>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Well, one of our Connections this hour will be made tomorrow.

It's Valentine's Day, and whether you celebrate or think it is just a hallmark holiday, we thought it might be fun to talk about some films that are popular this time of year.

Talking about rom coms.

Romantic comedies can be cheesy or sentimental.

Maybe a bit of both.

We're going to have some fun talking about them with one of our really, really smart culture writers.

City magazine pop culture critic Joe Lester is going to join us later this hour.

Before that, we're going to talk about some of the top state and local stories of the week.

We're going to be joined by WNYC Jimmy Vielkind for a look at the race for New York State governor and some changes in that race recently.

But first, WXXI investigations and City Hall reporter Gino Fanelli is here talking about a story that's really three years in the making.

In early 2023, Rochester City Council purchased 15 self-contained, heated and cooled units to be placed in Peace Village, the city's only sanctioned homeless encampment.

But now, three years on, Peace Village is still vacant, though shelters now sit in snow covered storage at a city lot on Dewey Avenue, Gino, thanks for joining us.

I mean, we were just talking about think about all the the bad winters.

This is one of the worst winters.

And if you're in the homeless population, I can't even imagine what this has been like.

>> Yeah.

January was the second coldest month in Rochester in the past decade.

this past January.

so yeah, we talked to a homeless advocate that I've worked for with for quite a while.

And, you know, people are losing toes, losing fingers, and this option of having this heated and cooled shelters that were supposed to be there years ago, still offline, still no where to go.

>> So lay out some of the history here.

How did the city come to purchase these shelters and where is it now?

>> Okay, so you have to go back to autumn of 2022.

There's a homeless encampment on Loomis Street off Joseph Avenue, a fairly large most people living there are inactive, had active addiction.

It's it's pretty squalid conditions.

myself and my photographer Max Schulte spent a lot of time there talking with you know, folks and whatnot about what happened.

City moved to clear it.

They clear out the encampment go through, remove everything.

And most of the people there scattered off in different directions.

Some were offered shelter placement, but a lot of them ended up at Peace Village, which Peace Village at the time is kind of a chanty village, mainly like Home Depot sheds.

Half of them are kind of in really bad condition.

Some are burned down and that's where they ended up.

And Peace Village was in really bad shape.

I mean, it was infested with rats.

>> Needles.

>> Needles, needles everywhere.

And it just it's not a place where you'd want anyone to live.

But when you're someone who can't really get into the traditional shelter system, it's a place to go.

Council President Miguel Meléndez had made the move to purchase the pallet shelters.

That money was pulled from leftover funds for the Police Accountability Board.

in early 2023. the city actually received the shelters in April of 2023.

And since then it's a long history of problems.

The nonprofits that oversee it to having an operation.

Now, the issue is mainly the operational plan for running Peace Village, but the end result is these things are sitting under snow.

They haven't been placed there.

And Peace Village itself is ready to go.

It's got the electricity and the plumbing already done.

Just nothing there.

It's fenced off.

No one can stay there.

>> So you know we're looking.

If you're on our YouTube page, we're looking at some of Max Schulte photographs here.

Tell us what we're looking at here and describe it for those who can't see it.

>> Yeah.

So two two of these buildings are already constructed.

We're trying to figure out what exactly they are, because there's a couple different kinds of units.

There's bathrooms or the community center, but those larger ones are already constructed.

And you see all these like slates of walls.

Those are the prefab units.

So they just you bring them to the site, you click them together, you plug them into your your infrastructure.

And there you go.

You're good to go.

they this is the Northwest Neighborhood Service Center on Dewey Avenue.

They're in a back lot there.

They've been there.

It'll be three years in April, and yeah, they've just been sitting there under snow.

>> Nobody in them.

Nobody.

>> Nobody using them?

No.

Not constructed.

Still kind of bound together.

yeah.

And it's pretty striking because this was a pretty unique solution.

the company that produces these pallet there out of Everett, Washington it's a pretty unique thing that a few cities around the country have adopted to address some of their homelessness issues.

And these are really for people that can't fit into the traditional shelter system.

And here in Rochester, good intentions.

A few notes on the execution, I guess.

>> Well, I mean, so you did talk to Miguel Meléndez, who of course helped lead the effort.

He told you that everyone involved is frustrated.

Yeah, but he said the big hang up at this point is making sure that we have discussions around the funding.

So who's gonna.

So what does that mean exactly?

And who is going to pay for this going forward?

>> Okay.

This is where it gets really fun.

so the nonprofit that was tapped to oversee this project, who was already involved in Peace Village before they had already had city contracts, this person centered housing options, PCA or Pcho.

Pcho was awarded a contract with the city last year to come up with an operational plan for running Peace Village.

That's when the things are already set up.

They have to have some kind of operational plan to have security at the site.

Cameras food delivery and all kinds of different things for keeping this place clean, safe and secure.

And that operational plan has been kind of in limbo for quite a while because there are a couple issues there, but I think the main one is it's a lot of money.

I think it's a lot of more money than people ever expected it to be.

It's going to be over $1 million a year to operate the site in the way the city has proposed in their RFP which I had told the council president last week and he he didn't know the number was that high.

And the city has this number it's supposed to be submitted to council in coming months.

But the other issue there is where's the funding going to come from year over year?

How will this be self-sustaining, to have over $1 million to support a homeless encampment?

nobody seems to know an answer to that either.

So if we want to go back into, like, the longer history of the nonprofit issues there, there's a whole other can of worms that happened here.

before Pcho was tapped as a contractor.

But right now, that's where it stands.

They're the ones tasked with coming up with an operational plan.

They have to meet the city's requirements for the operational plan.

