DE BLASIO avoids controversy in rowdy debate — More questions for VANCE— SCHNEIDERMAN’S first 2018 ad Presented by Ørsted

By Jimmy Vielkind in Albany and Laura Nahmias in Manhattan, with Daniel Lippman

The broad consensus after last night’s “rowdy” mayoral debate is that it may not have been pretty, but de Blasio, a heavily-favored incumbent who needed only to avoid making waves to succeed, did exactly what he needed to do. Essentially, he let chaos play out onstage all around him, and couldn’t help but appear mayoral by comparison.

At least one audience member had to be ejected by security guards. “It’s a real New York debate,” moderator Errol Louis said as he tried to explain the debate rules, while audience members engaged in competing chants of “Four more years!” and “No more years!” The audience seemed to feed off the candidates' own sparring, and midway through the debate, Louis pleaded with the crowd to maintain some “dignity and decorum” and to “settle down.”

When Dietl repeatedly interrupted de Blasio and Malliotakis, Louis asked control room operators to cut the power to his microphone, so that viewers could hear the other candidates speak.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY. Go Yankees! Got a tip? Feedback? News to share? Let us know. By email: [email protected] , [email protected] , and [email protected] , or on Twitter: @JimmyVielkind , @nahmias , and @dlippman .

WHERE’S ANDREW? In New York City with no announced public schedule.

WHERE’S BlLL? He will attend and deliver remarks at the annual Fire Department Memorial Day Ceremony, but isn’t taking any questions.

The Tabloids — Daily News: ”TO LASH A PREDATOR” — New York Post: “HARVNADO: It was a gropin’ secret: Actresses tell tales of Pervy Weinstein”— See Them

The Tabloids, cont.— Newsday: “ISLES ALL IN ON BELMONT: Team co-owner doubles Down on new arena, nixes Coliseum return”— El Diario: “Empleados Vulnerables” TRANSLATION: “Vulnerable Employees”— See Them

The Free Papers — Metro New York: “‘GET YOUR HATE SPEECH OUT OF HERE’” — AM New York: “5 Years after Sandy: THE COAST ISN’T CLEAR” — See Them

The Broadsheets — Wall Street Journal — 2 col., above the fold: “P&G Claims Win, but Peltz Presses On” — New York Times,— 2 col., above the fold: “Big Name Actresses Say They Were Harassed by Weinstein”— 2 col., above the fold: “Medical Crisis in Puerto Rico: ‘The Whole Island is Critical’” See Them

— FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Never too early to start the 2018 campaign. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is out with his first ad for his re-election effort next year, a 2-minute, 10-second spot produced by Four Corners Media that touts Schneiderman’s lawsuits against Trump University, the Trump Administration’s travel ban, plans to end DACA and suits against the EPA. The Democratic attorney general begins in a voice-over, “It is not okay to be a bigot in New York or in america. It never has been and it never will be…” Watch the ad here.



A message from Ørsted: A Greener Path Towards Recovery. Across the state, we have felt the impact of COVID-19 on our economy and our communities. But now, we have the opportunity to rebuild, and to do so greener. At Ørsted, we believe that the time to transition to renewable energy is now. And as the nation’s leading offshore wind developer, we’re here to help.



STAT OF THE DAY: “One out of every four New York City government workers pulled in pay of more than $100,000 last year — thanks largely to overtime, according to a new study.”

YOUR TICKET TO THE MEDIA CIRCUS: Michael Calderone, one of the most widely respected media writers in the business, is back at POLITICO and taking the helm of the must-read Morning Media newsletter. Calderone will deliver fresh scoops, behind the scenes tidbits, and analysis of the top media stories straight to your inbox every morning. Get in-the-know by signing up for the free newsletter here: http://www.politico.com/media/tipsheets/morning-media

2017: DEBATE NIGHT — HOW IT PLAYED

— The word of the day is “devolved .”

[Daily News:] “The first debate for mayor in the general election devolved into a steel cage match — with incessant shouting from the crowd, mud-slinging and accusations of lying and a moderator who had to play referee and toss one heckler out of the venue.”

[Harry Siegel:] “Shouting, insults abound in wildly stupid New York mayoral debate”

[New York Times:] “Mayor Bill de Blasio withstood a relentless enfilade of darts and barbs from two of his general election opponents in a raucous debate on Tuesday night, countering with a determined defense of his record and dismissing them as conservatives out of step with New York City’s electorate.”

