Dear New Yorkers,
Yesterday, we told you about how the city sold COVID-era equipment for pennies on the dollar, including 3,000 ventilators sold as scrap metal.
Hours later, Mayor Eric Adams said he’ll order a reexamination of the rules governing auctions of government surplus goods.
"I think that that needs to be re-examined, and I'm going to communicate with the team and figure out what options do we have, because taxpayers' dollars should be spent better," Adams said during a City Hall press conference.
The mayor defended the purchases as a crisis necessity — while also contending that the rule as it exists is too rigid.
"COVID created an environment that none of us expected, and so we had to purchase far more than what we would have traditionally purchased,” he said.
Read more here.
Some other items of note: - The number of reports of people riding outside of subway trains skyrocketed to 928 in 2022 — up from 199 in 2020, new MTA data shows. The striking surge in “subway surfing” was highlighted after the death Monday night of a Lower East Side teenager who police said climbed atop a Manhattan-bound J train as it crossed the Williamsburg Bridge.
- Twenty construction workers died on the job in the five boroughs in 2021, pushing the pace of fatalities back to pre-pandemic levels according to a new analysis of federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data by a worker safety watchdog group.
- Today, the proposed renewal of Madison Square Garden’s operating permit will be considered by a community board in Manhattan — the first stop in a review procedure that will culminate in a City Council vote. We took a look at what happens if the famed arena doesn’t get a pass to keep playing.
- It’s tax season. But don’t fret: There are a lot of ways to get free help filing your return in the five boroughs. Here’s our guide on how to access assistance with all the paperwork — with advice from experts on how to prepare.
- Where do Democratic Mayor Eric Adams and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis see eye to eye? The answer to that, and much more, is on the latest episode of THE CITY’S FAQ NYC podcast.
- Tomorrow night at 7 p.m., THE CITY and BRIC Media will co-host a panel discussion of housing solutions for unhouses New Yorkers struggling with mental illness. The free event will be livestreamed on YouTube here.
- We’ve told you about how the uptick in e-bike battery-related fires has led to a glut of hazardous material at a city sanitation warehouse. In case you missed it, here’s a guide on how to keep and store e-bike batteries safely. That information is also available in downloadable fliers in English and Spanish.
- See how New York City is doing with our newsroom’s economic recovery tracker.
- For the latest local numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations, testing rates and more, check our coronavirus tracker.
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