It's going to be very expensive to operate and no clear outline of how that's actually going to be funded.

>> How many people could stay in this version of Peace Village?

>> There's 15 units.

>> 15 total units.

>> 15 total units.

some of them, there's a bathroom included there.

And like a community building.

so around a dozen you could estimate are going to be staying there at any given time.

And you have to think of that, it's like 100 K a year to support one person staying at the site.

under the current operational plans proposal.

>> So this is where someone's going to say, well, what's what's stopping someone who's not in city government from just coming in and doing this themselves, building this themselves, putting this thing forward and saying, we're not going to wait for the city.

It's too expensive.

They're not going to get this off the ground.

We're just going to do it.

>> Okay.

that's a that's really kind of people to do.

Go there, build them, plug them in, do that for free.

Are you going to pay for the PG&E.

Are you going to take over the insurance for the site?

Are you going to pay for all the operational structure that the city mandated, which I think is another issue to talk about entirely what they were mandating for that site.

But are you going to do that as a volunteer?

Probably not.

So we're stuck at the same spot we're in.

You can go build them all you want.

That's not going to change the issue that we have here.

>> Okay.

Well, yes, fair enough here.

I mean, certainly in the coming months with PCO presenting its plan to City council, everyone's going to have to decide on what they think they can afford.

But if 1 million a year sounded like a lot to President Melendez, what did they think it was going to be?

A quarter million.

Half a million?

Like, what do they think they can afford here?

>> I don't think there was any idea.

Like, I I'll be honest with how how I viewed the story as I've been working on it is that I don't think there was any long term plan.

I think there was a good idea with good intentions behind it.

And then once it got into the wheels of government bureaucracy and then the the minutia of how nonprofits operate, overseeing little sites like this, it the wheels fall off.

And this is a situation where the wheels fell off.

>> So this is where libertarians will call me and say, see, this is what makes this libertarian.

Because what they would probably say is, all right, you know, look, they they have these units, you've taken the pictures.

We know they're there.

They haven't been set up.

They're not running.

We're in the midst of, you said, the second coldest January or second coldest month in a decade.

Yeah.

January was brutal.

>> It was very cold.

>> Yeah.

You talked to people who told you that people in the homeless community are losing fingers and toes?

Yeah, it's been awful.

And we've got these units and they're not even being used.

And no one can figure out exactly what they can afford.

Libertarians are going to come in and say, look, just say we've got the units, but we're not going to be able to ensure this.

There's a limit to what we can do, and you're going to have to incur your own risk.

But we'll set it up and we'll pay for the utilities.

Know there's probably too much red tape.

>> There's a lot of red tape.

Yeah.

I mean that's not going to happen.

And I mean, it's a classic Rochester tale.

This whole thing is it's it's government and nonprofits trying to do a good thing.

And then it gets into this, this web of problems that just snowball and they turn into, a larger and larger issue.

And the actual work that is supposed to be done never gets done.

And the people that are supposed to be helped by it are never helped by it.

And we have to remember, like we're talking about this as you know, no one wants people living in a homeless encampment, but we're doing two things right now.

One well, let's say three things.

One, we're not doing anything to help the people that are actually living in homeless encampments.

The city comes in and clears them out every once in a while, pushes them into abandoned houses or into shelters or into the subway system.

they offer them shelter, but a lot of people are not able to go into shelters.

Two, we don't have any low barrier shelters in the city.

The last one closed last year.

So if you are someone who sanctioned or has an active drug addiction or is an alcoholic and you want to get into a shelter placement, not freeze to death, that ain't going to happen because there's no choice.

You can't go anywhere.

And you know, the third point is when we even try to do anything to make it more stable, we get bogged down and stuff like this, and nothing ever changes.

So we we end up in this situation where the resources that we need to actually support the homeless population in the city are just woefully ill equipped to do so.

The number goes up every year in the pit count.

The cost of living goes up every year.

and we do nothing to change that.

We do nothing to address the housing crisis that we're having in this city in a real, meaningful way for people that are living in abject poverty.

And what happens?

People freeze to death, people die, and we have to just look at that as what a cost of doing business.

I think that's the sad reality that we've come to where everything comes down to dollar and cents.

And following the protocol of government procedures that the government sets up themselves.

And when we end up with is something like we bought a bunch of homeless shelters for the homeless, and now they're sitting in a vacant lot for three years.

>> Lastly, before we let you go, there have been questions and I I've heard about some of this from people like Anna Valeria, others in the community that serves the homeless population.

About federal homeless funding distinctions, federal issues.

What's going on there?

>> Well, yeah.

So over the summer, the called a nofo or the continuum of care.

The Trump administration had tried to pull funding from a good amount of services that were for putting people that were experiencing homelessness into permanent housing, their basis for doing it was essentially they were targeting organizations that recognized gender identity or racial issues in the way they're offering their funding, or they were in jurisdictions where they don't feel the police were doing enough to target vagrancy, or street homelessness, which the simple reality is that this administration has taken an effort to criminalize street homelessness, even more so.

so that has been has an injunction.

>> This administration has in the Trump.

>> The Trump administration.

>> The local administration.

>> Well, arguably.

But so this is kind of situation where there's an injunction that's been placed kind of blocking that effort, but that's not going to go away.

We have three more years of this administration.

I'm sure the courts will clear up something to allow them to do the kind of thing that they're planning on doing.

So the point being there is the funding for homeless services overall is in jeopardy right now.

And what services we're going to even be able to provide, which, again, are not enough right now, whether or not those are even going to last is we don't know.

So when you put it into that kind of perspective and the council president did release his report on homelessness, which is a very thorough document that is worth reading about.

Yeah.

>> We're going to talk about it soon.

>> Yeah, yeah.

