NYC NOW - July 23, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is resigning from office following his conviction on bribery charges. Plus, a longtime New York City summer camp is growing its capacity to give migrant kids living in shelters a chance to just be kids. Also, WNYC’s David Furst talks with Robert Sietsema, senior critic with Eater New York, about the newly revived crosstown “Papaya war.”

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is resigning from office August 20th, following his conviction on bribery charges. That's according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to the Associated Press Tuesday on the condition of anonymity because the New Jersey Democrats' decision hasn't been made public. Menendez was convicted of charges that he sold the power of his office to three businessmen who sought favors. The resignation gives Governor Phil Murphy the ability to appoint someone to the seat for the remainder of Menendez's term, which expires January 3rd. Menendez says he's innocent.

His attorney didn't immediately return messages seeking comment. A record number of children in New York City are sleeping in homeless shelters every night. Advocates say 45,000 children are homeless, enough to fill up Yankee Stadium. That's why a long-time summer camp is growing its capacity to give even more kids living in shelters a chance to just be kids. Here's WNYC's Kareenie. Dozens of hungry campers are doing a pre-meal chant before chowing down on today's lunch menu. A flea cheese thing. It's delicious that way. Camp Homeward Bound is 45 miles north of New York City in Southfield, New York. Kids between ages 7 and 15 spent about two weeks in the outdoors. swimming in the lake.

It's very cold. Biking, picking water lilies. That smell like vanilla. Remember the ring. Others learn how to play guitar or keyboard or to cook for the first time. It's very different from city life. I know how to cook pizza now. How do you make tomatoes house?

The children here are all either living in shelters or formerly homeless. But at the camp, they don't have to hide that or talk about it if they don't want. want to. Bev McIntarfer is the camp's director. They don't have to worry about any stereotypes here. She says the camp frees them from worrying about what other kids back home think. They don't want kids, the other kids in their class know that they're living in a shelter. Sometimes they don't have as many clothes as others because literally move with a garbage bag from one shelter to the other when they move around, not being able to take friends home. You know, the things, again, that we take for granted as a child. They don't have that.

This year, the camp is celebrating its 48th anniversary, as the city's shelter system reaches a record 45,000 children. Camp Homeward Bound started in 1984 as a way to get kids out of crowded hotel shelters. Now it welcomes 360 children every summer. For the last two years, that's included new migrant children. Tim Campbell leads programming at the Coalition for the Homeless, which, runs the camp. The kids that we serve try to take care of their parents or younger siblings, and so I think a lot of the time when they're here, just part of what we're trying to do is say, you don't have to worry about that right now. You can just be a kid.

Camp leaders say they try to build up children's self-esteem and their ability to handle stress or conflict so that they can better deal with whatever awaits them back home. But the camp is also about letting the kids be who they want to be. I'm a very goofy girl. Everybody likes me, and I'm a tourist. That's 8-year-old Lena Young. She's rocking bright pink sneakers and says it's her first summer at the sleepaway camp, and she's already made so many best friends.

Camp made me feel, like, centered and, like, joyful. 13-year-old Prince Duke says he loves being away from the noises of the city. You can really look around and take a minute to, like, breathe. And look at the trees, which are beautiful. A lot of campers come back year after year, even after they move out of shelter. Some even go on to work as camp counselors, like 20-year-old Michael Clement. He first came to camp when he was eight years old, and now works with the oldest teenagers. I know exactly what it was like to have to, you know, sleep on a bed that was uncomfortable,

you know, sheets that maybe barely washed, just washed to be sleepable on, things like that. it's okay to not be okay. Like, I've been there, bro. He says he tries to always let his campers know what's planned for the day. I like to sort of take away that feeling of being unaware of what's going on because the last thing you want to think of the child is, you know, what's going to happen to me. You like to be informed. He says the camp also gave him and his friends something to brag about when they were back in school.

I'm going to miss my friends, you know, and I don't want to go back home. 11-year-old J.C. Martinez has come to camp for the last five years. I'm going to come here next year. And when I'm like 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and I don't want to wait all that year to come back all year. This is a camp for everybody. That's WMYC's Karen Yee. An Upper East Side Restaurant that specializes in hot dogs and tropical drinks has returned after being closed for a year. The reopening brings back talk of a cross-town rivalry. More on that after the break.

NYC. After being closed for a year, Papaya King, an Upper East Side institution that specializes in hot dogs and tropical drinks, reopened this month. And the long-awaited return also reignited a rivalry. For a take on the Cross Town Papaya Wars, my colleague David First spoke with Robert Seizuma, senior critic with Eater, New York. Robert, first of all, tell us about the return of Papaya King. As you wrote about in Eder, New York, it was threatened with extinction and also just explain this iconic business for the uninitiated. If you're an East Sider or a West Sider, there's no better distinction to be made than whether

you love graze papaya or whether you love papaya king. To the outsiders, the names sound very, very familiar. And indeed, the menus are so closely matched. So you could identify an east side or a west sider. That's a distinction that's at the heart of being a New Yorker. But Papaya King closed about a year ago, right? Yeah, that was one of the greatest of urban tragedies. It was right at the corner of East 86th Street and 3rd Avenue on the northwest corner.

It had been there since 1932, and they kicked it out to make way for another condo. This is a place that is central to the identity of the east side of New York. And now it's in a new location. This is sort of right across the street. Well, it was touch and go whether the place would reopen. They had located one space and that fell through. And now they have another space. It's not right on the corner, unfortunately.

it's inland from a third avenue towards second avenue, like two or three storefronts, enough to make it annoying to have to go a few more steps to get that hot dog. And how's the new location? Well, the new location, just between you and me, is mildly disappointing. It's no longer open. It's no longer quite as garish. It's now filled with black and white photographs of people that are unidentified, presumably hot dog eaters of a century ago.

All right, let's get back to that rivalry. Across town, of course, on the Upper West Side is Graze Papaya at 72nd and Broadway. Who wins in the head-to-head competition? Well, they're both all beef ranks in a natural skin. The ones at Papaya King are a little firmer. They're a little smoother. They're a little harder. It takes a little bit of mouth enter.

to bite into it. Gray's papaya are a little softer, a little bouncier, a little grainier, and a little funnier. There's a slight extra taste there. And so I'm going to have to go with gray's papaya as the better of the two. But, you know, I was beguiled by what they call a footlong at Pappaya King, which is actually, of course, not a foot, this being New York. It's eight and a half inches. But they put it in two buns at once and put chili and cheese on top of it, which is quite a departure from the conventional New York toppings of mustard and sauerkraut. Okay, so it sounds to me like you're trying to split the difference here so that you can still be welcome on both sides of town. Is that what's happening? Well, I'm a West Sider, so obviously what I'm saying about Gray's papaya is suspect.

That's WMYC's David First talking with Robert Sitsma, senior critic with Eater, New York. The New York Giants opened their training camp Wednesday. They're hoping for a much better season than last year when they won just six games. Eleven of the team's practices will be free and open to the public at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. They play their first preseason game, August 8th, against the Detroit Lions at MetLife Stadium. The Jets also opened their training camp this week with veterans, including quarterback Aaron Rogers. Rogers went down with a season-ending injury in the first minutes of the first

game last year. Gang Green struggled the rest of the way, finishing with seven wins and 10 losses. 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.