New York City Mayor Eric Adams has unveiled a plan to use the city's zoning tools to support small businesses, create affordable housing and promote sustainability.

Adams announced the three citywide zoning amendments on Wednesday at the Association for a Better New York Power Breakfast.

Called the "City of Yes" plan, the first amendment focuses on economic development and aims to provide small businesses more flexibility in how they can repurpose their space for a post-pandemic city.

Adams said it's about removing the red tape and helping businesses evolve.

"Think about the owner of a tapas bar that has live music on weekends and wants to set aside a small space for dancing, but finds that under city rules, it's not allowed." said Adams. "We are going to change that no to a yes and let the people dance."

The amendment includes removing geographic limitations on certain businesses, including life sciences, custom manufacturing and nightlife.

Adams said the city also will work closely with communities on investments that can bring more jobs to New Yorkers, including opportunities in the Bronx. Four Metro North stations are slated to open in the Bronx in 2027.

Another zoning expansion under Adams' "City of Yes" plan focuses on addressing the city's affordable-housing crisis. It includes easing conversions of underutilized buildings, such as vacant office spaces.

"City zoning laws put artificial limits on the number of studio apartments per building," said Adams. "We are going to change that and help a young person who moved to the greatest city on the globe, an older person, stay in the city they grew up in or a person who has experienced homelessness get permanent housing."

The third component of the plan focuses on clean energy and adjusting zoning rules to help speed up the installation of solar panels and charging stations for electric vehicles. New York state and city are working together to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 80% by 2050.

Pennsylvania advocacy groups will gather at the Capitol rotunda for a "Fix Harrisburg" press conference today to deliver a new performance report to state lawmakers, calling for changes to legislative rules and more progress. A recent report by the group Fair Districts PA compared the Pennsylvania General Assembly's first six months of 2023 to three neighboring states: New York, Maryland and Virginia, and found the new session is off to a very slow start.

Carol Kuniholm, chair of Fair Districts PA, said the report found Virginia passed more than 800 bills in less than two months. But as of June 30th, Pennsylvania only enacted three bills. 12 others passed in both chambers but had not been signed or sent on to Governor Josh Shapiro for his signature.

"We are watching the process, watching our state Legislature, and concerned that they haven't really addressed the problems we call attention to in the past and hoping that they address those soon, so that the bipartisan solutions that Pennsylvanians are waiting for will finally get a vote," Kuniholm explained.

Kuniholm emphasized the new report also showed during the session that members of both political parties signed on as co-sponsors of many bills affecting both rural and urban Pennsylvanians. However, many are still awaiting the initial votes to get them out of committee.

Kuniholm added only 7% or 8% of bills that are filed end up passing, and said the new report highlights ten different bipartisan solutions and support for those solutions from legislators in both parties. But in past sessions, sometimes they have passed unanimously in one chamber left to die in the other.

"There's an almost tragic event not too long ago, where a child-care facility had carbon monoxide poisoning and staff and children ended up in the hospital," she continued. "The bill to address that passed unanimously out of the Senate in the last session and went nowhere in the House. "

Kuniholm added the one bipartisan solution her organization is most concerned about is an independent citizen redistricting commission. She pointed out they have released polls showing more than 70% of Pennsylvanians approved, and garnering support from 110 cosponsors in 2018, it was blocked.

As the federal government nears a shutdown over a budget impasse in Congress, Wisconsin offices that help low-income individuals worry they'll have to stretch their programs. They hope the public sees the importance of their assistance.

Public policy analysts say safety-net aid, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) would feel the budget squeeze sooner rather than later.

Brett White is executive director of the Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program, which helps clients access WIC benefits. His office is nonpartisan, but he feels the work they do tends to get overlooked in public debates over government funding.

"We are the transportation program for this neck of the woods, and take people to dialysis treatments," he said. "I mean, we're big on that."

He said they've been preparing to try to keep services running, but noted that some programs would eventually have to pause in a prolonged shutdown. Hard-right House Republicans have insisted on a federal budget that includes deep cuts for social assistance. The group Opportunity Wisconsin has called out certain GOP members of the state's congressional delegation for not opposing that plan.

Freedom Caucus members have said their demands for big cuts should be considered because they didn't make it into the debt-ceiling agreement earlier this year. Meanwhile, White said that as a lot of households still struggle with higher consumer prices, these programs are increasingly becoming a lifeline for those turning to them for the first time.

"We will see spikes, we've actually already begun to see inquiries," he said. "We see spikes in our food pantry programs."

The government shutdown threat and the potential for big spending reductions follow new data from the U.S. Census Bureau showing increases in poverty rates. That includes the nation's child poverty rate more than doubling, to 12%.

New Yorkers are preparing for an impending government shutdown.

State officials are worried about how it could impact the work state agencies have been doing for migrants. Meanwhile, residents are concerned about how a shutdown could affect federal benefits they receive.

Make the Road Action held a press conference this week urging U.S. Rep. Anthony D'Esposito - R-Island Park - to stand up to hard-right Republicans taking budget negotiations hostage.

Angel Reyes Rivas, Long Island organizing coordinator with Make the Road Action, said a shutdown would be financially disruptive for New Yorkers.

"For Social Security and Medicare, the checks are sent out, but benefit verification as well as card issuance would cease," said Reyes Rivas. "Also, SNAP, that many low-income families use on Long Island also would, the ability to send out food stamp benefits could be affected by the shutdown."

The Center on Budget Policy and Priorities finds almost 3 million New Yorkers received SNAP benefits in 2022.

Earlier this week, Gov. Kathy Hochul implored members of Congress to avert a shutdown - noting that among the many other problems it would pose, New York's 51,000 federal employees would be out of work.

The Senate passed a measure to fund the government until November 17, though House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he will not take the measure up as it is.

Reyes Rivas said any kind of budget must be bipartisan and based on what constituents want.

"A solution would be for the people, being Democrat or being Republican, that really care about these communities and understanding the importance of these benefits to pass something, right?" said Reyes Rivas. "There's a government shutdown, it's unacceptable."

The Senate's budget bill would have provided around $6 billion for Ukraine war efforts and another $6 billion for disaster relief in the wake of recent floods, and wildfires in the U.S.