Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Scott Stringer

Scott Stringer

  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Analyzing the Public Advocate & Comptroller Debates

    mxm logo

    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    October 18, 2017 - Max & Murphy: Analyzing the Public Advocate and Comptroller Debates

    brigid at debate nyc votesThe lone public advocate and comptroller debates of the election cycle occurred on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. Brigid Bergin of WNYC radio (pictured, middle) was one of the panelists asking questions at

    ...
  • Comptroller Debate Focuses on Stringer's Record

    faulkner stringer comptroller

    Michel Faulkner, left, and Scott Stringer at Tuesday's debate


    Echoing more the calm and substantive public advocate debate from Monday than the rowdy, unproductive October 10 mayoral debate, on Tuesday evening the Democratic and Republican candidates for comptroller, incumbent Scott Stringer and Michel Faulkner, respectively, met for their sole debate ahead of Election Day, November 7.

    The race to be the city’s chief fiscal officer has, like the public advocate contest, been a sleepy one, with the incumbent Democrat

    ...
  • Key to Affordable Housing Development, Vacant Lots Remain Source of Controversy

    vacant lot


    On 43rd Street in Far Rockaway, Queens, sit five adjacent, vacant lots. Cordoned off by a chained-link, gray metal fence, the lots—owned by the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation (HPD)—are covered in weeds and garbage. They are “eyesores for the community,” said Alexis Smallwood, a local community organizer, in an interview with Gotham Gazette. “Vacant lots should be used for community spaces or real affordable housing.”

    These five lots are examples of the hundreds the Department of Housing and Preservation (HPD) could utilize for affordable housing. Since issuing an audit and fuller report in early

    ...
  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Comptroller Candidate Michel Faulkner

    mxm logo

    Jarrett Murphy, left, of City Limits, and Ben Max, right, of Gotham Gazette


    September 28, 2017 - Max & Murphy with Comptroller candidate Michel Faulkner

    michel faulknerComptroller candidate Michel Faulkner, running on the Republican and several other ballot lines, joined Max & Murphy to discuss his candidacy. Faulkner, a pastor, called himself "a proud Frederick Douglass Republican," and explained

    ...
  • 2017 New York City Primary Election Results

    nyc votes i voted sticker

    NYC Votes sticker, design by Marie Dagata and Scott Heinz


    Mayor Bill de Blasio prevailed convincingly in the Democratic primary Tuesday as he seeks a second term. De Blasio was facing four challengers, most prominently former City Council Member Sal Albanese. With 98% of precincts reporting, de Blasio had secured 74.4% of the vote, to Albanese’s 15.4%, and Michael Tolkin’s 4.7%, Robert Gangi’s 3.1%, and Richard Bashner’s 2.4%. De Blasio had about 317,000 votes; Albanese with about 65,450 in a very low turnout election, where about 15% of

    ...
  • Republican Citywide Candidates Hopeful Despite Slow Fundraising

    Faulkner

    GOP Comptroller candidate Michel Faulkner


    Ahead of the citywide elections, Republican candidates for Comptroller and Public Advocate -- Michel Faulkner and J.C. Polanco, respectively -- have struggled to raise funds for their campaigns, trailing their respective opponents by large sums.

    With just over three months before Election Day, both Faulkner and Polanco need to significantly increase their fundraising prowess to run competitive races against Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James, both Democrats.

    Faulkner, a former New York Jet and

    ...
  • Stringer Updates Transparency Website to Show More Subcontracting

    stringer podium

    Comptroller (photo via @NYCComptroller)


    New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer is modifying the website showing city spending to include more information on sub-vendors, providing an added layer of transparency to the tool that helps shed light on hundreds of billions of dollars in city contracting. Checkbook NYC, the financial accountability portal run by the comptroller’s office with real-time data on the city’s complicated web of spending,

    ...
  • Last City Budget Hearing Sets Stage for Final Negotiations

    ferreras

    Council Member Ferreras-Copeland (photo: John McCarten)


    The City Council held its final hearing on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $84.86 billion executive budget proposal on Thursday, with Council members raising issues that have persisted throughout budget season and expressing concerns about the federal budget proposal released this week by the Trump administration.

