1/ For years, Winnie Greco worked as a volunteer for Eric Adams, becoming a prolific fundraiser and eventually securing a City Hall role as Adams’ liaison to NYC’s growing Asian communities.

Two people told @THECITYNY that she used her role to benefit herself and the mayor. 🧵 2/ In March 2021, a tech worker from Flushing joined Adams’ campaign as a volunteer, working with Greco.

After Adams got to City Hall, Greco promised the worker a job in the administration if he volunteered to help renovate her kitchen, he told @THECITYNY.

1/ In Staten Island, voting ended today for Amazon workers deciding to join the first union in the company’s history.

Overall, they said yes to the Amazon Labor Union (@amazonlabor). 2654 workers vote for it, 2131 against. 2/ At the helm of the local Amazon labor movement are Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer, who fought to make it a reality.

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1/ A principios de abril, un incendio enorme consumió un edificio residencial de 133 apartamentos en la calle 89 en el vecindario de Jackson Heights.

Más de 500 personas perdieron sus hogares. 2/ Cuatro meses después del desastre, muchas de las personas que perdieron su hogar todavía luchan para encontrar un nuevo hogar permanente y asequible.

1/ Hey, rent-stabilized tenants! Make sure you know your rights when renewing your lease this year because the rules for raising the rent are a little more complicated than usual.

Here’s the deal: 2/ First, if you’re not sure whether your apartment is rent-stabilized, check here: amirentstabilized.com

Note: To know for sure, though, you’ll have to request your rent history from the state.

1/ In early April, a huge fire tore through a 133-unit apartment building on 89th street in Jackson Heights.

More than 500 people were displaced from their homes.

Now, months later, many are still struggling to find permanent affordable homes.

buff.ly/3y0xenJ 2/ About 60 families are still in hotels provided by the city, but their stay officially expired two months ago. There are no @NYCHousing emergency shelters for families in Queens.
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1/ On Sunday, the @THECITYNY reported that 89 @NYCHA playgrounds — more than one out of 10 citywide — are cordoned off because of unsafe conditions.

On Monday, @NYCMayor announced a comprehensive plan to overhaul closed and rundown playgrounds.

buff.ly/3hS9FIj 2/ @NYCHA has long struggled to maintain and modernize its 710 playgrounds. Some are decades old, covered in layers of peeling paint and bolstered by makeshift repairs, while others have been demolished or locked up and virtually abandoned.

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1/ We obtained the outcomes of 64 incidents of alleged police misconduct captured on video during last year’s George Floyd protests that were investigated internally by the NYPD. Here are some of the results…

buff.ly/2RBxZDI 2/ But first, kudos to @nytimes reporters and video team for assembling this story in July, which pressured @NYCMayor to commit to a public accounting of the disciplinary outcomes of these cases.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

1/ After a year of piecemeal eviction protections, rent strikes and protests to “cancel rent,” potentially massive rental and housing assistance is now caught up in last-minute state budget negotiations.

And the key details are still unknown.

Here’s what’s going on: 2/ New York has $2.3 billion from the fed gov't—as well as potentially hundreds of millions more from the state—to provide significant aid to tenants and landlords.

But the clock is ticking, the state budget is late and lawmakers could strike a deal w/ @NYGovCuomo any time now.

1/ The deal to legalize recreational marijuana in New York State includes one of the country’s most ambitious social equity programs.

Advocates say they will keep an eye on whether or not Black and Hispanic citizens will have a fair shot at the multibillion-dollar business. 2/ The bill is expected to include:

• a provision to set aside about half of sales licenses for people of color, women and people related to those with a past marijuana conviction

• some capital funding for minority and women-owned firms
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1/ A reader wrote and asked: “How can I differentiate between the gazillion mayoral candidates?”

We had a feeling they weren’t alone, so we made a tool to help. It’s called Meet Your Mayor.

Here’s what it does: 2/ Meet Your Mayor is, essentially, a quiz you can take to see which mayoral candidates agree with you on different issues.

To start, we made a survey with questions about three different issues: policing, education and COVID recovery.

1/ Despite safety warnings, a New York State-run nursing home gave dozens of residents hydroxychloroquine & azithromycin for COVID.

Some families didn’t know until they got a bill. Others found out when we told them.

The investigation took 7 months.

