Irish luck for Kensington Expressway

From: POLITICO New York Playbook PM - Friday Mar 17,2023 08:29 pm

Mar 17, 2023

Presented by the 5 Borough Housing Movement

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is pictured.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul addresses the media during a press conference in response to the Signature Bank's closure in New York, Monday, March. 13, 2023. | Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo

Gov. Kathy Hochul joined Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in her hometown of Buffalo this St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate some recent good fortune for the decades-long push to cover the Kensington Expressway.

New York received a $55 million federal grant to cover 4,100 feet of the six-lane highway, which displaced 600 residential properties and isolated the city’s primarily Black east side when it was constructed in the 1960s. The Restore Our Community Coalition has long pushed state lawmakers to cap the highway.

“This is going to be populated with beautiful parks and new homes and rehabilitated homes and businesses that are so vibrant,” Hochul said. “This will be one of the hottest properties in all of western New York, mark my word.”

The grant is the largest to come from this year’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, a new federal initiative to reconnect areas “cut off from opportunity and burdened by past transportation infrastructure decisions.” The program is due to get $1 billion from the federal infrastructure law over the next five years. The state also received a $500,000 planning grant from the federal program for its project to replace the I-81 viaduct in Syracuse.

The award comes as city and state officials grapple with how to confront other divisive highways, with billions in new funding available for major road and highway projects in the $1 trillion infrastructure package. State and city lawmakers have called on transportation officials not to re-widen the Brooklyn Queens Expressway as they prepare to apply for federal grants that could repair and improve the area around the major highway. The city is also studying the feasibility of decking the Cross-Bronx Expressway.

“No one here today is responsible for creating that situation in the first place,” Buttigieg said. “But all of us are responsible for what we do in our time to repair it.”

A message from the 5 Borough Housing Movement:

New York City is facing a housing supply crisis that’s harming outer borough communities of color. That’s why a diverse and growing coalition is calling on State lawmakers to support converting unused office space to new housing, create an incentive to maximize affordability in conversions, and lift the FAR cap to unlock more affordable housing. Learn more at https://5borohousing.org/

IT’S FRIDAY: Happy St. Patrick's Day. Stay with us each afternoon as we keep you updated on the latest New York news in Albany, City Hall and beyond.

From the Capitol

CHORUS GROWS FOR ARDILA’S OUSTER: Another key lawmaker joined Gov. Kathy Hochul’s call for Assemblymember Juan Ardila (D-Queens) to resign amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Fellow Queens Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas added her voice to the step down chorus Friday morning.

“Because all individual harm also has an impact on a community, I have thought about Juan’s ability to lead as he is confronted with his journey toward accountability,” she said in a statement. “I am uncertain he can fulfill his obligation to his constituents given the violations he has engaged in and the trust he has lost from the community that supported him.”

City & State has a comprehensive list of who wants Ardila to go, who’s on the fence and who’s stayed silent.

Ardila has not publicly commented on the situation since Tuesday when he said he took full responsibility for his past actions and apologized for his behavior. – Katelyn Cordero

A message from the 5 Borough Housing Movement:

FROM CITY HALL

ADAMS IN LOCKSTEP WITH FDNY COMMISSIONER: Mayor Eric Adams was at embattled FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh’s side Friday amid upheaval in the department’s upper ranks.

Adams marched alongside Kavanagh in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade to show his support for her leadership.

“She is really going to move us forward and with all of my commissioners, it’s a real partnership,” Adams, wearing an FDNY jacket, told reporters before joining the parade with Kavanagh and other members of her department.

Last year Adams marched with NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell and next year he said he’d likely join the sanitation department.

The mayor walked along Fifth Avenue, waving the Irish flag as attendees sporting various green garb cheered him on. At one point, fans of former President Donald Trump booed at Adams, while yelling profanities and waving “Trump 2024” flags. — Madina Touré

ADAMS ON FAITH: Mayor Eric Adams on Friday reaffirmed his belief that church and state belong together. After attending morning mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown Manhattan, Adams said in a live interview on Q 104.3 FM radio, "Right now, this city needs prayer, and we got to pray together." To those offended by his recent statements rejecting the separation of church and state, Adams invited them to "get over it." – Eleonora Francica

ON THE BEATS

INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENTS: The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the NYPD in an effort to pry loose records related to Mayor Eric Adams’ directive on the involuntary commitment of people with serious mental illness.

The group filed a public records request in December asking for all policies and protocols developed pursuant to the directive and related training materials.

"Since the day Mayor Adams announced the directive, there has been intense public interest in and extensive press reporting about how the directive will be implemented and the role of the NYPD," Beth Haroules, a lawyer for the civil rights organization, wrote in the petition filed Friday in New York State Supreme Court. "Nonetheless, the City has released very limited information about the program."

A police spokesperson said more than 89 percent of patrol, transit and housing officers have completed a video training as of March 10. — Maya Kaufman

A message from the 5 Borough Housing Movement:

TELL STATE LAWMAKERS: SUPPORT CONVERSIONS AND LIFT THE FAR CAP!

A growing number of advocates and community groups are joining the push to convert New York City’s unused office space into affordable housing and lift the FAR cap.

Supporters include:

● Borough-based chambers of commerce and local business improvement districts
● Community boards and neighborhood-based non-profits
● Racial and social justice advocates

More elected officials are joining the effort too, including State lawmakers, City Council members and members of Congress.

See all of our supporters and recent announcements from elected officials at https://5borohousing.org/.

We can’t afford to miss this opportunity to help address the City’s housing shortage. State lawmakers must act now to support conversions, create an incentive for affordability and lift the FAR cap.

If State lawmakers fail to act, they will be failing the New Yorkers who are relying on Albany for answers to our housing supply crisis.

Learn more at https://5borohousing.org/

BOND ACT TRICKLES OUT: The first tranche of funding from the $4.2 billion environmental bond act approved by voters in November is set to go to local governments for water infrastructure projects. The state’s Environmental Facilities Corporation, which already administers billions in federal and state funding for water and wastewater treatment plants, pipes, equipment to remove contaminants from drinking water and more, issued draft criteria for funding from the bond act this week.

Money will be available for projects including those to treat emerging contaminants include PFOA, PFOS and 1,4-dioxane; address combined sewer overflows driven by extreme weather events linked to climate change and include nature-based features and green infrastructure. Grants are available for municipal water and wastewater infrastructure and those undertaken jointly by multiple local governments. Disadvantaged communities will receive at least 35 percent of the available funding. Up to $650 million is expected to be distributed from the bond act through these programs.

Comments on the criteria are being accepted through April 14. More eligibility guiltiness for bond act funding are expected to be released for public comment in the coming months. — Marie J. French

AROUND NEW YORK

— In New York City, even the subway is dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. But not on purpose. (WNYC)

— After last year’s low scores, criteria are changing for proficiency on state math and English language arts tests. (Upstate New York)

— A Christian liberal arts college in Manhattan could close because of enrollment and financial losses. (The New York Times)

— The statue of Philip Schuyler placed outside Albany's City Hall will be removed. Besides being a Revolutionary War hero, he was a slaveowner. (Times Union)

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