After counting ranked choice voting and mail-in ballots, Brooklyn Councilmember Brad Lander finally declared victory in the Democratic primary for New York City Comptroller. The Republican Party is not nominating anyone for the position, and will almost certainly win the general election in the fall.

Lander earned 51.9 percent of votes, giving him a narrow advantage over his opponent, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who received an impressive 48.1 percent himself. Although some ballots still need to be ‘cured’ (a process by which voters can fix improperly completed ballots) before the Board of Elections certifies the victory, Johnson has already conceded from the race.

“Today, after seeing the numbers released by the Board of Elections, it’s clear that the right thing to do is to suspend my campaign for Comptroller,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement. “This was a hard-fought campaign and I congratulate Brad Lander on his victory.”

Originally Johnson planned on running for Mayor, but switched to the comptroller’s race last fall. Despite his defeat in the election, Johnson celebrated the passing of the City Budget last week. The $98.7 billion budget is the largest in the City’s history, roughly 12 percent higher than last year’s leaner, pandemic-influenced budget of $88.2 billion.

Lander celebrated the news with a statement on Twitter.

“Thank you NYC! I promise to work hard every single day to help our city recover from the pandemic more just, more equal, and better prepared for future crises than we were for this one,” Lander wrote. “I am honored to be the Democratic nominee for New York City Comptroller.”

The comptrollership oversees the accounting and financial procedures of the City, a critical watchdog position in the City government. Lander will be taking the place of current comptroller and failed mayoral candidate Scott Stringer.

Lander was considered to be the most left-leaning candidate in the race, marking his victory as a major accomplishment for New York City’s progressive movement. During his campaign, Lander received major endorsements from the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren.

The New York Islanders playoff run ended with a game seven defeat in the NHL semi finals, and since then the sprint to finish the construction of their new home stadium, UBS Arena at Belmont Park, has intensified.
BQE Media recently toured the arena construction site, where as many as 700 construction professionals are at work daily, readying the new arena for the Isles to occupy next season. While there are still many nuts and bolts to tighten before hockey games and concerts can take place, the arena is coming together. “It’s very exciting for those of us working on the project to actually see signage,” said Michael Sciortino, Senior Vice President of Operations and Assistant General Manager of UBS Arena, “It’s a real milestone.”
According to the new venue’s website, “UBS Arena is a part of the $1.5 billion redevelopment of Belmont Park that includes a retail village and hotel. The project is expected to generate approximately $25 billion in economic activity, including 10,000 construction jobs, 3,000 permanent jobs and major infrastructure improvements.”
Although the new sports and concert venue is loaded with modern technology, it will borrow from great New York sites of the past. Architects referenced the original Madison Square Garden, Ebbets Field, the former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, and even from Grand Central Station in creating UBS Arena’s identity. “It’s an old New York design when talking about the aesthetic of the arena, there’s a Grand Central Station and an early-1900’s New York feel with a lot of the tile and brick work,” said Sciortino.
Sciortino, a Rockland County native and Long Island resident since 2005, spent two years as Vice President of Operations at the Chase Center in San Francisco, home of the Golden State Warriors, handling the day-to-day operations at the facility. For him, hiring construction crews with the right experience has been key. “The architect is Populous, the industry leader for sports and entertainment venues – full stop,” Sciortino said. “The finishes inside and out are stupendous.”
Although the Isles were born into a brand new Coliseum in 1972 and played three seasons at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn starting in 2015, those involved with the UBS Arena project are tasked with the job of creating the world-class stadium Islanders fans have been demanding for decades. The “Isles” closed out their tenancy at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in Uniondale, Long Island with one final win, sending their series with the Tampa Bay Lightning to the limit in front of a passionate crowd that just didn’t want to leave.
In the design process, the Isles made sure to equip their new home with a number of amenities that were weak points at their previous venues.
First, the Isles made sure to add the luxury spaces like bars and suites that the Nassau Coliseum never had enough of. At UBS Arena, there will be eight bars with views of the ice and several “VIP suites and clubs inspired by New York.” According to a press release dated May 8, UBS Arena has already sold out of 80% of premium seating.
The Isles faced critics league wide when they moved to the Barclays Center, a venue that was built for basketball and has many seats where views of the hockey nets are obscured to the crowd. The new venue was designed to replicate and improve upon the sight lines at the Nassau Coliseum, known for its intimate vibe and robust views.
Another area where the Isles will have an advantage league-wide is in the bathroom. While fans found crowded restrooms at the Nassau Coliseum, Sciortino says UBS Arena will have the best restroom-to-fan ratio locally and in the NHL overall. There are 68 guest-facing restrooms, 12 of which are “family style.”
Still, Sciortino says the Isles won’t be able to host games in the building until November, forcing the team to start the season on the road. Recently, plans were announced to hold the Isles preseason games in Bridgeport, CT, where the Isles have their farm team.
With much work left to do, Sciortino and his staff are poised for challenges that may emerge in the completion process.
“We prepare for everything we know about. I’m always most nervous about the thing that we don’t know about yet,” Sciortino says. “There’s some gremlin in this building that no one knows about yet that is going to create a problem for us later, we just need to be prepared.”

