SIBP Oddo, right, & Maria Torres-Springer of the de Blasio admin (photo from Oddo's Twitter)
Staten Island has the highest rate of homeownership of any city borough, residents largely use cars to get around, since mass transit options are severely lacking, and despite being the city’s third largest borough in terms of square miles, Staten Island is home to just under 500,000 out of more than 8 million New Yorkers. There are a unique set of concerns on Staten Island, to say the least of the often strained relationship between the borough and City Hall.
Staten Island Borough President James Oddo and the borough’s other elected representatives often feel as though they have to scratch and claw to get their constituents due attention and resources. While Mayor Bill de Blasio has been paying more attention to Staten Island than some may have expected considering it was the only borough he lost in his 2013 election, there is still a sense among many Islanders that the administration does not pay enough mind to their concerns.
In sending out an end-of-year message and in a subsequent interview, Oddo indicated the special circumstances of his borough, described an ongoing battle with “the bureaucracy,” and outlined the needs of Staten Islanders, progress made in 2015, and what to expect in 2016.
“For far too much of the last two years my staff and I have engaged in a full-fledged steel cage match with the bureaucracy, attempting to get City government to bring long planned projects to fruition,” Oddo said in an end-of-year message. “We have fought so that Borough Hall’s new visions and initiatives might take root, and wrestled with city agencies to work in conjunction with us to efficiently and effectively resolve the daily quality of life issues facing Staten Islanders.”
That “steel cage match” does not involve the mayor, Oddo explained in an interview with Gotham Gazette, but rather “middle managers or bureaucrats - folks that hold onto the status quo like grim death…deputy commissioner-level folks who have been in those city agencies” long before Mayor de Blasio or Oddo were elected to their current positions (the two were City Council colleagues at one point).
“I’m very pleased with the level of communication I have with the mayor himself, and with the deputy mayors. I think the frustration I’ve felt in the last two years is referring to individual agencies,” Oddo clarified, adding that he finds it “curious that there have been many instances over the last two years where it's been borough hall and the mayor's office versus their own agencies.”
Oddo has been particularly consumed with Sandy recovery, health and wellness, transit options, and road repaving.
To the borough president and his constituents, Staten Island’s lack of mass transit options and related severe traffic congestion are pressing issues that have a big impact on residents’ day-to-day lives, adding hours to their daily commutes. Yet that sense of urgency is not shared by some officials within city agencies, Oddo says, and as a result, issues go unresolved for long periods of time.
“I get the sense that for some long-standing agency officials, whether the project is completed in fiscal year ’19 or fiscal year ’29, it really doesn’t matter to them,” Oddo said.
The biggest issue to tackle in 2016, Oddo explained, is getting the city to help figure out a way to improve the commute on Staten Island. Staten Islanders spend more time and money on their commutes than the average New Yorker: Staten Island to Manhattan via express bus costs commuters about $57 each week, and while ferry service (the only other mass transit option that connects Staten Island to Manhattan) is free, the boat ride takes almost half an hour, and getting to the ferry can take between ten minutes and an hour-and-a-half for those relying on mass transit.
There is only one train on Staten Island, and that train runs exclusively along the east side of the borough, leaving a majority of those who need to use mass transit to get around Staten Island stuck waiting for the notoriously unreliable buses.
The initial draft report of the MTA’s comprehensive study of all existing bus routes on Staten Island (some of which were designed 40 or 50 years ago) should be received in 2016, Oddo said, and while “no one has any delusions that the MTA is going to come in with this unending source of capital money, we believe we can restructure these routes and find a great deal of efficiency. I really expect some improvements. That’ll be big in 2016.”
Oddo said that he hopes to “improve to some degree the commutes that are worsening by the day. It’s literally robbing hours of your life - it’s two to four hours on top of your workday.”
Though 2015 has seen progress toward improving Staten Island’s current mass transit options, with movement on the MTA study and Mayor de Blasio investing nearly $5 million a year to ensure the ferry runs every half-hour 24-hours a day, progress toward providing Staten Islanders with more transit options has been less than ideal.
“I’m not so happy with the progress that has not been made with the fast ferry,” Oddo said, referring to a new ferry program he’s advocated for. “We still have lots of work to do to make it a reality.”
