NYC NOW - May 2, 2024 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

The Adams administration is continuing to defend its new protocol, requiring elected officials to fill out an online form to request meetings with the leaders of city agencies. Plus, a visit by fire officials to an e-bike retailer in Queens ended with an arrest and a small explosion. Also, WNYC’s Nancy Solomon reports on a New Jersey seat that has flipped from Republican to Democrat and back to Republican. And finally, WNYC’s David Furst talks with Eater New York’s Robert Sietsema about diverse dining in Jersey City.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. Mayor Eric Adams' administration is continuing to defend its new protocol, requiring elected officials to fill out an online form to request meetings with the leaders of city agencies. Members of the New York City Council and other lawmakers are not happy about it and attack the policy at an oversight hearing this week. But the mayor's senior advisor, Tiffany Razzie, says none of the requests received through the form so far have been denied,

and that future request would also not be denied. I'll be happy to speak with you again in a month if you want, but I do not envision a scenario where a request will be denied. More than 60 elected officials signed a letter urging Adams to reverse the policy. In Queens, a visit by fire officials to an e-bike retailer ended with an arrest and a small explosion. WMYC's Matt Katz has the details. Fire Department officials said the owner of Wilson's e-bike shop in Forest Hills had been making his own uncertified lithium-ion e-bike batteries,

which are particularly flammable and hard to extinguish. Wei Chen was arrested in charge with reckless endangerment. Fire officials say he repeatedly violated rules on proper storage, maintenance, and sale of batteries. During the arrest, fire officials say one of the batteries caught fire. No one was injured. Chen denied the charges. He is the second person to be arrested under the city's recent crackdown on e-bike retailers selling cheap and refurbished batteries to delivery workers. According to fire officials, 18 people died last year in battery-related fires in New York City.

Now to New Jersey, where one of the most competitive house races this year is happening in the 7th District. Over the past six years, that seat has flipped from Republican to Democrat and back to Republican. This time around, a Democratic candidate is taking a different approach. WNYC's Nancy Solomon has more. I'm going to give a shout out to 1NJ7. When Congressman Tom Kane Jr. held a campaign fundraiser in Springfield, New Jersey, with House Speaker Mike Johnson, a group of some 50 activists were there to protest outside. All of them are supporters, if not friends,

of Sue Altman, the Democratic Challenger. It's my pleasure to bring up, Sue Altman. She's the former director of New Jersey Working Families Alliance, a part of a loose-knit coalition of progressive activists around the state. All right. Altman is an outspoken critic of the Democratic Party boss in South Jersey, George Norcross. She made headlines in 2019 when she was forcibly removed

from a hearing at the state capital where he was about to speak. At the rally, Altman, told NPR, she doesn't think it's a problem that the Republican Party describes her as too liberal for this district. I'm not sure the narrative right now is so much left-right or moderate, progressive. I actually think it's about bigger issues. It's about democracy and fighting for New Jersey. And so my entire career, I've fought against both parties. I fought against corrupt Democrats. And I fought against people like Chris Christie who are cutting money to schools. It's a very different playbook from Democrats who successfully flipped Republican seats in the last few elections nationwide. In 2018, that included at least

nine moderate Democrats with a military or intel background. But Mike Smith of the House Majority Pack, which works to get Democrats elected, says that while Altman is to the left of those candidates, she's able to connect with voters in a way that transcends party lines. And the typical attack of, you know, you're too progressive, you're too liberal, actually really, didn't resonate across the board. Sue doesn't come across as a typical politician. And we've seen the most successful candidates everywhere in the country. And that's from New York to California, to Indiana, to Illinois. The ones that don't fit a typical politician model are actually the ones that are most successful. And I think that's where Sue kind of fits. Smith says the House Majority