Some of some of the issues that we're facing here, but that's a big one.

Like we have a lot of economic uncertainty around this administration and the way it's targeting local municipalities and how they enforce things like street homelessness.

And that's just one example.

But that that is a factor that's come into play.

How much it's going to come into play in the future is like something we haven't figured out yet.

It's somewhere in the neighborhood of a few hundred people that are at risk of losing housing as a result of that funding change.

If that happens.

So that's not good.

And we have you know, just I think it's very unclear what it's going to look like going forward.

>> Bottom line with Peace Village, winter's not over yet, and those things are not going to be used this winter, are they?

>> Nope.

Not going to happen.

>> Not going to happen.

Thank you.

Gino Fanelli.

Thank you.

All right.

Short break.

We're going to welcome our colleague Jimmy Vielkind.

Talk about the governor's race and some changes there.

Next.

I'm Evan Dawson on Monday, we bring you special national programing.

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>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Governor Kathy Hochul has won the designation of the Democratic Party as she seeks reelection.

That's not a surprise.

Perhaps a surprise was that her lieutenant governor, who was challenging her from her left, did not get enough support to even stay in the race.

And for some progressives who want the governor to move further left, that might be a disappointment.

But there were some surprise endorsements.

you know, people like Zohran Mamdani others.

We're going to talk about that.

and meanwhile, the Republicans have nominated Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, and he is going to make the case for a Republican change of leadership here.

Covering all of this is reporter for WNYC and our colleague Jimmy Vielkind, who is back with us.

Hello, Jimmy.

Nice to have you.

>> Hi, Evan.

Pleasure to be back.

>> All right.

So Governor Kathy Hochul is running, mate.

Is New York City Council Speaker Adrian Adams, and I'm looking at, you know, this, this palace intrigue of her lieutenant governor trying to take her down.

He fails.

Some of her people are sort of taunting him in social media.

It's been kind of a wild week in that regard.

Unusual in that way, isn't it?

>> Yeah, it's it's been a little while.

you know, it's kind of funny.

Evan if you try to stop the New Yorker on the side of the street and ask them who the lieutenant governor was I guess nine times out of ten they wouldn't know.

And we're talking a lot about all the drama, all the intrigue here about these selections and what the running mates mean.

And my guess is that, again, we're not going to talk about this much more in a couple of weeks.

But as you said, Adrian Adams a moderate like Governor Hochul was selected as her running mate for the ticket.

This came after Governor Hochul tried to recruit several other political figures.

She wanted to find a person of color from downstate New York.

She is, of course, a white woman from Buffalo, from upstate New York.

And so there was sort of a a notion of racial and geographic balance being added to the ticket.

but at the end of the day, she chose someone who wasn't necessarily more in the progressive field and someone who didn't really make much of a splash or in many waves.

So Adrian Adams comes from southeast Queens.

This is a vote rich part of the state filled with sort of middle class African Americans, mostly Adams ran the city council, and did so in a way that Hochul said impressed her, where she balanced the competing interests, needs, and desires of all kinds of different people across the political spectrum.

But really, what I heard from Pete talking about what I heard from people as I talked about this selection was that it was just sort of safe and, you know, blah.

It didn't really have a big oomph.

It didn't have a big jolt.

It's not like John McCain picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, where everyone said whoa!

And eyebrows kind of kind of raised up.

and so with that done, we're seeing really that Hochul is trying to carve out a lane of experience, of moderation, of sort of stay the course.

If I can make up an adjective here, live on the on the air.

and, and also to try and unite Democrats around this idea that whatever their internal squabbles are, they are dealing with Donald Trump and that that should be the overarching unifying force to bring them through 2026.

>> Yes.

And I think we've got sound from both of the contenders.

We're going to be on the ballot.

So let's start with Governor Hochul running on her record, but also referencing, as Jimmy says, President Trump.

Let's listen.

>> We still have tough battles ahead.

And I will say this, that arena has changed.

The hits are harder.

The cost of losing is greater.

And we know at this moment demands of us.

>> So I think, you know, Jimmy, she has from my, you know, perspective, talking to people in Democratic Party politics.

She's sort of a tepidly popular governor.

She's she's viewed as a centrist.

Progressive activists don't love her.

but I think she's betting right now that the national flavor is so toxic for Republicans that that's sort of her path to reelection here, starting with that.

Yes.

>> That's exactly right.

I mean, her her whole policy agenda this year is sort of a no sudden moves make no enemies, just kind of get through agenda.

You know, she's pushing for a childcare subsidies.

Everybody likes childcare subsidies, both across the political spectrum.

gone are the fights she previously picked with legislators in her own party over criminal justice laws that is absent from her agenda this year.

you know, Evan, I think politics is title.

One thing I've learned over time is that politics is title.

And we know historically, the tide in the political body goes against the party that's in power in Washington, which means that in this cycle, there's every historical indication that it's going to go for the Democrats.

And then when you look at polling, when you look at what voters think about Donald Trump, what they think about Donald Trump's policies, what they think about immigration policies, you see that the policies are unpopular.

So in a state where Democrats already have a structural advantage in the fact that they have large advantages in enrollment, where they control all the levers of power, so they have the advantages of incumbency.

there's lots of reason to think that on top of those advantages, the tide is pulling in their direction.

And so Hochul just needs to kind of surf that tide, surf along.

And as you said, her poll numbers are rising.

I think that her favorability is up almost to 50%, which for her is a record.

>> Now, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who we hope to have on this program soon, is someone who, you know, he's a county executive of a big county.

He's won elections.

He has an interesting record that I think we'll talk on future programs about, sort of on social issues.

