Earlier this week, the B.C. River Forecast Centre issued a bulletin warning that the province was facing a "considerably" higher risk of spring flooding.

Flood watch issued for Fontas River in northeast B.C.

Jun 19 2021, 8:05 PM
June 19 2021, 7:02 PM
June 19 2021, 8:05 PM
(Bloomberg) -- In a move to shake up the race to become New York City’s next mayor, former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia and celebrity entrepreneur Andrew Yang agreed to campaign together Saturday in each other’s political strongholds. (Bloomberg) -- In a move to shake up the race to become New York City’s next mayor, former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia and celebrity entrepreneur Andrew Yang agreed to campaign together Saturday in each other’s political strongholds. The team-up aims to take advantage of the dynamics of the city’s new election system -- which allows voters to rank their choices -- at the expense of the frontrunner, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. The two will gather first for a get-out-the-vote rally on the busy commercial streets of Flushing, Queens, home to the city’s greatest concentration of Chinese immigrants. Yang, the upstate New York-born son of Taiwanese immigrants, is popular there. Later, Garcia and Yang will hold a news conference in Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Town, a middle-class enclave of rent-stabilized housing, where polls show Garcia running strongly. The arrangement creates a novel partnership and strategic test of the first New York City mayoral election to feature ranked-choice voting. The new system, which has confused many voters, permits people to select as many as five candidates in order of preference rather than just one. Saturday’s meet-up, days before the June 22 Democratic primary, holds the promise of bolstering Garcia or Yang, or both, over Adams, a former New York City police captain. It could also weaken MSNBC television commentator Maya Wiley, who has gained momentum with endorsements from nationally known progressives including U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “It’s a natural alliance in the face of a potential defeat for both candidates to the current front-runner, who is Adams,” said political consultant George Fontas, who’s commissioned a series of polls during the race while not backing any candidate. In one of those surveys, in May, Fontas found that Adams had built such a broad multi-ethnic coalition that Garcia would need to expand her base beyond White residents of Manhattan to have a realistic chance to win. Yang’s loyal following among Asian voters represents that opportunity, Fontas said in an interview. The deal may benefit Garcia more than Yang, Fontas said, because polls show her leading Yang. Under ranked-choice voting, if Yang trails Garcia, and his voters have chosen her second, that support would go to her as if they had been first place votes. Campaigning with Yang may motivate the 2020 Democratic presidential contender’s most fervent voters to include Garcia on their ballots, too, instead of just voting only for him. Yang has been supportive of Garcia, who served as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s crisis manager, running the city’s massive public housing authority and managing a pandemic food relief program, all the while running the city’s massive Sanitation Department. Yang often described Garcia as his second choice, to which Garcia responded with a now-famous retort: “I’m not running for number two.”
At the same time, Yang has shown animosity toward Adams, who’s ascended in the polls while Yang’s early lead has evaporated. Adams has ridiculed Yang’s Universal Basic Income, or UBI, plan, calling it “U-B-Lie,” and belittled Yang’s knowledge of the city. The two have competed for support in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish communities, which usually vote as blocs. During last week’s candidate’s debate, Yang taunted Adams for failing to win the endorsement of the Captains Endowment Association. The union representing past and current NYPD commanders backed Yang over one of its own. When Adams said he didn’t seek or want any police union support, Yang said Adams wasn’t being truthful. “Yang and Adams have been in pitched warfare for weeks,” said Fontas, who’s not working for or backing any candidate. “Garcia is seizing the animus between her two rivals to pick up more number two votes and potentially defeat Adams with Yang’s imprimatur.”
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

