NYC NOW - March 29, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

A federal court judge is blocking New Jersey’s ‘county line’ system from being used in the June primary. This system groups candidates into slates who appear all together in a single line or row. Meanwhile, in honor of the annual Transgender Day of Visibility, the MTA is honoring Bernie Wagenblast, one of the voices of New York City subways. Additionally, WNYC’s Sean Carlson explores why New York’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team isn’t as popular as some others in the league. Finally, Bushwick is having a fashion moment right now with its ‘Bushwick style’ craze. WNYC’s Precious Fondren reports.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. A federal court judge is blocking New Jersey's unusual county line system from being used in the June primary. The system groups candidates into slates who all appear together in a single line or row. And some researchers say that gives the slates endorsed by local political party organizations a huge advantage. They all appear in a line together and may look more legitimate to voters. Andy Kim, now the frontrunner in the U.S. Senate race, challenged the line in court. He says it's undemocratic and makes it harder for reformers to get elected.

The next, downtown, number two, is now arriving. Please stand away from the platform edge. Know that voice? That's Bernie Wagon Blast. She's one of the voices of the New York City Subways, and you'll hear her more than usual than the subways today, in honor of the annual Transgender Day of Visibility, which is on Sunday. Wagon Blast says visibility is the key. to mutual respect.

To have opportunities for people to see that there are transgender people all around, they might be the taxi driver, they may be the store clerk. Wigan Blast is also hosting a new podcast about the history of the trans movement in New York City. There are several transgender day of visibility events around the area in the coming days, including at Marcia P. Johnson State Park at 2 on Saturday afternoon and at Bronx Borough Hall at 11 o'clock on Monday morning. Up next, I take a trip to Long Island to check out a professional women's hockey game.

I love that story after the break. The Professional Women's Hockey League opened its inaugural season in January in select cities across the U.S. and Canada. And while some cities have seen some huge crowds, New York's team, not so much. To try to understand why, I recently hopped on the L-I-Double R and headed out to a game at UBS. on Long Island. The next station is UBS Arena. If you live in New York

and you want to take mass transit to see the professional women's hockey league's New York team play at UBS Arena, your best bet is to take the Long Island Railroad, just like Nat Meyer and their friends who on this Sunday are riding from Brooklyn to Belmont Park to see a game. I love that there's

there is a women's sports league to root for when another one isn't going. And so it's just like I want to fully to support women's sports. Like, I would love to just do that all year around. But this train to Belmont is not exactly bursting at the seams with fans. In fact, it's fairly empty.

Midwest native Sam Haney says she thinks she knows why. I think there's so much to do in New York, whereas, like, there's less to do in Minnesota. I love Minnesota, but also, like, it's like a hockey state. Is it ever? The home opener at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul netted more than 13,000 people. Canada has seen even larger turnout, 19,000.

At a recent game in Toronto, Montreal's team sold out the 21,000-seat bell center this month. But the game we're heading to, in the most densely populated region of the entire country, sold just over 4,000 tickets. New York's team also played some games out of Bridgeport, Connecticut in their inaugural season because the league came together quickly

and venues and dates were limited. Turnout there is even smaller. Recent game there drew just over 700 fans in an arena that seats 10,000. We asked Jana Hefford, the senior VP of Hockey Operations for the league, about those numbers and what they pretend for New York's team. We, where eyes wide open knew this was going to be tough market because it's a big market. There's lots of professional teams and there's lots of competition for people's time and their money.

But she says there's been enough success in other local women's sports like basketball and soccer to be optimistic about the future. So we're going to work hard to, and we believe we can. When we look at the success of the Liberty and Gauth and FC, there's an opportunity here to do something really special, but we're going to have to work for it. So what might help them get there? My name is Dr. Bray Newland, and I research in the area of sport participation from the perspective of the participant themselves and then from a consumer's perspective. Dr. Newland, who works at NYU, says having the team focus on one market instead of multiple venues would help the team build its brand. assigning names to the teams would also help.

Think mascots and developing team personalities that can be marketed. Right now, the teams are nameless. The league says naming didn't happen this season because of time constraints. They told us that naming the teams is on the agenda, but couldn't give us a timeline. But also think about this. Had you ever even heard about the PWHL before hearing this story? Have you seen it on live TV? Exposure.