And this is someone who is making a pretty direct case that whatever the structural disadvantage he has as a Republican in a quote, unquote blue state, he's saying no state should be just governed by one party.

There should be more balance, and there's plenty wrong that he says it's time for a change at the top.

And to go back to a Republican, let's listen to what Blakeman has been saying about that.

>> We can make New York affordable again, and we can make it safe again, but it won't happen on its own.

It will take leadership that puts New Yorkers first.

>> So that's Bruce Blakeman.

He's going to be new to a lot of people in our area.

Jimmy and I've talked to some elected Democrats who privately have told me this.

They've said that they thought Elise Stefanik would have been kind of a caricature of a candidate, and they think Blakeman is pretty serious, that this is a county executive.

He's he knows how to run a race that tries to appeal to centrists.

Not that he they think he will win, but this is not a sort of a joke candidate, that this is going to be a real race.

What do you think.?

>> That's really interesting.

in Republican circles, there's a general acknowledgment that Blakeman is something of a silver medal.

New York Republican leaders across the state were very, very, very excited about Stefanik running as the top of their ticket.

they saw that she has a proven national network.

She's gained national attention for some of her oversight work.

for her work in terms of interrogating college presidents before houses of Congress.

and with that has come quite a bit of money.

and money is very important in politics, especially again, given the structural advantages that Democrats have and this idea that major donors are going to be less likely to give if they think you're you're going to lose if they think you're an also ran.

So many Republicans that I've been talking to saw Stefanik as a much stronger candidate, even though, as you said, Evan, it's almost impossible for her to extricate herself from her.

Really, really, really tight and unwavering support for President Donald Trump in in most of his activities, in both his first and his second term.

So Blakeman at the same time has to contend with that, that similar line of attack President Trump endorsed Blakeman, called him MAGA all the way.

Blakeman has repeatedly said that President Trump is a friend, that they talk and they communicate regularly.

And so, you know, I expect in this race we're going to be hearing Democrats talk a lot about President Trump and less about Bruce Blakeman, because, as you said, many people in Monroe County or in western New York, they don't know much about Bruce Blakeman.

So if they have an unfavorable impression of Donald Trump, as polls show, a majority of New Yorkers do, why not just run against that?

>> Yeah, I certainly understand that.

And I you know, it is interesting that Republicans wanted Stefanik.

Democrats might have thought they had a better chance against Stefanik just because of how much she actually has a national profile.

She has a name recognition.

It's tied directly to Trump.

Blakeman will try to carve out his own space.

We'll see if it will work.

But before we we get back to the palace intrigue, one other question about that whole thing.

I look, Jimmy, I don't cover state politics as closely day to day as you.

So probably a few months ago, I thought Stefanik was the way things were coalescing for her.

Would the party chair supporting her with her national profile?

I thought she was going to be the candidate.

And all of a sudden, bang, one morning you wake up and she's dropping out.

The idea in the Trump story has always been that if you are loyal to him, no matter what you do, look at Howard Lutnick.

Look at all the stories that are happening nationally.

Pam Bondi If you're loyal to Trump, you can do a lot wrong and he will back you.

And I thought, Elise Stefanik is loyal to Trump, so who engineered her dropping?

Like what is the real story here?

What happened?

>> You know, the real story is I think, a combination of things.

first Stefanik is is no dummy.

She is quite astute politically and all the things that I just described about how the that the tide is going to be pulling to the left, it's going to be pulling for Democrats.

She was just as aware of that as anybody else, if not more aware, because her people had detailed polling information.

detailed voter sentiment data that they looked at and they realized this is going to be a very, very tough environment and everything is going to have to go correctly.

On top of that, you had Blakeman, who won a sound reelection this last autumn.

Now we're in 2026, but in the fall of 2025 one, a sound victory for a second term and he put himself in the mix to be a primary challenger.

So I think Stefanik was sort of put off by that.

She was put off by the notion that she would have to spend time and attention dealing with a primary rival, rather than spending the those six months that a primary would take, focusing exclusively on Kathy Hochul and trying to keep the Republicans united against the Democrats.

I think that was part of it.

And her stated reasoning was that she has a young child.

She is, I think, 41 years old.

you know, her child is, I believe, either 4 or 5.

And so the idea of not spending time with your kids is something I've got two daughters, I understand that.

So I think a combination of all three of those factors really kind of got her to a place of like, you know, why do this right now?

Why not wait?

Because the benefit of her relative youth in politics is that she will have another shot here.

Blakeman is, I believe, around 70 years old.

This is his last shot to do this kind of a thing.

And when President Trump refused to step in, refused to endorse Stefanik over, Blakeman sort of refused to settle this fight before it started.

I think Stefanik also saw that as something of a personal slight.

And, you know, in these past few months, she's had a much lower profile, both in New York politics and national politics.

As she winds down her time in Congress.

>> All right, so let's wrap our time with Jimmy talking about as we where we started here.

The reason I think the story of of Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado not even making it to a primary.

The reason I think this matters is there's been this build up to this race where it, you know, the question has been, can the governor unite the political left and the Democratic Party?

Can the more sort of tried and true progressives, the further left of the party can they kind of stomach another Hochul campaign, even if they don't love her, if they think she's too centrist?

And I thought, well, WFP will probably be with Delgado, probably.

Mamdani ideas about governing are going to be closer to Delgado than than Hochul.

Well, Mamdani comes out on the eve of this thing and he endorses Kathy Hochul, not Delgado.

And WFP can't get on board.

And, Jimmy, you spoke to Delgado a week before he ended his campaign.

And you also talked to Jasmine Gripper, who I think we're going to have sound with.

Tell us about this.

Jimmy.

