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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. We'll continue to compare the candidates in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary with two more issue-specific segments today, the environment and public health. These two topics overlap, of course, and we have our Health and Climate Tuesday's section of the show going. They overlap as the impact of climate change and other environmental threats is largely on people's health and safety.

There are many other health concerns as well, certainly enough for a separate segment. We'll start with climate and other environmental concerns. This may surprise you, but leading environmental groups are not all endorsing the same candidates. The League of Conservation Voters is endorsing Andrew Cuomo and Brad Lander. The Sunrise Movement is endorsing Zohran Mamdani.

Joining us now are two guests to compare notes from those groups on the environment and the candidates. Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, and Keanu Arpels-Josiah, a member of the Sunrise Movement NYC electoral team and a lead youth climate justice organizer with Fridays for Future NYC. He's a student at Swarthmore College. Both of our guest groups have held mayoral candidates forums. Fridays for Future held one in February. The League of Conservation Voters held one in March. I see we're still getting Julie's line hooked up. For the moment, Keanu, hello. Welcome to WNYC.

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Thank you, Brian. Longtime listener, and it's great to be back on.

Brian Lehrer: That's great to hear. Would you like to start by introducing yourself a little bit more? I see you were very active in high school on climate justice issues. Now you're in college, but would you like to talk a little bit about your own history of interest and involvement in these issues?

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Yes, totally. Thank you, Brian. Yes, I think the climate crisis is something that defines my entire generation's view of our future and our lives. I don't remember a time, even thinking back to elementary school, where I thought about my future and did not think about the climate crisis. Growing up, I think it was a slow process of me starting to understand that not only can I do something about this, but also, we have a responsibility to do something about this as young people. I remember the global climate strikes in 2019, seeing 200,000 people, my generation in high school and middle school, come out to the streets and demand a livable future, and see the breakthrough of that.

It made me realize I can do something about this. Throughout high school, I did organizing with Fridays for Future NYC. You also mentioned Sunrise Movement NYC. Both are youth-led climate justice organizations throughout New York City where we advocate for legislation on the climate crisis at the state level, at the city level, and federally, we organized the March to End Fossil Fuels in 2023, where 75,000 people came out onto the streets and demanded an end to the era of fossil fuels. Now we're here in this current moment with this mayoral election, where that decision is front and center as well.

Brian Lehrer: We do have Julie on the line now. We'll bring her in in a second. Take us one step further, Keanu, you and the Fridays for Future movement intentionally call yourselves not just youth climate organizers, but youth climate justice organizers. Would you make that distinction for us if you think it matters to understanding the group?

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Yes, totally. Yes. The climate justice movement is about understanding that the climate crisis affects us all and affects us all unequally. Climate disasters are harming young people first and foremost. Climate disasters are harming people of color first and foremost. Climate disasters are harming people in the Global South first and foremost. It intersects deeply with all different issues of inequality, from housing injustice to racial injustice to gender injustice. Climate justice is about also understanding not only is the climate crisis unequal, and not only is the climate crisis unjust.

The climate crisis is also our opportunity to build a world with justice. Is our opportunity to build a world where everyone has the right to clean air and clean water. Is our opportunity to build a world where everyone can live without fear of losing housing, without fear of being able to get by, whether it's losing housing because of a climate disaster or whether it's because of losing housing because of skyrocketing rents, because of landlords pushing out communities time and time again. Climate justice is about understanding that the climate crisis and environmental crises aren't just about the environment or climate in a separated way, but is in conversation with everything else that is shaping our world today.

Brian Lehrer: I think we do have Julie Tighe now, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters. Julie, you're there?

Julie Tighe: Good morning.

Brian Lehrer: Good morning. Thanks for joining us. Why don't you take a few minutes now to describe what the New York League of Conservation Voters is. A lot of our listeners may have heard the name, but may not know much about the group. Then describe how you deliberated on endorsements and why you landed on Andrew Cuomo and Brad Lander.