On June 30th, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and various members of the City Council gathered in the City Hall Rotunda to celebrate the passage of the fiscal year 2022 budget for New York City.
The $98.7 billion budget is the largest in the City’s history, roughly 12 percent higher than last year’s leaner, pandemic-influence budget of $88.2 billion. The 2022 budget passed by the closest of margins, with 32 City Council Members voting in favor and 17 against.
Mayor de Blasio and speaker Johnson are praising the fiscal plan as a key step in the City’s post-pandemic recovery. However, many critics — including current and incoming City Council members — are still upset with the result.
“This is one of the greatest investments in working families in the history of New York City,” de Blasio said during Wednesday’s press conference. “We are sending resources to the communities who need it most, this is a radical investment in working families and that’s what we need right now to come out of this pandemic and move forward.”
The budget includes many programs focused on recovery, including a $24 million provision to hire unemployed people in economically distressed neighborhoods.
Additionally, the budget (which has not yet been made open to the public) reverses many of the cost-saving cuts made to City agencies last year, including those to the Parks Department, Sanitation, and libraries.
Since the announcement, elected officials in Queens and Brooklyn have shared their thoughts on the budget.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards viewed the budget favorably, praising the Mayor for restoring funding to some services and allocating new funding for programs that can specifically benefit Queens.
“Here at Queens Borough Hall, I am thankful that many painful cuts to the Borough President’s Office from Fiscal Year 2021 are restored and now improved in this year’s budget,” Richards wrote in a statement. “I applaud Mayor de Blasio, Speaker Johnson, Finance Chair Dromm and the Council for securing a budget that places Queens and the rest of our City on a path to recovery.”
He continued: “This pandemic also unfortunately propelled a pandemic for hate, particularly against our Jewish, Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI), and Muslim communities. As Queens saw a rise against hate, I called for these investments and I am proud that the $4 million AAPI Community Support and $1 million Hate Crime Prevention initiatives are included in this budget.”
Multiple City Councilmembers from Queens, including Peter Koo from District 20 (Flushing) and Adrienne Adams from District 28 (Jamaica), followed suit, issuing statements that celebrated budget victories for their own constituents and communities.
Brooklyn’s Borough President and Mayoral frontrunner Eric Adams shared a sentiment similar to that of the Queens BP, writing “I am pleased to see that this budget restores cuts to services including parks and sanitation, which are vital to our public health and quality of life, as well as cuts to our community boards, which represent the most local form of our civic engagement.”
However, many progressive-leaning politicians have taken issue with some of the provisions included in the budget. These concerns are focused primarily on the additional $200 million in funding awarded to the NYPD, which critics believed to be ill-advised after a year-long movement to decrease the department’s budget in response to police violence nationwide.
Mayor de Blasio defended the additional funding, stating that they are aimed at improving the NYPD’s “IT Needs” and cutting overtime spending.
“We want to have the department be effective, we need better technology to do that,” de Blasio said. “The other piece — and I say this very openly — we worked together on overtime. We reduced overtime a lot.”
In addition to the current City Council Members who opposed parts of the budget, a number of incoming Council Members also expressed concerns.
Our paper spoke with Jennifer Gutierrez, who recently won the election to represent District 34 (which encompasses parts of Bushwick, Ridgewood, and Williamsburg in both Brooklyn and Queens).
“For so many New Yorkers in organizing and movement spaces, there were a lot of expectations that this budget would work to remediate the glaring shortcomings from last year’s budget,” Gutierrez said. “Together, we demanded more transparency, an equitable recovery program, and divestment from the PD to invest in common-sense initiatives.”
Gutierrez continued: “It seems there were zero lessons learned in this opaque budget cycle. We have a lot to learn from, a lot to fight against, and a lot left to deliver for all New Yorkers.”