>> So Jasmine Gripper is the co-director of the Working Families Party, and she's exactly the kind of person who Delgado had cast his campaign as trying to appeal to.

You said Evan, that he's running to the left flank of Governor Hochul.

he is courting a lot of the progressive groups that form the Working Families Party groups like Citizen Action groups like you know, make the road that they were they were really in line and in sync with Delgado's campaign.

And Delgado, when I spoke with him, when, of course, he was insisting he was going to take it to the people and circulate petitions no matter what happened.

That's what they all say.

Until they don't do it.

it was really insisting that he had already moved Governor Hochul.

He pointed to Governor Hochul's new proposals on protecting immigrants as things that Delgado says would not have happened had he not been out there pushing her to the left.

he pointed to her childcare funding as something that he says he pushed, though I'm a little skeptical of that, because Hochul has been steadily increasing childcare funding over time.

And so, Jasmine Gripper, in explaining why Delgado didn't take off either with her party or with progressives across the state, pointed to this fact that, you know, maybe she choked off his avenues of support.

Let's take a listen.

>> So I think it's an acknowledgment of the terrain has shifted.

he did succeed in moving the governor further, you know, closer to the left.

>> So, again, a preponderance of all of those different policies, all of those different shifts.

and at the end of the day, Hochul was very astute at choking off potential support for Delgado and courting his potential allies.

So when Delgado looked at a situation where Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had endorsed Hochul, where the Working Families Party was staying neutral to try and see what's happening, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani was endorsing Hochul.

Although we'll have to see how vigorously and how that translates to his supporters.

you know, as Delgado said, he just didn't see a viable path forward.

And frankly, neither do I.

>> So let's wrap with this.

I just want to get your take on the Mamdani and AOC things, because, you know, if you just look at governing records, there's no way that that Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani are, you know, sort of fellow travelers, they would probably say that Kathy Hochul is more of a kind of a corporate centrist.

Mamdani is much to her left.

Causio Cortez, the same to me.

This says that despite their ideology, they understand sort of political alliance.

And taking advantage of a moment, you know, not hitching your wagon to a weak candidate who's not going to win.

They seem to be making a pragmatic move here.

Is that is that a fair description of it?

>> It's absolutely correct.

I mean, and gripper was very clear about this when we spoke both before and after the WFP endorsement.

She said the goal of the party is to enact, to actually realize positive changes for working people, what they see as their constituents.

And so do you have better luck doing that by picking a candidate who is perhaps perfect and completely in sync with your philosophy, but has a lower likelihood of victory?

Or do you do it by pushing someone who has a high likelihood of victory, getting on board, pushing them, and getting them to adopt parts of your platform even though not all of your platform to actually get them enacted.

And I think given the choices between the candidates, given the situation in New York, it was clear to a lot of people on the political left that pushing Kathy Hochul and getting her to move was much better than trying, with likely not success or with a low likelihood of success than backing a challenger to take her out.

And I think that's why we saw this happen and play out the way it did.

>> It's gonna be an interesting year.

Jimmy Vielkind thanks for making the time.

I look forward to more conversations with you soon.

>> Thanks, Evan.

Always a pleasure to be with you.

>> Jimmy Vielkind listeners is one of the absolute best, and I hope people recognize what a treasure we have here.

We're going to take a short break and close the week.

On a lighter note, I don't know how you feel about Valentine's Day, but we're going to have a little fun here and you can take a quiz with us next.

I'm Evan Dawson.

On Monday we bring you special national programing in the first hour.

It's building tomorrow, a one hour special exploring how American homes are being reimagined for the next century, then uncovering the story of the only successful coup d'etat ever to happen on American soil.

The Wilmington Massacre.

In 1898.

A horrible story might be new to you.

We'll talk to you Monday.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Bob Johnson Auto Group.

Believing an informed public makes for a stronger community.

Proud supporter of Connections with Evan Dawson focused on the news, issues and trends that shape the lives of listeners in the Rochester and Finger Lakes regions.

Bobjohnsonautogroup.com.

>> Would you pay an annual fee to see your doctor if it got you better treatment?

>> Previously, it would be ten minutes maybe in and out kind of a thing, you know?

Now she has more time to spend with me.

>> I'm Kristin Schwab.

Why patients are turning to subscriptions for their health care and who the model leaves behind.

That's next time on marketplace.

>> Tonight at 630.

>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson the city Magazine February issue is about sex and love, and Americans right now are having a lot less sex and struggling to find love.

And.

But if you can laugh at that or have fun with that, maybe you want to go to the movies.

And do you love a rom com?

Are you a rom com type person?

Johanna Lester is a rom com fan and one of the great arts and culture writers we have in our city.

Wrote a great piece for city, and it's great to have you back here.

>> I love being here.

Thank you so much!

>> A rom com fan!

Since when do you go back?

>> I'm so old, I just feel like I've been watching them my entire life.

Like early 80s.

But I also grew up on, like, old rom coms, like, you know, Doris Day, Rock Hudson, His Girl Friday with Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, like, my mom was always, you know, we were always renting stuff from blockbuster, which was a video store.

For those of you who may not know but yeah, I just it's in my blood.

It's in my DNA.

>> do you have a was there a first?

I mean, that you remember, are you, like, a Princess bride or someone like that?

>> So in my piece, I write a little bit about, I think I was 7 or 8 when The Princess Bride came out and I first saw it, and I think that imprinted on me immediately because it's so funny.

But it is, you know, it.

It's disguised as sort of an adventure tale.

So, you know, they kind of they kind of sneak the rom com in there a little bit.

>> Well, I love the way that you structured your piece here.

Thank you.

Writing a piece with the idea that if you like this, then try this and you're going to take us all the way back to the 1940s with these recommendations, we're going to get to that coming up here.

