NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Primary Day in New York City, Mayoral Candidates’ Promise of Housing Affordability, New York State’s Unemployment Rates and Staying Cool During a Heatwave

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

New Yorkers are casting ballots for their choice for Mayor, Public Advocate, City Council and other citywide offices. Plus, one of the issues that’s top of mind for candidates in the mayor’s race is housing affordability. Also, unemployment is increasing nationwide, but in New York State it's going the other way. And finally, what New Yorkers should watch out for in the city’s first heat wave of the year.

Primary day in New York City. Mayor-O candidate's promise of affordable housing, New York State's unemployment rates, and staying cool during a heat wave. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jenae Pierre. It's primary day in New York City, and New Yorkers are casting ballots for their choice

for mayor, public advocate, city council, and other city-wide offices. 23-year-old Gianna DeHasus was among those voting at Frank Sinatra High School in a story. She says she was motivated by wanting a more affordable New York and that the heat was not going to keep her away. Local elections or so, I don't know, we don't put as much emphasis on it, and we tend to care up a little bit more about the presidential ones. But it starts in the community, and I think that's where we have the most power, you know. She says it was her first ranked choice election, but it was easy, breezy.

Now, one of the issues that's top of mind for candidates in the mayor's race is housing affordability. WMYC's David Brand says all of the candidates agree on the way to fix it. Build, baby build. David says some candidates are throwing out big numbers to get it done. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo says he can build 500,000 new homes if he were elected. State Senator Zellnor Myrie from Brooklyn goes even further. Why not a million? But basically everyone is saying we have to build more housing a lot faster.

Though candidates agree that the city needs more housing, David says they all have different opinions about ways to get it done. He starts with Zoran Mamdani. He says the private market plays an important role in creating new housing, but Mamdani really wants to put the public sector in charge of this process. He wants to do that by going to state and federal lawmakers and saying, let the city borrow more money to issue more bonds to fund housing. He wants to spend $100 billion over the next 10 years to build affordable.

housing for the lowest-income New Yorkers. Moderate candidates like former Governor Andrew Cuomo have attacked Mumdani's plan, saying the state would never approve it. David says Cuomo's plan is to put the private sector in charge. Kind of staying the course the way housing development is currently going in New York, but just supercharging it. He wants to make it even easier for developers that get this big property tax exemption from the state to build bigger with more city funding in addition to that.

All of the candidates support building more housing on public land, including building on property owned by the New York City Housing Authority. In addition to that, David says Comptroller Brad Lander wants to build new neighborhoods on some of the city's municipal golf courses. But that may take jumping some bureaucratic hurdles. Lander, who built his whole career around affordable housing, helped to really shepherd a big rezoning of the Gowanis neighborhood to add thousands of new units of housing there. he says he would declare a housing emergency so he can suspend the city's current and pretty lengthy land use review process. He would replace it with something half as long, maybe 90 days to reach approval. Cuomo also wants to revise that process. And then there's Mirey who says he would free up more space in new buildings to add additional apartments by legalizing smaller elevators than are currently allowed.

Mamdani says he would eliminate mandates that require developers to add parking to their building so there'd be more space for housing, not cars. That's WMYC's David Brin. In other news, unemployment is increasing nationwide, but in New York State, it's going the other way. Preliminary numbers from the State Department of Labor show the unemployment rate in New York dropped from 4% in May of last year to just 3.5% at the same point this year. New York City saw a decline from 4.9% to 4.3% overall. The rate remains the highest in the Bronx and the lowest in Staten Island. Nationally, the unemployment rate rose from 3.7 to 4%. It's a scorcher this week. I'm going to go hydrate, and after the break, we'll discuss what New Yorkers should watch out for in the city's first heat wave of the year.

This is NYC now. It's hot in New York City this week, and temperatures are expected to continue to reach the upper 90s and possibly the hundreds during the United States. this first heat wave of the summer for our region. In times like this, it's important to stay hydrated and listen to your body. Dr. James McDonald is New York State Health Commissioner. He says New York City records the most heat injuries in the month of June. Part of that is we're just not acclimatized to the heat right now. So we're vulnerable.

And when you see the heat this extensive air, all of us are at risk for this. Not everyone's at the same risk. You know, the elderly, the very young, anyone who's pregnant, and with an underlying health condition has an increased risk, but that's a whole lot of New Yorkers who are at increased risk. And with a whole lot of New Yorkers at risk, McDonald shares a few clues to let you know when extra help is necessary. The first clue you might notice that it's really a problem is you start to feel faint.

That means your body has spoken to you. And when your body speaks, it's very important to listen. If you're feeling a little bit of faint or lightheaded, go inside. If you're feeling nauseous, like you're sick to your stomach, That's a little further along at that point. And that means you really need to get inside somewhere. And if it's going even further where your body's having muscle cramps, you really need to get inside. I mentioned staying hydrated earlier, and McDonald says that's key, especially for folks taking medication.

He says some prescriptions like antipsychotics or blood pressure medicine make people more prone to heat illness. According to data from the New York State Department of Health, more than 500 people die prematurely in New York City because of hot weather every year. year. The highest rates occurred in people ages 60 and older. When you look at that over 500 people dying, it's really because the heat contributes to their death. A lot of reasons for that. But it really underscores why it's so important to remember that heat kills more people than cold weather. You know, as much as we worry about cold weather, it's really the heat that's much more deadly, which underscores the importance of doing what you can to protect yourself and your family.

And don't forget, you have to check on your vulnerable friends and loved ones. That's New York State Health Commissioner, Dr. James McDonald. Before we go, a new record has been said. According to the National Weather Service, Tuesday, June 24th, 2025, was the hottest June day ever recorded in New York City. And while we're all out here melting, spare a thought for 55-year-old Ahmad Perry, a subway commuter who's had some seriously bad luck trying to get around in this heat wave. In the last few days, I've traveled back and forth on the one line,

and I have not been on a car that has AC yet. The hottest day of the year. 102 degrees outside and we're sitting on a hot car. A thermometer reading on his train clocked 90 degrees. The aging trains on the one line are notorious for faulty air conditioners, but they're still cooler than the platforms, some of which reach nearly 100 degrees Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC.

I'm Jenae Pierre. Try to stay cool. We'll be back tomorrow.