[Wall Street Journal:] “Mayor Bill de Blasio faced his challengers in the New York City mayoral race on the debate stage for the first time Tuesday night, defending his record against a Republican and a renegade insurgent who has drawn comparisons to President Donald J. Trump.”

[AM New York:] “...There were more than a few cringe-worthy moments to go around.”

[New York Post:] “Mayor de Blasio fought off one-two punch combos Tuesday night from challengers Nicole Malliotakis and Bo Dietl in a raucous three-way debate that repeatedly devolved into heckling from the crowd and personal barbs among the candidates.”

[Crain’s:] “First mayoral debate full of sound and fury, signifying little”

— FIVE TAKEAWAYS — New York Times’s Shane Goldmacher: “The mayor wrapped himself up with the police: Tempers flared and tensions increased during the discussion on crime. Mr. de Blasio kept repeating that New York is the ‘safest big city’ in America. Both his opponents objected. ‘That is not true if you’re a woman in this city,’ Ms. Malliotakis said, citing a ‘25 percent increase in felony sex crimes.’ Mr. de Blasio slashed back that she was engaged in a ‘classic right-wing Republican scare tactic.’ Then, in a fascinating maneuver for a mayor who has at times had a fraught relationship with rank-and-file police, Mr. de Blasio said that anyone who disagreed with the statistics that crime is down was ‘denigrating the hard work of’ the New York Police Department.” Read them all here.

— REALITY CHECK: This year’s debate barely registered. It’s absent from the front pages of almost every major New York paper, save a little side-bar in AM New York.

WHAT CITY HALL IS READING:

— MORE HEAT ON VANCE — In Ronan Farrow’s bombshell piece for the New Yorker, NYPD sources suggest the Manhattan D.A.’s failure to indict Weinstein for allegedly groping a young actress was a miscarriage of justice: “Two sources close to the police investigation said that they had no reason to doubt Gutierrez’s account of the incident. One of them, a police source, said that the department had collected more than enough evidence to prosecute Weinstein. But the other source said that Gutierrez’s statements about her past complicated the case for the office of the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr….“We had the evidence,” the police source involved in the operation told me. ‘It’s a case that made me angrier than I thought possible, and I have been on the force a long time.’” Read it here.

— VANCE’S DEFENSE: “‘If we could have prosecuted Harvey Weinstein for the conduct that occurred in 2015, we would have,’ Chief Assistant DA Karen Friedman-Agnifilo said in a statement...“The seasoned prosecutors in our Sex Crimes Unit were not afforded the opportunity before the meeting to counsel investigators on what was necessary to capture in order to prove a misdemeanor sex crime,” she said. “While the recording is horrifying to listen to, what emerged from the audio was insufficient to prove a crime under New York law, which requires prosecutors to establish criminal intent.’ ” Read more here.

— EDITORIAL — Daily News: “Vance’s chief assistant says that a chilling conversation with the young woman caught on a wire, plus other evidence, fell short of proving intent necessary to prove a crime. All eminently plausible. But damned if the picture drawn in sound — the woman’s agonized refusals ('I don’t want to be touched'), the mogul’s disgusting assertion that forcibly touching women without permission is just the way he works ('I’m used to that') — doesn’t convey the chilling message to the women of New York that the law treads more lightly when the suspect in question is a wealthy and powerful bulldozer prepared to drag accusers through deep mud.” Read more here.

— STASI PILES ON: “for decades Harvey got away with it because power is everything in New York and Los Angeles. Now that power has come back to hang like a funeral wreath on the door of Manhattan DA, Cyrus Vance Jr...” Read more here.

— WILL VANCE CHARGE HIM? — New York Post: “Harvey Weinstein could still be on the hook for criminal charges — following an actress’ horrifying allegation of forced oral sex in his Tribeca office and an anonymous employee’s rape claim…’If the allegations are true … they would support a prosecution for criminal sexual act in the first degree,’ said Daniel Alonso, a former top prosecutor with the Manhattan DA’s Office.” Read more here.

