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bill de blasio
NYC's Speedy Snow Removal Under Mamdani Evokes Memories of 'Sewer Socialism'
The mayor’s response to the snowstorm has been described as an early test for his version of “common good” governance.
Jan 26, 2026
"God Bless sewer socialism." That's what historian David Austin Walsh had to say about New York City's swift response to the largest snowstorm it's seen in five years, which dumped over a foot of snow on the five boroughs this weekend.
Winter Storm Fern, which has ravaged the Northeastern United States, presented an early test for the city's left-wing mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who centered his insurgent campaign last year not simply on providing new free municipal services, but on making the ones New Yorkers already relied upon, like sanitation, more robust and accessible.
It was an agenda that led him to be compared to a breed of socialist mayor who focused less on lofty ideas and revolutionary rhetoric and more on using the power of government to remedy the everyday concerns of the public.
In October, just weeks before Mamdani's triumph in the general election, columnist E. J. Dionne Jr. wrote in the New York Times:
For history buffs, Mr. Mamdani has done the service of rekindling an interest in a largely forgotten American tradition, the “sewer socialists” who ran a significant list of cities in the last century. The most durable among them was Daniel Hoan, the socialist mayor of Milwaukee from 1916 to 1940. You don’t get reelected that often by being a failure.
Many socialist mayors did not mind being associated with repairing the grubbiest of urban amenities because doing so underscored their aim of running corruption-free governments that did whatever they could to improve the lives of working-class people in their jurisdictions. When lousy (or nonexistent) sewer systems led to illness and death in low-income and immigrant neighborhoods, said Michael Kazin, a historian at Georgetown University, building and fixing sewers became a powerful example of what “common good” governance could accomplish.
Mr. Mamdani knows sewer socialism’s history and has no qualms about identifying with it.
This weekend was the first opportunity for New York's youngest mayor in over a century to put this philosophy into action in a test of competence that past mayors have infamously failed—from Bill de Blasio, who was lambasted over the underplowing of certain neighborhoods, to Michael Bloomberg, who took heat for ditching the blizzard conditions for Bermuda, to John Lindsay, whose disastrous lack of preparation for a 1969 storm resulted in the deaths of at least 42 people.
As Walsh wrote on Friday, with the storm prepared to bear down, "Mamdani has a unique opportunity to prove that sewer socialism works, but the crucial first test is going to be not fucking up the snowstorm this weekend."
By then, Mamdani's preparations had long since begun, with the city fitting thousands of sanitation department trucks with snowplows, brining every highway and street in the city to make cleanup easier, and ensuring that enough shelter beds were available to protect those without homes from the elements.
The mayor also undertook a robust yet simple effort to communicate with New Yorkers about practical guidelines to stay safe through a series of upbeat PSAs and appearances on local news.
"Make no mistake, New Yorkers, the full power of this city's enormous resources is prepared, poised, and ready to be deployed," Mamdani said during a press conference on Saturday. "Every agency is working in lockstep with the other."
Though death tolls were considerably lower than in other storms of its magnitude, the storm did not pass without tragedy. At least one homeless man reportedly froze to death, while another six people have been found dead outside, though it's unclear if these deaths were weather-related.
But in all, the Times said "the city largely appeared to be prepared for the weather."
Crews headed out to begin clearing roads at 8:30 am, when precipitation had reached the requisite two inches; shortly after 7 pm, [Department of Sanitation spokesperson Joshua Goodman] said every single street under city control had been plowed at least twice; tens of millions of pounds of salt had been spread across the five boroughs; and 2,500 sanitation workers were rotating on 12-hour shifts to continue the cleanup.
Mamdani, meanwhile, was praised for his active role in the cleanup effort and for maintaining high visibility, where past mayors were accused of shirking into the background.
One widely shared video shows the mayor personally shoveling snow to free a stranded driver in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, home to a large Hasidic Jewish community.
Rabbi Moishe Indig, the executive vice president of the Jewish Community Council of Williamsburg, called it "hands-on leadership."
Even one of Mamdani's fiercest critics, Benny Polatseck, an aide to former Mayor Eric Adams, was complimentary to his response.
“Credit where due," he wrote Sunday afternoon on social media. "Looks like [Mamdani] is handling this storm very well so far."
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After Fake Mamdani Hit Piece, the Real Bill DeBlasio Says Zohran's 'Vision Is Both Necessary and Achievable'
“It may take time, but it’s achievable," said the former mayor after impersonator fooled UK journalist at The Times of London.
Oct 29, 2025
The real Bill De Blasio is down for Zohran Mamdani and his economic vision for New York City.
After an individual impersonating De Blasio successfully duped a journalist with The Times of London into believing the former Democratic mayor was lashing out against the current Democratic nominee's proposals in an article published Tuesday, the real De Blasio, a consistent ally of Mamdani, was forced to speak out and correct the record.
