NYC NOW - July 26, 2024 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Police are investigating a shooting that left two women dead on the Upper East Side Friday morning. Plus, as Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign takes off, WNYC's Brigid Bergin talks with some of New York’s leading political women about how they’re feeling in this unprecedented moment. Meanwhile, odor complaints made to 311 since May are the second highest they've been in 15 years. And finally, WNYC’s Janae Pierre talks with Anne Cebulo about her upcoming competitions at the Paris Olympics and her journey to joining the U.S fencing team.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Police are investigating a shooting that left two women dead on the Upper East Side Friday morning, about half a block from Mayor Eric Adams' official residents. NYPD officials say video shows 65-year-old Kathleen Lee, fatally shooting 45-year-old Marissa Galloway before turning the gun on herself. According to police, the women were involved in a prolonged dispute that resulted in five domestic violence reports and two complaints to police, but no arrests.

In New York, women of color hold some of the most powerful positions in state and local government, and they aren't naive about the barriers to their assent. As Kamala Harris' presidential campaign takes off, WMYC's Bridget Bergen spoke to some of them about how they're feeling in this unprecedented moment. When the news broke that President Biden was suspending his re-election bid, New York State Attorney General Letitia James was headed to a birthday party in Brooklyn. It was for former representative Adolphus Towns. He was turning 90. When James arrived at the historic Bary and Baptist Church, New York's political establishment were all there.

Heads down, eyes glued to their phones. Then Biden backed Vice President Kamala Harris. Just exploded with excitement. and tears and a lot of hugs and high fives. And it was just an amazing moment. James was an ardent Biden supporter. But that night, she was among the tens of thousands of black women on a Zoom call, talking strategy, fundraising, and giving each other support.

The path to power is never easy. But for women, especially women of color, it often means navigating an ugly onslaught of racism and misogyny, before and after the election. We are called DEI candidates, DEI elected officials, and all sorts of negative names like that. The rhetoric is deafening at times. That's Adrian Adams, the first black speaker of the city council. She's referencing an attack already being lobbed at the vice president.

Adams says Harris should persevere and says she sees excitement building among voters looking for someone who isn't a white man in their senior years. She's the entire package of what a lot of. young folks have been waiting for and wishing for. Harris is 59, a black and South Asian woman. Her father was from Jamaica. Her mother was from India. Brooklyn Representative of Vette Clark is also the daughter of Jamaican immigrants. She says Harris could appeal to immigrant voters feeling attacked by some Republicans.

Particularly in contrast to the MAGA crowd who has used every occasion to denigrate immigrants. Vice President Harris is a poke in the eye for them. But Democrats will still have to respond to those attacks, and they've got just a few months to figure it out. That's WNYC's Bridget Bergen. If you think New York City smells especially bad this summer, it's not your imagination. Odor complaints made to 311 since May

are the second highest they've been in 15 years. And as WMYC's Ryan Kylath reports, there's another culprit this year. As they like to say, it's not the heat, it's the humidity. The heat waves this summer have been especially sticky, and moisture helps to dissolve and spread odor molecules in the air. So a garbage truck that might have stunk up the whole block in normal weather now hit several blocks, and the smell lingers after the truck is gone. Heat waves also trap smells at ground level. When city blocks that have been baking in the sun cool quickly overnight. And surface odors are held in place by a blanket of hot air above.

Cooler temps this week should help to smell a bit until the next heat wave. It's time for the Summer Olympics. After the break, we catch up with one local athlete competing on the U.S. fencing team. Stick around. The Paris Olympics are finally here, and we wanted to check in with one of our local athletes. Fencer and Sibula from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. She won two NCAA titles and became the first student athlete to claim a title in any sport at Barnard College. Sabula talks about her introduction to fencing and her journey to the Olympics.

