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      Searching for Motives in the Atlanta Shootings

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      Readers discuss the role that religion and sexual guilt may have played. Also: Who should be mayor of New York; the decline of air travel.More from our inbox:Elect the Best Person as Mayor of New YorkWho Needs Air Travel?Three women were killed on Tuesday at the Gold Spa in Atlanta.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Racism and Sexism Shadow Many Interactions for Asian-American Women” (news article, March 19):Two-thirds of the way into this piece, The Times finally offers the beginning of wisdom on the Atlanta shootings: “Very little is known about the motives of the Atlanta gunman.”Yet the story has already been pervasively framed primarily as a case of anti-Asian violence and of violence against women. Many observations about the disturbing rise of anti-Asian violence over the past year have been adduced, as if these findings explained the Atlanta shooter’s actions. But they cannot be so used.Anti-Asian animus and misogyny may well have played a role in the gunman’s twisted thinking. But there are good reasons to think that his reported distress about his sexual proclivities and his church’s moral teachings will prove to be an important part of the story as well.Unfortunately, the race and gender framing of the story is now so reflexive and ingrained that it may never be possible for the country to understand the tragedy in Atlanta.John TorpeyMontclair, N.J.The writer is a professor of sociology and history at the CUNY Graduate Center.To the Editor:Re “Sex and Guilt Defined Life of a Suspect” (front page, March 19):Sorting out the factors that contributed to the murders at Atlanta massage parlors, we must not ignore the role likely played by Robert Aaron Long’s religious background. By inculcating in him an extreme opinion that premarital sex is a sin, his religious upbringing made him feel that the normal sexual strivings of any young male make that person a sinner. This caused unbearable guilt when he succumbed to his sexual urges.There needs to be a more enlightened attitude toward premarital sex among those religious extremists. Sexual relations between two consenting adults should not be regarded as a sin or as a crime. Until this becomes universally accepted, expect to see more conflicted young men like Mr. Long act out their sexual conflicts via violence.Harvey M. BermanWhite Plains, N.Y.The writer is a psychiatrist.To the Editor:Re “Asian-Americans Ask: Why Not Call It Hate?” (front page, March 19):Quick question: How many people demanding increased investigation and prosecution of anti-Asian hate crimes supported last year’s protests to “defund the police”?They can’t have it both ways. If you want more enforcement of hate-crime laws, you’ll need more money. It doesn’t grow on trees.Jonathan ZimmermanPhiladelphiaThe writer teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania.Elect the Best Person as Mayor of New YorkKathryn Garcia, center, the former sanitation commissioner, was one of the first mayoral candidates to urge Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign.Mike Segar/ReutersTo the Editor:Re “Women Running for Mayor Say Cuomo Shows Need for Change” (front page, March 18):The best person — be it he, she or they — should be elected mayor of this city, which desperately needs to be brought back from its current state.Frankly, it is insulting to women to promote the idea that one should vote for a woman just because she is a woman. In my view, this city needs someone who comes in with a record of excellent administrative experience, actually getting things done.If the best person for mayor happens to be a man, then that man should be elected and, moreover, should also be held to an “inclusive style of leadership” and “not rely on bullying.” You can have both.Ellyn S. RothNew YorkWho Needs Air Travel?Many airlines, including United, American, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, began running flights only to haul cargo after the pandemic began and commercial passenger travel plummeted.Sebastian Hidalgo for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Do You Really Need to Fly?,” by Farhad Manjoo (column, March 15):Back in the ’90s I flew to Chicago from New York for a one-day meeting at the O’Hare Hilton. I got off the plane, and walked through the terminal and into the hotel. After the meeting I left the hotel, walked through the terminal and boarded my return flight.My friends asked me how Chicago was. I told them that I had no idea, as I had never even been outside.Charlie PerrinLeesburg, Fla.To the Editor:Farhad Manjoo’s points against “gratuitous business travel” apply to academic travel as well.The Zoom conferences I attended this past year promoted a focus on ideas, bypassing not only tedious air travel but also the tedious pseudo-socializing that often infests in-person academic conferences.After a session of philosophical discussion, I was delighted to socialize with my cat rather than with someone bent on professional advancement.Felicia Nimue AckermanProvidence, R.I.The writer is a professor of philosophy at Brown University. More

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      The Unlikely Issue Upending France: Meatless School Lunches

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      The Green party mayor of Lyon, a gastronomic capital, introduced no-meat menus in schools. Let the anguish begin.LYON — Grégory Doucet, the mild-mannered Green party mayor of Lyon, hardly seems a revolutionary. But he has upended France by announcing last month that elementary school lunch menus for 29,000 Lyonnais children would no longer include meat.An outrage! An ecological diktat that could signal the end of French gastronomy, even French culture! Ministers in President Emmanuel Macron’s government clashed. If Lyon, the city of beef snouts and pigs’ ears, of saucisson and kidneys, could do such a thing, the apocalypse was surely imminent.“The reaction has been quite astonishing,” Mr. Doucet, 47, said.He is a slight man whose mischievous mien and goatee gives him the air of one of Dumas’s three musketeers. A political neophyte elected last year, he clearly finds it a little ludicrous that he, an apostle of less, should end up with more, sitting beneath a 25-foot ceiling in a cavernous mayor’s office adorned with brocade and busts of his forbears. That tweaking a local school menu has split the nation leaves him incredulous.“My decision was purely pragmatic,” he insisted, eyes twinkling — a means to speed up lunches in socially distanced times by offering a single menu rather than the traditional choice of two dishes.