De Blasio Talks Faith, Congestion Pricing Gets New Look: 5 Campaign Headlines for July 31

Malliotakis Says Bail Alternatives are Hurting Public Safety
Daily News
Republican mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis ripped Mayor de Blasio’s supervised release program, saying it is cutting loose potentially dangerous suspects. “We’re letting too many people who are a threat to public safety walk the streets,” Malliotakis, a Staten Island assemblywoman and the presumptive GOP nominee for mayor, said Sunday on the John Catsimatidis AM 970 radio show. Our take: The mayor’s conservative critics have shifted from predicting a crime wave because of his progressive policies to cherry-picking troubling release decisions in a city where there are hundreds of thousands of arrests a year. Why? Because there was no crime wave.

Mayor and Democratic Rivals Attend Faith Forum
Gotham Gazette
For the incumbent mayor, the forum was a somewhat rare campaign appearance — de Blasio has been selective about which candidate forums he attends. He has thus far declined to appear at any that resembles a debate, with multiple candidates appearing at once, instead agreeing to a handful of forums where the candidates appear one at a time, like with FINY. Our take: The most interesting question in the race for mayor now is whether de Blasio will be forced to go head to head on live TV with a Democratic opponent—one who is unlikely to beat the mayor but could expose his weaknesses in time for the general election race.

De Blasio Asks for Maximum Public Funds for Primary
PoliticoNY
If granted by the board, the city money would significantly increase de Blasio’s financial advantage over a field of little-known challengers, who together have raised only a fraction of the mayor’s $4.8 million haul so far. Our take: For a mayor who’s faced some, er, tough headlines over campaign finance to risk the bad optics of this move when he has a 35:1 cash-on-hand advantage over his nearest Democratic rival suggests either that his campaign sees reason to worry about the general election or that they’re leaving nothing to chance.

Congestion Pricing, Where Are You Now?
City & State
To many of its supporters, congestion pricing is such an obvious solution that they describe it as inevitable. But since Cuomo and de Blasio took office, the rancorous pair have been united in their disinterest, even as the subway falls apart on a near-daily basis. “It’s a nice idea, but it’s been talked about for years, and it was very controversial and didn’t go anywhere,” Cuomo said in late June. “I don’t see any change in the political appetite.” Our take: Mike Bloomberg’s team showed policy wisdom in backing congestion pricing and political ineptitude in how they pushed for it; the latter seems to leave a longer aftertaste.

Some Resist Mayor’s Push for Garment Industry Rezoning
WNYC
The de Blasio Administration wants to help the garment industry — by offering manufacturers newer space, more affordable rents, longer leases, and grants — if they move to city-owned buildings in Sunset Park. … But the administration wants to do something else, too. It wants to change the zoning regulations in the Garment Center. Right now, certain buildings can only convert manufacturing space if they dedicate an equal amount to manufacturing on another floor. The city wants to lift that requirement. Our take: This question has come up at Willets Point, along Jerome Avenue and elsewhere where land-use policy makes it likely that an industrial hub will be broken up: Can those businesses really survive elsewhere? Does having any place matter more than having the place?