— MISOGYNY IN TECH — Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen pens op-ed for Refinery 29: “Prompted by Google’s justified firing of James Damore, a Silicon Valley software engineer who authored a memo that questioned a woman’s biological ability to master technology, the network of listservs and support groups that fosters male-centric reactionism is in the spotlight. A New York Times story highlights some men who believe that things have gone “too far.” Good. Only when we smoke it out can we confront it. I wish I could say the pseudo-science advocated by some men in the tech industry — such as James Altizer and Paul Graham— was an isolated phenomenon. It isn’t. Over my career, I’ve seen these attitudes and their adherents in the world of finance, in real estate, and in virtually all the boys’ clubs into which a generation of women have forced entry to gain opportunities to the best earning jobs in the country where they can contribute to our economy.” Read more here

— NYPD — New York Times’s Al Baker and Benjamin Mueller: “A New York City police officer has been indicted on charges that he patronized a 15-year-old girl for prostitution and made videos of her performing sex acts, the Bronx district attorney’s office announced on Tuesday.” Read more here

— ANOTHER HOMELESS HOTEL — New York Post’s Lois Weiss: “The Row NYC Hotel near Times Square may soon be getting a new nickname: The Skid Row Hotel. That’s because the city has confirmed that it has reserved 57 rooms — or 4 percent of the 1,331 rooms at the former Milford Plaza at 700 Eighth Ave. — for homeless families in its Turning the Tide on Homelessness housing program. The city is currently using 49 of the rooms at the former Milford (which long had been known for its “Lullaby of Broadway” TV spots aimed at weekend theatergoers) in its fast-growing housing program, and expects that number to rise.” Read more here

— DEAR JEFF BEZOS — Daily News’s Jillian Jorgensen: “Tech:NYC, a nonprofit member organization that represents people in the city’s growing tech industry, has penned a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos urging him to set up the web retail giant’s second headquarters in New York City.” Read more here.

WHAT ALBANY IS READING:

— RISING RESCUES EXHAUST RANGERS — NCPR’s Brian Mann: “The Adirondacks are booming with more hikers, more campers, more rock climbers and paddlers than ever before. But that popularity means a growing pace of emergencies and search and rescue operations for the 140 New York state forest rangers. Some rangers warn that the pace is spreading them too thin, causing exhaustion and burnout… In July veteran ranger Scott Van Laer – he’s a delegate for the union that represents rangers - wrote an essay for the Adirondack Almanack. He warned of the risk of burnout and called for more rangers to be hired… Numerous other rangers have contacted North Country Public Radio to voice similar concerns, describing high levels of exhaustion. ‘This can’t go on,’ one ranger said, speaking on background. Another described the pace of search and rescue operations as ‘unsustainable.’.” Read more here

— FILM HUB FACES EVICTION — Post Standard’s Rick Moriarty: “Cor Development Co. is seeking to evict the Central New York film hub from its building in DeWitt, saying the state-run studio has fallen nearly $1 million behind in its rent. Cor filed a petition in state Supreme Court in Onondaga County seeking a judgment of $934,849 in back rent from Fort Schuyler Management Co. and an order evicting the film hub, formally known as the Central New York Hub for Emerging Nano Industries...The film hub was announced in March 2014 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a way to bring jobs in Central New York.” Read more here

INFOGRAPHIC: Mortgage Interest and Real Estate Deductions: The mortgage interest deduction has become a key part of the conversation around tax reform. Our infographic breaks down the projected values by income class of both the mortgage interest and real estate tax deductions for 2017. Download now

TRUMP’S NEW YORK:

— SCARAMUCCI BAILS ON PAL LUNCHEON (and Cindy Adams is not happy about it) — Page Six: “Columbus Day’s over. Chris is still standing like a statue. Now, another New York monument — Scarashitzi. May his tripe decrease. The Mooch , set to address a sold-out Police Athletic League luncheon, chickened. Last-minute. Their excuse? “He missed the red-eye.” No. He missed what he always misses — honor. Day before, he had hopped to LA to hustle a TV show. This cretin let down his wife, his president, his future, his friends. May a dog not step in him.” Read more here

SOCIAL DATA:

HAPPENING TONIGHT -- Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction and New Yorker staff writer, will deliver the 2nd annual Jonathan Schell Memorial Lecture Series on the “Fate of the Earth,” in honor of Schell, the late environmental journalist. The event is at 7 p.m. at the New School Livestream http://bit.ly/2kDlNkw

BIRTHDAYS: Happy Birthday to … Tishman and Speyer CEO Rob Speyer … Department of Social Services communications director David Neustadt … State Senate aide Adam Kramer

— ALL HAPPY FAMILIES….” — Daily News’s Stephen Rex Brown: ”Former U.S. Sen. Al D’Amato’s second wife is seeking a divorce amid allegations she wielded a shotgun during a domestic dispute with the Republican powerbroker. Katuria D'Amato, 50, filed for divorce from the 80-year-old once known as "Senator Pothole" in Manhattan Supreme Court on Oct. 3...A source close to the case, confirming comments made in court before Justice Matthew Cooper, said that Al D'Amato became afraid for their children when his wife wielded a loaded 20-gauge Mossberg shotgun — with the safety on.” Read more here

IN MEMORIAM: Holly Block, director of the Bronx Museum, has died at age 58.

