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Poor New York City immigrants who otherwise would have faced the complicated immigration system with its threat of deportation on their own will now get legal representation to help them in a program advocates say is the first of its kind in the country and one they hope the federal government will ultimately take on. The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project will cover all eligible immigrant city residents detained in the system and appearing in immigration courts in New York City or the New Jersey cities of Elizabeth and Newark. Lawmakers approved $4.9 million for the initiative as part...

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Bill Bratton has destroyed his reputation in a short amount of time by becoming a mouthpiece for Bill de Blasio. Taking the job was a poor idea since crime rates had dropped so low that they were bound to rebound, especially under a pro-criminal mayor like De Blasio. All that Bratton had done is set himself up to take the blame and join the ranks of failed NYPD commissioners like Lee Brown who did what a liberal mayor wanted instead of fighting crime. So now it’s time to pander to Islam.

The world was a beautiful place as Bill de Blasio folded himself into the front passenger seat of a black SUV. The late-afternoon sun was shining on Park Slope, and a grand political breakthrough was within reach. Sure, it had been a complicated few weeks as Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Working Families Party, bitter codependents, tried to agree on a deal that would give Cuomo the WFP’s ballot line this fall in exchange for the governor’s publicly pledging to get behind a progressive policy agenda. Now, though, thanks in part to de Blasio’s mediation, a compromise was falling into...

A startled carriage horse took a jaunt around Central Park without any passengers or its driver. The horse became detached from its bridle on Monday evening and ran into the Manhattan park, following its usual route, the union that represents carriage drivers said. It was unclear what startled it. […] Advocacy agency NYCLASS, which is seeking to end the carriage horse industry, released a statement saying carriage horses and city streets don’t mix. “It’s time to retire the carriage horses and replace them with something that doesn’t spook or dart dangerously through traffic and pedestrians,” it said. …

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (dih BLAH’-zee-oh) wants his city to be the home of President Barack Obama’s future library. Obama hasn’t decided which city will house his presidential library. Many observers believe the favorite to be Chicago, his hometown. …

Concerned that the City is an inhomogeneous hodgepodge with pockets of great wealth in some neighborhoods and squalor in others, newly appointed Housing Preservation and Development Commissar Vicki Been announced a plan to move 80,000 to 120,000 poorer families into middle class neighborhoods. “This way instead of having blight and filth in every direction they might look poorer families will be within easy walking distance of a better kept neighborhood,” Been boasted. “The crimes that plague poorer sections of our City would be more evenly dispersed throughout the whole City. Victims will come from a more broadly representative subset of...

The City plans to attack economic segregation in its affordable housing plan—placing the poor in middle-class neighborhoods and the more affluent in high-poverty spots. Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Vicki Been said the plan to build 80,000 new affordable apartments and preserve 120,000 units would create a more diverse city. “We really have to make economic diversity a cornerstone of that plan,” she said at a City Council budget hearing Wednesday. …

The City plans to attack economic segregation in its affordable housing plan — placing the poor in middle-class neighborhoods and the more affluent in high-poverty spots. Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Vicki Been said the plan to build 80,000 new affordable apartments and preserve 120,000 units would create a more diverse city. “We really have to make economic diversity a cornerstone of that plan,” she said at a City Council budget hearing Wednesday. “That means that in some neighborhoods that have mostly middle or upper-income housing, that we would need to put affordable housing at the very lowest income,” she...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday morning that Etsy is getting $5 million from New York state to stay in Brooklyn, a pretty nice sum for a company whose CEO publicly acknowledged just weeks ago that it “could only exist in Brooklyn.” “A company like Etsy could only exist in Brooklyn,” Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson said during an April 23 appearance at a Brooklyn Tech Triangle symposium. “Almost all of our employees live in Brooklyn and our Manhattan employees are treated with scorn.” Etsy, which was founded in Brooklyn in 2005, plans to add more than 340 jobs by 2019 (a...

A packed commuter train derailed in Queens Friday morning — stranding more than 1,000 people underground, with rescue crews scrambling to get them out, according to the MTA. Passengers described a loud screeching noise just before the train came to an abrupt stop. “The train was shaking and the cars in the front started tilting to the right,” said Melissa Delgado, 33. “I heard a pang and then a screech and then the train came to a halt." The stranded passengers sat on the sweltering subway cars with little information besides a promise from the loudspeaker that “help was on...

