NYC NOW - June 13, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

Asthma-related emergency room visits during the New York City smoke haze last week were the highest in high-poverty Black and Latino communities. Plus, New York Democrats are trying to expand voting by mail. And finally, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell is leaving the department. WNYC’s Sean Carlson and Samantha Max discuss Sewell’s abrupt departure.

Good evening and welcome to NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre for WNYC. High poverty, black and Hispanic neighborhoods accounted for a disproportionate share of asthma-related emergency room visits during last week's smoke haze. According to city data, ERs across New York City recorded a 10% uptick in asthma-related visits from Tuesday to Saturday, thanks to foul air from Canada wildfires. The zip codes with the highest numbers were in the Bronx, northern Manhattan, and the same. central Brooklyn. David Chung is the chief pulmonologist at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. He says the borough is home to some of the highest asthma rates in the city. I believe the Bronx has the most to lose in situations like this where the environment can be

very taxing for our patients, and we have the highest number of vulnerable patients. Research shows neighborhoods with high poverty rates and large non-white populations are exposed to more hazardous air pollutants and face greater health risk. New York Democrats are trying to expand voting by mail. A new plan passed at the end of the legislative session. WNYC's Bridget Bergen has the details. The bill passed by the state Senate and Assembly would allow any voter to request a ballot for early voting by mail. Under the current system, the only way to vote by mail is with an absentee ballot,

which requires a voter to provide an excuse for not appearing in person. Republicans have challenged mail ballots in recent elections, but the bill's Senate sponsor Deputy Majority Leader Mike Janaris, says similar measures have been enacted in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. We have reason to believe that this approach will withstand scrutiny. The bill now heads to Governor Kathy Hokel's desk. A spokesperson says she will review the legislation. Hokel has voiced support for expanding mail voting in the past. Stay close. There's more after the break.

NYPD Commissioner Kishant-Soul is leaving the department. She announced her resignation in a memo sent to colleagues Monday, but did not give a reason for the abrupt departure. Sewell served as police commissioner for a year and a half and was the first woman to lead the NYPD. She came to New York City after a two-decade career with the Nassau County Police Department. For more, my colleague Sean Carlson talked with WNYC reporter Samantha Max. So Sue will announce her resignation in a memo that was sent to the department. What did she say? She said that she had made the decision to step down. She noted that the department had been through tragedies, challenges, and triumphs during her time leading the department, and that she had found the people within the NYPD to be a, quote, extraordinary collective of hardworking public servants. She also talked about how important boosting officer morale had been to her and laid out several different changes. She had made under her leadership to try to improve officer.

well-being at a time when lots of officers have been retiring and resigning from the department. She thanked officers for what they do. She told them to stay safe. What she did not say was anything about why she's leaving, when she's leaving, or what she'll do next. Yeah, we should say 18 months, not a very long time to lead the NYPD. Do we know anything about what led to her resignation? You know, we don't know the conversations that were happening behind closed doors, but there has been a lot of speculation from officers, from experts who kind of study policing, folks who keep an eye on what's going on at City Hall, there's just really kind of been a bit of a power struggle in terms of who is leading the department. We have this unique situation where we have this commissioner

who is very experienced. She went to the FBI National Academy, which is very prestigious. She's been rising through the ranks of law enforcement for years. But she is coming from a very small local department on Long Island, which is much, much smaller than the NYPD. And then on the flip side, you have the first mayor who is a former police captain, which is just, you know, it's going to be a different relationship than any other police commissioner with a mayor. And we also have a deputy mayor of public safety, which is a position that hadn't been around for a while. And he also is kind of in the mix. So it's a lot of different people making decisions and people had questioned how much authority Sewell really had to be kind of, you know, calling the shots.

Yeah, let's talk about Mayor Adams a little bit. As you mentioned, he was a police captain. What type of candidate do you think he'll be looking for to lead the department after Sue? Well, certainly someone who will go with his vision, public safety, was, you know, at the forefront of his campaign. And it has been central to his leadership style in office. He took office at a time when crime was high. because of the pandemic and all kinds of other factors. And he has really been trying to test out all these different, both old and new techniques, to bring down crime. So he'll want someone who will go along with what he wants to do and who will really focus

on tackling gun violence. But the mayor has also been really focused on quality of life issues, on homelessness, on different things that for a long time, New York City and the NYPD had kind of shifted away. from and now we're kind of moving back toward these different types of policing methods. What were the chief components? And again, she was only on the job for a year and a half, but insofar as we can call them chief components, what were they of Sewell's tenure? And when people look back on it, what do you think they're going to remember? I think guns has definitely been a big focus under her leadership, getting guns off the streets. It's just been a big priority.

Also, the neighborhood safety teams is something that people will remember. This is kind of a new iteration of the old anti-crime teams, which had been disbanded under de Blasio and then Mayor Adams brought them back with help from Sewell. These are teams that are going out trying to get guns off the streets. But, you know, as she said in her letter, Officer Moral has been a big focus. She's tried to make some changes to officer discipline to make it a little bit easier on officers. which has received some criticism as well from watchdogs. That's WNYC reporter Samantha Max talking with my colleague Sean Carlson. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday. Three times a day. We'll be back tomorrow.