A 5G tower (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

If you have walked around New York lately, you may have noticed a new addition to the streetscape: 32-feet-tall 5G towers looming over city sidewalks. As expected, these towers have inspired a range of colorful descriptions from New Yorkers for their uninspired design and massive size. From Washington Heights to Carnegie Hill, everyone seems to be raising the same questions and concerns about the design and placement of the 5G towers.

The city’s goal of expanding 5G communications is both laudable and necessary; in the

Mayor Adams on Rikers Island (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

The New York City Board of Correction, a nine-seat panel with oversight over city jails, may soon have two new members including a former Rikers Island doctor critical of mass incarceration and a national expert on corrections policy who now leads the advocacy group that successfully advocated for the planned closure of the Rikers jail complex.

The City Council’s Committee on Rules, Privileges and Elections on Wednesday held a hearing to question two of its own Board of Correction nominees – Dr. Rachael Bedard, former senior

Community composting (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)

When Mayor Eric Adams was running for City Hall, he pledged to expand the city’s incipient residential curbside composting program. But despite a push for more by some City Council members, the recently approved $101 billion budget for next fiscal year, beginning July 1, only marginally increases funding for other composting programs while halting the promised expansion of residential curbside composting. 

The city’s voluntary curbside composting program has moved forward in fits and starts. Organics account for about a third of

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (photo: John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)

With a new City Council class and new speaker leading the legislative body, there is another opportunity to change the Council’s internal rules, which haven't been formally revised since 2014.

It's a relatively obscure corner of public policy because in a city of 8.8 million people the rules apply only to the 51 elected Council members and a few hundred Council staff. But Council members and advocates have for years pointed to measures that

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (photo: John McCarten/City Council)

Adrienne Adams, a Democrat from Queens, was officially elected as the Speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday in a near-unanimous internal vote of the 51-member legislative body. Adams is the first Black person to lead the New York City Council and will lead the first-ever women-majority Council, with 31 seats held by women.

Who is Adrienne Adams, Presumptive Next New York City Council Speaker?

(l-r) Top: Adrienne Adams, Diana Ayala, Justin Brannan, Gale Brewer; Bottom: Francisco Moya, Keith Powers, Carlina Rivera

The seven candidates to be the next City Council Speaker, all Democrats, have in recent months joined the Max Politics podcast from Gotham Gazette, discussing their government work and Speaker campaigns with host Ben Max. The candidates — Adrienne Adams, Diana Ayala, Justin Brannan, Gale Brewer, Francisco Moya, Keith Powers, and

Keith Powers, top left & David Casavis, top right, with moderator Ben Max

City Council Member Keith Powers, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent in this year's election, David Casavis, met for a debate hosted by Manhattan Neighborhood Network and moderated by Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max. They are vying to represent Council District 4, which includes several neighborhoods on the East Side of Manhattan, as well as Times Square. Watch:

Council Member Keith Powers (photo: City Council)

City Council Member Keith Powers has the crisis in the city’s Rikers Island jail complex directly on his plate. The Manhattan Democrat is chair of the Council’s Committee on Criminal Justice and therefore responsible for one key layer of oversight of city jails.

Just after convening an emergency meeting about conditions on Rikers with several key city officials and ahead of chairing a formal City Council oversight hearing on the subject, ...

City Council Member Keith Powers (photo: Jeff Reed/City Council)

September 8, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: City Council Member Keith Powers on Oversight of City Jails & More

City Council Member Keith Powers, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Council's criminal justice committee, joined the show to discuss the crisis in city jails and the steps he's taking and monitoring to improve conditions, including an emergency stakeholder meeting he coordinated and a Council oversight hearing he will soon chair. Powers also discussed efforts to

(l-r) Council Members Keith Powers, Adrienne Adams, Justin Brannan, Carlina Rivera

The New York City Council is set for seismic change, as new members will be elected to more than two-thirds of the 51 seats this year. With those new members will come the election of a new Council speaker to preside over the legislative body and exert control of its agenda, and four Democrats are already vying for the powerful position.

Council Member Justin Brannan from Brooklyn, Council Members Carlina Rivera and Keith Powers from Manhattan, and Council Member Adrienne Adams of

A jail cell (photo: Brook Ward)

This is a year we would all sooner forget. But 2020 can be remembered as the year New York City ended solitary confinement.

Layleen Polanco’s death in 2019 was a tragic illustration of how restricted housing and solitary confinement place people at an additional risk while being moved out of sight from urgent medical care and attention. One year later, there is an imminent opportunity to make lasting changes to the city’s criminal justice system that prevent another incident like Layleen’s from occurring.

