New York's governor and the mayor of New York City famously always get along, coming together during the toughest of times to competently manage challenging situations and operate as a united front. Haha, just kidding. Earlier this month, the City and state governments were called before the state Supreme Court, where a judge ordered them to comply with requirements to shelter asylum seekers. In two separate letters, the City and state governments this week blamed each other for the failures of New York's response to the arrival of thousands of migrants..
In the City's letter, sent on August 9, an attorney for the Adams administration asked the state to do more, calling for the establishment of state-run relief sites and assistance in securing more aid from the federal government. The state's letter rebukes these requests, describing their own support for the City thus far as "extraordinary," and calling out the City for its slow response to arrivals that have been building for over a year now.
Here's the thing: Both salvos make some points. Both the City and the state are fucking up, being derelict in their respective duties, and human suffering is the result. As Hell Gate has reported, the City's response to the arrival of migrants has been shoddy and half-hearted, and at times seemingly deliberately cruel. Hochul has attempted to dodge any responsibility for handling the crisis at all, arguing in court that the "right to shelter" for migrants is solely the City's responsibility, and not the state's, an argument that led Attorney General Letitia James to recuse herself from representing the state. In an interview with the New York Times, Dave Giffen, the executive director of Coalition for the Homeless, called the state's response "disturbingly inadequate," saying, "From Day 1, [Hochul] should have been involved here on the front lines. This is a state issue."
But in media appearances after the Times's reporting on the letter, both Adams and Hochul could agree on one thing: This scuffle is actually the media's fault. “People want to see the governor and I fight. That’s not going to happen,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference yesterday.
Governor Hochul in turn said in an interview with NY1 that “people enjoy, particularly the media, identifying any disagreements as a major fight."
How about you guys do your jobs, and we'll do ours?
Some links that are not fighting:
- After all that, McGuinness Boulevard is getting a redesign after all. Via Streetsblog: "The city will move ahead with a long-promised redesign of Brooklyn's deadly McGuinness Boulevard, after Mayor Adams approved a watered-down plan following opposition by a local business and campaign donor who got the sympathetic ear of close mayoral adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin. As originally planned by the Department of Transportation, the city will install a curbside protected bike lane on the deadly boulevard and reduce the car lanes from two to one in each direction on most of the strip. But the section closer to the industrial zone north of Calyer Street will keep both lanes open to automobile traffic from 7 a.m.–7 p.m. on weekdays, and turn one on each side into parking lanes on nights and weekends."
- A group of more than two dozen New York politicians have signed a letter asking for exemptions from congestion pricing for taxi and rideshare drivers.
- New York Focus reports that attempts to recover wage theft have declined under Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Rearden.
- The company that owns PornHub is threatening to sue a kebab restaurant in Manhattan, saying the restaurant's logo is too similar to the PornHub logo, and that customers might think the two are affiliated.
- ???
- Curbed interviewed some subway surfing teens about deaths in the subway surfing community.
- Can you believe that an aide to the embattled Congressman George Santos has been charged with wire fraud and identity theft for impersonating another politician?
- Can you also believe that REBNY is behind the group Homeowners for a Stronger New York, which has been pushing to soften Local Law 97, the City's landmark climate law that mandates reduced emissions in NYC buildings?
- Speaking of LL97, Bloomberg Law reports that "New York City’s biggest buildings are complying with a landmark emissions law at a much faster rate than the city expected, undermining the real estate sector’s claims that the rules will be too hard to meet."
- Uh, holy shit? Three people have died from "flesh-eating bacteria" infections in New York and Connecticut, possibly from eating oysters?
- Stop! Stop that!
