NYC NOW - February 6, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Donald Trump will appear on the presidential primary ballot in New York this spring, after Republican state elections officials approved his request for ballot access at a Board of Elections meeting this week. Plus, legendary East Village dive bar Lucy's is facing eviction. Also, WNYC’s Karen Yi reports on a Lower East Side program that’s training a generation of tech-savvy supers. And finally, as we celebrate Black History Month, we’re highlighting the stories of Black-owned bookstores in New York City.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WMYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. Donald Trump will appear on the presidential primary ballot in New York this spring. Republican state elections officials approved his request for ballot access at a board of elections meeting this week. Several Democratic lawmakers had sent letters to the agency asking them to block Trump from the ballot. They cited the same section of the U.S. Constitution used by a Colorado court to block Trump from the ballot in that state. But New York's Republican Commissioner said the letters did not qualify as formal objections

under state election law, so they did not have the authority to act. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in the Colorado ballot access case on Thursday. The legendary East Village dive bar Lucy's is facing eviction. WMYC's Ramsey Caliphé has the details. A new landlord recently bought the bill. building for $19 million and reportedly wants to raise the rent to $25,000 a month. Now, an eviction notice on Lucy's door says they have until the end of February to leave.

Ludwica Lucy McAvicious has run the bar on Avenue A since the 80s, offering cheap, stiff drinks. Alex Tolides is a disappointed neighbor. New York City, what makes it so unique and special and iconic is these small businesses, bars and restaurants have been around for many, many decades. is the latest downtown staple to close due to rising rents. Median rent in the East Village is now over $4,000 a month. The landlord's attorney did not return a request for comment. Stick around. There's more after the break.

When you think of a building super, you probably think of the person you call to fix a leak walking in with a big set of keys and an overflowing box of tools. But even a job like that that mostly involves manual labor is being redefined by technology. WMYC's Karen Yee reports on a Lower East Side program that's training a generation of tech-savvy supers. About 20, mostly young adults are learning what it takes to manage a modern New York City building during a training run by the nonprofit stocks and jewels. Now I'm finding myself going into buildings and wondering about the. HVAC systems. I wonder what kind of, you know, system they have built in here. That's 31-year-old Brandon Roman. He used to work at a museum in customer service. The learning stops and things start

to repeat. Now he's in the midst of a big career change. The job still requires getting certifications to detect leaks and make repairs. But students also have to know how to code and use software that keeps higher tech, eco-friendly buildings running. They don't only have to carry a wrench, but an iPad with all sorts of apps too. This is the future, yeah. I'm a single guy trying to fill this whole thing out. So the future is super important to me. It's only the beginning of the 14-week program

co-founded by a tech worker and an educator. But the students are already getting into the technicalities of building talk. But you do not want to go over 10 PSIG as well as R-22s, R134, etc. Non-profit co-founder Jonathan Spooner says he wants to help people access tech jobs in what's called building automation, an industry that's also desperate for workers. Spooner says there's no barrier to entry for his program. It doesn't matter where students come from or what their skills are,

as long as they're curious. And what sets them apart is how narrowly focused the training is. I see a lot of other workforce programs that are like ancillary skills, but they're not directed at the job. For us, the outcome has to be employment. Yeah, it has to be a job. The instructors here are all former graduates of the program itself. They're quizzing the students as a group to prep them for their certification test. 44-year-old Tina Smith is one of the assistant trainers. She graduated from the program in May, a cohort of all women who were mostly mothers.

If this program didn't come into my neighborhood, I would probably be a cashier right now, making minimum wage and struggling the way how I was with my four kids. And we were struggling. She says most of the workforce programs she's done before focused on clerical work or security guard training. And it was hard for her to break the cycle of low-wage work. I wanted to be able to give my kids something and leave them something and be able to build some type of general, you know,

generational wealth of them when I go, they'll have something, some type of legacy. The program is exactly what the city wants to do more of. help launch second careers, but also train people for high-demand jobs much earlier. That's why Mayor Eric Adams is investing $600 million to target young adults to help them secure and stay in higher-paying jobs. Abby Joe Siegel oversees the city's workforce development programs. It's the first time we've sort of come together across these and said, okay, let's think about what is the collective commitment we are making to really position young people

for success. The key to the success of Stacks and Jewels is its partnership with Henry Street Settlement, a social services group. They helped students anytime life got in the way, if they were dealing with an eviction, or couldn't afford a metro card, or needed help with child care. Let's start there and give them this incredible round of course. Last month, most of the students who started in the job training program in October graduated at Civic Hall, celebrating with 15 potential employers in a kind of science Fair meets job fare. I like to think of it as the heart of the unit.

26-year-old Jasmine Rodriguez is showing prospective employers how a heat pump works with a small model. She says she's ready to start her job hunt. It's not just like, I have to get up and go to work, you know? Like, okay, I'm excited to go to work today. I may have this problem to figure out. Or I have to work with my team to work on this unit, the air handling unit. Or maybe today I'll be going up to the roof to work on the air chillers. Nearly all of the students complete the program, and most have jobs, many of them in the green economy.

And as the city aims to go carbon neutral by 2050, these students may just be the invisible hands keeping your building running. That's WMYC's Karen Yee. When the Barnes & Noble in Bay Plaza Shopping Center closed in 2016, many book lovers in the Bronx were heartbroken. For a large part of its existence, it was the borough's only bookstore. But since then, at least a couple of small independent bookstores have opened in the borough. This Black History Month, we're highlighting the stories of black-owned bookstores in our area. So we caught up with a Bronx native who's using his bookshop to foster a stronger sense of community. My name is Francois Nara-Sichie Wilson.

I'm the owner of Idokia Bookstore and Cafe. It's located in the Mudhaven section of the Bronx. It's recently opened about three years ago. and we cater to all groups just any average reader. But besides being a bookstore, we also conduct a lot of events. That's supposed to frust the community. So we have movie nights, open mic nights, and poetry nights. And we have financial literacy classes as well.

I was born in Ghana, grew up in the Bronx, and I wanted to give back. If there's anything I could give back, I think growth in literacy would definitely help the community and spur of education since there's a lot of minorities within the Bronx as well. And the reflection in the bookstores, on the bookshelves, we can discover not only African-American, we can have Hispanic writers that we wanted to include to represent the neighborhood as well. I wanted to have a representation of all sort of people. I have Christian titles. I have Muslim titles.

I have different titles that represent, I believe, this community because everyone comes from a different background. And because we have young people within the community, we have stories about popular. culture, icons as well. You can see one about Nipsey Hustle, Tupac, and Prince. Most importantly, the reason why I have this, though, was to inspire young men and young women in the Bronx. When I was growing up, there was always a choice of violence. And we were all in the street at some point, you know, being wild kids.

But if you don't choose to maximize the power that the almighty creator has embedded in you as a human being, you will never see your full potential. It's crucial that we get to know each other. And I think once we have a better understanding of who we are as a community, those moments of violence or that apprehensive that's told each other will actually dissipate and that will foster a better community for each one of us. Francois Nala Wilson owns Idokia Bookstore in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC, Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.