NYC Mayoral Rivals Team Up, Aiming to Weaken Race’s Front-Runner

Jun 07 2021, 4:38 PM
June 07 2021, 3:30 PM
June 07 2021, 4:38 PM
(Bloomberg) -- New York’s next mayor will inherit a $3.9 billion city budget shortfall for fiscal 2023 and a labor market still 550,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels. (Bloomberg) -- New York’s next mayor will inherit a $3.9 billion city budget shortfall for fiscal 2023 and a labor market still 550,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels. Eight leading Democratic candidates are vying to succeed Bill de Blasio, who is term limited, and run the largest city in the U.S. Democrats outnumber Republicans by 7-to-1 in New York City, favoring the winner of their June 22 primary for the general election. For the first time, New York City is using a ranked-choice system in its mayoral election. Voters will be asked to rank their top five candidates. If the top vote-getter secures more than 50% of the vote, he or she is declared the winner. If not, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and the votes are redistributed among the second choices. The process continues until a candidate wins a majority. Read more here: Ranked-Choice Voting Gets Its New York City Audition: QuickTake
In a poll released May 26 by Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics, a quarter of voters were “truly undecided” when ask who they would pick as their first choice in the primary. Here are the eight leading candidates in alphabetical order:
Eric Adams, the Ex-Cop
Eric Adams, 60, has been Brooklyn borough president since 2014. A former state senator and top-ranking New York Police Department officer who spent 22 years in the NYPD, Adams led the Fontas poll, with 18% of voters saying he would be their first choice. Adams has presented himself to be the candidate for working-class New Yorkers. He has pledged to make the city run more efficiently, roll back taxes and regulations and use his experience as a cop to improve community-police relationships. He’s been criticized for pledging to re-institute controversial policies like stop-and-frisk or plainclothes police units that disproportionately impacted Black and Latino residents, although Adams said he would modify them. He’s also been accused of accepting contributions from donors that later did business with the city in deals he had influence on as Brooklyn borough president, claims he has denied. Shaun Donovan, the Housing Expert with D.C. Friends
Shaun Donovan, 55, is former U.S. housing secretary under President Barack Obama and headed the city’s housing department under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP. Despite receiving millions of dollars in donations from his father to bolster his campaign, he fared among the worst of the eight candidates in the Fontas poll, with just 4% ranking him first. Donovan has pledged to spend $2 billion a year to repair public housing, create a down payment assistance program for homebuyers, reallocate about $500 million from the NYPD budget to community-based security measures and create 500,000 jobs in four years. Kathryn Garcia, the Ex-Trash Boss
Kathryn Garcia, 51, got a campaign boost this month after endorsements from the Daily News and the New York Times, which said she “best understands how to get New York back on its feet.” In the Fontas poll, 11% picked her as their first choice, up from 2% in March. A separate PIX11/Emerson College poll conducted May 23-24 had Garcia leading the pack with 21% of respondents naming her as their first choice, up from 5% in March. Her major plans include free child care for parents with children under 3 making less than $70,000 a year, universal Internet access and legalizing recreational marijuana. Garcia is former New York City sanitation commissioner and former interim chair of the New York City Housing Authority. She was de Blasio’s go-to crisis manager during her tenure, tackling the distribution of millions of meals during the pandemic, as well as a lead-poisoning crisis in public housing. But she has also been accused of resigning from the de Blasio administration at a difficult point during the pandemic, which Garcia has attributed to a show of protest after the mayor cut her sanitation budget. Raymond McGuire, the Wall Street Executive