    “The city adopts the Fiscal 2018 budget at a time of great uncertainty about the future of critical programs and services that help many of our most vulnerable populations,” said Council Member Julissa

    ...
  • Michel Faulkner Attempts Outsider Republican Run for Comptroller

    Faulkner Massey

    Michel Faulkner, left (photo: Samar Khurshid)


    Michel Faulkner is tired of career politicians and he doesn’t believe elected experience is necessary to run for one of New York’s citywide offices. Faulkner, the pastor at the New Horizon Church in Harlem and once a defensive lineman for the New York Jets, is running as a Republican for the office of Comptroller, the city’s chief financial officer.

    In an hour-long interview at City Diner on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Faulkner, 60, explained his decision to run for Comptroller and how he believes

    ...
  • Comptroller Examines Uneven Economic Growth in Gentrifying Neighborhoods

    stringer presser

    Comptroller Stringer (photo: Samar Khurshid/Gotham Gazette)


    The 15 neighborhoods that experienced the highest rates of gentrification in the city between 2000 and 2015 showed a monumental increase in new businesses and job growth but with an inequitable distribution of the accompanying benefits, according to a new

    ...
  • A Better Budget for New York

    scott stringer

    Comptroller Scott Stringer, the author


    Discoveries of "Super Earths." Contact lenses with data displays and video cameras. Earpieces that translate different languages in real-time. We are truly in the great age of technology and innovation. Knowledge, access, and new tools are helping us break barriers like never before in human history.

    So why, then, does it seem so hard to deliver basic transparency to the city budget? If we're realizing incredible new terrain, why is it so difficult to lay out local government spending in a way that everyday people can

    ...
  • 'External Risks Threaten NYC Budget,’ State Comptroller Says

    dinapoli speaking podium

    State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (photo: @NYSComptroller)


    As City Council hearings on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s preliminary budget plan began Thursday morning at City Hall, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a new report on the city’s finances. “External risks threaten NYC budget,” the report blares, raising additional red flags to those already in the air courtesy of de Blasio’s own budget office, city Comptroller Scott Stringer, and others.

    DiNapoli’s report, “Review of the Financial Plan of the City of New York,” is part of his job

    ...
  • Several Points of Funding Contention for City Budget Negotiation

    de Blasio

    Mayor de Blasio presents his budget (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    The city’s annual budget season kicked off on January 25 with the release of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $84.7 billion preliminary budget for fiscal year 2018, which begins July 1. Starting Thursday, the City Council will hold weeks of hearings to examine the financial plan,

    ...
  • Comptroller Criticizes Mayor for 'Out Of Control' Homelessness Spending, Limited Agency Savings

    stringer 2

    Comptroller Scott Stringer presents his budget analysis (photo: Samar Khurshid/Gotham Gazette)


    Comptroller Scott Stringer blasted aspects of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s preliminary budget for fiscal year 2018 on Wednesday, taking issue with the mayor’s homelessness strategy and what Stringer described as a dearth of savings for city agencies.

    Speaking to reporters at his offices on 1 Center Street, the comptroller said the city’s economy continues to be strong but warned of the challenges from an economic slowdown after years of sustained growth, the effects of which

    ...
  • Comptroller Pushes for Expansion of Tax Refund for Working New Yorkers

    stringer at city hall rally

     Comptroller Scott Stringer (photo: @scottmstringer)


    In his testimony before the New York State Legislature last week on the state’s proposed budget for 2018, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer called for the expansion of a tax credit that could potentially pull thousands of New York City residents out of poverty, continuing a push he began last year when he first floated the

    ...
  • Several Overlapping Campaign Bundlers for De Blasio and Stringer

    de blasio stringer press conference 2014

    De Blasio & Stringer in 2014 (photo: Rob Bennett/Mayor's Office)


    There’s overlap in those who have bundled campaign donations for Mayor Bill de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer, a review of campaign finance documents shows.

    According to records from the New York

    ...
  • Comptroller Releases Second Annual People’s Financial Report

    stringer table meeting mwbe 1

    Comptroller Stringer (photo: @scottmstringer)


    The New York City operating budget is an $83.4 billion behemoth, with all the complexity you would expect in a spending plan for a city of 8.5 million residents and many millions more in tourists. Despite their importance, the city budget and other municipal financial documents are not easy to understand or use. But, there have been a series of recent efforts by elected officials to make the city’s finances more open and navigable.

