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Mayor de Blasio ordered the De-
partment of City Planning to study
mandatory permitting for all new
hotels across the city, an unprece-
dented move that would give the
politically powerful Hotel Trades
Council tremendous leverage.
The move comes as de Blasio
banks on that union’s support for
his flailing presidential bid, ignit-
ing a new round of criticism over
“pay-to-play” behavior from a City
Hall badly tarnished by a string of
campaign-finance scandals.
“At a minimum, it creates the ap-
pearance of impropriety and ille-
gality,” said Susan Lerner, head of
the good-government group Com-
mon Cause. “The mayor keeps
setting up situations that beg for a
pay-to-play interpretation.”
Special permitting would require
developers seeking to build new
hotels to go through an exhaustive
review process, including commu-
nity-board recommendations and
City Council approval, before they
could start construction, even if
the land is already zoned for com-
mercial and hotel uses.
Only hotels opened in recently
rezoned neighborhoods like Mid-
town East are currently covered
by such a requirement.
“This is a political decision by
the mayor, not a land-use deci-
sion,” said Kenneth Fischer, a for-
mer Brooklyn councilman and
land-use expert.
“That doesn’t mean that it’s a
quid pro quo,” he added. “[De Bla-
sio] believes that union member-
ship for hotel workers is a path to
the middle class, and their politi-
cal and ideological interests line
up on this issue.”
Planning Department officials
confirmed on Monday that the
de Blasio administration re-
quested the study — first reported
by Crain’s New York — based on
conversations that began around
April, a month before de Blasio
launched his presidential bid.
“This is not new. It’s been in dis-
cussion for years,” said de Blasio
spokeswoman Jane Meyer.
Nolan Hicks and Julia MarshSuite and
sour on
DeB order
Overdose deaths ticked down
more than 2 percent in New York
City last year, marking the first
drop in fatalities in nearly a de-
cade even as the opioid crisis has
swept across poorer parts of the
city, new data show.
Figures released Monday by the
city Health Department show
1,444 people died in the city from
overdoses last year — with opi-oids linked to 80 percent of the fa-
talities.
“The decrease in drug overdose
deaths is promising, but far too
many New Yorkers are still dy-
ing,” the health commissioner, Dr.
Oxiris Barbot, said in a statement.
Health officials linked 868
deaths last year — 60 percent of
all cases — to just one opioid
drug: synthetic fentanyl, whichhas mixed into the city’s heroin
supply with terrifying results.
The new Health Department
stats show the crisis has hit the
city’s poor precincts hardest, with
East Harlem and The Bronx’s Cro-
tona-Tremont and Hunts Point-
Mott Haven neighborhoods re-
porting the highest fatal overdose
rates in New York.
Both Brooklyn and Queensposted major drops in fatal over-
doses last year. But those im-
provements were more than offset
by growing numbers of cases in
Manhattan and The Bronx.
All told, The Bronx’s 391 fatal
overdoses last year were the most
of any borough in the city and ac-
counted for nearly one in three
cases in the five boroughs.
Nolan HicksDip in city OD deaths is ‘promising’
By SELIM ALGAR
Education ReporterA school-diversity panel cre-
ated by Mayor de Blasio wants to
eliminate gifted-and-talented
programs and other forms of ac-
ademic screening in city schools.
Arguing that such programs
perpetuate racial inequality be-
cause they are mainly filled with
white and Asian students, the
School Diversity Advisory
Group issued a report on Mon-
day calling on de Blasio and
Schools Chancellor Richard Car-
ranza to ditch the current gifted-
and-talented system.
The panel also recommended
tossing academic admissions
screening for middle schools
and most high schools.
But the panel acknowledged
that the proposed sweeping
change could induce the wide-
spread flight of those thriving
students from the system, leav-
ing city schools bereft of crucial
talent and still not integrated.
While the report has no bind-
ing power, the panel is stocked
with allies of both de Blasio andCarranza, and the mayor can im-
plement its suggestions at will.
The report’s existence was first
revealed by The New York Times.
De Blasio responded to the re-
port on Monday by saying: “Ev-
ery child, regardless of ZIP code,
has the right to attend a school
where they can thrive.
“I thank the School Diversity
Advisory Group for all their
hard work to promote equity and
excellence across our system,
and I look forward to reviewing
their recommendations. ”
Carranza said, “We’re going toreview their recommendations
and take action to ensure all stu-
dents have access to a rich and
rigorous education.’’
But the schools chancellor has
already openly questioned the
legitimacy of gifted-and-talented
programs, including to a group
of Queens parents in February.
“When you have over 35 per-
cent of your students be desig-
nated as gifted and talented, we
need to bottle the water we’re
drinking and ship it all over the
place,” he said sarcastically.
“Because that is far beyond thepercentage of gifted and talented
that, from a statistical perspec-
tive, should be found in the pop-
ulation.”
Backers of the current system
counter that it rewards diligence
and accommodates families of
advanced kids who would other-
wise abandon the public-school
system altogether.
And proponents of gifted-and-
talented programs and other
screenings note that many top
city schools have significant
populations of poor immigrants.
Several groups have argued
that the city should expand rather
than contract gifted-and- talented
programs, citing higher minority
enrollment at top schools when
they were abundant, especially in
lower-income areas.
The panel’s recommendations
would apply to all elementary and
middle schools and some high
schools, according to the report.
The report echoed statements
made by de Blasio and Carranza
about the lack of black and His-
panic enrollment in specialized
and screened schools.
[email protected]Campaign to dump
gifted-kid program
We’re going to take
action to ensure all
students have
access to a rich and
rigorous education.
— Chancellor Richard CarranzaChancellor Richard CarranzaJames Messerschmidt