WNYC News

Fall is just around the corner. You can feel it in the air, and you can see it at your local market. Amelia Tarpey is a program and publicity manger for GrowNYC Greenmarkets. This week on "In Season," she said it's time to get excited for grape season. Grapes can be found in season year round depending on the variety. But in New York, peak grape season runs from late summer through fall. At city Greenmarkets, most grapes are priced at around $9 a pint to around $12 a quart. People can also find vinegars and wines from the Finger Lakes region.

This weekend, Brooklyn's Prospect Park is hosting a celebration of Lenape life and culture with the Second United Lenape/Lŭnaapeew Nations Pow Wow.

Brent Stonefish is a co-founder of the Éenda-Lŭnaapeewáhkiing Collective. They're partnering with the Prospect Park Alliance and the American Indian Community House to put the event on.  Stonefish spoke with WNYC's Morning Edition host Michael Hill about what to expect, who he hopes to see there, and what not to miss.

The Pow Wow runs September 13 and 14, and is free and open to the public. 

Manhattan’s Chinatown was just blocks away from the World Trade Center when the twin towers fell on September 11th 2001.  

In the months and years following the attacks, Chinatown’s communities dealt with declining tourism, business closures and health concerns.  

Margaret Chin is a sociology professor at Hunter College. Jacob Chin is a retired FDNY lieutenant who worked from a Chinatown fire house. They were both born and raised in New York City. They are unrelated. Both talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson more about how 9/11 affected Chinatown and still does to this day.

A warning - This segment contains descriptions that some may find disturbing.

New polling shows Zohran Mamdani with a significant lead in the upcoming general election for New York City mayor. That and more in this week's Politics Brief. 

Farmstands across New York City are starting to phase out summer produce to make way for the fall harvest, so you may be searching for what to do with all the eggplant, green beans and summer squash the markets have left.

This Friday at the Union Square Greenmarket, GrowNYC is hosting a free fermentation fest for the ins and outs of preserving foods for a new season.  

Sandor Katz is a James Beard Award-winning author, educator and a so-called "fermentation revivalist." Zaid Kurdieh co-owns Norwich Meadows Farm with his wife Haifa in upstate New York, which provides a lot of the fruits and vegetables that can be found at New York City farmstands. They joined WNYC host Michael Hill to preview Fermentation Fest. 

A top federal prosecutor had a message for upstate New York businesses days after immigration agents detained dozens of people at a food processing plant: There’s more to come.

WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk regularly partners with the nonprofit Street Lab to highlight stories from neighborhoods across New York City. We recently stationed ourselves on 109th Avenue in South Jamaica, Queens. Here's some of what we heard.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Nicholas Haskins: "I'm 70 years old and I'm a senior here in Jamaica, Queens, New York. It's so nice that someone is doing things for the children, that they can come out and play, learn things instead of being boxed in. But there's something that needs to be made more different for the seniors.

The seniors don't come out like they should. I come out practically every day, and I have a few friends they come out. But I know there's plenty of other seniors that don't have the advantage or the luxury to do so. And I wonder about them, and I worry about them because I see some of them get in the cars to go to the doctor, come back, go right up. Is that all they have left? 

So, you know, for the future. I hope to see more of seniors and people and children out enjoying their lives 'cause when you come out and anticipate with your neighbors and your friends, everything gets better."

Aisha Ford: "I am from East New York, Brooklyn. I am at a unity event in South Side Jamaica, Queens to support the children here in the neighborhood. They have different activities over here for them to do every summer I come and I help or do as much as I can. Sometime I donate to them as well, you know, I love to give back.

 I'm looking into doing something similar myself, but more towards teens because I find that a lot of teens cry out for help in the wrong areas. I have two teen boys as well, and I do things with them, but other parents, they, for whatever reason, they can't. There's not enough centers open and everything is costly. Not everyone can afford it, and I just wanted to give them opportunities to know that there's more out there than what they're doing right now."

Kamla Sandiford: "I am a 60-year-old educator. And I'm out here in South Side Jamaica. I've been an educator for 29 years. I live in the community now. I live in Jamaica, Queens. So this is dear to my heart. I grew up in Brooklyn in a, in a poor community, but the parents and the educators made a difference for me, and so that's why I always feel like it's not where you're at, it's what you do with what you get."

Kenny Macklemore: "I'm currently the president of Family Union in our Community, which operates out of South Jamaica, Queens. We started back in 2014 as a mentoring program, which I ran out of here in South Jamaica. In 2021 I decided to get my own organization where I felt that I was able to do more.

Family Unity in our Community is about connectivity to the community. We have after school program day camps and activities that we provide fun and games, educational games. We take them on field trip as well. I am 67 years old and I would like to get the organization to a point where I can sit back and admire it.

I hope to get each individual educated on how to grow in your community and, and take it to another level and bring up another youngster and teach them the same way they were being taught."

 Shakespeare in the Park wraps up for the season this weekend [final performances Sunday]. That means the line that snakes around Central Park the morning before each show is also coming to an end. 

For the eclectic mix of New Yorkers and tourists hoping to score tickets…the suspenseful wait is half the fun. WNYC’s Samantha Max reports.

New York City is struggling to keep enough ambulance workers on the streets, and that’s impacting how long New Yorkers have to wait to get emergency medical attention when they call 911.

Turnover is hitting record highs, and it comes as EMS workers are going on their third year without a contract. That's according to Anthony Almojera, an FDNY EMS lieutenant and the vice president of the FDNY EMS officers union. He talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson more about what EMS workers are going through.

While school bus companies can be penalized for persistently getting kids to school late, the education department relies on those companies to self-report delays and other issues. The result, a Gothamist analysis found, is that city officials do not have accurate figures on the extent of school bus delays that cut into students’ instructional time and create a constant source of stress for them and their families.