Mayoral control works, so extend it, city schools chief sez in Albany
Vacant stores at Grand Central Mad. could see tenants in ’25: officials
City Schools Chancellor David Banks traveled to Albany on Tuesday to push state lawmakers to extend the Adams administration’s control of the city’s public schools.
Fresh off his meetings with more than a half-dozen legislators, he told reporters that most discussion centered on “adjustments” to the current system rather than dramatic changes to school governance.
“If you don’t want this system,” Banks said at a virtual press briefing, “there’s no perfect governance system, then what’s the system that you would want to see in place?
“Most of what we’ve been hearing [is] what are some adjustments we might make to the current system before signing off? I didn’t hear anybody who dramatically said get rid of it, it doesn’t work and we should go into a whole new system,” he added.
Banks met with state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), sponsors of the class-size law that was passed in 2022 with the last extension of mayoral control.
A spokesman for Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), chairman of the New York City Education Committee and one of the bill’s sponsors, said he had a productive sitdown Tuesday morning with Banks “reviewing the successes of this administration,” but did not commit to a renewal.
“Brainstorming how best to accomplish all that remains to be done for our schoolkids,” his representative said.
Gov. Hochul, a Democrat, has called for a four-year extension, but last month the Senate and Assembly indicated little appetite for renewing mayoral control during budget negotiations. During the last renewal, lawmakers asked for a study of the school governance structure, due March 31 but yet to be released.
Some legislators have indicated they are waiting on that report, now expected early next week, to make a decision, according to Banks. But the chancellor, who has yet to review the study himself, was still hopeful about including mayoral control in the state budget — also on borrowed time after blowing past an April 1 deadline.
“That is my goal,” he told reporters. “May be a long shot, but it’s certainly part of reason why I decided to come up here.”
The city’s teachers union and some parent advocates are pushing for checks on the mayor’s power to dictate school programs and procedures.
Currently, the city’s Panel for Educational Policy is mostly appointed by Mayor Adams and pushes through the administration’s directives on contracts, school mergers and closures. Under the United Federation of Teachers’ plan, the chancellor would have to convince the majority of the panel to vote in his favor.
“We can point to major failings of every mayor with mayoral control,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said, “and we do believe if there was a check and balance on the mayor, those mistakes would not have happened.”
On the other side, a pro-charter school group last week released a 17-page report on the “sordid legacy” of decentralized school boards. Former Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who heads the Queens public libraries, backed its findings, as did former Deputy Mayor Richard Buery, the CEO of the nonprofit Robin Hood.
Adams indicated Tuesday that mayoral control is one of his priorities in Albany, alongside housing, mental health and unlicensed cannabis shop regulations. His director of intergovernmental affairs, Tiffany Raspberry, joined Banks and three of his deputy chancellors on the trek upstate, the chancellor said.
“We’re looking forward to the extension of that issue,” Adams told reporters at City Hall.
If not extended, mayoral control would expire at the end of June.
Long Island commuters might be noshing and shopping at Grand Central Madison as early as next year.
The MTA has begun formally looking for a so-called “master tenant” to manage the LIRR terminal’s 25,000 square feet of retail space, transit officials announced Tuesday, saying they’re aiming to close the deal by year’s end.
“We’re hoping to make a selection by the fall,” David Florio, the MTA’s head of real estate, told reporters. “Between lease negotiation, plan review and so forth, we’re hoping to see some stores slowly ramp up during the course of 2025, and probably by ’26 you’ll see a full complement of stores.”
The gleaming white concourse’s 32 storefronts have sat empty since the LIRR’s long-awaited eastern terminal first opened in January 2023, with their huge plate glass windows papered over by generic scenes of food and consumer goods.
“When we were finishing up this new terminal, it was the height of COVID,” MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said Tuesday. “In the middle of that, we talked to the market about retail and everybody said, understandably, ‘We’ve got to wait until COVID is over and see how the world recovers and see what the foot traffic is in this new terminal.’ “
Foot traffic in the east Midtown area is on the rise overall, Alfred Cerullo, head of the Grand Central Partnership, told reporters.
“We began this year at over 80% of 2019 numbers, in terms of pedestrians accessing this neighborhood,” Cerullo said.
On the weekends, he said, foot traffic in east Midtown is even higher than before the pandemic, though he didn’t give specific numbers.
MTA officials have long said they wanted a single “master tenant” to take charge of Grand Central Madison, where food and retail options remain sparse over a year after opening.
Similar agreements have proved successful at other hubs, like at Penn Station, where Vornado Realty Trust rules the roost.
Earlier this year, the Westfield Corp., which operates the concessions at the Fulton St. station in lower Manhattan, abruptly said it wanted to back out of its agreement with the MTA, citing crime and quality-of-life issues.
The company is roughly halfway through its 20-year lease agreement. The MTA has since sued Westfield in an effort to prevent the company from bowing out of the station.
Lieber addressed system safety Tuesday. “I think folks who have used this facility know that this is incredibly well-policed and orderly,” he said. “I think that the world experiences Grand Central as among the safest places to be in transit.”
Asked what kinds of shops and restaurants he envisioned coming to the terminal, Lieber referenced the amenities at Grand Central Terminal some 50 feet above.
“Grand Central Terminal — old Grand Central — is the model,” he said.
Lieber, who prior to his stint as MTA honcho headed up Silverstein Properties’ World Trade Center division during the rebuilding of the complex, took a dig at his former stomping ground.
“We may not be the Oculus — we have not organized around providing our commuters the opportunity to buy a $10,000 watch on their way to or from getting their salad,” he quipped.
“What we’re looking for is a mix that’s very similar to Grand Central now,” Lieber added.
An MTA brochure for potential respondents shows a hypothetical map of the concourse with shops identified as newsstands, bagel stores and an Italian restaurant. Lieber said he hopes some bigname retailers would be in the mix, too.
One tenant is already known. Tracks, the stalwart LIRR bar known for its Penn Station location, has signed on to open a branch at the center of Grand Central Madison.
The bar, which is contracting directly with the MTA rather than through the future master tenant, is expected to open by the end of the year.