Julie Tighe: Sure. The New York League of Conservation Voters is a statewide environmental advocacy organization. We fight for clean air, clean energy, clean water, open space access, and zero waste, through political action. We're not softly political, we're firmly political. We have a sister organization, the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, that does more civic work. We seek to educate, engage, and empower New Yorkers to be effective advocates for the environment. We often do that through the civic process.

We have a campaign right now called Our Vote Is Our Power. We're encouraging people to go out and vote, really trying to engage people who are not frequent voters and get them out voting more. As I often say, the number one thing that we can do as individuals is to vote, because the change that we need, the change that we were just hearing about, really comes from institutional change. We need government to make those changes. In order to do that, we need to make sure that we have politicians who prioritize taking action on these issues.

As I often say, clean air and clean water are not partisan issues. Everybody wants it. Everybody deserves it. It's something that we do find when you get back to some of those core issues, that there is uniform support for that. Sometimes it's about how we achieve them that there may be differences, and how willing people are to prioritize them. We go through a pretty rigorous process when we're determining what we're going to do for endorsements. We have endorsed in many races. You may not know this. This is not the only city that has a primary this year in New York. There's actually open primaries in Syracuse, Albany, Buffalo, also this year that our folks and our board have evaluated.

New York City is clearly the biggest race by far. We started out this process earlier this year. We held a candidate forum. Not all the candidates were in the race or had just joined the race, but we did have a number of candidates participate in that forum, which was really great, because very often, as we heard, there was one question in both debates that were held on television that asked about an environmental issue, and that was about parks.

Thank you, Katie Honan, continuing to talk about the need for 1% for parks. That is a big priority for us. That was the only question. That's why we very often hold candidate forums to make sure that environmental and climate issues get talked about, because they're not often talked about in the rest of the debates.

Brian Lehrer: Good. Tell us why Andrew Cuomo? Why Brad Lander?

Julie Tighe: Sure. We really look at what people have actually delivered. It's very easy to say that you're going to do something. It's hard to actually deliver on that. We've seen that with Governor Cuomo, with Brad Lander, they have not just talked the talk, but they have walked the walk. Governor Cuomo helped get past the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act under his watch. Actually, the same day that he signed that law, he also announced the two offshore wind projects that are happening, that are happening today, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind.

He has a record of helping to get renewable energy started in this state in a much bigger way beyond our base of renewables. He's delivered on funding for the environment through increases in the Environmental Protection Fund, through beginning of the Bond Act, through the Clean Water Infrastructure Act. Really has helped land on that. Brad Lander-- Past congestion pricing, that was not happening prior to Governor Cuomo's actions in-- 2019 was a big year. Since that was when the climate law was also passed.

Brad Lander has been there. He has helped make sure he was defending congestion pricing. He stood with advocates on that. He helped get passed laws like that plastic bag ban and ultimately the fee and styrofoam ban, and has taken action as comptroller to make sure that the city is using its dollars in a way that are most effective, helping to divest from fossil fuels and helping to use dollars for advancing solar projects. The two of them really stood above. We're also very fortunate that we have a lot of people in the field who have good views on the environment, which is a good place to start from.

Brian Lehrer: For the Ranked Choice election-- Before we go back to Keanu and ask why the Sunrise Movement endorsed Zohran Mamdani. For the Ranked Choice election, did you rank Cuomo and Lander, or just endorse both equally?

Julie Tighe: No, we endorse them equally. We did not do ranking.

Brian Lehrer: Keanu, you're with Fridays for the Future, which does not make endorsements, and the Sunrise Movement electoral team, which does. With your Sunrise Movement hat on, would you describe that group to our listeners? Like Julie described the League of Conservation Voters and then describe why Sunrise decided to endorse Zohran Mamdani?

