Measuring Corporate Welfare for Amazon + The Race for City Council Speaker
No 34
Monday, October 09, 2017
A note to our readers: The Thorn has switched from Mailchimp to Substack so we can keep delivering you local New York politics news from a socialist perspective with fewer administrative costs. Starting in January 2022 our new issues can be at thethornnyc.substack.com along with how to subscribe. This website will serve as an archive of our past issues.
Local News
- Attempts by Governor Cuomo (and Mayor de Blasio) to lure Amazon’s new headquarters to NYC highlight New York’s eagerness to dole out corporate welfare with no requirements to track outcomes.
- Governor Cuomo appears to be withholding funding from NYC’s public hospitals in order to spite Mayor de Blasio.
- A report released by NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer reported that subway problems could be costing the City up to $389 million annually in lost wages and productivity.
- Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, who is running unopposed for a third term, was found to have dropped charges against Jared and Ivanka Trump, and Harvey Weinstein, before receiving sizable campaign contributions from the defense attorneys in both cases (which he refunded this week).
- The developer of the Bedford-Union Armory, BFC Partners, has filed plans to build 103 “affordable” apartments on Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy, almost half of which will be targeted at households making significantly more than the citywide Area Median Income.
Elections
- January’s Council Speaker race is wide open; The New York Times suggests Manhattan’s Mark Levine and Corey Johnson are frontrunners and gives insight into the politics of selecting one of the most powerful legislative positions in the city.
- Left-leaning journalist Ross Barkan has announced a surprise run for Republican Marty Golden’s State Senate seat (District 22, southern Brooklyn). Barkan is likely to meet former Bay Ridge Democrats VP Andrew Gournades in a 2018 Democratic primary.
- Yoni Hikind has announced a major fundraising haul in this November’s race for the 44th City Council district (Borough Park), while his Democratic opponent Kalman Yeger was caught fabricating endorsements from local elected officials.
- Christopher Marte, who came within 222 votes of defeating incumbent Council Member Margaret Chin (District 1, Lower Manhattan) in last month’s Democratic primary, will run against her on the Independence Party line in November.
- State Senator Michael Gianaris (Queens), head of the Democratic State Senate Campaign Committee, met with a woman identified as a counsel to Governor Cuomo about a potential challenge to Jeff Klein (Bronx), the leader of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) in a primary next year.
- Michael Grimm, a former Republican Congressman who served 8 months in prison after being convicted of tax evasion, is planning to challenge Dan Donovan for his old 11th district seat (Staten Island, southwest Brooklyn) in next year’s Republican primary, and has earned Steve Bannon’s endorsement. There are seven Democrats who have so far announced their intention to compete in the Democratic primary.
- Mayoral candidate Mike Tolkin is on a hunger strike in front of City Hall, which he is calling “going homeless,” in response to being shut out of a NY1 mayoral debate.