Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC NOW. I'm Janae Pierre. Team USA's women's hockey team wins gold, the New York Knicks and their questionable season, and women's basketball in Brooklyn. That's all ahead, but first, here's your news headlines.

Nurses at New York Presbyterian could return to work as soon as next week after more than a month of striking. The New York State Nurses Association says the 4,200 remaining striking nurses reached a tentative contract agreement this week with hospital leadership. The union says the new agreement ensures protections for nurses against workplace violence, increases their salaries, and enforces so called safe staffing standards. Union members will vote to ratify the new contract through the weekend. New York Presbyterian says the pending agreement reflects its "tremendous respect for its nurses." You may recall nurses at Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospitals who were also fighting for new contracts ended their strikes last week after reaching agreements with hospital leadership.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is proposing $29 million in funding cuts from libraries, reversing one of his campaign promises. During his campaign, Mamdani pledged to support libraries. He even urged New Yorkers to download the ebook Heated Rivalry from libraries during the recent snowstorm, but the preliminary budget he introduced this week cuts funding from the New York Public Library. Abby Emerson is part of a campaign pressuring the mayor to turn the page.

Abby Emerson: At this point, if you're just going to say, "Oh, go check out a book. Oh, I love the library," but you're not actually supporting them, then that's a real disappointment.

Janae Pierre: A spokesperson for Mayor Mamdani says this is only the beginning of the budget process and that the mayor will "not take savings that inhibit vital city services."

What are you doing? Don't put those snow boots away just yet, New Yorkers. The National Weather Service says the metro area could get some snow Sunday into Monday, but meteorologist John Murray says the forecast could still change.

John Murray: We generally have around 3 to 5 inches of snowfall forecast, but there is some uncertainty with that still.

Janae Pierre: Besides the snow, the storm is expected to bring other hazards, including gusty winds and coastal flooding during high tides. Governor Kathy Hochul is urging New Yorkers to be careful while traveling and keep an eye on changing conditions. Temperatures are supposed to be in the mid-30s on Sunday and into next week. Meteorologists say the wintry weather should taper off on Monday.

Still ahead, we're talking sports from the Winter Olympics to those sometimes frustrating New York Knicks and women's basketball. That's ahead in just a minute. Stay close.

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Janae Pierre: It may be cold outside, but the local sports scene, it's heating up. Today, we're taking a quick pulse on what's happening around New York right now. From a Knicks team trying to prove it's the real deal to the global spotlight of the Winter Games, to a women's league testing the appetite of the city's basketball fans. Joining me right now is Priya Desai. She's a sports reporter and WNYC contributor. Hey, Priya.

Priya Desai: Hi. Thank you for having me.

Janae Pierre: How's it going?

Priya Desai: Good.

Janae Pierre: We are so happy to have you. I want to start off with the Winter Olympics. A big moment for women's hockey and Team USA, who came away with a gold medal after a really exciting win over Canada. Can you talk a little bit about this team and their two local players? There is a New York connection there, right?

Priya Desai: Yes. Two local players from Western New York, the two Haleys, I call them. Haley Winn and Hayley Scamurra. They both were very important to this win. Hayley Scamurra, early on in the preliminaries, really set the tone. That's when I was watching this team and being like, "They're going to win this gold medal." They had.

Janae Pierre: Oh, you knew it.

Priya Desai: I knew it. Listen, the gold medal game was nerve-wracking. Early on, they allowed two goals throughout this whole tournament over seven games, shutout after shutout after shutout. It was beautiful to watch. Gold medal game, very nerve-wracking. They went into overtime, and there was actually a point I was whispering to someone next to me. I was like, "I think they're going to lose. They look exhausted."

Janae Pierre: I hope that whisper was very low it.

Priya Desai: It was very low, but we were all a little worried. Then they found the energy to come out and tie it up and then go into overtime and win.

Janae Pierre: Exciting win.

Priya Desai: It was amazing.

Janae Pierre: Where did you watch the game?

Priya Desai: I watched a game at this bar downtown called Wilka's, not too far from where we are right now.

Janae Pierre: Very nice bar.

