This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

It was a pretty good week for housing and tenant advocates upstate. Cea Weaver, Housing Justice for All’s coalition director, racked up victories this week as both Poughkeepsie and Ithaca officials voted to opt in to “good cause” eviction protections. The votes follow Albany’s adoption of the regulations last month and Kingston’s adoption last week. Though it’s a far cry from the mandatory statewide coverage Weaver sought, the upstate successes are still causes for celebration for organizers.

At long last, Rockaway may actually end up getting a trauma center on its peninsula in the next couple of years. The recently passed New York City budget included $50 million for the facility – not quite the full amount City Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers has been pushing for, but still a tangible commitment indicating City Hall’s willingness to see the project through. The mayor has promised to get the facility done, and Brooks-Powers has every intention of making sure it does.

Revolutions are hard-fought. They come at a great cost, their ideals forged by only the brightest minds. And they inevitably take longer than they should. But Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch is boldly bringing New York City into the 19th century with the introduction of … the trash can. All small residential buildings and other special use buildings will soon be required to put their trash in new city-approved bins. Stay tuned next week for the rollout of penicillin at New York City Health + Hospitals.

A suburban elected official owning an affordable city apartment and subletting it for an undisclosed amount of money seems like a bad joke. But that’s exactly what Westchester County Board of Legislators Chair Vedat Gashi has allegedly done, improperly subletting a four bedroom apartment he purchased from a co-op apartment building organized by the city’s Housing Development Fund Corporation program. Amid a probe by the Adams administration and criticism from City Council Member Gale Brewer, Gashi has been pressured to put the apartment up for sale.

Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul was playing a starring role for Democratic governors, saying President Joe Biden should stay in the presidential race. Not everyone in Hochul’s administration agrees. Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado is calling on Biden to drop out, a move that reportedly left Hochul “furious.” While not the same as the ’90s-era public feuding between former Gov. George Pataki and former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, the current rift is being called “just weird.”

Harvey Weinstein had some cause to celebrate back in April when the state Court of Appeals overturned his 2020 conviction for sex crimes against two women, but his legal victory was short-lived. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg promised to retry Weinstein shortly after the initial conviction was overturned, and he is now delivering on that promise, prosecuting Weinstein based on allegations of rape and sexual assault they have identified which fall within the statute of limitations.