NYC NOW - November 8, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

Police say they’re looking for an individual who fired a single shot during an alleged robbery Tuesday night in Midtown Manhattan. Also, this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree starts its slow journey from the Binghamton area to New York City Thursday morning. Finally, we sift through the results of Tuesday's election in New York City. WNYC’s Senior Politics Reporter Brigid Bergin shares the key takeaways.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, November 8th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Police say they're looking for an onlooker who fired a single shot last night during the alleged robbery in a Manhattan subway station. It happened around 915 on the northbound end train platform at the 49th Street station in Midtown. Police say 49-year-old Matthew Rausch was trying to rob a 40-year-old woman when the onlooker got involved firing the shot.

Officials say it's unclear if the onlooker was aiming at anyone or simply trying to stop the robbery. This year's Rockefeller Christmas Tree will start its slow journey down to New York City tomorrow. A crew in the Binghamton region will cut down the 12-ton Norway spruce and then hoisted onto a massive trailer. Over the weekend, the tree will arrive to Midtown, on a flatbed truck before it takes its place at Rockefeller Center. 48 and mostly sunny now. Mostly sunny today in a high of 50, cool and breezy, and then tomorrow back up to the mid-60s,

and Friday to the mid-50s, and then this weekend's looking good. Rain-free, sunny, and low and cool temperatures. Right now, 48, mostly sunny. New York City voters trickled to the polls yesterday in a somewhat sleepy election season, dominated by just a handful of competitive races. While all 51 city council seats were on the ballot, many were not very competitive, and turnout, as a result, was light, but there was one big surprise from the Bronx.

WNIC's senior politics reporter Bridget Bergen joins us to make sense of what happened last night and some key takeaways. In a non-presidential election year, voter turnout takes a pretty big hit, as we know. This year, there was no big ticket office at the top of the ballot. You said turnout was going to be light. How light was it? Well, Michael, if this election was a boxer, I would call it a featherweight. We don't have a final number for turnout from the Board of Elections this morning yet, but based on updates that we were getting throughout the day,

the number of people who voted in those statewide ballot initiatives, it looks like the turnout should be just above 11% or upwards of 557,000 ballots. That number will probably go up for all those people who forgot to turn their ballots over. But that includes voters who participated in early voting election day and roughly 30,000 absentee ballots that have been returned and scanned so far. We have been talking about a big news out of the Bronx. Tell us what happened there last night. Yeah, this is big news. In what I think most people will consider a bit of a surprise, Republican Christy Marmarado declared

victory against the incumbent Democrat Marjorie Velasquez. She was leading by nearly six points or about 721 votes in her victory statement. Mamarado notes that she is the first Republican to be elected to the council in the Bronx in 50 years. And she is also the first Republican to win any seat in the Bronx at about two decades. We're talking since state Senator Guy Vallele, resigned in 2004 as part of a plea deal for a series of criminal charges. So big sea change potentially happening there. Marmarado is the sister of the Bronx Chiopi Chair Mike Rendino. She is married to the Bronx Republican Elections Commissioner. Her background is in health care, but she told the Bronx Times that she became more civically engaged over a fight for a facility in the district

that was planned that was going to house people formerly at Rikers with some medical needs. This is a little clip of her speaking with reporters at her victory party in the Bronx last night. I am honored. I am honored to represent the Republican Party, the conservative party, and I'm honored to represent the people of District 13. Now, it's something interesting she said there, Michael, she said the Republican Party, the conservative party, I'll note she was on both ballot lines, and it's actually the votes on the conservative ballot line that may have really tipped her over. We have not yet heard a concession from for Lasquez, but we will be watching for that as the day rolls down. Thanks to the redistricting process, it happens, as we know, every decade.

Two incumbent council members faced off against each other. That was rare to represent South Brooklyn's 47th district. Who lost their job last night? Well, that would be Republican Ari Kagan, who will not be serving after the end of this year. He was defeated by Democrat Justin Brannon by nearly 17 points. in this case, that was about 3,200 votes. And to say this race was contentious in the final days is being polite. Things here in this Bay Ridge to Coney Island district turned downright ugly in the final days of the race

with the head of the Kings County Democrats, Assembly member Rodney Spachat-Hermelin, issuing multiple statements attacking Brannon, the Democrat over a bullying allegation from several years ago related to a formal counsel staff. Hold on, Bridget, hold on. a Democrat attacked another Democrat in this race? I mean, Michael, this is what makes this politics in New York City so interesting. Things there got very, very strange. And because of that, it seemed to energize a lot of the Democrats who were frustrated with the county leader to come out for Brandon and to campaign and support him.

And here's what he said at his victory party last night. Tonight is really a victory for the end of divide and conquer politics in neighborhoods that really need some representation and neighborhoods where the politicians often try to keep their constituents in the dark so they don't realize they're just getting fed some crumbs. Tonight we're here to say we're going to bring the full loaf. All right, bringing the full loaf, the full bread back to Brooklyn. Now, we've talked about this before, Michael, but remember, Kagan. who did concede last night, was elected as a Democrat. So he did have some ties to the county party and the county establishment ahead of becoming a Republican, which he did last year,

and he ran as the Republican in this race. He did say that he was not done with public service, so I think there's a chance we may see Kagan running for another office again in the future. Bridget, what about the open seat for the new Agent Opportunity District in Brooklyn? Right. So that was the district created through the redistricting process that was an open seat, includes portions of Bensonhurst, Graveson, Diker Heights, Sunset Park, and Borough Park. In that district, Democrat Susan Zwang, beat Republican in Yingten, her closest competitor by more than 32 points.

It's a strong victory for Zwang, who is currently the chief of staff or a local assembly member, William Colton. But this is going to be a moderate district. She is a moderate Democrat. She was backed by the Police Benevolent Association, the Police Officers Union, some other moderate members of the council. This was also an incredibly low turnout district. She was elected with fewer than 5,000 votes, which is very, very low turnout. And I think it will be interesting to see what part of the council she is really caucusing with. To what extent she is with more moderate Democrats or, you know, if there are,

issues that she aligns herself with among some of the Democrats who are considered more progressive. Bridget, just 30 seconds left. Is there anything you're gleaning from these results that may apply to House of Representatives elections next year with the mayor's race in 2025? Well, over in Council District 19, incumbent Republican, Vicki Palladino held onto her seat in Queens. There's also huge turnout in that district. That overlaps with the third congressional district. That is where George Santos represents. While he's facing a lot of hot water, those 23 criminal charges, I think it's a sign that there's an appetite for a hard rate candidate in that part of Queens, so that race will be competitive in the 2024 election. All right, that's our Bridget Bergen,

up with us early once again, talking about the elections last night, Bridget, great job, as usual. Thank you. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. 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 podcasts. We'll be back this evening.