In our first segment, we speak to State Senator Kristen Gonzalez who is a former tech worker, a democratic socialist, the youngest member of the New York State Senate and she chairs its Internet and Technology Committee. Since first being elected in 2022, she has championed legislation to rein in the excesses of Big Tech companies. In June, she played a key role in shepherding data center moratorium legislation through the Senate and was present when Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order last week for a one-year data center moratorium, the first of its kind in the United States. In this interview, we discussed the moratorium and the many questions it raises.
In our second segment we speak to longtime Indy contributor, Theodore Hamm about NYC's Public Pools. In the summer of 1936, New York City opened 11 large outdoor swimming pools across the city that each could hold upwards of 1,000 bathers. It was the height of the New Deal with ambitious public works projects being carried out across the country. FDR’s administration provided the resources and here in New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia got the job done. Ninety years later, these pools still serve NYC’s working class well and are being celebrated by the Mamdani administration.