“It was just brought to my attention and I’m appalled," De Blasio declared in a social media post. "I never spoke to that reporter and never said those things. Those quotes aren’t mine, don’t reflect my views."
De Blasio said he was "astounded" the article was published and called it "a complete fabrication."
"I demand that The Times pull down this story immediately. It is an absolute violation of journalistic ethics," De Blasio added in a separate post. "The truth is I fully support Zohran Mamdani and believe his vision is both necessary and achievable."
The Times soon acknowledged the egregious error, took down the article, and apologized to the former mayor for the lapse in journalistic integrity.
“The Times has apologized to Bill de Blasio and removed the article immediately after discovering that our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor,” read a statement by the newspaper.
The correction and apology, however, did not arrive in time to prevent the article and its false statements from making a blitz across the internet. As the New York Times reports:
The fabricated article had quoted Mr. de Blasio as saying “in my view, the math doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, and the political hurdles are substantial.”
A spokesman for Mr. Mamdani’s main rival, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, shared a New York Post story about the interview on social media and said that Mr. de Blasio had read the “fine print” on Mr. Mamdani’s plans and found they were made only of “glitter and vibes.”
While Cuomo and other right-wing opponents of Mamdani have said the city, home to more than 120 billionaires and vast neighborhoods of the super-rich, cannot afford some of his proposal like free public transport, childcare, and other social programs to be subsidized by higher taxes on the rich, De Blasio said in the wake of the impersonation that he personally believes in the agenda laid out by Mamdani.
“I’ve said repeatedly that everything I’ve heard of Zohran’s vision is achievable,” de Blasio said. “It may take time, but it’s achievable.”
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Whipping Egg-Whips: Retirees Are Winning Battles Against Medicare Advantage
In a country inundated with ads falsely praising the benefits of MA plans, it is amazing that grassroots organizations have cut through the gibberish, exposed the lies, and are fighting to keep their traditional Medicare with promised supplementary coverage.
Aug 25, 2023
An Egg-Whip sounds like a festive, holiday drink or a merengue dessert. It is anything but a delightful treat.
Egg-Whip is the healthcare industry’s name for Employer Group Waiver Plans (EGWP), a provision for privatization of employer-based, retiree Medicare benefits that was written into the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003. That law, which House Energy and Commerce Chair Billy Tauzin twisted arms to pass, added a drug plan to Medicare, not by including drugs as covered Medicare benefits, but by compelling seniors to purchase private drug plans. Big Pharma gained a massive influx of government money into its coffers and rewarded Tauzin with a $2-million-a-year job.
That’s what we could see on the surface. Who knew then that hidden in the MMA law was further privatization of Medicare beyond this privatized, publicly-subsidized drug plan known as Medicare Part D.
The Egg-Whip allows employers that have committed to provide health benefits for retirees to force those seniors, without their consent, into private, for-profit Medicare Advantage plans that impose conditions on the promised benefits.
This other provision in the MMA, the Egg-Whip, allows employers that have committed to provide health benefits for retirees to force those seniors, without their consent, into private, for-profit Medicare Advantage (MA) plans that impose conditions on the promised benefits.
These private employer-based Egg-Whip MA plans are exempt from requirements that individual Medicare Advantage plans must meet. The MA Egg-Whip plans “can set their own enrollment deadlines, send members information without prior CMS approval for accuracy, and follow weaker requirements for provider networks, among other things,” according to Susan Jaffe of Kaiser Health News.
Chris Maikels of Mercer Marketplace, a retiree benefits company, claims that his clients have saved up to 50% by moving retirees into MA private plans. “Employers find Medicare Advantage [plans] appealing because they can drive significant savings,” he asserts.
For the retirees who are forced into Egg-Whips, the results are not so appealing. A private for-profit middleman is placed between the beneficiaries and their physicians. Medicare funds are funneled through these plans. The more the plans limit, delay, and deny care, the greater the profits. The beneficiaries’ interest in care is diametrically opposed to the pecuniary interests of the insurance companies, such as Humana, United Health Care, or Aetna, through which their Medicare benefits are now funneled. Physicians’ decisions can be overruled by the money men who demand prior authorization. The best cancer centers and rehab facilities are off-limits. The network of approved providers may be limited to a geographic region. Doctors come and go from the network. The co-payments will escalate with the gravity of the illness.
Employers who seek the savings of private MA plans hide these detrimental characteristics of Egg-Whips by touting additional benefits like gym memberships, coverage for dental and eyeglasses, no co-pays on some procedures, and more. Those extra benefits are icing on the cake—but there’s no cake underneath.
In a country inundated with Medicare Advantage ads falsely praising the benefits of such plans, it is amazing that grassroots organizations of retirees have cut through the gibberish, exposed the lies, and are fighting to keep their traditional Medicare with promised supplementary coverage.
And they’re winning, too!
Retiree organizations in Vermont, New York, and Delaware have put thousands into motion as they rip down the curtains that have hidden Medicare Advantage from the nation’s understanding and righteous anger.
