Winner of Vol. 71, No. 21
What’s inside?
Diverse thoughts
the Pulitzer Prize
Thursday, July 2, 2020
$1.00
Budget deal struck, but $1B less for NYPD As coronavirus continues to plague businesses, city council and mayor will be forced to use more of their red pens
By ANTHONY CAPOTE of the Riverdale Press
In the 12 days leading up to July 1, when the new budget fiscal year was slated to begin in New York City, a crowd of protesters occupied City Hall Park on Centre Street in Manhattan in an effort to pressure the city council and Mayor Bill de Blasio to defund the New York Police Department. The crowd, which swelled
each day to more than 1,000 at various points, demanded city government cut at least $1 billion from the police budget, and reinvest that money into social programs, education, and improvements to public housing. It’s all part of the nationwide protests and demonstrations centered around police brutality as well as some radical efforts in other cities, like Minneapolis, whose city council voted unanimously June 26 to abolish its po-
lice department and explore new public safety methods. In New York, activists have zeroed in on the city’s budget negotiations, already rocked with massive shortfalls as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The economic impact of the public health crisis has forced de Blasio to completely rethink his proposed executive budget from January, which anticipated revenue of roughly $96 billion. In May, however, the mayor had
to rethink that budget, working instead with about $87 billion — leading to the need for drastic cuts to nearly every city department. But activists from VOCAL-NY — the group that organized the Occupy City Hall protests — say there is no reason for the city to cut funding from education or parks, when the city has spent all of June near the center of a national moment wherein AmeriBUDGET, page A4
A trial run for November
As the county undergoes a racial reckoning, questions are raised whether this community does enough. Page A3
Primary might be over, but absentee vote issues are just beginning By KIRSTYN BRENDLEN kbrendlen@riverdalepress.com
Farm to street More produce could find its way to Clinton High School as new farmer’s market gears up for August. Page A6
KiRStYn BRendLen
eitan weinsteiner and Lenny Faiwiszewski, both volunteering for U.S. Rep. eliot engel, set up shop on Johnson Avenue for the primary election on June 23. College students who live in Riverdale, the two said engel had a long history of doing good for the district, and said they had talked to many engel supporters throughout the day.
Voters, volunteers, absentee ballots ... oh my! By KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
Seasons of love Virus forces young theatre group to think outside the box on how it can bring ‘Rent’ to life — by looking outside. Page A10
kbrendlen@riverdalepress.com
The months and weeks leading up to New York’s Democratic primaries were filled with twists and turns as state officials struggled to find balance between keeping New Yorkers safe from the coronavirus pandemic and not hampering turnout in a critical summer political event. Voters held on tight as elections were rescheduled, canceled and reinstated, and as a huge push for more absentee ballots creating a mountain of applications for officials to sort through. For those living in parts of the Bronx and Westchester County covered by New York’s 16th Congressional District, there was another twist. In the weeks before the primary, the race between 31-year incumbent Eliot Engel and insurgent challenger
‘I kind of shot myself in the foot, because I can’t vote — Alara Jennings this time.’ Jamaal Bowman started to heat up, and news outlets across the country took notice. While all eyes may have been on the race between Engel and Bowman, voters in the district were a little more concerned about getting their ballots counted. Dozens took to social media complaining they never received the absentee ballots they applied for, or that they did get them — except on primary day itself — a widespread issue that prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo to allow ballots postmarked by the June 23 to be counted.
Gray and Alara Jennings shared some of the bumps in the road they hit while trying to cast their ballots as they made their way out of their polling place at P.S. 207 on Godwin Terrace. “I had my absentee ballot sent to our house,” Gray said. “I should have had it in the mail two days ago — or Saturday, I guess — but I didn’t have it in the mail. I called this morning, and they said I could potentially just drop it off with the coordinator at the polling site. And so that’s what I did, and that went smoothly.” Alara had picked up information about changing her party affiliation, she said, because she was a registered with the Women’s Equality Party. Alara registered with WEP, she said, because she recognized some candidates running on their ticket, and liked the freedom of not being regisPRIMARY DAY, page A4
Primary election night is notoriously exciting — a late night for candidates to pile into local bars and party with volunteers and campaign workers until the wee hours while supporters stare at their television screens awaiting results. This year, New York’s primary election night looked a little different. Many campaigns didn’t have events at all, and even for those who did, the night ended early — and without conclusion — mostly for one reason: There were still thousands of absentee ballots to be counted, and most wouldn’t even be returned to the elections board until days later. eRiC The elections board dinowitz claimed it sent out seven times as many absentee ballots as usual, including roughly 25,000 just in the Bronx portion of New York’s 16th Congressional District, which had a nationally publicized primary race involving longtime congressman Eliot Engel. That meant the race between Engel and his frontrunning challenger — Jamaal Bowman — still hasn’t been called, although Bowman — with a comfortable lead over Engel — declared victory the day after the primary. From the initial tally of early voters and those who visited a polling place that day, Bowman had won about 61 percent of votes, and that number has remained mostly steady as votes streamed in. “There are a lot of places in the country where it is always the case where anyone can vote by mail, but New York is not one of those places,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, senior counsel for the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “And so shifting from a place where a very small percentage of people were even allowed to vote by mail, to not only having everyone be able to, but having a large percentage of people take advantage of that opportunity, I’m sure was quite a challenge.” ABSENTEE, page A4
Keeping neighborhood together a pic at a time By RAPHAEL LASSAUZE rlassauze@riverdalepress.com
M
om and pop shops are the lifeblood of tight-knit communities. Riverdale Avenue, Broadway, West 231st Street and Johnson Avenue are among the many centers of social interaction in the area, and a place where one can always find a familiar face. Seeing old friends at the counter buying a breakfast bagel, or waving at new acquaintances from across the restaurant’s dining room on a Friday evening, all before greeting the owner, who’s stepped out just to say hello to you and your family, and to ask how your neighbors are. Photographers Hedva and Dan
Zeevi didn’t know what to do, nor how to help as they watched the restaurants and diners, cafes and independent music studios and tutors shutter their stores and spaces as the coronavirus pandemic ramped up last March. “We’re a small business too,” Hedva said. “As photographers, we do a lot of weddings, bar mitzvahs, so on. All of that was canceled or moved. We are so grateful to the people of the community that stuck with us, and we understand losing jobs due to this as well.” Despite sincerity and mutual sufCourtesy of hedvAndan Photography fering, hedvANDan Photography, the Musician and teacher Mordy weinstein plays the guitar for the Bring Back, Give Back Project, couple’s co-owned studio, has struggled financially, according to Hedva. a series of photographic profiles of individuals and local businesses who may be struggling PICTURES, page A4 during the coronavirus pandemic.
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