Winner of Vol. 72, No. 9
What’s inside?
the Pulitzer Prize Thursday, April 8, 2021
$1.00
Good for democracy, or for machines? n Low turnout in special elections help parties get faves into office, expert says By ETHAN STARK-MILLER estarkmiller@riverdalepress.com
Legal weed It’s a new day for many as decades-old laws against marijuana are thrown out. Page A3
If there’s one thing the candidates in the March 23 special election may agree on, it’s that not enough people came out to vote. Barely 9,000 of the district’s 90,000 registered voters cast early, live or absentee ballots in the race. For Mino Lora — who currently sits in second place in the race to replace Councilman Andrew Cohen behind early frontrunner Eric Dinowitz — this low turnout is by design. “I think this is just historically what special elections do,” Lora said. “We knew that very few people were going to go out to vote. The Democratic Party knew there were very few people going out to vote. The Bronx machine knew that.” Dinowitz, a former public school teacher, led live and early voting in the special election with 42 percent, while Lora trailed
HIRAM ALEJANDRO DURÁN
Non-profit executive director Mino Lora says low voter turnout in the special election to replace Andrew Cohen was by design. According to Manhattan College professor Margaret Groarke, these elections are often used by party insiders to push a preferred candidate into office. with 25 percent. Her opponent is the son of longtime Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, and is backed by the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club, which many say is deeply connected to the Bronx Democratic Party machine.
The special election was triggered when Cohen stepped down at the end of last year to become a Bronx Supreme Court judge — an appointment essentially controlled by the Bronx Democrats. Lora and other candidates believe Cohen’s nomination with a
year left on his term was intended to ensure a victory for the younger Dinowitz in a special election. “One of the dirty little secrets in American politics is that — other than presidential elections, where we have managed to break 55 percent a few times in the last couple of elections — we have terrible turnout (in) most of our other elections,” said Margaret Groarke, a political science professor at Manhattan College. Special elections are triggered when an elected official leaves their post early for any number of reasons — including retirement, death or, in this case, ascending to another office. They have particularly low turnout for a couple of key reasons, Groarke said. Specials occur at unusual times of the year — in this case, late March — and actual election dates aren’t even publicly known until the vacancy is announced 80 days before the election. “You know when you’re going to vote for Congress next right now,” Groarke said. “But in December, I couldn’t have told you what day the (city council) special election was.” PARTY MACHINE, page A4
Never letting go again Neighbors
fight to shield their backyards
Blocked progress Fixing the reckless driving issues along Independence Avenue may be much harder than originally thought. Page A7
n Higher density housing is coming, one community leader warns, and it’ll be hard to stop By MICHAEL HINMAN mhinman@riverdalepress.com
Courtesy of Hebrew Home at Riverdale
Pre-K expands It’s never too early to start learning, and Bill de Blasio has a plan to help 3-year-olds get that head start for free. Page A6
It’s something too many have waited far too long to do — hug someone they love. And that’s happening again at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, where plenty of stored up hugs were cashed in beginning March 26, the first day of in-person visits allowed at the Palisade Avenue facility since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, there are still many restrictions for these visits — including the fact they have to take place outside — but for those getting the chance to feel a warm embrace of a family member again, they say it’s worth it.
Mayoral candidates split on role of city’s specialized high schools n Should standardized test alone decide admission to schools like Bronx Science? By ROSE BRENNAN rbrennan@riverdalepress.com
There are only nine of them. And they stand at the forefront of academic excellence, as most of them require a standardized test for admission. No, it’s not the Ivy League. But in the city, these institutions might as well be — at least when it comes to public high schools. These specialized high schools are sprawled out across all five boroughs: Three in Manhattan, two each in the Bronx and Brooklyn, and one each in Queens and Staten Island. And with the exception of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School — which considers auditions and artistic portfolios — they all require prospective students to take the Specialized High School Admissions Test. Some 30,000 junior high students sit for this exam each year, but only a fraction of them will succeed to making it into one of these elite schools. Two specialized schools call the Bronx home: the High School of American Studies and the Bronx High School
HIRAM ALEJANDRO DURÁN
Even among the city’s specialized high schools, the High School of American Studies has an especially low acceptance rate — only 0.3 percent of applicants in September 2019 were admitted. That admission is based solely on Specialized High Schools Admissions Test scores. of Science. Like their sister schools in other boroughs, the SHSAT is essentially the be-all, end-all to gain admission. And while they’re technically open to every prospective public high school student, a good score is vital to actually enroll. That’s thanks to the Hecht-Calandra Act state lawmakers passed in 1971. Admission is contingent not only on SHSAT results, but also a student’s personal preference school ranking. But the 50-year-old law has been the subject of
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tremendous scrutiny over the years, primarily that other admission factors are being overlooked, such as middle school grades and recommendation letters. And many claim the system benefits white students over all others. It’s resulted in what appears to be, at the very least, obvious racial disparities. For example, just 10 Black students were admitted to Stuyvesant High School’s Class of 2024. And according to ChalkSHSAT, page A4
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By the end of this year, Corey Johnson and many of his city council colleagues will head for the door, their time up at City Hall. Yet, the Speaker doesn’t want to make that grand exit without establishing some kind of legacy, and he believes he has found it in a long-term comprehensive planning bill he’s simply called “Planning Together.” But the City Planning Commission believes that while Johnson may indeed be focused on planning, it’s just not something the city council is willing to take on “to‘Nobody gether” when it comes to Intro 2186. knows better The bill “underestimates the importance of what’s going focused, topic-specific on in this planning efforts,” City Planning Commission community chair Marisa Lago told than the Johnson and the council during a December hear- people who ing. That includes efforts to address waterfronts, live in this reducing greenhouse gas community.’ emissions, general envi— Charles ronmental concerns, food policies and resiliency. Moerdler “By trying to roll planning for all issues into a single concurrent process and document, the bill would muffle the voices and priorities of important constituencies who help shape planning for each of these issues,” Lago said, “and dilute the ability to address each issue thoughtfully and equitable.” It also would require the city to develop three planning scenarios for each of the city’s community boards — a process alone Lago said would cost upward of $500 million. Lago warns Intro 2186 is a “top-down” planning bill, meaning decisions would start at the top of the government chain, and then work its way down to individual neighborhoods. At least with the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, reviews of new construction projects start at the community board level. That’s exactly what Community Board 8 land use chair Charles Moerdler says he’s been waiting to hear the City Planning Commission say. “Whether you have a view favorable to that proposal … or you are opposed to it, I can tell you it has had, from my standpoint … the salutary effect of reminding the City Planning Commission that there are community boards, and that there is a need for bottom-up planning, not just top-down,” Moerdler told his committee during its regular monthly meeting Monday night. As development begins to pick up again in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Moerdler said he fears Intro 2186 is just one of several isBACKYARDS, page A4
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