The Vermont State Employees Association (VSEA) effectively stopped Governor Phil Scott from moving state retirees to a private Medicare Advantage plan. State officials asserted that such a change would maintain the same level of coverage for retirees and save them an average of 20% on their premiums while saving money for the state of Vermont.
The Vermont State Employees Association knew better. Steve Howard, Executive Director of the VSEA, asserted that this was an end run around their rights, under the collective bargaining agreement, to have the same health benefits as the active state employees. “We’re gonna fight with everything we have,” Howard said. “If we have to go to court, we’ll go to court.” We refuse to agree to “privatize this benefit out to an industry that is renowned for denying healthcare services to people when they need it the most,” said Howard.
The VSEA learned about the threat to their retiree health benefits in September of 2022. They organized a massive resistance. By May of 2023 they had defeated Medicare Advantage. Howard tells the story at minute marker 30:40 on this radio program, To Heal D.C.
The New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees has been fighting for two years to keep from getting egg-whipped. They too are winning. It’s a David and Goliath story, and David and his slingshot, amazingly, are hanging in there, creating a spirited, fighting camaraderie as they do it.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio initiated the move to place the New York City retirees into a Medicare Advantage Egg-Whip. That effort was continued by current Mayor Eric Adams, who claims that the city would save $600 million a year and that the retirees would be better off than they are now with their current plan based on traditional Medicare.
Mayor Adams, sadly, in conjunction with some of the unions, signed a deal with Aetna to move the city retirees into an Egg-Whip MA Aetna plan, despite the fact that Aetna’s MA plans, in just one year, imposed prior authorization restrictions on nearly 3 million people and denied the claims of 400,000.
On August 11, 2023, Judge Lyle Frank granted the request of the retirees and ruled that the city could not place the 250,000 retirees into Medicare Advantage against their will.
“This is now the third time in the last two years that courts have had to step in and stop the city from violating retirees’ healthcare rights,” said Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees. “We once again call on the city and the Municipal Labor Committee to end their ruthless and unlawful campaign to deprive retired municipal workers of the healthcare benefits they earned.”
Retirees have waged battle through countless demonstrations and actions that have brought the grassroots into motion like never before. NYC retirees are currently urging the City Council to pass legislation that clearly makes permanent their right to their current health benefit plan. They have persuaded 17 council members to sign on to the legislation and are working to get that number to 34 to give them a veto-proof majority. Uphill battles don’t faze them. They continue with a feisty energy as Mayor Adams announces that he will once again appeal the judge’s decision.
A similar battle is unfolding in the state of Delaware. Since August of 2022, Retirees Investing in Social Equity (RISE Delaware) has been organizing to block a proposal to place them in a Medicare Advantage Egg-Whip plan run by Highmark. RISE Delaware, initiated by former State of Delaware Representative John Kowalko and New Castle County Councilwoman Lisa Diller, has generated thousands of emails and letters to officials and brought litigation that has succeeded, so far, in stopping the state from implementing the change to an Egg-Whip MA plan.
In an open letter from RISE Delaware, the organization responds to the barrage of false information. “The fact that we would not accept the move into Medicare Advantage and took the State of Delaware to court to stop it is an indication of how serious we are about keeping the benefits promised to us.”
They go on to state their solidarity with future retirees:
But we also want a commitment to current employees that healthcare benefits will be there for them too. We know that employees are often unaware of how much they will need their healthcare benefits as they age. We know that high deductible healthcare plans sound great when you don’t need them. But it is when you can’t outrun the health problems that you need those healthcare benefits. So, we are watching as you “survey” state employees about the “modernization” of their healthcare benefits. We know that benefits choice is often code for benefits reduction even if employees are not yet aware of that fact.
RISE Delaware retirees are contacting the members of a state benefits committee that advises the legislature asking committee members to vote “to put a stake through the heart of Medicare Advantage so it can never come back to haunt us. If they don’t, MA will be like a dormant venomous snake in winter—it will come back to strike in spring.”
Retiree organizations in Vermont, New York, and Delaware have put thousands into motion as they rip down the curtains that have hidden Medicare Advantage from the nation’s understanding and righteous anger. They are fighting back, clearing the fog, educating their colleagues and the public to the dangers of Egg-Whips and Medicare Advantage, winning battle after battle to the consternation of the Medicare Advantage companies whose cash cow is suddenly exposed and threatened.
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NYC to Pay Millions to Police Brutality Protesters Violently Arrested by NYPD
"They dragged me on the ground and beat me with batons," said one protester. "Somewhere in the process of being cuffed, I had a knee on my neck."
Mar 01, 2023
Hundreds of people who were trapped, beaten, and wrongfully arrested by New York City police officers during a nonviolent 2020 racial justice protest in the Bronx will each receive $21,500 if a judge approves the terms of a settlement filed in federal court late Tuesday.