“My decision was purely pragmatic,” said the mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet.Andrea Mantovani for The New York TimesNot so, thundered Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister. He tweeted that dropping meat was an “unacceptable insult to French farmers and butchers” that betrays “an elitist and moralist” attitude. Julien Denormandie, the agriculture minister, called the mayor’s embrace of the meatless lunch “shameful from a social point of view” and “aberrational from a nutritional point of view.”All of which prompted Barbara Pompili, the minister of ecological transition, to speak of the “prehistoric” views, full of “hackneyed clichés,” of these men, in effect calling two of her cabinet colleagues Neanderthals.This heated exchange over little illustrated several things. Mr. Macron’s government and party, La République en Marche, remain an uneasy marriage of right and left. The rising popularity of the Greens, who run not only Lyon but also Bordeaux and Grenoble, has sharpened a cultural clash between urban environmental crusaders and the defenders of French tradition in the countryside.Not least, nothing gets the French quite as dyspeptic as disagreement over food.The mayor, it must be said, made his move in a city with an intense gastronomic tradition. At the Boucherie François on the banks of the Rhône, a centennial establishment, Lyon’s culture of meat is on ample display. The veal liver and kidneys glistened; cuts of roast beef wrapped in pork fat abounded; the heads of yellow and white chickens lolled on a counter; the saucissons, some with pistachio, took every cylindrical form; the pastry-wrapped pâté showed off a core of foie gras; and pigs’ trotters and ears betrayed this city’s carnivorous inclinations.“The mayor made a mistake,” said François Teixeira, a butcher who has worked at François for 19 years. “This is not good for Lyon’s image.”François Teixeira at his butcher shop in Lyon. “The mayor made a mistake,” he said.Andrea Mantovani for The New York TimesCertainly, the mayor’s decision came at a sensitive moment. The right in France has expressed indignation that the country is being force-marched, through politically correct environmental dogmatism, toward a future of bicycles, electric cars, veganism, locavores, negative planet-saving growth and general joylessness — something at a very far cry from stuffing goose livers for personal delectation.Last year, Pierre Hurmic, the Green party mayor of Bordeaux, touched a nerve when he rejected the city’s traditional Christmas tree because it’s “a dead tree.” Mr. Doucet’s culinary move was part of “an ideological agenda,” the right-wing weekly Valeurs Actuelles proclaimed in a cover story. “The canteens of Lyon were just a pretext.”Mr. Doucet, who describes himself as a “flexitarian,” or someone who favors vegetables but also eats a little meat, argues that the Education Ministry forced his hand. By doubling social distancing at schools to two meters, or more than six feet, it obliged the mayor to accelerate lunch by offering just one dish.“There’s a mathematical equation,” he said. “You have the same number of tables, but you have to put fewer children at them, and you can’t start the lunch break at 10 a.m.”But why nix meat? The mayor, who has a 7-year-old in elementary school, rolled his eyes. “We have not gone to a vegetarian menu! Every day, the children can eat fish or eggs.” Because a significant number of students already did not eat meat, he said, “we just took the lowest common denominator.”It was not, Mr. Doucet said, an ideological decision, even if he aims over his six-year term to adjust school menus toward “a greater share of vegetable proteins.”The mayor continued: “Most of the time these days there’s not much choice. You don’t have the choice to go to a museum, or to the theater, or to the cinema. It’s indecent for the right-wing opposition to say that I am trampling on our liberties in the context of a state of emergency.”A portrait of Paul Bocuse, one of France’s most celebrated chefs, in Lyon.Andrea Mantovani for The New York TimesMr. Macron has adopted a balancing act between his embrace of a Green future and, as he put it last year, his rejection of “the Amish model” for France. The president tries to differentiate rational from punitive or extreme environmentalism.The president, casting his net wide as usual ahead of regional elections in June, wants to appeal to conservative farmers while attracting some of the Green vote. During a recent visit to a farm, he attacked attempts to forge a new agriculture based on “invective, bans and demagoguery.” In an apparent allusion to the Lyon fiasco, he has said “good sense” should prevail in balanced children’s diets and noted that, “We lose a lot of time in idiotic divisions.”His government has proposed a Constitutional amendment, the first since 2008, that, if approved in a referendum, would add a sentence to the effect that France “guarantees the preservation of the environment and biological diversity and fights against climate change.”The right has expressed opposition to the change. It still has to be reviewed by the right-leaning Senate. Another bill sets out possible reforms for a greener future that include banning advertisements for fossil fuels and eliminating some short-haul domestic flights.Mr. Doucet is unimpressed. “Macron is not an ecologist. He is a modern conservative. He knows there’s a problem, so he is ready to make some changes, but he does not measure the size of the problem. Can you tell me one strong step he has taken?”For now, the meatless Lyon school lunches are still being served. Children seem just fine. Last week, a Lyon administrative court rejected an attempt by some parents, agricultural unions and local conservative politicians to overturn the mayor’s decision, ruling that the “temporary simplification” of school menus did not pose a health risk to children.Mr. Doucet says that when the health crisis eases, but not before, he will be able to offer a choice of school menus again, including meat. Meanwhile, Mr. Denormandie, the agriculture minister, has asked the prefect in the Lyon area to look into the legality of dropping meat.Eggs and fish are still being served in school canteens in Lyon.Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times“Mr. Denormandie’s accusation that we are antisocial is a lie,” Mr. Doucet told me. “He said we were denying meat to the poorest people with the most precarious existences, which is false. He should have been fired at once.”Boris Charetiers, a member of a parents’ association, said the mayor was being closely watched. “We are vigilant,” he said. “We don’t want this to be a definitive decision. Our children cannot be hostages to ecological political conviction.”As for Mr. Teixeira, the butcher, he cast his eye appreciatively over the vast selection of meat. “We have canine teeth for a reason,” he said.Gaëlle Fournier contributed reporting from Paris. More

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      Will Cuomo’s Scandals Pave the Way for New York’s First Female Mayor?

