The Brian Lehrer Show

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio takes calls from listeners and discusses this week in NYC, including his announcement that NYC municipal workers will return to their offices in May, and his hope that Broadway will be able to re-open by September.

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. The City's Economy a Year Later (First) | The Problem With 'Not Seeing Race' (Starts at 22:15) | What Volunteers Learned After Making Thousands of Vaccine Appointments (Starts at 53:30) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

In early January, Epicenter-NYC, a newsletter launched for New Yorkers to get through the pandemic, began volunteering to help community members make vaccine appointments. So far they’ve booked more than 2,600 shots. Mitra Kalita, Co-Founder of URL Media and CEO & Publisher of Epicenter-NYC, talks about what her and other volunteers have learned through the process and where access gaps remain. Need help making an appointment or want to help someone in your life make an appointment? You can call Epicenter-NYC at 917-818-2690 or fill out this registration form.  Read: What We Learned Registering Thousands of Our Neighbors for Vaccines 

Tyler Pager, Washington Post White House reporter, and Marianna Sotomayor, Washington Post Congressional reporter covering the House of Representatives, talk about the prospects of any gun control legislation making it through Congress, where filibuster reform stands and more national political news.

Gwynne Hogan, reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, talks about the various investigations into Governor Cuomo's conduct -- including the latest on COVID tests for family and VIPs when supplies were limited -- and how that affects budget negotiations.

Henry Garrido, executive director of District Council 37, the municipal employees' union, responds to the Mayor's call for municipal workers to return to offices in May, plus the union's endorsements in the June 22 primary.

David Cruz, WNYC/Gothamist news editor, walks us through the results of the special election in City Council District 15 and discusses Tuesday's extremely low voter turnout. @BrianLehrer thank you & David to disassemble this puzzle of low voter turnout in @district15. As w/many smoke and mirror intents its the residents blamed for not making change. This the POOREST district in USA- Not Compton, CA, Juliet, IL,Chelsea, MA. A mile away from richest. — LuChaNYC (@lu_nyc) March 25, 2021

Greg David, contributor covering fiscal and economic issues for THE CITY and director of the business and economics reporting program and Ravitch Fiscal Reporting Program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, talks about his 5-part series examining the impact of the pandemic on the New York City economy.

Congress included federal student loan relief with the COVID legislation -- yet millions find their loans don't qualify. Molly Webster, RadioLab senior correspondent, talks about her recent NYT op-ed explaining how she borrowed $78,000, has paid $60,000, and still owes $100,000 -- with no relief in sight. →"I’ve Spent $60,000 to Pay Back Student Loans and Owe More Than Before I Began" (New York Times, 3/19/21)

President Joe Biden called for tightening gun control laws in the wake of two mass shootings in less than a week. Jennifer Mascia, a news writer at The Trace, a non-profit newsroom focusing on gun violence, talks about Biden's history on the issue and whether Democrats can pass any meaningful reform with the filibuster still in place.

Katherine Wu, staff writer at The Atlantic who covers science, talks about why "breakthrough" COVID infections -- which happen after people are fully vaccinated — are inevitable, and why they are important to track. 

New Jersey's Latino communities have been disproportionately devastated by COVID-19. Karen Yi, WNYC reporter covering New Jersey, reports on how younger Latino men, especially, have died from the disease at much higher rates than other groups.

Bitta Mostofi, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, and Maria Odom, vice president for Legal Programs at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), talk about the situation at the southern border and the local implications for NYC of Pres. Biden's immigration policies.

Rebecca Carroll, former cultural critic at WNYC and the author of Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster, 2021), shares her story of growing up as a Black child adopted by white parents and her search for identity. → Rebecca Carroll will be doing a virtual book event with the California bookstore Book Passage on Thursday, March 25th at 8pm Eastern, that's 5 Pacific Time.  More info here. 

In some areas of New York City, positivity rates are reaching 15 percent. Jake Dobkin, co-founder of Gothamist, where he's been the de facto numbers-cruncher in chief for all things COVID-19, runs through the latest numbers, including on positivity rates, case rates, hospitalizations and vaccinations.