Raymond McGuire, 64, is backed financially by New York’s elite, from finance to real estate to the entertainment industry. He is the only one of the eight leading candidates not accepting public-matching dollars for his campaign. As of May 21, he had raised the most private funds, $11.7 million, but was the first choice of only 4% in the Fontas poll. Once the highest-ranking Black Wall Street executive, McGuire co-headed Citigroup Inc.’s investment bank for more than a decade before leaving to run for mayor. Raised in Dayton, Ohio, he moved to New York City after completing his MBA and law degree at Harvard University. He vows to sponsor 50% of salaries for 50,000 small-business workers for one year, rebuild the NYPD and advance career opportunities for youth. Dianne Morales, the Progressive Public Servant
Dianne Morales, 53, is a former public school teacher who has spent the past decade as chief executive officer of Phipps Neighborhoods, an antipoverty nonprofit in the Bronx. Her campaign has suffered recently from internal strife, with the departure of her campaign manager and other staffers amid complaints of a toxic workplace. At least one staffer defected to rival Maya Wiley’s campaign. Morales was born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and her parents are from Puerto Rico. She has pledged basic income relief for every household and advocated defunding the police, enacting a citywide rent moratorium, increasing funding for immigrant legal assistance and investing in green jobs. Scott Stringer, the Auditor
Scott Stringer, 61, has managed to hang on despite two sexual-harassment claims -- one by a former campaign volunteer from 2001 that cost him a number of major endorsements and a second allegation by a woman who worked as a waitress in 1992 at a restaurant he co-owned. Stringer denies both claims. The United Federation of Teachers endorsed Stringer in April and has stood by him. Stringer was elected New York City’s comptroller in 2013. His office oversees the $247.2 billion public pension system, audits all agencies, reviews contracts and issues municipal bonds. Born and raised in Washington Heights, he was a state lawmaker for 13 years and also served as Manhattan borough president. Stringer wants to reduce property taxes and invest $400 million in revenue to affordable housing. He’s also campaigning to put $500 million toward building child care facilities in neighborhoods where access is lacking. Maya Wiley, the Civil-Rights Activist
Maya Wiley, 57, is a civil-rights lawyer and former MSNBC legal analyst who worked as counsel to de Blasio and also served as his director of women- and minority-owned business enterprises. Wiley’s “New Deal New York” plans to inject $10 billion into the city’s economy and 100,000 jobs. Another major proposal from her campaign is $5,000 annual stipends for 100,000 unpaid, domestic caregivers like stay-at-home moms and single parents. She has been criticized for her involvement in a conflicts-of-interest scandal in the de Blasio administration, as well as her role as head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an NYPD oversight agency that critics say became more secretive during her tenure. On June 5, Wiley’s campaign won a coveted endorsement by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Andrew Yang, the Name They Know
Andrew Yang, 46, is an entrepreneur and former U.S. presidential candidate. He led in early polls, but support has dropped as candidates call him an outsider and question his experience. He had been criticized for never voting in a New York City mayoral election, being out of touch with everyday residents, and overstating the impact of a venture nonprofit that failed to deliver the jobs he promised. Yang is proposing $2,000 annual payments for the poorest New Yorkers, a scaled-back version of the universal basic income plan he campaigned on in 2020. Yang had 13% in the latest Fontas poll, down from 16% in March. ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

