This year provided its fair share of fun political stories.
From the fight over Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ban of large sugary drinks to the return of Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer, to Bill de Blasio winning the mayoral election, the city’s political players and events excited New Yorkers throughout 2013.
Although no one can predict everything that’s in store for 2014 when it comes to Big Apple politics, below is a list of few of things on tap. .
-New Mayoral Administration: On New Year’s Day Bill de Blasio, who defeated Republican Joe Lhota in November, officially becomes the city’s 109th mayor. Thousands are expected to pack City Hall Park to watch former president Bill Clinton swear in de Blasio.
NYPD: Bill Bratton will return for his second stint as police commissioner. Bratton, 66, has promised to keep the city’s crime rate low and make the department more transparent. The current administration filed a suit that would stop the City Council’s bill for a police Inspector General and other provisions from going into effect. The case is under appeal, however, de Blasio has been a supporter of the bill, as well as stop and frisk reform.-New City Council: Twenty new City Council members will be sworn in Jan. 1. The City Council speaker seat is still undecided but Manhattan Councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito appears to be the front-runner. Councilwoman Leticia James will take over de Blasio’s position at the city’s Public Advocate while Manhattan Borough president Scott Stringer will succeed John Liu as city comptroller.
-Elections: Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to seek re-election this September. Cuomo, who won in 2010 with 62% of the vote, went against an assorted group of candidates including upstate Republican Carl Paladino former madam Kristin Davis and “The Rent is too Damn High” party candidate Jimmy McMillian. There is no word yet if any of those candidates want to try again.
The Harlem Lion: U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, announced earlier this month that he will run for a 23rd term in 2014. Rangel, 83, beat state Sen. Adriano Espaillat in a contested primary race in 2012 with less than a 1,000-vote margin.
Soda Ban: Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s long-fought plan to restrict the sale of sugary beverages greater than 16 ounces from restaurants and delis will face another hurtle sometime early in 2014. The state Court of Appeals, the New York’s highest court, said it would hear the city’s health department’s appeal on two lower courts that deemed the ban was “arbitrary and capricious.”
De Blasio supports the mayor’s proposal.
-E-cigarette ban: Come April, electronic cigarette users will have to join their regular smoking counterparts at bars, restaurants and beaches. The mayor and city council passed a law less than two weeks ago that bans e-cigs from those locations. In addition, New Yorkers looking to legally buy any tobacco products must be at least 21 years old starting in April.
-Styrofoam study: The city’s sanitation department will spend 2014 looking into ways to recycle hard plastics. The mayor put forward a plan to ban the sale of Styrofoam early in the year but before the Council made a compromise to address concerns by restaurant owners who say the plastics can be reused.
If the sanitation dept. can’t find an affordable way to recycle Styrofoam, New York will join San Francisco and other cities that enforce similar measures.
