Mayor de Blasio had no clue his administration is housing around 100 former Rikers Island inmates at a Wyndham hotel in Queens — even after a group of lawmakers wrote him a letter about the public safety concerns last month. I don’t know of any place where there’s that kind of concentration of former inmates,” de Blasio said. Andrew Cuomo has said the mayor’s decision to release 1,500 Rikers inmates for COVID-19 reasons has contributed to the Big Apple’s crime wave. “We have been in communication with local elected officials, and organized a tour of the facility on site to address any concerns. We’ve also had two additional community meeting between service providers who are providing programming and services on site, local elected officials, and community leaders.

Source: The Local August 28, 2020 20:24 UTC