Tag: NYC

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Entertainment

Zoë Kravitz and Channing Tatum Biking NYC | Footage

Zoë Kravitz and Channing Tatum Biking NYC | Pictures

Zoë Kravitz and Channing Tatum are causing a buzz with their latest outing, and it has a lot of fans wondering if they’re the latest duo to add to our list of surprising couples. On Wednesday, the 32-year-old actress and 41-year-old actor were spotted in NYC smiling and biking together around the East Village. While we’re not entirely sure if it’s platonic or something more, we are sure that they’ve been spending a lot of time together recently. Zoë is making her directorial debut in the upcoming film Pussy Island, in which Channing stars as a mysterious tech mogul with a private island.

It’s not the first time they’ve worked together, as Zoë and Channing voiced Catwoman and Clark Kent, respectively, in 2017’s The Lego Batman Movie, and it’s clear they’ve got quite the rapport. Back in June, they chatted with Deadline about their first meeting for Pussy Island and Channing showed up in Crocs, which Zoë was not too fond of. “When someone can just come out and tell me I should not be wearing Crocs and is so adamant about it, she completely convinced me and I never wear Crocs anymore,” he detailed.

Well, it’s a good thing Channing went for some Converse high-top kicks while hanging out with Zoë in NYC! Check out the photos from their biking outing ahead.

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World News

N.Y.C. to Require Metropolis Staff to Be Vaccinated by Mid-September

N.Y.C. to Require City Workers to Be Vaccinated by Mid-September

Attempts to get Americans vaccinated accelerated on Monday when the most populous state and largest city in the United States announced it would require its employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or have frequent testing.

All New York City urban workers, including police officers and teachers, as well as all state and local public and private health workers in California, must be vaccinated or tested at least weekly.

The Department of Veterans Affairs also became the first federal agency to order some of its employees vaccinated on Monday.

The mandates are the most dramatic response yet to the sluggish pace of vaccination across the country given the highly contagious Delta variant ripping through communities with low vaccination rates and one by federal health officials as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

According to federal data, only 49 percent of people in the United States are fully vaccinated.

Misinformation and skepticism have haunted the launch of the vaccine, and in recent weeks coronavirus infections and hospital admissions have risen, with the number of new cases per day quadrupling in the past month.

Yet all three indicators are well below last winter’s devastating winter peaks, and vaccines have proven to be very effective protection against the coronavirus. Cities, private employers and other institutions are increasingly turning to mandates to ensure that more people are vaccinated.

Hospitals and health systems like New York-Presbyterian and Trinity Health have announced vaccination mandates and in some cases sparked union protests. The National Football League announced that it would punish teams with players who fail to be vaccinated. Delta Air Lines requires that new employees be vaccinated, but not current employees. And last week, a federal judge ruled that Indiana University could require vaccinations for students and staff.

New York City will require its approximately 340,000 urban workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo weekly tests until schools reopen in mid-September, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The new California requirement, which will apply to approximately 246,000 state workers and many more healthcare workers, will be implemented by Aug. 23, Governor Gavin Newsom said.

At the VA, one of the largest federal employers and the largest integrated health system in the country, government officials said 115,000 frontline health workers will have to get vaccinated over the next two months. “I’m doing this because it’s the best way to protect our veterans, period,” said Denis McDonough, the veterans affairs secretary, in a telephone interview on Monday.

Eliza Shapiro, Dan Levin and Shawn Hubler contributed to the coverage.

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Health

NYC to require vaccinations or weekly Covid exams for metropolis well being care, hospital staff: Sources

NYC to require vaccinations or weekly Covid tests for city health care, hospital workers: Sources

Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York.

Jeenah moon | Reuters

New York City will require all employees in city health facilities and hospitals to be vaccinated or have weekly Covid tests, with positivity rates continuing to rise as the Delta variant spreads, City Hall officials told NBC New York.

Mayor Bill de Blasio will release details on the request Wednesday morning, including those that go with it, sources said. The plan targets the unvaccinated third of all healthcare and hospital workers in the city.

