Calls to Cut NYPD Budget + Presidential Primary Survives Court Appeal
No 167
Monday, May 25, 2020
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Local News
- While virtually every citywide agency faces major budget cuts in the Mayor’s latest proposal, the NYPD’s budget remains relatively unchanged. Meanwhile, criminal justice reform advocates have proposed cutting $1 billion from the police budget.
- The State Senate will finally reconvene this week, after several months of allowing Governor Cuomo’s emergency measures to stand unchecked.
- New York City Housing Court has begun virtual conferences to clear the backlog of cases that has piled up during the Covid-19 crisis, with many housing activists worrying that this is a prelude to mass evictions once the statewide moratorium is lifted.
- The City’s statistics on coronavirus deaths by neighborhood reveal predictable race and class divides among the casualties of the health crisis.
- A bill to create a WPA-like jobs program in New York State to bolster arts and culture was introduced by Assembly Member Pat Fahy (District 109, Capital District).
Elections
- The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s decision to hold the presidential primary in New York this June 23.
- The Nation covered NYC-DSA’s slate of socialist insurgents in this June’s Democratic primary.
- Crwnmag interviewed Phara Souffrant Forrest about her run for Assembly District 57 (Central Brooklyn).
- The City released a guide regarding the current status of New York’s June primary.
- The national DSA endorsed housing lawyer and Buffalo DSA member Adam Bojak in the Democratic primary for an open Assembly seat in the Buffalo area (District 149).
- Two incumbent Assembly members, Rebecca Seawright (District 76, Upper East Side) and Carmen Arroyo (District 84, South Bronx), were removed from their primary ballots after successful legal challenges to their petitions. Seawright was running unopposed in the Democratic primary, and will attempt to run as an independent to prevent a Republican from running unopposed in the general election in November. Arroyo, a 26-year-incumbent, was facing a Working Families Party-backed challenger, Amanda Septimo, who remains on the Democratic primary ballot.
- Tiffany Cabán endorsed Jessica González-Rojas in the race for the 34th Assembly District in Queens.