Priya Desai: Loved it. They have 20 screens. They only show women's sports. It was packed, and it was a phenomenal energy.

Janae Pierre: It's been four years since Team USA won a medal. They won silver four years ago at the Winter Games in Beijing. What changed for this team?

Priya Desai: I think that the two Haleys are a perfect example of what they did over the past four years. They wanted to keep some of their high-level veterans. That's Haley Scamurra. Then they wanted to add some youth, which they did. Our other Haley, she's brand new to the Olympics. They took their veterans and they went through international players. The NCAA pipeline has been huge, and got some younger players, created this team that had experience but also had that energy that they needed in the later stretches of the game. It was some really smart moves that obviously paid off.

Janae Pierre: It's Black History Month, so I got to shout out Laila Edwards. She's the defender, 22 years old, no New York connection there. She's an Ohio native, but she became the first Black woman to win a gold medal on the women's US hockey team. Shout out to you, girl.

Priya Desai: Her family was there.

Janae Pierre: Yes. The Kelce bros brought them in. That's so nice, right?

Priya Desai: It was so great, yes.

Janae Pierre: All right, let's move on to the NBA. Of course, we're past the All Star break. Let's talk about the New York Knicks here. Can this team make some real noise in June, or is this a team that still has something to prove? They're doing a little better now, but what can we look forward to?

Priya Desai: I think this is a team that still has something to prove. Going into the season, they were picked to be in the playoffs over and over again over Detroit. Now, Detroit is a team that they just can't seem to get through. That's a problem when Detroit doesn't have two of their best players, but yet they still are able to beat Knicks in a way that is embarrassing and has fans booing. You got to start wondering, how do we change things up?

Janae Pierre: That Detroit game, Priya, that you're mentioning, the Knicks fell to the Pistons, 126 to 111. Our dear producer Jared has called Detroit Pistons the boogeyman of the east, which--

Priya Desai: Yes. I mean, I never would have thought that Detroit was going to be the team that could eventually stop them. Now, look, there's scenarios where another team can kick Detroit out and then the Knicks during the playoffs can-- Knicks fans can take a breath, but this is a team that you have to beat. The Pistons have figured out how to control the Knicks and how to control their tempo and how to control their matchups.

What I see is other teams looking at Detroit and being like, "Oh, this is a playbook." I am frustrated for Knicks fans because this felt like the coaching change and bringing on some additional bench players. You thought, "Okay, this is the moment." Then to have a team like Detroit completely shut out this team is frustrating to watch.

Janae Pierre: Yes, for sure. The Detroit Pistons, they're obviously a test for the New York Knicks, but you can't forget about Boston.

Priya Desai: Right. I mean, all roads go through Boston in the east, right? Well, maybe not. Maybe it's Detroit.

Janae Pierre: Maybe it is.

Priya Desai: Detroit is more of the, what I call, like the canary in the coal mine. If you know you can't get past Detroit, what are you going to do when you go to Boston?

Janae Pierre: What needs to change for the Knicks?

Priya Desai: First and foremost, put more shooters on the floor. That's what I said. Look, I'm not a coach and I'm not working for this team, but can I get five shooters on the floor consistently for more than one minute out of the game? You can spread the ball a little bit more, create more space. That doesn't seem to happen.

Secondly, you had a defense prior to the All Star break that was the number one defense in the league, and that's now starting to break down. Granted, a player like OG is coming off injury. You need to figure out what to do when you have, let's say, both Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns on the floor. Defensively, what do you do at that point? There's issues with KAT when it comes to being able to post up. Then there's issues with Brunson and his size and not being able to get over bigger guards. These are all questions that don't seem to be answered. I think those questions are going to be asked and answered the next week if they want a serious run into the play-offs.

Janae Pierre: They have to be answered. All right, let's switch gears here and talk a bit about women's basketball. Unrivaled is coming to Barclays. Of course, Unrivaled is the 3-on-3 league built by our very own Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. Unrivaled coming to Brooklyn seems-- it just feels bigger than just another league stop. What does that signal about the demand for women's basketball in New York right now?

Priya Desai: I looked at tickets, because I was just curious. Yesterday, I was looking at tickets, and all the lower levels are sold out. Those usually go for a couple thousand dollars.

