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Politico
4 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
How Democrats could gerrymander New York
With help from Amira McKee WHAT COULD BE ON TAP FOR 2028: There's never been a full-fledged partisan gerrymander on the books for New York's congressional districts. Democrats and Republicans have split power in Albany during most modern redistricting cycles. When they didn't in 2024, the lines drawn by Democrats after a series of court battles were nowhere near as aggressive as some partisans hoped. Gov. Kathy Hochul now wants to change that in response to similar Republican efforts in Texas. Redrawing the lines would be complicated in the Empire State. It couldn't happen until 2028 at the earliest, and even then, it could only move forward if voters approve a constitutional amendment to permit a mid-decade gerrymander. But that begs a big question: What would an all-out New York gerrymander look like? The political realities of 2028 are tough to predict. Some incumbents will be gone by then, and political shifts could come to various pockets of the state. And if President Donald Trump has his way, a new Census could throw the current mapmaking calculus out the window. But as things stand now, at least two Republicans have reason to fret, and maybe as many as four. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis has topped 60 percent in the past two elections. Her district currently encompasses Staten Island and merges it with portions of Brooklyn mostly to the east of the Verrazzano Bridge, most of them Republican-friendly. In 2022, Democrats wanted to extend the district further north into Brooklyn to include portions of the left-leaning enclave of Park Slope. Enacting such a plan would turn the district into a battleground. A more aggressive approach — harkening back to a map used in the 1970s — would merge Staten Island with parts of Manhattan. In Westchester, Democratic Rep. George Latimer has a lot of breathing room — he received 72 percent of the vote in 2024. Republican Rep. Mike Lawler doesn't — he received 52 percent. There are towns, such as the ones immediately south of the Tappan Zee, that could be swapped from Latimer's district to Lawler's, growing the number of Democrats in the Republican's seat. The four Congressional seats on Long Island are currently split between Democratic Reps. Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi and Republican Reps. Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino. 'You could pull Suozzi's district more into the city. You could pull Gillen's district more into Gregory Meeks' territory,' Hofstra University's Larry Levy said, referring to the Queens Congress member. That would allow for some portions of the Suozzi and Gillen districts to be merged with the Democratic strongholds currently situated in Republican districts: 'You probably could make either Garbarino or LaLota more vulnerable, but not both,' Levy said. In the western half of upstate, Democratic Rep. Tim Kennedy and Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney and Nick Langworthy each received around 65 percent of the vote in 2024. Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle got 60 percent. There might be a path to joining slices of the Kennedy and Morelle seats with Democratic-friendly towns like Geneva and Oswego, allowing the Tenney district to become a bit more competitive. But there's not much to work with. 'Kennedy and Morelle are kind of islands of Democrats in a sea of Republicans,' one Buffalo Democrat said. With that in mind, the end result might just be jeopardizing two Democrats without actually making the Tenney seat winnable. — Bill Mahoney FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL MAMDANI TURNS UP PRESSURE: Zohran Mamdani sought to press his advantage today among Democrats who have yet to support him by leveraging a New York Times report that rival Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump have discussed the mayoral race. 'My administration will be Donald Trump's worst nightmare,' Mamdani declared, predicting his policies to boost working-class New Yorkers would show how Trump has failed those communities. The Democratic nominee for mayor accused Cuomo of 'conspiring' with Trump. He spoke to reporters in Lower Manhattan outside 26 Federal Plaza, where federal immigration agents have been detaining migrants outside of court. Mamdani, who defeated Cuomo by 12 points in the June primary, stood with the leaders of labor unions that have endorsed him after previously backing Cuomo. 'We know that Andrew Cuomo will sell working people out for his interests, for the interests of the billionaires that support him, for the interests of Donald Trump,' Mamdani said, 'because all of those interests are lining up as one and the same.' Cuomo, who's running an independent general election bid, told reporters in Midtown Manhattan that he doesn't remember the last time he spoke with Trump and knocked the story as 'palace intrigue.' The former governor said he did 'leave word' with the president after an assasination attempt. 'I've never spoken to him about the mayor's race,' Cuomo said, denying the Times report. 'I had spoken to him when I was governor dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of times. We went through Covid together.' Cuomo told reporters he would defend New York City against Trump 'with every ounce of my strength.' The Times additionally reported today that Cuomo has told business leaders he's not 'personally' looking for a fight with the president. In Brooklyn, Mayor Eric Adams, who's also running as an independent, said he's never discussed the campaign with Trump and that his 'conversations with the president is about bringing resources to the city.' Mamdani told reporters today that he's willing to talk with Trump and keep an open dialogue but only to improve the lives of New Yorkers. 