Politics

Cuomo’s New Approach to Restoring His Reputation: TV Ads

Good morning. It’s Tuesday. We’ll look at former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new television ads, which say he was a victim of “political attacks.” And, with tourism on many people’s minds as the city struggles to move beyond the pandemic, we’ll preview a new museum with a theme park-style ride that is opening in Midtown Manhattan.

Credit…Pool photo by Mike Segar/EPA, via Shutterstock

What would former Gov. Andrew Cuomo do with the million of dollars his campaign committee had amassed when he resigned amid sexual harassment allegations?

It’s a question that has swirled in New York political circles. An answer emerged on Monday when he began trying to spend his way out of political purgatory, starting with $369,000 worth of television time, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact. Cuomo’s still-active campaign operation, renamed “Friends of Andrew Cuomo,” is running a 30-second spot on television stations and cable systems across the state.

It’s an attempt to convince New Yorkers that the case against him that was assembled by the state attorney general has crumbled. The ad splices together snippets from news programs and ends with two sentences on the screen: “Political attacks won. And New Yorkers lost a proven leader.”

[Cuomo Portrays Himself as a Victim in a Six-Figure TV Ad Blitz]

Cuomo can afford the media blitz. A public campaign report in January showed that he still had $16.4 million in cash at his disposal. But the commercial is unusual because it is not an apology. That led to speculation about Cuomo was preparing the way for a comeback by trying to rehabilitate a reputation that was all but destroyed last year.

My colleagues Nicholas Fandos and Katie Glueck write that reality has been less kind to Cuomo than the commercial indicates. Cuomo and his lawyers appear to be claiming exoneration because no criminal charges have been filed — but several prosecutors who declined to press charges called allegations that Cuomo had harassed or groped women “credible.”

Nor are Cuomo’s legal problems completely over. Last month a state trooper filed a lawsuit accusing him and a top aide of discrimination and retaliation. The trooper had also alleged that Cuomo touched her inappropriately when she was assigned to his protective detail.

Women’s rights groups and some politicians reacted negatively to the commercial. Nine women’s rights organizations issued a statement that said “this attempt to claim exoneration won’t work.” Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican and longtime Cuomo critic, called the ad “desperately deranged.”

The commercial did not name the state attorney general, Letitia James, whom Cuomo loyalists have repeatedly attacked. But her spokeswoman called the ad “shameful.”

“The only thing Andrew Cuomo has proven himself to be is a serial sexual harasser and a threat to women in the workplace,” the spokeswoman, Delaney Kempner, said. “No TV ad can change that.”


Is it too soon for normalcy?

Mayor Eric Adams rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, an all-smiles appearance that came a day after he announced plans to end the city’s mask mandate for public schools and its vaccine mandate for indoor dining, gyms and entertainment sites.

The stock exchange visit was part of his push to bring a sense of normalcy to a city that has been pounded by the coronavirus. The decision to roll back some of the most visible signs of the pandemic, reached after he conferred with his top health advisers and union leaders, came after new cases and hospitalizations had dropped. The daily average of cases in New York City stood at 846 on Monday, down 54 percent from two weeks ago.

“The goal was to put in place ways to encourage people to get vaccinated,” he said on Monday. “I believe we’ve accomplished that.”

[New York Is Rolling Back Pandemic Restrictions. Is It Too Soon? ]

Nearly 77 percent of the population in New York City is fully vaccinated, including nearly 87 percent of adults, according to city data. But some infectious disease specialists said the numbers were not high enough.

“We still need to get people vaccinated,” Dr. Céline Gounder, who recently joined Kaiser Health News as an editor at large, told me. “We will have more surges. We will have more variants. We should be continuing our efforts to get more people vaccinated to protect from those surges and variants.”

Dr. Sheldon Landesman, an infectious disease specialist and professor at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences, said that there remains “a significant population in the city that is not vaccinated.”

“I’m not sure we’re ready for ‘Covid doesn’t exist anymore,’” he told me. “It may remove the impetus to get vaccinated.”


Weather

Today will be mostly cloudy with temps in the high 40s. Expect a chance of showers this evening with temps in the high 30s.

alternate-side parking

In effect today. Suspended tomorrow (Ash Wednesday).


The latest New York news

  • Small businesses in New York City are coping with a rise in retail thefts, which have cascaded during the pandemic.

  • For decades, three physicians in Rochester, N.Y., secretly used their own sperm to help women become pregnant.

  • Showing support for Ukraine, the Metropolitan Opera said it would cut ties with performers and institutions that have voiced support for President Vladimir Putin of Russia.


Betting on tourists

Credit…Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

If you build it, will they come?

James Sanna has built it — an indoor theme-park-style ride in Midtown — and is betting that they — tourists — will.

His installation, RiseNY, has a 46-seat “flying theater” that Sanna says is the first of its kind in New York. It gives riders the sensation of cruising over the city, their feet dangling in the air. RiseNY occupies a huge space that was once home to a huge clothing store and later a dance club — and, at another point, an indoor Ferris wheel.

The ride appears to soar, dive, dip and turn — nothing as chilling as on a roller coaster. It glides over Central Park. It barely seems to clear bridges — of course it’s going to make it. It soars over a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and passes through walls — painlessly. The flight is an illusion created with a 40-foot projection dome. Sanna, the president and chief executive of an entertainment production company that has been involved with exhibitions like “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” said the idea came from riding “Soarin’ Over California” at Disneyland.

Before the ride, visitors see a film by the documentarian Ric Burns and the writer James Sanders. A subway car seems to arrive in the theater just as the film ends, but that is another illusion.

RiseNY, with tickets for adults starting at $28, had a soft opening. It began operating with no marketing in January, in preparation for a full-fledged opening on March 1. (The New York Post got wind of it and called it “charmless.”)

Many New Yorkers are dismissive of tourists and the attractions they frequent, but tourists had become essential to the city’s economy before the pandemic, spending $47 billion a year in 2019, according to NYC & Company, the city’s convention and visitors agency. It put the figure for 2021 at just over half that amount, $24 billion.

Hoping to bring travelers back, NYC & Company has been advertising overseas. And on Monday, Mayor Eric Adams said, “We want tourism back. It’s a major economic boost for us.”

So will tourists visit RiseNY?

“I think people are a little reluctant to visit Times Square in particular and the city in general, but we feel like it’s building,” Sanna said last week. “We’re hopeful when the weather gets nicer and the masks come off and the tourists come back that this will be an important stop.”


What we’re reading

  • A docuseries on Andy Warhol is coming to Netflix and the artist is, sort of, narrating it (thanks to A.I.-generated audio), Hyperallergic reports.

  • At her first hearing as the chair of the City Council’s education committee, Rita Joseph focused on the pandemic’s impact on public school students learning English, Gothamist reports.


METROPOLITAN diary

One of those days

Dear Diary:

I was on the 79th Street crosstown bus, and I was struggling with my iPhone. It had frozen solid. With my other hand, I was trying to keep my rolling walker from getting away. Just one of those days.

Across from me was a young woman in a puffy jacket and furry boots.

“Can I help?” she asked.

“Yes, please,” I said, gratefully handing over the phone. “Do you think you can fix it?”

“Oh, of course,” she said coolly. “I’m a millennial!”

And fix it she did.

— Ephraim Lewis

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.


Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.

Melissa Guerrero, Reagan Lopez, Olivia Parker and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

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