NYC NOW - Midday News: Summer Streets Program Returns, Prospect Park’s LeFrak Center Reopens, Performing Arts Library Turns 60, and Latest from the Mayoral Candidates

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

New York City’s Summer Streets program returns for five consecutive Saturdays starting this weekend, closing more than 22 miles of roadway to cars across the boroughs. Meanwhile, Prospect Park’s LeFrak Center at Lakeside is also set to reopen after its first major renovation since 2013. Also, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is celebrating its 60th anniversary with events in partnership with Lincoln Center. Plus, in this week’s politics segment: mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s trip to Uganda, Andrew Cuomo’s campaign promises, and the latest on the governor’s race.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, July 24th. Here's the midday news from Veronica DeValle. New York City's Summer Streets program is back and bigger than ever. For five consecutive Saturdays starting this weekend, the city will ban cars from more than 22 miles of roadway across the boroughs. From seven in the morning to three in the afternoon, people can walk, bike, and participate in other free activities like fitness events and art installations. The series kicks off in Queens and Staten Island. There will be open streets on Vernon Boulevard from 44th to 30th drives, and on Forest Avenue from

Broadway to Bard Avenue. Prospect Park's popular Lafraq Center at Lakeside is almost ready to reopen. It's been closed to the public for its first major renovation since opening in 2013. It now features improvements to its lighting, restrooms, cafe, children's splash pad, and its biggest attraction, the roller rink and ice skating rinks. Programming will now include pickleball and yoga. The LaFRAC Center officially reopens on August 2nd. And the Brooklyn Public Library of Performing Arts is turning 60 this year. To celebrate the anniversary, the library is hosting a number of events in partnership with Lincoln Center, which is right next door. The series is called Living Libraries. celebrating 60 years. It will feature events like film screenings, reading parties, silent discos,

and more. The library says all ages are welcome. The series is happening until July 27th. 85 degrees outside and sunny right now, a high of 87 today. Tonight, mostly clear, a low around 75. Tomorrow, dangerously hot, a slim chance of late afternoon showers and thunderstorms, mostly sunny, 96, but feeling like 103. Stay close. There's more after the break. NYC. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. It's time for politics brief, our weekly segment where we break down the news out of City Hall and across New York State. This week, we have one candidate out of the country and a big development in next year's race for governor.

To break it down, we're joined by WNIC's Jimmy Veilkind in Albany and WNYC's Elizabeth Kim right here in downtown Manhattan. All right, Liz, we're going to start with you. Democratic mayoral nominee, Zeran Mamdani, is in Uganda. I think that's a first in city politics, no? Maybe. I mean, it's certainly the first time a can't. It's certainly not, I should say, the first time a candidate has taken a break from the campaign. You know, in 2021, Eric Adams went to Monaco for four days.

That actually didn't come out until Politico reported it. Adams also traveled to Africa, the country of Ghana, to be specific, after he won the general election. That was what he called a spiritual journey, but some people may remember that that was one of the trips that federal prosecutors investigated for these questionable upgrades that Adams received from Turkish Airlines. But yes, getting back to Mamdani, he put out a video on Sunday saying that he was going to Uganda so that he and his wife can spend some time with his family. Now, just remember, Mamdani's parents are ethnically Indian. But his father's family goes back generations in Uganda. Mamdani himself was born in Uganda and he lived in Africa until he was around seven. Now, Liz, I know this isn't a politics trip, but, you know, everything is kind of political when you've got politicians involved.

I remember it used to be that New York politicians would do what they said was the three eyes. Italy, Israel and Ireland, sort of a nod to those big voting blocks in New York City. Is this like a new touchstone that nods to the African diaspora? Well, yes, and I think it speaks to Mamdani's sort of complex identity, right? Like he is poised to become the first South Asian mayor of New York City. And on the campaign trail, he's really weaved his identity and specifically his ties to Uganda into his biography. I think cynically, you might wonder, is this an opportunity for him to remind voters, particularly black voters of this connection to Africa? Sure.

But I also think it's fair to say, to take Mom Dony at face value and say that he really does want to introduce his wife to the place he was born. Yeah. All right. Well, what about the other candidates? We're now about a week from when Andrew Cuomo declared that he was going to really actively be campaigning. this time around. How's that going? Well, you know, we have these videos that essentially show Cuomo doing what people say he didn't do enough of during the primary, which is talking to voters, kind of, you know, what they say,

pressing the flesh. And more importantly, getting these interactions on social media. Here's a few seconds of a recent video he put out where he's on the Upper West Side. How are you? How are you going? Hi. How are you? How are you? Nice to meet you.

