New Yorkers has forked over $900 million dollars to date, in an attempt to fix the City’s public wireless network.

By: Harry Cherry

That number, however, is about to grow exponentially.

Ever since the city tapped Defense contractor Northrop Grumman in 2006 to build and maintain the network, the overall cost has reached $891.1 million dollars, according to documents reviewed by the New York Post.

The City’s bill with Northrop Grumman increased over $55 million dollars — in unexpected costs for construction and additional services — as well as an addition $11+ million dollars for change orders.

An official within New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications told a reporter with the New York Post that it intends to renew its contract with Northrop through 2020 — and will cost NYC taxpayers roughly $40 million dollars more.

“It appears to me that we’re getting taken to the cleaners,” Robert Holden, a New York City councilman told The Post. “With all this extra money we’ve kicked in, you’d think [the network] would be better protected and we’d get a bigger bang for our buck, but we haven’t.”

The network suffered an outage earlier this month which lasted ten days, prompting calls from officials for answers. Officials, specifically, are demanding answers as to why the system’s software wasn’t updated — something which they say could have prevented the outage.

Federal officials issued a warning last year about the glitch — urging a fix.

Councilman Holden told The Post that officials feel “trapped” into extending the contract further because “no one” in the city’s government “knows how to deal” with the software.

“That’s why we’re overspending,” he told The Post. “It’s like we’re at the contractor’s mercy.”

Anne Roest, the former commissioner of the City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications testified in front of City Council in 2017 that the city should withdraw from the agreement as soon as possible.

She told the city council that the system is getting “more expensive” and requires “hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades.”

“I find it troubling that DoITT is intent on extending the contract of a poorly performing vendor whose cost overruns have proven to be a drain on the public treasury,” Bronx Councilman Ritchie Torres told The Post. “Instead of holding contractors accountable, the city continues rewarding bad behavior–all at taxpayer expense.”

A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications said in a statement to The Post that Northrop is the “only vendor that can operate NYCWiN,” but added that the department is in the process of switching “to a system that will utilize cellular carriers.”

New York City wants to save energy on big buildings – coincidentally, buildings like Trump Tower.

By: Jamil Paquin

The Democrat-controlled New York City Council was set to vote on the Climate Mobilization Act, a groundbreaking package of bills that is one of the most ambitious and innovative legislative initiatives any major city has ever considered to combat the existential threat of climate change.

The centerpiece of the package is a bill that will require large and medium-sized buildings, which account for nearly a third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the city, to reduce their emissions 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. The very worst performing buildings will have to act by 2024 to curb their emissions.

1253-C, sponsored by Council Member Costa Constantinides, would mandate that buildings do not emit greenhouse gases at levels higher than the limits set in the legislation. The limits are set based on the occupancy group of the building and are calculated to require emissions reductions from the highest emitting 20% of buildings in each occupancy group for the first compliance date beginning in 2024, and the highest emitting 75% of buildings in each occupancy group for the second compliance date beginning in 2030.

The bill would also create the Office of Energy and Emissions Performance within the Department of Buildings (DOB) to oversee the implementation of this legislation, and future bills and policy around building emissions.

Based upon city audits of energy use, Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan used more energy per square foot than 93% of large residential buildings, according to ALIGN, a coalition of labor and community groups that supports the legislation. ALIGN examined data on 50,000 buildings, all more than 25,000 square feet, the same universe as is covered by the legislation, according to Executive Director Maritza Silva-Farrell.

“With so many people and cars in NYC, it can be hard to believe that our buildings are the number one contributor of harmful emissions. Bill 1251 is part of a package of bills that will create an energy efficiency grading system for buildings throughout the city. Hopefully this will encourage building owners to make the necessary upgrades to reduce the amount of negative impacts that these large buildings are having on our environment. Thank you to Council Member Constantinides, Chair of the Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection for his determination, and thank you to Speaker Johnson for his leadership,” said Council Member Andrew Cohen.

“The Climate Mobilization Act is a down payment on the future of New York City — one that ensures we lead the way in the ever-growing fight against climate change. Today, we sent that message to the world by enacting the boldest mandate to reduce carbon emissions, tackling one of the biggest drivers of climate change. Our legislation represents over two years of engagement with the various communities, industries and everyday New Yorkers impacted by climate change. This historic day would not be possible without the leadership of Speaker Corey Johnson or the support of my colleagues in the New York City Council,” said Constantinides.

New York is well represented on Time magazine’s annual 100 Most Influential People list, with names like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Spike Lee, Gayle King, Lynn Nottage, Jennifer Hyman, Lady Gaga, Naomi Osaka and Glenn Close making the cut.