Janae Pierre: Wow.

Priya Desai: The upper levels are-- I mean, there's not a ton of-- they're selling pretty fast. I think because of Stewart. She really has such a strong fan base in New York. For one, they're going to show her support. Number two, women's-- I mean, look, the Liberty, they won the championship.

Janae Pierre: We're still champions. I'm going to say it.

Priya Desai: Fair. They have created such a momentum in New York that I wasn't that surprised that tickets were going so quickly because I haven't seen a ton of marketing for Unrivaled.

Janae Pierre: Yes, you're right. Haven't seen it.

Priya Desai: I just wall-to-wall Olympic coverage, and I saw one commercial for Unrivaled, which was a little surprising to me. I hear about it amongst media circles, but do you talk about it with your friends?

Janae Pierre: I've never seen a commercial for Unrivaled. Everything I've heard is through circles, like friend circles or social media, but never on television.

Priya Desai: Yes. I was really happy to see how well the tickets were selling. Again, I think it's because, obviously, Stewie. Everyone loves Stewie, but we have-- I think New York has such a special relationship with women's basketball that it was no surprise that it's doing well here. Especially now with the questions with what's going to happen with the collective bargaining agreement and the WNBA. People, fans want something to watch and turn to, but I'm excited that the semifinals are in New York, and the finals, of course, are going to be back in Miami, but it's fun. It's a fun time.

Janae Pierre: I know March Madness is coming up, and I'm sure you're excited about that, right?

Priya Desai: I know. Whenever there's an Olympic season, you kind of forget what is coming down the pipeline.

Janae Pierre: The sports just keep coming. It keeps coming.

Priya Desai: I know. I was like, "Oh, I get to rest a little bit. Oh, no, that's right. March Madness." I will say, when you're watching a lot of the women's games in March Madness, it's really exciting because you're seeing fully what we're going to see down the stretch in the WNBA and women's basketball in the NCAA. Their numbers, their viewership numbers are crazy.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe it was two years ago. The women's final outranked, I think, the men's Sweet 16, and that consistently does happen. think it was a Duke men's game. Again, don't quote me on that, but I know that the numbers for the women's finals are outpacing some of the Sweet 16 and maybe even Elite 8 viewership numbers of men.

Janae Pierre: Nice.

Priya Desai: I love watching the championship games amongst a big group of women at a bar, and you're seeing them put games on the TVs in these bars, whether or not it's a women's sports bar, it's just normal to walk in and be like, "Oh, can we put on the women's championship game?" "No problem." I know it sounds silly to a lot of younger listeners, but 10, 15 years ago, it was-- do you agree, it was a little bit of a struggle to go somewhere and ask them to change it to a women's game?

Janae Pierre: It was a whole fight. It could be a whole fight. No one's switching, what, baseball to women's sports?

Priya Desai: No.

Janae Pierre: No one's doing it, but now-

Priya Desai: It's a new day.

Janae Pierre: -who run the world?

Priya Desai: Girls.

Janae Pierre: Priya, thanks so much for chatting with me. This was lovely.

Priya Desai: Thank you.

Janae Pierre: Priya Desai is a sports reporter and a WNYC contributor.

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What makes a real New Yorker? It's a question people ask all the time. Some people say it's the number of years you've lived here, while others say it's how confident you are in the subway without a map. Maybe it's as simple as what's on your feet. When you wake up in the morning, dear listener, I assume you're doing your morning routine. That's maybe grabbing a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, catching up on your favorite podcast, NYC NOW. Before you head out the door, are you grabbing a pair of sneakers or do you wear classic dress shoes? The kind you get polished in that big chair at Grand Central, the kind you take to an old repair shop to get resold. What does a real New Yorker choose? I'm here with James Ramsay, who's a digital producer here at WNYC, and he has been fixated on this question for years.

James Ramsay: For years.

Janae Pierre: Hey, James.

James Ramsay: Hey, Janae.

Janae Pierre: What kind of shoes are you wearing today?

James Ramsay: Today, I'm wearing black penny loafers, which, incidentally, I just took to the repair shop around the corner to get polished and shined up. Apologies if they smell a little chemically.

