Michael Gold

In an 18-minute speech, Trump expressed his gratitude to American veterans but also used his remarks to pay tribute to the city, where he remains deeply unpopular.

“Since the earliest days of our nation, New York has exemplified the American spirit and has been at the heart of our nation’s story of daring and defiance,” Trump said.

Defiance, in particular, was on display throughout Trump’s speech, at Madison Square Park in Manhattan, just 2 miles down Fifth Avenue from Trump Tower, which had been Trump’s primary residence since 1983, until he filed to switch it to Florida in late September.

Even before the president arrived, protesters had gathered along the streets, a number of them from an anti-Trump group, Rise and Resist. They carried signs calling for Trump’s impeachment and repeatedly shouted, “Shame!”

In the windows of a nearby glass tower overlooking the dais where Trump spoke, large signs placed in the windows spelled out the word “impeach.” A few floors higher, letters spelling “convict” were placed in another set of windows.

As Trump, who is the first sitting president to take part in the parade, addressed the crowd, he was met with claps and cheers as he listed specific U.S. military victories and recounted stories of individual veterans.

“Today, we come together as one nation to salute the veterans of the United States Armed Forces, the greatest warriors to ever walk the face of the Earth,” Trump said.

Some of his supporters gathered nearby, many of them wearing hats bearing Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

But raucous boos and chants jeering Trump could also be heard throughout the president’s remarks. A chorus of people shouted “lock him up!” and “traitor” and blew whistles as he spoke, causing some veterans to complain that the din was drowning out the president’s speech.

“Vote him out if you don’t like him,” said Dennis Currier, 72, a Bronx resident who served in combat in the Vietnam War. “But don’t come here and be disrespectful on Veterans Day. They have a right to demonstrate, but there’s a time and a place for that.”

The only time the protesters fell silent was during a moment of silence and a wreath-laying ceremony honoring fallen soldiers.

Elliot Crown, 47, came to Trump’s speech wearing army fatigues, a clown nose and a farcical oversized mustache. He and a friend carried a sign reading “Operation Bone Spur,” a reference to a diagnosis that allowed Trump to avoid serving in the Vietnam War.

“He’s always pretending to be something he’s not,” Crown said. “And he certainly isn’t a supporter of veterans.”

Trump helped boost the parade in 1995 when it was struggling to attract donations, writing a check for over $300,000. In return, he asked to be made the grand marshal, an honor he was not bestowed because he never served in the military.

Still, being honored by the parade had remained a goal of Trump’s. So when the opportunity arrived this year to take part, he was pleased.

Trump has generally received more support from veterans than from the public at large. According to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, 57% of veterans said they approved of the way Trump was leading the military, compared with 41% of adults overall.

Last year, an Associated Press poll found that 56% of veterans said they approved of the job Trump was doing as president, compared with 42% of the general public.

Still, Trump has been criticized by some veterans groups over incidents in which he was perceived as being disrespectful to those who had served.

During the campaign and his presidency, he frequently attacked Sen. John McCain, saying the former Navy pilot was “not a war hero” and criticizing the senator, who died in 2018, for his record on military and veterans’ issues.

Trump also drew condemnations after he disparaged the parents of a slain Muslim soldier who had strongly denounced Trump during the Democratic National Convention in 2016.

Trump’s rise to the ranks of the rich and famous has been inextricably linked to New York City, and he has spoken often of his affectionate for it. He was born in Queens and built his real estate empire in Manhattan, quickly becoming a fixture in the city’s tabloid papers and sprinkling his name on buildings across the region.

As Trump began his presidential campaign, he used the city as his backdrop, starting his eventual journey to the White House in the lobby of Trump Tower.

But three years into his presidency, Trump’s relationship with the city has become bitter and contentious. His name was removed from residential high-rises and a hotel in SoHo after numerous complaints, and the Central Park skating rinks that his company runs diminished the presence of his name on signs.

The president is also locked in a legal battle with Manhattan’s district attorney over a subpoena for his personal and business tax records. And last week, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, announced a $2 million settlement in a lawsuit that accused the president of using money raised by his charitable foundation to promote his presidential campaign and pay business debts.

That investigation grew out of claims that a fundraiser for veterans in January 2016 was in fact, Trump later acknowledged in court papers, a campaign event.