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      The women running for mayor have sharply criticized Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as sexual harassment allegations pile up against him, and they say they offer a different style of leadership.In the race to become mayor of New York, there is a glass ceiling, unbroken but not unmentioned by the several women running for the position this year: The city has had 109 mayors, not one of them a woman.So at gatherings like a recent fund-raiser for Kathryn Garcia, a Democratic hopeful, that barrier has been top of mind.The online fund-raiser, which was attended by dozens of women, many of them veterans of city government, was held last week on International Women’s Day. But Ms. Garcia’s mission was particularly relevant for another reason, too: Earlier that day, two high-powered lawyers were named to lead an independent investigation of sexual harassment accusations made against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.It was a moment that Ms. Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, leaned into.“New York’s governor is reminding us it is time to see more women in positions of power,” Ms. Garcia told the group. “In 2021, there is no right man for the job of mayor.”The women running for mayor have all touched upon the historic nature of their political campaigns, highlighting it in fund-raising pitches and on social media.And more recently, they have underscored the need to end the male-dominated political culture that gave rise to the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Mr. Cuomo.Many of the governor’s strongest critics have been women. Two Democrats, Ms. Garcia and Maya Wiley, were among the first mayoral hopefuls to urge Mr. Cuomo to resign. A third, Dianne Morales, has called for his impeachment.With only three months left until the June 22 Democratic primary for mayor, the political world is abuzz over Mr. Cuomo’s scandals. Two of the race’s more prominent male candidates, Andrew Yang and Eric Adams, have taken a more cautious approach to addressing Mr. Cuomo’s political straits, only recently saying that he should step aside until the investigations are complete.The governor’s problems have given the female candidates more ammunition to make their case that it is time for a woman to lead New York City.They have rebuked Mr. Cuomo and shared their stories of sexual harassment and sexism in politics. And they have argued that they would offer a more inclusive style of leadership than Mr. Cuomo, one that empowers staffers and does not rely on bullying.Ms. Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio and the former head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, who is the strongest female candidate in the polls and fund-raising, has called on the men in the race to join her in urging Mr. Cuomo to resign.“It is clear that this is a man who behaves this way,” Ms. Wiley said. “This isn’t a single mistake. This isn’t a misinterpretation. This is a set of behaviors, and this is who he is.”Maya Wiley, center, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, has also called on Mr. Cuomo to step down. Mary Altaffer/Associated PressPolitical experts have many theories about why New York is such a difficult environment for women running for office, from overt sexism to machine politics and the challenges of raising large amounts of money.Ruth W. Messinger, a former Manhattan borough president, said she experienced all three hurdles in 1997, when she ran as the Democratic nominee against the Republican incumbent, Rudolph W. Giuliani.Voters said she was unattractive, unions were “bastions of male domination,” and men were reluctant to donate to her, she said in an interview. During a focus group, Ms. Messinger recalled, a man commented, “I would never date her.”She would meet with major donors and thought it went well, and then husbands told their wives to write a check.“The women wrote smaller checks,” Ms. Messinger said.In the 2013 mayoral race, Christine Quinn, the former New York City Council speaker, had been a front-runner, but she lost to Mr. de Blasio in the Democratic primary after some voters said they found her unlikable — a word deeply influenced by gender bias and often a sexist trope, researchers on women and politics say. Ms. Quinn was also closely linked to the incumbent, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose popularity had fallen after three terms.Ms. Quinn said she wished she had been more authentic and embraced her brusque reputation.“That’s probably exactly what you want in the mayor of New York — a bitch with a big heart, and I’m both,” she said.Major cities like Chicago and Houston saw voters elect their first female mayors in the 1970s and ’80s. Women now run 27 of the nation’s 100 largest cities, including Lori Lightfoot in Chicago and Keisha Lance Bottoms in Atlanta.New York also has never had a female governor, with the state decades behind more conservative states like Texas and Alabama in electing a woman. But if Mr. Cuomo were to resign or be removed from office, a woman — Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul — would succeed him.“The larger point here is that Cuomo’s behavior unfortunately isn’t isolated — it’s a symptom of a culture that can be toxic for women, not just in Albany but at City Hall,” said Marti Speranza Wong, executive director of Amplify Her, a group that works to elect women. “We can’t really expect an environment that is supportive of women if we don’t have women in positions of power.”Female candidates in New York and beyond have been encouraged by the success of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose upset primary victory in 2018 over the Democratic incumbent, Joseph Crowley, demonstrated how women can go around party officials to reach voters directly.“Machine politics is a machine that was built by and for men,” Ms. Morales said. “In New York City, I’m not sure we’re as progressive as we like to think we are.”Of the leading female candidates this year, two are women of color: Ms. Wiley, who is Black, and Ms. Morales, a former nonprofit executive, who is Afro-Latina.The women in the Democratic primary are focusing on different issues: Ms. Morales is running to the left of the field and wants to cut $3 billion from the police budget; Ms. Wiley has emphasized her civil rights background and a plan to create 100,000 jobs; Ms. Garcia has highlighted her experience in government and wants to improve basic services and quality of life in the city. (Another female candidate, Loree Sutton, a retired Army brigadier general, dropped out of the Democratic race last week.)As the candidates continue to make appearances in an endless series of online forums, the women seem to be forming a bond. At one forum where candidates were asked to pick a second choice for mayor, Ms. Wiley and Ms. Morales named each other.Ms. Morales said she felt strongly that it was time for a woman of color to be elected.“There’s a level of solidarity that we all feel toward each other, and a recognition of the barriers and obstacles that we’re overcoming on a daily basis just to be in this space,” she said.Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive, said she felt strongly that it was time for a woman of color to be elected.Laylah Amatullah Barrayn for The New York TimesThe women’s response to the allegations against the governor illustrate that common ground.Ms. Wiley, a former MSNBC analyst with a loyal following on social media, took to Instagram last month and called Mr. Cuomo’s behavior disgusting. She shared in a video that a boss had once asked her if she believed in monogamy.In an interview, Ms. Wiley provided further details: She was a young lawyer alone in his office where he told her that he was open to multiple partners.“I looked this man dead in the eye and said, ‘Yeah, I believe in monogamy,’” she said. “I said it with a particular attitude — let me say that — and my attitude was, ‘Really, dude? Did you just ask me that question?’”“This is why when you hear Charlotte Bennett’s story, you know exactly what they’re asking you,” she said in reference to a female staffer who accused Mr. Cuomo of trying to groom her for a sexual relationship. “You’re being asked if you’re willing.”Many of the comments on Ms. Wiley’s Instagram video were supportive. Others said she was jumping the gun and told her to “be quiet” and “shut up.”Ms. Morales said that news reports about Mr. Cuomo’s treatment of women reminded her of a job she had while she was in her 20s.“I’ve experienced a male boss closing the door in a small office and backing me into a corner and screaming at me at the top of his lungs and then storming out, and people surrounding me to see if I was OK,” she said.Sara Tirschwell, a former Wall Street executive who is running in the Republican mayoral primary, once filed a sexual harassment complaint against her boss, and has also called on Mr. Cuomo to resign. She quotes Maya Angelou on her campaign website: “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it, possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”While women have made strides in state legislatures and Congress, some voters still cannot picture a woman as president, governor or mayor, said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.“When you’re the place where the buck stops, there needs to be a sense of strength and authority,” Ms. Walsh said. “That has been one of the challenges that women have faced — the stereotype that women aren’t strong or tough enough.”That stereotype particularly rankles Ms. Garcia, who served as Mr. de Blasio’s go-to crisis manager, taking on the top job at the New York City Housing Authority and running the city’s pandemic meal program.She said that people constantly underestimate her as she runs for mayor, and some have suggested she would make a great deputy mayor.“It’s frustrating that you’re considered the most qualified for the job and are pigeonholed that you should be a less-qualified guy’s No. 2,” she said. 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      A Woman Leading N.Y.C.? This Could Be the Year.