Ideally, a fast ferry service would run from transit-starved areas of the borough which are far from the island’s existing north shore ferry location to areas with docks for ferries in Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Mayor de Blasio did put forward a fast ferry plan last year, and funding from the city has been set, but the plan adds just one fast ferry location to the island, in Stapleton - a mere six minute drive away from the existing ferry terminal in Saint George.
In 2015, Oddo got a fast ferry service to conduct test runs from more remote locations on Staten Island, like Prince’s Bay, to lower Manhattan and midtown in an effort to prove the service would be a viable option for such locations.
The ferry from Prince’s Bay (which is at least a 45-minute bus/train ride away from the Staten Island ferry terminal) to lower Manhattan took 47 minutes during Oddo’s test runs.
Though the Stapleton fast ferry is arguably not what Staten Islanders looking to save time on their commutes need, given the city’s plans for economic development in the Bay Street Corridor/Stapleton area, the fast ferry could be helpful in the future, Oddo told the Staten Island Advance last year.
“There’s more to be done, and we’re going to keep working on expanding options,” Mayor de Blasio said when asked about the lack of mass transit options on Staten Island during a Jan. 4 press conference to promote the city’s new commuter benefits law.
While improving the commute for Staten Island residents is something Oddo says still “needs the city’s help in advancing,” the borough president says he is “happy with some of the progress that we’ve made with our health and wellness program, the tech hub [that will be created on Staten Island’s North Shore], and the “Too Good for Drugs” program that the mayor came out to announce.”
Oddo said out of all the initiatives that progressed in 2015, he is most proud of “Too Good for Drugs,” as Staten Island’s “epidemic in terms of opioid abuse” is a matter of “life and death.”
The educational anti-drug program for students, which started last year in fifth-grade classrooms in five Staten Island schools, “came out of Borough Hall, we’re very proud of it, and the feedback has been fantastic,” Oddo said.
“The folks at City Hall believe in it and it's one of several fronts that we need” to reduce substance abuse and drug overdose deaths, he added. Oddo said treatment programs are also needed, but preventing substance abuse by teaching “the notion of making smart decisions at as early as an age as possible” is seen as an important first step by Oddo.
Expanding “Too Good for Drugs” is one of the items on Oddo’s agenda for 2016, with the program set to expand to 47 schools after receiving $70,000 in the city budget.
Mayor de Blasio and his administration have made an effort to show City Hall remembers the “forgotten borough.” The mayor made several trips to Staten Island in 2015: he vowed to complete all repairs and construction still needed for Staten Island residents whose homes were ruined by Hurricane Sandy by 2016; he broke ground on Staten Island’s first Family Justice Center for domestic violence prevention and response; and announced his administration’s comprehensive effort to reduce opioid misuse and overdose deaths, among others.
“There will be a lot of town halls in 2016, including Staten Island,” de Blasio said during the Jan. 4 press conference when asked about doing a Q&A session on the island.
Besides continuing to fight that “steel cage match with the bureaucracy” to make the commute better for Staten Islanders and repaving the borough’s roads, 2016 will also “bring a new economic development campaign to entice businesses who are being priced out of other boroughs to think of Staten Island instead of New Jersey,” according to Oddo’s year-end message.
Oddo did not get into specifics in terms of his thinking about the ongoing development of the New York Wheel or the accompanying Empire Outlets expected to be constructed near the ferry terminal within the next few years as he spoke about different aspects of economic development, and had a clear focus on quality of life issues.
Other initiatives, he said, include “a new program to match Staten Island high school students with mentors in their areas of interest, and out-of-the-box ideas to help tackle North Shore traffic issues.”
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by Meg O’Connor, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette, @MegOConnor13
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
Eyes are on Albany this week as we head toward Governor Andrew Cuomo's State of the State and budget address on Wednesday in the capital. The governor has spent the past week rolling out pieces of his agenda, including events and announcements over the weekend, largely focused on infrastructure, but also criminal justice reform, the minimum wage, economic development, and more.