But first we've got a quiz.

Oh man.

And I have to play it too.

I did not create this quiz.

Producer Megan Mack created the quiz.

>> Producer Megan Mack.

>> Have you seen the quiz?

>> I have not, no.

>> So this is this is not rigged.

And you're.

>> Yeah.

>> I'm at a big disadvantage because you see more movies than you're smarter than me and you're a better pop.

One of.

>> Those things is true.

>> So let's, let's go.

How are we going to do this quiz?

There's six clips we're going to listen to.

>> Oh, my.

>> God, I can't hear that.

We're going to listen to clips I think.

And we're.

>> Yes, we're going to listen to six clips.

Six clips.

And you're going to guess the movie.

We're gonna play.

>> Guess the movie.

>> And we'll guess.

>> The movie.

So let's listen to the first clip, and then we're gonna have to guess the movie here.

All right?

>> I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out.

I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich.

I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts.

I love that after I spend a day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes.

And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night.

And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve.

I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

>> Okay, now Joe and I are both writing it down to prove if we got it right or wrong.

I'm just going to say this.

If you didn't get that one, then you hate movies in general.

>> Yeah, like, why don't you love happiness?

Why don't you love joy?

>> When Harry met.

>> Sally.

>> Oh, man.

>> The best.

The all time best.

>> Are you good with the ending?

>> Yes.

I think that movie is perfect.

Should they.

>> End up together?

Yes.

Yeah.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

>> Okay.

>> Absolutely.

>> Would it have been an interesting lesson if if they had developed a deep friendship and gotten to know each other and realized they weren't meant to be together, and that was okay?

>> Yeah, I think that's fine.

But that's not that movie.

That's not what that movie's setting out to prove.

That movie, like that movie is, is perfect from the jump because it disproves its own theory.

Right?

So like at the beginning, Harry is, you know, men and women can't be friends, but at the end, he just has this total change of of perspective and person because he meets the right, because he meets Meg Ryan.

>> I can't believe how good Billy Crystal is.

As like, a romantic and sexy lead.

>> What a babe.

>> They're all babes.

>> Everyone in this movie is a.

>> Babe, right?

>> Bruno Kirby, Carrie Fisher.

>> No, no, no, Bruno Kirby was never a babe.

>> They're all babes in this movie.

Sorry.

I had to tell you.

>> I'm gonna fight you on.

>> That one.

>> You will?

No way.

Just perfect.

Okay, perfect.

Now, the premise, though, that you talk about Billy Crystal's character saying men and women, straight men and women cannot be friends because sex is always going to be on their mind.

>> In.

>> The way.

true or false?

>> Ooh.

Tricky question.

That's not on the quiz.

I don't like it.

I think it's false.

I think it's more complicated than that.

I don't think it's a true or false.

I think it's got a little asterisk near it always.

>> I'm not.

And that's what makes the movie so interesting.

>> What makes the movie.

>> So good?

>> Absolutely.

>> All right number two.

So we're tied.

>> Before we move on, I have to out you a little, Evan, because you hadn't seen that movie until last year.

>> That's not true.

I had not seen it.

>> You had not seen it at all.

>> You know, I, I had seen parts of it, but I hadn't watched it cohesively straight through, so I did.

>> Did you love it?

>> Oh, it was, it was absolutely better than I thought it was going to be.

And I thought it was going to be great.

>> It holds up so well to this day, which is honestly a miracle.

>> Absolutely, yes.

And if someone hasn't seen it for me, it's like, if you haven't seen when Harry met Sally, if you haven't seen Defending Your Life, like my favorite movie, like just go do that right now.

>> Just do it.

We give you permission, you can leave work, drop everything, drop everything.

Go home.

Do it.

Yep.

Absolutely.

>> All right number two on the quiz list.

Let's listen.

>> Don't cry.

Shopgirl.

Don't cry.

And the dreams that you dare.

I wanted it to be you.

Dream.

I wanted it to be you so badly.

>> Okay, so I know it's one of two movies.

And I've seen neither.

>> Oh, great.

>> Go for it.

It's either You've Got Mail or Sleepless in Seattle.

It's the Tom Hanks Meg Ryan movies.

And I think it's Sleepless in Seattle.

>> You are wrong.

>> Is it?

You've got mail?

>> Sure is, buddy.

>> Oh yeah man.

Also a perfect movie.

>> So I haven't seen either.

>> You can leave.

I'll finish this.

Our go.

Isn't that.

Go watch.

>> You've got mail.

Is that good?

>> They're both good.

Yeah.

You've got Mail is a complicated premise because I don't want to spoil it for you, but can I?

Yes.

Please do.

He puts her out of business and they still fall in love at the end.

So, I mean, is that what's more realistic like, is that.

>> To me that's like the roots of like the modern hallmark movie.

It's like big out of town.

>> A little bit.

>> Yeah.

You know, corporate guy comes in bulldozes a small business and realizes he loves the attractive woman who runs it, and it melts his heart and he becomes Santa Claus.

>> As you know, written by Nora Ephron.

So it's perfect.

So it's just sublime.

Okay, that is a that's one of my favorites.

>> So he becomes Santa Claus?

>> Yeah.

he does.

It's great.

>> if I can only see Sleepless in Seattle or You've Got Mail one or the other, what.

>> Am I can't pick?

>> Yes, you.

You gotta pick.

Absolutely not.

Okay.

>> You gotta.

They're both.

It's a double feature.

It's a perfect double feature.

The Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks cinematic universe.

And then you add like Joe Versus the volcano on top of it, which is like a weird little one, but kind of keeps them all together.

>> All right.

So now Joe's got a 2 to 1 lead.

We've got six.

