Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at the minimum-wage increase former Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he will instate if he is elected mayor of New York City. And we’ll get details on a new development plan in a busy part of Brooklyn.
New York City is in the throes of a once-in-a-generation economic crisis, beleaguered by inflation, income inequality and a shortage of affordable housing. To help combat it, Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York who is running for mayor, has announced a plan to raise the city’s minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2027 if he is elected. The increase would make New York City’s minimum wage one of the highest in the country, my colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons reported. Its current minimum wage is $16.50 an hour.
Many of the other Democrats in the mayoral primary have announced plans aimed at improving the lives of New York’s working class. Cuomo insists he’s the one who has shown he can actually do it.
The former governor announced the proposal on Wednesday at a campaign rally with unions that have endorsed him. He has emphasized on the campaign trail that he has passed a policy like this before. In 2016, after pressure from labor unions, he signed legislation that raised New York State’s minimum wage to $15 for most workers, putting New York at the forefront of a national push to raise wages.
“The first state to pass the highest minimum wage in the United States of America, right here,” he said earlier this year.
Cuomo wasn’t always on board with a city-specific wage increase. In 2014, he pushed back against a request by Mayor Bill de Blasio to increase New York City’s minimum wage, arguing that allowing local governments to set such rules for themselves would create “a chaotic situation.”
On Wednesday, Cuomo said his proposal would raise wages for about 800,000 workers in the five boroughs. He is calling for the new rate to start on Jan. 1, 2027, the one-year mark of his first term if he is elected. The plan would first have to be approved by Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers.
Cuomo, a moderate, is the front-runner in the polls and has the most funding behind him, and he has shown a willingness to embrace the affordability ideas pitched by more progressive rivals. Most major unions in the city have endorsed him. But his competitors aren’t letting the opportunity to question his intentions pass them by.
Opponents like Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman who is polling in second place, contend that Cuomo is more aligned with wealthy New Yorkers and the business class than with the working class. They have also said that he didn’t do enough to address affordability while he was governor — a position he resigned from in 2021 after allegations of sexual harassment that he denies.
On social media earlier this year, Mamdani criticized Cuomo for cultivating a “base of billionaires, developers and lobbyists” after some of Cuomo’s powerful allies formed a super PAC to back his campaign. But the former governor seemed to swat this idea away at Wednesday’s rally. “The businesspeople are going to say, ‘Oh no, you can’t raise the minimum wage, because that’s going to slow the economy,’” he said. “Baloney!”
The current mayor, Eric Adams, who is running as an independent in the general election in November, has also expressed skepticism about Cuomo’s commitments. “He would say anything to get elected,” he said on Tuesday.
Weather
Expect a rainy morning and a cloudy afternoon with a high near 73 degrees. In the evening, cloudy conditions will continue, and the temperature will drop to the low 60s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
Suspended for Solemnity of the Ascension.
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Adding 4,600 homes along a stretch of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn
On Wednesday, the City Council passed a plan to open a busy area in central Brooklyn to new residential development, my colleague Mihir Zaveri reported. The plan is expected to add 4,600 homes to the area as part of an effort to address the city’s worsening housing crisis. It will also reconfigure the 21-block stretch to add a bike lane, better visibility at intersections, improvements to nearby schoolyards and parks, and job-training programs for residents — additions community leaders have been asking for.
The area, a stretch along Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, has been bogged down by decades-old city regulations that blocked new development. Abandoned warehouses and auto shops take up valuable space, their lots unavailable to be repurposed into housing because of zoning laws. But the area has continued to attract new residents because of its proximity to Prospect Park and the subway, contributing to gentrification and pushing rents up. Several luxury apartment buildings have been erected between unused industrial lots, angering local leaders who want to see a less haphazard plan.
Councilwoman Crystal Hudson, who represents much of the area and who helped spearhead the plan, said there has “definitely been a culture shift in the last couple of years around housing.” She added that she hoped other neighborhoods would use the plan as a blueprint.
The plan reflects the Adams administration’s citywide push for development. Last year, city officials passed a broader plan known as City of Yes, which could help create 80,000 additional homes over the next 15 years. The administration is also moving to rezone parts of Midtown Manhattan, Long Island City and Jamaica, Queens.
METROPOLITAN diary
Spilled the Wine
Dear Diary:
I love airports. No matter how crazy they can be, to me they are the ultimate in glamour.
When I was growing up in Bayside, Queens, my family did not have much money. My father saved change in a giant glass jar for over a decade so that he could afford to take me and my sister to Disney World.
By the time he had saved enough, I was 14 and had long since lost interest in Disney World, and my parents had been separated for a number of years.
Still, Dad brought me and my sister to LaGuardia and off we went. He was so excited and once we went through those rotating doors, we were too.
It was definitely a budget vacation in every regard, but I will never forget stepping into that airport and experiencing what to me was how the other half lived.
Someone had accidentally broken a bottle of white wine on the floor, and the exotic aroma of Sauvignon Blanc or some other lush varietal filled the air. To me it was the smell of luxury, and I was going on an airplane. Thanks, Dad.
So I will always love airports and I will always love to fly. I will also always love Florida and was thrilled to be flying there recently from, you guessed it, LaGuardia.
— Pamela Primi
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. We’ll see you tomorrow. — T.R.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Stefano Montali and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post Cuomo’s Plan for a $20 Minimum Wage in New York City appeared first on New York Times.