Around 300 people were arrested, many of them brutally, on June 4, 2020 in the Mott Haven neighborhood while peacefully protesting police violence and systemic racism following the May 25 murder of unarmed Black man George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
"We had every right to protest, yet, the city of New York made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx are at will to be terrorized," 31-year-old Samira Sierra of the Bronx, one of the protesters who sued the city, told The New York Times.
"We had every right to protest, yet, the city of New York made an explicit statement that day that the people of the Bronx are at will to be terrorized."
Joshua S. Moskovitz, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told BuzzFeed News they hoped the settlement "marks an inflection point for policing in New York City."
"This unprecedented settlement recognizes that the NYPD's actions in Mott Haven were grievously wrong," he said.
In social media posts, organizers of the June 4 "FTP4" protest—Take Back the Bronx and Bronxites for NYPD Accountability—urged participants to "take back the streets." One Instagram post featured a burning New York Police Department (NYPD) van.
The protest was overwhelmingly peaceful. However, less than an hour into the demonstration—and 10 minutes before an 8:00 pm curfew—a phalanx of heavily armored NYPD officers and cops on bikes began "kettling," or trapping, protesters so they could not leave. Attorneys for the arrested protesters—whose cases were ultimately dismissed—called it a "preplanned show of force."
After 8:00 pm, officers began violently attacking and arresting people for violating curfew. They beat demonstrators "packed like sardines" and unable to escape, with some officers standing atop vehicles swinging their batons down at bodies. Some protesters said they saw officers smiling as they swung into the crowd.
"We went there to protest police brutality and we became victims of police brutality," one demonstrator recounted.
Other officers shoved people to the ground or fired pepper spray in their faces and under their clothing. Arrestees' wrists were bound so tightly by zip ties that some of their hands turned purple due to lack of circulation.
"They dragged me on the ground and beat me with batons," one protester told Human Rights Watch after his arrest. "Somewhere in the process of being cuffed, I had a knee on my neck."
According to the demonstrators' lawsuit: "Many protesters were left injured and bleeding. Some protesters fainted, or lost consciousness and went into convulsions."
24 Minutes in Mott Haven: Ikaikawww.youtube.com
Dr. Mike Pappas, a medical volunteer, recalled how "we were blocked off in a sea of cops. I was standing there watching people being carted out on stretchers with head injuries."
Among those arrested—and sometimes brutalized—were medical and legal volunteers, as well as journalists covering the demonstration and even passers-by.
Arrestees were held in "dangerously overcrowded and unsanitary detention conditions with many people who lacked masks, exacerbating health risks during the Covid-19 pandemic," according to Physicians for Human Rights. Many officers wore no masks.
Then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea defended NYPD tactics after the arrests, pointing to violence and looting at past protests. Shea said the operation was "executed nearly flawlessly."
NYPD subsequently said its policies for handling large demonstrations have been "re-envisioned."
If a judge approves the settlement filed Tuesday, the $21,500 per-protester payout would be one of the highest ever awarded in a mass arrest case. The agreement could cost city taxpayers as much as $6 million, according to the Times, which said that as many as 90 protesters have already settled their claims in separate complaints.
In 2021, Democratic New York state Attorney General Letitia James sued the NYPD over the Mott Haven arrests and "to end the pervasive use of excessive force and false arrests by the New York City Police Department against New Yorkers in suppressing overwhelmingly peaceful protests."
Last year, 12 legal observers from the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild who were arrested at the protest collectively received a $49,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit against the city.
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NYC Officials Denounced for Holding New Year's Celebration Amid Omicron Surge
"This is a potential superspreader event," said one public health expert.
Dec 31, 2021
Public health experts expressed shock Friday as New York City went ahead with its plans to hold a scaled-back--but still large--New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square, with 15,000 people expected to pack the landmark to ring in 2022 as the city sets new records for Covid-19 cases.
Outgoing Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that the traditional New Year's ball drop will go on, prompting epidemiologists to warn that the event will carry risks for attendees and the city's already-strained healthcare facilities--as well as communities across the country, since many of the attendees are likely to be visiting from elsewhere.
"This is a potential superspreader event," said Dr. Oni Blackstock, founder of healthcare consulting group Health Justice, on Tuesday as the city reported more than 27,000 new cases and a positivity rate surpassing 19%.
Blackstock noted that major international cities including Tokyo, Paris, and Rome have canceled their public New Year's celebrations due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.
"NYC needs to follow suit," she said.
New York City Council Member Mark D. Levine, the chair of the Council's Health Committee, concurred.
The city is taking some precautions aside from limiting the number of participants at the event--which last year was attended by only frontline workers and their family members but generally draws tens of thousands of in-person viewers.
"If we run out of hospital capacity, then we are in a different world of hurt."
All attendees over the age of five will have to provide proof of vaccination and masks will be required.
