Tower prank remedy
Zip ties used to secure Corning Tower window blinds after “NY TOUGH” becomes “NY TOUCH” in Friday display.
Days after someone pulled off a prank apparently directed at Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo — changing the “NY TOUGH” light display on the Corning Tower to “NY TOUCH” — state maintenance workers used zip ties to secure window blinds in the building, including ones that were lowered last Friday to execute the caper.
State government officials have declined to explain how or why the building light display — which faces Cuomo’s Capitol office on the north side of the tower — was briefly changed on Friday evening. The incognito change in wording drew wide attention and took place two days after the Times Union published a story detailing a female aide’s account of allegedly being groped by the governor at the Executive Mansion in November.
The Times Union learned about the workplace crackdown after state employees lodged complaints with labor representatives saying their offices were too hot because they could no longer pull down the window shades.
A spokesperson for the state Office of General Services, which manages state properties, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.
The governor’s administration has invoked the “NY Tough” moniker since the early phases of the coronavirus pandemic last year. In October, Cuomo announced an initiative with The Realreal and fashion designers to produce a limited number of “NY Tough” masks to encourage the public to wear face coverings.
“New Yorkers have embodied the definition of ‘New York Tough’ through this past year and we need to maintain our vigilance to win this war on COVID,” Cuomo said last month during a coronavirus briefing.
Cuomo has faced accusations from multiple women who have come forward in the past five months and accused him of sexual harassment and other inappropriate conduct, triggering an investigation by the state attorney general’s office and an impeachment inquiry initiated by the state Assembly.
“I never touched anyone inappropriately,” Cuomo said last month in the wake of the aide’s groping allegations. “I never made any inappropriate advances ... (and) no one ever told me at the time that I made them feel uncomfortable. Obviously, there are people who said after the fact they felt uncomfortable.”