Day: January 13, 2025

THE CITY GOVERNMENT PLANS TO CLOSE the migrant mega-shelter at 47 Hall Street in Clinton Hill by June 2025, according to city officials.

The post City to close controversial Clinton Hill mega-shelter appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

Mayor Eric Adams on Monday defiantly brushed off a new poll showing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has yet to jump into the race, with a whopping 26% lead in the Democratic mayoral primary.

Hizzoner, during his weekly news conference, compared Cuomo’s apparent early lead to the one held by his 2021 rival Andrew Yang — who ultimately came in fourth place nearly four years ago. Cuomo’s lead came from a Monday poll conducted in December by the firm Progressives for Democracy in America, which had him at 32% support and Adams at just 6%.

Adams, in response to a question about the poll, brandished a printed-out screenshot of a 2021 report from the news site The Independent with the headline “Andrew Yang opens up huge lead in race to be next New York City mayor.” The February report discussed a poll that had Yang leading the pack of Democratic primary candidates that year with 28% and Adams directly behind him with 17%.

“I’ve been here before, this is deja vu,” Adams said. “In February, Yang had a double-digit lead on me.”

The mayor compared the current leg of the campaign to a sports season, noting that the yet-to-come playoff phase is when it really becomes clear who is leading in the race. He insisted his on-the-ground connections with various communities accross the five boroughs will ultimately buoy his reelection effort.

“My story resonates with New Yorkers,” Adams said. “No one handed me an empire. I’m building empires for New Yorkers…So, I can’t sit back and worry about what the pollsters say, I have to listen to what the people say.”

Cuomo camp still mum, but stirring

Cuomo’s longtime spokesperson, Rich Azzopardi, declined to comment on the poll or Adams’ remarks.

But the former governor has reportedly been mulling a run for over a year as he looks to make a political comeback, following nearly a dozen accusations of sexual misconduct leading to his 2021 resignation as the state’s top executive. Cuomo fiercely denies the allegations.

According to a report last week, Cuomo will likely launch a run in February.

The poll — first reported by the news site Politico — had former city Comptroller Scott Stringer in second place at 10%, his successor Brad Lander at 8%, Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos at 7%, and Asssembly Zohran Mamdani tied with Adams at 6%.

The survey also included a sample of how the candidates would do in a ranked-choice primary, which is what the June contest will be. It has Cuomo passing the 50% threshold needed to win the race in the fifth round of ranked-choice voting, with Adams eliminated in round four after staying at 8%.

Lander isn’t worried, either

One of Adams’ rivals, Lander, reacted to the poll during his Monday morning news conference, offering a brush-off similar to Mayor Adams’.

The comptroller further took aim at Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations and Congressional Republicans’ charge that the former governor lied to them under oath when testifying about his alleged role in covering up nursing home deaths during the pandemic.

“If you look back and look at about today nearly four years ago, you would see that Andrew Yang was on top of the polling,” Lander told reporters. “Andrew Yang did not prevail ultimately. This is the very beginning of the mayoral race and I do not believe that New Yorkers want another corrupt chaos agent at City Hall.”

The latest mayoral race polling comes as Adams faces a five-count federal corruption indictment, for which he will go on trial in April. In the wake of the charges, to which Adams’ pleaded not guilty, his campaign fundraising saw a sharp drop-off and the Campaign Finance Board denied him the first round of public matching funds.

Yet on Tuesday, Adams expressed confidence that his fundraising numbers will bounce back in the latest reporting period, which will be made public later this week.

“I think the numbers that are coming out in a short period of time is going to show that my base of support is still there,” the mayor said. “My core is still there.”

There is a way to end street homelessness in New York City and restore safety in the subways, City Comptroller Brad Lander said on Monday.

Lander, a contender in the 2025 race for NYC mayor, unveiled his blueprint on Jan. 13 for making subways and streets safer for New Yorkers called “Safer for All: A Plan to End Street Homelessness for People with Serious Mental Illness in NYC.”

Taking a “housing first” approach, the comptroller’s plan aims to provide supportive housing, as well as much-needed services and treatment, to New Yorkers living on the streets who suffer from severe mental illness.

The report follows a series of high-profile, violent crimes that plagued the city over the previous month, including the death of 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, who was burned alive on a Coney Island F train on Dec. 22, 2024. The suspect, Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, was remanded on first-degree murder charges.

The case shed light on the city’s homelessness problem, as well as related crises centered around mental illness and substance abuse.

‘We know what we’re doing’

In rolling out his plan Monday, Lander also highlighted what he called shortcomings on the issue from Mayor Eric Adams, whom he’s challenging in the June Democratic primary.

“The report looks at failures in the current system,” the city’s top money man said. “Building on a series of audits and investigations that my office has conducted in recent years, which show that despite spending billions of dollars on outreach, on jails, on police overtime, on shelters, on emergency hospitalizations, despite all of that, the Adams administration has failed to effectively coordinate a continuum of care that will get people the care they need and into stable housing.”

Asked to respond to Lander’s plan Monday at an unrelated City Hall press conference, Hizzoner said that his administration will “re-double down” on its efforts to combat homelessness “with $650 million” in investment. Adams also noted that mere investment is not enough to solve the problem, and that often, when the city lends a helping hand to street homeless individuals with mental health issues, they do not always accept it. 

“When you’re dealing with people with severe mental health illness and you tell them you need to come in and get care, do you know how hard that is?” Adams said. “He needs to factor that into his plan. When he reaches out and says ‘I’m gonna lift a finger for you,’ and the person dealing with severe mental health illness gives him the finger, then he needs to talk about how he’s going to make it happen.”

The mayor took a swipe at Lander’s suggestion that the administration was failing the homeless, adding, “We know what we’re doing.”