Exposure at the right time matters. It's not just that we finally start putting women's games on TV, but you have to watch it at 2 in the morning. But we put women's sport in competitive time slots. That exposure is really important, not only for the fans, but also for opportunities for sponsorships. Newland also says it's unfair to compare men's sports and the crowds they draw to women's leagues, which are often much newer and working with far fewer resources. The time and longevity that the men's game has had to develop, they went through their own

struggle when they started, but we always, we just conveniently forget about that. And that's one of the main problems we face in women's sport. The resources and the production value is not the same. And so, therefore, it's not as fun to watch in some cases, depending on, you know, how avid of a fan you are. We get an opportunity to experience the game at UBS with goalie Abby Levy, who jumps at the chance to let us mic her up as she watches from the bench. Abby was born and raised in Rockland County and grew up rooting for the New York Islanders. Her parents actually met at an Islander's game. Abby says growing up as a girl who wanted to play hockey was not easy.

When I was a kid, I would play on the nearest boys' club. So it was a toss-up with if it was safe or not for girls to play. But it's sad because little girls around here, like a lot of their dreams died out. There was just nothing to go to for a girl. So it's really nice to see that there's a team here in New York where when I was a kid, there was never really girls hockey in New York. Abby says she's optimistic about fan turning. Now, she points out that more fans have come to today's game than any other yet at UBS.

But ultimately, that is not what matters to have. I just think generationally for women, it didn't matter for the ones before us if there was people in the stands. Like, they got up, they played the sport, they played in Olympics, they did everything they could because they love the sport. I think everyone in this league really genuinely loves the sport. And they could care less if there's flies in the, flies in the seats or actual human. We just play the sport because we love it. While this Sunday game only filled a fraction of UBS or Nina, in fact, the fans were all corralled into just one side of the stadium

with barriers blocking off wise swaths of the seating that remained empty. But the fans that were there were psyched, especially these three 10-year-old girls, Casey Muller, Deanna DeMaio, and Rosabella Garzinski. So what brought you guys to the game today? Why did you come to the game? The girls were on their feet holding up signs of encouragement for the players. Is this the first game you guys have been to? No.

You've been to many games here? This is, like, my second or third game here. Same for you? This is my second woman hockey one. You can be honest. Do you have more fun at these games or the men's games? These games. Really?

Why? You get to watch the women play, and then they're like, I don't know how to explain it. It's like, that could be you one day. As for what New York's team name might end up being, goalie Abby Levy says she's not sure, but she admits that she has seen the chatter online and knows that the name Pizza Rats is a cult favorite among fans.

Her opinion, please don't. Bushwick style is having a moment. It's on the runway. It's all over social media, and even Beyonce is dabbling in what fans describe as the Bushwick look. But what exactly is the look? And if one of the world's biggest stars

is dressing in Bushwick style, does that mean it's over, or is it just the beginning? WNYC's precious fondering went to Bushwick. To find out. When images from Beyonce's magazine covers spread across Instagram and X, the site formerly known as Twitter, some people, like DJ Maxwell Weiss, immediately made the connection to Bushwick. I was wearing, I kid you not, like a fake mullet wig with like a denim skirt.

And I saw the fashion book come out. My jaw dropped. It's like Bushwick down. In one picture, Beyonce rocks a gray and black mullet and wears a torn t-shirt under a leather corset. This isn't her usual style. But here in Bushwick, it's common to see people. layering pieces, mixing expensive brands with cheap ones, and blurring the lines of gender expression. The look is all about being as experimental as possible. Here's Jake Henry Smith,

a shopping editor at Glamour magazine. It's not being afraid to look kind of weird. People will understand the outfit or they don't. It's like the girls that get it. Bushwick is, if you know, you know. Bushwick residents say the style isn't going away anytime soon. In fact, they say the style will get more androgynous, experimental, and weirder. Lily Riley is a barista and lives in Bushwick. Not a lot of people are dressing like for the male gays out here or like for people like promoting like patriarchy or like heteronormativity. It's more just like expressing yourself in a way that's like authentic to you.

Some fashion insiders say now that the look is becoming mainstream, it's lost some of its underground appeal. Smith says this combined with more transplants moving to the area will make people start toning it down. I've noticed already like a little bit more playful minimalism rather than like this maximalist explosion on some people. Charlie Gonzalez is the store manager at other people's clothes, a popular thrift store in Bushwick. This sort of style is having a moment right now, but it'll be gone soon enough. But for fans of the look, it's not just a look. It's self-expression, and they're not stopping now. Sammy Ennis has to be gone.

has been living in Bushwick for seven years. It is really authentic, and it's true to whoever you see as they're walking through the streets of Bushwick. I think people here address the way in which they feel aligns closely to them, and I love that. That's doubly one MIS reporter, Precious Fondren. Shout out to our production team. It includes Sean Boutich, Amber Bruce, Abe Carrillo, Audrey Cooper, Liora Noam Kravitz, Jared Marcell, Janay, P. Wayne Schulmeister and Gina Vosti, with the help from the entire WNIC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the folks at Buck.

Our music was composed by Alexis Quadrato. I'm Sean Carlson. Have a nice weekend, my friend. We'll be back on Monday.