I first saw fencing while watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics on TV. And I guess just the way the universe works, I was watching actually a New York native, Keith Smart. He was fencing in the final leg of the men's saber team. match for a silver medal against Russia. And he gets the final point. And it's like watching an opera. You know, they're screaming and masks are being ripped off. And I was just absolutely, you know, enraptured by the whole thing. I thought it was the most beautiful sport I've ever seen. And I told myself, you know, I want to do that and I want to do that there. So when it came time to choose a high school, one of my options was Brooklyn Tech. And they had a free

fencing club. And I took that club so seriously with the coach. He hosted, you know, in September, he'd be like, oh, there's this fencing club, sign up if you'd like. And I'd say about 70 kids showed up. And by the end, there was only about 10 because he didn't open the equipment closet until May. It was just footwork, fitness, running up and downstairs. And yeah, and then when he finally did pull out the equipment, you know, he was like, listen, this is all I can really do for you. If you want to take this sport seriously, go do a summer. camp for a couple days in any club in the city, because New York City is a hotbed for fencing. I didn't know that. And see if you like it. And so that's what I did. It's been a crazy journey

ever since. Now you talked a bit about joining the fencing club and, you know, growing up watching Keith. Talk a bit more about the fencing culture in Brooklyn as you were growing up. You just said that you didn't know that fencing was a hotbed here in New York City. Yeah. And I mean, I would commute after school, you know, coming from Fort Green, I'd go up to Chelsea because a lot of the clubs are in Manhattan. Now they're growing steadily. And in fact, one of the main clubs I train at is in Brooklyn, Coney Island. It just has such a longstanding history here. And because it is a major city, whenever people travel into the United States to train, it's either New York or L.A. or Houston, Texas. But usually the number one pick is New York City. So you have such a

wide range of opponents because you never know who's going to pop in that day because they're just traveling around. You know, fencing as a sport listeners might be less familiar with than swimming or gymnastics, right? What's something that you want people to know about the sport before they start tuning in? Ooh, it is so addictive. It's like once you understand the rules, I mean, it's so easy to like root for certain players or just get like super invested. I mean, I didn't understand anything that was going on when I first watched it, but I was just, you know, in love with the, you know, the aesthetics, the athleticism of it. You know, I was like, this is like ballet, but like swords. It's just, it's great. Once you love fencing, you love it for life and you really try to pass it on

to others. It's a word of mouth sport for now. Yeah, yeah. Well, we're all rooting for you, Anne. And now that we're on the verge of competition and getting underway, how are you feeling about everything? I'm actually feeling pretty calm. And I was a little alarmed by that because I was like, why am I not more excited? And I spoke to a sports psychologist here at the village. And he said it's a very normal feeling. And our qualification process for our sport is a year long. Other sports have, you know, one or two or three Olympic trial events.

I'd say like back to back. Our starts in the year and it's just whoever is ranked at the end of the year. And it's a really stressful year. You're kind of like always on edge. So, you know, it's very normal not to suddenly be super excited all the time because we've gone through all that. And also just at the end of the day, it's another competition. It's not just a big party. And do you have any advice for other athletes who are hoping to make it to the Olympics someday?

Build a support system, build a team. That is so, so, so, so important. And I'm proud of myself 10 years ago that I kind of scrambled around and didn't take note for an answer. And it has made the biggest difference, especially in the past two to three years, you know, the quad or we had the triad because of COVID. Like, that has made the difference between me making the team or not. That was Anne Savula. She's competing on the U.S. fencing team at the Paris Olympics. If you've been experiencing puppy fever lately, pet adoption may be the cure.

Brooklyn Borough Hall will host animal adoptions this Saturday from five local rescues. Would-be pet owners can choose from more than 50 cats and dogs. Free leashes and carriers will be available to take new pets home right away. The pop-up pet shop will be old. open from 11 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. New York City animal shelters are experiencing record overcrowding due to very low adoption rates. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso says pets pay off in the long run. When you look at these shelter animals, they'll warm your heart.

And also, there's data and information that says you live longer if you have pets. So just if you want to extend your life, come out here and adopt a shelter animal. All the pets are vaccinated, microchipped, and neutered. Trial adoptions will also be available. NYC. Before we go, a quick heads up. We'll be dropping a special episode this Saturday, and it's another good one.

Music journalist and author Marcus J. Moore talks with singer-songwriter Michelle Indigocello about our new album, No More Water, The Gospel of James Baldwin, marking Baldwin's 100th birthday. Trust me, you don't want to miss it. Thanks for listening. to NYC now from WMYC.

Shout out to our production team. It includes Sean Bowdage, Amber Bruce, Ava Careo, Audrey Cooper, Liora Noam Kravitz, Jared Marcel, and Wayne Schoemeister, with help from all of my wonderful colleagues in the WNYC Newsroom.

Our show art was designed by the people at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrado. I'm Jenae Pierre. Have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday.