This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Dining al fresco is here to stay. Though New York City has moved on from many of the programs that helped us get through the COVID-19 pandemic, outdoor dining is one of the few that will stick around. Restaurants and urban planning organizations have long pushed for a permanent program, and the City Council passed a bill this week sponsored by Council Member Marjorie Velázquez that makes some compromises to create a permanent program, including limiting roadway dining – or so-called “streeteries” – to operating eight months of the year. If you want to enjoy a nice dinner outside in the middle of a January snowstorm, you’ll have to find a table on the sidewalk.

Henry Nowak took what was considered an entry level judicial post, Buffalo Housing Court judge, and turned it into an eight-year crusade to crackdown on dilapidated properties, hold landlords accountable and improve Buffalo neighborhoods. Nowak, the son of former Rep. Henry Nowak, was elected to the state Supreme Court in 2010 and now is headed to his biggest court yet, a Western New York appellate division judgeship, compliments of Gov. Kathy Hochul.

There’s nothing romantic about getting pepper sprayed by the NYPD, but at least this political power couple is getting some justice. Sen. Zellnor Myrie and former Assembly Member Diana Richardson will each receive a $15,001 payout from the city several years after the couple were attacked by NYPD officers while protesting the murder of George Floyd. Maybe they can put some of the cash toward their dream honeymoon?

He was one of the most powerful federal prosecutors in the country, but now Rudy Giuliani is just “Co-Conspirator 1,” an unindicted (for now) member of Donald Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election. But Trump’s third indictment isn’t even the most embarrassing lawsuit involving Giuliani. A former employee is suing him for sexual harassment – and she has tapes that allegedly show the former mayor making lewd and crude comments and mocking Jewish people.

Straphangers using the OMNY tap-and-go system on Monday were accidentally charged an increased fare that wasn’t supposed to kick in for another three weeks. The issue occurred when the contractor that developed OMNY’s payment system prematurely implemented software changes for the impending fare hike. While the commuters who wrongly paid the higher fare will be reimbursed, it’s safe to say that New Yorkers aren’t going to give Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber a free ride on this one.

New York City Department of Education Chief Technology Officer Anuraag Sharma resigned this week from the role he’d held since 2019, just a few weeks after the department suffered a data breach, though he said his departure is unrelated. The hack affected more than 45,000 K-12 students and staff; 19,000 documents were accessed and 9,000 social security numbers were stolen. Just last year there was another data breach that affected 820,000 current and former students.