One Month Later, Election Results Are Official (Sort Of…)
Yuh-Line Niou
Slightly more than a month after the contested primary for the Democratic Party nomination to represent Lower Manhattan in the State Assembly, something resembling a final result is available.
On Wednesday, incumbent Yuh-Line Niou and challenger Grace Lee both issued statements acknowledging that the preliminary result from the June 23 primary would not be changed by the prolonged counting of an unusually large number of votes that were not cast at polling places.
Of all the 7,214 ballots cast in person on June 23, according to the City’s Board of Elections, Ms. Niou garnered 4,440 (or slightly more than 61 percent of the total), while Ms. Lee took 2,741 (or 38 percent). But for several weeks, neither candidate declared victory or conceded defeat, because this year’s contest also included many thousands of absentee and mail-in ballots, which were made available as a precautionary measure to help stem the spread of the pandemic coronavirus.
“We have widened our margins and decisively won this primary election,” Ms. Niou said on Wednesday, adding that, “I am so proud to be fighting for working families in the Assembly, and I am ready to continue delivering for Lower Manhattan. As we confront incredible challenges, it is imperative that we keep standing up for equality and demanding a just recovery that prioritizes everyone rather than the personal profits of a few. With each passing day, those with extraordinary means continue to prosper, while we are faced with the sacrifices of austerity alongside continued hazards to our health. This decisive victory stands among many in our state that shine a light forward for a different path.”
Grace Lee
Ms. Lee said, “as our election cycle comes to a close, I want to thank the nearly 5,000 voters across Lower Manhattan who believed in our vision for new leadership, and to congratulate my opponent and thank her for a spirited race.” She added, “Lower Manhattan needs real progress toward housing security, economic stability, and environmental justice. Elections like ours are an essential part of maintaining an active democracy that lifts up the voices of our communities and that centers on their needs. I look forward to working alongside our community toward these goals.”
Updated vote totals indicate that during the counting of absentee and mail-in ballots, Ms. Niou widened her initial lead, finishing the race with 64 percent of the overall vote. Ms. Lee’s tally, when mail-in ballots were included, shrank to roughly 28 percent of votes cast. Although the November election will technically decide who represents Lower Manhattan in the State Assembly for the next two years, the heavily “blue” landscape of Lower Manhattan usually makes the nomination of the Democratic party tantamount to winning the wider contest, and most often relegates the actual election to the status of a formality.
The only interested party who agrees not to be on the same page with either the victor or the vanquished is the City’s Board of Elections. That agency’s website still contains “unofficial” vote tallies from June 23. This may augur further chaos in the November, when an unprecedented number of voters in the presidential election are expected to cast their ballots via mail, rather than face the health risks associated with crowded polling places.
1) Consultant Interviews – Discussion and Resolution
7PM
Youth & Education Committee
1) Plan for Fall 2020 School Reopening with “Blended Learning” model – Resolution
Tuesday July 28
6PM
CB 1 Monthly Board Meeting
All documents relating to the above agenda items are on file at the Community Board 1 office and are available for viewing by the public upon written request to man01@cb.nyc.gov
Welcome to the Occupation
Protestors Driven from City Hall Park Consider What They Accomplished, and What Remains to Be Done
The Occupy City Hall encampment, which was demolished by police on Wednesday.
In the hours before dawn on Wednesday morning, NYPD officers in riot gear swept through the pedestrian plaza at the corner of Centre and Chambers Streets (between City Hall and the Municipal Building) and forcibly removed more than 100 protestors who had been camped there since early June, under the rallying cry of “Occupy City Hall,” to demonstrate their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Later that morning, the Broadsheet spoke to a group from the encampment, who (using first names or pseudonyms) reflected on their time within the improvised commune they had come to call “Abolition Park.”
“Biking around since the pandemic began, I couldn’t help but notice the ubiquitous and disturbing proliferation of gloves and masks strewn everywhere throughout the city and I documented it in an animated form.”
Thursday Meeting Reviewed Resiliency Plans for Northern Battery Park City
One design concept under consideration for the Esplanade on Battery Park City’s northern edge would extend the walkway more than 20 feet into the water, creating space for new anti-flooding infrastructure, as well as new amenities.