“It’s about the safety of a health system,” said Bill Neidhardt, the mayor’s press officer.

This is a developing story. Please check again for updates.

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Politics

Eric Adams Wins Democratic Main for NYC Mayor

Eric Adams Wins Democratic Primary for NYC Mayor

The final match between Mr. Adams and Ms. Garcia revealed sharp divisions within the Democratic Party over race, class and education.

Mr Adams, who posed as a working class candidate, topped the first election list in all counties except Manhattan and was the strong favorite among black and Latin American working class workers. He also demonstrated strength among white voters who held more moderate views, particularly among those who did not graduate from college – some data suggests – a coalition compared to the coalition that led President Biden to nominate the Democrats in 2020 .

Ms. Garcia, a former sanitation officer who spread a message of technocratic literacy, was popular with white moderate voters in the five boroughs. But she was overwhelmingly the Manhattan candidate and dominated some of the richest zip codes in the country. She appealed to highly educated and wealthier voters from across the ideological spectrum there and in parts of Brownstone Brooklyn, although she struggled to connect with colored voters elsewhere in the way it took to win.

The results crowned a remarkable chapter in the city’s political history: the race started in a pandemic and took several unexpected turns in recent weeks as a candidate faced allegations of sexual misconduct dating back decades; another faced an implosion of the campaign; and Mr. Adams, under fire for residency issues, offered reporters a tour of the Brooklyn apartment he claims to live in.

Most recently, it was marked by an electoral committee counting catastrophe that left Democrats simmering concerns about whether the final result would make voters divided and suspicious of the city’s electoral process. In a statement on Tuesday evening, Ms. Wiley thanked her supporters and expressed major concerns about the election committee.

“We will say more about the next steps shortly,” the statement said. “Today we just have to re-commit to a reformed electoral committee and build new confidence in the administration of the polls in New York City. New York City voters deserve better, and the BOE needs to be remade from scratch after a debacle that can only be described as a debacle. “

Ms. Garcia came third among voters who personally cast their ballots on Primary Day and during the early term, following both Mr. Adams and Ms. Wiley. But because of the ranked election, she moved up to second place, with significant support from voters who named Ms. Wiley and Andrew Yang, a former presidential candidate, as their top contenders.

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Politics

Stephen Ross-funded PAC spent over $1 million going into NYC major election

Stephen Ross-funded PAC spent over $1 million going into NYC primary election

A super PAC funded largely by real estate billionaire Stephen Ross spent just over $1 million to influence New York City’s primary race for City Council, with part of that investment going against progressives who are running for key council posts.

The organization, Common Sense NYC, has raised over $2 million. Ross, the chairman and founder of the real estate giant Related Companies, donated $1 million, and Ronald Lauder, also a billionaire and the youngest son of makeup legend Estee Lauder, contributed $500,000. Ross and Lauder have a combined net worth of over $12 billion, according to Forbes.

Ross, who is also the owner of the Miami Dolphins, came under fire in 2019 when he hosted a fundraiser in the Hamptons for former President Donald Trump. Equinox and SoulCycle, two luxury fitness brands owned by Related Companies, distanced themselves from the Trump event as customers threatened to boycott. In August, CNBC reported that Lauder, who has been a friend of Trump’s for years, had yet to start raising money for the then-president’s reelection campaign.

The financial might of the group was evident in the 24 hours before the official primary day. The New York City Campaign Finance Board shows that the organization spent over $100,000 and distributed at least nine mailers on Monday, the day before the election, opposing a group of progressive City Council candidates.

The PAC may not be done trying to sway voters away from various City Council contenders. A leader of the committee told CNBC they’re leaving open the possibility of continuing their efforts into the November general election.

“In the event that there are competitive NYC Council races in the general election, Common Sense NYC may be involved. I personally don’t anticipate more than two or three Council races being competitive in November,” Jeff Leb, the PAC’s treasurer, said in an email to CNBC on Tuesday.

