This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

When you’ve been compared to a “third world country” by a former president, you clearly have nowhere to go but up. Though now LaGuardia Airport is just showing off. The once maligned airport is now the country’s top-ranked airport for the third year in a row. Looks like that $8 billion remodel – complete with celebrity chef-curated food, words no one would ever previously connect to LaGuardia – is paying off for the Port Authority chief.

Certain New York City nonprofits will soon be given a head start to buy distressed residential buildings thanks to the long-awaited passage of a bill known as the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act. The bill, sponsored by Council Member Sandy Nurse, didn’t have an easy path forward. Former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed an earlier iteration of it last year. But it returned with a few changes, this time under a much more supportive mayor.

Hold your horses, because the City Council passed Chris Marte’s bill to ban horse-drawn carriages in Central Park starting in 2028. It’s a victory for Marte, who has worked for months to overcome opposition from the Transport Workers Union and convince both City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani to say “neigh” to the industry.

A federal judge in Western New York struck down the state’s ban on most civilian purchases of body armor, ruling the first-in-the-nation ban violated the Second Amendment. The decision, which the state is likely to appeal, was a blow to Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson and retiring state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, who sponsored the landmark 2022 law. Critics at the time were concerned it was too vague, and they might have been right, but there’s still time before it’s sent back to the legislative drawing board.

Saratoga County Republican Chair Joseph Suhrada said he will resign from his position after being caught using racist and homophobic language during a phone conversation with a Republican Assembly candidate about men’s college basketball. In a Facebook statement, Suhrada insisted he was just quoting a movie, adding that “art can be uncomfortable to discuss in context.” Also uncomfortable for him to discuss: the many of his Republican lawmaker colleagues who have called for him to step down.

Almost three-quarters of the New York City Council has perfect attendance for the body’s required legislative meetings. Council Member Chi Ossé is not among them. In fact, he has the worst attendance rate, at 77.8%, with four unexcused absences out of a total 18 meetings. His committee attendance record isn’t much better. That might be because he’s spending so much time upstate, amid whispers he’s considering a 2028 run for U.S. Senate.