So now is number three.

Here we go.

>> I hate the way you talk to me and the way you cut your hair.

I hate the way you drive my car I hate it when you stare I hate your big dumb combat boots.

And the way you read my mind I hate you so much it makes me sick.

It even makes me rhyme.

I hate it, I hate the way you're always right I hate it when you lie.

I hate it when you make me laugh.

Even worse when you make me cry.

I hate it when you're not around.

And the fact that you didn't call.

But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you.

Not even close.

Not even a little bit.

Not even at all.

>> I'm going to say I've no idea, but I'm going to guess the the the music.

I'm going to guess the the year we're playing.

Guess the rom com with Joe Lester here.

I'm going to say 1991.

>> A little early, a little bit later than that.

>> Later than that.

>> What is that?

I think that's 99, maybe 98.

>> That music.

>> Is 99.

>> 99.

That music is very 90s at the end.

Yes.

I have no idea what that is.

What is that?

>> Ten things I Hate about.

>> You ten things I hate about.

>> You also.

Great.

Also wonderful.

It's.

>> Who's the actress?

Who are we hearing there?

>> Julia Stiles and the great, the late, great Heath ledger is her, you know, partner in that movie.

And that's a remake of something Shakespeare.

I can't remember which one.

taming of the shrew.

but modernized takes place in high school, which is like the perfect setting for that play.

Honestly.

It's perfect.

>> Ten things I Hate About You is taming of the shrew.

>> I believe so, I think I'm right about that.

>> Is like, say anything.

say say anything is like Richard, say anything is like Richard the Third.

We're gonna find out that Say Anything was actually.

No.

Say anything is a great movie, isn't it?

Oh, yeah.

I don't even know if that's on this list.

>> It's not.

It's not a rom com.

>> Oh.

>> It's a romance.

>> I don't say it is not a rom com.

>> I wouldn't, I'm not sure I would qualify it as a rom com.

I'd call it.

I would call it more a romance.

>> Romance, drama.

>> Yeah.

Like a rom dramedy.

Maybe we gotta get new.

We're using rom com way too broadly, in my opinion.

Oh, that's.

>> Interesting to hear.

>> Yes.

I feel very strongly about this.

>> So say anything.

Not a rom com.

>> Yeah, I'd say it's more teen teen romance, but.

>> But really good movie.

Wonderful movie.

Yeah.

Really good.

Perfect.

Okay, good.

Thank you for validating.

Absolutely.

John Mahoney, sneaky good in.

>> Oh so good.

Frasier's dead.

Absolutely.

>> okay.

That's three.

I'm now one for three.

Joe's three for three.

This is number four.

I'm in trouble.

Let's go with number four.

>> I wish I knew how to quit you.

>> We want you.

Why don't you just let me be, huh?

Because of you, Jack.

That I'm like this.

Nothing.

I'm nowhere.

Oh.

>> Okay, before you say, do you know what this is?

I do.

Okay, I, I'm going to say that I think it's not a rom com.

>> It's not a rom com.

>> And I think it's Brokeback Mountain.

>> It is broke.

>> So we got Brokeback Mountain.

But Joe immediately said, this is not a rom com.

>> Not a no.

>> It was on some rom com list that I looked at.

So that's my bad apology.

>> It's not your bad.

It's whoever wrote that.

>> This is a ROM tragedy.

>> It is.

It is.

Absolutely.

It's a beautiful, beautiful, heartbreaking.

Oh, I saw that twice in theaters when it came out.

And it was just devastating.

>> That came out.

What was I like in college?

I'm trying to remember.

>> No, we were older than that.

Were we probably.

>> Like early ohs.

>> Or like, yeah, I would say like 2004, 2005 ish, 2006.

>> Someday we should.

I am curious.

>> To know.

>> I am curious to know what effect that had on LGBTQ culture and filmmaking.

I mean, that's a conversation for a separate day.

But yeah, but it's not a rom com.

>> Absolutely not.

Okay, a lot of sheep though.

Good stuff.

>> Okay.

Two out of four, four out of four, two left in the rom com quiz.

Number five.

>> Now on the one hand, it is very difficult for a man to even speak to someone that looks like you, but on the other hand, should that be your problem?

>> So life's kind of hard all around.

>> Well, not if you pay attention.

I mean, you're sending all the right signals.

No earrings, heels under two inches.

Your hair is pulled back.

You're wearing reading glasses with no book.

Drinking a gray goose martini, which means you had a hell of a week and a beer just wouldn't do it.

And if that wasn't clear enough, there's always the off that you have stamped on your forehead.

Because who's going to believe that there's a man out there that could sit down beside a woman he doesn't know and genuinely be interested in who she is, what she does without his own agenda?

>> All right, so I know I haven't seen this.

That's Will Smith.

>> Oh.

>> And I'm gonna guess it's hatch.

>> You are very close.

I think it's hitch.

>> Oh, it's a hitch.

Is it hitch?

>> I didn't know that though.

So that was.

>> It's not hatch.

>> It's canon.

>> Now.

Is it really hitch.

>> No it's.

No.

>> But but that's.

I knew.

>> That was good though.

>> Isn't Kevin James in this movie?

>> Yes.

And Eva mendes.

Maybe.

>> Probably the reason I didn't see this is I don't really I mean, no offense, if you like Kevin James, I don't seek out his work.

I don't like, hate it.

It's just like.

he's like, there's a lot of movies out there.

I don't know if I need to see a Kevin James movie.

>> I wouldn't call it a Kevin James movie.

I'd call it a Will Smith Will Smith movie.

>> Hitch, not hatch.

I was close, hitch.

Okay.

>> All right, I love it.

>> All right.

