NYC NOW - Midday News: Wrong Way Driver Kills Pedestrian in West Village, Airlines Offer Refunds During FAA Cutbacks, and Jersey City Mayoral Race Heads to Runoff

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Police say a 27 year old woman was struck and killed by a wrong way driver in the West Village this morning. The driver stayed at the scene and has not been charged. Meanwhile, airlines including United and Delta are offering refunds as the FAA prepares to cut air traffic by 10 percent nationwide during the government shutdown. Officials will release the list of affected airports later today. Plus, Jersey City’s mayoral race is heading to a runoff next month between former Governor Jim McGreevey and Councilmember James Solomon. Ry Rivard from Politico joins us to talk about what’s next in the race.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, November 6th. Here's the midday news from Sean Carlson. The NYPD is investigating after a driver going the wrong way, fatally struck a woman crossing a West Village street today. Police say the 27-year-old was walking south on 7th Avenue at about 8.30 this morning when the driver hit her with his van. The woman was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Police have yet to identify her while they work to notify her family.

Officials say the driver stayed at the scene and hasn't been arrested or charged with a crime. Some airlines are offering refunds to anyone wishing to cancel their flights during the Federal Aviation Administration's flight reduction period, which could affect all major New York airports. The FAA says it will reduce air traffic by 10% at many busy airports to keep the nation's airspace safe during the shutdown. United Airlines and Delta are two of the airlines offering refunds. You should check with your airline to see if they're also offering free cancellations or refunds. The department is set to release a list today of exactly which airports will be affected during the reduction period. New York City's Department of Records is holding a book sale tomorrow and Saturday.

WMIC's Amanda Roseone has more. It's every bookworm and history bus dream. The city's municipal archives and library says the sale includes hundreds of books on topics from history and politics to art and theater. Some books on offer include titles like 1899. nooks and corners of old New York, and yesterday's on Brooklyn Heights, published in 1927. The library says most of the books on sale are either duplicates or not relevant to the department's mission anymore. The sale runs from 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon at the surrogate's courthouse atrium on Chamber Street in Lower Manhattan.

It's a little brisk out there, 53 degrees right now, windy, but the wind's going to die down through the day. It's going to be chilly tonight, temperatures in the upper 30s. On WN. Macya Michael Hill, two candidates in Jersey City's raised for mayor. We'll now head to a runoff election next month after no candidate received the majority to vote on election day this past Tuesday. Rai Ravard is a reporter for Politico, and he joins us. Now, hi, Ryan. Good morning. Remind us again who the candidates for Jersey City mayor are in this runoff? Well, now it's down to former governor Jim McGreevy and a city council member James Solomon. McGreevy entered this race really early and had a lot of name recognition, but, you know, really failed to seal the deal and came in second, so they had to a runoff.

It was a crowded field. And he's running against James Solomon. Now, McGreevy, 21 years ago this month, left the governorship in a scandal there. Tell us a little bit more about that. Some of his, as someone calling his baggage. Yeah, he had a number of scandals. The one that got him in a lot of trouble was. He's remembered for this speech where he talked about being a gay American,

but he had also hired essentially his lover to be on the state payroll. And that didn't sort of go over well. And he's been on a sort of second chances journey. He went to seminary. He started a kind of a rehab program. And I think he thought he could come back into this race and, you know, capture the vote. And he really, you know, like Andrew Cuomo in New York, was a governor who voters didn't seem to go for quite yet.

He obviously has a chance to win, but, you know, I think it's going to be hard coming in second in a rematch. Now, James Solomon is also in this race. So how does this runoff work? What can voters expect on December 2nd? They show up and vote for the two candidates who couldn't get over 50% on this week's election day. And then the winner of that becomes the next mayor of Jersey City, as some people say, New York City's sixth borough. It looks like in some parts of the city there. Voters were already asked to turn out in the primary.

And then again on Tuesday, right, for this general election, is there any concern that asked him to come back a third time might decrease the amount of people who show up? So this week was the first time that Jersey City voters had voted for May. this year. It was a nonpartisan, kind of like a general election. There wasn't a primary for mayor. There was no primary for mayor. Obviously, voters had a primary for other things, but a Jersey city voter didn't have a mayor or all primary. And that's why there was such a crowded field, and it was hard for any of those people to sort of get over 50%. So it gives everybody sort of, you know, another starting position. McGreevy can make his case against Solomon, can make his case again. And I think Solomon, you know, was really talking about some of McGreevy's baggage.

McGreevy was talking about, you know, he was a young, kind of loved governor until all these things happened. And he sort of went into his wilderness years. What issues have been bringing Jersey Sea residents to the polls? What are they voting for? What are the issues? Housing costs. It's just like New York City. It's just like anybody listening to any radio station across the country.

It's the cost of living. And in Jersey City, a lot of the housing costs are driven by the New York City housing costs. So they're going up in a place where a lot of people have moved, you know, New Jersey to sort of lower their costs. And in Jersey City, it's very expensive. You know, I don't know that it's expensive as New York City, but it's getting quite comparable. And that's become a major issue. It certainly has. And it's on the ballot there on December.

We said December 2nd it is, or December 3rd in Jersey City? early December. Second it is. Yeah, early December. All right, Rai Revard with us. He's a senior reporter for political right. Thank you for this. Thank you for having me.

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