| | | |  | | By Nick Reisman | | Presented by |  | | | | 
Instead of ousting Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul is binding him up in bureaucracy and oversight. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images | MUSCLING THE MAYOR: Kathy Hochul is using her considerable power to box in her most prominent ally. The moderate Democrat today unveiled a package of guardrails aimed at Mayor Eric Adams — adding a deputy state inspector general for city affairs, giving more oversight resources to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and making it harder for the Department of Investigation commissioner to be fired. Handing Adams what amounts to a performance improvement plan comes as the embattled mayor faces mounting calls to resign and as the governor is under pressure to remove him amid perceptions he’s become a puppet for President Donald Trump. Instead of ousting him, Hochul is binding Adams up in bureaucracy and oversight — clipping the wings of an office that her former boss, Andrew Cuomo, could occupy a year from now. (A Cuomo world person told Playbook the measures elicited a shrug.) Hochul doesn’t “want to run the city, this is not a state takeover of the city,” said a person familiar with her thinking, granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal conversations. But she’s certainly flexing her muscles. And the changes Hochul wants highlight how the governor is taking a more forceful role as multiple crises roil New York this week. On Wednesday, she excoriated Trump’s move to rescind federal approval of congestion pricing with a much spicier version of the governor display. She activated 3,500 members of the New York National Guard in response to unsanctioned strikes by corrections officers at more than two dozen state prisons — and largely shrugged at Republican criticism over the move. It’s a different posture for Hochul, who at times has shrunk into bystander status. Like when she had state lawmakers pull back a bill that would have given her more power to schedule special elections, in a bid to throw a wrench into House Republicans’ voting plans. Distancing herself from the bill, Hochul claimed the governor doesn’t propose legislation. Hochul will still have to get some of these mayoral oversight provisions through the Legislature, as well as the City Council. That means Adams himself may have veto power over her attempts to rein him in. Three state lawmakers told Playbook today Hochul hadn’t reached out about the proposals — and the lack of heads-up could sour the Legislature on her Adams discipline plan. Hochul has famously given up leverage in the past. She declined to squeeze lawmakers when they passed a pay raise for themselves — an episode that was soon followed by the state Senate voting down her nominee to lead the state’s top court. These days, the governor finds herself in an increasingly fraught political landscape. Trump is president, Republicans feel good about unseating her in 2026 and her downstate mayoral ally is on the ropes. So perhaps it’s no surprise that last weekend she started to road test the more commanding personality. “I'm used to being the eye of the hurricane,” she said during a reception in Albany for caucus lawmakers. “That's my place where I live. So we're going to calm it all down, OK? We're going to be OK, because you have strong leaders who know how to take it to the mat.” — Nick Reisman
| | | | A message from Uber: Insurance Hitting Uber Riders in the Wallet. New York State has some of the most onerous and expensive insurance laws for rideshare trips in the country and Uber riders are paying the cost. In December 2024, 25% of rider fares on average went toward government-mandated commercial insurance for Uber rideshare trips. Lawsuit abuse and the litigation environment in New York are driving up costs of everything even more, including insurance premiums. Learn More. | | | NEVER FORGET: Lawmakers and first responders are fuming over revelations that the World Trade Center Health Program and related research were hit by the sweeping cuts of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency apparatus. The cuts include roughly 20 percent of the staffers who help manage the health program and a $257,000 CDC contract for research work to prove new links between cancers developed by FDNY firefighters and their exposure to toxins at the World Trade Center. “Our nation has a sacred obligation to care for our 9/11 heroes and their families,” Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement to POLITICO. “There are plenty of places to find savings and efficiency in the federal government, but we shouldn’t be skimping on those who sacrificed it all.” Hochul and Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, who is considering a campaign for governor, both zeroed in on DOGE’s role in the canceled FDNY research contract. “‘Never forget’ isn’t a slogan, it’s a promise to our firefighters, police officers, and all the first responders who ran into danger on 9/11,” Hochul wrote Thursday on X, which is owned by Musk. “We’ll fight like hell to stop Elon Musk and his cronies from breaking that promise.” In a letter Wednesday to President Donald Trump, Republicans representing the tri-state area in Congress offered a more muted critique while urging the administration to reverse course. “While we commend your effort to hold our government’s workforce to a higher standard of conduct, we implore you to ensure that any overall workforce reduction at the Department of Health and Human Services is done in a targeted manner so as to not impact the vital functions of the Program,” New York Reps. Andrew Garbarino, Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Claudia Tenney, Nicole Malliotakis and Nick Langworthy and New Jersey Reps. Christopher H. Smith and Thomas H. Kean Jr. wrote. “We urge you, as a native New Yorker who lived in New York City as it recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to reverse these actions by rehiring the terminated probationary staff, restoring the canceled FDNY research grant contract, and fencing off the WTC Health Program, which was authorized in statute as mandatory spending, from any further staff and funding reductions,” they added in the letter. — Maya Kaufman
| | | | A message from Uber:  
| | | |  | FROM CITY HALL | | | 
