Winner of Vol. 72, No. 7
the Pulitzer Prize
Thursday, March 25, 2021
$1.00
CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL ELECTION — FIRST ROUND
42% ERIC DINOWITZ
25% MINO LORA
15% JESSICA HALLER
13% DAN PADERNACHT
2%
2% CARLTON BERKLEY
KEVIN PAZMINO
Dinowitz grabs early lead, but fate up to rankings n Race’s final days filled with claims of campaign financial improprieties By MICHAEL HINMAN mhinman@riverdalepress.com
It’s now Eric Dinowitz’s race to lose, although he’ll have to wait three weeks or so to find out if he’s going to be the area’s next city councilman. Dinowitz, son of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, captured more than 40 percent of top choices in a race where less than 10 percent of eligible voters participated in. That’s not enough, however, to score an outright win, meaning this race now moves into ranked-choice counting. Once all the absentee votes are re-
What’s inside?
ceived in the coming weeks, the city’s elections board will start the process of elimination, beginning with retired New York Police Department detective Carlton Berkley. Then, one-byone, each of the candidates with the lowest vote total after every round is eliminated until there are just two candidates left. Mino Lora, a non-profit executive director out of Spuyten Duyvil, would need a minor miracle to catch up to Dinowitz. But it could happen — if voters who selected Jessica Haller and Dan Padernacht first ranked Lora higher than they did Dinowitz at a significant rate. Some 1,200 votes separate Dinowitz and Lora — not including absentee ballots — but both Haller and Padernacht have some 2,000 votes between them to offer to Dinowitz and Lora.
The rest of the candidates were ultimately eliminated in reverse order as well, revealing the initial top five would be the final ranking in that race. Whether that will happen in this particular race is still yet to be seen.
‘Claiming we are a slush fund of tens of thousands of dollars is idiotic and ridiculous. This sounds to me like a move of a failing campaign struggling for an issue.’
Haller vs. Heller
— Ben Franklin Club president Michael Heller
Haller had joined Lora to convince voters to make them the top two choices. If that move was successful, Dinowitz could find himself with a much more narrow win at the end — or even possibly in second place behind Lora. If the Queens special election race that ultimately elected Selvena Brooks-Powers to the seat previously held by Donovan Richards is any preview to what might happen in this race,
we may not know a final result until April 15. Yet, even that race hinted the initial count might be a strong indicator ofhow the race will shake out. On election night Feb. 23, Brooks-Powers had just a 200-vote lead over Pesach Osina. But once the additional rounds were over, Brooks-Powers added more than 1,000 votes, while Osina tacked on just under 200.
In the days leading up to Tuesday’s final balloting, Haller hit Dinowitz with her version of a “November surprise.” She filed an official complaint with the New York City Campaign Finance Board charging that both Dinowitz and the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club were not fully disclosing inkind contributions and expenditures related to the race to fill Andrew Cohen’s former seat. “Any political organization in New SPECIAL ELECTION, page A4
Ready for bridge toll rebate? Not quite yet n Assemblyman blames COVID budget crisis for delay in launching program By ETHAN STARK-MILLER estarkmiller@riverdalepress.com
Passover changes COVID wasn’t too kind to those observing the annual holiday, but this year is going to be a little different. Page A3
PLUS:
Will the book store return to Riverdale? Page A8
Remember way back in 2019 when Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz made crossing the Henry Hudson Bridge free for Bronx motorists with an E-ZPass? It was supposed to kick in a year ago. And those still paying the toll may wonder what happened. The answer, Dinowitz said, is simple: The coronavirus pandemic made the bottom fall on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s budget. “But I think most reasonable people — in fact, all reasonable people — understand that the fisDANNY PEARLSTEIN cal catastrophe that was created by the pandemic changed a lot of things,” Dinowitz said. “Including this.” And there is no current timetable when the rebate might start. “The only things I can tell people when they ask is that it’s my expectation that at some point in the future — without giving the dates, and I know that’s not satisfying to people, but it’s the best I can do — this program will be put into effect,” the Assemblyman said. The rebate was supposed to allow any drivers of cars and E-ZPass accounts registered in the Bronx to have any toll incurred
JULIUS CONSTANTINE MOTAL / File
Transit advocate Danny Pearlstein says the Henry Hudson Bridge toll rebate, supported by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, might actually help the city buses move more efficiently by lessening traffic on the Broadway Bridge. As with many of the MTA’s projects, this rebate program for Bronx residents was delayed indefinitely because of the budget hole caused by the coronavirus pandemic. while crossing the Henry Hudson Bridge immediately refunded. Money for the rebate would come from the MTA’s Outer Borough Transportation Account — raised from a surcharge on ride-hail vehicles like Uber, Lyft and taxis operating below Manhattan’s 96th Street to fund transit projects in the outer boroughs. But once the pandemic hit, ride-hail
ridership plummeted, Dinowitz said, and there wasn’t enough revenue flowing into the outer borough fund to support the rebate. Even today, with the slow reopening, there’s still only a small fraction of the money coming in compared to before the pandemic. The MTA had to put this and other related transit programs on the shelf in-
definitely, Dinowitz said, until the agency solves its cashflow problems. Until recently, the MTA was on the brink of financial collapse. That is until President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law, which not only delivered assistance checks to many households, but also delivered more than $6 BRIDGE TOLL, page A4
Biden administration ‘testing’ waters at schools on state level n Leaving decision at a local level proves divisive here and D.C. By ROSE BRENNAN rbrennan@riverdalepress.com
Like it or not, standardized testing has become an integral part of the American school landscape. But when a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic hits the country, some things needed to temporarily take a back seat — and testing wasn’t immune. It wasn’t safe for many state
and federal standardized tests to take place at the height of the coronavirus pandemic last year. New York canceled its Regents exams last June, and did it again this past January. And many colleges made testing optional when it came to admission decisions, meaning any student not able to take tests like the SAT, ACT, and Advanced Placement exams wouldn’t be penalized. But the tide may be shifting when it comes to the role of standardized testing during the pandemic. And probably to the chagrin of many students — and teachers — the Biden adminis-
SOLD & CLOSED Call for more information
309 WEST 259TH STREET ANNE SHAHMOON // 914.262.5679 ELLEN FELD // 917.734.9463
tration has opened the door for states to bring end-of-year standardized tests back. It’s not a door the Board of Regents is walking through, however, It voted unanimously to cancel the majority of its exams, leaving only English and language arts, math, earth science and living environment subjects on the table. For those tests that do return, they might not look the same as usual. The federal government is allowing some wiggle room for how those tests are administered — including delaying them until summer or fall, administering TESTING, page A4
HIRAM ALEJANDRO DURÁN
Many state and federal standardized tests were canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. This time, those fretting over the tests won’t prove as lucky, as President Biden gave states the go-ahead to move forward with testing.