New York City’s House incumbents are out-fundraising progressive challengers ahead of next year’s primaries and general election in congressional districts that have yet to be drawn. Three years after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took down a powerful House mainstay, progressive candidates are still trying to oust the city’s old guard. Ocasio-Cortez, who faces no current challenge […]
Nydia Velazquez
Posted inBrooklyn, City Council, Housing, NYCHA, Nydia Velazquez, Public Housing, Red Hook, State Assembly
Red Hook NYCHA Tenants Face New Gas Outages in Maddening Pattern
Residents at Brooklyn’s largest public housing complex know the drill all too well. When their cooking gas gets shut off, always without warning, their lives are upended for days, weeks or even months at a time. Tenants are forced to cook on electric hot plates issued by the New York City Housing Authority — one […]
Posted inImmigration
After Years in Limbo, NYC Immigrants See Hope in Biden Plan to Help Make Temporary Stays Permanent
Roughly 25,000 immigrant New Yorkers with temporary legal status could gain permanent residency — and a clear pathway to citizenship — under a new immigration plan proposed by President Joe Biden on Inauguration Day. But the bill’s passage is anything but certain and those with so-called temporary protected status (TPS) — many of them serving […]
Posted inAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brooklyn, Chuck Schumer, Max Rose, Nicole Malliotakis, Nydia Velazquez, Politics, Queens, Ritchie Torres, Staten Island, The Bronx, Trump Administration
NYC Congressional Reps Describe ‘Sheer Insanity’ as Insurrectionists Stormed Capitol
Freshman Rep. Ritchie Torres woke before sunrise Wednesday, anticipating a day to celebrate democracy when he would get to participate in the Congressional approval of the election of Joe Biden as the nation’s 46th president. The South Bronx Democrat did not count on being thrust into Insurrection Day. “I expected protest and I expected aggressive […]
Posted inCoronavirus
NYCHA Backs Look at Fan Plan to Head Off New COVID Wave in Public Housing
NYCHA Chair Gregory Russ says he’s now “open” to an independent study of how aging ventilation systems affect coronavirus spread in public housing, after THE CITY revealed many of the hardest-hit complexes are stuck with old, often-malfunctioning fans. Russ signalled his support for a drill-down in a letter he sent Monday to two of the […]
Posted inNYCHA
Gillibrand and Velázquez Demand NYCHA Clear the Air in Apartments Ahead of COVID-19 Second Wave
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Nydia Velázquez demanded Monday that NYCHA conduct an air quality study in the thousands of public housing apartments that rely on aging and ailing ventilation systems. A letter from the two Democrats to NYCHA Chair Gregory Russ cited THE CITY’s reporting on concerns that the inadequate air flow […]
Posted inHousing
Trump HUD Cuts Target Public Housing Fixes and Apartment Vouchers
President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts would cripple crucial building upgrades at city public housing developments — and zap subsidies for thousands of renters, New York’s congressional delegation warned Monday. The fiscal 2021 budget proposed by Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Benjamin Carson last month eliminates all HUD funding for big-ticket “capital […]
Posted inHousing
How NYCHA Lead and Repairs Scams Started Under Mike Bloomberg’s Mayoral Watch
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen In his final year as mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg, who built his billions on a data-driven news business, ordered the city’s Housing Authority to drastically reduce a huge backlog of tenant repair requests. But while some city and federal officials were skeptical as NYCHA claimed the number of […]
Posted inManhattan
Calls for Chopper Ban Over City After Deadly Midtown Crash
The deadly crash of a helicopter atop a Manhattan skyscraper Monday revived calls to ban “non-essential” helicopter travel over the city. The chopper’s pilot was killed in a fiery wreck while trying to make an emergency landing atop the 54-story AXA Equitable Center on Seventh Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets, officials said. The craft […]