This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Many were surprised by Eric Adams’ choice of Keechant Sewell as New York City’s next police commissioner, but what’s more NYPD than who lives outside the city? We kid – Sewell grew up in Queensbridge and is moving back to the Big Apple before starting her new job. And it’s a historic one at that. She’ll step into the role as the first woman ever to lead the nation’s largest police force. It’s a big upgrade from the Nassau Police Department, which has just 2,400 uniformed officers. But policing experts praised the selection of Sewell despite her relative lack of experience managing a force the size of the NYPD. And she’s coming in with confidence that she can bring the kind of policing changes New Yorkers want to see.

Council Member Margaret Chin may be on her way out of the council – and Council Member Carlina Rivera may be effectively out of the running for speaker – but the two Lower East Side lawmakers notched a win this week nonetheless. The City Council approved the hard-fought rezoning of the SoHo and NoHo neighborhoods, paving the way for the creation of new residential and commercial development in the area, along with the promise of affordable housing. The rezoning proposal wasn’t without its enemies, but with a few last-minute tweaks, Chin, Rivera and housing groups like Open New York brought the bill home, closing what certainly won’t be the last upzoning fight before the city.

Fire up the electric stoves! The outgoing New York City Council member got a major bill passed effectively banning the use of gas for cooking and heating in new buildings. New York isn’t the first city to do it, but it’s the biggest and the coldest, and as long as ConEd can keep up with demand, Ampry-Samuel could bring the idea to the Biden administration, which she’s expected to join soon.

Your honor, we find Sylvia Ash… guilty! The Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice was convicted of obstructing justice and plenty more this past week. Ash was indicted back in 2019 on charges of obstruction of justice for allegedly deleting text messages and other evidence when she learned federal agents were investigating the state’s largest credit union, MCU. Ash still has her job for now, but she stands at risk of losing her $210,900 a year job if the Court of Appeals removes her from the bench.

Dutchess County Democrats thought they could get a little mask-shaming into Facebook feeds by posting about how Republican County Executive Marc Molinaro, who is running for Congress, tested positive for COVID-19.  Molinaro said they were lying and the Dems quickly retreated by admitting they were wrong. Sumner, the county Democratic chair, says the whole matter was no big deal, but let’s see how she or others in her band of fact-challenged Democrats might feel if political enemies suggested one of them had shamed a dead father. 

You would think an employee working for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority might think twice about using a blow-up doll as a dummy car passenger to skirt HOV restrictions – but not Divirgilio. The MTA manager was caught riding around town with a stoney-faced doll and while he denies using it to get through HOV lanes, his explanation that he was using it “for the company” doesn’t quite check out. Although, if an inflatable doll was working at the MTA it would definitely explain all those subway delays.