In the days following

Visitors to the Statue of Liberty (photo: Spencer T Tucker/City Council)

New York City’s tourism industry has a long road to recovery and a lot to learn from other cities like London, which has kick-started its economy through hyperlocal tourism, to come out of the coronavirus pandemic recession. During a virtual policy forum this week hosted by the Center for an Urban Future, top

Mayor de Blasio on Rikers Island (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

In his second term in office, Mayor Bill de Blasio has worked with the New York City Council to usher through a plan that will close the scandal-ridden Rikers Island jail complex and replace it with four borough-based facilities by 2026. He has repeatedly decried the crumbling infrastructure and the well-documented incidents of violence, by detainees and guards, among the many issues of the sprawling Island facilities. But the mayor has not visited Rikers Island in three

Mayor de Blasio on Rikers Island (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

In the wake of a series of damning reports showing a rise of violence and use of force in city jails -- even as the inmate population has plummeted and city government has significantly increased its spending on the Department of Correction -- lawmakers are looking at ways to address the problem, beginning with court-mandated reforms, which seem to have fallen by the wayside.

The City Council’s Committee on Criminal Justice will be holding an oversight

(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

‘Tis the season for improving public spaces.

The 14th Street busway has been live for just over three weeks and the accolades are already enough to deem its opening as historic. New Yorkers are now seeking more innovative ideas to improve the pedestrian and commuter experience throughout the city. 

With the holiday season approaching, we are hopeful that this embrace of open space can be adopted in Midtown. 

Rockefeller Center is one of the centerpieces of Manhattan. Every year, the area

Mayor de Blasio shovels snow outside one of his two Brooklyn houses (photo: Rob Bennett/Mayor's Office)

This is part one of a three-part series. Skip to part two - Deep and Complex Inequities - here.

In May 2018, after years of criticism that New York City’s property tax system lacks equity, Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson announced they would empanel a commission of “blue

Council Member Keith Powers (photo: John McCarten/City Council)

The City Council’s Committee on Governmental Operations held a hearing Wednesday to discuss three bills related to campaign finance reform. Two of the bills would prohibit candidates convicted of felony corruption or misuse of public funds from receiving public matching funds and reduce the matching funds contribution minimum from $10 to $5. They are sponsored by Council Members Fernando Cabrera and Keith Powers, respectively. Cabrera is the chair of the governmental operations

Comptroller Stringer testifies at the 2019 Charter Revision Commission (photo: @NYCComptroller)

The charter revision commission created through New York City Council legislation concluded its first round of public hearings last month, receiving dozens of suggestions about improving the functions and structure of city government. Unlike the commission established by Mayor Bill de Blasio, which has three proposals on this November’s ballot, the Council-created commission is set to propose changes to the city’s central governing document via the 2019

CMs Cabrera, left, and Vallone (photo: Emil Cohen/City Council)

How does the New York City Council check city government agencies without legislating agency operations, which it sometimes does not have the power to do? Reporting bills.

The Council often passes legislation that requires an agency under the direction of the mayor to produce a report, like Local Law 47, which compels the NYPD to compile data on subway fare-beating arrests. This bill, and the NYPD’s response, quickly became another flash point in tensions between city agencies and the

Council Member Keith Powers (photo: William Alatriste)

City Council Member Keith Powers, a former lobbyist who ran for election on a platform that included a 22-point electoral and government reform agenda, has introduced a package of legislation to make small but significant changes to the city’s campaign finance program.

Powers, a Manhattan Democrat, is proposing five bills, introduced at the full meeting of the City Council on

City Council Member Keith Powers (photo: John McCarten)

Last week, members of the New York City Council’s Committee on Criminal Justice toured Rikers Island to see for themselves the conditions at the problem-plagued jail complex, which is slated for closure within the next ten years. It was the first visit for the new chair of the committee, Council Member Keith Powers, who spoke with Gotham Gazette about what he and his colleagues saw, their conversations with detainees and corrections officers, and the issues it moved him to

Members of th new City Council with Speaker Johnson (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)

The new class of the New York City Council took greater shape on Thursday with the appointment of chairs and members to the 40-plus committees and subcommittees that oversee the broad legislative, land use, and oversight roles of the 51-member body. Most returning Council members were reassigned to lead different committees while

City Council candidate Keith Powers (photo: @KeithPowersNYC)

Candidates across the city this year are running for City Council on all sorts of issues, but only one has released a detailed list of government, campaign finance, and voting reform proposals. That agenda, called “

The Early Money Race in ‘Open’ City Council Seats