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      [Want to get New York Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.]It’s Thursday. Weather: Heavy rain in the afternoon, with a high near 50. It’ll get gusty in the evening, and watch out for snow overnight. Alternate-side parking: In effect until March 28 (Passover).Maya Wiley.Eduardo Munoz/ReutersNew York City has had 109 mayors. So far, not one has been a woman.That glass ceiling may finally shatter in this year’s election. There are three strong female candidates for the Democratic nomination, and all have suggested that the testosterone-fueled political culture that is the backdrop for the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo makes a strong case for electing the city’s first female mayor.“New York’s governor is reminding us it is time to see more women in positions of power,” Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, said at a recent fund-raiser for her mayoral campaign. “In 2021, there is no right man for the job of mayor.”[The women running for mayor have sharply criticized the governor.]Here’s what you need to know:The candidatesTwo other women are running in the Democratic primary for mayor in addition to Ms. Garcia. (Another, Sara Tirschwell, is running in the Republican primary.)The two Democrats are Maya Wiley, former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio and former chair of the Civilian Complaint Review Board; and Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive.Ms. Wiley, the strongest female candidate in the polls and fund-raising, has emphasized a plan to create 100,000 jobs. Ms. Morales wants to cut $3 billion from the police budget. Ms. Garcia is focusing on improving basic services and quality of life in the city.All three have shared their stories of sexual harassment and sexism, and argued that they would offer a more inclusive style of leadership. People who have worked in Mr. Cuomo’s office have described it as toxic, especially for young women.All three candidates have taken a hard line against the governor: Ms. Morales called for his impeachment, while Ms. Garcia and Ms. Wiley called on him to resign.The historyOvert sexism, machine politics and the challenges of raising large amounts of money are just some of the barriers that prevent women from running for office in New York, political experts said.Those issues and others bedeviled the candidacies of two women who ran unsuccessfully for mayor relatively recently, Ruth W. Messinger and Christine Quinn.“Machine politics is a machine that was built by and for men,” Ms. Morales told my colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons, the City Hall bureau chief.If Mr. Cuomo leaves office, New York State will break another glass ceiling: Kathy Hochul, his lieutenant governor, would become the first woman to lead the state.From The TimesAsian-Americans Are Being Attacked. Why Are Hate Crime Charges So Rare?A Father’s Gift to a Mayoral Candidate: A $1 Million Super PACNew York Renters in Covid Hot Spots Are Four Times More Likely to Face EvictionModernist Horse Sculptures Removed by City Housing AgencySt. Patrick’s Day in New York, a Year LaterWant more news? Check out our full coverage.The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.What we’re readingGov. Andrew M. Cuomo said yesterday that indoor fitness classes will be able to reopen at 33 percent capacity next Monday. [New York Post]The mayoral candidate Andrew Yang called for the New York Police Department’s Asian Hate Crime Task Force to be fully funded after Atlanta-area shootings killed six women of Asian descent. [Politico New York]A man from Dutchess County was fined $5,000 after pleading guilty to illegally raising sharks in his basement to sell over the internet. [Fox 5 NY]And finally: After a summer off, Shakespeare could return to Central Park Last year, for the first summer since 1962, no players graced the stage at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater.But on Tuesday my colleague Michael Paulson reported that the Public Theater announced that it hoped to resume Shakespeare in the Park, the free performances of the bard’s works that have become a beloved city tradition.This year, the theater is planning just one Shakespeare in the Park production, “Merry Wives,” a 12-actor, intermission-free version of “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” It would have an eight-week run starting in July instead of the usual two-play season beginning in May..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-rqynmc{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-rqynmc{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-rqynmc strong{font-weight:600;}.css-rqynmc em{font-style:italic;}.css-yoay6m{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-yoay6m{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-1pd7fgo{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1pd7fgo{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-1pd7fgo:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1pd7fgo{border:none;padding:20px 0 0;border-top:1px solid #121212;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-coqf44{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-coqf44 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-coqf44 em{font-style:italic;}.css-coqf44 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-coqf44 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#333;text-decoration-color:#333;}.css-coqf44 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}According to the plans, the show, which is being adapted by Jocelyn Bioh and will be directed by Saheem Ali, will be set in Harlem and imagine Falstaff as an African-American seeking to romance two married immigrants from West Africa.“We’re really centering BIPOC stories, but we’re also bringing Black joy to the front,” Mr. Ali told me in an interview, using the acronym for Black, Indigenous and people of color.Things will be different this summer because of the pandemic, but exactly how remains to be seen. Audiences will be smaller — Mr. Ali said that under current state rules, about 450 spectators would be allowed to attend each performance at the outdoor Delacorte, instead of the usual 1,800 or so.The actors face different challenges, Mr. Ali said, and the Public will have to follow Actors’ Equity Association safety guidelines in order to stage the show.Does that mean the actors will need to be vaccinated? Kept in an N.B.A.-style bubble? Forced to soliloquize through masks?Mr. Ali said that it was too soon to say for sure, but that he thought incorporating the safety regulations into the play could make the show feel more immediate.“I’m looking at those restrictions, and looking at them as opportunities instead of obstacles,” Mr. Ali said.It’s Thursday — take the stage.Metropolitan Diary: First day out Dear Diary:Nothing could prepare a timid young woman from a small Southern town for a move to Manhattan, but I knew two things: that I would be a full-time student at New York University and that I had to find a job to pay my portion of the rent.On my first day of job-hunting, I put on my ivory-colored linen suit and took the subway from West 86th Street to Times Square.About halfway there, the woman who was sitting next to me told me in a thick accent that I had a spot on the back of my skirt.