'If he wants to actually act upon the cheaper groceries that he told us he would deliver, that is a different conversation,' the candidate said. — Emily Ngo, Joe Anuta and Amira McKee 'LOOK ON THE HAT': The first borough office of Adams' uphill reelection campaign is borrowing the headquarters of one of Brooklyn's old-guard political clubs. The self-titled 'child from Brownsville' cut the ribbon at his new Mill Basin office Thursday, announcing that the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club headquarters — now plastered with 're-elect Eric for Mayor' posters — will serve as the nerve center for the campaign's Brooklyn efforts. 'Why Brooklyn?' Adams said at the Thursday event, gesturing to his cap. 'Brooklyn is the place I was born. When you look on the hat, it says Brownsville. It was the place that shaped and made me. It was the place that taught me the fortitude that I have right now to lead this city.' Adams' team said today it expects to unveil more offices across the five boroughs — just a day after the New York City Campaign Finance board denied the incumbent millions of dollars in public matching funds, putting him at a weighty financial disadvantage against Mamdani. This isn't the first time Adams has encountered trouble with the CFB, whose public matching fund program requires strict adherence to reporting mandates and individual donation limits. A 900-page CFB audit of Adams' 2021 campaign found more than 150 fundraising events that the Adams campaign said they paid for but did not document how much was spent and by whom — a red flag for potentially prohibited in-kind contributions. The campaign declined to address those irregularities in its official response. POLITICO reported in 2021 that Adams also intermittently used office space occupied by the Democratic Party's law firm without disclosing the relationship in campaign finance filings. When asked about how much his campaign was spending to rent the home of one of New York's oldest and most influential Democratic clubs, Adams shrugged. 'Every payment we do is listed on the campaign finance so you can look at that,' he said. Despite the CFB denying his funding request for the tenth time yesterday, Adams said he was unfazed, dodging questions about whether he would shake up his campaign staff or forgo the matching program to accept larger donations. 'The life of a person born in Brownsville, you're always meeting obstacles,' Adams said, again gesturing to his cap. 'But in all those obstacles, what happened? I'm the mayor, because I'm a working class, resilient, hard working New Yorker, and we're used to obstacles.' — Amira McKee From City Hall DEPARTMENT OF WISHFUL THINKING: City Hall is asking agencies to contribute ideas for Mayor Eric Adams' 2026 State of the City address — a request that assumes the mayor will win reelection despite poll numbers suggesting otherwise. On Wednesday, Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy blasted out a message encouraging agencies to submit ideas for the theoretical address by Aug. 11, according to a copy of the missive obtained by Playbook. The request comes as Adams, who is running as an independent, remains a longshot contender for a second term. The incumbent is running as an independent in an overwhelmingly Democratic town. The Campaign Finance Board appears determined to deny him millions of dollars in public matching funds. And the latest poll had the mayor winning just 7 percent of the vote, coming in behind Mamdani, Cuomo and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa. Regardless, Levy is bullish on the mayor's odds. 'New York City's public servants are at their best when putting politics aside and staying focused on the work — and that is exactly what we are doing,' he said in a statement. 'The State of the City takes months of thoughtful planning, and we intend to deliver a speech in early 2026 that is as groundbreaking as ever.' Despite the aura of futility, some municipal workers are treating the exercise as a job preservation strategy, according to one city employee who was granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking. Should Mamdani win the general election, as polling currently indicates, senior staffers would have a readymade plan to pitch to the new administration and prove their worth. 'Zohran's people are going to gravitate to those who have an agenda that aligns with his populism,' another city staffer, also granted anonymity, told Playbook. Levy is convinced there will be no changing of the guard. 'We have appreciated POLITICO's coverage of our past four State of the City addresses, and we look forward to their continued coverage of Mayor Adams' next four,' he said in his statement. — Joe Anuta IN OTHER NEWS — MEGABILL CUTS: New York's social service providers are bracing for deep federal funding cuts as poverty rates rise among the state's elderly. (New York Focus) — ANOTHER LAWSUIT: A former top NYPD lawyer is suing the department, accusing top brass of firing her for investigating Adams' former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey. (Gothamist) — SLOW DOWN: New York City has instituted a new e-bike speed limit, but local officials don't have the teeth to enforce it. (The Wall Street Journal) Missed this morning's New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
03-08-2025
- Business
'Highballed': How disproportionate property taxes are forcing some Americans out of their homes