On Thursday, July 23, the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) and Community Board 1 (CB1) co-hosted an online public meeting focused on the North Battery Park City Resiliency Project.
The meeting was a follow-on to a public discussion held last February, at which preliminary options and design concepts were reviewed by the BPCA, along with the team of engineers and architects who will be conceiving the measures intended to make the northern edge of the community resistant to sea-level rise, climate change, and future extreme-weather events.
Need a safe and breezy break from your apartment? Several cruise operators have reopened in North Cove and are offering opportunities to get out on the water, including Tribeca Sailing and Classic Harbor Line. All cruise operators are adhering to social distancing guidelines; check individual websites for details.
Who Got What: Battery Park City
Federal Loan Program Bails Out Local Small (and Not-So-Small) Businesses
(Editor’s Note: This is the first in an occasional series of stories detailing the impact of federal bailout funds on Lower Manhattan businesses.)
The federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has disbursed more than $600 billion in roughly 4.9 million loans to business around the nation, in response to the economic slowdown triggered by the pandemic coronavirus. In Battery Park City’s three zip codes, 285 businesses and non-profit organizations received loans totaling more than $10 million, based on the possibility of saving more than 2,900 jobs, according to data recently released by the federal government’s Small Business Administration (SBA).
Finalists Announced in Design Competition to Improve Pedestrian Access to Brooklyn Bridge
The City Council and the Van Alen Institute (a New York nonprofit architectural organization, dedicated to improving design in the public realm) have named the shortlist of contenders in a contest that aims incubate fresh ideas for better pedestrian access to the Brooklyn Bridge.
1054 – Siward, Earl of Northumbria, invades Scotland and defeats Macbeth, King of Scotland somewhere north of the Firth of Forth.
1549 – The Jesuit Francis Xavier’s ship reaches Japan.
1663 – The English Parliament passes the second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports. After the Acts of Union 1707, Scotland would be included in the Act.
1816 – Seminole Wars: The Battle of Negro Fort ends when a hot shot cannonball fired by US Navy Gunboat No. 154 explodes the fort’s Powder Magazine, killing approximately 275. It is considered the deadliest single cannon shot in US history.
1866 – The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable is successfully completed, stretching from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland.
1890 – Vincent van Gogh shoots himself and dies two days later.
1919 – The Chicago Race Riot erupts after a racial incident occurred on a South Side beach, leading to 38 fatalities and 537 injuries over a five-day period.
1949 – Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner.
1953 – Cessation of hostilities is achieved in the Korean War when the United States, China, and North Korea sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice.
1974 – Watergate scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment (for obstruction of justice) against President Richard Nixon.
1996 – In Atlanta, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics.
2016 – At a news conference, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump expresses the hope that Russians can recover thirty thousand emails that were deleted from Hillary Clinton’s personal server.
Births
1452 – Ludovico Sforza, Italian son of Francesco I Sforza (d. 1508)
1452 – Lucrezia Crivelli, mistress of Ludovico Sforza (d. 1508)
1740 – Jeanne Baré, French explorer (d. 1803)
1824 – Alexandre Dumas, French novelist and playwright (d. 1895)
1882 – Geoffrey de Havilland, English pilot and engineer, founded the de Havilland Aircraft Company (d. 1965)
1940 – Pina Bausch, German dancer and choreographer (d. 2009)
Deaths
1276 – James I of Aragon (b. 1208)
1924 – Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1866)
1946 – Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, and playwright (b. 1874)
1948 – Woolf Barnato, English race car driver and businessman (b. 1898)
“Joel Woolf Barnato was a British financier and racing driver, one of the “Bentley Boys” of the 1920s. He achieved three consecutive wins out of three entries in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.” (Credit: Wikipedia)
2003 – Bob Hope, English-American actor, comedian, television personality, and businessman (b. 1903)
2017 – Sam Shepard, American playwright, actor, author, screenwriter, and director (b.1943)
Edited from various sources including Wikipedia,and other media outlets