NYC’s Leading Candidates for Mayor Include Ex-Cop, Trash Chief

May 26 2021, 12:07 PM
May 26 2021, 9:31 AM
May 26 2021, 12:07 PM
(Bloomberg) -- Andrew Yang’s grip on the New York City mayoral race is slipping. (Bloomberg) -- Andrew Yang’s grip on the New York City mayoral race is slipping. A series of polls released this week has Yang, the previous frontrunner, falling behind rivals. The former presidential contender is drawing criticism that he’s unschooled in the fundamentals of government and unqualified to lead the post-pandemic comeback of the most populous city in the U.S. Yang is also fielding an onslaught of attacks by competitors who accuse him of taking donations from moneyed special interests and violating campaign finance rules, a claim Yang denies. With less than a month before the June 22 primary, which is likely to decide the next mayor in the heavily Democratic city, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams surpassed Yang in a poll released Wednesday by Core Decision Analytics and Fontas Advisors, a political consultancy. In a separate survey by Emerson College and Pix11 released late Tuesday, Yang fell to third, behind former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia who surged into first place, and Adams, who ran a close second. Political consultant George Fontas, who commissioned one of the polls, said the fast-approaching primary and a barrage of campaign media spending has focused New Yorkers. “People are paying more attention now,” Fontas said. “They know what attributes are important to them and they are finding those attributes in other candidates, not in Yang.”
Yang benefited in early polls from the afterglow of his 2020 campaign for Democratic presidential nominee, which launched his online celebrity. Yang scored heavy name recognition in a crowded New York City contest marked by lower-profile candidates and confusion over ranked-choice voting, which requires voters to rank five picks. Up against candidates who mostly stuck to virtual events due to the pandemic, Yang took to the streets, where his high energy shone. Now as pandemic restrictions life and the city reopens, other campaigns are ramping up in-person events and unleashing millions of fundraising dollars. With concerns around Covid-19 and vaccines dropping in voter importance, issues like crime, taxes and city budgeting are rising in prominence. That’s helped drive support for Adams, an ex-cop endorsed by the New York Post, who is pledging to re-institute a controversial plainclothes unit to address a spike in shootings. “The problem is we had the the wrong people in the plainclothes unit. We had the cowboys,” Adams said at a Tuesday mayoral forum moderated by Al Sharpton. Voters’ refocus on crime and quality of life issues also helped prop up Garcia, who has touted her experience running sanitation, housing and other large city departments as New York’s crisis manager. She picked up endorsements by The New York Times and Daily News, as well as a slew of elected officials with built-in voter bases. As for Yang, “he has a very pleasing upbeat personality and optimism about him that’s infectious, but it’s been a very rough month of May for him,” said political consultant Bruce Gyory, who teaches political science at the University of Albany. “The narrative is he doesn’t have a handle on the facts, that he lacks substance, and unless he can turn that around it’s going to create difficulties for him.”
Only 13% of likely Democratic voters said Yang was their first choice in the May 13-15 Fontas poll, down from 28% in January. Adams got 18% and Garcia got 11% in the May Fontas poll. Roughly a quarter of those polled said they were “truly undecided,” Fontas said. Yang’s slippage coincides with a slew of press reports and opposition attacks questioning his campaign finances and familiarity with the city he aspires to govern. The gaffes are often trivial, like when he drew ridicule for saying the A train goes to the Bronx. It doesn’t. But Yang’s also been caught unaware of the fiscal implications in advocating the city take over subway and bus operations from the state, without addressing the system’s $50 billion debt. Yang also proposed a casino on Governors Island, even though such a development is prohibited by the federal charter that gave it to the city. On crime and reforming the NYPD, Yang told Sharpton on Tuesday that the city needs someone who is not a product of the existing culture. Yang says that those who go after him as an outsider without government experience don’t understand that it’s a source of political appeal. “I don’t owe people favors going back years and decades,” Yang said at a press conference last week. Name Recognition
Yang’s missteps haven’t escaped those who track the city’s fiscal health and credit worthiness, said Howard Cure, director of Municipal Bond Research for Evercore Wealth Management. “You want someone who knows how the city works, who has knowledge of its various departments, who is ready to take responsibility for health, safety, transportation, delivering city services,” Cure said. “He doesn’t check off any of those boxes needed to accomplish a recovery.”
Cure panned Yang’s aspirations to take over the subway as a pipe dream and questioned Yang’s insistence on taxing universities in the city, noting he would need state approval for both unlikely moves. “When you start taxing the major universities you interfere with a major generator of economic and job growth,” Cure said. Yang’s Defense
Yang defended his position last Thursday citing payments Cambridge, Massachusetts gets from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “We can make the same thing happen here in New York,” he said. Yang hasn’t shied away from questions that he’s never voted for New York City mayor and hasn’t held public office. His blunders and social media mishaps often generate buzz, yielding more name recognition. But Douglas Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College, is one of several political observers who say Yang’s candidacy appears to have stalled. “Increasingly there’s this perception among voters and elected officials that he’s an empty suit,” Muzzio said. “He may be smart, and he’s got what no one else in the race seems to have -- a personality -- but he also has to lose this sense that he’s a drop-in from the presidential race prone to gaffes.”
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Yang’s NYC Mayoral Quest Slips as Foes Target Inexperience