Bonita Anderson's favorite part of living in Baltimore is having family nearby. A family matriarch with five children and eight grandchildren, Anderson worked hard to buy a place in the city for her family to call home in 2009. "It was an accomplishment for me," she said. "That's where we used to gather to bring the family together." Last week, what was once Anderson's cherished home was listed for sale at nearly $540,000 -- more than five times what she paid for it. But Anderson won't see any of the proceeds. After more than a decade of making payments toward her $100,000 mortgage, Anderson was diagnosed with cancer in 2020. Amid mounting medical bills and property taxes, the lifelong Baltimore resident says she had to choose between fighting for her life and fighting for her home. While undergoing treatment, Anderson fell behind on her property taxes by about $5,000. In 2022, she lost her house at a Baltimore City tax sale. "I sat down and thought, 'Oh my god, I'm 70 years old and I'm homeless,'" Anderson told ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott. The City of Baltimore had put a lien on Anderson's tax debt and auctioned it off to the highest bidder -- a company that specializes in tax lien purchases -- for just $69,500. "If you can't afford to pay your property taxes and you keep missing your payments, government is going to auction your property off for back taxes," said Lawrence Levy, executive dean at the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University. Court records show Anderson tried to make good and redeem her home, paying the city $18,900 by the end of 2022 -- more than triple her outstanding taxes. But instead of putting these payments toward her back taxes, the city applied the money to taxes that had accrued under the new owner. Anderson was unknowingly paying the investor's tax bills instead of her own, allowing the company to foreclose on her home in 2023. "I was just baffled," she said. 'Filled with distortions' Anderson's home was just one of nearly 44,000 Baltimore properties that were listed at municipal tax sales from 2019 through 2023. It was also among the 92% of those properties located in majority-nonwhite neighborhoods -- which account for 70% of parcels citywide. An analysis of ATTOM and U.S. Census Bureau data by ABC Owned Television Stations showed one likely reason for this disparity: disproportionate property taxes. Property taxes are based on a government assessment of each home's value. But researchers say property values are highly subjective, and these estimates don't always align with market prices. Data shows discrepancies in assessments -- and therefore tax bills -- affect some communities more than others. ABC's analysis found that across the country, homeowners in predominantly Black and Brown areas tend to pay higher taxes than those in mostly white neighborhoods for a house worth the same amount on the open market. "When property tax systems are filled with distortions the people punished tend to be the poorest homeowners," Levy said. "In suburbia, where you have a high level of segregation, the people who are being taxed unfairly based on not accurately capturing the value of the home are people of color." For some of these homeowners who are "highballed" on their assessments, missed bills lead to tax sales, leaving them with nothing. From the time Anderson bought her home until she lost it, the property's assessment more than tripled -- but the home's booming value ultimately went to its new owner. "I don't know what's worse, losing the house or being diagnosed with cancer," Anderson said. "It hurts still." Until recently, Levy noted, tax sales most often took place in cities. As urban neighborhoods gentrified and property values shifted rapidly, longtime residents couldn't always keep up with rising bills. "We're now starting to see more of that in suburban areas, particularly in the poorer suburban areas as we're seeing demographic change," Levy said. In Garden City, a predominantly white suburb on New York's Long Island with a median home value of around $1 million, a typical residential tax bill is around $10,000 to $15,000, property data shows. Down the road in Hempstead, where 88% of residents are Black or Latino, homes tend to be worth less than half that. But the typical tax bill is similar, meaning Hempstead homeowners pay proportionally more in taxes relative to the value of their homes. John Rao, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, says U.S. homeowners in communities of color face a "double whammy." They often receive "lowballed" appraisals when trying to purchase or refinance their homes, Rao explained, "but when it comes to paying their taxes, once they've owned the home ... often their assessments are proportionally higher than what they should be." 'Stripping generational wealth' In suburban Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 91-year-old Gloria Gaynor, who suffers from dementia, lost her home of 25 years because of $3,500 in taxes she didn't pay during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gaynor's daughter, Jackie Davis, told ABC station WPVI-TV that her mother stayed home during the pandemic. She skipped her annual trip to the tax office after hearing that tax collectors had paused enforcement as COVID-19 spread through the Philadelphia suburbs. When the government restarted collection efforts and the county tax office reopened, Gaynor went in and made a payment, intending to cover her previous year's taxes, according to her attorney, Alexander Barth. Instead, the money was applied to Gaynor's 2021 and 2022 taxes and not her outstanding balance from 2020, "leaving what is essentially a donut in her tax payment history," Barth explained. A real estate investor bought Gaynor's home from Delaware County for $14,000, the cost of her overdue taxes plus interest and fees. Gaynor had paid off most of her mortgage on the house, which is now worth an estimated $247,000. But she did not make any money from the sale. "This is stripping generational wealth from the have-nots and allowing the haves to have it," Barth said. Gaynor's family went