NYC NOW - August 12, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

New York City leaders are zeroing in on building more housing to solve the city's housing shortage.Plus, the Queens Public Library’s renovated Broadway branch in Astoria is back after almost a year-long delay due to budget cuts. Also, WNYC’s Michael Hill and Elizabeth Kim discuss the legacy of former FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh. And finally, we hear from young people eligible to vote in a presidential race for the first time this year

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. I don't think people understand how critical this is. We have the lowest vacancy rate in the history of New York City since 1968. Local officials are zeroing in on building more housing to solve New York City's housing shortage. City leaders pushing Mayor Eric Adams' City of Yes proposal say the administration, aims to approve the biggest changes to the city's zoning laws in decades. They say it'll promote the building of more residential properties across the five boroughs.

Delpho Carion Jr. is the city commissioner of housing, preservation, and development. Your chances of finding an affordable home below $2,400 a month is near zero. The mayor's rezoning plan is still facing pushback from community leaders who don't want new housing in their neighborhoods. The proposal is under public review. and the mayor is urging New Yorkers to pressure their council members to get behind the proposal. The Queen's Public Library's Broadway location in Astoria is back. The community celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday afternoon. WMYC's Catalina Gonella has more.

A computer center with 30 computers, a lounge area, and a new HVAC system. Those are just some of the new features visitors can expect at the updated space. Library officials say the $4.6 million renovation of the building's cellar level created more space for public use. There's also new ADA public restrooms and a renovated meeting space with a stage and a classroom. The reopening comes after the city restored $58 million for libraries in the budget last month. As you may have heard, the FDMI has a new commissioner, private security firm CEO, Robert Tucker. The former head of the department called it quits last week. After the break, we look back at the legacy of Laura Kavanaugh.

Stick around. Laura Kavanaugh's tenure as FDNY Commissioner is over. Kavanaugh was the first woman to lead the department, but she called it quits last week. So what's her legacy when it comes to gender diversity in the FDNY, an institution that continues to be mostly male? For more, my kansas. colleague Michael Hill talked with WMYC's Elizabeth Kim. How many women are members of the FDN1?

There are 168 women firefighters. That's the highest number that the fire department has ever had. But here's the important context. That's out of 11,000 total firefighters. So the proportion comes out to less than 2% are women. And at the leadership level, there is only one woman fire chief. How does that compare Liz to other cities?

Not very good. I'll just cite you a few examples. Minneapolis has 16% women. San Francisco, 15%. Miami, 13%. And I think this surprises many people because one, New York City has the largest fire department in the U.S. It's the biggest city in the U.S.

But this is also, you know, a famously diverse and progressive city that's often seen as a trailblazer, but just not in this regard. So percentage-wise, why does the FDNY have fewer women than those other cities you mentioned? Well, that's a very important question. And the answer depends on who you speak to. But here's where I think everyone will agree. There are some real structural issues. The fire department carries out recruitment only every four to five years. and that's just for people to apply. It could then take several years to actually have your name called up.

There's also an age limit, 29. Now, for women, that runs up against the time when they might be considering having to have children. And there are also cultural perceptions or misperceptions about the job. People just don't think of firefighting as a job for women. It's not uncommon to hear women firefighters say that they themselves, had never met a woman firefighter before looking at the application. It's a job that does have some physical requirements. There is a physical test.

And lastly, you know, this is what women advocates will emphasize. Recruitment isn't strong enough. And the culture isn't welcoming to women. And Liz, you reported on some women who say they're uncomfortable with the culture of the FDNY. Tell us who you talk to and what they said. Regina Wilson is a 25-year veteran of the department. She's been very outspoken about racism and sexism within the FDNY. She's the president of the Vulcan Society. That's an association of black firefighters. The other woman advocate I spoke to was Serenia Striscical. She was the first Asian-American woman firefighter in the department. She was hired in 2005. Both of them, describe a culture that is dominated by mostly white men. You know, they spoke about lewd and derogatory remarks.

There's bullying that they say was directed at them because they're women. Wilson remembers being singled out for push-ups by a drill instructor. Priya Skull said she had her food thrown out by an older firefighter. There's also basic accommodations that other workplaces have built out for women that, not every firehouse has. Separate changing rooms, separate bathrooms. Why did Kavanaugh say she's leaving? She described a situation that sounded a lot like burnout and just the need to take a break. She was named commissioner in 2022, but she'd been working in the department since 2014.

Now, that's 10 years, and it's a very difficult job. She talked about the toll that COVID took on the department. There was the Twin Parks fire in the Bronx that was the deadliest in three decades where 17 people were killed. The crisis on battery fires. So altogether, you can understand the toll that that job takes on you. Liz, I'm wondering, she also had difficulty with the male fire chiefs, right? That's right, Michael. Early in her tenure, she had decided to demote a group of fire chiefs as part of its shakeup in the department.

apartment and the backlash was quite strong. They accused her of age discrimination and making decisions that made the agency less safe. But the clash raised the question of whether part of the resistance was because Kavanaugh was a woman. It's not going out on a limb here to say that it's challenging to be a woman in charge of a department that's overwhelmingly made up of men. And also to be the first woman was a big culture change. Now, one of the criticisms that was made about Kavanaugh was she had never been a firefighter herself. But there have been several male fire commissioners

who also had zero firefighter experience. That's WMYC's Elizabeth Kim, talking with my colleague Michael Hill. An estimated 8 million Americans will reach voting age by the November election. We recently teamed up with the group Why Vote to hear from young people eligible to vote in a presidential race for the first time this year. My name is Sonia A. Bell. I'm 17 years old, and I'm from Brooklyn. I'm hoping to hear presidential candidates and local candidates really address the concerns of young people.

I think there are a lot of issues that really matter to me and my peers when we think about this November. election. I think that includes reproductive justice and abortion access, climate change, and gun violence. Because all those issues really impact young people acutely. And I think it's something that's important to us when we're looking at the candidates on the ballot. And we also want to feel represented by the actual candidates. We want to see people who share our gender identities, racial identities, religious identities, not necessarily in every post, but it's important to us to feel represented. But what's been really exciting to see is how much more excited about politics people are, even just in the past few weeks, compared to how they previously were,

now that we have a young candidate, a woman, a person of color, who just speaks to young people in a different way than Joe Biden did. So I'm excited to see even friends that weren't super politically involved, getting interested in the election. It's not something that I expected going into the 2024 election, but it's been really exciting to see. Sonia Abel will be turning 18 in time for the November election. She lives in Brooklyn. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day.

I'm Jinné Pierre. back tomorrow.