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Thank you, Brian. Sunrise Movement is a youth-led climate justice movement across the country. Really came up in 2018, 2019, fighting for a Green New Deal nationally. We had the big marches of 2019. We had a massive sit in at Nancy Pelosi's office calling for her to sign the Green New Deal, become a co-sponsor of it. Sunrise Movement, throughout its history, has understood the power of electoral organizing and bringing this future that we need to reality. Very similarly to Julie, we understand that we're here in the United States in the biggest emitting country in the history of the world.

We are continuing to expand fossil fuels. We have a responsibility to hold our governmental leaders to account for that. We have a responsibility to have a government that is instead bringing us towards a direction where we can breathe clean air, where we can have a livable future. That's what Sunrise Movement is about, and that's what we're about here in New York City. The Sunrise Movement New York City chapter, and makes endorsements in local elections across the city. We have a slate of city council endorsements.

We've endorsed Justin Brannan, who's running an incredible campaign for comptroller, and when it comes to the mayoral race, after a round of interviews, after co-sponsoring over three forums across the city, where we invited all the candidates to attend, Sunrise Movement NYC decided to endorse Zohran Mamdani, number one, for mayor. We've also put out a full slate of candidates that include Brad Lander, number two, Adrienne Adams, number three, Zellnor Myrie, number four, and Michael Blake number five.

These candidates are all people with real records on climate action. I very much agree with Julie when it comes to Brad Lander's record, he's someone that we worked side by side with to deliver fossil fuel divestment. He's someone who championed the Green New Deal for New York City, Local Law 97, when he was in the city council, which reduces 80% of our emissions. He has a strong vision and a strong record and is someone who doesn't take money from the fossil fuel industry or the real estate lobby. That's something that's really key for us.

Looking at former disgraced governor, Andrew Cuomo, he is someone who ran on-- He's running right now in the third biggest emitting city in the world with a very small climate platform on his website. He's someone who continues to take fossil fuel money. He's someone who continues to take money from the biggest billionaires in the country who funded Trump's campaign. He's someone-- he defunded the MTA and defunded clean water to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars as governor. I can talk more about his record later. We're really excited about Zohran Mamdani's campaign as well.

He's a State assembly member who championed environmental legislation, championed climate action in the assembly throughout his tenure. He was one of our biggest champions there. He's the biggest reason we got the Build Public Renewables Act done in the assembly, which is one of the biggest climate pieces of legislation passed in the country, shifting to a plan to build out public renewable energy across the state. I don't know if we would have gotten that done without him. He's someone who stood up against the Astoria fracked gas plant in 2021 when many, many other elected officials refused to do so. He's the reason that we don't have fracked gas polluting our communities in Astoria, Queens today. He fought for-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Hang on, Julie. Before you jump in, I just want to invite listeners in. Listeners, does anyone have a question about climate or other environmental issues and the candidates in the Democratic Mayoral Primary? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text. Or a candidate. Maybe you have a candidate whose climate or environment positions or records are contributing to your decision to back them or oppose them. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text for Keanu Arpels-Josiah, a member of the Sunrise Movement NYC electoral team and a lead youth climate justice organizer with Fridays for Future NYC and Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters.

Julie, the two of you agree on Brad Lander in your top two? Tell us why you also put Andrew Cuomo in your top two in light of the particular criticisms that Keanu just articulated?

Julie Tighe: One is, I would say, is that Governor Cuomo is the reason why we don't have fracking in this state, despite the fact that there is a relatively large amount of natural gas that's here. He did not do that in the convenience of the election. He waited until after an election to do that in 2014. He has a long record of actually delivering on things. I think that it's really important at this point in time. We have set the goals out there. We have state law that the governor signed that got done because the governor helped and stepped in and got it done.

We have actually projects that we're delivering. It's time to actually deliver on what we need. That is something that I have full confidence that Governor Cuomo would be able to do should he win as mayor, because he's done it before. We've seen this across the era. The Second Avenue subway is the largest expansion we've had in the subway system in a very long time. That happened because he made it happen. That is a huge opportunity and provides much greater access for people. Of course, now we're extending it further up into 125th street, which I know is a huge priority for Congressman Espaillat.