“You must’ve sat in something,” she said. “It looks horrible.”Stellar first day out, I thought.When I got off the train, I was thinking desperately about what to do when I heard the woman yelling.“Maybe just turn it around,” she shouted.My first stop was a dry cleaner. Sure, the man there said, expressionless, when I asked if he could help: Leave the skirt and pick it up tomorrow.No, thank you, I stammered before hurrying out the door.Deciding to take my subway mate’s advice, I turned the skirt around so that the spot was squarely over the middle of my lap. What choice did I have? I had 20 minutes to spare and four blocks to go to get to my interview.I managed to obscure the spot with my large bag for the rest of the day. In the end, it was a conversation starter, and I left my interview with a job offer and a little insight that would come in handy for my many adventures in the city.— Victoria JamesNew York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com.What would you like to see more (or less) of? Email us: nytoday@nytimes.com. More

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      Francia está dispuesta a salvar el planeta. Pero no a costa de la carne

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      El alcalde de Lyon, una capital del mundo gastronómico, decidió introducir un menú sin carne en las escuelas. Y así empezó un debate acalorado en el país.LYON, Francia — Grégory Doucet, el afable alcalde de Lyon y miembro del Partido Verde, no parece un revolucionario. Pero ha puesto patas arriba a Francia al anunciar el mes pasado que los menús de las escuelas primarias para 29.000 niños lioneses ya no incluirán carne.¡Un escándalo! Un decreto ecológico que podría marcar el fin de la gastronomía francesa, ¡incluso de la cultura francesa! Los ministros del gobierno del presidente de Francia, Emmanuel Macron, se enfrentaron. Si Lyon, la ciudad del hocico de ternera y las orejas de cerdo, del saucisson y los riñones, podía hacer algo así, el apocalipsis era sin duda inminente.“La reacción ha sido bastante sorprendente”, dijo Doucet, de 47 años.Es un hombre delgado, con un aire pícaro y una barba de chivo que le da el aspecto de uno de los tres mosqueteros de Dumas. Como neófito político elegido el año pasado, está claro que le parece un poco ridículo que él, un apóstol de lo menos, acabe teniendo más, sentado bajo un techo de siete metros en una cavernosa oficina de alcalde adornada con brocados y bustos de sus predecesores. El hecho de que la modificación de un menú escolar local haya dividido a la nación lo deja incrédulo.“Mi decisión fue puramente pragmática”, insistió, con los ojos brillantes: un medio para agilizar los almuerzos en tiempos de distanciamiento social ofreciendo un único menú en lugar de la tradicional elección de dos platillos.“Mi decisión fue puramente pragmática”, dijo el alcalde de Lyon, Grégory Doucet.Andrea Mantovani para The New York TimesNo es así, bramó Gérald Darmanin, el ministro del Interior. Tuiteó que la eliminación de la carne era un “insulto inaceptable a los agricultores y carniceros franceses” que delata una actitud “elitista y moralista”. Julien Denormandie, el ministro de Agricultura, calificó de “vergonzoso desde el punto de vista social” y “aberrante desde el punto de vista nutricional” la adopción del alcalde del almuerzo sin carne.Todo ello llevó a Barbara Pompili, ministra de Transición Ecológica, a hablar de los puntos de vista “prehistóricos”, llenos de “clichés trillados”, de estos hombres, llamando neandertales a dos de sus colegas de gabinete.Esta discusión acalorada por poco ilustra varias cosas. El gobierno y el partido de Macron, La République en Marche, siguen siendo un matrimonio incómodo de derecha e izquierda. La creciente popularidad de los Verdes, que dirigen no solo Lyon sino también Burdeos y Grenoble, ha agudizado un choque cultural entre los cruzados ecologistas urbanos y los defensores de la tradición francesa en el campo.Y no hay nada que ponga a los franceses tan malhumorados como el desacuerdo sobre la comida.Hay que decir que el alcalde hizo su jugada en una ciudad con una intensa tradición gastronómica. En la Boucherie François, a orillas del Ródano, un establecimiento centenario, la cultura lionesa de la carne está muy presente. El hígado y los riñones de ternera brillan; abundan los cortes de ternera asada envueltos en grasa de cerdo; las cabezas de pollos amarillos y blancos reposan sobre un mostrador; los saucissons, algunos con pistacho, adoptan todas las formas cilíndricas; el paté envuelto en hojaldre luce un núcleo de foie gras; y las manitas y orejas de cerdo delatan las inclinaciones carnívoras de esta ciudad.“El alcalde se equivocó”, afirma François Teixeira, carnicero que trabaja en François desde hace 19 años. “Esto no es bueno para la imagen de Lyon”.François Teixeira en su carnicería en Lyon. “El alcalde se equivocó”; dijo.Andrea Mantovani para The New York TimesCiertamente, la decisión del alcalde llega en un momento delicado. La derecha francesa ha expresado su indignación por el hecho de que el país esté siendo conducido a la fuerza, a través de un dogmatismo medioambiental políticamente correcto, hacia un futuro de bicicletas, autos eléctricos, veganismo, localívoros, crecimiento negativo para salvar al planeta y falta de alegría en general, algo que está muy lejos de rellenar hígados de ganso para deleite personal.El año pasado, Pierre Hurmic, alcalde de Burdeos por el Partido Verde, tocó una fibra sensible cuando rechazó el tradicional árbol de Navidad de la ciudad porque es “un árbol muerto”. La medida culinaria de Doucet formaba parte de “una agenda ideológica”, proclamaba el semanario de derecha Valeurs Actuelles en un artículo de portada. “Los comedores escolares de Lyon eran solo un pretexto”.Doucet, quien se describe a sí mismo como “flexitariano”, es decir, alguien que prefiere las verduras, pero que también come un poco de carne, sostiene que el Ministerio de Educación lo obligó a hacerlo. Al duplicar el distanciamiento social en las escuelas a dos metros, o más de dos metros, obligó al alcalde a acelerar el almuerzo ofreciendo un solo plato.“Es una ecuación matemática”, dijo. “Tienes el mismo número de mesas, pero tienes que poner menos niños en ellas, y no puedes empezar la pausa del almuerzo a las 10 a. m.”