NYC NOW - February 29, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

A final round of virtual and public hearings takes place Thursday night to weigh in on the MTA's congestion pricing program. Also, New York lawmakers finally approved new maps for the state’s Congressional delegation on Wednesday. The vote caps a years-long redistricting saga for the Empire State and overturns the current maps that helped Republicans retake Congress in 2022’s midterm elections. However, the maps don’t give Democrats the overwhelming advantage some were anticipating. Plus, election season is underway across the region, with a lot of attention focused on Election Day in November. As part of our coverage, WNYC is turning a handful of laundromats in the New York metro area into hubs of civic dialogue.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, February 29th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. A final round of virtual and public hearings kicks off tonight at 6 to weigh in on the MTA's congestion pricing program. The MTA plans to charge vehicles $15 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. That's between 6 in the morning and 9 at night on week. days. The overnight hours will cost $3.75. There are not many exemptions to the toll, but this is the last chance to plead a case. The hearing begins at 6 this evening at MTA headquarters and will be

streamed online as well. There's another hearing tomorrow morning and two more on Monday. Then the MTA board must hold a final vote on his plan to start charging drivers in June. 38 with some sun out there right now, mostly sunny today in the high of 41. The wind though, will keep it feeling cold like it's in the 20s. It'll be gusty as well. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson. Lawmakers in New York finally approved new maps for the state's congressional delegation today. The vote caps a years-long redistricting saga for the Empire State and overturns the current maps that helped Republicans retake Congress in the 22 midterm elections.

But the maps don't give Democrats the overwhelming advantage, some were anticipating. Here to explain it all is W&C's Albany reporter John Campbell. John, let us delve right into our favorite topic here. What happened today? For folks who maybe have not been following all the ins and outs on it, why does this matter? Well, we finally have congressional districts for the 2024 elections and beyond. And that's a big deal because it lays out the boundaries of the 26 districts in New York. and that determines which district your house is in and who is representing you in Washington.

Now, Democrats in the state legislature rejected a proposal for those districts from a bipartisan commission earlier this week, and that allowed them to step in and draw their own. And Republicans were really bracing for the worst, and there's a handful of swing districts in New York that could determine which party controls the House of Representatives. Republicans expected this new map from Democrats to put more Democratic areas into those districts and make them more winnable for the Democratic candidates. But really, Sean, that didn't happen here, at least on a widespread scale. And when it came to vote on them today, the state legislature approved them overwhelmingly. And there were even 16 Republicans that broke party lines to vote in favor.

Now, redistricting in New York is supposed to be. supposed to be done by the bipartisan independent redistricting commission. But those maps were once again overruled by Democratic lawmakers who, once again, drew the maps up themselves. So how much of an edge did the new maps give Democrats? Well, Sean, they definitely benefit Democrats in two key districts. One of those is in the third district in Queens and Long Island. You may recall a Republican by the name of George Santos won that district in 20. 2022. And then a couple weeks ago, Democrat Tom Swazi won it in a special election. Now, that district's

going to stretch a little further out on the North Shore to pick up some Democratic turf in Suffolk County. And that will definitely help Swazi as he runs for reelection. And then the other one's out in central New York. That's where freshman Brandon Williams, he's a Republican. His district is going to pick up some Democratic areas too. And that might make it tougher for him to win reelection. But really, in terms of partisan shifts, that's pretty much it. And it took a lot of Republicans by surprise. Yeah, I got to say, maybe this is just like the cynical journalist in me here. But why didn't Democrats try to bake in more of an advantage for themselves this time around?

A lot of people were expecting it. And for one thing, they would have been playing with fire. Some states, unlike some states, I should say, the New York State Constitution has what we call an anti-jerrymandering provision. and it prohibits the state from drawing a political map to benefit a particular party, a particular candidate. And Democrats ran afoul of that in 2022. That year they tried to draw a very partisan map. And with 22 of the 26 districts leaning Democratic, Republicans sued, and they won, that forced a new map that was drawn by a court-appointed expert that was in place in 2022. Democrats sued last year and got a new map on procedural grounds.

