Title: 5 Things with Brian Lehrer
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Janae Pierre: Five things in New York City news with WNYC's Brian Lehrer and an update for M and F line subway commuters. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre.
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Janae Pierre: It's bitterly cold out there, so New York City officials are increasing outreach to homeless residents to connect them to shelter. The city is declaring a cold blue from 4:00 PM Friday afternoon to 8:00 AM Saturday morning. Officials say New Yorkers who see someone living outdoors can contact 311 to request outreach assistance. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Essex County officials say a cold blue will be in effect from 8:00 at night until 8:00 in the morning every day through Tuesday. Newark, East Orange, and Irvington have all opened emergency shelters and warming stations to help residents escape the cold weather.
New York City law enforcement officials are holding a gun buyback event in Brooklyn this weekend. They say buyback events are one of their key ways of removing guns from the streets and reducing shootings. The program will be at St. Paul's Community Baptist Church on Hendrick Street in East New York from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Saturday. Officials will give those who turn in operable handguns and rifles a $500 bank card and Apple AirPods. Those who turn in 3D printed guns will get a $200 bank card. Officials say no ID is required and all transactions are anonymous.
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Janae Pierre: Up next, 5 Things with Brian Lehrer. That's after the break.
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Janae Pierre: It's time now for our segment, 5 Things with WNYC's Brian Lehrer. Hey, Brian.
Brian: Hi, Janae.
Janae Pierre: I see that the first few things we're talking about today involve Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, and this first one also includes Chuck Schumer and Donald Trump.
Brian: Right. We are at an unusual moment in time when Donald J. Trump, and now his vice president, are saying nicer things about the Democratic mayor-elect than New York's Democratic senators are. Our listeners have probably heard about the Trump-Mamdani meeting that many are calling a bromance.
Janae Pierre: Oh, yes.
Brian: Even if it's a one-day stand bromance. Trump said things like, "We agree on a lot more than I would have thought," and that some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have. A lot of people were surprised by that quote. Here's the news hook, breaking news. Now, J.D. Vance is getting into the "Say Nice Things About Mamdani Act." He told NBC News this week, "Obviously, I'm not a communist," and I think he is. That wasn't the nice part. "The fact that he focuses so aggressively on the affordability question in New York City, which does have one of the worst affordability crises anywhere in the world, is smart, and at least he's listening to people. Most politicians, it's a very low bar, but they don't even listen to people."
Janae Pierre: Is that the nice part?
Brian: That was the nice part. Did that not qualify to your ear?
Janae Pierre: I guess so.
Brian: Meanwhile, I can find no reporting on Senator Schumer or Senator Gillibrand, for that matter, meeting in person with Mamdani since the election, like Trump has, and Schumer continues not to disclose who he voted for.
Janae Pierre: Your thing, number two, is that Mamdani seems to be pulling any punches with respect to Schumer. He even saved Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, from a primary from the left.
Brian: Yes. Unlike his new loving Uncle Donald, Mamdani is not using his election to go on a retribution tour. Despite Schumer's coolness toward the mayor-elect, Mamdani declined, when asked in an interview, to call for Schumer to be replaced as the Democratic leader in the Senate, as many in the Mamdani socialist or progressive camp are calling for. Mamdani says he only cares about being a good mayor. He just saved Jeffries from a socialist primary challenge.
Mamdani convinced the local DSA chapter not to endorse City Council member Chi Ossé, who wanted its endorsement to run against Jeffries, so Ossé backed off a primary altogether after that. It's another sign that Mamdani is not out to just throw us against them political bombs, but to build a governing coalition.
Janae Pierre: Brian, what about those Mamdani allies who would like to see Schumer and some other older Democrats give up their seats to a younger generation? Does Mamdani represent generational change to them?
Brian: Not necessarily, even though you hear that a lot, and this may be controversial, but hear me out on thing number three. There's this narrative that I'm not sure I'd buy about younger Democrats trying to overturn the gerontocracy in the party. I wonder if that's just a cover among progressives for their real interest in ideological change in the Mamdani mold, not generational change. There's nothing wrong with ideological primaries. That debate is a good thing in a democracy, and let the people decide.
