News in New York – New District Maps, State of the City, and NYC Legislation

New York Court Releases Finalized Congressional and State Senate District Maps

Last week, a New York court released the final maps for New York’s Congressional and State Senate districts, drawn by special courts master Jonathan Cervas. The new Congressional maps represent a big blow to the Democrats’ hopes of picking up several Republican seats this November, as there are now significantly more swing districts than there were in the rejected maps drawn by the Democratic-controlled Legislature. In addition, the maps include several districts that contain the current homes of multiple incumbents, and incumbents and candidates alike spent last week staking out which district they would run in. This is setting the stage for several high profile battles, including between long-time Congress Members Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney in the newly redrawn 12th district, which now encompasses both the Upper East and Upper West sides of Manhattan. Further, several notable candidates have started to declare for the redrawn 10th district, which encompasses lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn, including former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, Congress Member Mondaire Jones, and Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou. It is expected that there will be many campaign announcements in the coming days and weeks. As it stands, the primaries for New York Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Assembly, and U.S. Senate will be on June 28, while the Congressional and State Senate primaries will be held on August 23.

NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams Delivers State of the City

Yesterday, NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams delivered her first State of the City address. In her speech, Adams outlined her vision to expand health and opportunity for New Yorkers, improve public safety, and recover from the pandemic. Highlights of the Speaker’s plan includes adding $4 billion for affordable housing, committing $250 million in capital funding towards establishing five new Health + Hospitals (H+H) neighborhood care centers in communities with poor health outcomes, and establishing New York State’s first trauma recovery centers with at least one in each borough. In addition, Adams also called for increased access to food and parks, including the creation of new micro-parks and recreational space for underserved communities. You can find the full text of her speech here.

NYC Council Passes and Introduces Legislation

Last Thursday, the NYC Council convened a stated meeting, where they passed and introduced multiple pieces of legislation. The Council passed a package of bills that will strengthen fire city measures in NYC residences. The package includes legislation that prohibits the sale of electric space heaters without certain safety measure, requires FDNY to conduct resident education and outreach regarding the safe operation of space heaters, and reduces the amount of time for a landlord to correct a violation to keep or maintain self-closing doors from 21 days to 14 days. The Council introduced legislation which would prohibit all spending by foreign nationals and foreign-influenced business organizations, including corporations, in connection with city elections. They also introduced a bill that would create the Office of the Homeowner Advocate (OHA) within the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. In addition, the Council introduced legislation which would create a task force to reform the capital construction process. You can find all of the bills that were passed and introduced here.

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