Sharpton summons pols to talk crime

Presented by NY Renews, a project of Tides Advocacy

After the drubbing New York Democrats took on crime in the recent election, Rev. Al Sharpton says it’s time to reflect. He plans to convene a summit of Black leaders in the hopes of coming to a consensus on how to tackle the problem across the state, our Julia Marsh reports.

It’s not lost on Sharpton that there are more Black New Yorkers running things than at any time in recent memory: The mayor, the state attorney general, the leaders of both the Assembly and state Senate, the lieutenant governor, and several of New York’s top prosecutor’s, among others. “We have more Blacks in power than Adam Clayton Powell could have ever dreamed about,” he said.

Yet their views run the gamut, from tough-on-crime moderates to progressives focused on making the criminal justice system less punitive. That may make the odds forging a consensus platform slim to none. But Sharpton thinks it’s worth a try.

First things first: Getting everyone into the same room for a confab scheduled for next month. “They haven’t been in the room together to talk about crime,” Sharpton said. “Why are we not talking collectively?”

A key point of contention will be the state’s bail laws, which New York City Mayor Eric Adams has pushed to roll back, hoping to allow judges to detain people they believe to be dangerous, a push resisted by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The debate is expected to again be at the forefront when the new legislative session convenes in January.

Sharpton’s not claiming he’s going to settle that one, but hopes his summit can at least produce agreement on other steps to rein in crime: “There has to be some way we can all sit down and say, ‘We may not agree on these 10 things but we can agree on these three things.’”


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WHERE’S KATHY? Making an announcement at an ABNY breakfast with Mayor Eric Adams.

WHERE’S ERIC? Making an announcement at an ABNY breakfast with Hochul, touring a school program for students with disabilities, speaking at an Administration for Children’s Services award ceremony, and meeting with Mothers for Safe Cities.

WHAT CITY HALL IS READING

“NYC Mayor Adams expands special education in preschools,” by WNYC’s Jessica Gould: “Hundreds of new preschool seats will be available to special education students, Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks announced Tuesday, seeking to address a persistent lack of access to free pre-K and 3-K for students with disabilities. They said they will be making 800 more special education preschool seats available, including 400 to be in place by January and another 400 to be added in the spring. ‘For far too long, our students with disabilities have struggled in a system that wasn’t fully able to meet them where they are,’ Adams said at a Harlem preschool. ‘It wasn’t fair, and it was wrong.’”

“Police Have Removed Over 1,300 ‘Emotionally Disturbed People’ from Transit in 2022; Where Did They Go?” by Gotham Gazette’s Ethan Geringer-Sameth: “In the first 11 months of the year, the NYPD removed 1,300 people suffering symptoms of mental illness from the city’s transit system, often against their will. The city is unable or unwilling to say what happened to them next. ‘Dealing with people who have mental health illnesses must be a focus of any plan moving forward,’ Mayor Eric Adams said at an October 22 announcement of a new subway safety campaign with Governor Kathy Hochul, dubbed Cops, Cameras, and Care — a plan to flood the subways with officers, surveillance cameras, and outreach workers.”

“Manhattan DA Seeks ‘Red Flag’ Gun Ban for Comptroller Employee,” by The City’s Katie Honan: “The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday secured a rare protective order barring gun ownership for an employee of the city comptroller’s office alleging he made threats to co-workers — including words warning of violence at an upcoming holiday party. The temporary extreme risk protection order under New York’s ‘red flag law’ is just the third obtained by the Manhattan district attorney’s office since the law went into effect in 2019, according to a spokesperson for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.”

“Close Rikers? Correction officials say they may have too many New Yorkers to incarcerate,” by WNYC’s Matt Katz: “Correction officials are forecasting that the population at the dangerous Rikers Island complex will balloon in the coming years, seriously complicating the legal mandate to close the jails there by 2027. The jailed population, which was at 5,940 last month, is growing, and an internal Correction Department forecast indicates the population will be higher than 7,000 in less than two years, according to Commissioner Louis Molina. The problem: In order for Rikers to close and pre-trial detainees to be moved to four smaller jails in the boroughs, as a 2019 law requires, there cannot be more than 3,300 people incarcerated.”