The president’s visits to New York have often been met with protests. Earlier this month, Trump swung by an Ultimate Fighting Championship event at Madison Square Garden, where he was also met by both boos and cheers.

In late September, Trump filed court documents saying that he was becoming a resident of Florida and that the Mar-a-Lago Club was his primary dwelling. On Twitter, he said that while he cherished New York, the city with which he had become closely associated during his rise to fame, he had been “treated very badly” by officials there.

“Few have been treated worse,” he said. “I hated having to make this decision, but in the end it will be the best for all concerned.”

Demonstrators said they were specifically targeting Trump’s speech and had no plans to protest the annual parade, in which more than 20,000 people were expected to participate.

“We’re not protesting the vets; we’re protesting Trump,” said Jamie Bauer, 60, who was part of Rise and Resist. “We respect the vets, and there are several veterans in our group.”

This article originally appeared in

Veterans Day: Trump Returns to New York for Parade, to Cheers and Boos

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump returned to his hometown Monday to kick off the 100th annual New York City Veterans Day Parade, his second visit to the city since he announced he was making Florida his primary home.

Trump gave a speech that was met with some claps and cheers as he thanked veterans for their service. But raucous boos and chants jeering Trump could also be heard throughout.

Trump, the first sitting president to participate in the parade, addressed the crowd at Madison Square Park in Manhattan, just a couple of miles down Fifth Avenue from Trump Tower, the glass-and-steel skyscraper that has been his primary residence since 1983.

Hours before the president was set to appear, some supporters had already gathered near the park, many of them wearing hats bearing Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

But protesters had also gathered, a number of them from an anti-Trump group, Rise and Resist. They carried signs calling for Trump’s impeachment and shouted “shame” repeatedly.

In one act, people in buildings near the park had also posted signs in their windows bearing the words “impeach” and “convict.”

Elliot Crown, 47, came to the protest wearing army fatigues, a clown nose and a farcical oversized mustache. He and a friend carried a sign reading “Operation Bone Spur,” a reference to a diagnosis that allowed Trump to avoid serving in the Vietnam War.

Still, Trump has been criticized by some veterans groups over incidents where he was perceived as being disrespectful to those who had served. During the campaign and his presidency, he frequently attacked Sen. John McCain, saying the onetime Navy pilot was “not a war hero” and criticizing the now-deceased senator for his record on military and veterans’ issues.

Trump also drew condemnations after he disparaged the parents of a slain Muslim soldier who had strongly denounced Trump during the Democratic National Convention.

Trump’s rise to the ranks of the rich and famous was inextricably linked to the city he called home. He was born in Queens and built his real estate empire in Manhattan, quickly becoming a fixture in the city’s tabloid papers and sprinkling his name on buildings across the region.

Even as he began his presidential campaign, Trump used the city as his backdrop, starting his eventual journey to the White House in the lobby of Trump Tower.

But three years into his presidency, Trump is deeply unpopular in New York City. His name was removed from residential high-rises and a hotel in SoHo after numerous complaints, and even the Central Park skating rinks that his company runs diminished the presence of his name on signs.

The president’s returns to the city have often been met with protests. Earlier this month, Trump swung by an Ultimate Fighting Championship event at Madison Square Garden, where he was met by both boos and cheers.

In late September, Trump filed court documents saying that he was becoming a resident of Florida and that Mar-a-Lago Club was his primary dwelling. On Twitter, he said that while he cherished New York, the city with which he had become closely associated during his rise to fame, he had been “treated very badly” by elected officials there.

Trump has frequently sparred publicly with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats who are critical of the president’s policies.

When asked about Trump’s return to New York last week, de Blasio told reporters that it was important to focus on veterans at the parade, not politics.

“This is not about him,” de Blasio said. He later added: “It should not be politicized. It should not be a spectacle. If he’s really coming here to truly honor veterans, God bless him.”

Veterans Day: Trump Returns to NY for Parade, to Cheers and Boos

But on Sunday, the more than 50,000 people who will pound the pavement for the New York City Marathon will be met on the streets by hundreds of thousands of others for whom the race is a spectator sport.

“On that day, you’ve got a million people cheering for you,” said Michael Capiraso, the president and chief executive of New York Road Runners, which organizes the marathon. “Someone’s going to pick you up along the way.”

Capiraso, who this year will be running his 28th straight New York City Marathon, said the crowds are crucial to keeping runners in good spirits.