to court in an attempt to get back her home, but two courts upheld the sale. The Delaware County Tax Claim Bureau told ABC's Philadelphia station that while it "sympathizes with the emotional toll" on Gaynor, the county government acted within Pennsylvania law and issued multiple notices ahead of the sale. If Gaynor had lived just a few miles away inside Philadelphia's city limits, officials there would have taken extra steps to try to keep her in her home. Since property taxes are handled differently in different communities, some local governments like Philadelphia have layers of protection for vulnerable homeowners, such as requiring in-person notifications before a tax sale or offering payment plans to redeem a home afterward. "Although local governments should do everything they can to keep people in their homes, whether it's an owner or a renter, at some point they have an obligation to all the other taxpayers, the businesses, the families that are paying their fair share to make sure that these taxes are collected," Levy said. From the living room to the courtroom Just over 90 miles down the road from Gaynor, Anderson spends her days looking back on the memories she built in the home that was once the centerpiece of her family. Now living with her daughter in a Baltimore suburb, Anderson has taken her case to court, joining a lawsuit claiming that the City of Baltimore broke federal law by selling her former home to a private company for pennies on the dollar. The City of Baltimore, which did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment, has defended its actions in court, saying it notified Anderson as required and did not profit from the sale. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local governments could not profit from tax sales, finding that homeowners have a constitutional right to any payments beyond the taxes and penalties they owe. Over the last two years, many states across the country have changed their laws in light of the court's decision. But some experts say the federal government also has a role to play. "The federal answer to lower local property taxes is more funding for local services," Levy said. "They need more help from Congress and the White House." As the Trump administration has slashed the federal budget, local governments will have to make up the difference to provide the same services. According to experts, municipalities will likely rely more on property taxes, which in turn, could mean more situations like Anderson's, where homeowners in majority-nonwhite neighborhoods too often pay more than their fair share. When asked by ABC News what happened to her dream of passing down her home to the next generation of her family, Anderson said, "it died." "It still makes me emotional," Anderson said. "It's just hard. Very hard."
New York Post
02-08-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Law grad goes into cardiac arrest during NY bar exam — and test goes on uninterupted: reports
The test must go on. A Fordham Law grad went into cardiac arrest while taking the bar exam Wednesday, but other aspiring lawyers were reportedly forced to shoulder on during the scary ordeal. As school safety officials worked to revive the unidentified woman inside Hofstra University's sports complex in Hempstead, Long Island, proctors didn't immediately pause the second day of the New York State Bar Examination, according to Newsday and ABC 7, which spoke with test-takers. 'That's a real person who could be dying right in front of us, and we're still being expected to continue to finish our questions for this exam,' one law student told the newspaper. The medical emergency took place during the bar exam at Hofstra University. AP The medical episode happened just before a lunch break, when the woman fell from her chair and went into medical distress inside the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex, a Hofstra spokesperson told The Post. Public safety officers immediately provided CPR and other life-saving measures until paramedics reached the scene and rushed her to a local hospital. Her condition was not immediately known. When test-takers returned from lunch, the scene was clear, and they didn't hear about the unnerving moment again. 'From a purely human standpoint, that's another human being in distress. And that's not something that you could just be flip to the back of your mind immediately — at least for me,' the law student also told Newsday, which reported the pupil was also from Fordham Law. But the state Board of Law Examiners, which administers the tests, defended the proctors' actions. 'This event occurred only a few minutes before the scheduled end of the exam session,' the board said in a statement to ABC 7. 'Our staff came to the examinee's aid as soon as they were alerted to the situation.' The student was rushed to a local hospital. 4kclips – But another student, Isaac, claimed to the outlet that there wasn't enough urgency from the staff. 'The students around her were telling the proctors, 'Why are you refusing to seek assistance?'' he said. 'And she kept on saying, 'Shut up, and continue with the exam.'' Some students near the medical emergency were in tears and moved their seats for arriving first responders, Newsday reported. The Post could not reach the state board for comment Friday. Applicants need to pass the state bar exam to practice law in New York. Nicole Lefton, who is a Hofstra Law School instructor and head of academic support and bar exam preparation, told test-takers that services were available in the aftermath of the shocking incident. 'We understand that witnessing a medical incident during the Bar Exam today may have been distressing,' she wrote, per Newsday. 'While we cannot share any medical details about the incident, we want to acknowledge the impact it may have had on you.'
