Why does NY even bother with a presidential primary now?

Plus: Major NYC compost operation to be booted from Queens site [View this email in a browser.]( Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( [Why does NY even bother with a presidential primary now? It has to do with Andrew Yang.]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: ☔ Rain, with highs in the lower 50s — followed by [three more days of possible rain](. It's Monday in New York City, where polls will open at 6 a.m. tomorrow for a presidential primary in which the Republican and Democratic candidates are already decided. So why is the city's Board of Elections still spending $25 million to hold the contest? [Here's how a 2020 lawsuit brought by Andrew Yang and delegates for Bernie Sanders]( secured primary voters' right to have their voices heard, period. And here's what else is happening: - A five-alarm fire overtook the adjoining residency building of [a Catholic church in East Williamsburg]( on Easter Sunday, the FDNY said. - [Throngs of mourners and uniformed officers]( gathered at a Long Island church on Saturday for the funeral of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller. - New York City is now accepting applications from autonomous vehicle companies to [test AVs on city streets]( (with a driver still behind the wheel). - A dozen judges in New York City and nearby counties have [repeatedly imposed such long criminal sentences]( that higher courts later decided to slash them by a total of more than 1,200 years, according to a new data analysis shared with Gothamist. - Organizers of one of the city’s largest composting sites said the city is [kicking them out of a space beneath the Queensboro Bridge]( to make way for a new park. - Women of color are dying due to [domestic violence]( at an increasing rate in New York City, according to city statistics and experts. - The nurses' strike that was set to begin on Tuesday at Staten Island University Hospital's north campus [has been averted]( after nurses and hospital leaders reached a tentative agreement. - Three city shelters for New Yorkers with severe mental illness struggled to help Carlton McPherson, who allegedly pushed a man to his death on the subway last week, [according to a New York Times investigation](. - A flight from Tel Aviv to Newark last Friday had to be grounded upstate after extreme turbulence caused several passengers to experience [motion sickness-related issues](. - As Mets owner Steve Cohen continues to push for a casino to be built across from Citi Field, a poll commissioned by state Sen. Jessica Ramos of Queens found that 61% of her district's voters don't want a full casino anywhere in the borough and [75% don't want one in their neighborhood](. - The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has been enlisted to figure out why [a strong stench of urine and flatulence]( has been plaguing the area around Albany since last September. - The Yankees beat the Astros yesterday, completing [a four-game sweep]( to start the season. - [Kids these days]( don't know what the "☮︎" sign means. - [Grown-ups these days]( use proper capitalization when they text. - Have some time for a game? [Play]( our mini local news crossword. - Sign up for reminders when we publish new games [here](. [“From my point of view, elections are important. And you have to trade off the cost of having an election where people have to formally vote to confirm the authority of their delegates against the cost of holding it.”]( - Doug Kellner, the former Democratic co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections, on the lawsuit that ensured [WE'D HAVE A PRIMARY NO MATTER WHAT]( More from Gothamist [second image]( [Nuyorican Poets Cafe, an East Village icon, begins a $24M makeover]( The transformed space will include a new main lobby, two theaters instead of one, a garden and dressing rooms. The addition of classrooms will also allow the cafe to reach new audiences and students through workshops. [Law reforming NYC's unsafe private trash industry has been 'undermined,' Brooklyn borough president says]( Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso says the sanitation department is bungling its rollout of landmark reforms to how trash is collected from private businesses across the five boroughs. [We Rely On Your Support]( [Even Beyoncé is in on the Bushwick look. But what exactly is it?]( When images of Beyoncé sporting a mullet and wearing head-to-toe denim appeared in a magazine earlier this month, some fans had strong feelings about her style, which they blamed on Bushwick. [Manhattan drivers fume over congestion pricing tolls to reduce gridlock]( “I think they’re robbing everybody for 15 bucks a day,” griped Borough Park driver Jason Lopez, 47, as he was stuck in Lower Manhattan gridlock on Wednesday, hours after the tolls were approved. “I’d rather take the ferry now.” [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [New York Public Radio] [WNYC]( | [WQXR]( | [NJPR]( | [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( | [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 [TERMS OF USE]( You can update your [PREFERENCES]( or [UNSUBSCRIBE]( from this list.