Pack is putting resources into Altman's campaign because they believe it's a key district for Democrats to take control of the House. The district includes working class small cities, affluent suburbs, and a large rural area, and has long been a bastion of moderate republicanism. When Tom Kane Jr. won the seat two years ago, he told voters he would protect abortion rights. I support a woman's right to choose and have a 20-year career in the state legislature reflecting that fact. But since then, he's voted with his party to oppose abortion rights. In Kane's hometown of Westfield, I met a local teacher. Sandy Suarez, who says she hasn't decided who she'll vote for, but Suarez says she'll be paying

attention to Kane's votes on reproductive rights. If you're a woman, you have the right to do what you want to do. So to see that a lot of men are the ones that are advocating for us, it's kind of like upsetting because they're not the ones that deal with what comes with being a woman. Kane won the last election by a slim margin. So far, Altman raised more money than Kane in the first quarter. If she can unseat him in November, it won't just be a significant victory in the fight for party control of the House. The conventional thinking about how Democrats can win in purple districts might just shift as well. That's WMYC's Nancy Solomon. Sticking with the Garden State, Jersey City may surprise many of you with its diverse dining scene. We'll dive into that after the break.

Eater, New York recently published a list of 22 restaurants that highlight Jersey City's dining diversity. WMYC's David First talked with Eater New York's Robert Sietzima to walk us through some of the restaurants. So if you're coming from New York, it's a short path train stop from Manhattan, and you've got a lot of bakeries, cafes, and restaurants to choose from. But what makes Jersey City dining unique? Well, to begin with, many don't realize. how big Jersey City is. Not only does it cover a humongous area going all the way down to Bayonne, but it also is the second largest city population-wise in New Jersey.

The restaurants there represent over 50 ethnicities that I can think of off bat, and I'm probably missing a lot, not only reasonably priced, but really, really good. Okay, so what's a great place for us to try first? Well, I would get on the path, go up to Journal Square, walk three blocks to this area known as India Square, even though it's not really a square. Okay. It is an amazing place. It's three blocks long.

It is all Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani restaurants, and half of the restaurants are strictly vegetarian. So try any place in the neighborhood? My favorite place there is three Ganesh's do. Dosa House, which makes 50 different kinds of doses. There's, by my count, like 35 restaurants on that three-block area. And you could just go there and start walking down. You could see the Meadowlands kind of shimmering in the background. I've never heard the Meadowlands described as shimmering before. I love the Meadowlands. Are you kidding? Man, didn't you watch the Sopranos?

All right. What's another one of your Jersey City favorites? Well, between Grove Street, and India Square runs a thoroughfare known as Newark Avenue. Don't get confused. This is not Newark. It's Jersey City. And that is just lined with restaurants from one end to the other. Part of it is a mall you can walk around. As you ascend the hill and go underneath the Jersey Turnpike, you'll see all sorts of

things. And one of them that I love is this place dedicated to the food of Antigua called Freetown Road. it is the only such restaurant that I know of in the entire metropolitan area. And what should you get? Pepper Pot. The name itself evokes the flavor and the intensity of the stew. Plus, they have things that you would recognize borrowed from other islands like jerk chicken. They have a lot of different kinds of fritters.

They have codfish fritters, which are just delicious. They have an appetizer plate there. You could never go beyond that even and be very happy. And it's called Free Town Road? Free Town Road Project. And of course, there's the legendary White Manna Diner that is Manna with one N, not to be confused with the white Manna with two ends up in Hackensack, but both are famous burger destinations.

Could you tell us about the Jersey City location? Well, they were once related, but the beauty of the Jersey City location, not only does it look like a spaceship that crashed to Earth 100 years ago and is gradual. eroding. It is a species of roadside diner that no longer exists anymore. It actually began life as a kiosk at the 1939 World Fair, which means New York City can kind of claim it. Think of it as a New York City embassy in Jersey City. But how are the burgers? That's what it's known for. It's fantastic. Before there were smash burgers, there were real smash burgers, and these are it. In other words, these are patties so thin that they kind of smash themselves.

That's Eater, New York's Robert Sietamah, talking with WNYC's David First. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.