Yahoo
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gen Z Now Wants to Be "Stay-at-Home Sons" and...Oh Boy
I tend to agree with Michelle Obama, who recently told Jay Shetty that she'd rather 'teach [her kids] boundaries at three and four and five…deal with mistakes and failure when they are 10 and 5 and 13, rather than have them live in our basement when they are 35 for the rest of their lives.' Obama smiled but concluded firmly: 'I don't want a kid in my basement.' I hear you, First Lady. It's a seemingly obvious truth—we want our kids to move out of our family home as adults and commence their independent, successful lives (while calling us plenty, of course.) But recently, that truism has been called into question when 27-year-old Jeopardy contestant Brendan Liaw introduced himself on national TV as a 'stay-at-home son.' He was joking, but only half, since he does in fact live with his parents. (He later explained his 'tongue-in-cheek' precis, saying, 'I thought it sounded better than saying 'unemployed' or as I joked on the show, 'loiterer' and I figured if lose my first game, I might as well make some people laugh.') Liaw wound up winning $60,000, but earned much more air time with his saucy living status than with his correct answers. But does his response speak to larger trend? I checked in with a neurodevelopmental psychologist to find out. Meet the Expert Dr. Sanam Hafeez is the founder of Comprehend the Mind in New York City She is a pioneer in neuropsychological assessments, reshaping its clinical model and best practices. Dr. Hafeez received her doctorate from Hofstra University and completed her post-doctoral work in neurodevelopmental psychology at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Hafeez is a New York State licensed psychologist and a New York State certified school psychologist and is an expert in trauma, learning problems, ADHD and autism. Here's How the Stay-at-Home Sons Kerfuffle Started After the Jeopardy episode, the punditosphere was outraged. The Wall Street Journal published a story in its Careers section titled The New Dream Job for Young Men: Stay-at-Home Son. Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren quipped, 'leave it to Gen Z to rebrand laziness and social awkwardness as something cutesy,' after suggesting that some of them might be, 'deadbeat folks that are on Medicaid.' During a panel discussion on the Ruthless Podcast, co-host Josh Holmes said, 'as compelling as arranging the flowers and monitoring Amazon deliveries could be to the average person, I think that most men with even an ounce of testosterone would find this a touch demeaning.' A commentor agreed: 'We have to bring back shame in this country, Josh, you would have to waterboard me like Khalid Sheik Mohammed to get me to admit that I'm a stay-at-home son.' Meanwhile one enterprising young man took advantage of the furor, offering branded "Stay at Home Sons" merch for purchase online. As a mom of a 19-year-old son gifted with pandemic-induced rusty social skills, I'm surprised by the meanness here. We all know kids who have had a hard time catching up to age-appropriate milestones. Add to that this sobering statistic: nearly one in 10 men aged 20 to 24 are unemployed, double the national average. Additionally, our economy is experiencing ever-increasing housing and education costs at the same time as wage stagnation. It's no wonder that, according to Pew Research, there's a slight uptick in young adults living in a parent's home; In 2023, 57 percent of 19 to 24-year-olds lived at home compared with 53 percent in 1993. Here's What a Therapist Says 'I've seen this situation arise more frequently in recent years,' says New York City-based neuropsychologist Dr. Sanam Hafeez. 'With the high cost of living, student debt and fewer entry-level jobs, many young adults are staying home longer than their parents expected. It often creates tension, not because of laziness, but because both sides feel stuck. Parents want their children to succeed, but they also want peace and space in their home. Young adults feel pressure to move forward, yet the economy doesn't always give them the tools to do so quickly.' So, the answer to these economic and social pressures is…to get young men to feel more shame? 'Living at home as an adult can sometimes make a young man question his worth, independence and ability to stand on his own. He might feel like he's falling behind, causing him shame. Over time, these doubts can impact motivation and his perception of the future.' Dr. Sanam Hafeez My Perspective as a Teen Boy's Mom With male depression and self-harm on the rise (in 2023, men died by suicide 3.8 times more than women), I'd argue that shame is exactly the last thing we need. And as a mom, I resent that talking heads (and/or conservative members of older generations) simply assume that because a young guy might make a joke about moving to move back home, he doesn't take it seriously. Indeed, Dr. Hafeez says, '[joking] can be a way for your son to cope, making the situation feel less heavy.' The psychologist agrees that piling on shame will only make the situation worse, a result I can attest to when I tried using the same shaming-as-motivation to get my son to do anything from chores to carrying household mental load to practicing parallel parking. (Spoiler: What worked on Gen X does not work on Gen Z.) 