Still, New York University epidemiologist Dr. Danielle Ompad told the New York Times Thursday, "given the increase in Covid cases due to Omicron, I would not go to Times Square to watch the ball drop."
Earlier this week, the city was forced to shut down an entire subway line between Queens and Manhattan due to the number of transit workers who called in sick. The New York City Fire Department issued a call to New Yorkers to refrain from calling 911 except in cases of real emergencies, after receiving calls from sick residents who wanted ambulances to take them to hospitals for Covid-19 tests. The department reported that a third of its paramedics were out sick this week.
More than 100,000 people in the city have tested positive since Christmas Day.
Emergency physician Dr. Kelly Doran said while an outdoor celebration is safer than an indoor gathering, the event is likely to send thousands of people into the city's subway.
"How do you think people get to Times Square?" tweeted Doran. "Where do they go afterwards? And how much of our first responder resources will this event consume with [emergency medical services] already struggling?"
The Mt. Sinai Health System in the city announced Wednesday that it was suspending elective surgeries in its hospitals. Although the city's intensive care units are far less full than they were during last winter's surge, before vaccines were widely available, Levine told the Times that illness among healthcare workers is causing a "squeeze."
Doran called the plan to go ahead with the celebration--supported both by de Blasio and incoming Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who will be sworn in at the event--"pretty unreal" considering the surge in Omicron cases.
"Right now we're in the public health crisis of our lifetimes," CNN medical analyst Jonathan Reiner told "CNN Newsroom" Thursday. "And although I love a big celebration... all those people have to get to Times Square via some way, they're all going to be on public transportation, they're going to be on the subways. And I think frankly it should have been canceled the way most European cities have done."
"If we run out of hospital capacity," he added, "then we are in a different world of hurt."
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Amid Calls for Closure, House Dems Urge NYC Officials to End 'Inhumane Conditions' at Rikers
A dozen prisoners have died this year alone at the notoriously violent and overcrowded jail complex.
Sep 27, 2021
Citing "uninhabitable" conditions and a fourfold increase in inmate deaths over the past two years, U.S. House Democrats on Monday urged New York City's mayor and corrections chief to immediately address the "deplorable" situation at Rikers Island jail--where a dozen prisoners have died this year alone.
"I have visited prisons in Haiti. What I saw when I went to visit Rikers was worse."
--Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest
In a letter (pdf) to outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYC Department of Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi, House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Civil Rights Subcommittee Chair Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) note that conditions at the notorious jail "appear to have rapidly deteriorated in recent months."
"Widespread staffing shortages--caused by the coronavirus pandemic as well as persistent overcrowding and mounting violence--have rendered the facility unsafe for individuals who are incarcerated and for [Department of Correction] staff," the lawmakers write.
Noting that the number of in-custody deaths on Rikers Island has risen from three in 2019 to 12 in 2021, the letter states that "the most recent fatality, on September 22, occurred when 24-year old Stephan Khadu suffered a medical emergency while detained on a floating barge that was created nearly 30 years ago as a temporary solution to overcrowding."
"Just three days prior, on September 19, Isa Abdul-Karim, a 42-year old father of two with preexisting health conditions, died shortly after experiencing a medical emergency," the letter adds. "He had reportedly been denied access to food, medication, and critical medical care prior to his death."
The wheelchair-bound Abdul-Karim was jailed at Rikers for a technical parole violation.
The letter continues:
Numerous reports have highlighted Rikers Island's uninhabitable conditions. New York state lawmakers who visited the facility on September 13 described Rikers as "an absolute humanitarian crisis."
Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher [D-50] reported that detained individuals are given "a single meal a day" and have limited access to water. She also observed "garbage everywhere, rotting food with maggots, cockroaches, worms in the shower," and human waste--conditions to which no human should be subjected.
In addition, the lawmakers reportedly observed dozens of detainees without masks packed into cramped cells with overflowing toilets. According to public reports, detainees in cells without functional toilets are forced to urinate and defecate in bags. Toilet paper, soap, and other basic cleaning products are seldom available to those incarcerated at Rikers. During their tour, the New York lawmakers witnessed a detainee attempt to kill himself with a bedsheet.
The members of Congress also note that Rikers corrections officers "are often forced to work double and triple shifts that leave them exhausted."
"In turn, these officers are unable to adequately monitor detainees, including those on suicide watch," the letter states. "According to public reports, at least five detainees have died of suspected suicides in 2021 alone."
While applauding Kathy Hochul, New York's new Democratic governor, for recently signing the Less Is More Act--parole reform legislation introduced by Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest (D-57)--the lawmakers say the move "may be insufficient to address the rapid population growth at the jail complex."
Furthermore, while de Blasio earlier this month unveiled an emergency plan in an attempt to tackle the mounting crisis at the lockup, the letter's signers "are concerned that it fails to meet the moment given the perilous situation on Rikers Island."