“We seriously need you,” he said. “The inspiration and the impact from the people along the sides of the course is so invaluable.”

With 26.2 miles stretching across the five boroughs, the marathon route provides no shortage of spots to root on fatigued runners. Here’s a guide to the top places.

The places where runners need you most

The New York City course is set apart from other marathons in part because of the five bridges that carry runners between boroughs. The bridges are deceivingly tough hills, made trickier by their exposure to the wind and, because they are devoid of spectators, their relative silence.

So, when runners get back on land, it helps to have a boost from a raucous crowd.

“Between the solitude and the challenge that a bridge brings, getting to the other side and seeing people or hearing people cheer is really special,” Capiraso said.

That support is particularly crucial toward the start of the race, after runners descend from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and head onto Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

At that point, runners will have completed a 2-mile stretch, including a steep hill. By cheering there, you’ll keep them buoyant in the face of the daunting miles ahead.

“The Verrazzano bridge is beautiful and iconic, but there aren’t people cheering on it,” Capiraso said. “So, when you get to Brooklyn, it’s a great cheering zone.”

If you want to be particularly inspiring, travel toward the 20-mile mark, where marathon runners often experience “the wall,” a challenging period when energy wanes.

To help racers push through, head toward East 138th Street in the Bronx, a relatively short stretch of the race, or to Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, which runners divert around before heading down Fifth Avenue toward the finish line.

Both locations also tend to be less crowded than the miles that follow, making it more likely that you’ll see a particular runner you’re pulling for.

The places where the party is

The streets of New York are always lively, but the marathon brings a particularly energetic atmosphere. People crowd the sidewalks with signs, ring bells for hours and play music for both the runners and the crowd.

One of the most festive stretches of the course is in Fort Greene Brooklyn, along Lafayette Avenue between Fulton Street and Bedford Avenue.

Among the groups lining Lafayette Avenue are the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School band, known for pumping up runners with the theme from the movie “Rocky,” and the choir from the Emmanuel Baptist Church, where congregants spill out of morning services to serenade marathon participants.

In the second half of the course, runners are met with another burst of sound on First Avenue in Manhattan, between 59th and 96th Streets.

Near 59th Street, marathoners who just finished scaling a challenging and quiet hill on the Queensboro Bridge are greeted with a cacophony of people screaming at runners, clanging noisemakers and banging drums.

The sidewalks here are generally clogged (though they thin out as the race heads uptown). But the energy is so high that it can carry runners as some of them start to hit the wall.

The places where you won’t have to log too many miles

For many city residents, the race winds through their neighborhoods. If you’re one of them, consider staying put.

“If the marathon runs through your neighborhood, your local place is always great,” Capiraso said. “Because you know the area, and you’ll know the people around.”

The course also has a number of subway stations along the route, a boon for those who need to travel to spots on the course. Notably, the R train runs under the course on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, which makes for easy spectating in an early stretch where runners are still plenty enthused.

The sidewalks nearest to subway stations, however, tend to be the most crowded. So, if you’re trying to see a specific runner at a specific spot, give yourself extra time to get settled.

You’ll also want to check with runners about their start time. The first athletes cross the start line at 8:30 a.m., but the last wave of runners won’t begin the race until 11 a.m.

The Best Places to Watch the New York City Marathon

NEW YORK — Training for a marathon can be a deeply solitary exercise, generally requiring runners to grind out miles multiple times a week to little fanfare.

It was all part of an elaborate plan — which also involved a razor, hacksaw blades and a priest — to escape from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he was awaiting trial in 2017.

But first he had to make sure he could fit through the hole he intended to create.

So Londonio, a portly man, embarked on an intense exercise routine of cardio and chin-ups and picked up a fiber-heavy diet to shed weight and ensure he could squeeze out of a jail cell window.

His plan, which was detailed in a recently unsealed FBI report, was ultimately foiled after a fellow inmate reported it to officials, and federal prosecutors eventually charged Londonio in September 2017 with attempted escape. He has pleaded not guilty.

The 10-page report, compiled from three interviews with the unnamed inmate, offered a more detailed picture of a dramatic, complex escape plan that prosecutors likened to a “script for a made-for-TV movie.”

A redacted version of the report was unsealed this month at the request of Jerry Capeci, a longtime Mafia reporter who first wrote about the document on his website, Gang Land News.

