Winners & Losers
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down this week?
Even though New York City is the densest major city in the U.S., it still has room for animals of all types: those we love, like dogs and cats in apartments across the city; those we miss, like Flaco; and those that make us cringe, like Joro spiders, which CBS News describes as “giant venomous flying spiders” that are on their way to New York. While the hand-sized spiders pose no danger to humans, one researcher said they don’t mind living on street lamps and telephone poles. Good. Glad to know the appropriate time to be scared of Joro spiders will only be on every single street corner.
Elise Stefanik -
College presidents beware, Rep. Elise Stefanik could be moving on up – not to the East Side, but to the vice president’s hilltop Washington mansion. The North Country member of Congress is reportedly one of eight people – and the only woman – on Donald Trump’s VP shortlist. She has many more steps – and much paperwork – to go before seeing if she wins the Apprentice veepstakes, and she should just remember that Trump frowns upon potential running mates with homicidal tendencies toward dogs.
Louis Molina -
Talk about failing up! Somehow, Louis Molina is once again slated to be a city commissioner. This time, he’ll be leading the powerful Department of Citywide Administrative Services. Molina’s third act follows a tumultuous tenure at the Department of Correction, where he left amid a swell of criticism from the federal monitor assigned to Rikers Island, and an eyebrow-raising appointment in October as assistant deputy mayor for public safety. Now, he’s set to helm a city agency again – albeit one that garners much less scrutiny than DOC.
Hakeem Jeffries -
Who is the most powerful person in New York? The answer may be House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who reportedly pressured Gov. Kathy Hochul to nix congestion pricing at the last minute to help buoy suburban Democrats’ congressional campaigns, which led the governor to abruptly torpedo the nation-leading climate and infrastructure policy. Meanwhile, Jeffries’ protegé Walter Mosley was just named the state’s secretary of state. It’s a good time to be on the potential future speaker of the House’s good side.
Kathy Hochul -
“From time to time, leaders are called upon to envision a better future, be bold in the implementation and execution, and be undaunted by the opposition,” Hochul said last year. The quote resurfaced this week after Hochul bowed to the opposition and indefinitely delayed the congestion pricing plan she had championed. This governor is no stranger to criticism, but turning her back on this program to save the MTA that was decades in the making has unleashed its own unique brand of fury.
Mondaire Jones -
Former Rep. Mondaire Jones’ decision to endorse Westchester County Executive George Latimer’s primary challenge against “Squad” member and former colleague Rep. Jamaal Bowman led the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC to rescind its endorsement of Jones and the state Working Families Party to pull its ground support from his campaign. Jones said he endorsed Latimer to stand with his Jewish constituents, but in the process, he may end up standing alone.
Janno Lieber and Jamie Torres-Springer -
Now that congestion pricing plans are experiencing indefinite delays, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber is watching all his plans for the transit system potentially go up in flames. There is even speculation that he may resign following Hochul’s betrayal. Jamie Torres-Springer, MTA president of construction and design, is also in trouble. What will he do now that the “$15 billion in capital projects” the congesting pricing plan was going to pay for are no longer viable?