>> That was good though, because I couldn't identify that.

So that was we were both I hadn't even seen it, but I knew roughly.

Yeah.

>> Is it a good movie?

Did you like it?

>> It's very charming.

It definitely has its charms.

Yeah.

>> Okay.

>> Yeah.

The heyday of Will Smith.

>> The heyday, the pre Chris Rock.

>> Slap.

>> Slap slap slap.

All right, number six, last one.

>> You know what's wrong with you, miss?

Whoever you are you're chicken.

You've got no guts.

You're afraid to stick out your chin and say okay life's a fact.

People do fall in love.

People do belong to each other.

Because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness.

You call yourself a free spirit, a wild thing, and you're terrified somebody's going to stick you in a cage.

Well, baby, you're already in that cage.

You build it yourself.

And it's not bounded on the west by tulip, Texas, or on the east by Somaliland.

It's wherever you go, because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

>> Okay, I don't know this one, but I'm going to guess the the genre or the era.

It's got to be 50s or 60s because it's in that time when everybody talk like this.

>> And very crackly.

>> Everyone.

Yeah.

Listen.

Hear you.

I'm gonna tell you what's what here.

>> That was great dialog I.

>> Can't play.

You don't.

>> Know the movie.

No.

I feel like I've seen it or I've definitely seen that clip, but I can't place it in context.

>> Megan Mack.

>> So this one is probably not a rom com either.

But it's Breakfast at Tiffany's.

>> Oh, my.

>> Goodness, that's Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Whose voice?

>> I've definitely seen that.

>> Who is that?

>> George Peppard.

George Peppard.

Yeah.

>> Okay.

Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Yeah.

All right.

Is that a rom com?

>> I don't, I don't.

>> This is a really expansive definitional list of rom com.

>> Yeah, I know it's comedic.

I don't know if I'd.

I don't know if I'm gonna call it.

>> Well, Joe, you have won the quiz.

Five out of six.

>> Four out.

>> Of six.

>> Four of six.

>> Shameful.

>> If you give me hatch instead of hitch, I got like three.

Julie Williams saying, nope, we're not giving you that one.

but Joe's the winner.

Please check out Joe's work.

as a pop culture critic for City magazine in the current issue.

And before we go here, we got a little bit of time to talk about how you did this.

So real quick here.

If you like zippy screwball workplace romances, you said, check out from 1940.

>> So great.

>> His Girl Friday.

Make the case Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell.

>> They both look beautiful.

Perfectly tailored suits.

The best banter you've probably ever heard in your life.

just just really zippy, snappy, crackly dialog.

So much chemistry on that screen between the two of them.

>> If you like modern adaptations of literary classics that don't feel like homework, clueless 1995 classic.

>> Have you seen that one?

Evan?

>> No.

>> Oh my.

>> God, I know I have not.

I know Julie Williams is looking at me.

like like, what have you been doing with all this time?

I've been, you know what?

I've been watching bad movies.

Apparently.

>> It's great.

>> I need to see clueless.

>> You do need to see clueless.

>> I've seen the burbs too many times.

The worst ending of any movie ever.

okay.

If you like a rom com that works to expand the genre, how about Brokeback Mountain?

No, that's not what you wrote.

my Best friend's wedding.

>> Oh, so great.

So great.

Yeah.

I mean, Julia Roberts as sort of the antagonist.

The one who doesn't get the guy in the end.

I think I feel like I'm formulating a theory when that when Julia Roberts has, like, big hair, she's in her prime like that.

That's like her.

Her power.

And her hair is so big and curly and beautiful in that movie.

underrated Cameron Diaz performance as, as, you know, the ingenue and, oh, everybody's everybody's great.

Lots of hijinks, lots of again, really crackling dialog, really great movie.

>> And we talked about when Harry met Sally, but you also said, what if a 2013 film.

>> What if it is tiny little delight?

Daniel Radcliffe.

>> Harry Potter fame.

>> Of Harry Potter fame, kind of proving that he was not like a one trick pony.

Like he really does have the stuff, but it has in the when the when Harry met Sally vein, it has incredible supporting performances from Adam Driver and Mackenzie Davis, who play like the best friends who kind of get together in this movie.

first.

And it's just they're super fun.

It's very it's very it's a delight.

>> expanding the genre, by the way, I like that you reference Palm Springs, that is a recent movie that I like so great, I really liked.

>> I watched that, I.

>> Watched really interesting kind of trippy.

>> Yeah.

I mean, it's it's an updated ish Groundhog Day a little bit.

you know, it's a time loop.

>> and Groundhog Day, that's a rom com.

Totally.

That's a classic.

Of course.

and defending your life is a rom com.

>> I'd say.

>> So, yeah.

Yeah, I keep going back to that.

But, like, that's what I always tell people, because that's a movie that a lot of people I meet have not seen.

>> It's so smart.

>> And I go, like, you're going to love Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks in this.

It's so smart.

>> It's so smart.

>> It'll pull up your heart.

>> It will.

Absolutely.

>> All right.

If you only got one rom com to watch tonight, what's it gonna be?

>> I mean, it's always when Harry met Sally.

Sorry.

Even if you've seen it, watch it again.

Never, never gets old.

>> You'll find something else in the dialog.

The dialog, like a near perfect script.

Nora Ephron, Swingers.

Not a rom com.

>> No, not a. great script rom in that movie.

>> Yeah.

>> It's light on the.

>> Rom.

Tragic.

ROM tragic.

thank you very much, Joe.

Thank you.

Really fun.

Come back and do quizzes.

Let's do more quizzes.

>> Anytime, anytime.

>> Quizzes here and go see hatch.

>> Really good.

>> From all of us at Connections.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks for listening.

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