NYC NOW - Midday News : Construction Worker Death, Mount Vernon Police Under Scrutiny, Cuomo's Political Future

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

The NYPD says a construction worker is dead and another is in the hospital after the cherry picker they were in collided with a beam. Also, the Department of Justice is accusing the Mount Vernon Police Department of violating people's civil rights. Finally, WNYC's Jon Campbell examines Andrew Cuomo's political future and a possible run for New York City mayor.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, December 13th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The NYPD says a construction worker died and another is in the hospital after the cherry picker they were in, collided with the beam. This happened just after 915 this morning near Park Avenue in East 35th Street in Midtown where police say watch out the traffic there, the city's Department of Buildings is investigating. The Department of Justice accuses the Mount Vernon Police Department of violently violating people's civil rights. A DOJ report out today says officers in the Westchester City used excessive

force, including on people, are already restrained and excessive use of tasers. It also says Mount Vernon Police conducted unlawful strip searches and body cavity searches through at least last year and arrested people without probable cause. Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocha says this issue is bigger than the individual police officers. This is about something much higher level than that, both at the policy, training, supervisory level of the police department and, frankly, in the city government. Mount Vernon Mayor Sean Patterson Howard says leadership is, quote, committed to digesting the report thoroughly. She says they will work with the DOJ to address the findings. Bundle up, it's going to be unseasonably cold into the weekend.

The National Weather Service has low temperatures. Today and tomorrow will be 10 to 15 degrees colder than normal for this time of year. It will remain chilly into Sunday with high in the low 40s. Temperatures will start to warm up on Monday with changes from the wind coming from the southwest. Right now, 32 and sunny, and that forecast again, sunny and cold the high of 34, the real field 20 to 30. then tomorrow's sunny and still cold in the mid-30s. Stay close. There's more after the break. Andrew Cuomo is not running for New York City mayor, at least not yet, but that hasn't stopped

some mayoral candidates from running against him. WNYC's John Campbell covered Cuomo in Albany when he was governor. He joins us now to discuss. So John, first things first, Cuomo has been flirting with a run for mayor for months, but is that actually a possibility? Well, Sean, by all indications, it's at least a possibility. I mean, the former governor hasn't really addressed it much in public, but he and his allies have been stoking the fire kind of behind the scenes. I mean, Cuomo has maintained a public presence since he resigned amid his sexual harassment scandal three years ago. And recently, he switched his voting address from Westchester County to an apartment in Manhattan, which that really kind of kicked up the speculation another notch. But that said, I spoke to some of his close allies who really insist he hasn't made a final decision.

And it's still complicated by the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the current mayor, Mayor Adams, who says he's running for re-election, even though he's facing fraud and bribery charges. But in the past, Cuomo's allies have said the former governor would be disinclined to run against Adams, though all bets would be off if Adams were to drop out. So there's already more than a half dozen Democrats who are challenging Mayor Adams next year. What are they saying about Cuomo's interest in the race? A few of them have been pretty actively running against Cuomo right now. I mean, take Queens Assembly member Zeran Mamdani. This is from a video he used to launch his campaign back in October. Life in this city doesn't need to be this hard.

But politicians like Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo want it to be this way. They care about their donors. They care about themselves. don't care about you. And he's not the only one. I mean, other candidates have gone after Cuomo, too. That includes Brad Lander, the city controller, and Scott Stringer, the former controller.

They're basically trying to remind voters that Cuomo has this trail of sexual harassment allegations against him, which he denies, by the way. And they're also pointing to plenty of other scandals, too, including ongoing questions about how the former governor handled COVID in nursing homes. How much of this is political theater, though? John. Like, are they invoking Cuomo because they actually think he's going to get into the race, or is he just a useful foils run against? Yeah, Sean, I was curious about that myself. So I spoke to Mamdani last week, and I asked him just that. How seriously is he taking Cuomo? And he said quite seriously. He says he believes Cuomo's dead set on remaining part of New York politics. He now believes that accountability is a word that doesn't apply to him. And he wants to return back into the city that he hasn't lived in for decades.

There's certainly reason for him to take the former governor seriously. I mean, for one, Cuomo has pretty much universal name recognition in the city. He's way better known than all of the other candidates, aside from maybe the mayor himself. And the New York Times and Sienna College conducted a very early poll of Democratic voters in late October. It showed Cuomo with a lead over that crowded field, albeit a relatively small one. Is Cuomo himself responding to the criticism that has right? rivals are throwing his way? Not really, but I reached out to his spokesperson, Rich as a party, and he said the criticism from the mayoral hopefuls amounts to, quote, noise from fringe politicians,

end quote. So as a party said over and over for months now that the speculation of a Cuomo run is premature, but he's also really quick to point out some of Cuomo's accomplishments as governor, things like the new Tappansy Bridge and the Second Avenue subway and installing Roe v. Wade, rights into state law. I mean, the governor himself has spoken recently about wanting to bring the Democratic Party back more toward the middle. And he certainly is more moderate than candidates like Mamdani and Lander. That said, there's no doubt that a Cuomo run would bring his various scandals back into the public spotlight. And his opponents are already proving that they're quite ready to remind voters of that any chance they can get. That's WNYC's John Campbell. John,

as always, thanks so much. Thank you, Sean. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. 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 podcast. We'll be back this evening.