Londonio, now 45, was first detained at the Brooklyn federal jail in February 2017 on murder, racketeering and weapons charges, with prosecutors linking him to the killing of a gangster, Michael Meldish, in the Bronx in 2013.

Officials also accused Londonio of being part of a long-running conspiracy involving members of the Mafia and linked him to the Lucchese family, one of New York’s five infamous criminal family enterprises.

Londonio, who was awaiting trial, believed he could face a life sentence or the death penalty in his case, according to the report. He told the unnamed inmate that he had “nothing to lose” from an escape attempt and that he and an unnamed Bloods gang member had devised a complex plan.

Londonio’s father, the report said, had told him of a construction flaw in the windows of the Metropolitan Detention Center’s cells. Londonio planned to exploit it by cutting caulking from around the window with a razor, punching holes on the sides of the window, according to the report. He also planned to use dental floss, braided together, to saw through the glass.

The floss was smuggled in by Londonio’s mother, according to the report. He told his fellow inmate that at least twice, his mother hid the floss in condoms she then hid in food purchased from a jail vending machine. Londonio swallowed one condom and hid the other in his underwear.

After cutting through the glass, Londonio would still need to remove the steel guarding the windows. For that, the report said, he intended to use a diamond-tipped hacksaw blade smuggled into the jail by a “sympathetic priest.”

Afterward, Londonio and the Bloods member planned to climb down the side of the building using bedsheets he had been stockpiling in his cell, according to the report.

Londonio had initially considered escaping through an air duct in the prison’s gym but soon realized he wouldn’t fit, the FBI agents wrote in their report.

To guarantee he would be able to squeeze through his cell window, Londonio began eating “lots of bran” and was exercising feverishly, running on jail stairs and grinding through chin-ups, the report said.

Londonio’s father was then going to meet the would-be escapees near the jail and provide them with “a bag of guns” before taking them to a safe house nearby. To prevent them from being detected en route, Londonio was going to dye the inmates’ shirts with Kool-Aid.

Initially, they were going to wait for media attention around the escape to die down before relocating upstate to a family home in Monticello, New York, a small town in the Catskills, the report said.

But an incensed Londonio revised the plan, the report said, to include a stop in the Bronx to kill the wife of his co-defendant, Matthew Madonna. (After the couple ignored Londonio’s parents at a court hearing, Londonio apparently took umbrage at the perceived disrespect.)

According to the report, the unnamed inmate became “increasingly anxious” that Londonio and his co-conspirator might actually go through with their plan, especially after Londonio said he had sought permission for the priest to visit the jail.

Worried he might be implicated in the jailbreak, the inmate revealed the plan to prison psychologists.

In the FBI report, the anonymous inmate also told officials that Londonio spoke frequently about his role in Meldish’s death, admitted to being involved in drug businesses and said that his mother smuggled an opioid treatment drug, Suboxone, into the jail.

Londonio has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His lawyer, John Meringolo, said Friday that the details in the FBI report were “all false.”

“It’s a government-created crime to prejudice the jury on the other counts,” he said.

Since the 1990s, the power of the city’s five traditional Mafia organizations has seemed to be on the decline, particularly as officials boosted their use of racketeering laws to loosen the Mafia’s control over certain industries and unions.

Still, the criminal clans still exert influence in the city and the region, and cases against them have continued. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors charged 20 suspected associates of the Colombo family of racketeering, extortion and loan-sharking charges, including a scheme to fix a college basketball game.

Mobster's Jailbreak Plan: Floss, Hacksaw Blade, Crash Diet and a Priest

NEW YORK — To break out of a federal jail, a suspected Mafia soldier named Christopher Londonio planned to use dental floss as a glass-cutter, Kool-Aid as clothing dye and “lots of bran” to slim down.

Glenn Payne, 60, appeared to fit the bill. He said he was a neuropsychologist with advanced degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, affiliations with two Brooklyn hospitals and years of experience.

But those credentials were a lie, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.

For at least six years, Payne provided therapy that he was not qualified to give, prosecutors said. His degrees were fake, and the hospitals had no records that he had been affiliated with them. Despite practicing clinical psychology, he was not licensed to do so in either New York or California.

On Thursday, prosecutors formally charged Payne in a 55-count indictment in Brooklyn Supreme Court. They accused him of pretending to be a licensed psychologist and treating at least 12 people, including children, who were described as “troubled,” between June 2012 and May 2018.

The Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, said in a statement that “the alleged conduct in this case is truly outrageous and potentially endangered vulnerable people.”

“It is unbelievable that someone would put patients, including children, at risk by pretending to be qualified to diagnose and treat them,” Gonzalez said.

Both Payne and his girlfriend, Vernette Tobierre-Desir, 46, were accused in the indictment of working together to steal more than $30,000 from his patients.

Among the charges were grand larceny, unauthorized practice of a profession and scheme to defraud, as well as six counts of child endangerment.

Payne and Tobierre-Desir, who have two children together, have pleaded not guilty to all 55 counts.

“I think sometimes people see the volume of charges and jump to conclusions and make assumptions,” said Payne’s lawyer, Michael Chessa. “I truly do think Mr. Payne is going to be vindicated.”

On his LinkedIn profile, which is referenced in the indictment, Payne said he had been in private practice since 2011. He claimed to have a master’s degree in public health and a doctorate in psychology (which he spelled incorrectly).

But Payne has no formal counseling that prosecutors were aware of. He told investigators that he was a doctor with a “home-schooled, unconventional education during the Black Panther era,” according to court papers.

None of Payne’s patients had been hospitalized or physically harmed, an official said. Some of his patients liked him and his treatment methods.

But others became suspicious during therapy sessions. Payne would often talk about his own life and not ask patients about theirs, the official said. He would also repeat exercises and worksheets in some of his sessions with little explanation, giving patients the sense that he had run out of ideas to treat them.

According to prosecutors, Payne and Tobierre-Desir worked at three locations: his main office in a large building in Brooklyn Heights, a smaller building in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and the offices of a nonprofit based at Kings County Hospital Center, one of the hospitals with which Payne claimed to be affiliated.

Payne’s relationship with the nonprofit, the Kings Against Violence Initiative, was unclear. The group did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

According to the indictment, patients were referred to Payne by their doctors or friends, though it was unclear how Payne built his professional network.

Patients would then set up appointments by email or phone with Tobierre-Desir, who acted as Payne’s office manager for the six years covered in the indictment, prosecutors said.

As she set up appointments, Tobierre-Desir would tell patients that Payne, like many therapists, did not take insurance, according to the indictment. Patients were required to pay his fees out of pocket, either in cash or through electronic transfers.

When some of Payne’s patients, looking to file out-of-network claims with their insurance companies, asked her for a provider number or license information, she refused to give it, the indictment said. Then the sessions would taper off.

In a statement, Tobierre-Desir’s lawyers, Arthur Edwards and Rodney Doyle, suggested that she was not responsible for the operation.

“By all appearances, she herself was a victim of someone whom she trusted and with whom she had a relationship, albeit a tumultuous one,” they wrote.

Among Payne’s patients was a child under probation, according to the indictment. Payne repeatedly filed court-ordered paperwork on his behalf to the city’s Probation Department.

The department’s general counsel, Wayne McKenzie, said the patient was already being treated by Payne before he was put under probation. The department does not typically choose or pay for providers when courts order psychological services, he added.

Prosecutors began to interview some of Payne’s patients in April 2018, a spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.

Around the same time, the spokesman said, Payne fled New York, adopting aliases and changing his phone numbers and bank accounts. He spent time in Las Vegas before heading to Los Angeles, where he was recently arrested and extradited.

Chessa, Payne’s lawyer, disputed that his client was running from the charges, saying he left New York because of “family circumstances.”

Payne was ordered held on $100,000 bond or $50,000 bail and remained in custody as of Friday. Tobierre-Desir was arraigned in January and was released.

A Fake Psychologist Treated Troubled Children, Prosecutors Say

NEW YORK — The parents all needed a therapist who could help their children with behavioral and mental health issues.

The clock is running out on de Blasio’s time in office — term limits prevent him from running for reelection in 2021. As he ventured out on the campaign trail, some New Yorkers complained that their lame-duck mayor’s attention often seemed focused elsewhere.

But as de Blasio returns to New York, he still has more than two more years in office to build on the progressive track record he promoted in states far from Gracie Mansion and tackle problems confronting his constituents.

Here are some of the most prominent issues that await de Blasio.