It's certainly something that we look at as how do we get more people onto transit? Because we can't drive our way out of the climate crisis. I feel very strongly that we need people who are actually able to deliver and not just make promises that are pie in the sky. We feel very confident in our candidates for both Brad Lander and Andrew Cuomo, that they would make sure that they are delivering on things that New Yorkers need that will reduce air pollution, that will improve water quality, that will improve access to parks.

I was really delighted to hear all of the candidates at the debate say that they would support getting us up to 1% for parks, and making those investments. I feel very, very good about our candidates in that space. We are also endorsing other people for other races. We've endorsed Mark Levine for comptroller. He's long been an advocate for the environment and parks in his role. In the Manhattan Borough President's race, we endorsed, of course, Keith Powers. There we have two awesome choices. In most of the races that are happening around New York City, we have endorsements, and they're all available on our website, nylcv.org.

Brian Lehrer: Staying on the mayoral race, and Keanu, you'll get a chance to respond to anything that Julie just said about Cuomo. Julie, why didn't you also rank Zohran Mamdani as Sunrise did?

Julie Tighe: Our general preference is to only do one candidate. The fact that we did two candidates also was, I think, really big for us, because, even though ranked choice voting is still relatively new, we've been, of course, been endorsing in raises since 1989. We really felt as though we wanted to have a more narrow focus on who we think would be best to be mayor.

Brian Lehrer: Keanu, any reaction? Do you want to keep going around on Cuomo or anything else?

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Yes, yes, I'd love to respond. I'm honestly baffled to think of Cuomo as anything but a climate disaster. He's someone who, yes, signed the fracking ban in 2014, but that was after four-plus years of organizing.

Julie Tighe: That is not true. He banned fracking before there was a law.

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Right, in 2014. There was many, many years of organizing. 2014 is when he put out the executive order on fracking. That was after his opponent, as you mentioned, in an election, ran a campaign that was centered around calling on an end to fracking. I think we deserve--

Brian Lehrer: [crosstalk] Democratic primary that year.

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Yes, that was effort to Chow in 2014 primary. I think we deserve leaders who act on climate, not just when we make it politically impossible, for them not to do so, but when that is central to their understanding of what leadership looks like. Cuomo did sign the CLCPA in 2021 after gutting it down significantly. Again, that was after years and years of organizing. Even after he signed it, he continued to stall its implementation. That's our leading climate law.

Fracking, the fracking ban, he also approved over three fossil fuel projects during that time, from the Competitive Power Ventures plant, where, by the way, his top aide, Joe Percoco, went to prison for six years because he literally took bribes to approve the plant. Cuomo did not stall the approval of that plant even after the fracking ban. Even after Joe Percoco went to prison, his top aide, he approved the Dominion pipeline expansion during his tenure. He's someone who, time and time again, sides with the oil and gas industry, is being funded by the oil and gas industry, which is the problem in our politics.

We can't have leaders that are funded by corporations. We can't have leaders that are funded by MAGA billionaires. We can't have leaders that are funded by the fossil fuel industry and trust them to act on climate action. That's why we're so excited about Zohran Mamdani's campaign. He's running on a campaign that's completely one of the most historically grassroots campaigns in history of New York City. He's someone with not only the experience of delivering on climate, he's someone with a vision that far exceeds Cuomo. Cuomo has not been able to articulate a vision. He declined to attend even New York League Conservation Voters Climate Forum, as well as our three forums that we sponsored. He is not what environmental advocates want.

Brian Lehrer: Let me give Julie-- just for time. I hear you. There's a lot there. Julie, one more time around on this, and then I'm going to bring in some particular issues. Callers have very particular issues, including on Local Law 97 that will affect almost every apartment building in New York City that people live in. Julie, go ahead.

Julie Tighe: Sure. I think it's a little bit of revisionist history to think about the idea that the climate law got done because the governor stepped in and made it happen. It wasn't passing before that. I think it's really important that it takes leadership. Sometimes things aren't getting done because they need to be adjusted in order to make them workable. I think that that's what happens. When you're in an executive position, you have to make some difficult decisions sometimes that are not the ideal decisions because you have to deal with the reality of things on the ground.

