One topic of profound disagreement between tenant advocates and property owners is preferential rents. Newly released data this week provides some important background on how those rent discounts operate.
The 2019 commission began winnowing its work down to the questions that it will put on the ballot in November. And the focus discernibly shifted from the sweeping to the particular.
In the 2018 election and many before it, New Yorkers faced a voting hurdle unlike voters in most other major cities: a relatively low number of polling places, scattered unevenly through the city.
New York City can’t alter world temperature on its own. But Councilmember Costa Constantinides argues that other cities and states will follow New York’s example.
‘We need a lot of reform when it comes to budget process in general that hopefully will lend itself to more transparency and hopefully a lot more uplifting of legislators’ voices.’
‘A small-dollar public financing program modeled on New York City’s would allow more candidates to build campaigns primarily on small donations from New Yorkers.’
Increasing voter engagement and making politics more vibrant is a goal of the 2019 charter revision panel. But by exploring instant-runoff voting and eschewing any re-examination of term limits, the author warns, the commission might be hampering hopes for real progress.
The speaker weighed in on whether Mayor de Blasio’s presidential flirtation is a distraction, what he’s learned so far as Council leader, what he wants to see out of charter revision and what vision he’ll project if he runs in 2021.
‘An impartial and fair assessment of this process can lead to only one conclusion: Closing Rikers will lead to a more just New York.’
Those issues, which relate to stories City Limits reported over recent months, are just a few of the dozens of topics covered in the Council’s detailed budget counter-proposal.