.Pero ¿por qué suprimir la carne? El alcalde, que tiene un hijo de siete años en la escuela primaria, puso los ojos en blanco. “¡No hemos pasado a un menú vegetariano! Todos los días, los niños pueden comer pescado o huevos”. Como un número importante de alumnos ya no comía carne, dijo, “simplemente tomamos el mínimo común denominador”.No fue, dijo Doucet, una decisión ideológica, aunque su objetivo a lo largo de su mandato sea ajustar los menús escolares hacia “una mayor proporción de proteínas vegetales”.El alcalde continuó: “Hoy en día, la mayoría de las veces no hay muchas opciones. No tienes la opción de ir a un museo, o al teatro, o al cine. Es indecente que la oposición de derecha diga que estoy pisoteando nuestras libertades en el contexto de un estado de emergencia”.Un retrato en Lyon de Paul Bocuse, uno de los chefs más reconocidos de Francia.Andrea Mantovani para The New York TimesMacron ha adoptado un acto de equilibrio entre su abrazo a un futuro verde y, como dijo el año pasado, su rechazo al “modelo Amish” para Francia. El presidente trata de diferenciar el ecologismo racional del punitivo o extremo.El presidente, que como es habitual tiende una red muy amplia de cara a las elecciones regionales de junio, quiere atraer a los agricultores conservadores y a la vez a una parte del voto verde. Durante una reciente visita a una granja, atacó los intentos de forjar una nueva agricultura basada en “invectivas, prohibiciones y demagogia”. En una aparente alusión al fiasco de Lyon, dijo que el “sentido común” debe prevalecer en las dietas equilibradas de los niños y señaló que “perdemos mucho tiempo en divisiones idiotas”.Su gobierno propuso una enmienda constitucional, la primera desde 2008, que, de ser aprobada en referéndum, añadiría una frase en la que Francia “garantiza la preservación del medioambiente y la diversidad biológica y lucha contra el cambio climático”.La derecha expresó su oposición al cambio. Todavía tiene que ser revisado por el Senado, de tendencia derechista. Otro proyecto de ley establece posibles reformas para un futuro más ecológico que incluyen la prohibición de los anuncios de combustibles fósiles y la eliminación de algunos vuelos nacionales de corta distancia.Doucet no está impresionado. “Macron no es un ecologista. Es un conservador moderno. Sabe que hay un problema, así que está dispuesto a hacer algunos cambios, pero no mide el tamaño del problema. ¿Puedes decirme una medida fuerte que haya tomado?”.Por ahora, los almuerzos escolares de Lyon sin carne se siguen sirviendo. Los niños parecen estar bien. El viernes, un tribunal administrativo de Lyon rechazó un intento de algunos padres, sindicatos agrícolas y políticos conservadores locales de anular la decisión del alcalde, dictaminando que la “simplificación temporal” de los menús escolares no suponía un riesgo para la salud de los niños.Doucet afirma que cuando la crisis sanitaria remita, pero no antes, podrá volver a ofrecer una selección de menús escolares que incluya carne. Mientras tanto, Denormandie, el ministro de Agricultura, pidió al prefecto de la zona de Lyon que investigue la legalidad del abandono de la carne.En los comedores escolares de Lyon todavía se sirven huevos y pescado.Andrea Mantovani para The New York Times“La acusación de Denormandie de que somos antisociales es una mentira”, me dijo Doucet. “Dijo que negábamos la carne a las personas más pobres y con vidas más precarias, lo cual es falso. Debería haber sido despedido de inmediato”.Boris Charetiers, miembro de una asociación de padres, dijo que el alcalde estaba siendo observado atentamente. “Estamos vigilantes”, dijo. “No queremos que esta sea una decisión definitiva. Nuestros hijos no pueden ser rehenes de una convicción política ecológica”.En cuanto a Teixeira, el carnicero, dirigió la mirada con aprecio a la amplia selección de carne. “Por algo tenemos dientes caninos”, dijo.Gaëlle Fournier colaboró con el reportaje desde París.Roger Cohen es el jefe de la oficina de París del Times. Fue columnista de Opinión de 2009 a 2020. Ha trabajado para el Times durante más de 30 años y se ha sido corresponsal extranjero y editor extranjero. Criado en Sudáfrica y Gran Bretaña, es un estadounidense naturalizado. @NYTimesCohen More

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      A Father’s Gift to a Mayoral Candidate: A $1 Million Super PAC

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      Super PACs for two candidates raised millions of dollars to help their chances in the New York City mayor’s race. One, for Shaun Donovan, was bankrolled by his father.With New York City’s mayoral primary a little more than three months away and a deadline to qualify for the city’s generous matching-funds program having just passed, pleas for donations have been in overdrive in recent days.But in the background, another spigot of money has quietly opened for two Democratic mayoral candidates who are trailing in early polls: Raymond J. McGuire and Shaun Donovan.An independent expenditure committee for Mr. McGuire, a former Wall Street executive, has garnered more than $3 million since Feb. 1, with more than 70 donations from business magnates, including Kenneth Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot; the art world philanthropist Agnes Gund; and the real estate developer Aby J. Rosen.A new super PAC for Mr. Donovan, a former cabinet member in the Obama administration, in contrast, has drawn $1.02 million from just two donors — the primary benefactor being his father, Michael Donovan, an executive in the ad tech industry who donated $1 million.In an interview, Mr. Donovan, the candidate’s father, said he was trying to “level the playing field,” particularly since some candidates began raising money before they even declared they were running for mayor.“I can’t give very much to Shaun directly, and seeing the amount of money McGuire had raised and all these other people, I felt he needed enough to go out and compete and get the message across,” Mr. Donovan said.The two super PACs are among several seeking to influence the race for mayor, the most important election in recent city history.Business-friendly organizations, motivated by the leftward tilt of some candidates in the Democratic field, have already raised millions of dollars. The billionaire developer Stephen M. Ross is rallying fellow business leaders to commit tens of millions of dollars in an effort to push moderate Democrats to vote in the June 22 mayoral primary and “change the future course of the city.”Progressive groups are also involved, creating their own super PACs to supplement their on-the-ground efforts and social media campaigns.The super PACs supporting Mr. McGuire and Mr. Donovan hauled in more than their respective campaigns raised during the most recent city filing period, which began in January. Mr. Donovan, who ran Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s housing agency before joining President Barack Obama’s cabinet as budget director and housing secretary, is participating in the city’s public funding program. Mr. McGuire, a former vice chairman at Citi and one of the highest-ranking African-Americans on Wall Street, is not.The super PAC supporting Mr. McGuire, New York for Ray, plans to spend its bounty on advertising — television, digital and print — “in an effort to cut through the clutter and introduce a larger number of voters to Ray McGuire, his story and inclusive plans to revitalize and rebuild New York City,’’ said Quentin Fulks, the group’s executive director.Kenneth I. Chenault, the former chairman and C.E.O. of American Express, who, with his wife, Kathryn, donated $250,000 to the super PAC for Mr. McGuire, said he had known Mr. McGuire since they attended Harvard University together and that he wanted to help him get his name out.