    In that vein, Comptroller Scott Stringer, the city’s chief

    ...
  • Citywide Electeds Make Social Media Moves Ahead of Election Year

    bdb facebook computers

    Mayor de Blasio at Facebook (photo via Mayor's Office)


    If there’s an undeniable takeaway from the 2016 presidential election, it’s that social media can play a crucial role in how candidates for public office communicate. Nationally and locally, political candidates and elected officials have for years recognized the role that platforms like Twitter and Facebook can play in public engagement and influencing traditional media.

    For New York City’s three citywide elected officials -- Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Scott Stringer and

    ...
  • The Supreme Court Case De Blasio Is Relying On To Defy Trump

    de blasio trump tower

    De Blasio emerges from Trump Tower (photo: Ben Max)


    Since Donald Trump’s election as the next President, Mayor Bill de Blasio has had to face the reality of a threat he outlined as dire during the campaign. In doing so, de Blasio has met with Trump, spoken of being open-minded about the president-elect, and declared actions his city administration is ready to take if Trump attempts to follow through on some of his most extreme campaign promises.

    The most clear threat from Trump to New York City was his pledge to cut off federal funding to so-called

    ...
  • Facing Reality, City Leaders Reassess 'Trump Effect'

    mmv trump tower

    Mark-Viverito at Trump Tower (photo: Sofie Hecht/Gotham Gazette)


    Local elected officials continue to take stock of what a Trump presidency might mean for New York City, and with budget season around the corner, only one word can describe their feelings: uncertainty.

    Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Scott Stringer and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito are all waiting to see what President-elect Donald Trump will actually do when he takes office in January. Trump, a Republican, made many campaign promises that alarmed city officials, who are almost all

    ...
  • Initial Movement on Private Prison Divestment by City Pension Funds

    Stringer town hall

    Comptroller Stringer (photo: @scottmstringer)


    New York City’s pension funds have faced criticism in the past for owning a stake, however small, in two for-profit private prison operators. On Thursday, one of the funds took the first significant step to recognize the issue by announcing a study of divestment from the controversial industry.

    Comptroller Scott Stringer and the trustees of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), one of the city’s five pension funds, voted unanimously to ...

  • Justice Department Decision Boosts Push for Private Prison Divestment

    GEO stock


    A recent decision by the federal Department of Justice to scale back and eventually end the use of private prisons indirectly impacted New York City’s pension funds, reducing holding values by millions of dollars and leading to renewed calls from activists for the city to divest from the for-profit corporations that operate these prisons.

    Earlier this month, the Obama administration took a major step against an industry that has long been criticized for its culture of violence, secrecy, and the devaluation of human life: private

    ...
  • Additional Information Means 'Ongoing Investigation' into Rivington Deal

    BdB holds paper hearing

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


    A bureaucratic procedure gone wrong has turned out to be a major headache for Mayor Bill de Blasio that refuses to go away. Even after two recent and damning investigative reports, one city agency maintains its investigation is "ongoing" given newly turned over information and the state Attorney General is still looking into the matter.

    The lifting of deed restrictions on Rivington House, a nursing home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan,

    ...
  • Investigations Paint Picture of City Hall Mismanagement

    BdB Shorris NYCTransition

    Mayor de Blasio & First Deputy Mayor Shorris in 2013 (photo: @NYCTransition)


    Two recent reports on City Hall’s role in the questionable lifting of deed restrictions on a nursing home property issued scathing indictments of both process and personnel in the de Blasio administration. They revealed mismanagement and miscommunication that belies Mayor Bill de Blasio’s own attempts to portray City Hall and its agencies as well-oiled machines that deliver swift and efficient services to the people of New York.

    ...
  • The Week Ahead in New York Politics, August 1

    New York City Hall

    New York City Hall


    What to watch for this week in New York politics:

    With both the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention now over, the presidential race hits the final three-month stretch to Election Day, November 8. The first debate in scheduled for September 26. While New York was front-and-center at both conventions because the two presidential candidates call the state home, a great deal of attention will now shift to the most consequential swing states,

    ...