NYC NOW - August 8, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Harlem Week, celebrating all things about the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Mariko Silver, former head of Bennington College in Vermont, will take over as Chief Executive of Lincoln Center. Plus, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and fellow Democrats have raised over $5 million to help take back the House of Representatives. But some of the biggest donors are hoping to bring casinos to New York City. WNYC’s David Furst speaks with Albany reporter Jon Campbell to learn more. Finally, WNYC’s Ryan Kailath reports on a man who makes a living planting and unplanting palm trees throughout the tri-state area.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, August 8th. Here's the midday news from Veronica Del Valle. This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Harlem Week, the annual festivity celebrating all things about the neighborhood. Among other events, you can stop by Harlem Week's outdoor event known as a great day in Harlem. That'll feature vendors, exhibitors, entertainment, celebrating the African diaspora before clothing with a concert under the stars.

There's also a 5K run named for Percy Sutton, neighborhood political leader and original Harlem Day organizer. Lincoln Center has a new chief executive. Mariko Silver, a former head at Bennington College in Vermont, has been tapped as the center's next president and CEO. She'll take over from Henry Tim's, who left. after five years. The New York Times says Silver will step into the job with a mandate to broaden the audience and navigate economic headwinds. Silver is also a native New Yorker. She grew up just blocks from Lincoln Center. It's cloudy out right now with a high of 72 degrees, some showers likely during the day, mainly between two and nine. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm David First. Governor Kathy Hokel and her fellow New York Democrats are betting big on a fundraising push to help take back the House of Representatives.

The governor has raised more than $5 million for the state party since the start of the year. It's helped Democrats open dozens of field offices and hire new employees across the state. But some of the biggest donors are also betting on something else, casinos in New York City. John Campbell is WNYC's Albany reporter. He's been digging into the Democrats' fundraising records and joins us now. John, Democrats are calling this effort the coordinated campaign. What's the governor trying to do here? Well, David, this all goes back to 2022. That's when Republicans won a handful of battleground congressional seats on Long Island in the Hudson Valley. And that helped them take back control of the House. And Governor Hokel faced a lot of criticism for that in large part because she was at the top of the ticket and she only won by

five and a half points. So the governor and Senator Gillibrand and Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, they launched this new coordinated campaign. And the governor herself raised about $5 million since January alone, which she touted just last week. I'm using the state party as the vehicle to make sure that we are victorious. This is a lot of effort on my part. Governors don't usually do this. They don't usually pay attention. unless they're on the ballot. And I'm not in the ballot, but democracy's on the ballot. By the end of this month, the state Democratic Party says it'll have 35 field offices open across the state, and they'll have dozens of new employees and thousands of volunteers working to help elect Democrats.

Okay, so who are the biggest donors to this campaign? And do they have business before the state? I took a look at everyone that's donated to the state Democratic Committee's accounts since the start of last year. And the single biggest individual donor is Steve Cohen. He gave $235,000. Now, listeners may know him as the billionaire owner of the Mets, but he's got significant business before the state, particularly when it comes to casinos. He wants to put a casino right next to City Field at Willits Point in Queens, but he'll need a license from the state. There's only three left and they're slated to be awarded late next year. And he also needs state lawmakers to pass a bill allowing a casino there at all because the parking lots around the stadium are technically

parkland, if you can believe it. That's a hard sell. But Steve Cohen is not the only one looking for a casino in New York City. Who are some of the other hopefuls who donated? I found at least three other big donors who are looking for a casino license. That includes Stephen Ross. He's the head of the related companies. He's trying to put a casino at Hudson Yards. He gave a little more than $138,000. Similar story for Scott Reckler of RXR Realty. He wants to put a casino near the Nassau Coliseum. He gave almost 70 grand. And then there's S.L. Green, that's a company that owns a lot of real estate in Times Square. They're trying to put a casino there. They gave $50,000. Now, I should say, it's not unusual for any of those

people and companies to give money to New York politicians. They've all done it before. But it certainly piqued my interest this time because, like we said, they're all angling for one of those three valuable casino licenses from the state. Okay, John, what about Republicans? They're raising money, too. Who are their biggest donors? I did look at the Republican donors, too. And the thing that jumped out at me is they got a ton of money from one family in particular. And that would be the Cox family. Ed Cox is the chairman of the state Republican Party. His wife is Patricia Nixon Cox, the daughter of Richard Nixon, and together they gave a total of $460,000 to the party since the start of last year. That was bested by only one person, and that would be Ed Cox's brother, Howard Cox, who gave half a million dollars. Well, New York state law limits how much people can give to political campaigns.

So how were they able to cut these six-figure checks to the parties? Well, that's thanks to something called housekeeping. accounts. Basically, these are accounts that aren't supposed to be spent directly on campaigns, but rather things like costs for a party headquarters and certain central staff. And there's no limit on how much you can contribute to those, much to the chagrin of good government advocates like Susan Lerner of Common Cause, New York. It is a really unacceptable dodge around any attempt to control money in politics. And we suffer from it at all levels of government.

Now, that also allows corporations, not just people, to cut big checks too. Usually, they're limited to $5,000 donations to political campaigns, but companies like Verizon and Airbnb, they were able to cut huge checks to state Democrats. It just had to go into their housekeeping accounts. WNYC's John Campbell. Thanks for joining us. My pleasure. We've mostly moved on from the Kamala Harris Coconut Tree meme, which sprang from a 2023 speech she gave.

I don't know what's wrong with you, young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? But for one Connecticut man, coconut trees and other palms are his life. W.N.YC's Ryan Kyloth caught up with Brandon Hall, the owner of CT Palm T's Palm T's, who plants palms all over the tri-state area and unplants them in the fall. Brandon Hall found love with palm trees when he lived in Myrtle Beach in his 20s. When he left about 10 years ago, he never got over it. People thought I was a little bit crazy because every spring I would rent a truck

and I would bring home 10 to 20 full-sized palm trees, anywhere from 5 to 12 feet to my home in Connecticut. He'd put him in the ground in May, then dig him up and drive him back in October. Let's just say that the neighbors noticed. People just say, are you, are these real? That's everyone's first question. Are these real? People kind of just walk around the backyard with their jaw dropped and taking videos and pictures. And the funniest thing was, I rented that home.

Eventually, Hall's neighbors asked for their own. In 2017, his neighborhood in Fairfield, Connecticut made the local news for its proliferation of palms. That's when he realized he had a business on his hands. We handpick every single palm tree that we deliver, and we delivered this year 813 trees. Average height 10 feet, though he's delivered 16 footers before. He's done palatial estates in the Hamptons, penthouse terraces and midtown skyscrapers. He once delivered 90 trees on three days notice for a guy throwing a tropical-themed party. I can't say the name because I had to sign an NDA, but somebody in one of the political parties, it just, it blows my mind.

Not even the amount of money, but just a thought for somebody to say, yeah, you know what? Just bring 90 pompsies up here for this party for the evening. Hall says 95% of the people who rent his trees repeat their order the next year. And he's delivered plenty of coconut trees, though he actually wasn't aware of the Kamala Harris meme at all. So there's an opportunity for some social media posts is what you're saying with this. You know, I'll have to get into this more. At my age, I could still be more versed in the meme culture, but... Ryan Kailat, WNYC News.

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