warning signs early. We saw that if we didn’t take fast and decisive action, a perfect storm resulting in a multi-billion-dollar budget gap would be very difficult to navigate out of. We knew we had to make tough decisions and that our choices would not always be popular, but that they would be the right thing to do. That is because we understood that not making these hard choices would be worse for working-class New Yorkers and the long-term stability of our city.
So we did what we needed to do to manage our way out of the storm. We implemented policies to reduce the costs of asylum seeker care while maintaining critical services, instituted agency savings, and more.
As a result of our strong fiscal management and decisive action, as well as stronger-than-expected tax revenues, our city’s financial outlook has stabilized. We balanced the budget, as required by law, without major service disruptions, layoffs, or a single cent in tax hikes.
Alongside being fiscally responsible, we also have achieved major wins for working-class people. We supported cost-of-living-adjustments for 80,000 human services workers — primarily women and women of color — so that they can raise a family in New York City. We recently launched Jobs NYC, a whole-of-government approach to bring job and career training opportunities to long-overlooked communities by holding hiring halls and launching an online job search portal that are connecting job seekers with prospective employers.
And we have been able to protect over half-a-billion dollars in critical, permanent education programs that had been funded by federal stimulus dollars. These include ongoing support for our students’ mental health by keeping nearly 500 mental health professionals in our schools. It also means increasing resources for special education Pre-K programs by expanding occupational, speech, and physical therapy for our most vulnerable young New Yorkers; maintaining vital arts programs; and our popular bilingual programs. Additionally, we are conducting more outreach so that parents and caregivers know about seats for 3-K and Pre-K programs. Further, many of these educational programs are now funded with recurring dollars, so they are protected year after year.
We have enhanced public safety and doubled down on our efforts to continue to bring down shootings by homicides by putting 1,200 more police officers on the streets and in our subways with two additional NYPD classes. And all academy classes are now fully funded in 2024, which put us on the path to having a total of 35,000 uniformed officers protecting New Yorkers in the coming years. The safest big city in America is getting even safer.
This all puts us back on track to economic and social prosperity — which is no small accomplishment given the magnitude of the challenges we faced, and the severity of the crisis we would have had to address had we failed to act decisively and with an eye for what is best for the city in the long term.
I am proud to report that, as a result of all our good work, not only have shootings and homicides continued to drop by double digits across the city, but overall crime is down in our city year to date, with month after month decreases.
And our work with so many of our local businesses has helped our city not only recover all of the private-sector jobs we lost during the pandemic, a year earlier than projected, but with over 300,000 new jobs created under this administration, we now have more total jobs than ever before in our city’s history.
We are also tackling major quality of life issues by containerizing business and residential trash, and reducing the amount of time garbage is allowed to sit on the curb. Additionally, we have financed the most newly constructed affordable housing in a single year in our city’s history, won approval of the historic Willets Point Transformation to build the largest 100 percent affordable housing project in 40 years, and our “City of Yes” plan to update decades-old zoning laws before the City Council will make it easier to build the housing our city urgently needs. Further, Albany recently passed all of our affordable housing initiatives in the state budget — putting us one step closer to our moonshot goal of building a half a million new affordable homes for New Yorkers.
While we still face challenges, because we put ourselves in a more stable fiscal position, we can continue to invest in the needs of everyday New Yorkers. As New York City moves toward the future, our core values will continue to guide us. We will continue to build a safer, more equitable, and more prosperous city for all New Yorkers.
Randy Mastro, the lawyer representing New Jersey in its congestion pricing suit, is expected to be named the city’s Corporation Counsel by Mayor Eric Adams.
Photo by Ben Brachfeld
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Randy Mastro, Mayor Eric Adams’ presumptive pick to be the city’s next top lawyer, is growing increasingly unpopular with the City Council, as yet another caucus of members came out against him on Friday.
The council’s six-member LGBTQAI+ Caucus joined the far larger Black, Latino and Asian Caucus (BLAC) in opposing Mastro, an alumnus of former GOP Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration, as Adams appears likely to nominate him to be the city’s next corporation counsel.