The sheer amount raised and spent going into Tuesday’s primary by the group, officially labeled an independent expenditure committee, shows the importance to business leaders of influencing the lesser known City Council races. The PAC’s messaging has been focused, in part, on pushing back on the idea of defunding the police and other progressive causes.

The New York City Council is the legislative body responsible for creating and voting on proposed New York City laws. A group such as Common Sense can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money on the City Council races they deem important. Wall Street executives have already poured over $9 million into the race for New York’s next mayor, with most of the big money going to former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

Longtime New York Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf told CNBC that beyond the group being worried about New York in a post-pandemic world, the move by the Ross-backed PAC to spend a ton against progressive candidates for City Council represents a power play by the real estate community.

“This is an attempt to … prove how powerful they are,” Sheinkopf told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday. Sheinkopf noted that members of the City Council have publicly taken on New York’s big business leaders and said Common Sense’s campaign is a test of how much power New York executives have going forward.

“Well, let’s say if they don’t win those races, will people be afraid of them? The fact is people aren’t afraid of them now. If they win, people will be more afraid. Power is about fear and not friendship,” Sheinkopf said.

The political strategist said that the City Council has become more and more progressive over the years and business leaders have often been criticized by those politicians, which led to the creation of PACs such as Common Sense NYC. “Business interests have been attacked by this council and there’s been an attempt to constrain the business community, including pushback on the power of the real estate community,” Sheinkopf said.

Leb defended the candidates the group supported in a separate email to CNBC.

“Common Sense NYC supported a broad slate of candidates who are pragmatic in their thinking and who are demonstrably qualified to help New York recover from the pandemic,” Leb said on Tuesday. “We are highlighting which candidates are qualified for local office and which are not, in races that are getting little attention otherwise. None of our funders played an active role in the operation or direction of Common Sense and they did not pick the races we engaged in.”

Leb, who is also a managing partner at Capitol Consulting, is ranked by City & State as one of the top lobbyists in New York.

The PAC has spent over $540,000 supporting 18 local candidates for office and nearly the same amount opposing eight others.

Representatives for Ross and Lauder did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

One of the big targets of Common Sense NYC has been Michael Hollingsworth, who is running for Brooklyn’s 35th District on the City Council. The PAC has spent over $100,000 opposing him. Two mailers against Hollingsworth were delivered to voters on Monday. One of the mailers reviewed by CNBC takes aim at Hollingsworth wanting to cut back on New York policing.

“While crime continues to go up, Michael Hollingsworth wants police funding to go down,” the mailer reads. “We must stop Michael Hollingsworth from defunding the police!” the ad says. The Gotham Gazette reports that Hollingsworth is supported by New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America and has received an endorsement by former gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon.

Hollingsworth responded to the campaign being waged against him in a tweet after this story was published.

“We are not beholden to the wealthy, real estate donors, or special interests. We’re with the people,” he said on Twitter.

Common Sense NYC has spent over $95,000 to oppose Jaslin Kaur, who running for District 23’s City Council spot. The district is located in Queens, and Kaur was recently endorsed by progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The City reported that Kaur was also endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Common Sense NYC spent just over $26,000 on two mailers against Kaur that were distributed on Monday.

Others seeing opposition from the Ross-backed effort include John Choe, who is running in a primary for District 20’s seat, and Alexa Aviles, a contender for New York City’s District 38 seat who also saw an endorsement from Ocasio-Cortez.

Choe commented on the moves being made by the Ross-backed PAC in a tweet Tuesday in response to this story.

“As the founder of our neighborhood Chamber that helps small businesses, I challenge the notion these super PAC vultures represent anything more than the rapacious greed and hubris of the billionaire oligarchs who are slowly destroying our country,” Choe said on Twitter.

Aviles said the PAC’s decision to take aim at her represents a larger campaign being waged by the real estate industry.