“We’re convinced that he can be a strong leader,” Mr. Chenault said, adding that it was “important for people to understand Ray’s story and to hear Ray’s story. We think it’s compelling and that’s why we’re doing it.”Brittany Wise, the treasurer for the super PAC supporting Mr. Donovan, New Start N.Y.C., did not specify how the funds would be spent, saying only that the group would promote Mr. Donovan as having “the experience to tackle Covid, racial equity, and affordable housing and move New York City forward.”Perhaps inevitably in the small world of political professionals, both super PACs are staffed and funded by people whose circles overlap with the campaigns.Ms. Wise worked on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2013 campaign with Bill Hyers, who served as Mr. de Blasio’s campaign manager and is now advising Mr. Donovan’s campaign.Kimberly Peeler-Allen, who is helping to run Mr. McGuire’s super PAC, co-founded Higher Heights for America, an organization that aims to elevate Black women in politics. L. Joy Williams, who is working on Mr. McGuire’s campaign, is the chairwoman of Higher Heights’s PAC.Campaigns are not allowed to coordinate with super PACs, or independent expenditure committees, as they are known in New York State.But Seth Agata, a former counsel in the governor’s office who helped write New York’s independent expenditure regulations, said there was often a “wink and a nod” that characterized interactions between campaigns and super PACs.“You know what’s going to help the candidate,” Mr. Agata said. “You’re out there because you know what the candidate needs and you say the right things.”Both campaigns said they had not coordinated with their respective super PACs.“I know nothing about it,” said Lupe Todd-Medina, a spokeswoman for Mr. McGuire’s campaign, referring to New York for Ray.Yuridia Peña, a spokeswoman for Mr. Donovan’s campaign, said that Mr. Donovan had likewise not coordinated with his father on his super PAC.“We take the prohibition of coordination with any outside entities as a hard line, and any efforts to support Shaun are completely independent of our campaign,” Ms. Peña said.New York City’s strict donor limits make it difficult for big spenders to make their presence felt through direct contributions to candidates. But the Supreme Court, in its Citizens United decision, paved the way for barely regulated money to pour into super PACs, giving donors another way of exerting influence.“The Supreme Court that decided Citizens United and related cases got it wrong,” said Chisun Lee, deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Election Reform Program. “Any reasonable voter knows that huge donors with unlimited influence have a detrimental effect on representative democracy.” More

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      N.Y.C. Mayor Candidates Court Unions and Latino Voters

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceWho’s Running?5 TakeawaysCandidates’ N.Y.C. MomentsAn Overview of the RaceAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCourting Unions and Latino Voters: 5 Takeaways From the N.Y.C. Mayor’s RaceEric Adams won three big labor union endorsements, confirming his status as a top contender, and Loree Sutton dropped out of the race.Eric Adams is lining up coveted labor union endorsements.Credit…Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesEmma G. Fitzsimmons, Dana Rubinstein, Andy Newman and March 15, 2021Updated 10:56 a.m. ETLabor leaders are throwing their weight behind Eric Adams in the New York City mayoral race.Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, has won three major labor endorsements in the past two weeks, cementing his status as one of the top candidates in the crowded Democratic primary field.As Mr. Adams rose, Loree Sutton, one of the first women to join the race, dropped out, and the campaigns pushed to qualify for public matching funds. Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, announced over the weekend that he had raised an impressive fund-raising haul.Here is what you need to know:Adams wins key labor endorsements.Mr. Adams is making the case that he is the candidate for working-class New Yorkers.“We are building a blue-collar coalition that will deliver results for the New Yorkers who need them the most,” Mr. Adams said last week.He has received support from three unions: Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 85,000 building workers in New York; the Hotel Trades Council, which has nearly 40,000 members in the hotel and gaming industry; and the District Council 37 Executive Board, the city’s largest public employees union, representing 150,000 members and 50,000 retirees.The string of endorsements shows that some Democrats believe Mr. Adams has the best chance of beating Mr. Yang, who has been leading the field in recent polls.While Mr. Adams has secured some of the city’s most coveted labor endorsements, Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, was recently endorsed by another major union, Local 1199 of the S.E.I.U. The powerful United Federation of Teachers has not yet picked a candidate.Scott Stringer, the New York City comptroller, had been a contender for the 32BJ endorsement, according to the union president, Kyle Bragg.“But this is more than just about friendships,” Mr. Bragg said, adding that the union had to consider who had “the strongest path to victory.”Sutton’s long-shot bid comes to an end.Loree Sutton, left, has left the mayoral race.Credit…Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York TimesFor Loree Sutton, the retired Army brigadier general who withdrew from the mayor’s race on Wednesday, the turning point came in late February when a state judge rejected a lawsuit seeking to limit in-person petition-gathering during the coronavirus pandemic.Candidates must gather a certain number of signatures in person in order to get their names on the ballot.“I just would not go out and do in-person petition-gathering under these circumstances,” Ms. Sutton said. It was, she said, a matter of “public health principle.”Her mayoral bid was always a long shot. The former commissioner for the city’s Department of Veterans’ Services, she had little in the way of political experience or name recognition. She was running as a law-and-order moderate in a Democratic primary that tilts left.Some advisers had encouraged her to run as a Republican, but doing so would have felt inauthentic, she said. Centrism, she argues, remains an essential part of the Democratic Party.But early on there were signs that her brand of moderation would be unwelcome.She was excluded from an early Democratic forum because she had argued that protesters should be required to obtain city permits.She campaigned on the importance of public safety and rejected calls to defund the police, a posture that seemed out of step with many of her competitors.