| | | | |  | | By Janaki Chadha, Emily Ngo, Jeff Coltin and Nick Reisman | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Shawn Ness
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New York City residents who have maintained a suburban feel are not happy about Mayor Eric Adams' "City of Yes" blueprint. | Peter K. Afriyie/AP | NEW YORK MINUTE: Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering delaying the state’s pending congestion pricing plan, POLITICO broke late Tuesday night, out of concern that its June 30 implementation would hurt Democrats in competitive House races this year. Five years after it passed, the plan is unpopular statewide, across party lines. Read it here. HOUSING CRUNCH TIME: Mayor Eric Adams’ most consequential housing proposal yet is being put to the test — and early pushback signals a challenging path ahead, POLITICO reports. New Yorkers whose neighborhoods have maintained a suburban feel in the country’s largest city are already mobilizing against his “City of Yes” blueprint, fearing it would irrevocably alter the landscape they’ve grown accustomed to. “It would absolutely destroy our communities,” City Council Member Joann Ariola, a Republican who represents Howard Beach and other parts of Queens, said in an interview. She referenced concerns about strained local infrastructure, crowded schools and a loss of neighborhood appeal in an area dotted with low-slung homes. Like her 50 legislative colleagues, Ariola will have a say in the mayor’s plan when it comes before the council for a vote later this year. The proposal to overhaul the city’s zoning code to spur residential development from Midtown Manhattan to the far reaches of Queens is now making its way through the city’s 59 community boards. The wide-ranging blueprint would permit small apartment buildings in suburban-style neighborhoods, scrap parking mandates and allow homeowners to more easily convert basements and garages into living quarters. The measures, intended to combat the city’s historic housing shortage, are running headfirst into the anti-development sentiment woven into the fabric of local politics. The Adams administration has a tall task ahead with most community boards slated to vote this month. The boards are only granted advisory input, but their recommendations have historically influenced decisive council votes. “The big battle right now is the perception issue and the talking points of some of the antagonists of this plan which is, oh, they’re eliminating single-family zoning everywhere,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said in an interview. “People think they’re going to wake up and next to their one-story home they’re going to have a ten-story building, and that’s just not the case.” The city’s goal is to permit a “little more housing in every neighborhood” and reduce the burden of growth on areas that have seen the bulk of new construction in recent years, city officials say. The plan is expected to generate up to 58,000 to 109,000 homes over 15 years, according to planning documents — far from the 500,000 new homes Adams has said the city needs over the next decade to address the shortage. City officials said they’re ready to navigate the political landscape to steer the “City of Yes” plan to approval. “I have been on the receiving end of a couple of citywide text amendments coming out of City Hall and the Department of City Planning, and understand how complicated that process can be for elected officials and community boards,” said City Planning Director Dan Garodnick, a former council member. “That’s why we have really stepped up our game on community engagement.” — Janaki Chadha and Irie Senter IT’S WEDNESDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
| | | | A message from Amazon: Once Nadia realized her Spicy Sweet Soy Sauce was a hit, she turned to Amazon to help share the taste with the rest of the country. “Shipping products can be complicated, but Fulfillment by Amazon makes it easy,” she said. Fulfillment by Amazon costs 70% less on average than comparable two-day shipping options. Learn how Amazon innovates for sellers. | | | WHERE’S KATHY? In New York City with no public schedule. WHERE’S ERIC? Appearing on Nachum Segal Network’s “JM in the AM” show, making a transportation- and public safety-related announcement, delivering remarks at FDNY’s medal day ceremony, participating in PFNYC’s business leaders town hall, and going live on CBS2’s “CBS2 News at 5 PM.” QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Half the battle is showing up, and she is and doing it early.” — City Council Member Kalman Yeger, to the New York Post, on Adams-allied Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar eyeing a run for city comptroller.
