WNYC News

Word From the Curb is a series of live broadcasts this election season where WNYC's All Things Considered is out in communities across the city to ask New Yorkers what they want to see in their next mayor. 

This week we were in Southeast Queens and talked with Councilmember Nantasha Williams, who represents City Council district 27, which includes parts of St. Albans, Hollis, Jamaica and more.

Also joining us is a legend of New York City hip hop -- Ralph McDaniels was co-creator of the seminal TV show Video Music Box, which debuted on WNYC TV. The show featured interviews with many people who would become titans of the genre. Daniels has lived in Southeast Queens for decades and is now the hip hop coordinator at the Queens Library. 

Both the councilmember and Mr. McDaniels talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson about how the neighborhood has changed, where it’s going, and what the next mayor of New York City can do for the community.

Word From the Curb is a series of live broadcasts this election season where WNYC's All Things Considered is out in communities across the city to ask New Yorkers what they want to see in their next mayor. 

This week we were in Southeast Queens and talked with two people who have spent much of their careers in advocacy focused on issues critical to the health of the community. 

William Scarborough is president of Southeast Queens Residents Environmental Justice Coalition. He has focused on issues like groundwater flooding, which has been afflicting southeast Queens residents for decades. 

Jermaine Sean Smith is the executive director of the Southern Queens Park Association. He’s working on the preservation of green space for the community.

In this week's On The Way roundup of New York City transit news the team digs into the mailbag and fields questions from our dear readers and listeners. 

This week's Politics Brief roundup of New York City news features an analysis of Board of Elections data and the latest on the arrest of mayoral hopeful Brad Lander.

A bill passed by the New York City Council would require the parks department to install at least 50 new outdoor drinking fountains near park entrances by 2035. That would add to the already thousands of water fountains around the city maintained by the parks department, many of which are in disrepair. The bill now awaits the mayor's signature.

Manhattan Councilmember Gale Brewer, who sponsored the bill, and Merritt Birnbaum, president and CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy, joined WNYC host Michael Hill to discuss the need for water fountains. 

In 2023, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice established a reparations council made up of scholars, researchers and advocates to study how to begin to repair the harm of slavery. 

Ryan Haygood, president and CEO of NJISJ, joined WNYC host Michael Hill to preview the findings of a two year study on how to compensate Black New Jerseyans impacted by the legacy of slavery in the state.

WNYC's All Things Considered was in Southeast Queens this week for our series of live broadcasts this election season we're calling Word From The Curb.  

We've been engaging with communities across New York City to ask people what’s important to them and what they want to see in city leadership.  

And this part of Queens is a really interesting place to be asking that question because so many of the candidates are either from here or rely on the support of its voters to sustain them politically.

Like former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who grew up in Holliswood. Mayor Eric Adams and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams --  two mayoral candidates -- also derive a lot of their political support from Southeast Queens. 

WNYC producers Elizabeth Shwe and Jodi Malarbe [muh-larb] went to Southeast Queens and talked with Jamaica and Hollis locals about what matters to them this election year.

A health insurance card, a 10-speed mountain bike, a blue men’s jacket and a microwave are among the few belongings stored by New York City officials this year after they cleared homeless people from street encampments.

The city is supposed to offer people the chance to store their personal items for 90 days. But a City Hall spokesperson said workers stored people’s belongings just 13 times between January and the end of May this year. The city would typically have conducted several hundred sweeps in that time.

“ That's a shocking number that should raise a lot of red flags,” said Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless. “There are so many people that the city is sweeping.”

The Adams administration said it was still finalizing counts of how many sweeps it conducted from January to May of this year, which it must disclose quarterly as required under a new law. But over the same period in 2024, it conducted an average of 200 sweeps per month.

Gothamist obtained records through a Freedom of Information law request showing the list of items stored when city workers fill out a “cleanup site voucher” during a sweep.

Homeless advocates say the low number of vouchers underscores the fact that most people’s things are often thrown in the trash. They say it demonstrates how destabilizing sweeps are to homeless people who can lose identification cards, personal mementos, clothing and other items. It comes as the street homeless population increased to 4,100 last year and as more New Yorkers who aren’t migrants are entering the shelter system.

 said, there is no dignity in living on the street and we have a moral obligation to help our fellow New Yorkers rather than walk by them and do nothing,” City Hall spokesperson William Fowler said. “In most cases, people choose to take their belongings with them and only leave behind what they do not wish to keep.”

Over the last couple of months, food writer Robert Sietsema has been visiting some of the most overlooked dining destinations in New York City. Ironically, they're hidden in some of the city's most-visited neighborhoods. This time, he joins Weekend Edition host David Furst to talk about one of the absolute centers of travel, tourism and entertainment: Times Square.

Testy exchanges between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani hinted at a two-man contest in the final stretch toward the June 24 primary. Cuomo, the former governor, is the frontrunner in the race, according to most polls. Mamdani, an Assemblymember from Queens, is in second place.