NYC mandates vaccinations for public school teachers, staff "The city previously said teachers, like other city employees, would have to get the shots or get tested weekly for the virus. The new policy marks the first no-option vaccination mandate for a broad group of city workers in the nation’s most populous city..." (AP)
A Robert Moses Wannabe: Inside the Transportation Legacy of Gov. Andrew Cuomo "In more recent year, as Cuomo took a more vested interest in transportation policy, it was impossible to divorce the personality of Andrew Cuomo from the politics and the policy. What Andrew Cuomo wanted Andrew Cuomo got, and he couldn’t withstand any potential challengers to his iron rule. If you worked from Cuomo, you had to make him look good, and if you highlighted flaws in past approaches and tried to fix them, well, that made Andrew Cuomo look bad and you became a political liability. Leaders were dismissed; agencies and environmental impact studies manipulated to deliver on Cuomo’s desired proposals. He was in charge, and his voice was the first and only one that counted. This quasi-dictatorial approach may not be inherently bad unless Cuomo’s ideas were bad. So were they?" (Second Avenue Sagas)
The $3.9-billion new Terminal 6 at JFK International Airport gets green light "Officially approved by the PA Board of Directors on August 5, the Port Authority has entered into a lease agreement with Vantage-led JFK Millennium Partners, the private consortium that will finance, develop, and operate the new $3.9 billion, 1.2 million square foot new terminal. The full $3.9 billion expense of building the terminal will be privately financed by JFK Millennium Partners. It will be built on the sites of the former Terminal 6, which was demolished in 2011, and the aging Terminal 7, which will be torn down after British Airways relocates to Terminal 8." (Vantage Airport Group)
The Great Return: Renters Jumpstart Large Cities with Surge in Applications in 2021 "Renting activity is back to pre-pandemic levels — up 13% in the first half of 2021 compared to the same time last year — and two groups of people are primarily responsible for it. Specifically, our analysis of nationwide rental applications by age groups showed that the main players who propelled this renewed activity were Zoomers, who accounted for the largest increase in applications for apartments — 39% compared to the year prior — most of whom were entering the rental market for the first time. When we consider renters by income, those who earned upwards of $100,000 were the most active this year, with 34% more than last year." (RentCafe)
Reconciliation Bill Will Go Big on EVs, Still Won’t Meet Climate Goals "In a letter released yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged his colleagues in Washington to work quickly to pass the controversial Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in concert with a still-unnamed $3.5-trillion budget resolution, which he said would collectively reduce U.S. emissions by 45 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. That’s actually 5 percent less than Biden’s goal of a 50 percent reduction by 2030, but Schumer says the other five percent would be achieved by planned climate policies in progressive states like California, Hawaii, and New York, as well as executive actions not covered in the bill, such as changes to fuel efficiency standards." (Streetsblog NYC)
Kathy Hochul promises 'new era of transparency' in first speech as New York governor "Though she made no mention of her predecessor -- who resigned following the release of a damning report from state Attorney General Letitia James -- the list of priorities Hochul ticked off in her remarks read as a clear rebuke of his administration's recent management of the pandemic and caustic relationship with legislators. The new governor also pledged to address a series of issues that seemed to take a backseat to Cuomo's ultimately losing battle for his political life. Hochul said she was 'not at all satisfied' at the sluggish rate the state has been dispersing its federal Covid-19 relief funds, including aid for renters, and indicated she planned to hire more staff to break the bureaucratic gridlock." (CNN)
