Corey Johnson Announces Mayoral Run
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D- Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen) announced yesterday that he would be running for mayor in 2021.
As a candidate, Johnson pledged that he would do everything in his power to take money out of politics. He declared that he would accept a maximum of $250 in contributions – a mere one-eighth of the legal $2,000 limit – and would not accept a penny from real estate developers, lobbyists or corporate PACs.
“It’s a big decision, but I am thinking about a potential people-powered Mayoral run,” Johnson said in a tweet.
Gale Brewer Takes Cuomo to Task Over Incomplete Nursing School Project
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer had some choice words for Governor Andrew Cuomo regarding the planned $300 million nursing school on the Upper East Side.
Yesterday, it was reported by the New York Post that the plans to develop a nursing center for CUNY at Hunter College have been put on hold due to insufficient funding. Brewer placed the blame squarely on Cuomo’s head for the project’s postponement, accusing him of withdrawing funds.
“The money has to come from the state and the governor,” said Brewer. “There’s no question about it. The governor has dropped the ball on this. The governor, for whatever reason, did not allocate the funding for the Hunter College building . . . The new nursing school is desperately needed. It’s crazy. It’s a real mess. It’s a hole in the ground.”
Ben Kallos Says No to Buildings with Empty Voids
City Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Yorkville, Lenox Hill) released a statement yesterday voicing his approval of the Department of City Planning’s (DCP) recent decision to close a zoning loophole that developers had been using to add height to their building projects.
Up until a few days ago, developers could use “void spaces”, or unoccupied floors taken up entirely by machinery, to circumvent the limitations imposed by the Zoning Resolution and construct buildings that far exceed regulation height. This will change as a result of the DCP’s proposed new amendment, which will, “discourage the cluttering of void spaces in a way that unduly pads building height,” according to the amendment’s text.
“Every New Yorkers should have a right to light and air, to see the sky, and should not be condemned to live in the shadows of the wealthy,” said Kallos.
“Buildings on stilts looked cool on the Jetsons, but the reality is more like Blade Runner, where the poor must live in the shadows below the wealthy above. None of this would have been possible without expert and advocates at Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts and Landmark West! Thank you to Mayor de Blasio and City Planning Chair Lago for ensuring new buildings are not empty voids but built for people.”
