NYC NOW - Midday News: Secret Service Neutralizes Cyber Threat Amid UN General Assembly, Bronx Housing for Former Rikers Detainees Faces Council Vote, Cardi B Voices Subway Announcements, and Campaign Catch Up on NYC’s Mayoral Race

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

The Secret Service says it has dismantled a network of hundreds of servers capable of disrupting telecommunications as the UN General Assembly meets in Manhattan. Meanwhile, the City Council is preparing to vote on a controversial housing proposal in the Bronx that would create apartments for people leaving Rikers Island with serious medical needs. Also, Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B is lending her voice to MTA subway announcements, reminding riders to pay fares and follow safety rules. And NY1’s Errol Louis joins us to break down the unusual four-way race for New York City mayor.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, September 23rd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The Secret Service says it's found a network of hundreds of servers capable of disrupting telecommunications around the UN General Assembly happening right now. Special Agent Matt McCool of the New York Field Office says the situation is now under control as an investigation is underway. This network had the potential to disable cell phone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City.

Early analysis indicates cellular communications between foreign actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement. The agency recovered more than 100,000 SIM cards and 300 servers within 35 miles of the UN's Midtown headquarters. Officials say the network was an imminent threat directed at U.S. senior officials. the investigation is ongoing.

City Council leaders will hold a vote on a contentious housing development in the Bronx for former Rikers Island detainees. The project would provide 58 apartments for people with severe medical issues leaving the city jail complex, but it's faced intense opposition from the local council member, Christy Mamorado. That's usually enough to kill a housing proposal, but the council is expected to hold a vote Thursday anyway. Councilmember Mammerado has not yet responded to our request for comment. New York's very own Cardi B will soon be heard throughout City subway stations.

We're walking here. Steps are for stepping, not city. Move it, Bucco. The Grammy-winning rapper is voicing public service announcements in the transit system, as you heard there, to pay fares and to stop riding atop subway cars. 76 and sunny right now, mostly sunny today, with a high temperature of 81 on this first full day of fall, than a chance of showers and thunderstorms tonight, and a low of 67. New York is elected a new mayor in six weeks, and it's a race like no other in recent times. Assembly members, Iran Mamdani, won the Democratic primary.

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams are both running on independent lines, and Curtis Lewe is running as the Republican nominee. Now, to keep you on top of all of the latest, we bring you campaign catch-up, a quick weekly look at the latest on this race. we have Errol Lewis, political anchor at New York One, where he hosts a nightly Inside City Hall show. Errol poll show, Mumdani, remains the clear frontrunner.

He made news again last night over a planned town hall on ABC. Do you see any signs of his campaign losing momentum? What would you need to happen for his opponents to catch up at this point? Well, losing momentum is not likely, but his opponents can get their own act together. I think that's what would make this a much tighter. raised. The other candidates have not quite caught fire, and they haven't quite found the right combination of issues and slogans to really take off as far as the polls are concerned. The other big difference between all of these campaigns is that Mamdani is in the lead in part

because he's got a big door-knocking campaign where thousands of people are out knocking on doors, reaching out to voters. It's a very different strategy than the other candidates who are using social media or increasingly televised ads just to try and reach a very broad public. It's not clear whether one or the other is going to prevail. So Mamdani has a lot of volunteers who are doing the groundwork, the tough work, going out there and talking to voters. Oh, absolutely.

Now, somebody knocked on our door on. Saturday, you know, and they were alone. We're not, we don't expect to hear from the other candidates. I mean, it's just not part of, of, of what they're doing. And so there are people who are regular voters like me and my wife, who are getting, getting a door knock. They're getting reached by thousands. I mean, tens of thousands, if you believe, the campaign, hit the streets in the primary on any given weekend. And they're trying to build up something similar with the help of, a lot of unions and other organized groups that have lined up behind Zoran Mamdani. And, Errol, what does that say when a campaign sends out volunteers like that to knock on the door

and taking place in the absence of other candidates doing that? What does that say to voters? What do voters take away from that experience? Well, for a lot of voters, it's something I would compare to, if you ever use a rideshare company, sometimes the driver will say, hey, would you give me a rating of four, you know, a five? And, you know, most of us would just be inclined to do it just because the person asked, you know. I think what it says is that there are volunteers and there's a campaign and there's something of a movement that's enough to get somebody out of their bed and have them go through the sometimes disappointing and embarrassing and tedious task of knocking on doors

and either getting chased away or the person's not home or your feet hurt. You know, there are a lot of different reasons not to do this. But when a volunteer does do it, I think it signals to voters that this is a candidate who's got some real followers, not somebody who's paid and kind of going through the motions, but somebody who really believes in the message. Mayor Adams' campaign took a turn this week when he began talking about bathroom access for a transgender public school students. How has that reverberated through the campaign? You know, a lot of us have been scratching our heads.

He all of a sudden began talking about this question of who's taking showers and whose bathroom and, you know, with regard to gender. And what I noticed was something that really tracked with my own memories, which is that there aren't a lot of New York City students that are taking showers at all. You know, this isn't this isn't Los Angeles. This isn't Des Moines or someplace like that. A lot of, you know, it seemed just kind of out of step. And certainly, after many, many years in public office, this is the first time Eric Adams has brought these things up. For those of us who are covering the race,

the suggestion that he might be trying to do it for political reasons, of course, is front of mind. And then the question becomes, well, who is he trying to get and why? And how would this work? And I think the most logical conclusion would be that, there are some conservative voters who are out there, social conservatives, and Eric Adams is trying to get their attention. What do you make of Schumer? What do you make of Jeffrey still not saying who they support for mayor? You know, it's very interesting. Those gentlemen are involved in national politics. And as the leaders of their respective conferences in Congress, they have to try and get a majority. And that has a whole set of political concerns that have nothing to do with New York City.

And because New York is the media capital and because this is such a high profile race, there's a very distinct possibility that there could be negative blowback in some of the seats that they're trying to flip or hold on to far, far away from New York. And when you say that you're a Democratic socialist like Zoran Mamdani does, in New York City, it's not that unusual. He wouldn't, if he wins, he wouldn't even be the first Democratic socialist mayor of New York. We've had quite a number of who have been prominent in New York politics, and one was mayor, David Dinkins, and you know, you could arguably nudge Fiorella LaGuardia in that direction as well. So now this could, in fact, become a national issue if you've got a Democratic socialist mayor who's being endorsed by Schumer or by Jeffries, and then all of a sudden there's a lot of negative messaging that's going on in some district in, Indiana or in Texas or in Wisconsin or in Florida. And then that starts to spoil their national strategy.

So I think their local politics and their national politics can easily be at odds. And I think that's what's going on here. Aaron Lewis hosts on the nightly Inside City Hall show on New York One. Aaron, always a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. And stick with WNYC and our news site, Gotham, for all our coverage of the race for New York City Hall. Thanks for listening.

This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.