— “NYC detainee death rate is highest in 25 years,” by WNYC’s Matt Katz

“City Launches Long-Awaited Containerized Residential Trash Pilot,” by Streetsblog’s Kevin Duggan: “It’s history in the taking. The Department of Sanitation at last began collecting household trash from containers along a single Hells Kitchen block on Tuesday, bringing the Big Apple one small but important step closer to freeing pedestrians from the oppression of mountains of garbage bags covering the sidewalk.”

WHAT ALBANY'S READING

“Inside the Albany fight over how electric vehicles are sold in New York State,” by Buffalo News’ Chris Bragg: “On Feb. 3, an influential lobbying group representing New York auto dealers held a fundraiser for Gov. Kathy Hochul, according to campaign finance records. The event was well-timed. The next day, leadership of the state Automobile Dealers Association had a key meeting scheduled with Hochul’s government staff concerning a bill permitting electric vehicle manufacturers to sell their products directly to state consumers. It is an idea traditional auto dealers cast as an existential threat to their businesses.

“But the meeting did not go well, according to a letter that auto dealers later would write to Hochul: Her staff repeatedly referred to them as ‘dinosaurs,’ the dealers said. Yet when the legislative session wrapped up in June, the lobbying group had again succeeded in killing the bill – an outcome alarming environmental groups, who say the State Legislature’s protection of a powerful industry causes New York to lag in a key area of fighting climate change.”

“Hochul’s Big Choice: Picking New York’s Most Powerful Judge,” by The New York Times’ Rebecca Davis O’Brien: “Gov. Kathy Hochul’s impending selection of a new chief judge for New York’s highest court has become a political test, thanks to simmering discontent among state Democratic lawmakers over the court’s leadership, and as state judges around the country are poised to play bigger roles in resolving questions of fundamental rights. New York’s top court, the Court of Appeals, drifted to the right under the leadership of Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, who led a four-member bloc that consistently voted against the court’s three more liberal judges. Now, New York’s Democratic leaders say it’s time for a change.”

“Dueling Thruway toll proposals in New York amid proposed increase,” by Spectrum’s Nick Reisman: “New York is awash in proposals to rein in tolling on the Thruway system. Audits of the state Thruway Authority are being sought as is the ability to allow the state Legislature to have veto power over any increase. Petition drives are being launched to halt the first proposed toll increase on E-Z Pass customers in more than a decade. Meanwhile, a bill is landing on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk that would limit the ability of state authorities to collect tolls by mail and penalize people for not making their payments.”

“Appellate ruling might help NY Assembly Dem grow 1-vote lead over GOP challenger,” by New York Post’s Zach Williams: “A state appellate court ruled Tuesday that 94 Queens voters must get a chance to ‘cure’ their invalidated ballots in order to be counted in the Assembly race where Democratic incumbent Stacey Pheffer Amato leads GOP challenger Tom Sullivan by just a single vote. The New York City Board of Election must inform the voters they can file paperwork to get their ballots counted, per a law enacted earlier this year, as long as they affirm they cast them in the first place, according to the three-page ruling.”

#UpstateAmerica: A Bills game on a Saturday? It’s throwing off fans’ plans.

FROM THE DELEGATION

“Stefanik vows subpoena for FBI records in Schoharie limousine crash,” by Spectrum’s Nick Reisman: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation will face a congressional subpoena as part of an effort to better understand its connections to the owner of a stretch limousine that crashed in 2018 and killed 20 people, Rep. Elise Stefanik said Tuesday. Stefanik has signaled over the last year a Republican majority would seek more information from the FBI on Shahed Hussain, who had run a limo rental business and had been an undercover informant for the bureau.”

