Mayor Adams (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign promise to launch the “MyCity” centralized portal for city benefits will soon become reality, administration officials told the City Council on Thursday. 

At a budget hearing held by the Council’s Committee on Technology, New York City Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser said that MyCity will be “rolling out in a few weeks,” initially offering a child care subsidy application portal before expanding to other city benefits.

MyCity was one of the signature proposals that Adams, a first-term

City Planning Head Dan Garodnick (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)

The acute staffing crisis at city agencies threatens to undo the many ambitious plans announced by Mayor Eric Adams, and has become the central concern for the City Council as it examines the mayor’s proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for next fiscal year.

On Thursday, at a Council hearing focused on the Department of City Planning, a similar refrain emerged as the agency currently faces a 18%

City Council Member Gale Brewer (photo: Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)

The New York City Department of Investigation has lost 86 budgeted positions, 21% of its staff, in the last two fiscal years, and is being hit with further vacancy reductions in Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for 2024. Those cuts threaten to undermine the agency’s work to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in city government, as it continues to handle an unchanged workload with fewer resources.

The Department of Investigation (DOI) is a mayoral agency with law enforcement powers meant to be

Governor Hochul makes a NYCHA announcement (photo: Governor's Office)

After decades of neglect and underinvestment at every level of government, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) continues to struggle to fund its annual operating expenses and massive infrastructure repair needs.

While the city and state have made some recent investments in the public housing authority’s capital infrastructure needs, the pandemic blew a hole in its operating budget as rent revenue plummeted and its roughly 500,000 residents were

Budget Director Jacques Jiha (photo: John McCarten, NYC Council Media Unit)

City Council members repeatedly clashed with budget officials from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration at a hearing on Monday, pressing for answers about an ongoing staffing crisis at city agencies that has affected the delivery of municipal services. The hearing kicked off the weeks-long process of the Council’s public examination of Mayor Adams’ $102.7 billion preliminary budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

The first part of the

Mayor Adams and his spending plan (photo: Benny Polatseck/Mayor's Office)

In January, Mayor Eric Adams proposed a $102.7 billion preliminary budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year, stressing the fiscal restraint of his administration amid various budgetary risks and uncertainties facing the city. But while it would be a near-record sum in city spending if passed as-is, progressive City Council members and advocates have called it an “austerity budget” that proposes cuts to critical services that will hurt the city’s most vulnerable populations at a time when the city can afford to invest more in its

Mayor Adams talks housing (photo: Mayor's Office)

Mayor Eric Adams has set the right tone and vision for rebuilding New York City’s middle class, and the Working People’s Agenda he outlined in his State of the City address should be welcomed by all New Yorkers. 

A recent Moody’s Analytics study rated New York City #1 among the most rent-burdened cities in the nation. It’s an honor none of us want. That report also said that a New Yorker needs to earn at least

A NYCHA building in Queens (photo: Governor's Office)

In July 2020, the New York City Housing Authority published “A Blueprint for Change” to address decades of organizational mismanagement, financial instability, and repeated crises that were affecting the health and wellbeing of the city’s roughly 500,000 public housing residents. Last year, NYCHA achieved one of the crucial steps from that plan as the state

Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have a strong working relationship, one that they have repeatedly emphasized at joint announcements, news conferences, and speeches. It’s in clear contrast to their predecessors, who spent years squabbling over many issues, both parochial and consequential to New Yorkers. But with the recent release of the governor’s budget plan, the two first-term Democrats find themselves at odds over various cuts, cost shifts, and unfunded mandates for New York City that the mayor is none too

Mayor Adams greets migrants (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

February 17, 2023 - Understanding the Arrival of Asylum-Seekers in New York City

On this episode, a deep dive into what's happening around the tens of thousands of mostly Latin American asylum-seekers who have arrived in New York City over the last year, the federal laws at play, New York City's response, and more. Joining the show to break it all down: Felipe De La Hoz, a journalist who co-writes the Border Lines newsletter on immigration policy, a member of The Daily News editorial Board, and a lecturer at

Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

As Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, both first-term Democrats, double down this year on their focus on public safety and crime in New York, both have emphasized the need to give prosecutors and defense attorneys more resources to do their jobs. Both leaders have said the funding is necessary to abide by recent state criminal justice reforms and reduce court backlogs. But, while prosecutors across the state may soon be bolstered with more funding, public defenders say they aren’t aren’t receiving commensurate financial

Mayor Adams and top aides in Albany (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Mayor Eric Adams trekked to the State Capitol in Albany on Wednesday, testifying before the State Legislature on Governor Kathy Hochul’s $227 billionexecutive budget proposal for the state’s 2024 fiscal year, which starts April 1, and outlining some of his administration’s state-level priorities.

Mayor Adams hails housing construction (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York City’s infrastructure construction process is broken and Mayor Eric Adams wants to fix it. 

