NYC NOW - November 9, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

What's at stake in the closely-watched East Bronx City Council race, where incumbent Democrat Marjorie Velázquez trails Republican challenger Kristy Marmorato by more than 700 votes. Meanwhile, ex-New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey declares a 2025 run for mayor of Jersey City. Authorities in New Jersey are searching for a man who allegedly took part in the January 6th riot. Finally, Bronx-based Citymeals on Wheels reevaluates its meal delivery service for the elderly amid a growing number of weather emergencies in the city.

Welcome to NYC now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, November 9th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. A disputed rezoning plan turned into a central issue in a city council race in the East Bronx, where Democratic incumbent Marjorie Velasquez trails her Republican challenger Christi Marmarado by more than 700 votes. WNIC's Ramsey Caliphate reports. Some residents in Throgs Neck say they decided to vote against Velasquez

after she approved a plan to build affordable housing on a stretch of Bruckner Boulevard. Michael Lopiano says he thinks affordable housing could bring more crime to the area. It's always been a commercial area over here. It's been safe the way it is and with the housing like that, we don't know if it's going to stay safe.

Marmarado made the rezoning a central piece of her campaign. She declared victory in the race, but the results aren't final until, mail-in and absentee balance are counted. Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevy is asking voters for a second chance at elected office. McGreevy led the stay for two years. He resigned after threats of a lawsuit from the man with whom he had an extramarital affair. Now he's running from Mayor of Jersey City in 2025.

Law enforcers are searching the woods and beyond in New Jersey for man wanted for his alleged role and the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol. The search includes the FBI, police in Jamesburg and Middlesex County for Gregory Yetman of Helmeta. The New York Times reports the pursuit started when authorities tried to arrest Yetman at home yesterday, and he ran into the woods. Police say anyone with information about Yetman's whereabouts should call the New York FBI's office. 55 and cloudy now, slim chance of showers, partly sunny and 61 for a high today. It's WNMIC.

The 40-year-old organization City Meals on Wheels is rethinking how it provides food to older New Yorkers. Ahead of the winter months, the nonprofit has always sent out thousands of emergency meal kits to homebound seniors across the city in case a snowstorm disrupts their regular food deliveries. But in light of a changing climate and more frequent emergencies, the charity says it has to adapt. WNIC's Caroline Lewis visited City Meals 25. thousand square foot warehouse in the Bronx to see how the emergency kits get made. Inside this massive space, I'm surrounded by heavy machinery and stacks and stacks of carefully organized boxes. 15,000 to 20,000 meals go out from this facility each week. We have different

sources of proteins, entree options, everything that's ready to eat. We have veggie cups, fruit cups, gran rice. Program director, Liz Cantillo, is giving me a tour. So it's where we have our assembly line and all the packing gets done. Workers fill boxes with powdered milk, snacks, and trays of food that can be microwaved or eaten as is. Each box is topped off with a poem. Cantillo explains that City Meals fills in the gap for the 14 Meals on Wheels programs serving homebound seniors across the five boroughs.

Those partners deliver hot meals five days a week, and City Meals provides food for weekends, holidays, and emergencies. City Meals used to give out emergency boxes to seniors once a year in late fall to prepare them for any disruptions in food delivery caused by bad winter weather. But starting last year, City Meals sent out four seasonal boxes in an effort to make sure seniors were prepared for a wider range of potential disasters. This year, because of logistics, they'll be sending out two bigger packages instead. We can have emergencies in the summer, heat waves that are happening, power outages.

We want to make sure that our recipient, to have food on hand throughout the entire year. It may seem like a small change, but this is one way that city meals is adapting to forces like climate change and COVID. It's something other senior service providers are thinking about, too. We need to be more person-centered with our approach to how we deliver these meals and how we interact with our clients and the questions that we ask.

Tanya Koyazo is the director of nutrition at JASA, one of the city's largest senior service providers. It also runs meal delivery programs. in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Kuyazzo says the pandemic taught them how they can better prepare for the next emergency. For starters, the questionnaire for Meals-on-Wills clients has gotten longer.

Instead of just asking people what foods they like best, clients are now asked detailed questions about what they might need in different emergencies that might include a flood or an extended power outage. They're also asked whether they have family nearby. They don't mind answering the questions. They like talking about this with us, but for us, it's an investigation to improve our services, to make clients safer.

Koyazo says Jasa has also beefed up its training for delivery drivers, to teach them how to recognize issues their clients might be facing. Good morning, Mama. How are you doing today? Okay, handy then. Omi Perez delivers meals to seniors in Harlem through a program operated out-of-union settlement. I recently tagged along with him on a few deliveries, including one for Jacqueline Lopez. I like to cook, but ever since I got sick, I can't cook anymore.

I can't stand on my feet for long. Lopez is vibrant in an electric blue shirt and matching cap. But she says she was diagnosed with cancer in her liver a few years ago and had to get a transplant. Lopez is grateful for city meals, but has some feedback. Tasteless. I don't like the taste. You know, they need to put some salsa in there, you know, some Puerto Rican, you know. some Puerto Rican ingredients. Still, Lopez says she eats the meals because she knows they're nutritious.

Good morning. At the next stop on Perez's route, we meet 79-year-old Socorro Ramirez. She says she craves just one thing. I was always asking if I could get a banana. Never, never gave me banana. So I had a young girl, and she will give me a banana out of her own. This is a newer stop for Perez, and the pressure is on. I said, I might have to bring you a whole dozen of bananas then.

And this one said, we apple, apple, apple, pear, pear, pear. Perez says he has never missed a delivery. But if anything comes up, City Meals says there are 60,000 shelf-stable food kits ready to go at the warehouse just in case. Caroline Lewis, WNYC News. 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.