Mastro would replace the position’s current occupant, Sylvia Hinds-Radix, whom Adams has confirmed will be stepping down — though it is unclear when exactly that will be.
While Adams has insisted there is “no disagreement” between himself and Hinds-Radix, the New York Post reported earlier this week that he ordered her ouster after she voiced concerns about the city representing him in his sexual assault suit.
The City Council must confirm any mayoral nominee to the position of corporation counsel — who runs the city’s Law Department and its lead attorney.
In its statement, the caucus — co-chaired by City Council Members Tiffany Cabán (D-Queens) and Erik Bottcher (D-Manhattan) — said that appointing Mastro as corporation counsel would mark a return to the conservative Giuliani administration, where he served as both chief of staff and a deputy mayor.
They also alleged that Mayor Adams is appointing Mastro to act as his personal attorney as his legal troubles continue to grow — even though the corporation counsel represents the city at large.
“Corporation Counsel is the people’s lawyer, not the mayor’s, and the people are staunchly against returning to the Giuliani era,” they said. “The City Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus opposes Randy Mastro’s nomination to this vital position.”
Besides his time working for Giuliani, the caucus said it takes umbrage with Mastro having represented clients that clash with its core principles. Those include former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the infamous “Bridgegate” scandal and the oil giant Chevron.
The lawmakers also pointed to a specific example of what they called Mastro’s “underhanded tactics.”
The incident involved the lawyer sending undercover private investigators dressed as plumbers to take shirtless photos of a homelessness advocate. The move was part of Mastro’s work representing a group trying to evict homeless individuals from the Upper West Side’s Lucerne Hotel, where they were being temporarily housed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Even beyond Mr. Mastro’s troubling history of representing clients that directly contradict the values and principles we uphold as a City Council committed to equality, justice, and inclusivity, his dirty, underhanded tactics disqualify him from a position which calls for someone of the utmost honor and integrity,” they said.
‘Long history of fighting for most vulnerable’
City Hall spokesperson Liz Garcia, in a statement, responded to the LGBTQIA+ Caucus by pointing to instances she said show Mastro has a “long history of fighting for the most vulnerable, including LGBTQIA+ and unhoused New Yorkers.”
Garcia said those include Mastro’s successful push for legislation during the Giuliani administration, when same-sex marriage was still illegal, to grant unmarried same-sex couples the same rights as married couples. Additionally, she said, “he defended the Bowery Residents’ Committee against a wealthy, ‘not in my backyard’ coalition that tried to stop the organization from establishing multiple shelters and treatment programs in Chelsea,” in 2011.
Adams’ chief counsel, Lisa Zornber, also gave a multi-minute defense of Mastro’s record earlier this week. She pointed to his work with good government groups like Citizens Union and defending Black Lives Matter protesters who were swept by law enforcement out of Lafayette Plaza in Washington DC in 2020.
Nonetheless, Mastro’s chances of making it past the 51-member council are growing ever dimmer.
There are 36 council members between the two caucuses that have already come out against Mastro. But that does not necessarily mean every council member in the two caucuses would vote against Mastro, as they only needed majorities to vote in favor of putting out their statements opposing him.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams even voiced her dissatisfaction with Mastro in a phone call with Adams last weekend, according to a report from Politico New York.
But Adams expressed confidence in a Thursday interview on PIX11 that the speaker would “allow the process to go forward.”
“I think it’s important for any candidate we put forward to sit down and communicate, sell themselves, to whomever is going to look over them and they’ll make the final determination,” the mayor said. That is not my role. The city council has its role, I have my role.”
Mayor Eric Adams (at podium) with (l. to r.) Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, Police Commissioner Edward Caban and Chief of Patrol John Chell at an April 18, 2024 briefing at One Police Plaza.
Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office
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Two more classes of NYPD recruits will be added this spring and summer, bringing the department rank-and-file to near its highest headcount in the coming year, Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced on Saturday.
Hizzoner credited strong fiscal management and a stronger-than-expected economic rebound for the city in enabling City Hall to restore funding to two additional Police Department classes in the executive budget.