The two houses of the state legislature is in session Monday and Tuesday, and many members are likely to stay in town for the governor's speech on Wednesday. Mayor Bill de Blasio will be in Albany for the governor's speech, which Cuomo has indicated will include a series of measures aimed at fighting homelessness, some of which may encroach on work de Blasio is doing. Cuomo is also expected to unveil new plans around governmental ethics, education, and additional criminal justice reforms. For his part, de Blasio has been releasing new homelessness-related plans, in part, it seems, to head off the governor and assert that he has control over the situation. De Blasio has, however, called on the state to expand the resources it is devoting to supportive housing and other homelessness-prevention measures. [Read our preview of the 2016 Albany session: Corruption, Elections Loom Over Lengthy 2016 Legislative Agenda]
Cuomo will make another announcement Monday, this time on Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show. De Blasio begins his week with two public events in Brooklyn, both related to housing - see details below.
[Opinion: Time for the Mayor and the Governor to Work Together]
As the week begins, the issue of sexual assault in New York City has become a focus. This, after an increase in reported rapes in 2015, comments by NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton that upset some people, and a horrific gang rape incident in Brooklyn on Thursday evening. A rally and press conference are scheduled for Monday at City Hall - details below.
As always, there's a great deal happening all over the city, with many events to be aware of - read our day-by-day rundown below.
***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday
The New York state legislature is in session on Monday.
At 10 a.m. Monday outside City Hall, legislators and advocates will hold a rally and press conference calling for a different approach to protecting women from rape. City Council Member Laurie Cumbo, who has sponsored related legislation, other elected officials, advocates including National Organization for Women New York City, and others will rally to push the city to take new action and "to tell the NYPD to take rape seriously! Let's call for action, NOT just the "buddy system," to end violence against women," according to NOW.
On Monday at 10:30 a.m. in Manhattan, schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña will visit "PS 126 to make a language access announcement."
Mayor Bill de Blasio begins his week with two public events in Brooklyn, both housing related. At 2 p.m. the mayor "will host a press conference to make an announcement on affordable housing" at 1 Vernon Ave in Brooklyn. At 7:15 p.m., de Blasio "and NYCHA Chair Shola Olatoya will join residents from Wyckoff Gardens for a forum on NextGen Neighborhoods."
At 3 p.m. Monday, "Governor Cuomo makes an announcement on "Keepin' It Real With Reverend Al Sharpton.,"" according to the governor's public schedule.
At 6:30 p.m. on Monday, the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit will hold a small business town hall at Bedford-Stuyvesant's Restoration Plaza. Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Carlo Scissura, Department of Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop and Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Julie Menin will be featured speakers at the event.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will host an information session for the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board at the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building. The BP's office is accepting applications for the board's membership.
Tuesday
The New York state legislature is in session on Tuesday.
At the City Council on Tuesday:
At 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, “Fighting the Fight for $15,” a breakfast forum co-sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy and the Manhattan Institute, will be held to discuss the effects of a $15 minimum wage on employment of New York State’s unskilled laborers. The event will feature Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, E.J. McMahon, and Dr. Lee Bowes.
Starting Tuesday, candidates must starting filing the latest round of financial disclosures to the New York City Campaign Finance Board. The latest filing period covers all activity through Monday, January 11. Filings are due by midnight on Friday, January 15, and must be performed by candidates with campaign accounts for the upcoming 2017 city election cycle, as well as the upcoming Feb. 23 special election in City Council District 17; and, the recently held special elections in Council Districts 23 and 51.
At 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in Albany, the Center for an Urban Future and the New York Association of Training & Employment Professionals will co-host a symposium called “A Door to Opportunity” to discuss “the lack of financial aid for part-time students.” Gov. Cuomo’s assistant secretary for education, Jay Quaintance, SUNY Empire State College President Merodie A. Hancock, Assemblymember Deborah Glick (the chair of the assembly’s higher education committee), and others will be featured speakers.
At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Manhattan, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy will host a discussion about “the challenges faced by immigrant-origin children and youth” called “Intersecting Inequalities: Focus on East Harlem.”
At 6:30 p.m., City & State will be hosting its State of the State reception at The Hollow Bar & Kitchen in Albany.
At 7 p.m., Riders Alliance will have a “strategy meeting” at its office about “Discount Public Transit Fares for Low-Income New Yorkers.”
