AOC Opposes Mayor's Rikers Plan + DSA-Endorsed Phara Souffrant-Forrest "Doesn't Think Anyone Should Be Paying Rent"

Local News:

• AOC announced her opposition to the Mayor’s plan to replace Rikers, ahead of scheduled meetings with the No New Jails coalition.

• District Council 37’s Local 95 announced a deal on Thursday that would bring teachers’ pay in privately-run, publicly-funded Head Start programs up to the same levels as public school teachers. 

• Advocates and policymakers are calling for reform at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). ACS conducts investigations into child abuse and neglect and has the power to remove children from their parent’s home. Black and Latinx families are disproportionately under investigation.

• The Economic Development Corporation, the quasi-public agency that operates the city’s ferry system, has released figures revealing that 64 percent of ferry riders are white, with a median income between $75,000 and $100,000. By comparison, an estimated two-thirds of subway riders and three-quarters of bus riders are people of color, with median incomes at around $40,000 and $29,000, respectively.

• The new housing law limiting security deposits to one month’s rent has provided an opportunity to start-ups that want to replace security deposits with monthly insurance payments by tenants.

• New York City began blocking car traffic on five blocks of Manhattan’s 14th Street next week after an appellate court refused to block the plan late last week. The pilot program is part of an attempt to improve bus service in the city. 

• As part of Governor Cuomo and City Hall’s initiative to remove homeless people from the subway system, the NYPD has begun monitoring more than 100 live camera feeds at a dozen subway stations to address “quality-of-life issues.”

• Ten months after launching the Fair Fares program, the City is expanding eligibility for reduced-fare MetroCards.

• Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the union’s international wing has launched a massive anti-MTA advertising campaign to pressure the agency during contract negotiations. The two sides have not had a contract since May 15th.

Elections:

• Phara Souffrant-Forrest, who was recently endorsed by NYC-DSA to run against Assembly Member Walter Mosley in District 57 (Central Brooklyn), was profiled by The Real Deal. She told the real estate publication that she doesn’t believe “anyone should be paying rent” and directly called out Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie for engaging with real estate developers.

• Another DSA-endorsed candidate, Jabari Brisport, was profiled as “the next AOC” in the New York Post.

• Early voting for this year’s City elections, which include the Public Advocate election (again) and the five Charter Revision ballot questions, will open October 26th.

• Ahead of next month’s election, the New York City Campaign Finance Board has, for the first time, released a voter guide intended for the deaf and hard of hearing.

• Representative Chris Collins, a fourth-term Republican from Western New York, resigned on Monday. He is expected to plead guilty in a pending insider trading case.