“This will allow us to have 1,200 additional officers who will be hitting our streets to keep our city even safer in the coming year,” Mayor Adams said during an April 20 press conference in Manhattanville.
The two 600-recruit classes will be added this May and July, and will supplement two other classes added in recent months. By next year, the four combined classes, upon graduation from the NYPD Police Academy, will deliver 2,400 new police officers to the city, and bring the total uniformed NYPD headcount to 35,000, which Caban said would be “more or less” near a record high.
“The people we serve demand public safety, and the men and women of the NYPD are proud to hold that line,” Caban said. “These additional officers will play a key role in our efforts to reduce violence and protect New Yorkers.”
The influx of new officers could not come sooner for the NYPD. While Mayor Adams and Commissioner Caban touted a sustained drop in crime citywide, the department has had to do more with less, as attrition within the rank-and-file — namely from a surge in officer retirements — saw the headcount drop to under 34,000 and a surge in overtime expenses.
Even with the logistical challenges, Mayor Adams noted, major crimes have dropped each month so far in 2024 off a year-long decrease in 2023. Shootings and homicides have plummeted in particular, and the NYPD has turned the tide on an early spike in transit crime — as a surge of 1,000 police officers daily into the subway system resulted in double-digit crime decreases underground in February and March.
“We’re driving down crime, we’ve saved lives and we have laid the foundation for our economic recovery,” the mayor said. “But we want to keep the success going. … [This] puts New York City on the path of having a total of 35,000 uniformed officers in the coming year. We’re getting those numbers back up to the numbers that we believe are needed to continue our success.”
Caban noted that the NYPD’s increased use in technology — from drones to weapons detection software — have helped the department do more to stop crime, but there is no substitute for having more officers on the streets throughout the city.
“The men and women of the NYPD are the ultimate fighters of crime,” the commissioner noted. “They’re the ones who know our neighborhoods and use technology to develop solutions. They’re the ones who stand on the street corner and let the world know, ‘Not today, not on my watch.’”
Advocates and City Council members rally in support of passing legislation to expand CityFHEPS program in summer 2023. The city filed its legal response to a lawsuit by the Legal Aid Society seeking to force it to implement the laws after it has refused to do so. Wednesday, March 27, 2024.
Photo: Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit
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Late on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration filed its response to the lawsuit aimed at forcing it to implement several laws expanding access to housing vouchers, which it has refused to enact, asking a state judge to dismiss the case.
In the legal document, filed in New York County Supreme Court, the city argued that the case has no merit because the City Council never had the authority to legally change the housing voucher program in the first place.
“The Local Laws are invalid because they are preempted by the New York State Constitution, statutes and related regulations,” the filing reads.
The Legal Aid Society first brought the lawsuit last month, which the City Council joined a week later, on behalf of four plaintiffs who represent a class of those who claim they would have benefited from the program expansion the city is refusing to roll out. The laws make the program, known as CityFHEPS, available to a broader swath of homeless and low-income people.
Furthermore, the city argues the power to change CityFHEPS rests with its Department of Social Services (DSS), as set forth under state law. Thus, the administration argues, it is within its right not to implement the council legislation.
“The new laws state that they are to be implemented by DSS via the rulemaking process,” the filing reads. “City DSS has declined to undertake rulemaking to implement the four new laws because City DSS, and not the City Council, is empowered to set eligibility criteria for social services housing supplements like CityFHEPS.”
Mayor Eric AdamsEd Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
But the Legal Aid Society, in a statement issued Wednesday, fired back at the city, alleging its claim that the City Council can’t legislate on the program is “baseless” and “willfully ignores” the fact that it has done so in the past — such as when it raised the amount of CityFHEPS vouchers in 2021.
“No administration has the legal authority to cherry-pick which laws they choose to enforce and which they choose to disregard, and we’re committed to ensuring the full implementation of this legislative package, one duly enacted by the City Council, to serve our clients who are in need of safe, long-term and affordable housing,” the legal defense group said.
Legal Aid’s suit argues that as a co-equal branch of government, the council does have standing to tweak CityFHEPS through legislation.