|  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | | | 
Many Democrats are furious over Mondaire Jones' endorsement of George Latimer for Congress. Some are saying that the move is an effort to boost himself in his own race for Congress. | Emily Ngo/POLITICO | MONDAIRE IN THE GLARE: Lefties are livid at Mondaire Jones. And those who felt betrayed by the former House member’s endorsement of George Latimer over Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the contentious NY-16 primary accused him of doing what’s politically expedient for his high-stakes NY-17 general election, POLITICO reports. “He positioned himself as Squad-adjacent during his time in Congress,” said Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, who like Bowman is a Squad member. “And then, now, when it is beneficial to him, he will go against someone who actually was there for him.” In a universe where political calculations are the norm, Jones’ move from the Hudson Valley to New York City to run for an open seat in 2022 — and back again to challenge Republican Rep. Mike Lawler this year — could be forgiven, electeds, activists and former staff said. But his endorsement of Latimer — adding to the forces that may be successful in toppling Bowman this month — went too far, they said. Jones told Playbook after appearing Tuesday with Latimer in Tarrytown that he was “responding to the very real pain, anxiety and fear that my Jewish constituents have been expressing to me since Oct. 7.” And he gave it right back to progressives who were seething at him. “It is the height of hypocrisy that people who would push agendas wholly unrepresentative of the 16th Congressional District would accuse someone else of being politically opportunistic,” he said. The Jones-backing-Latimer-who’s-backed-by-AIPAC saga has put the New York Working Families Party in an unwelcome bind. They endorsed both Bowman and Jones but now must champion the former while the latter works against him. For now, their public response is to focus on Bowman’s primary. “We don’t give the endorsement much weight,” state WFP spokesperson Ravi Mangla said. “Voters know Jamaal has been one of the strongest champions in Congress for our public schools and climate.” — Emily Ngo and Nicholas Wu
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Mayor Eric Adams’ Charter Revision Commission will hear from New Yorkers for the first time Wednesday. | Jeff Coltin/POLITICO | CHARTER ITS OWN PATH? The mayor’s Charter Revision Commission will hear from the public for the first time this morning at a meeting at Queens Borough Hall — and the chair has been pushing back on assumptions they’re just doing the mayor’s bidding. “There’s no draft” of changes to the charter to put before voters, Carlo Scissura told Playbook. “We never come in with drafts. We never come in with an agenda.” Of course, Adams did publicly ask for the commissioner to put items on their agenda: getting more public input on public safety legislation and increasing reporting about the financial impact of legislation. Both issues are direct reactions to laws the council passed over the mayor’s vetoes. “I said yes we will look at that,” Scissura conceded, “but not just that. We will look at many other things,” after hearing what people have to say. The commission did not seem to put a huge effort into getting independent voices at the first meeting. As THE CITY’s Katie Honan reported, the date was only announced Friday night and City Hall didn’t spread the word to community boards till Tuesday morning. There will be more chances — Scissura said he wants to schedule at least two public meetings in each borough and get a final proposal to the City Clerk before Aug. 1, with a few days to spare before the Aug, 5 legal deadline to get proposals on the November ballot. — Jeff Coltin More from the city: — Adams announced more than $100 million in investments to protect programs for children — his latest step in reversing unpopular budget decisions that have provided ammunition for his political opponents. (POLITICO) — Biden’s sweeping executive order on immigration will likely reduce the number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and making their way to New York City, experts say. (Gothamist) — The Joint Task Force to Get Nonprofits Paid On Time has not yet lived up to its name, and providers of essential human services are still barely scraping by. (City & State)
| | | | A message from Amazon:   | | | | | NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY | | |  Lawmakers are looking to make a final push over the next three days to pass a bill to create a statewide registry of short-term rental properties. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images | | RENT WAR: A measure creating a statewide registry of short-term rental properties — accompanied by — a taxation plan for them — is being pushed by local officials in the final days of the legislative session. It is yet another effort by lawmakers in Albany to address an industry that has been blamed for high property values in previously affordable areas of New York, like rural sections of the Hudson Valley. In recent years lawmakers have sought to limit the reach of companies that offer short-term rentals online, an issue that has become a key concern for the powerful Hotel Trades Council. A statewide registry of short-term rentals would require owners to register their rental properties every two years with the New York Department of State. The bill is meant to help municipalities track the number of short-term rentals in their communities and make it easier to collect sales and occupancy taxes — a