The big story yesterday was the news — broken by the Times — that federal prosecutors had issued subpoenas to Mayor Adams, his campaign staff and his City Hall office related to possible illegal campaign activity involving the Turkish government and that weird thing with the FDNY and the Turkish consulate.
Everyone followed the initial report, including the Post, the Daily News, Gothamist, but ultimately nothing matched the delicious nut graph by Times scribes Willie Rashbaum and Dana Rubinstein:
The new subpoenas came nearly nine months after the corruption investigation first entered public view, meaningfully altering the city’s political landscape. Since then, the mayor has become a political target, with sagging approval ratings and at least three challengers in the 2025 Democratic primary.
Nice.
In other news:
- The City Council, as we predicted last week, approved the rezoning of two areas near proposed new Metro-North stops in the Bronx — and not only kept a requirement that developers build parking, but coughed up $2 million for a new garage! This doesn't bode well for the elimination of parking mandates that is the core of Mayor Adams's City of Yes rezoning proposal. (NY Times, amNY, The City, Crain's)
- Scofflaws beware: Bus-mounted enforcement cameras, which had only been issuing warnings, will now spit out real tickets. (amNY, Gothamist)
- Drivers are now complaining to the Post about the supposed return of "squeegee men."
- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is just awful. First, he underfunded New Jersey Transit. Then, he raised fares by 15 percent. Now, after a series of easy-to-predict service failures (which happen when you underfund transit), he's giving beleaguered riders free rides for a week. Believe us, they're rather just have the better transit. (NY Times)
- Vendors marched on City Hall to reiterate their long-held belief that the current permit system, which we've covered, is broken. (amNY)
- One of those periodic sweeps of ghost vehicles almost got violent. (amNY)
- How about that: A TV news station caring about cops parked on the sidewalk?! Awesome. (WPIX11)