Tuesday evening at 9 p.m. is President Obama’s final State of the Union address.
Wednesday
At the City Council on Wednesday:
At 12:30 p.m., Gov. Cuomo will give a speech combining his State of the State and Executive Budget addresses at Albany’s Empire State Plaza Convention Center.
On Wednesday, The Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness will start its “Beyond Housing: A National Conversation on Child Homelessness and Poverty 2016” conference. The three-day conference will end on Jan. 15.
City Council Member Corey Johnson is having a community resource fair at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday and a town hall at 7 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center.
Thursday
At the City Council on Thursday:
At 8 a.m. Thursday, New York City Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Meera Joshi will “discuss the struggles of taxi medallion owners, the rise of Uber, and the future of innovation in the city's for-hire vehicle industry” at a Crain’s Business Breakfast Forum at the New York Athletic Club, moderated by Crain’s editor Erik Engquist and Politico New York reporter Dana Rubinstein.
“The next public meeting of the New York City Campaign Finance Board will be held on January 14, at 10:00 AM.”
At the New York State Legislature Thursday: a 10:30 a.m. joint hearing about “Diversity in the Legal Profession” will be held in Albany by the Assembly Standing Committee on Judiciary and Assembly Subcommittee on Diversity in Law.
At 6:30 p.m. the first public workshop about Inwood’s rezoning will be held by Community Board 12, the Department of City Planning and Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez at P.S. 314.
Thursday evening at 7 p.m. at Fort Washington Collegiate Church will be the first debate in the race to replace retiring Congressional Rep. Charles Rangel. Invited candidates include Suzan Johnson Cook, Adriano Espaillat, Michael Gallagher, Guillermo Linares, Bill Perkins, Adam Clayton Powell IV, Clyde Williams, Keith Wright. The event is being hosted by the Uptown Community Democrats and will be moderated by Juan Manuel Benitez from NY1/NY1 Noticias.
Friday and the weekend
At the City Council on Friday:
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Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time:
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by Ryan Brady and Ben Max
@GothamGazette
photo: Stanley Kubrick via Museum of the City of New York
Gotham Gazette's Week in Review, Friday January 8
IMAGE OF THE WEEK: Penn Station rendering, via Governor Cuomo's office on flickr; Mayor de Blasio's signs paid parental leave personnel order for nonunion city employees, via Ed Reed for the Mayor's Office
TOP FIVE STORIES OF THE WEEK:
1. New Deputy Mayor: On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Dr. Herminia Palacio will take over as Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, filling a position that had been vacant for four months. Homelessness is an especially key issue for Mayor de Blasio and his administration, as they work to remedy an increasing homelessness crisis.
2. Cuomo’s Executive Order: Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order on Sunday requiring all homeless people on the streets be moved into shelters when temperatures fall below freezing, and ordering homeless shelters to extend their hours. The move has been met with some criticism, in part because the city already provides much of the same protections to homeless people. [Read: Something Cuomo & De Blasio Agree On: City Shelters Need Improvement]
3. Cuomo’s 2016 Agenda: Speaking on NY1, Gov. Cuomo said ethics reform will be on the top of his agenda: “I’m going to push the legislature very hard to adopt more aggressive ethics legislation, more disclosure, more enforcement.” Cuomo also mentioned economic development and “social justice,” namely the “high unemployment among young minority males,” as being important to him, and has also called to overhaul Penn Station in an upgrade that could cost about $3 billion. The governor has spent the week unveiling key pieces of his agenda, including several infrastructure-related plans. [Read: Corruption, Elections Loom Over Lengthy 2016 Legislative Agenda & Predictions! Experts Look Ahead to New York Politics in 2016]
4. Minimum Wage Hikes: Mayor de Blasio announced Wednesday that city employees, including workers contacted through nonprofits, will see their minimum wage increased to $15 an hour by 2018 in a move that will impact an estimated 50,000 workers. Governor Cuomo is expected to make a statewide $15 minimum wage one of the focuses of his State of the State speech next week.