By Howard M. Riell

Heading the list of influential New Yorkers is, no surprise, President Donald Trump. Of him, Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, wrote: “Every modern U.S. President tries to influence the world. President Donald Trump has done this through opposing the NATO countries not paying their fair share, pushing China and our North American neighbors for fairer trade agreements and withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement. His boldest move in this direction is likely his personal efforts on the issue of North Korea. President Trump has, in fact, used the past year to place his imprint on a problem spanning more than six decades.

“Despite denuclearization agreements in 1992, 2005 and 2008, North Korea has become a nuclear power. President Trump decided to ramp up sanctions early in his tenure (which other Presidents have done) but decided to take a very different tack thereafter.

“In June 2018 President Trump broke with decades of U.S. policy and held a summit with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un in Singapore. The President believes that only personal diplomacy can solve this crisis. The President’s supreme confidence in his own ability to persuade others to make a deal is now the basis for American denuclearization policy toward North Korea.

“President Trump deserves great credit for daring to try to personally persuade Chairman Kim to join the family of nations. This approach holds the possibility for history–making changes on the Korean Peninsula to make us all safer.”

Of Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Elizabeth Warren noted, “The year 2008 was a reckoning. While millions of Americans lost their livelihoods to Wall Street’s greed, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lost her dad to lung cancer, and her family fell off a financial cliff. She watched as our government bailed out Wall Street while it ignored families like hers. She learned the hard way that in America today, Washington protects the powerful while leaving hardworking people behind.

“Her commitment to putting power in the hands of the people is forged in fire. Coming from a family in crisis and graduating from school with a mountain of debt, she fought back against a rigged system and emerged as a fearless leader in a movement committed to demonstrating what an economy, a planet and a government that works for everyone should look like.

“A year ago, she was taking orders across a bar. Today, millions are taking cues from her. She reminds all of us that even while greed and corruption slow our progress, even while armies of lobbyists swarm Washington, in our democracy, true power still rests with the people. And she’s just getting started.”

Tens of thousands of religious Jews who decided to spend Passover at a crowded hotel with their families are worrying about the measles outbreak.

By Clark Savage, Jr.

As a result, program organizers across the Greater New York City region have been working hard to know – in most cases, of course, they can’t – that their clients are not carrying the disease.

More than one told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that they were asking their guests to be vaccinated before they arrive at the hotel.

“We notified all the people that if they are not taking shots, they cannot come to our hotel,” Rabbi Motty Katz, manager of the Katz Pesach program at the Long Island Hilton in Huntington, New York, told JTA. “We’re going to be very strict on that. If you don’t take a shot, don’t go to a public place.”

“Our guests are not coming from any of the Hasidic communities, so the other communities are very much in favor of it,” Rabbi Yitzchok Neger, one of the managers of the Passover program at the Wyndham Golf Resort in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, told Vos Iz Neias. “A lot of our people are coming from places where the rabbis sent a letter to everyone that they should be vaccinated. Some of the shuls here had free clinics.”

Over one hundred thousand Jews across the planet, most of them Orthodox, will be spending Passover at a hotel, reports Raphi Bloom, who founded TotallyJewishTravel.com, a website that serves as a clearinghouse for Passover vacation bookings.

L’via Weisinger, a member of Emes, a group comprised of Orthodox nurses that encourages vaccination, told Vos Iz Neias, “You don’t have a right as a citizen to go to a Pesach hotel,” she said. “It’s private, so if they say ‘Unless you’re vaccinated, you’re not welcome,’ there’s nothing wrong with that. Here’s your money back. Whatever. With people mingling from all different communities, from all different programs, all different places, it’s like [opening] a feather pillow [and] gathering all those feathers back.”

With the lack of vaccinations in the religious community at the heart of the problem, Agudath Israel of America released a statement saying its leadership is “deeply concerned about the recent outbreak of measles and the threat it poses to communities around the country. For that reason, countless rabbinical figures and leaders, including leading rabbis in the Agudath Israel movement and doctors serving these communities, have repeatedly encouraged vaccination in the strongest possible terms. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of children enrolled in Jewish schools are vaccinated. Governmental records indicate that the measles vaccination rates in yeshivos in Williamsburg, Borough Park and across New York State are high, with yeshiva averages statewide exceeding 96%. Similarly high rates were obtained in areas around the country with large Jewish populations. While vaccination rates in certain schools and for preschoolers may be lower, vaccination is the clear societal norm in Orthodox Jewish communities.”