MORNING MEDIA, with POLITICO’s Michael Calderone:

— TURKEY SENTENCES WSJ REPORTER FOR COMMITTING JOURNALISM: Turkey, the world's leading jailer of journalists, sentenced Wall Street Journal reporter Ayla Albayrak to two years and one month in prison for spreading terrorist propaganda in support of Kurdish separatists. What Albayrak, a dual Finnish and Turkish citizen, was doing was reporting . Her work, editor Gerry Baker wrote in a memo, is “a model of Journal reporting: thorough, balanced, objective.”

You can read the full Morning Media column and sign up to receive it in your inbox by clicking here.

REAL ESTATE, with POLITICO New York’s Sally Goldenberg and Conor Skelding:

— “Ethnic tensions emerge at Broadway Triangle rezoning hearing,” by POLITICO New York’s Conor Skelding: It was not long before suspicion and hostility between the Hasidic Jewish population of Williamsburg and the Brooklyn neighborhood's black and Latino residents bubbled to the surface of a City Council hearing on a controversial development proposed for a site that lies almost squarely between two neighborhoods with a history of conflict. Read the story here

— “Isaac Chetrit quietly shopping Sixth Avenue development site,” by The Real Deal’s Mark Maurer: “Isaac Chetrit and Ray Yadidi are quietly shopping their development site along a prime strip of Sixth Avenue in Midtown’s Garment District... The investors’ companies, AB & Sons and Sioni Group, are considering scrapping plans for a mixed-use skyscraper of at least 70 stories on a site with 375,000 buildable square feet.” Read the story here

— “SoHo Gets Something New,” by New York Times’ C.J. Hughes: “SoHo is not an easy place to build. Empty lots are scarce. Many buildings require their residents to be working artists. And the neighborhood sits almost entirely in a historic district. Then how might one explain the creation of 150 Wooster Street, a ground-up condo from the developer KUB Capital?” Read the story here

You can find the free version of Sally’s real estate newsletter here: http://politi.co/2a1DgJk

AROUND NEW YORK:

— The New Museum hired world-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas to design its expansion.

— A City Department of Health computer glitch prevented funeral directors from creating the death certificates necessary for people to be buried, forcing some to postpone or cancel funerals.

— Newsstands in the new Second Avenue Subway stations have remained empty for nine months.

— A pro Bo Dietl PAC called “New Yorkers for New York” received its first donation, from a non-New Yorker.

— ACS commissioner David Hansell talks about reforms he’s made to the agency.

— City Councilman Danny Dromm penned an op-ed for the Gay City News calling on the Department of Education to better protect LGBT students, after a student who was bullied stabbed his fellow students in the Bronx.

THE HOME TEAMS — Politico’s Howard Megdal:

The United States men’s soccer team failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986, a remarkable and humbling failure, one that never would have happened on Carli Lloyd’s watch.

The day ahead: Game 5, Yankees-Indians in Cleveland. CC Sabathia and Corey Kluber. I defy you to find more drama anywhere.

#UpstateAmerica: William Shatner will visit the Ticonderoga Star Trek set.

#ZooYork: Two museums are competing to become the first Hip Hop museum to open in New York City.

FOR MORE political and policy news from New York, check out Politico New York’s home page: http://politi.co/1MkLGXV

SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook http://politi.co/1M75UbX ... New York Playbook http://politi.co/1ON8bqW … Florida Playbook http://politi.co/1OypFe9 ... New Jersey Playbook http://politi.co/1HLKltF ... Massachusetts Playbook http://politi.co/1Nhtq5v … Illinois Playbook http://politi.co/1N7u5sb ... California Playbook http://politi.co/2bLvcPl ... Brussels Playbook http://politi.co/1FZeLcw ... London Playbook http://politi.co/2xfDPuK … All our political and policy tipsheets http://politi.co/1M75UbX



Follow us on Twitter Erin Durkin @erinmdurkin



Anna Gronewold @annagronewold