Local News:

• Incoming deputy mayor Sheena Wright, incoming schools chancellor David Banks, and top Eric Adams advisor and former NYPD chief Philip Banks III were entangled in a messy 2013 dispute that allegedly involved Philip Banks III interfering in Wright’s arrest for assault. Banks III resigned shortly after due to a bribery scandal.
• Mayor-elect Eric Adams named Lorraine Grillo, current senior adviser on pandemic recovery to Mayor Bill de Blasio, as his top deputy mayor. He also appointed Manhattan city council member Ydanis Rodriguez to lead the Transportation Department.
• For the second time in three months, Staten Island Amazon workers hand-delivered signed cards to a National Labor Relations Board office in Brooklyn, petitioning that the board authorize a union vote. The Amazon Labor Union claims the company fired workers who signed union cards in their initial petition, but is prepared for a more difficult......

Local News

• COVID positivity rates broke records in New York City as the Omicron variant began to spread. So far, hospitalization rates remained lower than during previous surges but an exponential rise in cases will stress the healthcare system. Gov. Kathy Hochul enacted a new statewide mandate requiring mask-wearing at all indoor public spaces that do not require vaccination for entry, such as grocery stores. The Supreme Court refused to block New York’s requirement that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19, even in the case of religious objections.
• Eric Adams has selected Keechant Sewell to be the new NYPD Commissioner. Sewell currently serves as the chief of detectives in the Nassau County Police Department (which is less than one tenth the size of the NYPD), and will be the first female head of the department. 
• Adams also tapped Louis Molina as the......

Local News:

• Housing advocates feel growing momentum behind the potential passage of statewide Good Cause Eviction in the coming legislative session.
• ​​A coalition of education activists, students, professors, and lawmakers rallied in Queens to return CUNY to its tuition free roots.
• Hundreds of thousands of commuter railroad riders unwittingly overpaid for peak fares during the pandemic, even as cheaper off-peak prices remained in effect for 20 months.
• SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras resigned amidst growing public pressure regarding his profanity-laced text messages and emails to Lindsay Boylan before she went public with her allegations of harassment by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
• As part of WNYC/Gothamist’s “Grading De Blasio” series examining de Blasio’s record, reporters fanned across the city for an assessment from NYC residents of his mayoral tenure. It is a breakdown of some New Yorkers’ thoughts on de Blasio’s successes, failures, and hopes for......

Local News

• Mayor-elect Eric Adams released a massive transition team that includes almost 800 names. It is headed by Sheena Wright, the CEO of the nonprofit United Way of New York City.
• Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City health officials reinforced the city’s existing indoor masking recommendations in light of the emerging Omicron variant of COVID-19. Additionally, the City’s vaccine mandate is expanding to include employees of private and religious schools and all child care workers.
• New York City’s public school class sizes dropped by 5% in 2021, according to new data from the NYC Department of Education.
• Congressman Hakeem Jeffries’ history is being scrutinized as he is being groomed to take over the House Democratic caucus after Nancy Pelosi’s retirement.
• Two supervised injection sites have opened in Manhattan, the first of their kind in the country.
• Con Edison......

Local News

• The New York City Council voted to approve the Gowanus rezoning by a vote of 47 to 1. The plan claims to mandate a deeper level of affordability than previous of Mayor Bill De Blasio’s administration’s rezonings, but concerns remain about environmental hazards and luxury developments that will result from the rezoning.
• The City Council also voted to approve rezoning the site of the Upper East Side’s New York Blood Center, which notably breached the longstanding tradition of member deference for the first time in a decade. Prior to this vote, the Council traditionally voted on rezonings in line with the wishes of the local council member.
• The Gowanus and Blood Center approvals come shortly before the last major rezoning fight of De Blasio’s administration, in Soho, which, despite its relatively modest scope compared to other neighborhood-wide rezonings, is the most significant......