The laws would significantly broaden eligibility for CityFHEPS by making the vouchers available to those who are at risk of eviction and by expanding the qualifying income level from 200% of the Federal Poverty Line to 50% of the Area Median Income.
Mayor Adams has remained staunchly against the measures, charging they are unworkable due to a hefty price tag of $17 billion over 5 years and a lack of enough available apartments to meet the increased demand they would create, which led him to veto them last summer.
The battle over the bills has led one of the more high-profile ongoing power struggles between the two sides of City Hall during Mayor Adams’ and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ tenures.
Legal Aid Society Attorney Josh Goldfein speaking to reporters outside New York County Supreme Courthouse. The city and Legal Aid reached a settlement in the months-long right-to-shelter case on Friday, March 15, 2024.
Photo by Ethan Stark-Miller
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Shelter stays for single adult migrants will be limited to 30 days unless there are “extenuating circumstances,” following a settlement agreement reached Friday between the city and the Legal Aid Society.
The settlement comes in the wake of court proceedings brought by the city last May that sought to alter the right-to-shelter rule so that it would no longer apply to the tens of thousands of migrants who have been arriving in the five boroughs since spring 2022. The agreement was reached after roughly five months of court-mediated negotiations between the city, Legal Aid and the state — although the state was not part of Friday’s settlement.
The agreement stopped short of relieving the city of having to provide shelter for migrants, instead upholding the long-standing “right-to-shelter,” which guarantees a shelter bed to anyone in need, while also putting in place specific rules that govern the shelter system for single adult newcomers. It only impacts single adult migrants and does not apply to migrant families, who make up a sizable chunk of those in the city’s care.
The most significant part of the plan is that it guarantees single adult migrants an initial 30 days in shelter, but only allows them to re-enter the system on a case-by-case basis if they demonstrate they fall within certain extenuating circumstances. Time in shelter is already limited for single adult new arrivals to 30 days under current rules, but it may now be harder for them to get another placement under the agreement.
Other parts of the plan include giving single adults under the age of 23 a bed for an initial 60 days — instead of 30, while allowing people with disabilities to extend their shelter stays. The city will no longer be permitted to use so-called “waiting rooms” as temporary shelters for new arrivals waiting for a new bed.
The Adams administration casted the agreement as a major victory on Friday, even though it did not win the full relief it sought, while Legal Aid walked away with several concessions like the elimination of the waiting rooms as shelters.
Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, who has been leading the city’s migrant crisis response, said the decision gives the administration more “flexibility” in managing the migrant crisis because it will be able to cut off shelter for those without extenuating circumstances after a month in the city’s care.
“Today, we are able to preserve the right-to-shelter, which we think is a good thing, and we are also able to get flexibility,” Williams-Isom said. “While the ultimate solution for this immigration issue lies with the federal government, and we all know that, this agreement represents the tireless good faith efforts of everyone here to address one of the biggest crises to ever face the city.”
David Giffen, who leads the Coalition for the Homeless, which Legal Aid represents in the right-to-shelter case, also took a victory lap over the agreement — citing its protection of the right-to-shelter and formalization of protections for new arrivals.
“We are relieved that the legal fight is over and that there’s now a framework to protect new arrivals under this temporary crisis plan,” Giffen said.
But the standard for who can get their shelter placement renewed could prove to be a point of contention between the city and Legal Aid going forward.
The city’s Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix, who represents the city in legal matters, reiterated that it would be a case-by-case determination of who would get an extended stay in city shelters. As an example, Hinds-Radix said a situation where someone is supposed to leave a shelter and has a lease for an apartment, but needs somewhere to live for 10 days until the lease begins, would qualify someone for an extension.
Legal Aid staff attorney Josh Goldfein explained that the agreement says single adult migrants can ask for more time either during their allotted 30 days or when that period ends. He said there are several circumstances under which people would be given more time, including anyone who is making a “genuine effort” to try and find alternative housing outside of the shelter system.
“If they have done that, then that’s an extenuating circumstance, spelled out in the document, that is one of the reasons why the city will be required to give you more time,” Goldfein said. Now, it’s going to be an individualized review on a case-by-case basis, they’re going to look at all your facts. ‘What have you done?’”
