NYC Board of Elections steps up training. Will it fix anything?

Plus: How to foster cats and dogs up for adoption [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.]( [NYC Board of Elections steps up training. Will that fix its record of dysfunction?]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: ⛅ Partly sunny and cooler, with highs around 70. It's Tuesday in New York City, where the Board of Elections is no stranger to meltdowns. In 2016, thousands of voters were improperly removed from the voter rolls ahead of the presidential primary. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, the agency sent out more than 100,000 misprinted absentee ballots. And in 2021, during the first citywide primary using ranked-choice voting, the board released flawed preliminary results. But today, 15 election officials — including at least one from each borough — are graduating from a 12-course training program that one expert from NYU called "the gold standard for election administration training." [Here's how it could help](. And here's what else is happening: - Heads up, New Jersey commuters: NJ Transit's mobile app and online ticketing system [was down this morning](. - New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said he [plans to step down early next year]( as Mayor Eric Adams’ administration faces multiple federal investigations involving top officials. - Two men pleaded guilty yesterday to [distributing drugs that killed]( Cecilia Gentili, a well-known advocate for transgender and sex worker rights. - A total of 16 New York City schools have been named National Blue Ribbon award winners, a designation given to schools for their progress in [closing achievement gaps among student groups](. - A growing number of 911 calls involving mental health crises are being routed to B-HEARD, a program that dispatches social workers and EMTs rather than police, but [the NYPD still handles most mental health calls](. - The MTA said yesterday that after the first two weeks of a fare-enforcement blitz on certain bus routes, [paid ridership was 4.6% higher]( on those buses compared to the rest of the system. - The New York attorney general's office said a former Rikers Island correction officer who watched a detainee in severe distress for hours but didn't help [won’t face charges in the man's 2022 death](. - Among the individuals now ensnared in the federal investigations into Mayor Adams' inner circle: former Adams chief-of-staff Frank Carone and Williamsburg priest Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, [whose church was rented out for a Sabrina Carpenter music video shoot]( that upset some Catholic officials. - Dr. Jay Varma, the city's former COVID czar who recently admitted to hosting sex parties in 2020, [was fired yesterday]( from his job at a pharmaceutical company. - Nassau County Republican Rep. Anthony D'Esposito may have violated House ethics rules by giving jobs to both his fiancée’s daughter and [a woman he was having an affair with](. - The Civilian Complaint Review Board, the NYPD's independent watchdog, [is barely able to function]( while five of its 15 seats remain unfilled. - Williamsburg's [Domino Square Public Plaza]( a little egg-shaped plot that'll host an ice skating rink in the winter, [has opened to the public](. - Rockefeller Center has a Jimmy Fallon-branded [haunted house](. - The South Korean Olympic pistol shooter who went viral for her cool eyewear and overall aura [has been cast as an assassin]( in a Korean movie. - Boy, [it's been]( a dry September. [“Guns do not help the situation. Uniforms do not help the situation.”]( - Peggy Herrera, a Queens woman who testified at a hearing in support of [DEPLOYING MORE SOCIAL WORKERS INSTEAD OF POLICE TO MENTAL HEALTH-RELATED 911 CALLS]( More from Gothamist [second image]( [How to foster one of NYC's hundreds of cats and dogs up for adoption]( The nonprofit Animal Care Centers of New York City says most of the roughly 600 animals currently available for adoption are cats and dogs — and many of them will first need foster homes. [Adams made homeless sweeps a priority. Tracking their outcomes? Not so much.]( The Adams administration has blown a May 28 deadline to disclose how many encampment sweeps police and other city workers are conducting and at what cost to taxpayers. [We Rely On Your Support]( [NYPD issues hundreds of jaywalking tickets a year. Vast majority go to people of color.]( "They [police] find any small reasons to lock anybody from non-white communities up. I grew up in Brooklyn, I’ve seen people get ticketed and arrested for jaywalking," said Gladys DeSantiago, a Downtown Brooklyn resident. "Because a jaywalk turns into a stop and frisk, which turns into a whole criminal charge." [Part of Manhattan Waterfront Greenway closes to bicyclists, pedestrians until 2025]( Starting this week, the path is closed from 100th to 125th Streets — a section known as the Cherry Walk that hugs tight to the Hudson River. [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.