NYC NOW - December 5, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Nassau County Republican party chair Joe Cairo says more than two dozen candidates have expressed interest in replacing George Santos in congress. Meanwhile, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is trying to limit Mayor Adams' spending power when it comes to caring for migrants. Also, Mayor Adams says the City is launching a pilot program for safe battery charging for delivery workers who use electric bikes. Plus, migrant families in the city's school system face many hurdles such as difficulty getting enrolled and transportation issues. Now migrants and their advocates say a new threat looms: the prospect of being uprooted again due to a new city directive. WNYC’s Arya Sundaram reports. Finally, WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk asked New Yorkers to sift through the recipe box in their minds to pull out the one that brings back the fondest memories. Meet Tracy Shu from Brooklyn.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, December 5th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. Democratic and Republican Party leaders are busy screening potential candidates for an upcoming special election for Congress after the expulsion of George Santos. Nassau County Republican Party chair Joe Cairo says more than two dozen candidates have come forward, and he plans to interview all of them. Why? Because there may be a diamond in a rough out there. You know, we're looking for the best candidate to run in this election. Nassau County Democratic Party chair, Jay Jacobs,

says he hopes to be able to announce their selection by Thursday. Governor Hockel has until Monday to announce the date of the special election, which is expected sometime in February. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is trying to rein in Mayor Adams' spending power when it comes to caring for migrants. in a letter to city agencies, Lander revoked permission to use emergency powers to bypass the normal approval process. Now, migrant care-related emergency contracts secured after November 30th require prior approval from the Comptroller's office. But health and hospitals, the city's public hospital system, which has many migrant-related contracts,

are not subject to the same scrutiny as city agencies. Mayor Adam says the city is launching a pilot program for safe battery charging for delivery workers who use electric bikes. It comes as FDNY officials say 18 people have died in fires caused by lithium ion batteries this year. An initial group of delivery workers will get to test various charging technologies across the city starting early next year. They include battery swapping kiosks and bike docks that charge e-bikes quickly, so delivery workers won't have to charge their bikes at home. 43 now, about 45 this afternoon and 35 tonight, sunny clouds tomorrow and 42 degrees. On WNYC, Michael Hill, migrant families in the city's school system face many hurdles such as difficulty getting enrolled in transportation issues.

Now migrants and their advocates say a new threat looms the prospect of being uprooted again due to a new city directive. WNYC's Aria Sundaram reports. It took a month and helped from a group of advocates to enroll Hamadudialo's four-year-old daughter at PS-149 in Harlem. He's 36 and from Guinea. He talked to us through an interpreter in his native language, Falani. All these efforts for her to be accepted and now to start classes. That was now what I'm in mind. I thought like at the first day, after just enrolous, you're going to start right away.

Diallo and his daughter are among the thousands of new migrant families trying to navigate two bureaucracies, New York City Public Schools and the city shelter system. 34,000 students are in shelters right now. nearly double the total last year. A recent city council oversight hearing took stock of the issue. Natasha Kiroga is the director of the local education research group inside schools. She testified at the hearing. Too many kids are impacted and are falling through the gaps.

Kidoga's group monitors five of the more than 200 shelters the city operates. At one shelter, she said one in five families say they've waited weeks or months to enroll their children. The vast majority of families we met with were unaware about their children's rights and unsure of who to reach out to if they had problems. Other migrant families are being shuffled to different shelters, and their children are frequently absent or late to class due to long commutes. Melissa Ramos is the Department of Education's chief of staff. She told the city council keeping track of students frequently on the move isn't easy.

It's a challenge. I'm not going to say that it isn't. Agency officials say they aren't always told when migrant students are relocated, and they say they place staff at shelters to help parents. But a new challenge looms. families now face 60-day limits on shelter stays to free up space for the newest migrants coming to the city. Mayor Eric Adams promises the changes won't upset school plans,

and parents at the end of their stays can reapply for shelter. But advocates are concerned children will still have to change schools. Diallo says he's worried. We have nothing saved for us to look for a little place in order for our daughter to attend to her school. The only other language she's fluent, is French. He picked PS-149 because it's one of the city's few French dual-language programs. It will be a struggle for us because we just settle down.

The first group of migrant families will hit their 60-day stay limit at the end of the month. Ariasundaram, WNYC News. From WMYC, I'm Jinnay-Pierre. One thing many of us look forward to during the holidays, season is food. The taste of a certain dish has the ability to provide a sense of warmth and comfort. We ask New Yorkers to sift through their recipe boxes to pull out the one thing that brings back the fondest memories. My name is Tracy Shu, and I'm from Brooklyn, New York. I'm Chinese, and my parents are from southern China, from an area called Guangzhou. It's right next to Hong Kong,

so it's a lot of the same, like, Cantonese type of dishes. When I was young, I wasn't a very picky eater. I ate everything that my mom served me, but in particular, if I could say what my favorite food was that I could, like, eat every day, it'd probably be this tomato egg dish where you have a little bit of scrambled eggs and cooked tomato together.

And super easy to make, 15 minutes, and then you put it on rice. Super simple, but it's a staple of my childhood. Because I was more picky on the days that I, like, didn't eat that much, my mom would only cook me the tomato egg dish. And even to this day, two weeks ago, I had to, like, call up my mom and say,

ask her which onion should I buy because I don't cook. Just, like, having that connection with my mom is really important. And I think it's a point of, like, cultural connection. A lot of these dishes aren't, like, in American culture. And I find myself wanting to bring it back now that I'm almost 30. And it's not a typical dish that I eat. with my friends. So I like the fact that I can keep this as a means to connect with my mom. It's also a way for me to connect to other second-gen children of immigrants who are also

Cantonese because I know this is probably a universal dish. Every single Cantonese person knows of this dish. So it's also a way to connect to other second-gen American kids. And I really advise people to try it because all you need, tomatoes, onions, eggs, you know, all your seasoning, salt, pepper. I know people are going to be a little bit surprised by this, but my mom always said to put it a little bit of ketchup, and I know it sounds weird, but it adds in a little sweetness to the tart of the tomato.

Tracy Shoe lives in Brooklyn. 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 podcasts. We'll be back this evening.