The Legal Aid attorney said the city will work more intensively with migrants to advise them about all of the options available in their search for more permanent housing — something the city says it has already been doing.
Goldfein insisted that the agreement actually gives migrants more of an ability to stay in shelter for as long as they need. He argued the city is more concerned about messaging to migrants that they need to find other places to live than actually kicking them out of shelter.
“It is clear that the city’s priority was around messaging,” he said. “They believe they need to create urgency in people to find a way to move on.”
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Photo courtesy of NYS Senate Media Services
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The state Senate and Assembly on Tuesday rolled out their budget plans for Fiscal Year 2025 — proposals that rebut key elements of Governor Kathy Hochul’s $233 billion executive budget and put forward some of their own bold policy items.
The plans — known as “one-house budgets” — include a rejection of Hochul’s changes to the state’s public school funding formula, an increase in taxes on the wealthy and new proposals for building affordable housing and protecting tenants.
The one-house resolutions’ release sets the stage for state budget negotiations over the next couple of weeks — with a final plan due April 1.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, during a Tuesday news conference in the state Capital in Albany, called the upper chamber’s budget plan a “blueprint for a more affordable, equitable and prosperous New York.”
“Our budget is a reflection of our commitment to the hard-working families of our state,” she continued. “It’s designed to restore and enhance funding across critical sectors, from education to housing to health care to economic growth and beyond. It’s a budget that will lift up working and middle-class families.”
The governor declined to weigh-in on the legislature’s proposals when asked about them by a reporter during a March 12 press conference.
“You’ll not hear from me any element that I’ll be negotiating until it is settled,” Hochul told reporters.
Both houses of the legislature want Hochul to abandon her proposed changes to the state’s public school funding formula — known as “foundation aid” — that would reportedly result in a $420 million funding reduction that would leave many school districts across the state receiving significantly less money. Lawmakers are also proposing a study on how to change the funding model going forward.
Melinda Person, president of New York State United Teachers — a key teacher’s union that has been beating the drum on reversing the cuts since Hochul released her budget plan, applauded the lawmakers for championing a restoration of the funding.
“We thank the Senate and Assembly for making it clear that our students, educators and schools are a top priority,” Person said, in a statement. “Great things are happening in our public schools, and in New York we are united across party lines and legislative chambers to support them with the resources they need.”
Additionally, both chambers left a four-year extension of mayor control of public schools out of their proposals. Hochul has signaled support for the extension, which is a top priority of Mayor Eric Adams this budget cycle.
Legislators also proposed raising personal income taxes on New York’s highest earners as well as increasing the corporate tax rate. They are pitching increases from 10.3% to 10.8% for those making between 5 million and $25 million annually and from 10.9% to 11.4% for filers earning over $25 million a year between tax years 2024 and 2027.
Lawmakers argue the tax increase is crucial for raising direly needed revenue to fund critical state programs.
“It’s a very small number of New Yorkers,” said state Senate Finance Committee Chair Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan). “We do not believe it will have a negative impact on their lives, or their incomes, or their policy positions about being New Yorkers and having an understanding of how crucial it is for New York to have the money it needs to continue to have a solid infrastructure, quality air and water and educated workforce.”
Under the proposal, the corporate tax rate would jump up from 7.25% to 9% through tax year 2026.
But Hochul, who did not include tax increases in her budget, on Tuesday called the proposals a “non-starter.”
The state Senate also put forward a bold plan to boost housing production through a new public benefit corporation dubbed the “New York Housing Opportunity Corporation.” The proposed entity would utilize $250 million in funding to build new affordable housing on state-owned land. It is being billed as a successor to the Mitchell-Lama program that operated a half century ago.
Albany’s upper chamber also signaled support for tenant protections that “align with the core principles” of so-called “Good Cause Eviction” legislation — a measure that would cap rent increases for rent-regulated apartments and limit landlords’ ability to evict tenants. The Senate wants to tie those protections to a new affordable tax incentive, which would replace the expired 421-a program, desired by both Hochul and Adams.
