Johnson Slashes Funding where Council Members Voted against Budget

Local News:

• City Council Speaker Corey Johnson disproportionately slashed funding in council districts whose council members voted against last month’s NYPD-friendly budget. NYC-DSA-endorsed State Senator Julia Salazar and Bushwick activist and City Council candidate Sandy Nurse condemned the maneuver on social media, pointing out that members who voted in favor of the budget received seven times more funding than those who voted against it.
• Fallout from the budget fight continues to highlight a disconnect between several Black members of City Council and community demands for police abolition. Long held as the Mayoral front-runner, Council Speaker Corey Johnson now faces challenges from members of both the left and right dissatisfied with the budget deal.
• The Police Benevolent Association, NYPD’s largest union, formally endorsed Donald Trump for President.
• State court officials extended a freeze on residential evictions to October 1; however, the 200,000 cases filed before the freeze began have resumed in court.
• New York City’s school principals’ union is demanding the Mayor to delay in-person instruction for a few weeks to allow schools to adequately assess how to safely reopen.
• After Council Member Carlos Menchaca (District 38, Sunset Park) publicly stated his opposition to the Industry City rezoning in his district, several real estate–aligned council members from other boroughs announced that they would still support the plan. If the rezoning is pushed through against Menchaca’s will, it would end the long-standing practice of deference to local council members on rezoning votes.
• The State Health Department released a report on Friday evening critiquing the Safe Staffing For Quality Care Act, a bill proposed to reduce the nurse-to-patient ratio in New York State. The New York State Nurses Association released a statement questioning the report’s last-minute release and neglecting the role of understaffing in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• Activists held a “Beds Not Bodybags” demonstration outside Elmhurst Hospital in Queens to demand a restoration of the hospital bed capacity that has been slashed in the last two decades, disproportionately harming residents of outer boroughs and communities of color.
• NYC-DSA endorsed State Senator Julia Salazar (District 18, Bushwick) and presumptive State Senator-Elect Jabari Brisport (District 25, Bedford Stuyvesant) joined Gotham Gazette’s podcast to discuss school reopenings, COVID-19, and the eviction crisis.

Elections: 

• The recent string of victories by left-wing challengers doesn’t bode well for Congressmember Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8, Brooklyn).
• Democratic State Senators have a prime opportunity to take several western New York seats from Republicans in November’s election and could potentially win a supermajority in the chamber. The AFL-CIO endorsed Democrats in four open seats in the Rochester and Buffalo areas, but also endorsed a slate of Republican incumbents across the rest of the region.
• Council Member Andrew Cohen (District 11, Riverdale, Woodlawn) is leaving his seat to become a judge. Five candidates are competing in a special election to replace him.
• A crowded field of candidates are vying to succeed term-limited Council Member Margaret Chin (District 1, Lower Manhattan), including her former chief of staff and a challenger who narrowly lost a primary fight in 2017.