The New York City Council is gearing up for another veto battle with the mayor \u2013\u00a0not over just one piece of legislation, but three.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bills \u2013\u00a0one of which would decriminalize street vending, the others would raise wages for grocery delivery workers \u2013\u00a0are the latest of more than a dozen measures vetoed by Mayor Eric Adams throughout his tenure. Over the past couple weeks alone, the mayor has overturned four of the City Council\u2019s measures, further fueling tensions between the two sides of City Hall as he pursues a longshot bid for reelection as an independent candidate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams did not hold back Thursday as she slammed the mayor for vetoing the measures. While she acknowledged that the City Council did not have the \u201cappetite\u201d to overturn one of them: the mayor\u2019s revival<\/a> of Bally\u2019s casino bid, she said the Council plans to save the street vending and grocery delivery bills. While logistical discussions are ongoing, the City Council will most likely override the mayor\u2019s vetoes on Sept. 10, the next stated meeting. The 30-day clock to do so starts Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese vetoes once again demonstrate how the mayor is failing to serve New Yorkers and the public interest,\u201d Speaker Adams told reporters ahead of the council\u2019s monthly stated meeting. \u201cHis own administration recommended<\/a> these bills, negotiated them and supported their passage.\u201d<\/p>\n Two of the measures, Int. 1135-A<\/a> and Int 1133-A<\/a>, would put grocery store delivery workers on even footing with food delivery workers, extending protections previously passed by the City Council to the former and bumping pay to a little over $21 per hour. The other, Intro. 47-B<\/a>, would ensure street vendors no longer face misdemeanor charges or jail time for violating the city\u2019s vending law. Aimed to limit unnecessary interactions with law enforcement for the vendors \u2013 roughly 96% of whom<\/a> are immigrants \u2013 the legislation comes as the Trump administration ramps up deportations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is such a dangerous moment for immigrants in the city,\u201d bill sponsor Council Member Shekar Krishnan told City & State. \u201cMayor Adams has put them in further danger, but we in this City Council will not let that happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Since all three bills initially passed with a solid veto-proof majority, the City Council should have little trouble with the overrides. But for Adams, the vetoes could draw contrast between himself and the City Council as he tries to build support for his mayoral campaign. Just last week, the New York Post published a flattering story<\/a> about the mayor\u2019s vetoes, framing them as a check on the City Council\u2019s \u201cradical leftist agenda.\u201d First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro also reportedly encouraged the mayor to veto the grocery delivery bills as Amazon and Instacart \u2013\u00a0both powerful delivery companies \u2013 engaged in an aggressive lobbying campaign, according to the Daily News.<\/a><\/p>\n Mayor Adams for his part has framed his reasoning in non-political terms. He\u2019s argued that the delivery worker bills would cause grocery delivery companies to jack up their prices for customers \u2013\u00a0many of whom receive food assistance, are seniors and have disabilities. Of the other bill, he\u2019s argued that decriminalizing street vending would be unfair to \u201claw-abiding business owners\u201d and also poses \u201creal public health and safety risks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Speaker Adams was unmoved by either of these defenses. She argued that the bills aim to protect\u00a0immigrants and working-class New Yorkers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor\u2019s vetoes are anti-worker and anti-working class, aligning him once again with Donald Trump\u2019s agenda,\u201d she said. \u201cHe cannot claim to care about working-class New Yorkers or establishing a sustainable delivery sector while also blocking fair wages and protections for the workers that made this sector. The hypocrisy of his claims are on full display time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York City Council is gearing up for another veto battle with the mayor \u2013\u00a0not over just…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":146206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,6640,5226,5225,5228,5227,153,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-146205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-council","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-policy","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115029509569448955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}