Janae Pierre: Yes, that's you.

James Ramsay: I needed to look good for this interview.

Janae Pierre: Wow. I did not know that was you. It's very strong.

James Ramsay: Right, but they feel great. They look great, and that's what's important.

Janae Pierre: Okay. Should a real New Yorker wear dress shoes?

James Ramsay: The answer is yes, absolutely. I believe that.

Janae Pierre: Okay. Wow.

James Ramsay: I also believe a lot of things. I believe I should eat more fiber. I should read classic novels. Do I do those things? No. This falls into the category of truths that I ascribe to that I don't put into practice in my own life. The reason that New Yorkers should wear dress shoes is this is a serious town, and dress shoes are serious shoes.

Janae Pierre: A serious town?

James Ramsay: Yes.

Janae Pierre: Define that.

James Ramsay: I came from Southern California as context. This is a transplant story.

Janae Pierre: Okay, you just got tired of wearing flip-flops.

James Ramsay: Well, Southern California, it's beautiful. It's the worst dressed place on the planet. My Sunday school teacher wore flip-flops to church. Now, if I learned anything as a Presbyterian, it's that by grace alone are we offered salvation. You don't get God points for nice shoes, but you get James points for nice shoes. When I said, "You know what? I'm moving to this big sophisticated city." People here used to go to baseball games and dress shoes. My dad lived in the city in the '80s. He worked at Bloomingdale's up on 63rd.

Janae Pierre: Oh, nice.

James Ramsay: He said, "James, you're moving to New York." He gave me this antiquated checklist. He's like, "Well, you need an overcoat. You need good winter boots." I was like, "Yes, I'm going to New York, I'm going to be an adult, and I'm going to look good." Like I said, I've pulled off all these other things in my life, and for a variety of complicated reasons, the dress shoe just hasn't been a thing that I've been able to make consistently stick. The longer time goes on, I'm like, "I need to make this happen. When is it going to happen?"

Janae Pierre: I'm going to keep my opinions to myself briefly.

James Ramsay: Okay, I do want to know them.

Janae Pierre: I'll tell you at the end. Hang in there. Who supports you in this?

James Ramsay: Well, so I thought to myself, "Is this a one man's dumb fixation, or is this a real thing?" I talked to this guy, Ian Bradley, who's big time fashion stylist. He's done like covers for T magazine, stuff for Thom Browne, these big high-end fashion brands. I said, "Is this a real thing, that being a grown adult New Yorker, you wear dress shoes, or am I crazy? Are sneakers the move?"

Ian Bradley: I do think it is a nice signifier of growing up. I think there should be an era that as an adult, you wear a dress shoe. It doesn't have to be too formal, but it's just like a nice chapter in one's life.

James Ramsay: He sympathized with my journey that he didn't come around to this until his mid-30s when he got a pair of secondhand black loafers. It was like, "These are the ones that finally work for me." I was asking Him. I was like, "Is this something that I'm going to age into? You see the dignified 60-year-old man on the subway in a pair of dress shoes and you say, "Oh, that's so natural. That's just him doing him. Is there going to come a day where I make that happen?"

And he was like, "No, you got to go for it." He said, "When I came here to work in the fashion business, I would see 20-year-olds hanging out in SoHo wearing black leather dress shoes with jean shorts or something, and they look so natural and cool." He was like, "It's not going to magically happen. You got to commit to it and make it you."

Ian Bradley: I think the right shoe finds you, or you can find the right shoe to make that transition into being a dress shoe wearer.

Janae Pierre: You are here in your penny loafers.

James Ramsay: Yes.

Janae Pierre: One could argue that loafers aren't even dress shoes.

James Ramsay: Right. They could say, "You look like a schoolboy from the '50s."

Janae Pierre: Yes, especially if you put those on with white socks like everyone's doing. I thought that was just a fashion trend. What makes a dress shoe?

