NYC NOW - November 6, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

Hoboken voters rejected a ballot measure to make it easier for landlords to convert rent-controlled apartments to market rate units. Meanwhile, New York State high schools may no longer require students to pass Regents exams to graduate, under a new proposal from the state’s Department of Education. Finally, WNYC’s Janae Pierre speaks with reporter Brigid Bergin about the too-close-to-call House race in New York’s 4th Congressional District on Long Island, between Republican incumbent Anthony D’Esposito and Democrat Laura Gillen.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, November 6th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. By a 3-1 margin, hoboken voters have rejected a ballot measure to make it easier for landlords to turn rent-controlled dwellings into market rate apartments. The change would have allowed landlords to raise rents to market rate by making a $2,500 payment to the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund. New York State high schools may no longer require student pass regents' exams to graduate under a new plan proposed by the state's Department of Education. It won't happen right away, as the State Board of Regents still has to vote, but it's expected

the exams would be phased out by the 2027, 28 school year. The standard has been in place in some form for more than a century. School officials are expected to roll out other ways for students to demonstrate their proficiency before graduation. 74 with sunshine now increasing clouds, a high of 77 today and gusty. Tomorrow, clouds give way to sunshine, a high near 74, breezy once again. Friday we cool off to the mid-60s. Stay close. There's more after the break. For WMYC, I'm Jene Pierre.

As you've been hearing, Republican Donald Trump is headed back to the the White House. However, there wasn't a whole lot of drama about how this region would vote in the presidential race this year. As expected, voters in New York and New Jersey came out for Democrat Kamala Harris. But one race is still awaiting results. WMYC's Bridget Bergen has been following the election very closely. She joins me now for a quick update on that too close to call race on Long Island. So Bridget, let's talk about New York's fourth congressional district. That's the race between Republican Representative Anthony Di Esposito and Democrat Laura Gillen. So right now, Laura Gillen holds a lead over Di Esposito in that race.

But it was interesting last night. Di Esposito and the Nassau County Republicans gave their speeches on the earlier side and talked about how essentially the race was too close to call. DiS. Bezito said he was going to go to the mat for this district. and that he was hopeful that the results would show that they were going to hold on to this seat. That, you know, kind of threw a little bit of a chill into the Nassau County Democratic Party. That's where I was, where Laura Gillen's campaign was gathered. And it wasn't until about midnight that the Nassau and State Democratic County chairman, J. Jacobs, went to the podium,

called everybody into the room, gave some thank yous, and then victory speeches started. They began with Representative Tom Swazi, who's in the neighboring third congressional district, who won his seat. It was called by the AP. And then they called Laura Gillen to the podium, who also came up, and she declared victory. She thanked everyone. She said she's excited to represent New York four, name-checked all of our campaign members. But, you know, it's interesting because At this point, the Associated Press has not yet called the race. It's about a 6,000 vote margin. And Bridget, there's a number of mail ballots that still need to be counted, right?

That's right. And so we know that ballots that are postmarked as of election day that come in by next Tuesday are ballots that are valid and should be counted. And there are still additional mail ballots that were received over the weekend that aren't part of the tally that we saw last night. Still, it's not an insignificant margin for di Esposito to have to close and then surpass Gillen to win the seat. The Democrats were very confident. We know that both campaigns will have their lawyers there watching closely as this counting and canvancing takes place. And, you know, we'll be waiting to see if there is a call on this race anytime soon. Yeah, we'll be waiting as well.

I want to turn now to the presidential race. Kamala Harris beat former President Trump in New York State by more than 10 percentage points. Now, that's a smaller margin than President Biden received back in 2020. Talk about where we're seeing electoral shifts, Bridget. Well, we have been seeing different parts of the state shift more to the right. And, you know, we started this conversation talking about Long Island. It's a great place to look at as an example. Out in Nassau County, President Biden won a place like the 4th Congressional District by

about 15 points in 2020. You know, just two years later, when there was a gubernatorial race with, you know, former Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldon at the top of the ticket, Republicans actually won the district by about six points. And now again, as we are in a presidential election year, it's looking like, based on exit polls from NBC, that, again, Republicans continue to be putting up some numbers and that that district went to Trump by a smaller margin, but it's a real sign that, you know, there is a shift on the ground there. And it's something that both parties, you know, will have to adapt and, you know,

figure out how to move forward through. That's WMYC's Bridget Bergen. Thanks so much, Bridget. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every week. date three times a date for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.