Again, I would say if it was politically expedient for the governor to ban fracking for him, he would have done that before a primary and not after an election was held. In my view, he did the responsible thing and has taken action and learned from a lot of advice. The fact that we went through, and I say we because I did work for the Department of Environmental Conservation at the time, we went through a massive review because they asked us to do that, because the governor asked us to do this.

I, again, have full faith that Governor Cuomo would make the right decisions and would be putting his money where his mouth is and investing in the environment in a responsible way, in a practical way, to actually deliver on what we need here in New York City as far as like providing better public health, more investments in parks, reducing air pollution, and moving forward. I have full confidence in Governor Cuomo because he would actually deliver on projects and not just talk about policy, ideology.

Brian Lehrer: Just one more follow-up on that policy, not just-- I'm sorry, that he would deliver on policy, not just talk about ideology. One more follow-up on that from Keanu's response, which is he argues that Mamdani is articulating a vision in this area, climate and other environments, which Cuomo is not, little tiny piece of his website, et cetera. How would you respond to that?

Julie Tighe: I think that we have a lot of vision already out there, and what we need to do is actually deliver the results. There's already been a law for a while now that talks about reducing emissions 80% by 2050. We're nowhere near that. We have a lot to do to actually deliver on that. We need to get projects moving and to get the policies implemented, and not just talk about things ideologically.

To my mind, this is something that Governor Cuomo has been very effective on, that I know Brad Lander would also be able to move forward. It's the reason why we have offshore wind projects that are actually moving forward now because they started in 2019. These things take time, and in perseverance and leadership, and thinking about how we actually get things done. To me, that's the leadership that we need right now.

Brian Lehrer: When we come back from a break, Eric in Manhattan on line one. I see you. We're going to take your Local Law 97 call right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC as we continue for another few minutes comparing two candidates, or I should say several candidates on climate and other environment and environmental justice issues and the candidates with Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, which has endorsed Cuomo and Lander, and Keanu Arpels-Josiah, a member of the Sunrise Movement NYC electoral team, which has ranked Mamdani and Lander 1 and 2. Eric in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hello, Eric.

Eric Weltman: Good morning. My name is Eric Weltman, and I'm a senior organizer with Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit environmental organization. We maintain that the next mayor's top climate priority is effective enforcement of Local Law 97, New York City's Green New Deal for buildings and the nation's top local climate and jobs law. Now, Local Law 97 is already fulfilling its potential to create good jobs, reduce air pollution, and cut utility bills while helping meet our climate goals.

However, unfortunately, Eric Adams, at the behest of the real estate lobby, has failed to fully implement Local Law 97. In fact, only yesterday, only yesterday, the Adams administration issued another delay in reporting requirements, and we maintain that Andrew Cuomo would likely further weaken and undermine Local Law 97. That's why Food and Water Action, our 501C4, is urging voters not to rank Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary. It's also worth noting that at every turn, every turn, Cuomo resisted banning fracking New York. He didn't deliver that incredible victory. A tenacious grassroots movement fought for years, for years to ban fracking New York.

Brian Lehrer: Eric, I'm going to leave it there, and I want to keep this on Local Law 97. We've gone around with the two guests on Cuomo and the fracking ban, but I want a little further explain to listeners, if they don't know, those of you who don't know, buildings are the number one source of greenhouse gas emissions in the city, not cars, buildings. One of the main climate-oriented city policies is Local Law 97, passed originally in 2019, which mandates emission reductions on the part of most or all bigger buildings, residential as well as commercial. They're supposed to hit 40% emission reductions by 2030, which is just a few years away.

Some co-ops and other buildings say this is a big financial burden. Keanu, I'll go to you first on this. I read in Inside Climate News that at the Fridays for Future mayoral forum that you were involved in, all the candidates pledged to get rid of loopholes in Local Law 97. Are you familiar enough with the law to say what those provisions seen as loopholes are?