TRUMP'S NEW YORK

“Trump Organization Was Held in Contempt After Secret Trial Last Year,” by The New York Times’ Jonah E. Bromwich, William K. Rashbaum and Ben Protess: “Donald J. Trump’s family business lost a criminal contempt trial that was held in secret last fall, according to a newly unsealed court document and several people with knowledge of the matter, with a judge ruling against the company almost exactly a year before it was convicted of a tax fraud scheme last week. The document, a judicial order released Tuesday, showed that in October 2021, a one-day contempt trial was held after prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office requested that the company be punished for ‘willfully disobeying’ four grand jury subpoenas and three court orders enforcing compliance.”

AROUND NEW YORK

— The MTA might buy pee-detecting sensors for subway elevators.

— A fire destroyed an NYPD warehouse that held decades of evidence.

— Federal prosecutors are investigating drug planting allegations involving one current and one former NYPD officer.

— Mayor Eric Adams defended his new Department of Social Services spokesman against allegations of inappropriate behavior at work.

— Orchard Beach is getting an $87 million renovation.

— The Tony Awards will be held in Washington Heights next year.

— AG Tish James sued the Fulton Commons Care Center nursing home, accusing its operators of a “toxic culture of deceit.”

— “What to do if you catch RSV, flu and COVID-19 — back to back to back”

— Two Broome County men were arrested after they drove around the Binghamton area live-streaming threats while brandishing weapons and body armor.

— Two NYPD officers accused of driving into a crowd during the 2020 protests following the murder of George Floyd will stand trial before an administrative judge today.

— The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering is rejoining the University at Albany but SUNY Poly Utica will remain as a separate Polytechnic school.

— The puppy mill ban awaits Hochul’s signature.

SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Kirsten Powers … Raffi Williams of the Managed Funds Association … CNN’s Abigail Crutchfield … Trey Ditto … Ryan Hagen … Norbert Funke

MEDIAWATCH — Ashley Stewart has been promoted to be chief tech correspondent at Insider. She most recently was senior tech correspondent.

MAKING MOVES — Ed Skyler was promoted to executive vice president of enterprise services and public affairs at Citi. … Joelle Foskett is now director of government affairs for the NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports. She most recently was a legislative director in the New York State Senate.

ENGAGED — Pilar Melendez, senior national reporter at The Daily Beast, and Jake Aronson, associate strategy director at Agenda, got engaged Saturday in New York. The couple met waiting in line for the bar Pulqueria in New York, and six years later, on the exact day that they met, they got engaged in the same spot.

WEEKEND WEDDING — Charles Rockefeller, co-founder of Curapatient, on Saturday married Emily Shippee. The couple got married in the bride’s hometown of Fond du lac, Wisc. in the same church as her parents and grandparents and exchanged her grandparents’ wedding bands that just happened to fit each of them perfectly. Charles, who’s part of the fifth generation of Rockefeller family, and Emily live in New York. Pic

Real Estate

“Could the B.Q.E. Return to Six Lanes of Traffic?” by The New York Times’ Winnie Hu: “After years of public debate over how to fix the traffic nightmare that is the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, New Yorkers could end up with something like what they had before: a six-lane highway. City officials said Tuesday that they were considering several design ideas for rebuilding the outdated highway from the 1940s — including bringing back two traffic lanes that were recently eliminated.”

“UP IN SMOKE? Private Buildings Step Up E-Bike Bans in Wake of Fires,” by Streetsblog’s Julianne Cuba: “Private buildings and institutions across the city are banning e-mobility devices of all kinds in the wake of growing fears over fires attributed to faulty lithium-ion batteries that have killed six people so far this year and left many more without a home. Call it a fitting reaction to the fires or an over-reaction to them, but several residential management companies — as well as at least one private university — have told their tenants and students that e-bikes are banned on the premises.”

“PLG’s Melrose Parkside designated historic district, but some residents have concerns,” by Brooklyn Paper’s Anna Bradley-Smith