Police

The mayor was frequently criticized on the national stage over his handling of policing in the city, from criminal justice reform advocates and officers themselves.

As he returns full-time to City Hall, de Blasio will need to address a restless rank and file.

Central among them: a number of recent suicides that have left the Police Department reeling. Officials want de Blasio to push through a proposed bill that would direct the department to make more mental health resources available to officers.

Throughout his presidential bid, de Blasio was criticized for his handling of the case involving Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer whose chokehold led to Eric Garner’s death in 2014.

When de Blasio declined to support calls for firing Pantaleo, the mayor was criticized for failing to take responsibility after he said he would let the disciplinary process play out.

At the same time, officers were furious when de Blasio promised justice for Garner on the debate stage just weeks before Pantaleo was fired by the police commissioner, James O’Neill. — Edgar Sandoval

Education

The mayor sought to anchor his brief campaign with the city’s universal prekindergarten program, his signature and arguably most successful initiative.

But while de Blasio traversed the country, the conversation at home began to test the limits of his willingness to tackle inequality.

A simmering conversation about desegregation boiled over, and a mayor who pledged to “shake the foundations” of the nation’s largest public school system has instead watched activists on the left and his own schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, call for more sweeping — and polarizing — changes than de Blasio appeared willing to support.

De Blasio now faces questions about structural inequities, particularly a two-tiered system that allows families with means to escape poor-performing traditional schools by enrolling in more selective schools and gifted and talented programs.

A panel the mayor commissioned recommended eliminating gifted programs, along with selective admissions policies for some middle and high schools, and instead create more magnet schools and enrichment programs.

A debate over that proposal is sure to dominate the conversation, but de Blasio has said he will not make any decisions about it this year.

The mayor has also not announced a replacement for his $773 million school improvement program, known as Renewal, which did not achieve the results that had been promised. Education officials said there may be no replacement, which is sure to prompt questions about how de Blasio intends to help students mired in low-performing schools. — Eliza Shapiro

Transportation

For years, de Blasio and New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, have been at odds over who should take responsibility for the problems afflicting the city’s aging transit system.

Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority called on the mayor this week to help fund the agency’s ambitious $54 billion plan to fix the subway. They want him to write a check for $3 billion to pay for new elevators at 70 stations to improve accessibility.

New York City’s taxi industry is also in crisis, particularly after a spate of driver suicides. De Blasio and the City Council are deciding whether to assist hundreds of taxi drivers who have faced bankruptcy, even as the city profited from the sale of taxi medallions, the permit required to drive a cab.

De Blasio must pick a new leader for the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the agency that oversees the industry. But he recently withdrew his nominee after the Council objected to his pick. — Emma G. Fitzsimmons

Safer streets

De Blasio has struggled to respond to a growing street safety crisis in the city, and there is a sense that his signature policy to reduce traffic fatalities is faltering.

The policy, known as Vision Zero, aims to eliminate traffic deaths by 2024. But bicyclist deaths are up this year, and there have been a series of high-profile crashes in the city.

Two children were killed this month, including a baby in a stroller who died after a driver jumped the curb in the Bronx.

After the baby’s death, transit advocates urged de Blasio to show that he cared.

“This crash represents a chance for Mayor de Blasio to demonstrate real Vision Zero leadership: Go to the scene of the crash, stand with the child’s family, and tell New Yorkers that he will do whatever it takes, right now and for the remainder of his time in office, to bring an end to the carnage,” the group Transportation Alternatives said in a statement. — Emma G. Fitzsimmons

Public housing

De Blasio faces an uphill battle turning around living conditions in the nation’s largest public housing system, which is home to one in 14 city residents.

The underfunded agency that oversees public housing, the New York City Housing Authority, needs more than $32 billion to repair unreliable elevators, outdated boilers and faulty roofs, which have left the city’s 176,000 apartments with leaks, mold, and widespread heat and hot water outages.

The situation grew so dire that the federal government threatened to take over the agency and intervened earlier this year, appointing an independent monitor to supervise the agency, known as NYCHA.

But the city recently admitted it still was not in compliance with a number of federal regulations, including lead paint rules meant to protect young children.

De Blasio’s contentious plan to raise money for repairs by partnering with developers to build mixed-income housing on underutilized NYCHA land, like parking lots, has largely stalled. — Luis Ferré-Sadurní

Homelessness

The city has nearly 79,000 people who are homeless, including an estimated 5% who are living on the street and sleeping in parks and subway cars.