move that is estimated to yield millions of dollars in revenue. “There are undoubtedly benefits to short-term rentals in our cities and towns; however, there needs to be accountability tools in place to manage these units and hold them to the same standards as long-term rentals and hotels,” Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said. — Nick Reisman HOW TO COUNT: The New York Immigration Coalition is among the advocacy organizations making a final push to change how the state compiles data on residents who are of Middle Eastern and North African descent. People in those demographic groups are currently counted as “white” in New York’s data compiling. A bill that has been approved in the state Senate, but awaiting final passage in the Assembly, would change that to Middle Eastern or North African groups. Current data compiling can make it difficult to identify needs within the communities, the advocates wrote in a letter this week. “Our communities do not identify themselves to be white and are not perceived to be white,” the groups wrote in the letter to Hochul and top state legislative leaders. “We also experience various disparities compared to non-Hispanic whites that go unseen because of the lack of data.” — Nick Reisman More from Albany: — State lawmakers are mulling a housing issue not addressed in the budget that would affect so-called ground-lease apartments. (NY1) — Legal opponents of congestion pricing may be required to post a bond worth hundreds of millions of dollars if they want a judge to prevent the contentious tolls from taking effect June 30. (Crain’s) — State government transparency is getting worse, a watchdog group claims. (LoHud)
| | KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION | | | 
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has reaffirmed her support for Rep. Jamaal Bowman. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | AOC HELPS HER NEIGHBOR: While Jones backed Latimer in the hot NY-16 race, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is doubling down on her support for her fellow Squad member Bowman. Her Courage to Change PAC is dropping $235,000 on a cable TV and digital ad promising Bowman is “working to lower prices on your energy bills, prescription drugs and health care premiums” and voted to “make billionaires pay their fair share.” The Working Families Party has also spent about $300,000 backing Bowman. But that spending is just a tiny fraction of the outside support Latimer is getting from the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project, which has spent upwards of $10 million against Bowman. — Jeff Coltin SOLUTIONS FIRST: Voters polled in two key New York House battlegrounds prized solutions-based messaging over rhetoric about crime or immigration, according to survey results set to be released soon by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Playbook can first report. They also say they’re not hearing enough on how to address challenges from either party in the 19th and 22nd congressional districts, where GOP Reps. Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams are defending their seats, the polling found. “A Democratic candidate’s solutions-oriented argument on public safety is competitive with, and even beats out, tough-on-crime and fear-based framings of the debate by a Republican candidate — and outperforms a Democratic candidate’s tough-on-crime messaging, as well,” reads a memo to NYCLU from pollsters Lake Research Partners. But 42 percent of voters said they’re more likely to vote for Republicans, compared to 27 percent who are more likely to vote for Democrats because they’ve heard more about public safety and immigration from the GOP in general, according to the poll. The findings track with the Rep. Tom Suozzi playbook that national Democrats say should be adapted in other races. Suozzi was credited in his February Long Island special election win with embracing border solutions. Lake Research polled 600 likely voters over two weeks last March. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent. — Emily Ngo More from Congress: — Latimer has failed to file a personal financial disclosure, six months after filing for the closely-watched Democratic primary. (Sludge)
| | NEW YORK STATE OF MIND | | — New York City is selling a massive amount of wood chopped from forest land it manages around the 2,000-square-mile upstate reservoir system. (New York Post) — Long Island letter carriers are more susceptible to dog attacks than their counterparts in the city. (Newsday) — New reports shed light on a study to reimagine the Cross Bronx Expressway, which could include capping the road. (Bronx Times)
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See how Amazon fosters growth. | | | | | SOCIAL DATA | | Edited by Daniel Lippman IN MEMORIAM — Per Talking Biz News: “Ben White, a longtime business journalist, died Saturday after a brief illness. His most recent job was at The Messenger as its chief Wall Street correspondent. The website closed earlier this year. Before that, he was POLITICO Pro’s chief economic correspondent and author of the ‘Morning Money’ column covering the nexus of finance and public policy.” MEDIAWATCH: DoJ accuses far-right Epoch Times of being a money-laundering operation. (The Guardian) HAPPY BIRTHDAY: NYC Council Member Shekar Krishnan … Queens kid Mark Weprin … Parkside’s Lauren Bush … Treasury’s Jeff Rapp (4-0) … Rob Engstrom … Maya Bronstein … (WAS TUESDAY): Daniel H. Weiss ... Adam E. Soclof. Missed Tuesday’s New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here.
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