Here’s what happened: 2/ Back in June, reporter @deanwrussell had been writing obituaries for @THECITYNY’s MISSING THEM project, which is tracking every New Yorker killed by COVID-19.

Yvonne Parson reached out through our submission form about her father.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

1/ A New York State-run nursing home used an unproven and potentially dangerous treatment for COVID-19, despite warnings.

Here’s what you need to know from @THECITYNY, @typeinvestigate, and @columbiajourn investigations. thecity.nyc/2021/2/8/22269… 2/ Last spring, the NYS Veterans’ Home at St. Albans gave hundreds of doses of the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin to at least 62 residents for COVID-19.

Most were over 70 years old.

Many had underlying conditions.

Some hadn’t tested positive.

1/ 🚨Unemployment update🚨

There has been an *important change* to partial benefits in New York… and this will be of particular interest to freelancers: Part-time workers can now base their unemployment claims on *the hours they work* in a week and not the days. 2/ Weekly benefits used to be calculated based on the number of days you work, not the number of hours. So basically if you worked one hour in one day, it counted as a full day of benefits.

You’d only get 75% of the allowed benefits.

You can see where that *might* be an issue.

1/ After nearly a week on strike over a $1/hr raise, @TeamstersJC16 Local 202 members at the Hunts Point Produce Market ratified a new three-year contract.

How did this all start? And more importantly, what’s in the contract?

We take you behind the scenes: 2/ More than 1,400 workers at the Bronx-based hub — responsible for supplying 60% of the region’s produce — went on strike at midnight on Jan. 17.

The workers’ demands: a *$1 hourly* raise, and no changes to their contributions to health care benefits. thecity.nyc/bronx/2021/1/1…

1/ Last week, the rules around evictions in NYC changed *again.* This time, specifically for people with nonpayment cases.

So for this week’s rent update, we’re breaking down what these changes mean for renters: 2/ First, an evergreen reminder: While it’s true that eviction cases are starting to work their way through Housing Court, just because a landlord tells you to move out does NOT necessarily mean you’re being evicted.

Evictions have to go through an *official process* in court.

1/ While New York’s first wave of COVID-19 may have subsided, the city is seeing a growing number of hospital patients checking in with long term symptoms of COVID-19.

Doctors estimate patients with these long-term symptoms is at least 70,000.

Here’s what that looks like: 2/ One center that’s treating these patients is @MountSinaiNYC, where they’ve already checked in upwards of 400. These are just patients that doctor’s there know about — one’s who have insurance, and who’ve heard about the center.

1/ The majority of NYC public school students are expected to begin school next month.

Despite @NYCSchools’ guidance on reopening safely, COVID testing for limited-English proficiency families may prove to be complicated. 2/ Legally, patients have a right to translation services in health care.

@NYCHealthSystem claims to offer them at its coronavirus testing sites in more than 200 languages via designated translator phones.

But our reporting found that that’s not always the case.

1/ We just did an analysis of five years of data from New York City’s housing lottery system and found that those applying with the *highest* incomes are six times more likely to have their number picked than those with the *lowest* incomes.

Let’s break this down. 2/ After analyzing 18 million applications, we found that “extremely low-income” households — earning up to $30,720 for a family of three — faced the *most* competition for apartments.

650 applications came in for every 1 available apartment.
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1/ By the time journalists from @THECITYNY and @ColumbiaJourn started discussing an idea to memorialize every New Yorker that died due to the coronavirus, about 3,000 lives had already been lost.

That was early April. 2/ It was a number — even at an early stage — that made the project seem too ambitious for a single newsroom to execute.

As the numbers grew daily, it became clear that remembering every New Yorker who died would mean embracing collaboration at all levels.

1/ On June 7, 2019, Layleen Polanco, a 27-year old transgender woman, died on Rikers Island after an epileptic seizure on her ninth day in solitary confinement.

She was being held on $500 bail. 2/ A report released June 23, 2020, by the Board of Correction found that Polanco was pushed there by jailers over a doctor’s objections & despite her seizure disorder. THE CITY has covered this story since the start of it.

Here’s everything we know:
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1/ 🚨 New York’s 2020 primary elections are on June 23 🚨

Here’s what you need to know in order to be prepared for the city’s first election in the coronavirus era. 2/ Check your voter registration status and enter your address to find your polling place.
voterlookup.elections.ny.gov