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Yes, totally. Yes. Thank you so much, Eric, for calling in. I just want to say it's so significant to have someone like Food and Water Action who helped lead the organizing around both Local Law 97 and the fracking ban, saying don't rank Cuomo. That's significant. Local Law 97 is our New York City Green New Deal, passed in 2019. As you mentioned, Brian, 80% of our emissions come from buildings. The job of Local Law 97 is to reduce those emissions through energy efficiency requirements.

This current mayor, at the behest of Andrew Cuomo's suggestion in 2021, has been implementing these loopholes called renewable energy credits, where big landlords, corporate landlords, can basically pay a sum of money to get out of reducing their energy efficiency. It's basically pay to not follow the law. That was something that Andrew Cuomo fought for in 2021. He basically fought to block our biggest city-level climate law in the state budget in 2021. Eric Adams has been following that thread. I have no faith that he will implement this law. That'll be the job of whoever the next mayor of New York City is.

It's to implement the law, it's to implement Local Law 97, and it's to reduce that 80% of emissions that come from buildings. Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander, every other candidate, Andrew Cuomo was invited to attend our forum back in February. He declined. Every other candidate stated clearly they will support the full implementation of Local Law 97. Zohran Mamdani has a very comprehensive plan on his website, including money to help small co-ops comply with the law, which is really important. To make sure that we are enforcing the law. I think that's the job of a mayor, is to make sure we're reducing emissions-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Julie, you are again in the position of defending Andrew Cuomo, this time specifically on Local Law 97 implementation.

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Can I just say one more thing about Local Law 97?

Brian Lehrer: Real quick.

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Yes. I think this is important. The biggest opponents to Local Law 97 are the real estate industry, and Andrew Cuomo recently met with the leaders of the real estate industry, the biggest opponents of Local Law 97. There was reporting in Crain's as well that he's open to rollbacks on Local Law 97, just about a month ago. He's-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Julie, your turn.

Julie Tighe: I think what he said was that he's open to making sure that the program actually works. Which is something that is a challenge. This is something that was our big priority, too. We had called for limiting the amount of RECs during that negotiation back in 2019. Unfortunately, the council didn't choose to do that. RECs is not paying to get out of what you have to do. RECs is making sure that we're bringing renewable energy to New York City. RECs are one of the way-- which are renewable energy credits for those of you who don't know. Where you're paying for clean energy, which is the point.

I was specifically told by the sponsors of the bill at the time that it was about carbon, it wasn't about energy efficiency, which is unfortunate because really we need to do both of those things, reduce the amount of energy that we're wasting as well as investing in clean energy. RECs are one of the ways that we're actually bringing clean energy to New York City with the Champlain Hudson Power Express program. I do think that one of the things that we need to do is make sure that we have leadership there to help us fight back against the Trump administration who is going to be hurting us.

We already saw that Donald Trump tried to stop the Empire Wind project. He is going to be-- He is already a disaster on climate. We need an experienced leader who will be able to fight back. We don't have time right now to be having people in charge who don't have that experience of both fighting to make sure we're implementing policies that work and making sure that they're getting the resources need to make that happen, as well as pushing back against Donald Trump and all that he's doing to undermine us here. I do feel confident that Governor Cuomo and Brad Lander would be adept at both of those things.

Brian Lehrer: We're going to run out of time pretty soon. The candidate who you both agree on in your top two is Brad Lander, but Seth in Brooklyn is calling, I think, with a skeptical question or observation about him. Seth, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Seth: Hey, Brian, thanks for taking my call. Yes, so I live in the district where Brad Lander used to be councilman. When he was, I wanted to really love him. I think that he does stand for a lot of good things. He's aligned with transportation alternative. In practice, what I saw when he rezoned Gowanus was, quite frankly, appalling. He used outdated data to push through an environmental impact study. The data was related to the flooding. Gowanus is a floodplain at sea level, and he just turned a blind eye to that. It's extremely toxic land. At the time, you say that currently he doesn't take money from real estate developers, but at the time he did, and he's very closely aligned to them.