"We urge you to immediately address the inhumane conditions on Rikers Island, including by releasing low-level offenders into supervised programs, and restore the safety and dignity that individuals who are incarcerated and DOC staff deserve," the lawmakers write, demanding that the officials brief them on conditions at the jail by October 4.
Monday's letter follows a September 24 call by congressional Democrats from New York for the Biden administration to use federal resources to improve conditions at Rikers Island.
"The city cannot be trusted to manage Rikers Island on its own," asserted Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who coordinated the letter. "Rikers is increasingly becoming a death sentence for those who have never been tried. If that is not a civil rights violation that warrants a federal investigation, I'm not sure what would be."
Spurred by scandals including the 2015 suicide of Kalief Browder, a teenager previously jailed at Rikers for three years without trial for allegedly stealing a backpack, de Blasio in 2019 proposed--and the City Council approved--a plan to close the facility by 2026. It has since been delayed.
In a Jacobin interview published Monday, Souffrant Forrest said that Rikers "is not fit for humans" and called for the jail's immediate closure.
"I have visited prisons in Haiti. What I saw when I went to visit Rikers was worse than prisons in a Third World country," the assemblywoman said. "The smell of bodies, decay, and feces; dead roaches and rats all over the place. Some of the showers are not working, and the toilets are covered in grime."
"The problem is mass incarceration," she added. "Mass incarceration is a capitalist- and racist-fueled system to continue to make sure that the working class lives under fear and tyranny."
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After Strong Backlash, NYPD Kicks Robotic Dog "Spot" to the Curb
A spokesperson for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called the Boston Dynamics device "creepy" and "alienating," said he was "glad the Digidog was put down."
Apr 30, 2021
The New York City Police Department decided this week to stop leasing a robotic dog from Boston Dynamics following a sustained outcry from residents and lawmakers, who denounced the use of the high-tech, four-legged device in low-income neighborhoods as a misallocation of public resources and violation of civil liberties.
When the NYPD acquired the K-9 machine last August, officials portrayed "Digidog"--the department's name for the camera-equipped, 70-pound robot--as "a futuristic tool that could go places that were too dangerous to send officers," the New York Times reported earlier this week.
Inspector Frank Digiacomo of the department's Technical Assistance Response Unit said in a television interview in December: "This dog is going to save lives. It's going to protect people. It's going to protect officers."
Instead--thanks to strong backlash from critics, including people who live in the Bronx apartment complex and the Manhattan public housing building where the robotic dog was deployed in recent weeks--the department is returning "Spot," as Boston Dynamics calls the device, months earlier than expected.
According to the Times:
In response to a subpoena from City Councilman Ben Kallos and Council Speaker Corey Johnson requesting records related to the device, police officials said that a contract worth roughly $94,000 to lease the robotic dog from its maker, Boston Dynamics, had been terminated on April 22.
John Miller, the police department's deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, confirmed on Wednesday that the contract had been canceled and that the dog had been returned to Boston Dynamics or would be soon.
Miller told the Times that the police had initially planned to continue testing the K-9 machine's capabilities until August, when the lease had been scheduled to end.
The robotic dog came under increased scrutiny in February, after it was deployed in response to a home invasion at a Bronx apartment building, as Common Dreams reported at the time.
"Robotic surveillance ground drones are being deployed for testing on low-income communities of color with under-resourced schools," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted in response. "Please ask yourself: when was the last time you saw next-generation, world class technology for education, healthcare, housing, etc. consistently prioritized for underserved communities like this?"
And earlier this month, as Common Dreams reported, footage of the robotic dog walking through a Manhattan public housing building went viral, sparking additional outrage and prompting a city council investigation.
"Why the hell do we need robot police dogs?" Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) asked at the time.
While there are "people living in poverty, struggling to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head, take care of their kids, afford child care--all this going on, and now we got damn robot police dogs walking down the street," Bowman lamented.
Bill Neidhardt, a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who urged the police department to reconsider its use of the robot following objections from residents and lawmakers, said he was "glad the Digidog was put down."
"It's creepy, alienating, and sends the wrong message to New Yorkers," Neidhardt said.
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NYC Sues Big Oil for 'Systematically and Intentionally Deceiving New Yorkers'
"Fossil fuel companies are continuing to spin a tangled web of lies about the deadly products they produce and sell after decades of misleading consumers."
Apr 22, 2021
As the world celebrated Earth Day, Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio and Corporation Counsel James E. Johnson on Thursday announced that New York City filed suit over Big Oil's decades of lies about fossil fuels and the climate emergency--just the latest addition to over two dozen similar cases launched by U.S. communities.
"My Earth Day message to Big Oil: See you in court."
--New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
Like many of the other cases throughout the country, this lawsuit (pdf), filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in the County of New York, names fossil fuel giants BP, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell as well as the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry trade group, as defendants.
A statement announcing the suit accuses the defendants of "systematically and intentionally deceiving New Yorkers" in violation of the city's Consumer Protection Law. The complaint says they engaged in "deceptive trade practices" including "false and misleading greenwashing campaigns."