“It’s no wonder that Common Sense NYC, Inc. is spending a ludicrous amount of money attacking our people-powered campaign in District 38,” Aviles told CNBC after this story was published. “After all, one of their top donors is Trump-supporting Stephen Ross, a billionaire real-estate developer focused on devouring up our neighborhoods. I’m proud that the real-estate industry recognizes that we will fight them back. Our campaign is unequivocally against the interests of billionaires, because we’re fighting for working people.”

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Health

New York to finish restaurant curfew, permit bar seating in NYC beginning Could

New York to end restaurant curfew, allow bar seating in NYC starting May

People walk through local restaurants during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in New York City on March 11, 2021.

Eduardo Munoz | Reuters

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the state would lift the curfew on restaurants across the state and ban on bar seating in New York City. This is a major milestone in restoring a pandemic lockdown industry.

Sitting in bars will be allowed in New York City starting May 3, more than a year after restrictions were first introduced at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

New York City, once considered the country’s pandemic hotspot, has been hit hard by shutdowns. Due to severe bar and restaurant restrictions that began in March last year, the city suffered from widespread unemployment. According to the New York Comptroller, more than 1,200 restaurants closed their doors forever by July 2020.

The governor also announced that other curfews on food and beverage services in the state will also end. The outdoor dining curfew at 12 noon will end on May 17, and indoor dining curfews will expire on May 31st.

Curfews for all events with meals will be lifted on May 31, and curfews for events with meals where participants can prove a vaccination status or a recently negative Covid test result will be lifted by May 17.

Catering events in dormitories can also be resumed above the state meeting limit of 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors from May 3, provided the events are manned by a licensed caterer and, according to a press release, strictly adhere to health and safety standards Security guidelines keep out of the governor’s office.

The announcements come as Covid numbers continue to decline in New York State and New York City. The rate of positivity is just over 2% nationwide and just over 6% in the city. The vaccination campaign is also making headway: 44% of New York State residents have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.

“We know the COVID positivity rate is a function of our behavior, and for the past year New Yorkers have remained disciplined and continued practices we know to try to stop the virus from spreading,” Cuomo said. “By lifting these restrictions on restaurants, bars and catering businesses, these pandemic-ravaged businesses can recover as we return to a new normal in a post-pandemic world.”

The governor also announced that the capacity of gyms and fitness centers outside of New York City will increase from 33% to 50%, the capacity of casinos and gaming facilities from 25% to 50%, and the capacity of offices from 50% to 75% .

“To be clear, we will only be able to sustain this progress if everyone gets the Covid vaccine,” said Cuomo.

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Business

Andrew Yang’s NYC common fundamental revenue plan would see MSG, tax exempt landlords pay

Andrew Yang's NYC universal basic income plan would see MSG, tax exempt landlords pay

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is once again making universal basic income a central tenet of his political campaign – this time for the New York mayor.

“It makes us stronger, healthier, safer, more mentally healthier, and improves our relationships,” said Yang of the concept of guaranteed income. “55% of Americans are now in favor of cash relief in the long run and 85% are in favor of cash relief during this pandemic.”

Yang’s proposed income program would give New York City residents living in extreme poverty an average of $ 2,000 a year and cost $ 1 billion a year, according to his campaign website.

The mayoral candidate told CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith Monday night that he would be reaching out to landlords in New York City like Madison Square Garden to pay part of the bill.

“Tax breaks from MSG [are] $ 40 million a year alone, “said Yang.” If you look at that money and get it back in the hands of the city and invest some amount of the city’s resources, we can alleviate extreme poverty here in New York City. ”

Yang also commented on the dramatic increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in the US, calling it “a devastating time for the Asian-American community”.

According to the Center for Hate and Extremism Studies, reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in the US in 2020 increased 149% year over year. New York City saw anti-Asian hate crimes rise 833%, according to police data.

“We need to label these incidents as hate crimes and develop links with the Asian-American community, as unfortunately many of these incidents are still not reported,” said Yang. “Many Asian Americans don’t have that kind of relationship with law enforcement and city officials, and I want to change that.”