“Some of the worst atrocities in human history have taken place under the misconception that somehow we can create a utopian society,” she said.In the end, Ms. Sutton pulled out of the race, having raised only $200,000.She has yet to decide whom she will endorse, but she was complimentary of Kathryn Garcia, the former Sanitation Department commissioner, who is running as a pragmatist. And she has not ruled out running for office again someday.“It’s the journey of a lifetime,” she said.Candidates debate how to fix public housing.Kathryn Garcia argues that private management of some buildings in the city’s public housing system can be effective.Credit…Brendan Mcdermid/ReutersAt a mayoral forum on housing on Thursday, a tenant leader at a city public-housing complex, Damaris Reyes, challenged the candidates: “I want to know if you will commit to preservation of public housing, and how you will repair trust and empower resident decision making.”The 175,000 apartments in the city’s public housing system have been sliding into disrepair for decades, with the price tag for replacing leaky roofs, old heating systems, broken elevators and other problems now estimated at $30 billion to $40 billion.But the city’s proposal to fund the repairs by using a program that would hand over management of tens of thousands of apartments to private developers has been greeted with skepticism. Many New York City Housing Authority residents fear their apartments would be privatized, leading to rent increases and evictions.At the housing forum, hosted by the local news channel NY1, two candidates with experience running housing systems said the city’s plans provided a realistic platform.Ms. Garcia, who served as interim commissioner of NYCHA in 2019, said the blueprint would let the city leverage federal money that was already available. She said she could win over skeptics by taking them on tours of the Ocean Bay complex in Queens, where a private landlord has been making repairs. “You know who the best spokespeople are?” she asked. “The people who have actually had their apartments renovated.”Shaun Donovan, who ran the city’s department of housing preservation under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and who served as President Barack Obama’s commissioner of housing and urban development, said that partnering with the federal government provided “the only pathway where we can truly get to scale.”Mr. Donovan’s plan also calls for the city to kick in $2 billion a year and includes job-training programs for NYCHA residents who would be hired to do much of the work, he said. Mr. Yang has promoted his own $48 billion — and entirely federally funded — “green new deal” for NYCHA. To combat NYCHA residents’ “massive trust deficit,” the city should “make NYCHA residents the majority of the board of NYCHA itself,” he has said.Public money comes rolling in.Andrew Yang has been a potent fund-raiser.Credit…Mark Lennihan/Associated PressSix candidates now say they have qualified for public matching funds, and a seventh may qualify soon.At the latest donation deadline last week, Mr. Yang proved that he is a strong fund-raiser. He reported that he had met the matching-funds threshold by raising more than $2.1 million from 15,600 individual donors in the 57 days that he has been in the race. Mr. Yang’s campaign said it expects to have raised $6.5 million once public dollars are received.“With 100 days left, we have built the foundation and energy to win,” Mr. Yang’s campaign managers said in a statement.To qualify for public matching funds, a candidate must raise $250,000 from at least 1,000 New York City residents. Those donations are matched at either an $8 to $1 rate or $6 to $1 rate, depending on which plan the campaign chose for a maximum of $1,400 to $2,000 per contributor.Mr. Donovan reported meeting the threshold, which would bring his total raised to $4 million. Ms. Garcia reported meeting the threshold by raising over $300,000 in matchable contributions. Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive, said Monday she had qualified for matching funds as well, raising about $320,000 in matchable contributions.The fund-raising leaders have also continued to rake in public dollars. Mr. Adams and Mr. Stringer, the only two candidates who have received matching funds so far, reported having raised a total of more than $9 million each once matching funds were factored in. Ms. Wiley, who announced that she had met the threshold last period before an audit from the Campaign Finance Board determined that she had not, declined to release fund-raising figures. Her campaign was waiting on a ruling Monday from the board.Raymond J. McGuire, a former banking executive who shook up the race when he raised $5 million in three months, is not participating in the public funds program. His campaign said he had raised another $2.6 million since the last filing period.According to campaign finance rules, if a nonparticipating candidate raises or spends more than half of the $7.3 million spending limit, the spending cap could be increased by 50 percent. Matthew Sollars, a spokesman for the board, said a determination on an increased spending cap would be made late next month.A candidate looks for the Latino vote.Scott Stringer, the city comptroller, has a Puerto Rican stepfather.Credit…Richard Drew/Associated PressLittle known fact about Scott Stringer, who is white and Jewish: His stepfather moved to New York from Puerto Rico as a toddler, his stepfamily is Latino and, partly on that basis, he hopes to win over Latino voters in the mayoral election.“Buenos días a todos,” Mr. Stringer said on Sunday in Upper Manhattan, as he formally kicked off his “Latino agenda,” not far from the Washington Heights neighborhood where he grew up. His stepfamily joined him and lauded his record, character and intelligence. “Scott is simpático,” said Carlos Cuevas, Mr. Stringer’s stepbrother, a lawyer.Mr. Stringer’s effort to highlight his family to identify with a particular constituency is not a novel one. Mr. de Blasio relied heavily on his African-American wife and biracial children in his 2013 run for mayor. At a forum about Jewish issues, Ms. Wiley, whose father was African-American and mother was white, made a point of noting that her partner is Jewish and the son of Holocaust survivors.The Latino vote — which is far from monolithic — is coveted, representing about 20 percent of the New York City electorate.The mayor’s race has several candidates of Latino descent: Ms. Morales and Carlos Menchaca, a councilman from Brooklyn, both of whom are Democrats, and Fernando Mateo, a Republican. None responded to requests for comment on Mr. Stringer’s Latino voter push.The same day Mr. Stringer was rolling out his agenda, his competitor Mr. Yang made his pitch to Spanish-language viewers of Telemundo.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      How to Get on the New York Mayoral Ballot in a Pandemic

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      How to Get on the Ballot in a PandemicLaylah Amatullah Barrayn for The New York TimesChanel Cohen walked up to Elmo and Cookie Monster in Times Square: “Do you want to support Dianne Morales for mayor?” They couldn’t sign, they said — they live in New Jersey. Here’s what happened when I spent a day petitioning with Morales → More