His plan to open 90 new shelters over five years has fallen considerably short. The administration has been slowed by neighborhood opposition and, in some cases, lawsuits.

Only 26 new shelters have opened, leaving thousands of New Yorkers in hotel rooms and private apartments that the city is using as shelters.

Advocates for homeless and low-income people say the solution is housing, but de Blasio has resisted calls to change his housing plan to better target the city’s most vulnerable households.

Last year, Nathylin Flowers Adesegun, a 73-year-old woman who is homeless, interrupted one of de Blasio’s regular morning workouts at the Park Slope YMCA to urge him to build more housing to get people out of shelter.

The confrontation, captured on video, helped galvanize a growing bloc of advocates and elected officials, putting more pressure on de Blasio.

“The mayor has been really stubborn on this, really ignoring the fact that the housing crisis is concentrated particularly among people who are literally homeless and low-income New Yorkers,” said Giselle Routhier, policy director at the Coalition for the Homeless. — Nikita Stewart

De Blasio's Back: Here Are 5 Major Problems He's Facing

NEW YORK — After five months of a presidential campaign that generated more shrugs than buzz, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that he would end his candidacy and focus on his full-time job running New York City.

“In response to the subpoenas issued by the New York County District Attorney, we have filed a lawsuit this morning in federal court on behalf of the president in order to address the significant constitutional issues at stake in this case,” Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for the president, said in a statement.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office issued a subpoena late last month seeking a range of tax documents from Trump’s accounting firm, including his personal returns and those of his business, the Trump Organization. The subpoena seeks federal and state returns for both the president and the company dating to 2011, according to several people with knowledge of the subpoena.

The office made the demand soon after opening a criminal investigation into the role that the president and his family business played in hush-money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Both Trump and the company reimbursed Michael D. Cohen, the president’s former lawyer and fixer, for money Cohen paid to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who said she had an affair with Trump. The president has denied the affair.

Both Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, and the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., are named in the lawsuit.

A spokesman for Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump Sues Manhattan DA Over Demand for 8 Years of His Tax Returns

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump is challenging an attempt by state prosecutors in Manhattan to subpoena eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns, filing a lawsuit in federal court on Thursday.

Taking a broad position that the lawyers acknowledged had not been tested, the president’s legal team argued in the complaint that the Constitution effectively makes sitting presidents immune from all criminal inquiries until they leave the White House.

Presidents, they asserted, have such enormous responsibility and play a unique role in government that they cannot be subject to the burden of investigations, especially from local prosecutors who may use the criminal process for political gain.

Several constitutional law scholars interviewed by The New York Times said that if the lawyers’ position were accepted by the court, it would set a sweeping new precedent.

But they also said it was far from certain that the theory, which was not based on established case law, would succeed. While an onslaught of investigations would most assuredly disrupt a presidency, the Constitution does not explicitly say that presidents are shielded from criminal inquiries.

“President Trump’s position that he is unequivocally beyond the reach of criminal investigators is doubtfully absolutist,” said Joshua Matz, who wrote, with Laurence H. Tribe, “To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment.”

At the least, the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan, is likely to delay the latest attempt to secure Trump’s financial records.

The lawsuit was filed in response to a subpoena issued late last month by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to Trump’s accounting firm. The subpoena sought eight years of the president’s personal and corporate tax returns as the office investigates the role that Trump and his family business played in hush-money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Both Trump and the company reimbursed Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer and fixer, for money that Cohen paid to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who said she had an affair with Trump. The president has denied the affair.

Federal prosecutors who charged Cohen said in a court filing in July that they had “effectively concluded” their investigation into possible crimes committed by the president’s company, the Trump Organization, or its executives. Neither the company nor any of its leaders were charged. However, the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., is exploring whether the reimbursements violated any New York state laws.

The lawsuit filed Thursday was the latest effort by the president and his legal team to stymie multiple attempts to obtain copies of his tax returns, which Trump said during the 2016 campaign that he would make public but has since refused to disclose.

NEW YORK — Lawyers for President Donald Trump argued in a lawsuit filed Thursday that he could not be criminally investigated while in office, as they sought to block a subpoena from state prosecutors in Manhattan demanding eight years of his tax returns.

Michael Gold

Articles written by the author

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