NYC NOW - May 29, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Mayor Eric Adams is defending two NYPD officers who shot and killed a Brooklyn man over the weekend. Plus, Marymount Manhattan College will soon merge with Boston’s Northeastern University. Also, WNYC’s Nancy Solomon looks into New Jersey’s Democratic primary race in the 9th Congressional District. And finally, WNYC’s Sean Carlson and Arun Venugopal discuss the latest developments on a plan to build a casino near CitiField.

Welcome to NYC, Your Source for Local News in and around New York City. From WNYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is defending two NYPD officers who shot and killed a Brooklyn man over the weekend. The NYPD says the man was experiencing mental distress and charged at the officers with two knives. Adams says the officers tried to de-escalate the situation. This is real-time situations where you're going to be. have to use the level of escalation. That's what those officers did, using a taser, trying to use speaking with them. The incident comes two months after police killed Wyn Rosario, a 19-year-old

Queens resident who called 911 while in mental distress, but was shot by officers when he reached for a pair of scissors. Rosario's mother, who is seen on body cam footage, begging police not to shoot, has demanded that the two officers in that case be fired and prosecuted for killing her son. Marymount Manhattan College will soon be no more. The Upper East Side School will merge with Boston's Northeastern University and become its New York City campus. Marymount's administration is citing financial and enrollment headwinds facing the school

and universities nationally as the reason for the merger. The school will keep its campus on East 71st Street as part of its agreement with Northeastern. Students enrolled and in good academic standing at Marymount at the time of the merge will automatically become Northeastern students with no increase in tuition. The primary election in New Jersey is coming up on June 4th. One of the few competitive contests is the Democratic race in the 9th Congressional District, home to one of the largest Palestinian populations in the country.

And longtime incumbent, Congress member Bill Pasqurell is facing blowback for his support of Israel. WNYC's Nancy Solomon has more. Bill Pasqurell was born and raised in Patterson, a down-on-it-sleck industrial town that sits about 19 miles due west of the Lincoln Tunnel. He's 87, has served in Congress for 27 years, and has been wildly popular among Democrats through that time. But for the first time in his political career, Pasquerel is having difficulty getting support from the very neighborhood he comes from. I lived on Nicobacher Avenue. I lived on Buffalo Avenue. Those things mean a lot to me if you know anything about my record. So that I've abandoned the Muslim people is totally wrong.

The south side of Patterson and its surrounding suburbs have large numbers of immigrants from the Middle East. And many want Pascal to call for a stop to Israel's bombing of Gaza. He's facing a primary challenge from Mohamed Karula, the Syrian-born mayor of Prospect Park, who's calling for an immediate ceasefire. Pascal has long supported a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. But now, his support of Israel after the attack by Hamas has become a central issue in the primary. You know, I was fined until October 7th with Mayor Karula. In fact, it is interesting.

I don't know if you know the story was in all the papers. The gist of that story is Karula was invited to the White House last year to celebrate Eid, but he was then barred entry by the Secret Service because, he says, he was erroneously named on a terrorism watch list. Who the heck is the first person he called? Me last year. And I tried to help in that situation. But pro-Palestinian activists are mobilizing, registering voters, getting out the vote, and protesting appearances by Pescrell. Corrilla supported the congressman in the past, but he says, the bombing of Gaza, has changed everything. Obviously, it is a major blunder for a congressman who has the largest Palestinian community

in the United States not to stand with them while their families are being killed. It's the second largest, but Karula's point remains. Obviously, that will be a big factor in getting us the Arab and the Muslim votes. In addition to wanting an immediate end to the bombing, Karula opposes the Israel aid package, that Pescrell voted for in April. Pesquel is easily won his election since 1996. But Dina Saeed Ahmed of the Council on American Islamic Relations says the congressman was taken by surprise

when Karula jumped into the race at the last minute. Because he did have the Muslim and the Arab community's support for a very long time. And so to see that rug kind of just pulled out from under him very suddenly and very abruptly. Saeed Ahmed says propels. Palestinian activists in New Jersey are also organizing a protest against President Biden by calling on Democratic voters in the June primary to choose uncommitted. So we're seeing this sort of ripple effect of the Muslim community and the Palestinian community and allied community groups as well, all coming together on the same page saying, you know,