" Climate change is very much on the mind of New Yorkers. Overwhelmed with the idea that there is nothing they can do, consumers are looking for ways to help, including by spending money on fossil fuel alternatives and rewarding companies that seem green," Johnson explained.
"The defendants in our lawsuit have spent millions to persuade consumers that they present a clean, green choice. But they don't," he continued. "They say they are making meaningful investments to protect the environment. But they aren't. They would like us to believe they are good faith partners in the drive to reduce fossil fuel consumption. And we don't."
Asserting that "consumers are entitled to clear, accurate information about products they may choose," Johnson added that "we are bringing this litigation to protect that right. The defendants' deceptive practices are squarely prohibited by New York City law and cannot be allowed to continue."
Other key city officials joined in calling out the oil and gas majors, including Lorelei Salas of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Dave A. Chokshi of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Ben Furnas of the Mayor's Office of Climate and Sustainability, and Jainey Bavishi of the Mayor's Office of Climate Resiliency.
"Fossil fuel companies are continuing to spin a tangled web of lies about the deadly products they produce and sell after decades of misleading consumers," said Bavishi. "There's undeniable scientific evidence that oil, gas, and coal are warming our planet and making climate disasters more frequent and more severe. We won't be able to protect New York City from climate change unless we stop these companies from lying to New Yorkers--and that's what we intend to do."
The mayor, who has gained some international attention for his work to address the climate emergency, reiterated a point he has often made--that "our children deserve to live in a world free from climate change, and we must do everything in our power to give them hope and stop climate change in its tracks."
"That means taking on some of the biggest polluting corporations for false advertising and greenwashing," de Blasio added, describing the behavior as illegal. "My Earth Day message to Big Oil: See you in court."
Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), welcomed the filing in a statement.
"Oil and gas executives caused the climate crisis, then systematically lied about it. They need to be held accountable," he said. "Exxon, Shell, BP, and API have spent decades targeting policymakers and the public with climate disinformation. It's time for policymakers everywhere to realize that oil and gas executives will never be good faith partners in climate solutions."
The new lawsuit comes after a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of an earlier New York City nuisance suit that aimed to hold some of the same companies accountable for the cost of climate damages they knowingly caused. That ruling by the 2nd Circuit Court contrasts with other recent federal court decisions.
Responding to NYC's latest move, API, ExxonMobil, and Shell all highlighted the dismissal, while a representative for BP declined to comment, according to CNN.
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'This Is Crazy': Jamaal Bowman Excoriates NYPD DigiDog Robotic K-9
"We need police reform. We need racial justice. We need economic justice," said the New York progressive. "Why the hell do we need robot police dogs?"
Apr 16, 2021
Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Friday added his voice to the growing public outrage--especially in over-policed communities of color--in response to the New York Police Department's deployment of a robotic K-9 unit.
"They got military gear, and now they got robot dogs in the streets further oppressing us... It's crazy. We need to end that."
--Rep. Jamaal Bowman
Responding to the NYPD's use of Boston Dynamics' "Spot" robot--which the department calls "DigiDog"--Bowman (D-N.Y.) asked, "Why the hell do we need robot police dogs?"
Bowman lamented that while there are "people living in poverty, struggling to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head, take care of their kids, afford child care--all this going on, and now we got damn robot police dogs walking down the street."
"This is some RoboCop shit," Bowman said, referring to the 1987 Paul Verhoeven-directed science fiction film about a cyborg cop in Detroit in 2043.
"This is crazy," Bowman continued. "We need police reform. We need racial justice. We need economic justice."
"Now not only do I feel physically occupied in my community by too many police, now y'all bringing robot police to occupy my community?" he said. "You can't give me a living wage, you can't raise the minimum wage, you can't give me affordable housing?"
"Instead, we got money--taxpayer money--going toward robot police dogs," Bowman added. "Taxpayers fund the police. Taxpayers need to stand up and say, 'enough is enough,' 'cause that's crazy right there. That's what you do when you got too much money. They got military gear, and now they got robot dogs in the streets further oppressing us... It's crazy. We need to end that."
Boston Dynamics advertises the 70-pound quadruped robot--which can run about three-and-a-half miles an hour and climb stairs--for $74,500, retail.
"Spot comes ready to operate, right out of the box," the company's website says. "With its flexible API [application programming interface] and payload interfaces, Spot can be customized for a variety of applications."
The NYPD version of the robot is equipped with additional cameras and lights. In December, NYPD Technical Assistance Response Unit Inspector Frank Digiacomo told WABC that "this dog is going to save lives, protect people, and protect officers and that's our goal," and that it "is able to use its artificial intelligence to navigate things [in] very complex environments."
Bowman isn't the first member of Congress to condemn NYPD's use of the robot. Common Dreams reported in February that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) blasted the department for deploying DigiDog in a Bronx apartment building in her district.
