NYC NOW - April 11, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler is advocating for better tracking of the city’s supportive housing units, which include subsidized housing that connects people to services like job training, benefits counseling, and mental health support. Meanwhile, workers at an Apple Store in Short Hills Mall in New Jersey are making efforts to unionize, becoming the fifth Apple location in the country to do so. Plus, with Election Day just over 200 days away, WNYC’s Community and Partnerships Desk is transforming some laundromats across the New York metro area into civic engagement hubs. George Bodarky, who leads the project titled ‘Suds & Civics,’ joins Michael Hill to discuss insights gained from interacting with the community.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, April 11th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. New York City Council member Lincoln Wrestler wants the city to keep better track of its supporter housing units. That subsidized housing that connects people to services like job training, benefits counseling, or mental health help. Deputy Micea Karen Yee reports on his new proposal. Supportive housing units are overseen by several government agencies and run by multiple providers. Wrestler says that hodgepodge creates inefficiencies.

There's nothing more confusing than supportive housing. Let me tell you. I mean, like it is the most arduous application process in the world. And step one, he says, is for the city to create a dashboard reflecting how many vacant units there are and the average number of days the unit is empty. The city has 40,000 supportive housing units. Workers at an Apple store in luxurious New Jersey mall are fighting to form a union. More than 100 workers at the store's Short Hills Mall location are pushing for representation.

They filed a petition to join the Communications Workers of America with the National Labor Relations Board this week. The comedy has stores in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., but few are unionized. Apple employees in Towson, Maryland, two years ago, made history become, coming the first to start a union. According to the National Labor Relations Board data, the Short Hill Small Shop is the fifth Apple store to try to unionize. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for a comment. 56 with clouds now, coastal flood advisories later. Late afternoon showers likely today, cloudy and 65 for a high. Tomorrow showers and possibly a thunderstorm and 66.

Stay close. There's more after the break. Believe it or not, election day is just more than 200 days away. As part of our election and coverage, WNYC is transforming some laundromats across the New York metro area into hubs for civic engagement. We call the project SUDS and Civics. George Bodarki heads our community partnerships desk. He joins us now to share a few insights.

He and his team have gathered from people between WASH and Uncings. George, I guess I should say dry cycles as well. George, what issues are most concerning to the people you've spoken to so far? In short, the state of the economy and specifically jobs, take Valfred Martinez. There's not enough work for a lot of people. Martinez is 24 years old. He was born and raised on Staten Island. We met him at Star Laundermatt in the Mariners Harbor neighborhood of the island. I have a lot of friends that, you know, they're searching for work here on the island that are more than $20. For example, delivery drivers or something that's going to keep a roof over their head. There's not enough of those jobs.

That's like the main problem here. Martinez says he wants elected officials to help out small businesses. Like expand them. That'll help out like a lot of people, not just the businesses, but you know, individuals that are, you know, that are going to help that business. We heard something similar at J&J laundromat in the South Bronx. That's where we talked with 40. year old Anthony Ortiz. The most important thing is how expensive everything is, especially rent.

My wages don't go up fast enough to keep up with inflation and how fast prices are rising. More than 80 miles away in the Hudson Valley, Chris Troy was getting a wash done at Fountain Square Laundry and Beacon. He also talked about how hard it is to make ends meet. The economy is horrible right now. It costs me an entire paycheck to buy groceries and stuff like that, you know what I mean? But that's all tied up in politics and the greed of, you know, the corporate machine. So we just try to stay positive, you know. George, I'm just curious amid all that adversity has mentioned there.

So just how are people staying positive? Well, Michael, 40-year-old Tanya Bradley is just looking for some divine intervention. She was doing her laundry along with her 11-year-old daughter at Bubbles Are Us in Patterson, New Jersey. I'm thinking right now that we all need to keep prayer and keep God in evolve so he can make the right decision for us because what I've learned is that when man controls some things, he sometimes make mistakes. So we must keep prayer and keep God first. Bradley describes herself as active in the community. She says she's involved with a local pantry. And in her opinion, it's time for elected leaders to double down on domestic concerns like

homelessness and increasing recreation opportunities for kids. She says she's having a hard time wrapping her head around to the level of support the United States extends to other. their nations. Ukraine has an emergency. Palestine has an emergency. Israel has an emergency. On our land, on our home, in our own town, we have an emergency. Everybody has an emergency, but it's so hard for me to understand how is it that everybody else's emergency seems to get dealt with and handled, but ours just seem to get looked over. At Stuy, Washington Dry in East New York, 22-year-old Zanaya Mercer says elected officials need to get more tuned in to the realities of everyday life. should visit communities and ask the people themselves about certain situations happening,

how they feel about it. So they're trying to make decisions for communities, but they're not knowing how the community feels about certain situations. So, George, does Mercer vote? And if so, what issues are sending her to the polls? Yeah, Mercer does vote, and she says she encourages her friends and family to do the same. The driving issue for her is women's rights. Honestly, I don't like that they're trying to take away women's abortion rights. I feel like as women you should have a right to do whatever with everybody. But yeah, that's the main reason why I vote, usually against those type of people.

But having a strong opinion on an issue isn't enough to send everyone to the polls, Michael. James Tomlinson was doing a wash at Fountain Square Laundry and Beacon. He's 30 years old, and he was quick to rattle off his positions. Borders up, immigrants out, U.S. back. That's all. But he's never voted and says he doesn't plan to. It doesn't matter. It wouldn't matter anyway.

we don't get to say. Does the topic, George, of immigration, come up a lot during your visits to laundromats? And I ask that, George, because we hear politicians talking about it all the time. No, absolutely. It's a recurring theme everywhere we go. Immigration has become a significant local issue. There's no doubt about that. For instance, we talked with Luz Almonte at Star Laundromat on Staten Island.

She's from Columbia. She's been on Staten Island for 22 years. Her son is in the Navy. She's a Trump supporter. Almondi says she's fed up with the number of migrants coming to Staten Island. It's just like that practically not invading. It was a little bit too, but it has been much people

of other places. In the hotels, there are almost many hotels, there are people of other countries that are coming to, to keep their jobs to the people of here. At Jason's laundromat in Huntington Station on Long Island, we met another Luz, Luz Cortez. She immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador 20 years ago, and she says she's troubled by the negative portrayal of migrants. Well, that it took a little more of importance to the undocumented, right?

That are the, you know, the job more due to this country, and that would be good that in a time, they'll take more in account and not to talk a little bit too much of them, but at least for what what does one, well, not all are equal. And, well, that's all. Cortez says she can't go to the polls herself because of her immigration status, but she would if she could

to underscore the importance of the Latino vote. George, we've talked about suds and civics before on Morning Edition, but remind us, please, what are the goals for this project? Yeah, of course, there are a few. We want to better understand local concerns and share diverse voices

and perspectives like the ones we're hearing this morning. We're going to distill what we learn and use those insights to help inform WNYC's election coverage over the coming months. And we also hope our chats in laundromats about voting and political participation encourage more people to take part in the democratic process. And, Michael, if you don't wash your clothes at a laundromat, but you still want to tell us what's on your mind, email me at suds and civics at WNYC.org. I'll happily send you a link to a survey we put together with our partners at.

America amplified. Getting the laundry done and a whole lot more. George Bodarki, his community partnerships editor in the WNYC News. I'm George. Always a pleasure having you on. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Thanks for listening.

This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.