5. Paid Parental Leave Born: On Thursday, Mayor de Blasio signed a personnel order to provide paid parental leave to roughly 20,000 New York City employees. The order provides six weeks of paid time off for parental leave. [Read: De Blasio Moves on Paid Parental Leave]
THIS WEEK'S NUMBERS:
$3 billion is the price tag for Gov. Cuomo’s push to remake Penn station, the Wall Street Journal reports.
22% decrease in traffic deaths since Mayor de Blasio launched Vision Zero, the New York Post reports.
1.7% overall decrease in major crime in New York City in 2015, according to statistics released by the NYPD, though certain categories were up, including murder.
50,000 city workers will earn $15 per hour by the end of 2018 under pay raises announced by Mayor de Blasio on Wednesday.
20,000 nonunion municipal employees will be allowed up to 6 weeks of paid parental leave thanks to a new measure signed by Mayor de Blasio, Gotham Gazette reports.
450,000 New Yorkers, give or take, will be able to save upwards of $400 a year on their public transportation expenses now that a new Commuter Benefits Law has gone into effect, Gotham Gazette reports.
26 City Council members signed a letter asking Mayor de Blasio to have his agencies find ways to reduce spending by about 5% before he release his next preliminary budget, Gotham Gazette reports.
129 bills vetoed by Cuomo in 2015, according to Politico New York.
THE GLORY AND THE GOAT:
It was a good week for Herminia Palacio, who became the new Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (though it is also tough for Palacio in that she is taking one of the most challenging jobs in city government).
It was a bad week for City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who will pay a $7,000 fine for accepting gifts from a consulting firm during her run for speaker (though it is also good for Mark-Viverito that the issue is being put behind her).
THE FLASH:
Around this time 146 years ago, on January 3, 1870, ground was broken for the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Around this time 50 years ago, on January 4, 1966, during the longest transit strike in New York history (which shut down subways and buses for 12 days), Mike Quill, then-president of the transport workers union, criticized city officials during a press conference broadcast by WNYC. He was arrested days later.
Around this time 69 years ago, on January 6, 1947, the Supreme Court upheld rent controls when they refused to hear a case by New York landlords who wished to raise rents.
GOTHAM GAZETTE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK:
Gotham Gazette Executive Editor Ben Max appeared on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on Wednesday to discuss the year ahead in New York politics.
40 Questions for New York Politics in 2016, by Ben Max
Corruption, Elections Loom Over Lengthy 2016 Legislative Agenda, by David Howard King
Good Government Groups Want Legislators to Pledge to Fight for Reform, by David Howard King
Majority of Council Members Urge Mayor to Identify Budget Savings, Samar Khurshid
City to Open Gun Courts to Expedite Prosecutions, by Meg O’Connor
Proposed Zoning Changes Raise Questions About Small Businesses, by Colin O’Connor
Something Cuomo & De Blasio Agree On: City Shelters Need Improvement, by Ben Max
Eyeing Diversity, New Push for Demographic Data on Community Board Members, by Samar Khurshid
Bill Mandates Review of Criminal Justice Programs, by Samar Khurshid
At Homelessness Forum, Manhattanites Voice Local Concerns on Pressing Issue, by Ryan Brady
Time for the Mayor and the Governor to Work Together, by Ben Max (opinion)
More Evidence Punitive NYPD Youth Programs Fail, by Alex S. Vitale (opinion)
Paid Family Leave in NYC: Progressive Policy, Regressive Plan, by Arthur Cheliotes (opinion)
To Fix Penn Station, Think Smaller, by Adrian Untermyer (opinion)
A New York New Year's Resolution: End the AIDS Epidemic, by Doug Wirth (opinion)
MORE FOR THE WEEKEND:
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton spoke about the city’s falling crime rates and new gun courts initiative with Brian Lehrer on WNYC.
Incoming Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Herminia Palacio, discussed her new role at City Hall with Errol Louis on Inside City Hall.
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NOTE TO READERS: we hope you enjoy this new Gotham Gazette weekly feature - please share it if you do; on Twitter, use our handle @GothamGazette.
If you have feedback on this feature for us, you can email editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Watch Sunday evening for our latest Week Ahead in New York Politics, which gives you a preview of key issues and events to be aware of for the week about to start. In the meantime, catch up on the latest original reporting from Gotham Gazette here. And have a great weekend!
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by Meg O'Connor and Ben Max