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Health

N.Y.C. Covid Vaccine Disparities Revealed in ZIP Code Knowledge: Officers

N.Y.C. Covid Vaccine Disparities Revealed in ZIP Code Data: Officials

“The zip code data not only provides a map of where New Yorkers will be vaccinated, but also a roadmap for our Covid response,” said Dr. Easterling.

Also on Tuesday, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo released data showing that white people were vaccinated more frequently than expected in every region across the state. But in most regions, blacks were vaccinated at about half the expected rate.

In New York City, for example, 58 percent of those vaccinated were white, while white people made up just 52 percent of the eligible population, according to the state. About 14.4 percent of those vaccinated were black, although more than 30 percent of the eligible population were black.

About 16 percent of people vaccinated in the city were Hispanic or Latino, but Hispanic or Latino make up about 24 percent of the eligible population, according to the state.

Experts say people across the country who live in underserved areas face a variety of barriers to vaccination, including registration systems and websites that can take hours to navigate, lack of transportation, and difficulty getting off work to get one Chance to get. Given the history of unethical medical research in the United States, many people in color communities are more reluctant to get vaccinated.

Mr de Blasio said Tuesday that a new vaccination site opened on Wednesday at Teachers Preparatory High School in Brownsville, Brooklyn, open six days a week, giving priority to home health workers and those living in Brownsville and East New York.

“This is about addressing inequality and doing something very tangible about it,” he said.

Another new vaccination site will open at the Empire Outlets in Staten Island on Thursday, he said.

The city vaccinated 317,227 people last week, including 55,339 people in one day, de Blasio said, adding that more than 10 percent of New Yorkers would now have received at least one dose. He said the city could vaccinate far more people each day if it could get more doses from the federal government.

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World News

N.Y.C. Postpones Vaccine Appointments As Winter Storm Approaches

N.Y.C. Postpones Vaccine Appointments As Winter Storm Approaches

Vaccination sites in the New York subway area will close on Monday due to an impending winter storm that is expected to throw up to 16 inches of snow on the area.

Winter storm warnings were issued on Sunday for much of the eastern United States, disrupting vaccinations in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New Jersey and elsewhere.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he did not want older New Yorkers on their way to vaccinations and warned of blizzard-like conditions with gusty winds. The vaccinations scheduled for Tuesday in New York City have not been canceled for the time being, de Blasio said.

The storm will temporarily disrupt the vaccine rollout in New York City, which is plagued by inadequate supplies, faulty registration systems, and confusion over the state’s stringent licensing policies. The vaccine is available to residents aged 65 and over, as well as a large number of workers classified as “essential”.

About 800,000 doses have been administered in the city so far, de Blasio said.

Vaccine appointments at multiple locations in the area – the Javits Center in Manhattan, the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, a transit point on Jones Beach on Long Island, SUNY Stony Brook and the Westchester County Center – are postponed for this week, according to a statement from this week Melissa DeRosa, a top advisor to Governor Andrew Cuomo. “We are asking all New Yorkers to monitor the weather and stay out of the streets tomorrow so our crews and first responders can do their jobs safely,” she said.

In the Philadelphia area, urban testing and vaccination sites will be closed on Monday. Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and parts of the DC, Maryland, and Virginia areas followed suit. Some areas outside the center of the storm were expected to remain open for vaccination, including parts of Massachusetts and New York state.

In Oregon, a storm on Tuesday resulted in a group of health officials hauling vaccines to be offered to drivers stuck on the side of the road shortly before their expiration date.

The rollout in New York City was also hampered by distribution problems and severe racial differences, according to de Blasio, with residents of black and Latino receiving far fewer doses than residents of white.

The city’s demographics were incomplete, but the numbers so far have been remarkable: of the nearly 300,000 city dwellers who received a dose and whose race was recorded, about 48 percent were white, 15 percent were Latinos, 15 percent were Asian, and 11 percent were black . The Latino and Black residents were underrepresented: the city’s population is 29 percent Latinos and 24 percent black.

