NYC Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez Rosa discusses summer readiness plans
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New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
NYPD's special quality-of-life cops now covering all of Brooklyn: ‘It's working'
The NYPD just expanded its special quality-of-life teams to cover all of Brooklyn after a pilot project showed they are succeeding in tackling 'everyday issues,'' city officials said Monday. Since the first 'Q-Teams'' were launched in six city police precincts in April, they have handled more than 23,400 quality-of-life calls on everything from illegal mopeds to homeless encampments, open drug use, abandoned vehicles and noise issues, Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch revealed at a press conference. 'This is a real shift in how we serve neighborhoods, and it's working,' Tisch said. Advertisement 3 The NYPD's Quality of Life Division is expanding to every precinct by the end of August, Police Commish Jessica Tisch said Monday alongside Mayor Eric Adams. Stephen Yang 3 Adams said, 'We know that people were not feeling safe.' Stephen Yang The Brooklyn expansion adds to the teams' complete coverage in Manhattan and The Bronx. Queens is set to be covered by Aug. 11 and Staten Island by Aug. 18, officials said. Advertisement Statistics back up the initiative's success, with non-emergency response times improving by an average of 47 minutes, said the department — although it did not provide to The Post what the wait times were before the special teams went into effect. The special teams also have towed 640 'derelict'' vehicles and seized 299 illegal e-bikes and scooters so far, the department said. 'We know that people were not feeling safe. And that is why the commissioner put this quality of life initiative, the Q-team, throughout our entire city,' Adams said. 'And now we're coming to the largest borough and making sure we continue the success of our Q-team,' he said of the Brooklyn expansion, which was completed last week. Advertisement 3 The mayor said a pilot program proved the initiative deserves to be expanded. Stephen Yang Tisch said that while the NYPD had been 'laser-focused' on fighting crime for years, complaints regarding non-emergency disturbances skyrocketed between 2018 and 2024. 'Panhandling complaints rose by nearly 2,800%, homeless encampment calls jumped over 500%, and noise complaints nearly doubled. And illegal parking complaints were up more than 200%,' she said. Advertisement 'When we launched the Quality of Life Division earlier this year, the idea was simple but ambitious: Build teams focused entirely on the local conditions that make daily life harder for New Yorkers,' Tisch said. Tisch and Adams noted that July saw the lowest shooting rate and shooting victims of any July in recorded city history, or since 1993.
Boston Globe
5 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Many Jewish voters back Mamdani. And many agree with him on Gaza.
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Mamdani's commanding victory in the Democratic primary for mayor alarmed many Jews who are concerned by his outspoken criticism of Israel. But he won the votes of many other Jewish New Yorkers, some of whom said in interviews that they were unbothered by that criticism and inspired by his intense focus on affordability. Often these voters said that Mamdani's views on Israel, and his vocal opposition to its treatment of Palestinians, echoed their own. Advertisement Mamdani has criticized Israel in ways that were once unthinkable for an elected official in New York, home to America's largest Jewish population. He has decried Israel as an apartheid state. He has said it should ensure equal rights for followers of all religions instead of favoring Jews in its political and legal system. He has supported the movement that seeks to economically isolate it, known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Advertisement And he has endorsed the view of Israel's leading human rights organizations and of genocide scholars — including some in Israel — that it is committing genocide in Gaza, an allegation the Israeli government has denied. Mamdani's positions on Israel have alienated him from Zionist Jewish groups, many of which have accused him of being antisemitic, a charge that he denies. His views also became a line of attack for some of his primary rivals, including former governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running in the general election as an independent. Steve Israel, a former Democratic member of Congress who represented parts of Long Island and Queens, said that Mamdani's primary victory was ''Twilight Zone' stuff' for some Jewish New Yorkers. 'Mamdani's positions on Israel up to now are way out of the mainstream of the Jewish community, and the irony here is that his progressive policies on economic issues would have at least a plurality of support by Jewish voters,' he said. 