By Jeff Wice and Alexis Marking
VOTING RIGHTS
Attorney General To Intervene in Cheektowaga Voting Rights Act Challenge
New York State Attorney General Letitia James has informed the Erie County State Supreme Court that her office will intervene in the state voting rights act challenge filed against the Town of Cheektowaga over town board vote dilution. In that case, the town is challenging the constitutionality of the New York … <Read More>
REDISTRICTING
Orange County Legislature Fails to Advance New Map
The Orange County Legislature failed to advance three county legislative draft maps to the public hearing stage after a meeting on July 26th lost its quorum of legislators necessary to move the maps to the next stage. The county needs to have a new map in place before petitioning for the 2025 primary gets underway next year.
On January 23, 2024, the Parks Department and the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy shared the findings of a large-scale study of the public health impacts of the Community Parks Initiative. The Community Parks Initiative is an equity-based investment program to build and renovate parks, infrastructure, and community programming in underserved neighborhoods. The program, which launched in 2014, has improved 65 parks citywide, with another 22 projects … <Read More>
On November 27, 2023, the New York City Housing Authority announced that over $24 million in safety and security upgrades had been completed at 23 campuses citywide. The developments that received upgrades included: Bailey Avenue-West 193rd Street, Marble Hill, Melrose, Mill Brook, Monroe, and Sedgwick in the Bronx; Farragut, Hughes, Kingsborough, and Pink in Brooklyn; Dyckman, Elliott, Fulton, Grant, King Towers, LaGuardia, LaGuardia Addition, and Rangel in Manhattan; Pomonok in Queens, and Berry in Staten … <Read More>
On August 28, 2023, the Department of Transportation announced the results following the end of the first year of 24/7 enforcement of speed cameras. Previously, speed cameras were only allowed to operate weekdays from 6 AM to 10 PM. Around-the-clock enforcement started August 1, 2022 after Governor Kathy Hochul signed the change into state law. The legislation was sponsored by State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick.
On March 23, 2023, Mayor Eric Adams announced the expansion of the “Big Apple Connect,” the nation’s largest municipal broadband program that provides free internet and basic cable TV service to NYCHA developments. The program, launched last fall, is designed to help bridge the “digital divide”; according to cable service providers, between 30 to 40 percent of NYCHA residents are not subscribed to a broadband service.