They are now building on top of toxic land. It's not even affordable housing, which I know that he's a champion of. The most affordable housing he had slated for one of the most toxic pieces of land in the country, which is now stuck in legal limbo. We'll even see if we get affordable housing there. Not one new park was built. In a climate crisis where, in 30 years from now, sea levels will be rising by 3 feet, his long-term outlook is concerning. I don't think he took a very good stance in terms of climate policy by just treating a floodplain at sea level as a place to build new housing.

Brian Lehrer: Seth, can I ask who you're ranking?

Seth: Oh, thank you. Yes. As a result, I'm ranking Zohran Mamdani. I just think that he is much more progressive and will fight more for the people and less for the lobbyists.

Brian Lehrer: Seth, thank you for your call. Keanu, and I'll let you both respond about Lander before we run out of time, since you're both ranking him in your top two. A question about Mamdani's support generally in the context of Sunrise endorsing him in part for being what your group calls a working-class champion. Politico has an article today that indicates he's polling well among whiter, more affluent New Yorkers as well as running strong among young voters, to be sure, but that the large Black and Latino working class populations, especially in older age groups that vote a lot so far, are not ranking him first in general, if you believe the polls.

Politico compared that to the limits of Bernie Sanders' support among those groups when he was running as a Democratic socialist candidate for president. Assuming the polls are more or less accurate, any thoughts on why the disconnect if you're touting him as the working class champion?

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Sure. Thank you, Brian, and thank you for calling in. I think we need to look at the reality of how Zohran's support is structured, which is whenever someone gets to know Zohran, gets to know his platform. He has very, very high favorability across the board. I think it's just a matter of-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: I just have to jump in and say, I have to ask you to do this in about 45 seconds. We have 45 seconds for Julie, then we're out of time. Keanu, continue.

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Okay, thank you. It's a matter of understanding that Cuomo people understand that he's a sexual predator. People understand that he has no working-class platform. People understand that he's defunded everything we rely on in New York City. It's a matter of people getting to know Zohran Mamdani. When people do. I talk to young people across the city. People understand this is a champion for our future. People look at his record. People look at his vision. People, we need a vision for New York City. This election is about a vision for a future that we can live on, a future where we can breathe clean air. That's why we're urging folks not to rank Cuomo [unintelligible 00:37:32].

Brian Lehrer: Julie, a last word, maybe including on the caller on Lander.

Julie Tighe: Sure. Respectfully, Zohran doesn't have-- Sorry, Mr. Mamdani does not have much of a record to run on. Mr. Cuomo has a long record of fighting for the environment and on delivering on projects for both transportation, clean water, and clean air. Brad Lander has been a champion for the environment throughout his time in office. That's why the New York League of Conservation Voters has endorsed both of them. Certainly, Mr. Lander has supported rezoning of a site that was otherwise a Superfund site and a brownfield site. That is certainly where we want to be redeveloping and making sure that we're getting open space available to people where they can.

That's, I think, what happened with the Gowanus rezoning project that you talked about is making sure that we're taking sites that were formerly contaminated and moving them back into use for the public. Very happy for us to be supporting Andrew Cuomo and Brad Lander for mayor. We want to remind everybody to vote. Now is early voting. I myself have already voted, and you have until Sunday to early vote. Of course, Election Day is on the 24th.

Brian Lehrer: Everybody can agree on at least that. If you're a registered Democrat in New York, get out there and vote one way or another or another or another. There are 11 candidates for mayor. Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, Keanu Arpels-Josiah, a member of the Sunrise Movement NYC electoral team and a lead youth climate justice organizer with Fridays for Future NYC. Thank you both very much for engaging.

Julie Tighe: Thank you for having us on.

Keanu Arpels-Josiah: Thank you, Brian.

 

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