NYC NOW - August 2, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: August 2, 2023

Mayor Eric Adams is considering housing migrants in tents in Central Park and other large city parks. Also, approximately 1700 nurses at New Jersey's Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital plan to strike on Friday for better staffing ratios and a cap on insurance premiums. In the wake of Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver's passing at 71, fellow New Jersey Assembly member Shavonda Sumter shares her memories of Oliver with WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, August 2nd. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. According to city officials who spoke to WNYC, Mayor Eric Adams is considering a plan to house migrants in tents in Central Park and other big green spaces throughout the city. The tents may also be placed in Brooklyn's Prospect Park and on Randall's Island, where the city brief. opened a tent facility in the parking lot last fall. The plan to use public parks to house migrants comes as city officials say they've run out of room in homeless shelters and emergency housing facilities. Since the weekend, scores of mostly male migrants have been camped out on the sidewalk outside the Roosevelt Hotel and Intake Center in Midtown Manhattan.

Nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey could go on strike Friday. That's about 1,700 nurses at the New Brunswick Trauma Center. The union representing the nurses says they want better staffing ratios to better care for their patients, as well as a cap on insurance premiums. John August is a labor expert at Cornell University. He says the possible strike is part of a wave of labor actions by health care workers across the U.S. The pandemic has exposed the many shortcomings of health care delivery in the United States, including the increased intensity of the burnout of nurses.

He says the pandemic has also existed. exacerbated the existing nursing shortage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nurses unions make up about a third of major strikes across the country this year. It is 77 now, about 81 this afternoon and lots of sunshine. Ditto for tomorrow, then showers and thunderstorms likely on Friday. Your weekend is looking great, sunny and 85 both days. This is WNYC. On WNYC, I'm Tiffany Hanson. Tributes are continuing to pour in for New Jersey's Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver. Governor Murphy's office announced her death yesterday. She was 71. Colleagues are calling the Essex County Democrat a trailblazer and a distinguished public servant.

New Jersey Assembly Member Chavonda Sumpter served in the legislature with Oliver for more than a decade. And she joins us now to talk about her colleagues' long legacy. Assembly member Sumpter. Thanks so much. Thank you, Tiffany, for taking time to talk about a mentor, a colleague and a great leader, not only for the state of New Jersey, but for our country. Absolutely. And I should say we're sorry for the loss of your colleague as well. I would like to talk about the first time you met the lieutenant governor. So tell us about that a little bit. Certainly. The lieutenant governor was speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly when I entered office in 2012. She was a advocate for women, minorities in government and in leadership and in public service.

She swore me into office. So my oath of office has her signature and has always been encouraging me in my journey in politics. And it really was an honor and a privilege to walk into a New Jersey legislature with the first African-American woman as the speaker at the helm. Well, you mentioned that she's also, Lieutenant Governor Oliver, became only the second black woman ever to lead. the state legislative house. So how do you have a sense of how she may have thought about that accomplishment? Of course, she was the General Assembly Speaker from 2010 to 2014. Again, it was one of those accomplishments that we all were prideful of, but she served with distinction. She was well informed on so many issues, made so many great policy moves.

She served in office as a speaker when Chris Christie was governor, Steve Sweeney was Senate president, and she would often say, I'm the rose between two thorns. I'm wondering if you can point to just maybe one unique stamp that you think she brought to that time in her leadership to the assembly. A very unique stamp that she brought at that time was really being the conscious at the table. when negotiations were being made for millions of dollars in budget allocations when times were leaned to be sure that she fought for housing, affordable housing. She actually was the speaker when we signed into law, the Marriage Equality Act, which was significant. And that was actually the first bill I ever voted on for the right reason. So a long legacy of change for systemic change within the structural system of politics and government.

And keep in mind, she served starting on the Board of Education to a county commissioner, then moved on up to the speaker and lieutenant governor. At one point, you were considered to be your party's leading candidate for selection as lieutenant governor. Ultimately, of course, that job went to Oliver, but you've described her as a mentor. you've described the first time you met her, but I'm wondering about your relationship throughout the years. How would you characterize that? The relationship that I've had with her throughout the years has been consistent, one of

mutual respect and regard, one of fighting for civil rights, social rights. She was someone that, not only myself, as Chavonda Sumpter, and when I became chair of the New Jersey legislative black caucus, she was one of the. of the persons that I would call for insight into how to navigate the political system for social justice and civil rights action items. Before I let you go, I want to ask you about a law that she backed when, that required public workers to contribute more to the state's pension system. It was a controversial move. At one point, there was even an attempt to take the speakership away from her, but she was

picked for a second term. So I'm wondering, why you think she was so despite all of that, so enduringly successful? During that time, I was not in the legislature. It was during the great recession. New Jersey was hit hard and, in fact, one of the last states to come out of the recession. She did the right thing for the right reasons at that time, which was a hard decision, which spoke to her character. She herself was a public worker.

She worked for government, her entire. career. So let's not ever lose sight of that. I credit her with leaving the door open for so many others to walk through the door of different levels of government, different employment opportunities, housing opportunities because she was that person to be sure that she brought people along with her. Assembly members, Chavanda Sumpto, thank you so much for your time this morning and for remembering your colleague, Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver. We appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much. 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. And subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.