New York City’s share of poor people appears to have plateaued since the recession, at 21.4 percent, with more people working in 2012 than the year before, but at lower wages, according to a new city study. Contributing to the city’s economic problems were increases in the number of Asian-Americans, immigrants and residents of Queens slipping into poverty. But under a broader definition of poverty that the city applies, the picture remains grim for a far larger number of New Yorkers. As in 2011, 46 percent, or nearly half of New Yorkers, were making less than 150 percent of the...

Mayor Bill de Blasio celebrated Earth Day on Tuesday by proposing more regulations — including a ban on new wood-burning fireplaces. The mayor made the proposal, along with those for other sweeping regulations that he said would update emission standards and help curb air pollution. Instead of wood-burning fireplaces, de Blasio wants to allow only cleaner-burning units, such as those that use natural gas. Residents who already have wood-burning fireplaces would be allowed to keep them, but would be required to use only firewood that has 20 percent moisture or less, according to the Department of Environmental Protection. Officials said...

Mayor Bill de Blasio is pulling back the reins on his plans to quickly get rid of New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry, stung by a recent outpouring of support for the colorful coaches that have clip-clopped their way through Central Park for more than 150 years. A campaign pledge to take on the horses during his first week as mayor was eclipsed by other issues. […] What changed? For one, a media blitz led by actor Liam Neeson has portrayed the horse-drawn carriage industry as an iconic, romantic part of New York that provides about 400 jobs, many to...

Suffering from a clear lack of intellectual honesty, the morally bankrupt progressive socialist mayor of New York City seems to have a knack for tax avoidance. (And remember: despite what Harry Reid would have you believe, tax avoidance is not a crime.) According to public records, Bill “punish the rich” de Blasio paid a mere 8 percent of his income in federal taxes. Just to put that in context for any liberal that has accidently stumbled across this paragraph: That’s less than that capitalist pig, Mitt Romney paid in prior years. Of course, to be fair, it is possible...

Mayor Bill de Blasio is the first New York City mayor to release his tax returns in 12 years, according to the WSJ. de Blasio earned $165,000 as public advocate last year and brought in an additional $52,000 in rent on a second home he owns in Park Slope, according to his 2013 tax returns. Mr. de Blasio’s effective tax rate was 8.3%. As WSJ reports, Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who served as mayor from 2002 through 2013, released highly redacted copies of his return that gave scant information about his net worth. In 2001, during...

Donning a pinstripe home white jersey and blue Mets cap over dress pants, de Blasio was loudly booed twice by Flushing faithful — once as he was announced and then again as he left the Citi Field diamond.... De Blasio wore No. 6 in honor of late-1960s Boston Red Sox great Rico Petrocelli, the mayor’s aides said. The infielder, who slugged 210 home runs in his 13-season career, grew up in Brooklyn. So the Boston-loving mayor managed to pay homage to his beloved Red Sox, his adopted home borough and to Italian Americans by donning that shirt. But that still...

Former Leader of NYC: 'People Are Talking About Moving Out Of The City'Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio Wednesday, saying he has some “real disagreements” with the man now occupying his former desk at City Hall. As CBS 2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, de Blasio has been in office about 85 days – two weeks shy of the 100-day mark. But that is enough time for Giuliani to make a judgment – and to take the gloves off and unload on the current mayor. “I know the economy of the city is going in the wrong...

Mayor de Blasio’s attention-drawing turns as an average Joe shoveling snow in front of his Park Slope home in January were premeditated, records show. Hizzoner’s schedule, obtained by The Post under a Freedom of Information Act request, shows the snow clearing was blocked out beforehand — and even planned from the outset to include his popular son’s cameo. “7:00 – 7:20 am: Snow Shoveling Front of Residence with Dante de Blasio,” reads the mayor’s schedule on January 3. A separate entry on January 22, following another blanketing of the city, shows a shorter shoveling shift was planned: “7:00-7:15 AM SNOW...

I wish my Irish eyes could be smilin’ on St. Patty’s Day. But New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has stoked my Irish temper. And that’s no blarney. As an Irish lassie, I should be at the bar drinking green beer. Instead, I must be more austere. For Billy Boy is threatening to close New York’s charter schools by denying them the ability to “co-locate” or share real estate with public schools. The New York State Legislature is in the midst of budget negotiations that will impact the future of charter schools in New York and could also set a...