And so this time around, they seem to be kind of wary of drawing a map that Republicans could challenge on constitutional grounds. Will Republicans sue again here? For months, that really looked like a foregone conclusion. Republicans have been threatening and threatening to sue if Democrats drew the map themselves. But now all indications really suggest that House Republicans are okay with this map. I talked to three top Republicans today, and they all agreed it's unlikely the public. party will back a lawsuit that doesn't stop, say, a group of voters, maybe an advocacy group from filing a lawsuit on their own. But at this point, it's starting to look like this map might

actually finally stick. John, after this experience, let's call it, of redrying our district lines here, are there talks about reforming the system? I think we can hear more about, we can expect to hear more about that soon. Good government organizations are already starting to talk behind the scenes and come up with. ways to improve the process. But it's a long process to change the Constitution to do this. It's multiple years. So lawmakers would have to get cracking soon on that to make changes before the next round of redistricting in 2032. That's W&YC's John Campbell. John, I hope we do not have to revisit this topic again until next decade. Thanks so much for your reporting. Oh, I hope that's right.

Thanks, Sean. On W1.1C, I'm David First. Election season is under way across the region with a lot of attention focused on election day coming up in November. As part of our coverage, WNYC is turning a handful of laundromats in the New York metro area into hubs of civic dialogue. We're calling the project Suds and Civics. Soap gets laundry done, conversation gets democracy going. George Bodarki leads our community partnerships desk, and he joins us now to George. Tell us more, what is this project and how did this come about? Well, David, the idea of engaging with people in laundromats has been tucked away in the back of my mind for a while now. Several years ago, I did a story about an artist who was teaching ESL classes at a laundromat in Washington Heights.

And I saw how well it worked. People had time between washing and folding clothes to learn English, and they were super engaged. So with the 2024 election coming up, I thought, why not use the laundromat as a place for conversation to find out what people want to know about the election, what issues they want, the Kansas. that it's to address. And if people aren't voting, get a better understanding of why that may be the case. Laundermat's are also places where you can expect to meet a diverse group of people with a variety of thoughts and opinions. We're bound to get a wide range of perspectives. Not only will this information help to inform our coverage in the WNYC Newsroom, but it will help to amplify voices in our neighborhoods and hopefully influence the priorities of candidates running for office to the extent that that's possible, of course. You're going to be catching up on any laundry while you're there?

Oh, you know what? Got to get the job done. All right. What have you been hearing so far? In East New York, we met Claudius Rose at Stey, Wash, and Dry. He's 21 years old and a political science major at Brooklyn College. He says he gets his news mostly on social media, Instagram, TikTok, and X. He says this year might be the first time he goes to the polls, but he's still figuring things out. When I turned 18, I didn't get the chance to vote yet. So I'm waiting to see an election that I could vote in.

I might vote in the one that's coming up in a bit, but I don't know yet because I haven't made any actual investigation on either of the parties. As far as issues, Rose said foreign policy is a big one for him, referencing the war in Gaza as a major concern. Okay, so that was in East New York. What did you hear elsewhere? Yeah, at 14th Street Laundry and Astoria Queens, Ambia to Lokdar was busy washing and folding. She's from Bangladesh. She's been in America for 32 years. she never misses the opportunity to vote. If I don't vote, then I cannot show people that we need something. We cannot just always shut my mouth.

That's the main thing that take me to the boat. And my husband also very dedicated. He said, we need to do the board because we are minority here. We need to tell people we are here. We also talked with Yvonne Haynes at Madison Ave Laundrie. She's lived in Harlem most of her life. She retired less than a year ago after spending 45 years as a paraprofessional with the Department of Education and says she thinks politics is a mess, but she's not giving up hope.

Sometimes we feel like we're not being hurt, not just this community, but a lot of them and not addressing their issues. We all have issues, but you keep your mouth really wide and you keep on going, keep on knocking on doors. They'll eventually hear you. So, David, those are just a few of the sentiments we've been hearing at laundromats, and you can expect to hear more of the voices we capture at laundromats in the weeks and months ahead on Morning Edition. Such a great idea. But if people do their laundry at home or in the basement of their building, perhaps, can they still lend their voices to this conversation?

Yeah, for sure, David. We're working with a group called America Amplified on this project, and we've developed a quick and easy survey for anyone to share their thoughts. I'm happy to provide a link to that survey. Just email me at suds and civics at WNYC.org. Darky is WNYC's community partnerships editor. Look for him at a laundromat near you. Thank you, George. Thank you, David. 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. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.