James Ramsay: That's a great question. In my head, and I'm not a scientist here, it's like brown or black leather shoes that don't have white rubber soles. As we were talking earlier about stylist Ian Bradley, he was like, people who are good dress shoe wearers, who are natural dress shoe wearers, he said many of them were Doc Marten teens. I think people who learned as 15-year-olds to break in a tough leather shoe and then they just sort of graduate into the world of stiffer and stiffer leather footwear. I mean, to me, a Doc Marten is a dress shoe.

Janae Pierre: Okay, this is where I come in.

James Ramsay: Yes.

Janae Pierre: I was a Doc Marten kid. Love Doc Martens. Moved here, got into the dress sneakers. Do you know what those are?

James Ramsay: Explain it for me.

Janae Pierre: It's what I have on my feet. I'm going to-

James Ramsay: Yes, let's see.

Janae Pierre: -bring it up here.

James Ramsay: All right.

Janae Pierre: All right. We got the wands on a platform. You dress it up a little bit.

James Ramsay: Those just kind of blew my mind. I don't need 10 minutes to think about how to categorize it. Well, how do you categorize? Okay, it's a dress sneaker.

Janae Pierre: It's a dress sneaker. I'm wearing a pair of low-top Nike Air Force 1s with a platform. Then there's a silver cap on the top in the front. Even though there are shoestrings, I think this is a dress sneaker.

James Ramsay: I think you make the rule there.

Janae Pierre: Yes, but I want to go back to the sneaker culture, because it's so heavy here in New York City, and you're talking about the loafer takeover, the dress shoe takeover right now. I'm wondering, do you see sneaker culture going away? Do you see that changing at all?

James Ramsay: No, not at all, because like you said, they look good. They're perfect for walking around. You can express yourself. I mean, God knows you can blow a whole paycheck on a pair of sneakers, but you could really blow a whole paycheck on a good pair of dress shoes.

Janae Pierre: Or an old pair that needs to be resold.

James Ramsay: Or an old pair that needs to be resold. I feel like there's controversy about even going into used dress shoes because somebody else broke them in. It's going to mess up your alignment or something like that. That's a nerdy sidebar.

Janae Pierre: No, something to consider seriously.

James Ramsay: It's something to consider. The obvious answer is, wear what you want. It's fine. I think that, once upon a time, it was simpler because there were dress codes or there were social norms where if you were going to a job in an office, you were wearing dress shoes. Obviously, now, it's a free for all. You should express yourself however you want, and there's no rules.

I went into a shop the other day to try on a pair of loafers that didn't work for me, a place called Cueva in Greenpoint. As I'm standing there trying on these shoes, and I'm talking to the owner, and I was like, "Do you think that there's been any trend recently in people trying to wear more formal footwear or whatever?" He said, "Yes." He said, "I'm in the shop on a Saturday morning. People saunter in here in sweatpants and loafers."

It's not about conforming to some sort of rule thing. It's about people wanting to express themselves, and that can be through sneakers. It could be through dress shoes. It could be flip-flops, if you really want to do that. He said, he was like, "Look, New York City. It's the best dressed city in the world," which is true. He said, "Also, New York City is a judgment-free zone," which is not true. This is a very judgmental city. I appreciated the point, which is like, of course, yes, wear cool sneakers, wear whatever you want, and do it with all your heart and all your mind.

Janae Pierre: I'm just thinking of that because I'm not a sneakerhead, but I do appreciate a good sneaker, especially considering all the walking we do in New York City. I am here for comfort.

James Ramsay: Well, that's the thing, too, is, obviously, unless you're being chauffeured around places, you're putting in miles every day. To do that in a pair of leather shoes is masochistic. It seems like a horrible thing. That said, of course, when I'm walking and I see somebody strutting down the sidewalk in a pair of leather shoes and they're not grimacing, I think of that person. I go, "Man, the work they put in to break those in to get to that next level," I can do nothing but admire it.

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Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's digital producer, James Ramsay. Thanks a lot, James.

James Ramsay: Thanks, Janae.

Janae Pierre: Okay, dear listener, it's time for you to chime in on this one. Do you prefer sneakers or dress shoes? Is it no pain, no gain for a real New Yorker when you're on the subway? What's working out for you? Send us a voice note or a comment to nycnow@wnyc.org. We may use your comment in a future episode.

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