Rents in Manhattan are still going up, once-affordable neighborhoods are shedding rent-stabilized apartments at an alarming rate, but Governor Kathy Hochul doesn't seem to care.
As Gothamist reports, "Hochul won't be lending her support to an ongoing effort to cap annual rent increases and ban most landlords from evicting tenants without good cause."
After all, why would a governor support popular legislation that would provide immediate, much-needed relief to her state's residents? That's a silly question. Instead, Hochul wants to focus on her developer-friendly plan to build more (desperately needed) housing upstate and in NYC suburbs, one that has already led to widespread resistance from many of the elected officials of those very same suburbs.
More, via Gothamist:
When a reporter asked the governor whether she supports the "good cause" measure, she was decidedly brief.
"Well, we put forth the [housing] plan that we're going to be working on this year already," Hochul said.
The reporter, Nick Reisman of Spectrum News, followed up: "What do you think of that [good cause] proposal, though? What are your thoughts on it?"
"Right now, I am focused on getting over the finish line all of the initiatives I’ve put forth," Hochul responded.
Good luck with that:
Meanwhile, if you live in Brooklyn and you want to speak directly to your state lawmakers about Good Cause Eviction, two of them—State Senator Julia Salazar and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher—are holding a town hall to discuss the legislation tonight at 6:30 p.m. at El Puente.
And some more depressing links for your Thursday:
- After Eric Adams said God rewarded him by making him the mayor of New York City and not Topeka, Kansas, the mayor of Topeka, Kansas, has fired back, describing Adams's unnecessary insult to Topeka as "concerning and unprofessional." "He could make his points without trying to diminish our great city, and I wish he would," Mayor Michael Padilla told the New York Times.
- A majority of the City Council wrote a very sternly worded letter to Adams, accusing him of "undermining [the] success" of the City's 3-K program. (Oh no, not a letter! What is Adams going to do?)
- In an effort to attract more women to its ranks, the NYPD is getting rid of a timed, 1.5-mile run as one of its requirements for new recruits.
- Despite the fact that most of his constituents want him to resign, George Santos is now trying to do his job.
- Some New Yorkers displaced by Ida are being forced to move to shelters because the City can't get it together. Via Gothamist: "Wilson was among those just weeks away from being able to move into a new apartment. He said his case workers mixed up his housing voucher paperwork, which stalled his apartment hunt for months. When his papers were all in order, he agreed to take the first studio apartment he saw, but was waiting for HPD to approve the apartment so he could move again. 'I'm here again waiting on New York City to do an inspection so I can move in,' he said. 'In the meantime, I'm gonna be in the street.'"
- Some bad news for Howard Schultz and good news for workers:
- And some bad news for the New York Giants and some good news for Brian Flores.
- The Supreme Court is intervening in a fight between New York and New Jersey over New Jersey's request "to withdraw from a commission the state created decades ago with New York to combat the mob's influence at their joint port."
- New York Focus interviewed one of the people hired by the New York Racing Association to study the economic benefits of Governor Hochul's proposal to loan $455 million to NYRA, and he "said he wasn’t sure how many full-time jobs the renovation would create and noted that a proposed hotel slated to generate $43 million a year is a 'hypothetical scenario.'" Reassuring!
- Restaurant owners are pushing back against the Council's plan to make outdoor dining seasonal. Via Streetsblog: "Thiru Rajamani, the owner of Indian restaurant Dosa Royale in Clinton Hill, said losing the space he set up along Dekalb Avenue would cause him to cut about one-third of his staff, reduce manager hours, and make it harder to hire back workers in the summer because some would find jobs elsewhere."
- You might now be able to get a 212 area code, but does anyone care anymore?
- And finally, let's all meet some famous Brooklyn chickens.
