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Adrienne Adams celebrates victory in speaker race
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Queens Councilwoman Adrienne
Adams on Sunday, Dec.
19, celebrated her all-butguaranteed
victory to be the next
Council speaker during a Zoom
conference with fellow members
of the city’s legislative body.
“There’s a new day on us everybody,
it’s a new day. By the time
we’re done, I believe New York will
be a stronger, fairer and safer place
for everyone,” Adams said during
the Dec. 19 virtual rally.
Adams declared victory Dec. 17,
saying she secured support from
32 fellow City Council members for
the internal vote in January.
She would take over as the first
Black woman to lead the Council,
the second-most powerful post in
the city.
She overcame several challengers
in the race that was largely fought
behind closed doors, with her most
notable competition coming from
fellow Queens Council member
Francisco Moya who was pushed
by incoming Mayor Eric Adams.
Almost-Speaker Adams will
replace outgoing Speaker and
Manhattan Council Member Corey
Johnson, and she vowed that the
51-member body will act as a balance
of power for Mayor-to-be
Adams come January.
“We will work with the new mayor,
but also serve as a check on the
other side of City Hall,” she said.
Adams has represented southeast
Queens neighborhoods since 2018
and said her priorities are curbing
the city’s surge in gun violence,
expand affordable housing, and
ensure a fair recovery from the
pandemic as the five boroughs
face down another surge with the
omicron variant.
“No New Yorker can be left behind
at this moment and we will fight
every single day to make sure that
that does not happen,” she said.
After her introduction, several
of her former contenders in the
speaker’s race joined to congratulate
her.
“I’m here to make sure that I can
give you my full support and continue
to work together on the issues
that we care about,” Moya said. “We
have a lot to do and the race is over
and I think one of the main things
is for us to continue to really look
at the issues that we care about
and how we can get all this done to
make you the strong speaker that
we know that you are.”
Councilwoman Adrienne Adams celebrates her likely victory to be the next
Council speaker during a virtual rally Sunday, Dec. 19. Screenshot via Zoom
City cracks down on license plate covers that thwart tolls and traffi c cameras
BY JULIA MORO
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
The City Council unanimously
passed a bill recently that bans
the sale or distribution of products
designed to hide license plates
to avoid tolls and traffic cameras.
The bill will prohibit the sale of
any materials or substances meant
to conceal or obscure license plates
to distort recorded or photographic
evidence. First-time violators will
face a $300 fine, and fines will be at
least $500 for subsequent violations.
Councilman Robert Holden, who
introduced the bill, said he has seen
these devices on vehicles throughout
the city and it has become “more
brazen than ever.”
“These products have no purpose
but to be installed to intentionally
violate the law by obscuring a vehicle’s
license plate so that the scofflaw
driver can commit crimes, ranging
anywhere from reckless driving to
much more serious ones, with impunity,”
Holden said. “Those who sell
these products know their only use
and must be deterred from trading
in them or face a penalty. This bill
will give law enforcement the means
to make our streets a little safer.”
The New York Post previously
reported NYPD cops using these
kinds of illegal covers to trick
tolls and traffic cameras on their
personal cars. This year, the Post
also reported on an MTA worker
who covered his license plate with
a cloudy, semi-clear plastic and was
found to have owed over $100,000 in
Photo via Getty Images tolls and fines.
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