"Please ask yourself: when was the last time you saw next-generation, world class technology for education, healthcare, housing, etc. consistently prioritized for underserved communities like this?" she said.
Civil liberties groups have also decried the use of DigiDiog, with the legal aid group Brooklyn Defenders calling it "the poster child for the NYPD's voracious appetite for dystopian overreaching spy tech."
"NYC should fund our communities, not the police surveillance state," the group asserted.
CBS New York reports New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to speak with police officials about the robot's use.
"If in any way it's unsettling to people, we should rethink the equation," he said.
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NYC Pension Funds Set 'New Bar for Climate Finance Action' With Approval of $4 Billion Fossil Fuel Divestment
"Fossil fuels are not only bad for our planet and our frontline communities, they are a bad investment," said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Jan 25, 2021
In another win for the global movement to stop the flow of money to big polluters, New York City leaders announced Monday that two major pension funds have voted to divest their portfolios of an estimated $4 billion from securities related to fossil fuel companies, citing the risks that such holdings pose to both the funds and the planet.
The statement from Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, and trustees of New York City Employees' Retirement System (NYCERS) and New York City Teachers' Retirement System noted that the New York City Board of Education Retirement System "is expected to move forward on a divestment vote imminently."
"New York City has set a new bar for climate finance action," declared author and activist Bill McKibben. "Today's landmark action marks a bad day for Big Oil and a good day for the City's pension systems and our planet. By taking billions out of the companies that own and profit off of fossil fuels, New York City is playing an enormous role in moving the financial industry towards a greener future."
McKibben, a co-founder of the advocacy group 350.org and longtime divestment advocate, participated in a Tuesday press conference to discuss the development, which comes three years after NYC leaders committed to divesting major public pension funds and, in partnership with London and C40 cities, encouraged other municipalities to follow suit.
In 2018, de Blasio and London Mayor Sadiq Khan established the first-of-its-kind Divest/Invest Forum to help local leaders shift money away from dirty energy. Last September, they joined with officials from 10 other cities to commit to divesting from fossil fuels and investing in a green, just recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Echoing his statement from September, de Blasio said Monday that "fossil fuels are not only bad for our planet and our frontline communities, they are a bad investment."
"Our first-in-the-nation divestment is literally putting money where our mouth is when it comes to climate change," the mayor added. "Divestment is a bold investment in our children and grandchildren, and our planet."
Henry Garrido said that "as NYCERS trustee and executive director of District Council 37, New York City' largest municipal union, I am proud to vote today with Mayor de Blasio, Comptroller Stringer, and my fellow NYCERS trustees in support of divestiture from fossil fuel stocks."
"District Council 37 has been an integral part of a very careful, thorough, and deliberate process to identify the most prudent path to move NYCERS away from fossil fuel holdings, and invest in clean, renewable energy and the new technologies that we must embrace for our future," he said. "Our goal throughout was to proceed in a manner that protected NYCERS' assets and the retirement security of our many thousands of members. NYCERS voted today to embrace the future and a better life for us all."
Stringer noted that "since we announced our first-in-the-nation divestment goal, the urgent environmental and financial risks of climate change have only grown more clear. New York City is leading the way forward because we know the future is on the side of clean energy--not big polluters."
As Daniel Zarrilli, the city's chief climate policy adviser, explained, "Divesting from fossil fuels and investing in climate solutions will accelerate our economic recovery by creating good-paying jobs in clean energy, resilient infrastructure, and environmental justice."
"After a rigorous process, today's vote to approve the divestment plan represents real global leadership that will spur other cities and investors to step up to stop funding the cause of our climate crisis," he continued. "Congratulations to the pension trustees for taking this bold and necessary action. This is how we secure a livable climate for the next generation and end the age of fossil fuels for good."
As the New York Daily News reported:
Asked for names of the companies from which the city will divest, a de Blasio spokeswoman cited part of a press release stating: "The names of companies and the final scope of the divestment will be released following the sale of all targeted securities."
"It is our policy to only share the names of companies after we've executed the sale to avoid financial risks of moving markets by broadcasting specifics," Stringer spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays said in an email.
Despite the lack of details on that front, fellow climate campaigners joined with McKibben in celebrating the divestment votes and urging others to do the same.
"Thanks to the comptroller, mayor, trustees, and eight years of grassroots activism, we are finally turning the tide against the inertia of business as usual and the funding of our own demise, giving concrete hope for a more sustainable future," said Lyna Hinkel, founder of 350NYC. "May this move inspire other leaders to urgently follow suit."
Rachel Rivera, a member of New York Communities for Change, explained how this development is personal for her.
"My family lost everything to Hurricane Sandy, a climate disaster," she said, referencing the devastating 2012 storm. "I am so happy now to see the pension funds dump billions of dollars of investments in the likes of Exxon. We worked hard to get to this moment. Our movement is rising!"
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