You hear that really upbeat music. So, Jimmy, what I want to ask you is, like, you know, this is the kind of thing that Zeran Mamdani did to great effect. How do you think Cuomo did? Did he come off natural? Is this a natural, is he in his natural element here? No, he's very far from his natural habitat. It's not how he is. His team for years has always worked to keep him out of unscripted,

settings, away from wild humans. You know, he was paned during the campaign for primary campaign for not being more vigorously active. So, you know, I guess this is a response. You know, it's also interesting, Liz, I watched that video, and I was randomly on the phone with an elected official who told me that he was in the diner that Andrew Cuomo visited that appears in that video, the Metro diner on the Upper West Side. And this elected official told me that the people who Cuomo shook hands with,

who were sitting at the table, they had been sitting there and said, well, we're here, we're waiting for Andrew Cuomo. So, you know, I don't think we should assume that all of this is perfectly spontaneous. No, not at all. And I think it speaks to the fact that, you know, the bigger question is, when does Cuomo more broadly give reporters this invitation to watch these interactions? Because the most successful video for a candidate is one taken by a reporter on the trail watching those interactions. Yeah, yeah. Now, Jimmy, I know that we're still more than a year out, but there was a pretty big development in the race for governor, right? This one was on the GOP side. Can you tell us what happened? Yeah. Well, Republicans feel like Kathy Hochold, the incumbent governor, is weak. They're telling all Democrats with as far-left socialists based on Mamdani's primary win. And so, you know, in previous years, the GOP has really struggled to find a candidate. I think in 2018, they kind of went through and passed the potato before they settled on. on Mark Molinaro, who later became a congressman and is now the federal rail administrator.

But this time, there's been kind of a staring contest between two pretty prominent members of the New York City Congressional Delegation. Excuse me, the New York State Congressional Delegation. That's Mike Lawler, who's from the Lower Hudson Valley, and Elise Stefonic, who's from the North Country. This morning, Lawler said he's not going to run for governor. He waived off a bid, and he's instead going to seek re-election to his. his seat. Now, his district, like I said, it's based in Rockland County, and it's pretty competitive. So, GOP leaders in Washington, including Donald Trump, who met with Lawler before he made this announcement, have urged them not, have urged him not to run for re-election. And so here's what

Lawler said about it on Fox and Friends. My seat was determinative of control of the House back in 2022. And again in 2024, I'm one of only three Republicans that won a seat that Kamala Harris also won. Keeping the House majority is critical if we are going to continue to move this economy in the right direction. So there are about a dozen Democrats, that's dozen, 12, who are seeking Lawler's seat. And Kathy Hochle today, she mocked Lawler. Here's what she told reporters on Long Island. Apparently doesn't have the courage to stand up to me or to Donald Trump. I'm not surprised, but all I know is that not only will he not be governor, he won't be a congressman for much longer.

So, yeah, you know, it's still 2025, but the shots are firing already in this race. Yeah, for sure. So, Jimmy, what does this mean about Stefanik? Is she definitely running? Not definitely. Okay. That's sort of the other thing here. She issued a statement today praising Lawler, again attacking Hockel, who Stefanik describes

describes as the worst governor in America. But folks closer have maintained all along that she is going to take a look at the election results in November. She's going to weigh the full situation before she fully makes up her own mind and makes her own announcement. So this is some kind of a consolation prize of sorts. You know, she was nominated, listeners might remember, to be Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. But he scuttled that bid and pulled her name back because Republicans were so concerned about, that very close margin in the House of Representatives. So now it seems like Trump did Stefanik a solid in helping to nudge Lawler out of the way.

Even though there are Republican analysts in New York who say that perhaps Lawler was the stronger candidate because he was a little bit more moderate. He had a greater degree of separation from Trump and from the magoing of the party. And given the demographics in New York, they say you're going to need that. So I'm not sure that being the candidate who was getting air support from Donald Trump is going to be the – that's not going to be necessarily the best thing for Stefaniq going forward. Polls show that even though Trump was born here, raised here, was a developer here, he just isn't particularly politically popular. Well, you know who is popular? The WNYC politics team, and we're very glad that you guys have joined us yet again.

WNYC's Elizabeth Kim in Manhattan and Jimmy Vielkind. from Albany. Thanks so much to you both. Thanks, Sean. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.