I don't see those same Democrats saying Bernie Sanders, 84, is too old, or Elizabeth Warren, 76, or Maxine Waters, 87, while some much younger Democrats like Congressman Ritchie Torres from the Bronx, one of the youngest members of Congress at 37, also Dan Goldman from Brooklyn, who's 49, will be primaried because of their less progressive records on issues. Then you get someone like Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who will be 80 next year and is running for re-election. He's a progressive who's being primaried by a more centrist Democrat, Seth Moulton, but guess what?
Janae Pierre: What?
Brian: Moulton, too, is saying it's time for generational change. There, too, it appears the real issue is center versus left. It's just from the other direction. I'm beginning to suspect that younger challengers who actually have ideological differences with older incumbents, and there's nothing wrong with that, are using the public's susceptibility to ageism as a wedge when age is not really what they're running to change.
Janae Pierre: All right, Brian. Let's switch gears here. Earlier this week, folks around the world recognized World AIDS Day, and you dedicated a segment of your show to the topic on Monday. How were you able to help raise awareness with your listeners?
Brian: Janae, just by saying World AIDS Day, we were spotlighting a new Trump-era issue. The New York Times had an article on Thanksgiving Eve with the headline, "Trump administration will no longer commemorate World AIDS Day." It says the State Department warned employees not to use government funds for the occasion and to "reframe from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels" from the State Department memo. It reminded me of that education policy in Florida that got nicknamed Don't Say Gay.
Janae Pierre: Oh, yes.
Brian: Don't Say World AIDS Day. I will take a wild guess that it's because AIDS is a disease generally associated with gay and bisexual men and poor people of color around the world. Maybe now commemorating World AIDS Day is seen as DEI, while other awareness days the administration still commemorates are not. Sadly, this happens to come at a moment when there is a potentially history-altering breakthrough prevention treatment for HIV and AIDS that it would be good if the government promoted a lot.
Janae Pierre: All right. Finally, Brian, your thing number five is, on a lighter note, you're having a photo contest on your show?
Brian: Yes. It's become a Brian Lehrer Show holiday season tradition-
Janae Pierre: Nice.
Brian: -our annual best photo sitting on your phone contest. Listeners, I'll give the web address to submit at the beginning and the end of this minute. Go to wnyc.org/bestphoto to submit your name and upload the best picture on your phone from 2025. We're looking for the most beautiful, most spectacular, most creative, most revealing, most thought-provoking, anything like that photo you took in 2025. Preference if you're not a professional photographer.
We'll pick a few winners who will get featured on WNYC's Instagram, plus bragging rights for your New Year's Eve party, of course, and a chance to come on the air and talk about their picture with me and our judging partners at Photoville. The submission deadline is the end of this weekend, the end of the day, Sunday night. Again, to submit the best photo sitting on your phone in 2025, just go to wnyc.org/bestphoto.
Janae Pierre: That's pretty cool, Brian. Let me quickly ask, what's the best photo on your phone?
Brian: The best photo on my phone might be one I took just a few weeks ago in the Bronx, where the fall colors on some of the trees rivaled anything you would see in New England. I really love that shot. It reminded me that fall foliage peak in New York City does not come in October, like people may traditionally think, it comes in November.
Janae Pierre: Yes, I have seen it from upstate to right here in New York City. Thanks so much. That's WNYC's Brian Lehrer. Have a great weekend, Brian.
Brian: You too, Janae. Thanks for having me.
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Janae Pierre: All right. Before we go, if you take the F or M train, listen up. Starting on Monday, the MTA is launching a good old-fashioned subway switcheroo that will permanently alter a small stretch of each line. The lines are swapping tracks across eight stations between Long Island City and Midtown. The MTA says this will speed up trains on the E, F, M, and R lines, which are all slowed down because of a bottleneck at Queens Plaza. MTA Chair Janno Lieber says riders will have to adapt to the change.
Janno Lieber: There are real benefits, and I know that people will start to recognize them, although obviously everybody needs to adjust their routine accordingly.
Janae Pierre: The change will be in effect weekdays between 6:30 in the morning and 9:30 at night. On weekends and overnights, the old route will be back in place.
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Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. Have a great weekend. We'll be back on Monday.
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