we cannot in good faith cast a vote for somebody who has completely disregarded the calls of their constituency. The strategy was successful in Michigan and Minnesota, and it could draw higher turnout from voters opposed to the war, and ultimately have an impact on Pescrell. But Dan Casino, a professor and director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University poll, says support for Pascrell still runs deep. He's well-liked in the district. I look at the fundraising numbers like, boy, Pascal's way ahead. He's got every state legislator in that district.

He's already endorsed him. But without any polling on the race, Casino says it's hard to predict what will happen. That's WMYC's Nancy C. Solomon. A plan to bring a casino to Queens appears to be dead. More on that after the break. Why can we have something nice in Queens? Why can our children have a place to go and have a green space? Why can we take them to a concert where we are traveling an hour and a half in traffic? Supporters of a plan to build a casino near city field were dealt a serious, potentially fatal blow this week. State Senator Jessica Ramos announced she would not allow the $8 billion project,

to move forward. The project is known as Metropolitan Park and has been touted by MET's owner, Steve Cohen, as a major economic driver for the area with its combination of gaming, hotels, and entertainment venues. My colleague Sean Carlson talked with WMYC's Arun Venigapal about the latest developments. Arun, why did Ramos say she's blocking the project? Well, this is something, Sean, that she's been fairly vocal about for the last few months. She says her constituents just don't want a casino in their backyard that they have expressed their opposition at town halls and random encounters on the street with her and through a poll that she commissioned, which found that 61% of respondents said they don't want to see a full casino in Queens, and 75% said they

opposed building one in their own neighborhood. She says they want something more family-friendly, like parks. Now, this is a major development project. How does Ramos have so much sway over it? Well, because it's in our district, and a critical step in the approval process in this case is what's known as the alienation of Parkland. It was up to her to decide whether or not to facilitate that step so that commercial development could take place on what is technically legally Parkland. In these situations, the rest of the legislative body tends to defer to that elected official. That's something called member deference. But this is something that other elected officials and backers of this project are pointing out that one official shouldn't have that kind of power, especially when so much is at stake. Well, how are backers of the project responding to Ramos's announcement?

Well, one of the more vocal supporters has been the borough president of Queens, Donovan Richards. He's disappointed, and he told me that this project with its thousands of potential jobs is, it really is the best hope for the residents of Queens, particularly poor residents. in the area who struggle to stay afloat, he says, and who've turned to things like street fending or sex work to get by. I don't take these sort of decisions lightly. This is life and death for people up there. You know, they are hanging on by the margins, in many cases barely hanging on. So I'm struggling to find what is the alternative.

And Sean, a spokesperson for the project for Metropolitan Park, Carl Rickett, he said this in a statement to me. He said, our team remains committed to bringing me. Metropolitan Park to life with gaming as the only viable economic engine to make the 23,000 jobs, $8 million, a billion investment rather, and substantial community benefits possible. And then he added this without elaborating, he said the backers retain multiple pathways forward. Oh, interesting. So either ominous or hopeful, depending on who you're talking to with these multiple pathways. So there still is hope for the casino?

Yeah. I mean, I think a lot depends on how. the political leadership in Albany proceeds and specifically its adherence to this thing I mentioned, member difference, the chamber deferring to a person in whose district the project is supposed to happen in this case, Senator Ramos. It's not a rule in the strictest sense, but Ramos says it would nonetheless set a dangerous precedent if the leadership of the state senate allowed another legislator to go around her in this case. Now, the current legislative session ends next week. But it's safe to say that with all the commercial development in this area, we're talking about a new soccer stadium that's been greenlit, thousands of housing

units coming online, a lot of commercial interests, political interest in developing this area. It's safe to say we haven't heard the last of this project, Sean. That's WMYC's Arunvenegapal, talking with my colleague, Sean Carlson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Junae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.