'Living at home as an adult can sometimes make a young man question his worth, independence and ability to stand on his own. He might compare himself to peers who have moved out and feel like he's falling behind,' Dr Hafeez says. 'This can lead to feelings of failure or not meeting his own expectations, [which] could chip away at his confidence and cause him shame…Over time, these doubts can impact motivation and his perception of the future.' Conclusion: How to Handle the Stay-at-Home Son So, how to know if your kid is joking about being a stay at home son because he's happy to underperform, or if he's trying to hide a deeper fear of failure? Or how to determine if your kid actually has a trajectory planned out and feels he's on his way to a happy, independent future? Watch, listen and communicate. 'It helps to have honest conversations about timelines and expectations so both sides are clear,' says Dr. Hafeez. 'If he's making no effort to find a job or plan for the future, it might be time to push him in that direction. But if he's actively trying and just facing tough circumstances, be patient with him and do all you can to support him. Look for signs of responsibility such as contributing to household chores or setting goals. Ultimately, the decision should balance his readiness with your boundaries and what's healthy for everyone involved.' So, yes, pundits. It's a new world, one in which a game show contestant can boldly joke about being a 27-year-old who lives with his parents. And if you think that's shameful, you're making dangerous assumptions. In Jeopardy contestant Liaw's case, he made that joke knowing that he held a master's degree and was studying for the LSATs. From this mom's perspective, as long as he was helping out around the house while earning $60k on a TV game show, I'll call him a winner. The Four Words That Help Teach Responsibility to Teenagers, According to an Expert Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
05-07-2025
- Science
- CBS News
St. Elmo's Fire, it's more than just a classic movie
St. Elmo's Fire is a term you may have heard before because of a 1985 "Brat Pack" movie. St. Elmo's fire is a somewhat rare type of weather, too. A look at the rare type of weather known as a "St. Elmo's Fire." Getty Images St. Elmo's fire is a discharge of electricity in the Earth's atmosphere. It looks sort of like lightning, but it can appear in different colors. The National Weather Service says this phenomenon happens when a sharp object comes into contact with areas with an extraordinarily high electric field and a large number of electrons. You will notice it has a weird name, and that gives some clues to where it was first noticed. The statue of St. Eramus of Formia, a patron saint of sailors Getty Images It is named St. Elmo's Fire after St. Erasmus of Formia, one of the patron saints of sailors. Ships would see St. Elmo's fire on masts when out to sea. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says this electric glow is known as a corona discharge. It occurs when the air surrounding a conductive object is briefly ionized by the electrically charged environment. An illustration of a ship experiencing St. Elmo's Fire Getty Images While St. Elmo's fire and lightning may look similar, there are differences. While St. Elmo's Fire and lightning can look very similar, there are differences. Getty Images Jase Bernhardt, an associate professor and director of sustainability at Hofstra University, told CBS News, in a previous report, that lightning is a direct movement of electrons from the cloud to the ground. St. Elmo's fire is like a sparking effect, where electrons cover a much smaller distance. The view of a St. Elmo's Fire from the cockpit of a plane Getty Images Ships are not the only location where St. Elmo's fire can show up. Planes, utility poles, the tops of tall buildings, church spires, and even the tips of umbrellas can have St. Elmo's Fire! When this phenomenon shows up, there is usually a strong likelihood of lightning. That means it is time to get indoors until the atmosphere settles down. St. Elmo's fire isn't necessarily dangerous itself, but it is usually an indicator that the ingredients for lightning are around you, though. It is best not to take a chance by staying outside. For planes or ships, it is usually not dangerous either. The Hong Kong Observatory reports that seeing St. Elmo's Fire was thought to be lucky because you were being protected by St. Erasmus of Formia. However, if you are on open water, it is time to get inside the ship if you can to avoid any bad luck that lightning might bring.