Mayor Eric Adams has not held his weekly open press event at City Hall in more than two weeks and has dodged queries at other press events. | Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP | OH NO, NO QUESTIONS: Adams once again ducked questions from eager reporters at a news conference in the Bronx today. Amid a scandal that has resulted in the resignations of four deputy mayors and prompted the governor to set up guardrails around his leadership, Adams has not held his weekly open press event at City Hall in more than two weeks and has dodged queries at other press events. Today was no different. At a presser at the Bronx’s 40th NYPD Precinct, the mayor announced a multi-agency effort to address public safety and quality of life in The Hub, a major commercial center in the South Bronx. Adams’ press secretary, Kayla Altus Mamelak, told reporters the mayor would not take any off-topic questions, a warning that went unheeded when a reporter asked if Adams would stand up for New York’s congestion pricing program after Trump moved to ax it. “We do this one more time, we’re just gonna end the press conference,” Mamelak responded. A second reporter asked how Gov. Kathy Hochul’s effort to impose oversight over the mayor could impact his initiative in the Bronx — at which point Adams and his team abruptly ended the press conference. As they did, Adam’s adopted theme song — Empire State of Mind — drowned out additional questions from reporters as the mayor walked out of the room. “The mayor addressed the press corps multiple times this week: He had a press conference at Bellevue Hospital when an officer was shot on Tuesday and had another press conference today regarding a surge of public safety and quality-of-life resources to The Hub in the Bronx.” Mamelak said later in a statement to POLITICO. “He also had two interviews last night — where he addressed the very questions you’re asking about.” — Cris Seda Chabrier and Joe Anuta
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The leadership of Brooklyn's Democratic establishment is split over whether to back former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor, or stick with Mayor Eric Adams. | Al Drago/Getty Images | CUOMO’S BROOKLYN NOD: The Brooklyn Democratic Party’s number two is endorsing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor — indicating a split at the highest level of the organization that’s been a steadfast defender of Mayor Eric Adams. “I let Cuomo’s team know they have my support, my endorsement,” Henry Butler, vice chair of the county party, told Playbook. Butler, who’s also a longtime political club leader of the Vanguard Independent Democratic Association in Bedford-Stuyvesant, made it clear he was just speaking for himself, not the party or the club. But before Cuomo even officially enters the race, Butler’s backing is indicative of how the former governor could earn support in the historically Black neighborhoods that carried Adams to victory in 2021. The Brooklyn Dems chair, Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, is a staunch Adams ally who organized an open letter this week asking Hochul not to remove him from office. She’s expected to stick with Adams, though she and the party have not yet formally endorsed him. Butler is backing Cuomo “in his own personal capacity,” Hermelyn noted in a statement, “and it is premature for the rest of the party leadership to make its preference known at this time.” Butler, a retired MTA worker, said he’s just supporting Cuomo for now, but would be open to working for the campaign, “if they make a request of me.” — Jeff Coltin MAMDANI’S TENANT PLANS: Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who’s running to unseat Adams, rolled out a plan today to boost protections for tenants. “It’s time to stand up to bad landlords, and that doesn’t just mean Eric Adams and Donald Trump,” Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, said during a press conference at City Hall Park. “We are here because the Adams administration has left New York City tenants out in the cold for years.” Mamdani, who has pledged to freeze rents on rent-regulated tenants, said he would restore the mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and overhaul the city’s “chronically understaffed” code enforcement operations. “New Yorkers deserve a safe home to call their own, and they deserve someone who will use the office of the mayor to be the champion that they have been denied,” Mamdani said, who noted that “more than half a million” city residents report living in poor quality housing. Adams and other candidates, like state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, have focused their housing agenda on rapidly expanding development of all kinds. Mamdani said he agrees that more supply is needed but wants the public sector to take on a greater role. “What our proposal does that is distinct from any other campaign is it makes clear that the public sector has a role to play,” he told reporters. “Yes, I believe there’s a role for the private market; yes, I believe we need to upzone wealthier neighborhoods, have greater density around transit hubs, end the requirement to build parking lots. And I also think that the kind of housing we are building matters.” — Janaki Chadha
| | | | A message from Uber: Insurance Laws and Lawsuit Abuse create more costs for Uber Riders
New York residents already shoulder some of the nation's highest auto insurance costs, paying an average of $3,840 a year for full coverage.
Similarly, the mandatory cost of rideshare insurance per trip in New York is among the highest in the country. One reason behind this is the $1.25 million in liability coverage when a passenger is in the vehicle, which is 25 times the liability requirement for personal vehicles.
Insurance premiums continue to rise in part because of the litigation environment in New York. Lawsuit fraud and abuse drives up costs for everything, including insurance rates.
Uber is pushing for commonsense legislative changes that keep all trips covered while bringing down the cost of trips.
Learn More. | | | | | IN OTHER NEWS | | — DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?: Adams’ since-exited top aide Tim Pearson accosted security guards at a city-run migrant facility after being asked to identify himself, a new report from city investigators found. (POLITICO) — HE’S RUNNING: Adams will go face-to-face with his mayoral primary opponents for the first time at a District Council 37 candidate forum next week. (Daily News) — FOR SOLITARY, TOGETHER: A law limiting solitary confinement altered the balance of power within New York prisons and now the guards are striking. (New York Focus) Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
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