Council progressives had hoped they could convince fellow lawmakers to override former Mayor Eric Adams’ veto and pass the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act.
First introduced five years ago and passed by the Council in December, COPA would give qualifying nonprofits like community land trusts an early shot to bid on certain residential properties that go up for sale before they hit the wider market. Supporters say it would even the playing feel against deep-pocketed real estate speculators and help preserve buildings in distress, or where affordable rent requirements are expiring.
But the bill faced fierce opposition from landlord and real estate groups, who criticized it as government overreach. New Council Speaker Julie Menin, who abstained from voting on COPA last year, declined to call it for an override vote, effectively killing it—for now.
“Our good faith effort to create a targeted, legally-sound preservation tool was met with a well-funded misinformation campaign from the most powerful real estate interests in the city,” Nurse told City Limits in a statement.
Tax Talk: Mamdani’s Ambitious Agenda Requires New Revenue. What Could That Look Like?
“The ultra wealthy and the most profitable corporations are going to fight any revenue raiser,” said Brahvan Ranga, campaign manager of Invest in Our New York, a coalition of organizations pushing for progressive tax reforms. “But the political winds are at our back in a way that hasn’t been the case in years.”
Amid frigid temperatures, New Yorkers lodged 26,000 311 complaints about lack of heat or hot water last week, the most in a seven-day period since 2018. City Limits’ reporter Patrick Spauster spoke to WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show about what landlords are required to provide, and what tenants can do if their heat isn’t working.
A Casino is Coming to Queens. Critics Say It’s Wrong for the Flood-prone Site.
Advocates opposed to the casino say the 50-acre parking lot should be a climate-resilient park instead. “Floodplains could serve as green buffers that absorb stormwater, not as sites for massive new structures,” said Rebecca Pryor, executive director of Guardians of Flushing Bay.
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PODCAST: ¿Qué se sabe de las herramientas de rastreo telefónico usadas en Texas y la frontera?
Tangles, cuyo actual propietario es PenLink Ltd, permite a las autoridades analizar grandes cantidades de datos disponibles en el mercado, incluida la información histórica sobre la ubicación de los teléfonos móviles.
