Vaccination Data Reveals Racial Disparity + De Blasio Delivers Final State of the City

Local News

• On Sunday, Mayor de Blasio’s office released demographic data revealing a stark racial disparity in vaccination doses administered within the City so far, with three white residents receiving a COVID-19 vaccine for every Black and Latinx resident receiving one.
• Public defenders in New York are planning to sue Governor Cuomo if he does not make the COVID-19 vaccine available to incarcerated people, who are currently ineligible based on the State’s guidelines.
• The Nation and Grub Street covered the successful Hunts Point strike and the alliance that grew between Teamsters union workers striking, NYC-DSA members coordinating strike support, and a handful of high-profile politicians and celebrities increasing visibility.
• Mayor de Blasio gave his final State of the City address, where he outlined several major projects, including a 10,000-person citywide cleanup corps, a 4,000-person public health corps, expanded powers for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a ban on new fossil fuel connections by 2030, and new bike lanes on the Brooklyn and Queensboro Bridges.
• The New York State legislature passed a bill that lowers the number of signatures required for candidates to get on the ballot in the June New York City primaries. However, due to COVID-19 concerns, a group of activists and candidates are urging Governor Cuomo and legislators to eliminate petitioning requirements altogether.
• Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer announced that two of the City’s largest pension funds, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System and New York City Teachers’ Retirement System, voted to divest their portfolios of an estimated $4 billion from fossil fuel companies.
• City Council is expected to pass a bill that would gradually double the number of street vendor permits available, a move that seeks to sanction a greater number of operating vendors and to eliminate the extortionary subletting market for permits.
• State Senator Todd Kaminsky (District 9, Nassau County) and Assembly Member Steve Englebright (District 4, Suffolk County) have proposed a bill to require large manufacturers to pay for the recycling costs of their products.
• A judge partially lifted a temporary restraining order on the proposed Gowanus rezoning, allowing the Planning Commission to release its land use application, but keeping the public review process on hold.
• The City and real estate developers argued their second appeal in an effort to resume development of new four residential towers in the Two Bridges neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.
• State Senator Jabari Brisport (District 25, central Brooklyn) spoke with Jacobin about why taxing the rich is his top policy priority in Albany.
• Representatives Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) publicly endorsed NYC-DSA and others’ push to raise $50 billion in new taxes from New York State’s wealthy.

Elections

• The New York Times covered the mayoral candidates’ differing approaches to school integration, with Dianne Morales, Stringer, and Maya Wiley thought to have the most aggressive and detailed plans to tackle the issue.
• State Senator Gustavo Rivera (District 33, the Bronx) was the first politician to endorse two candidates in the 2021 mayoral race, with Stringer as his first choice and Morales as his second. This may become more common in the 2021 election cycle, the first in which New Yorkers will be able to use ranked-choice voting to rank up to five candidates.
• This Tuesday is a special election in City Council District 24 (Fresh Meadows) to replace Rory Lancman, which will be the first-ever ranked-choice election in City history. Former Bernie Sanders organizer Moumita Ahmed has been targeted heavily in attack ads funded by the real estate industry.
• Zach Iscol dropped out of the mayoral race to run for comptroller, and Barbara Kavovit, a businesswoman who appeared on The Real Housewives of New York City, entered the mayoral race.
• City Limits published a summary of the nine candidates currently running for City Comptroller.