The week at a glance. Should Zohran Mamdani be allowed to live in a rent-stabilized apartment ?; Rep. Ritchie Torres is now a Gov. Kathy Hochul fan; 📻 Hear our special podcast on Peanut the squirrel; and more
Legionnaires’ outbreak revives questions about Mayor Adams’ response to a crisis
New York City just endured the second-worst outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in history — and Mayor Eric Adams is facing renewed criticism about his management skills and ability to respond to an emergency.
Legionnaires’ inspections of cooling towers fell to a post-pandemic low earlier this year. Now, five people have died and 108 have become sick. The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene attributed the drop in inspections to staffing shortages.
But health experts who fought the 2015 outbreak — which was the worst in the city’s history, with 16 dead and 130 sick — were deeply troubled that another occurred a decade later.
“This was avoidable,” said Dr. Don Weiss, a former city health official who helped coordinate responses to infectious disease outbreaks. “We know how to prevent Legionella outbreaks.”
“I thought we had set something up so that it wouldn’t happen again,” he added.
Chris Boyd, a former assistant commissioner at the health department who helped write the regulations in the wake of the 2015 outbreak, said monitoring the city’s roughly 5,000 cooling towers is critical to public safety because they are natural breeding grounds for Legionella bacteria.
“Cooling towers are health and safety systems,” he said. “New York City is having to wade through the grief and harm of more than 100 of its residents becoming ill and five dying from a preventable exposure to Legionella.”
Dr. Jay Varma, the former deputy commissioner for disease control at the health department who also worked on the city’s response in 2015, lashed into the Adams administration over the drop in inspections in a LinkedIn post.
“Public health regulations don’t implement themselves,” he wrote. “They require investment by government in ensuring people and organizations follow them.”
“COVID created a backlash against government and a push for austerity,” he added. “As we learn over and over again, if we invest in public health, we improve health, safety and longevity. If we don’t, we get outbreaks.”
(Varma, who advised Mayor Bill de Blasio during the pandemic, arguably contributed to that backlash after it emerged last year that he spoke about participating in sex parties during the pandemic while publicly encouraging people to avoid social gatherings.)
In a sign of a brewing political storm, the City Council plans to hold hearings next month on the administration’s response to Legionnaires’. The Rev. Al Sharpton and Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney, announced a lawsuit Wednesday against a construction company that is allegedly tied to the outbreak.
Jory Lange, another attorney, said he represents 44 people and plans to file a lawsuit after the city determines which building was the source of the outbreak. In a twist, four of the 10 buildings that tested positive are owned by the city.
“If I were a resident of Harlem, I’d be outraged,” said City Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who worked as a de Blasio aide during the 2015 outbreak. “The consistent mismanagement we’ve seen from Mayor Adams is unacceptable.”
Asked Tuesday about the lapses in oversight of cooling towers, Adams said the city had “clear procedures on inspection.”
But he suggested more frequent testing of cooling towers — which experts have recommended — might not be helpful.
“I use the analogy of COVID,” Adam said during an unrelated press conference. “You can test negative for COVID in one hour. The next hour you have it.”
Ballot Box
This week we're wondering: Who do you believe is best positioned to manage City Hall’s relationship with President Trump’s White House: Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Adams or Zohran Mamdani?
Last week we asked: Andrew Cuomo has become more aggressive as an independent candidate for mayor. Do you like it?
“It's cringe and completely misses the mark. He didn't lose the primary because Mamdani out-memed him, Cuomo lost the primary (and will lose the general) because of his terrible policies! In the meantime, I want him off my feeds!”
- Carmen in Manhattan
“This is not printable, but he's being an a--hole. Mean-spirited, true to character, unfair, gutter politics. Argue about policy, not about where Mamdani lives. His solution to the housing issue has been panned. His attacks of defund the police are misguided. Etc., etc...”
- Carol in Manhattan
“Finally! Mamdani is a nightmare. Time for Cuomo to take it to him before November.”
- J.C. in Manhattan
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(3) Rep. Ritchie Torres, once one of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s harshest critics, has changed his tune.
(4) Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has not changed his tune on Zohran Mamdani since the assemblymember won the Democratic mayoral primary, saying Mamdani still has work to do to win over his constituents in Central Brooklyn. (Gov. Hochul, however, has warmed up to Mamdani … a little bit.)
(5) Should Mamdani be allowed to live in a rent-stabilized apartment considering his six-figure income? We asked his neighbors.
(6) New Jersey currently has 33 large-scale, shovel-ready solar projects that are now on the brink of dying due to cuts from the Trump administration.
(9) How did the death of a cowboy-hat-wearing squirrel upstate become an issue in last year’s presidential race — and upend the enforcement of New York's wildlife and environmental laws? Read our investigation and listen to the story on NYC NOW.
