Friday Morning Primary Politics

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Early New York primary voting continues through Sunday with primary day itself next Tuesday. Turnout in many places has reported to be low so far, despite some of the very contentious and high profile Democratic congressional races, including three that pit candidates backed by Mayor Mamdani and the DSA against Democrats who aren't consistent enough with their beliefs. Meanwhile, the death of a teenager in a Central Park horse carriage incident has the existence of that industry facing newly intensified calls for its abolition. This has been a movement in New York City for so long now without results, as many of you know.
I wonder if the city is in a post-Nix Parade hangover this morning. There are questions about whether the city could have handled yesterday's celebration better, at least to accommodate more people. We'll touch on all these things now with Ben Max, program director at New York Law School, Center for New York City and State Law, and host of the Max Politics podcast. Hey Ben, always great to have you on. Welcome back to WNYC.

**Ben Max** (1:18)
Hi Brian. Thanks for having me again.

**Brian Lehrer** (1:20)
Let's do some old business before we get to new business. How did the parade go yesterday from a management standpoint as far as you could tell?

**Ben Max** (1:28)
I think overall it was successful. I do think there are real questions about even understanding the historical significance of using the short Canyon of Heroes route, whether they really should have expanded the route and figure out a way to give more New Yorkers more access and viewpoints to the next parade as it was happening. I think that was a real challenge and miscalculation, and people were turned away, and a lot of people didn't have a great view of the parade going by, who weren't turned away, and so I think that was a real challenge. I think there's a few things circulating around how the police department handled people who needed to get to school or work, and those need to be looked at a little bit closer in terms of those protocols. But I think the biggest question was, could they have extended the route in a way to allow more people to have an up close view? I think that was the biggest challenge of the management of this.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:23)
Yeah. On yesterday's show, in our parade coverage, I cited the past parade's record crowds, according to history.com, five million or more people in a few instances. It couldn't have come close yesterday, despite everyone going crazy for the next. Because those old parades had longer routes, I saw a figure of two million yesterday, which is still massive. But that very short walk from the battery to City Hall is pretty different from what I heard another reporter on our station say yesterday was, in some occasions in the past, all the way up to Central Park. So I don't know if there'll be another one anytime soon, with the demand there was for a next parade. But, you know, those viewing pens were full two and a half hours before the parade even started yesterday and so many people were turned away.
And it was intense on the subways for a little while there. So it was, you know, a great day overall, but it needs to be acknowledged, right?

**Ben Max** (3:22)
Exactly. And I think you also just hit on another piece of it, which is actually the safety element of it. When you extend the route more, you also make it more safe. We had people backed up into the subways in many cases and people, you know, climbing on scaffolding and doing things that might happen anyway, no matter how long the route is. But I think if you extended the route, you'd have more ground to cover if you're the police and other people charged with safety, but you also have an opportunity to spread the people out more. So I think that when the Mets break their curse or the Jets break theirs, and there's a big celebration, you know, we'll have to think about what the route might look like a little differently, perhaps.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:00)
Yeah. And the reason that the mayor said on this show on Monday that he couldn't cancel school on Thursday, like he canceled bedtime for the night games during the finals, was that there were Regents exams being given yesterday. And I heard at least one story of somebody who actually couldn't get to his Regents exam because it was near the parade route and wasn't able to cross from the west side. So we'll see if there are a few makeup tests given as a little side effect of the party, of the parade down the road. But also we saw the continuation of the Mamdani James Dolan Feud play out right on stage there. Dolan threw some very obvious digs at the mayor, I think it's fair to say, and was not enthusiastic about taking a photo with him while the mayor presented him the key to the city. Make anything of that?