'But the toxicity of his positions on Israel have just become impossible for those same voters to forgive.' Yet none of Mamdani's stances kept him from winning a decisive primary victory over Cuomo, his closest competitor. It is difficult to determine how many Jewish voters supported Mamdani because even in New York, the Jewish population is too small to be measured with precision by most polls. Neighborhoods with large numbers of Orthodox Jewish residents voted overwhelmingly for Cuomo. He also won other heavily Jewish areas such as Riverdale in the Bronx, though outside of Orthodox neighborhoods, the Jewish population is generally not concentrated enough to allow analysis using precinct-level vote data. Advertisement But Mamdani enjoyed a broad victory that suggests at least some backing from many different constituencies, and preelection polls, which generally undercounted support for him, showed him earning double-digit support among Jewish voters. Data from the ranked choice voting process also shows that Mamdani was selected as an alternate choice by two-thirds of voters whose top choice was Brad Lander, the city comptroller and the highest-ranking Jewish official in city government, who made his identity a key part of his campaign and who cross-endorsed Mamdani during the primary. Jeffrey Lerner, Mamdani's communications director and one of his many Jewish advisers, said in a statement that it was 'no surprise that thousands of Jewish New Yorkers proudly cast their ballots for Zohran in the June primary, despite relentless fearmongering from Republicans and the billionaire class.' In recent comments at the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., Cuomo attributed Mamdani's victory to both a surge of support from younger voters and a shift in the way younger people think about Israel and antisemitism. Cuomo, who has made unflinching support of Israel part of his political brand, joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's legal team after the International Criminal Court accused him of war crimes and issued an arrest warrant for him last year. In his remarks, Cuomo asserted that more than half of Jewish primary voters had cast their ballots for Mamdani, though he did not back up that claim. He appealed to the synagogue's well-heeled and mostly older congregants for their help. Advertisement 'With those young people, the under-30 people, they are pro-Palestinian and they don't consider it being anti-Israel,' Cuomo said, according to a recording posted online by The Forward, a Jewish news organization. 'Being anti-Israel to them means anti-Bibi's policies, anti-Israel government policies,' he added, referring to Netanyahu by a common nickname. 'And they are, and they were, highly motivated, and they came out to vote.' Though Mamdani did drive up turnout among younger voters, his supporters come from a range of age groups, many of whom share his belief that you can criticize Israel while still supporting Jewish New Yorkers. Lisa Cowan, 57, a philanthropy executive in Prospect Heights who is Jewish, ranked Mamdani second on her ballot, after Lander. She praised Mamdani's focus on affordability and the 'positive spirit' he had brought to the campaign. His comments on Israel did not bother her, she said, because he struck her as 'a nuanced thinker' and 'someone who loved New York and loved New Yorkers.' Mamdani has said that fighting antisemitism would be a priority for him as mayor, and has promised to increase funding to fight hate crimes in New York by 800 percent. This article originally appeared in
The Hill
7 hours ago
- The Hill
Warren defends Mamdani: ‘Are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry?'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) defended New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a fellow progressive, in a heated interview on Monday. 'The issue is affordability. Do you know how many working families are chased out of New York City every day because they can't afford housing, they can't afford groceries, they can't afford child care?' Warren said during an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk on the Street.' 'What Zohran is saying [is], 'I want people to be able to afford to live in New York City.' That's what keeps it a vibrant city. That's what makes people want to live here,' she added. 'Nobody disagrees with that, senator, but raising taxes in order to do it? Why is that the answer?' CNBC's David Faber shot back at Warren. 'Oh my goodness,' Warren cut in, using a mocking tone. 'Oh dear, are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry?' In the June Democratic primary for New York City mayor, Mamdani toppled political heavyweight and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a shock upset. Mamdani's platform states that he has a plan to 'raise the corporate tax rate to match New Jersey's 11.5%, bringing in $5 billion.' 'And he will tax the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers—those earning above $1 million annually—a flat 2% tax (right now city income tax rates are essentially the same whether you make $50,000 or $50 million),' the Democratic candidate's platform continues. In an opinion piece for Rolling Stone published Monday, Warren said that Mamdani 'pulled off an inspiring 12-point victory to become the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York.' 'How did he do it? He campaigned relentlessly on lowering costs for families, helping him build a grassroots movement so strong that millions of dollars in attack ads couldn't touch him,' she added.