Attempts to provide more vaccination kits to underserved communities in Brooklyn and the Bronx, including churches and public housing areas, were also delayed this week as six pop-up locations in the two counties were moved to Wednesday. Ms. DeRosa said.

Categories
Politics

NYC mayoral hopeful McGuire pushes for infrastructure initiatives in jobs plan

NYC mayoral hopeful McGuire pushes for infrastructure projects in jobs plan

Ray McGuire, Vice Chairman of Citigroup Inc.

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Ray McGuire, the former Citigroup executive who runs for New York mayor, is due to come up with a plan that he believes will bring more than 500,000 jobs to the city.

McGuire’s campaign gave CNBC a first look at what he’ll be calling for in the plan. He suggests creating jobs using a variety of methods, including a comprehensive proposal to reform infrastructure and take advantage of federal and state subsidies.

New York lost over 500,000 jobs in the twelve months to December, in large part due to the coronavirus pandemic.

McGuire’s plan will also fuel the city’s increased collaboration with tech companies, from local startups to Silicon Valley giants, to fuel employment growth.

McGuire is one of a large group of Democrats running for mayor. Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang recently jumped into the race. Primary school is planned for June.

A senior McGuire campaign member told CNBC that the Wall Street manager would first come up with ideas for communities on how to get these tech companies into the city before contacting any of the companies. This person declined to be named in order to speak freely.

McGuire’s plan comes almost two years after Amazon announced its plan to establish a so-called second headquarters in New York after a strong backlash from progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y. Amazon said it brought 25,000 jobs to New York. The company is now renting space in Manhattan.

McGuire’s plan doesn’t mention Amazon or any other specific company.

The former Citi executive intends to have his employment plan in place within his first 100 days if he is elected mayor. Much of this would be done through executive power. Other pieces must work with either the city council or the state or federal government.

For example, the plan is to bring back 50,000 small business jobs through wage subsidies that would cover “50 percent of a worker’s wages for a year.”

“Small businesses could apply for the multi-employee grant, but the program would be capped at 50 percent of a company’s headcount in January 2020,” the plan said.

Small businesses in New York have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. McGuire’s plan is to “target the program at companies that have lost more than 40 percent of total sales compared to 2019” while ensuring that funds go to “communities hardest hit by unemployment as a result of the pandemic”.

The senior campaign advisor said the subsidies would come in part from the $ 2 trillion Covid relief bill that then-President Donald Trump signed earlier last year. This person noticed that there is part of the bill that includes a wage subsidy component.

The Economic Policy Institute says on its website that the legislation includes a “100% federal grant for division of labor in states that already have division of labor programs.” New York is on the list of states offering division of labor programs.

The infrastructure component of the plan would drive shovel-ready projects. It would also include a new human resource development program to provide access to infrastructure jobs for people who have lost their positions in other industries.

McGuire’s infrastructure investments will focus on affordable housing and transit projects such as the Hudson Tunnel, which is part of the Gateway program to improve rail traffic along the Northeast Corridor.

The lengthy, multi-billion dollar rail tunnel project would create new double-track tunnels under the Hudson River between New York’s Penn Station and New Jersey. Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s candidate for the head of the Department of Transportation, said in his confirmation hearing that he wanted to “move forward” the tunnel project.

The infrastructure proposal indicated that some of these projects will be funded through private-public partnerships. The senior campaign advisor said McGuire’s connections in the corporate industry had already helped in this regard as he had begun working with investment firms who could help fund major infrastructure projects.

This person declined to say which companies McGuire was in contact with.

McGuire’s plan would be federally funded and herald the former Citi executive’s relationship with President Joe Biden’s administration. Biden has proposed federal spending of $ 3 trillion on green infrastructure projects and $ 100 billion on affordable housing.

McGuire has a close relationship with Vice President Kamala Harris. He was actively raising money for her presidential campaign.