The leadership of the City Council is crafting an alternative to the budget cuts announced by Mayor Eric Adams that potentially includes using the city’s robust financial reserves to stave off immediate cutbacks and asking Albany for tax increases next year to bolster the budget. In media interviews since the mayor announced his plan to […]
City Council
Posted inLaw Enforcement
Brooklyn DA Drops Gun Charge Against City Council Member, Citing ‘Inoperable’ Weapon
Southern Brooklyn Councilmember Inna Vernikov is going to be cleared of an illegal gun charge, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office told THE CITY on Friday — despite social media photos from last month that appeared to show the Republican with a gun on her waist at a counter-protest against pro-Palestinian college students. A New York […]
Posted inCity Hall
Budget Cuts Hit Preschools, Cops, Libraries as Mayor Blames Migrants
New York City’s expansion of universal pre-k, some trash pickup, and library services have been slashed as part of Mayor Eric Adams’ “extremely painful” cuts in a newly-announced budget modification that looks to trim the city’s spending. Every agency will see 5% budget reductions this month, the mayor’s budget officials said, as the city faces […]
Posted inFAQ NYC
LISTEN: Incumbents (Mostly) Stay in Power as Voters Stay Home
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Posted inElections
Bronx GOP Council Win Adds Historic Note to Otherwise Quiet Election Night
Republicans in the City Council got a surprise win in Tuesday’s election, as a progressive Democrat in a politically mixed area of The Bronx couldn’t hang on to her Throggs Neck seat. Elsewhere in the city, Democrats appeared to hold on to competitive southern Brooklyn seats and exonerated Central Park Five activist Yusef Salaam sailed […]
Posted inCity Council
Two Competing City Council Campaigns in Brooklyn Paid the Same Lawyer and Consultants
Amber Adler, a Democrat, and Igor Kazatsker, an independent on the “Team Trump” line, are theoretically running against each other — and against incumbent Republican Inna Vernikov in this month’s City Council race for South Brooklyn’s 48th District. But the two campaigns share the same attorney, and have given thousands of dollars to the same […]
Posted inElections
Brooklyn Council Member Appears for Her Gun-Charge Arraignment as Voting Begins
Southern Brooklyn Councilmember Inna Vernikov appeared in Brooklyn Criminal Court Thursday morning, where she was arraigned on an illegal gun charge after allegedly bringing a firearm to a pro-Palestinian student rally she was counter-protesting. Vernikov, who has an NYPD permit to carry a gun, is charged with violating a state law passed last year that […]
Posted inClimate Change
Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging Imminent City Climate Law
A state court judge this week dismissed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the city’s Local Law 97, which seeks to slash carbon emissions from buildings. The lawsuit was filed in New York Supreme Court in May 2022 by two Queens co-ops, their board presidents and an LLC that owns a Manhattan residential and commercial building. […]
Posted inNYPD
For Third Time, NYPD Bows Out of Council Hearing on High-Tech Surveillance
The NYPD pulled out at the last minute from a City Council hearing set for Tuesday on whether its increased deployment of high-technology surveillance has a disparate impact on Black and Hispanic New Yorkers — the third time the police department has dodged questioning by elected officials on the subject in the last five weeks. […]
Posted inCity Council
Council Member Arrested for Bringing Gun to Protest Against Pro-Palestinian Campus Rally
City Councilmember Inna Vernikov was arrested after allegedly carrying a gun to a pro-Palestinian rally by the Brooklyn College campus on Thursday afternoon. The Republican representing Southern Brooklyn turned herself in at the 70th Precinct on Friday morning, accompanied by her lawyer, and was charged with criminal possession of a firearm, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed. […]