“The stats are there. We’ve proven it,” said Adams. “So he can roll out all of the plans he wants, our success is clear and we’re gonna continue to deal with this national problem that we are facing.”

What the Lander plan does

So how does Lander plan to solve the city’s age-old problem of mental illness and homelessness on New York City’s streets? Through cross-agency cooperation, the comptroller said that options for both voluntary and mandated treatment and outcomes-based investments in the mental health system should be expanded.

Lander said focusing on housing first, along with supportive care, was successful more than a decade ago in ending street homelessness for veterans in NYC.

The comptroller’s report estimates that some 2,000 people with serious mental illness currently experienced unsheltered homelessness — or reside in city hospitals or jails who are likely to return to the streets. Lander noted that, in the latter circumstance, judges cannot refer people to alternative-to-incarceration programs that have no available slots.

Jails release people with mental illness to the city streets, even though they are homeless and eligible for supportive housing, he added.

“This keeps people with serious mental illness cycling from from subway to street, from hospital to jail and back again,” Lander said.

Supportive housing does not mean city-run shelters, the comptroller insisted — although he stressed the shelter program remains important. His “housing first” includes focusing on finding housing for street homeless through SRO (single-resident occupancy) units, vouchers and “service dollars to get people off the street and into a home with wraparound support services, including healthcare workers to ensure patients are getting counseling, medication and other treatment they require.”

Lander believes his plan will not only adequately resolve the street homelessness crisis, but also help make the city’s subways safer — and reinstate rider confidence.

“New Yorkers are stressed out about the lack of safety on the subway and out streets, and a huge amount of that is mentally ill homeless folks who, in some cases, become a real dangers, as we’ve seen in recent weeks,” Lander said.

RECENTLY-DECLARED NY MAYORAL CANDIDATE JIM WALDEN has raised almost $630,000 for his campaign as of the close

The post Mayoral candidate Jim Walden raises $630K in initial campaign fund reporting period appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

After more than two decades in Park Slope, the Starbucks cafe at 166 7th Ave. will brew its last Venti Cappuccino on Jan. 31. 

A spokesperson for the Seattle-based coffee giant cited lease expiration for its decision to close the long-standing location in the heart of Park Slope. However, the move caught customers and the store’s 14 baristas, who unionized in October 2024 and were informed about the closure at the end of December, by surprise. 

The closure comes six months after another unionized Starbucks location, Astor Place Starbucks in Manhattan, closed in July 2024.

Jennifer S., a Starbucks Workers United delegate and shift supervisor, called the closure “unfortunate,” particularly after the excitement of unionizing. Starbucks Workers United formed in 2021; since then, over 10,500 workers at more than 500 Starbucks — including several in Brooklyn – have unionized.    

“To learn that after all of our hard work of unionizing, we would be broken up, and we would have to basically start all over if we went to another store, it was just really disappointing,” Jennifer told Brooklyn Paper. “All of the people at our store really want to make it better for fellow partners. And whenever we unionized, we were given that chance. And now it was over before it really even started.”

Sammy has worked for Starbucks since October 2022 and joined the Park Slope team in June 2023. Sammy told Brooklyn Paper that they had heard rumors the store might close in October, but were “living in denial that it was a possible thing that could happen,” especially since the store is a high foot traffic location. 

“I think it’s very lucky that their lease expired soon after we had our vote to unionize,” Sammy remarked.

While Starbucks said in a statement that the company has “engaged Workers United to discuss transfer options for the 14 partners currently employed at this location to continue working at nearby stores,” Sammy said Starbucks had told partners they were not guaranteed a job at another store, but Starbucks would do its best to find them a position within the company. 

“Each of us partners gave them a list of three stores that we would prefer to work at, and I think given those stores staffing and so forth, we’ll see who gets placed where,” said Sammy, who picked three unionized Starbucks locations. 

Jennifer hopes that Starbucks will agree to effect bargaining and that the partners can request transfers to stores with guaranteed hours. 

“You know, if someone moves a store, they’re not going to have their schedule cut in half, and our store has agreed to effect bargaining. But we really would like to see [Starbucks] follow through on that and give people that preferential placement, the hours to make sure that our partners are supported,” 

Jennifer and Sammy said customers have expressed remorse over the store closure. Many consider the location a community space where students from the surrounding schools gather for lunch or study groups after school. 

Jennifer pointed out the unique design of the location, which offers ample, comfortable seating, invites customers to hang out and build community. 

“With the new CEO, he wants to get back to that third place at Starbucks and make people want to stay,” Jennifer said. “We’ve had customers express, ‘Now where am I gonna go sit down? I can’t hang out. There are other Starbucks nearby, but they don’t really have seating.'” 

Sammy explained that the store was not merely a coffee place. 

“We’ve showcased artwork from nearby schools. Our store has a lot of traffic from students, and I think those students found our place to be a safe space to work and relax,” they said. 

Park Sloper Jaclyn didn’t know about the closure until Brooklyn Paper told her the news.  

“It’s unfortunate,” Jaclyn said. “It’s very convenient for me to pick up coffee there and any snacks during the work day, so I’m definitely disappointed.”

Emily Roldan lives a block away and visits the store every day. She told Brooklyn Paper that she was “very upset” about the closure.

“I don’t get why it’s happening. Because everybody goes there, it’s a good spot, and the staff are really nice,” Roldan said. “A lot of people were upset on the neighborhood groups online. I think it’s just gonna be weird without it.”

Starbucks expressed “deep” appreciation for the connections they built with the community over the years and “looked forward to remaining part of the community in neighborhoods citywide,” inviting customers to visit their Park Slope stores on 4th Avenue and Union Street or 4th Avnue and 11th Street.