From left: Mayoral candidates Eric Adams, Andrew Yang, Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley (Getty)
It’s still anyone’s guess who will win the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. But no one is guessing Scott Stringer, Shaun Donovan or Ray McGuire. A phone poll conducted five weeks before the June 22 primary shows the three candidates struggling for traction despite their ample war chests peppering voters’ screens with ads. The survey also thrusts Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams into the role of favorite and elevates Kathryn Garcia from dark horse to contender. Both are welcome developments for the real estate industry, which is hoping for a more effective and less ideological mayor when Bill de Blasio’s eight long years in City Hall end Dec. 31. Former front-runner Andrew Yang runs second in the poll of 800 likely primary voters surveyed by Core Decision Analytics for government affairs consultancy Fontas Advisors. Yang seems to be clinging to his support while Garcia, a former Department of Sanitation commissioner, is gaining. Read more
“Eric Adams has clearly caught Yang and solidified his position in the top tier if not in the top spot,” said George Fontas, head of his eponymous firm. “Garcia has made an enormous leap in a short period of time.”
Garcia was propelled by, of all things, newspaper endorsements — a once-coveted validation whose importance has dwindled along with circulations. But winning the backing of the New York Times and Daily News gave voters something to go on in what some might have seen as a nebulous field of eight major candidates. Adams, a former NYPD captain, earned the right-leaning New York Post’s endorsement, but his ascendance has more to do with the elevation of crime as a concern. “Eric Adams and Garcia both have terrific momentum,” said Fontas. “Yang has to reverse course or regain momentum.”
The poll numbers are still splintered and must be preceded by a caveat: They combine sure-of-their-choice voters with those who initially said “undecided” but then acknowledged leaning toward a candidate. Adams has 18 percent, Yang 13 percent and Garcia 11 percent. The race’s two most liberal candidates, Maya Wiley and Dianne Morales, each have 9 percent. Then comes the city comptroller, Stringer, with a paltry 7 percent, followed by the two 4-percenters, former Obama housing secretary Donovan and ex-investment banker McGuire. Stringer had thought slamming developers was the way to complete his methodical rise through New York City politics — from Upper West Side Assembly member to Manhattan borough president to comptroller — with a City Hall gig. Alas, his attempt at populism was a bad match for his uncharismatic demeanor and never resonated with New Yorkers, leaving him vulnerable to any setback. That setback came when a former girlfriend (his characterization) or acquaintance (hers) accused Stringer of unwanted sexual advances two decades ago, and many of his endorsers fled. Donovan was positioned as the housing expert in the race but undermined that premise by incorrectly guessing the median sale price of a Brooklyn home. McGuire’s even lower estimate reinforced the impression that he is an out-of-touch Wall Streeter. But neither man had any momentum to lose anyway. “If I’m McGuire and Donovan, I’m going to start reassessing my path to victory,” said Fontas. “They’re not catching fire for months. It’s hard to believe that they will now.”
If Donovan is the wonk candidate, Wiley is the woke candidate. The police-bashing, de Blasio–deserting lawyer has steadily inched up after a sluggish start . So has Morales, though if the former nonprofit executive were to emerge as a threat, her rivals would surely spend more time reminding New Yorkers that she once paid off a city inspector to make a runaway water bill evaporate. Negative stories, meanwhile, have bounced off Adams, as none rose to a level that voters deemed scandalous: He was a Republican until 20 years ago; he boosted a gaming company vying to run a city casino; he raised money for a self-promotional magazine. The collective reaction of pandemic-weary New Yorkers: And? Still, with more than a quarter of poll respondents saying they are not even leaning toward a candidate yet, the race remains fluid. “At this point,” said Fontas, “one great ad, one foot-in-the-mouth moment, can point the 26 percent of undecided in a whole new direction.”
Contact Erik Engquist

Date	7/27/2020
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Investors	Grun Software Group
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First funding	7/27/2020
Last Funding	7/27/2020
Investor	Grun Software Group
Rounds	1 Acquired
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Location	Germany

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