“We want a holistic approach to housing,which does include tenant protections,” Stewart-Cousins said. “And when we talk about the principles of Good Cause, we’re talking about making sure that people have a reasonable way to stay in their homes without onerous or difficult circumstances.”
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — During a visit to the Texas border city of El Paso, New York Mayor Eric Adams offered up a blistering criticism of the federal government’s response to the influx of immigrants into U.S. cities, saying, “We need clear coordination.”
He said Sunday that cities where immigrants are flowing to need help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Our cities are being undermined. And we don’t deserve this. Migrants don’t deserve this. And the people who live in the cities don’t deserve this,” Adams said as he wrapped up a weekend visit to El Paso. “We expect more from our national leaders to address this issue in a real way.”
Adams said New York City has been overwhelmed. Since last spring, New York City has welcomed about 40,000 asylum seekers, and last week they saw a record of close to 840 asylum seekers arriving in one day, according to Adams.
“New York cannot take more. We can’t,” Adams said, adding that other cities also can’t take more.
“No city deserves what is happening,” he said.
Adams, a Democrat, also criticized the practice of some governors of transporting immigrants straight from the border to cities including New York City. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, over the last year has sent buses of immigrants to Democratic-led cities as a way to maximize exposure over what he said is inaction by the Biden administration over high numbers of migrants crossing on the southern border.
President Joe Biden also recently visited the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. He met with Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, second from left, on Jan. 8, 2023.
Adams noted that the governor of Colorado, a Democrat, had also bused migrants to New York City. He said the actions of those two governors showed “bipartisan disrespect for cities and it was wrong.”
Adams said the federal government should be picking up the cost that the cities are incurring to help.
“We need a real leadership moment from FEMA,” he said. “This is a national crisis.”
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden also visited El Paso.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan on Tuesday to involuntarily remove homeless people with mental illnesses from the streets and subways and force them to receive a psychiatric evaluation.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Adams said the city has a “moral obligation” to help all homeless people with mental illnesses get treatment and care. The plan authorizes police officers to involuntarily hospitalize homeless people who appear to be mentally ill or pose a threat to themselves or others. Involuntary hospitalization is required even if the homeless person doesn’t appear to pose an imminent threat to the public.
“The very nature of their illness keeps them from realizing they need intervention and support. Without that intervention, they remain lost and isolated from society, tormented by delusions and disordered thinking,” Adams said.
Adams said the plan would address a “crisis we see all around us.”
According to the Coalition for the Homeless, the unhoused population in New York City in recent years has reached its highest levels since the Great Depression, with a near-record 20,764 single adults sleeping in shelters each night in September 2022. The National Alliance on Mental Health found that 20.8% of homeless people in the U.S. have a serious mental illness.
A surge of attacks on New York City streets and subways has raised alarm in recent years, with many of the assaults involving homeless people. Last month, Adams laid blame for the attacks on mental illnesses. Adams and other elected officials have been pushed to take action on issues surrounding homelessness and mental health.
“As a city, this work — at the intersection of public safety and mental illness — represents part of the larger strategy, which is centered on providing everyone living with serious mental illness the basic building blocks of recovery: Health care, a home, and a community,” the city’s health commissioner, Ashwin Vasan, said in a tweet in support of Adams’ efforts.
But the plan to involuntarily remove and hospitalize homeless people raised some concerns and criticism. Maria Town, the president and CEO of the American Association of People With Disabilities, said in a tweet that the plan is a violation of rights and aims to make homeless people less visible rather than improve their outcome.
New York City Council member Tiffany Cabán also said in a tweet that the plan is “deeply problematic” and that deadly situations are often created by the wrong responder and response rather than the mental health crisis itself.
“Consent is key & health infrastructure is necessary. Voluntary consent offered by the appropriate responders paired [with] ample and appropriate options. Transport to emergency rooms is often not the best answer and there needs to be deep investment in safe respites, clinics, [outpatient commitments] and more,” she said in the tweet.
Adams was on the receiving end of criticism from advocates and progressives earlier this year for clearing homeless encampments and using policing tactics in efforts to respond to homeless New Yorkers and improve public safety.
