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☆ As Investigations Swirl, Another Adams Official Resigns
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-23 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | More About Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The health commissioner chosen by Mayor Eric Adams to lead New York City out of the Covid-19 pandemic resigned on Monday, the third top administration official this month to leave, or announce plans to, amid multiple federal investigations of the mayor’s inner circle. The commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, a mental health expert, cited a desire to spend more time with his family in his decision to step down, which will take effect early next year. “As anyone with a family — or a chosen family — knows, you are never alone in service, Dr. Vasan said in a statement. “My wife and three young children have served alongside me, bearing the brunt of my absence and shouldering so much. I’m grateful for their love and have chosen that now it is time to support them and their well-being.”A City Hall spokesman, William Fowler, said Dr. Vasan’s departure was unrelated to the federal inquiries, and the commissioner affirmed that in a brief interview.

Persons: Eric Adams, Ashwin Vasan, —, Vasan, “, William Fowler, Vasan’s Organizations: New Locations: New York City

Mayor Eric Adams said on Wednesday that New York City had made progress in helping homeless people who are severely mentally ill get connected to treatment and housing. The mayor has made addressing mental illness a priority after a series of random, high-profile attacks involving homeless people. On Wednesday, a year after announcing a plan to involuntarily hospitalize mentally ill homeless people who appeared to be unable to care for themselves, he said at a news conference that the city was seeing results. “We made a commitment to New Yorkers that the days of ignoring the mental health crisis playing out on our streets were over,” Mr. Adams said. “We will not abandon New Yorkers in need.”The mayor said the city had, on average, involuntarily hospitalized 137 homeless mentally ill people a week since May.

Persons: Eric Adams, Mr, Adams, “ Organizations: New Locations: New York City

Don’t touch me.” “Give me your ID.” “Don’t touch me. You ask me for my ID, I’m going to give you my ID, but don’t touch me. Stop touching me.” “Keep your hands out of your pocket.” “Stop touching me.” “Keep your hands out of your pocket.” “Stop touching — my hands are in my pocket. Do what you got to do.” “Please, please, please, stop, stop, stop. Guys, please, guys, stop, stop, stop.”

Persons: “, ”, You’re, —, It’s, ain’t, ” “ I’m, Delaney, ” “, “ I’m, — Vasquez

The choice was unconventional: Eric Adams, the candidate who would go on to win the 2021 election for mayor of the nation’s financial capital, had picked an inexperienced 23-year-old to run his campaign’s fund-raising operation. Ostensibly, the fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs, did her job. Thanks in part to her work, the campaign would spend more than $18 million and win the election. But the unusual arrangement, which raised eyebrows in the tight-knit, professional world of Democratic political fund-raising, might have come at an extraordinary cost. On Thursday morning, federal agents raided Ms. Suggs’s home in Brooklyn and walked away with a wide range of materials, including three iPhones, two laptop computers and a manila folder labeled “Eric Adams.” The court-authorized search was part of an expansive public corruption investigation into whether the campaign conspired with the government of Turkey to receive illegal foreign donations.

Persons: Eric Adams, Brianna Suggs, Suggs’s, ” Organizations: Democratic Locations: Brooklyn, manila, Turkey

Mr. Adams, who typically takes great pains to distance himself from any investigation of people in his outer circle, took the opposite tack on Thursday. He abruptly canceled several meetings in Washington, D.C., where he was scheduled to discuss the migrant crisis with White House officials and members of Congress, and returned to New York. Appearing at Gracie Mansion on Thursday night, Mr. Adams said he wanted to be “on the ground” to “look at this inquiry” as it unfolded. His decision to return risked leaving the impression that he placed more importance on the investigation than the migrant crisis, and political experts said the mayor had allowed the raid to distract him from addressing a key policy goal. “This was an opportunity for him, literally and symbolically, to be in Washington with his tin can demanding more funds for New York.”