The city’s capital budget funds infrastructure projects across the five boroughs, including new construction, maintenance, and repairs to everything from parks, schools, hospitals, and libraries to mass transit, sewers, courts, jails, police precincts, and more. But as New York City is in desperate need of sweeping infrastructure upgrades,

Governor Hochul, Mayor Adams & others at ground-breaking (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

Last month, in herState of the State address, Governor Kathy Hochul proposed a “Housing Compact” to build 800,000 units of housing across the state over the next ten years. It is an ambitious plan that aims to tackle the state’s dire housing shortage by leveraging private

Mayor Adams and top aides at City Hall (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York City is expected to spend more money on education, public health, social services, and public safety in the next fiscal year than what was predicted three years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the city and shifted its budget priorities, according to a new report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. But the new spending, including on recurring expenses, is possible in part because the city’s budget has been bolstered by federal pandemic relief, which will run out in the 2026 fiscal year,

Housing (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photography Office)

It’s been well over a year since Mayor Eric Adams promised, on the campaign trail, to “immediately” form a committee to "come up with real solutions" to make New York's property tax system more fair and equitable. But Adams never formed the committee and he has not made property tax reform a priority in his first 13 months as mayor.

After 40 years of lawsuits, commissions, and half-hearted efforts at property tax reform, there is limited optimism for wholesale change,

Mayor Adams delivers his State of the City (photo: Caroline Willis/Mayor's Office)

January 26, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: Analyzing Mayor Adams' 2023 State of the City, with Errol Louis

Spectrum News political anchor Errol Louis, host of NY1's Inside City Hall and the You Decide podcast, joined the show to analyze Mayor Eric Adams' 2023 State of the City speech and discuss how the mayor is doing a little over one year into his tenure.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax.

Mayor Adams at his 2023 State of the City (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Mayor Eric Adams, a first-term Democrat, delivered his second State of the City speech on Thursday, outlining a “Working People’s Agenda” focused on jobs, housing, public safety, and healthcare for those who need them most.

“These are the things that our administration is working for every day,” Adams said in his speech at the Queens Theatre in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, which was attended by fellow Democratic elected officials including Governor Kathy Hochul, Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, City

Mayor Adams with Budget Director Jiha & Chief of Staff Varlack (photo: Benny Polatseck/Mayor's Office)

When he was running for mayor in 2021, then-Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams promised that, if elected, in his first year he would "finally" tackle a particularly thorny area of city finance that impacts all New Yorkers: property taxes. As he takes the stage to deliver his second State of the City address on Thursday, the mayor has made no apparent progress on this significant campaign promise.

Virtually everyone agrees New York City's property tax system is irrational and unfair,

Mayor Adams makes an announcement (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

As he gets ready to deliver his second State of the City speech this week, Mayor Eric Adams has yet to launch the ‘MyCity’ universal online portal for city services that he ran on and announced his intention to implement at his first address in April of last year. 

Adams campaigned for City Hall on a plan that included ‘MyCity’ as a centerpiece: a centralized resource for New Yorkers to access services and benefits such as food stamps,

Mayor Adams (photo: Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office)

Mayor Eric Adams raised $428,000 over the last six months for his reelection in 2025, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the New York City Campaign Finance Board on Tuesday. Adams now has just over $1 million in campaign cash on hand, but already expects more than $920,000 in public matching funds when the board begins to allocate them in December 2024 for the 2025 election cycle.

When Adams, a Democrat, ran for mayor in 2021, he proved to be a

NYS Office of Cannabis Management ED Chris Alexander, right (photo: @nys_cannabis)

Nearly two years after passage of the Marihuana Legalization and Taxation Act (MRTA), which legalized the once heavily-criminalized drug, the first legal retail sale of marijuana in New York occurred on Thursday, December 29.

"The first legal adult-use cannabis sales mark a historic milestone in New York's cannabis industry," Governor Hochul said in a celebratory press release that day. "Today is only the beginning, and I look forward to

(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday released an $102.7 billion preliminary budget for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1, stressing the importance of careful spending and good fiscal management amid a variety of uncertainties and challenges.

The mayor’s latest budget proposal is up $1.7 billion from the $101 billion budget that was adopted in June 2022 for the current fiscal year and down $1.3 billion from the latest budget modification in November, which projected $104 billion in spending by the end of the current fiscal year. At least

Mayor Adams decries victims of gun violence (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Having come to power on a tough-on-crime message after years marked by criminal justice reform and protests against police brutality, Mayor Eric Adams often says New York lawmakers have done too much to protect the perpetrators of crime and not enough for the victims.

But after a year in office he has not said what additional victims services policies he thinks should be in place.

"What do we do

Mayor Adams (photo: Caroline Willis/Mayoral Photo Office)

January 5, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: Eric Adams' First Year as Mayor & What Comes Next, with Sally Goldenberg

Sally Goldenberg, City Hall bureau chief for Politico NY, joined the show to discuss Eric Adams' first year as mayor and what to watch in 2023.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.