NYC NOW - June 20, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

Investigators are looking into an overnight fire in a Chinatown e-bike store that claimed four lives and left several people injured. Meanwhile, a recent state audit flags unsanitary conditions and financial mismanagement in four of New York City's affordable housing complexes. Lastly, we're on day four of early voting for New York's June Primary. The actual Primary Day, scheduled for the 27th, will host contests in four of the five boroughs. There's still time for registered voters to cast their votes with their preferred parties. For the latest need-to-know information, WNYC’s Michael Hill chats with senior politics reporter Brigid Bergin.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, June 20th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. An investigation is underway after an overnight fire that began in an e-bike store in Chinatown, killed four people and injured several others. Fire officials responded to a blaze at the six-story building. After midnight, the e-bike store and repair shop was on the first floor.

Bilal Aliyah works at a nearby bodega and called in the fire. He says it's made him reconsider the potential danger of e-bikes. My guess they are very dangerous, especially when they just killed four people today. One sets on fire, they all set on fire. Fire department officials say two people are still in critical condition after being rescued. One firefighter sustained minor injuries. A recent state audit is flagging unsanitary conditions and financial mismanagement at four affordable housing complexes in New York City. WNYC's Elizabeth Shui has more.

The audit from the state comptroller's office looked at two Mitchell Lama housing complexes in the Bronx, one in Crown Heights, and one in uptown Manhattan, where it says tenants have been living in unsanitary conditions for years. Assistant Comptroller Stephen Lynch worked on the audit over the last four years. Collapsed ceiling. There was mold on the walls. People deserve good, clean living conditions. and what we found wasn't up to standard. The audit also found funds meant for normal operations were being used for bonuses and parties.

Lynch says his office will follow up next year to see whether the state housing agency addresses the issues uncovered by the report. 73 degrees now. It's partly cloudy. More clouds than sun this afternoon and 75, 62 overnight. Tomorrow, pretty much the same as today. More clouds than sun and near 75. On WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. Polls are open across the city today.

This is the fourth day of early voting for the June primary in New York. Primary day is a week from now on June 27. There are primary contests in four the five boroughs, and there's still time for people who are registered to vote with the party to have their choices heard. Joining me now with an update on what you need to know is WNIC's senior politics reporter, Bridget Bergen. Hey, this is a small,

election than the primaries we were talking about last year for state legislative and congressional offices. Remind us who is running in this current election. So these are primary contests, largely for Democrats to, in this case, pick a nominee for district attorney in Queens in the Bronx. There's also some judicial races in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. And there are also about two dozen primaries for city council. As I mentioned, a lot of these contests are for Democrats to pick Democratic nominees, but there are actually a handful of Republican contests and even one conservative party primary up in the Bronx. Ranked choice voting is back for this primary. Is it in use for all of the races on the ballot this time? No, and that's a really important distinction. It is

only for city council primary contests. We only use ranked choice voting for city offices. Everything else you might see on your ballot will use our traditional method of voting. And just a quick reminder, Bridget, how does rank choice voting work? So, Michael, this is the system of voting where you can select in order of preference. You can make someone your first choice and another candidate, your second choice and so forth, up to five choices. If no person has more than 50% of the vote, then they will tally the results in rounds. And the person with the fewest votes is eliminated. And they look at those ballots and who the people picked is their second choice.

and redistribute those votes. And that process continues until someone has more than 50 percent, and then we have a winner. Bridget, why are city council races on the ballot again? Weren't these people just elected two years ago? I thought council members served four-year terms. Well, that is something that most people would think, and it is true. All 51 of these city council members did have to run in 2021, and they do generally serve four-year terms. But in the laws that govern the city, known as the city charter, there's an exception that occurs

every 20 years to account for redistricting. That's what we, the process we just went through last year to redraw the lines to account for the recent census and make sure that the districts reflect the changes in population. So members elected in 2021 are serving two-year terms and they all needed to run again to serve another two-year term. Now, here's where it becomes a little bit tricky. Taken together these two-year terms count as one four-year term for the purposes. purposes of term limits. I know. You got to slow it down there. It's an early Tuesday morning. So everyone who wins in November, if they're eligible for another term, will need to run again in two years from now in 2025. And then we're going to revert back to the normal cycle and people

will be running for uninterrupted four-year terms. Did you follow all that? I'm going to have to go back and listen to this to follow all of that. So early voting started last Saturday and runs through next Sunday. What's the turnout been like so far? So it has been pretty light, not surprisingly. Fewer than 15,000 people have voted so far. And no borough has seen more than 5,000 people vote. That is low turnout. Now, the Board of Elections only publishes early voting check-ins by borough. And the highest turnout at this point is in Queens where I mentioned we have that borough-wide primary for a Democratic nominee for district attorney. That's followed by Brooklyn, Manhattan, and then the Bronx. There's also a borough-wide primary for district attorney,

but also tends to have lower turnout. Now, as we said, there are only primaries in four of the five boroughs, no contests in Staten Island. And also one of the days of early voting yesterday was the Juneteenth holiday. So while it's been low, it's also a good signal that, you know, your vote is even more powerful. We've seen low turnout in these types of races and we've seen very close contests in the past. So a handful of votes could decide the outcome. So if you are eligible and you want to feel like your vote has extra power turnout for these races because they are likely to be decided in some narrow cases. What if someone wants to register to vote? Is there still time for this election? So unfortunately, the last day to register for this election was

actually this past Saturday, June 17th. So I can't register for this one. Yes, pardon me. How about voting by Mail Bridget? What are the options there? So we have an absentee ballot system in New York. You're required to have an excuse for why you're not able to vote during early voting or on primary day. You used to be able to use that option that was connected to the threat of contracting COVID-19 is an excuse, but that provisioned sunset last year. So now it's just the standard options that you've always had. You're going to be away. You're sick. You're a caregiver, you're out of Veterans Administration Hospital or in jail or prison for something other than a felony conviction. But the other challenge with that is the deadline to request an absentee ballot

online or by mail has also already passed. You would need to go in person to a Board of Elections Office up until the day before primary day, June 27th, to request that absentee ballot. Bridget, 30 seconds left here. What if a person just wants to find out who is running and where? Well, we have a rundown of all of the contests on our website, gothamis.com, but I'd also say it's worth checking your early voting site and viewing your sample ballot. You can do both of those things at the New York City Board of Elections website, and we have a link to that again on our website, gothamist.com. Comprehensive once again. Bridget Berg and our senior politics reported, Bridges. Thank you. Thanks, Michael. 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. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More this evening.