Persons: Adams, he’s, ”, Christina Greer Organizations: Washington , D.C, White, City College of New, New Locations: Washington ,, New York, City College of New York, Washington

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday searched the Brooklyn home of Mayor Eric Adams’s chief fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs, a campaign consultant who is deeply entwined with efforts to advance the mayor’s agenda, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The raid apparently prompted Mr. Adams to abruptly cancel several meetings scheduled for Thursday morning in Washington, D.C., to talk to White House officials and members of Congress about the influx of migrants in New York and other major cities. Instead, he hurriedly returned to New York “to deal with a matter,” a spokesman for the mayor said. Ms. Suggs, who could not immediately be reached for comment, is an essential cog in Mr. Adams’s fund-raising machine, which has already raised more than $2.5 million for his 2025 re-election campaign. A third person with knowledge of the raid said agents from one of the public corruption squads in the F.B.I.’s New York office questioned Ms. Suggs during the search of her home.

Persons: Eric Adams’s, Brianna Suggs, Adams, New York “, ”, Suggs, Adams’s, Ms Organizations: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington , D.C, White House Locations: Brooklyn, Washington ,, New York

☆ In a Democratic District, Can a Party Defector Get Elected?
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | More About Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At a public housing complex in Coney Island, Brooklyn, a powerful Democratic councilman sought to quickly make the case for why voters should reject his opponent. “He was elected as a Democrat,” the councilman, Justin Brannan, said to a resident. “But he sold us out and became a Trump Republican.”Until recently, that simple argument would have been persuasive enough to convince most voters in this part of New York. Mr. Brannan’s opponent is Ari Kagan, a councilman who was elected as a Democrat to represent Coney Island, but is now a Republican. Because of redistricting, Mr. Brannan and Mr. Kagan have wound up contesting the same district.

Persons: “, Justin Brannan, ”, Ari Kagan, Brannan, Kagan Organizations: Democratic, Trump Republican, Republicans, Republican Locations: Coney Island , Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn, Coney

☆ 400-Pound N.Y.P.D. Robot Gets Tryout in Times Square Subway Station
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | More About Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“No bathroom breaks, no meal breaks.”The robot will begin its pilot on Friday night and spend two weeks mapping the station at Times Square. It will be accompanied by a human officer from midnight to 6 a.m. to introduce K5 to the public. The rollout of the new technology comes as the city’s subway stations are springing to life after a pandemic slump. Richard A. Davey, president of New York City Transit, said 4 million riders used the subway each day from Tuesday through Thursday, most likely making this the highest ridership week in three years. Mr. Adams, who once patrolled the subways as a transit cop, was elected on a promise to reduce crime without violating New Yorkers’ civil rights.

Persons: Mr, Adams, Richard A, Davey Organizations: Times, New, New York City Transit, Yorkers Locations: New York City

☆ As Migrant Crisis Worsens, New York Leaders Pressure Biden to Do More
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | More About Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After months of mostly working behind the scenes, a force of municipal, business and labor leaders in New York has begun a public campaign to highlight how they believe Washington has failed to adequately address the migrant crisis that has overwhelmed the city in recent months. As part of that effort, Mayor Eric Adams staged a rally just outside the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse on Thursday and called on federal officials to expedite work authorization for asylum seekers. Kathy Hochul met with White House officials to push the Biden administration for more support, days after she shifted tactics and began to publicly call on Mr. Biden to speed work authorizations. She emerged from the meeting in Washington hopeful but still dissatisfied that the help offered was “not enough to fully address this crisis.”

Persons: Eric Adams, “, ”, ” Mr, Adams, Kathy Hochul, Biden Organizations: Thurgood Marshall U.S, Gov, White Locations: New York, Washington

☆ Synagogues in 12 States Targeted in Hoax Calls to Police
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | More About Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The hoax calls to police departments or suicide hotlines around the country say that a man is considering killing himself and others or that a bomb has been placed in a building. In some cases, the callers watch in real time as police interrupt frightened worshipers. The incidents are part of a string of 26 “swatting” calls aimed at synagogues in 12 states across the country that the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization, has tracked for the last month, including at least five in New York City and state. In New York, police officers have showed up at synagogues with bomb-sniffing dogs. In California, callers said there was a backpack bomb hidden under a bench.

Organizations: Defamation League, SWAT Locations: New York City, New York, North Carolina, California

☆ Mayor Adams Says Migrant Influx Will Cost New York City $12 Billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | More About Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The estimated cost of caring for tens of thousands of asylum seekers arriving in New York City will be $12 billion over three years, Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday in his latest plea to federal officials to help manage the crisis. The city could have more than 100,000 migrants under its care by 2025, the mayor said, about twice the number who are currently living in the city’s homeless shelters. City officials had previously projected that it would cost $4 billion through the next fiscal year to process and care for the 96,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since the spring of 2022. Officials said they had raised the estimate as migrants continued to arrive in the city by the thousands.

Persons: Eric Adams Locations: New York City

“This is a room full of people who truly believe in the ability to go up against Adams and win,” said Cristina González, one of the hosts, on Thursday, after word of the meeting leaked. Mr. Adams will likely be a heavy favorite to capture a second term. He remains broadly popular with the coalition of Black and Latino voters outside of Manhattan who sent him to Gracie Mansion. Evan Thies, a spokesman for the Adams campaign, said in a statement that the mayor had lowered crime and “invested billions of dollars in working people” and that polls showed he had strong support from New Yorkers. “The fact that these folks would rather play politics in some back room two years before the election, instead of help the mayor help working people, tells you all you need to know about what they really care about: their own power,” he said.

Persons: Adams, ”, Cristina González, Gracie, Evan Thies Organizations: Democratic, New Yorkers Locations: Manhattan, New

☆ New York City Tells Migrants There’s ‘No Guarantee’ of Finding Help Here
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | More About Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New York City will immediately begin discouraging asylum seekers from seeking refuge here, distributing fliers at the southern border that warn migrants there is “no guarantee” they will receive shelter or services, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday. “We have no more room in the city,” Mr. Adams said during a news conference at City Hall. Mr. Adams said the city would intensify efforts to help the migrants connect with family, friends or outside networks in order to find alternative housing arrangements. If alternative housing arrangements are not available, single adult asylum seekers will have to return to the intake center and reapply for housing. It is unclear what would happen if there is not housing available at the intake centers.

Persons: Eric Adams, Mr, Adams Organizations: City Hall Locations: York City

☆ When Signs of Trouble Appear, Mayor Adams Turns to His Religious Base
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | More About Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The next day, a longtime associate of Mr. Adams had been charged in a straw donor scheme to raise money for his mayoral campaign; the mayor was not implicated. Amid the wave of negative news, Mr. Adams chose to lay low. “Hard is having someone talk down to you and expect for you to take it no matter what they say and what they do,” Mr. Adams told the parishioners. Carmel Baptist Church and the Fire Department chaplain, conducted a morning prayer with Mr. Adams. Andrew M. Cuomo was being investigated for sexual harassment, he visited a Black church in Harlem with political leaders, and was often photographed with Latino and Black members of the clergy.

Persons: —, Adams, Mr, “, ”, V, Simpson Turner, Eric Adams, Andrew M, Cuomo Organizations: New York Times, Christian Cultural Center, Carmel Baptist Church, Fire Department Locations: Mt, Carmel, ”, Harlem

☆ Yusef Salaam Is Declared Winner of Harlem City Council Primary Race
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | More About Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Yusef Salaam, one of five Black and Latino men whose convictions were overturned in the 1989 rape and assault of a female jogger in Central Park, cemented his victory in a highly contested City Council primary race in Harlem, according to The Associated Press on Wednesday. Mr. Salaam, 49, held a commanding lead on Election Day, with more than twice the number of votes over his closest rival, Inez Dickens, a state assemblywoman. The New York City Board of Elections began tabulating ranked-choice votes on Wednesday, and the new ranked-choice tabulation now shows Mr. Salaam with almost 64 percent of the vote to Ms. Dickens’s 36 percent. “This is a victory for justice, dignity and decency for the Harlem community we love,” Mr. Salaam said in a statement. Mr. Salaam is not expected to face a serious challenger, if any, in November.

Persons: Yusef Salaam, Inez Dickens, tabulating, ” Mr, Salaam, “, ’, Dickens, Al Taylor Organizations: Council, Associated Press, Mr, New York, Assembly Locations: Central Park, Harlem, New York City

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