NYC NOW - April 16, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Police say they’re searching for a man who assaulted someone after midnight at the 47-50th Streets Rockefeller Center subway station in an unprovoked attack. Meanwhile, the City Council is hearing testimony on several bills today, including one on improving access to shelter and city services for newly arrived Black migrants. Plus, René Redzepi, co-owner of Noma, the three Michelin-starred Copenhagen restaurant, is hosting a series of pop-up shops in the city this week to promote Noma's packaged goods. Finally, the New York City Council is opposing proposed budget cuts by Mayor Eric Adams that would reduce funding for the city’s 3K and Pre-K programs. Lawmakers argue that any reduction in early childhood education for 3 and 4-year-olds will worsen the childcare affordability crisis, which is driving young families to leave the city. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with reporter Karen Yi to understand why childcare is unaffordable for most New Yorkers. Finally, it's Poetry Month, and we're playing your poems on our show. Listener Ryan Beck of Brooklyn sent us this poem "Looking out my Crown Heights window."

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, April 16th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. Police are searching for a man who they say assaulted someone at a midtown subway station in an unprovoked attack. It happened just after midnight last night at the Rockefeller Center station. Police say a 24-year-old victim was buying a metro card when the suspect approached him from behind and cut his face with a sharp object. Police say the two men didn't seem to know each other.

The suspect fled but was later seen on surveillance video re-entering the subway at 34th Street. First responders took the victim to a Bellevue hospital where he was in stable condition. The City Council is hearing testimony on several bills today. The committees on immigration and hospitals will hear testimony about how city government can better help newly arrived black migrants

access shelter in city services. The Council says a growing number of newcomers mostly from Guinea, Haiti, Mauritania, Senegal are held back by language and cultural barriers. And the Committee on Economic Development will hear testimony on a helicopter noise and safety bill. The committee's looking at how flight paths coincide with more than 59,000 311 noise complaints filed last year. Some good news for New Yorkers who want a taste of Noma, the famous Copenhagen restaurant. The chef behind Noma is hosting a series of pop-ups in the city this week to promote Noma's packaged goods. Superiority Burger's

Events Manager, Melissa Quayle, says he should be good for business. We're really excited and we do expect a good amount of people. I feel like anyone says the word NOMA, you all automatically have a crowd. NOMA is partnering with a different New York institution each day, starting today with superiority burger, the Alphabet City vegan restaurants. The restaurant will be serving several dishes made with NOMA's unique products like a fermented mushroom sauce and wild rose vinegar. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNMIC, I'm Sean Carlson.

The New York City Council is fighting proposed budget cuts by Mayor Eric Adams that would slash funding for the city's 3K and pre-K programs. Lawmakers say any rollback to early childhood education for three- and four-year-olds will only worsen the existing child care affordability crisis that's driving young families to leave the city. Joining us now to explain why most New Yorkers can't afford to cover the cost of child care is WMIC's Karen Yee. Karen, I almost don't even know if I want to hear the answer to this question, but what does the average New York City family pay for child care? Okay, so most families will pay between $14,000 and $20,000 a year for a child five years or younger. And that can even be more in some cases. But of course, you know, for many families, this can mean a third or a quarter of their household income. And that's way past what the federal government recommends.

So federal standards actually say that child care shouldn't cost more than 7 percent. of a household's income, and that's really the measure we're talking about when we're talking about affordability. And right now, 80% of New Yorkers cannot afford child care. Why is it so expensive? A couple of things. I mean, we're talking about caring for the youngest New Yorkers, so in a way, it should cost money, right? We want high quality care, but there's also more stringent measures in place. Child care facilities are regulated by how many caretakers need to be in the room for every child, and that varies by age. So generally, one adult for every eight kids with a maximum of two infants. So those are very small ratios. There's also minimum square footage requirements

for every kid. And that just generally makes staffing very, very expensive, especially the younger the child is. And that's really the main budget line for most providers. No one wants these rules and staffing ratios to go away. But the problem is that child care programs cost a lot of money and families can't afford these costs. I spoke to Lauren Melodia from the New School Center for New York City Affairs. We shouldn't expect that price is going to go down because we should actually expect that if we want high quality care, we're going to have to pay for it. And just the question is who pays for it? And she says we need way more public investment. Well, what about existing subsidized programs for child care for low

income families? Voucher programs or federally subsidized programs like Head Start are very helpful to cover all or part of the cost for families. But providers say these vouchers reimburse them at rates that don't actually reflect what it actually costs around the program. So child care experts say it's really a drop in the bucket compared to what's needed. I think a helpful way to look at this problem is comparing child care to the public education system, right? We know how much it costs to fund public schools and how much is invested in K-12 education. But child care isn't funded at anywhere near those levels. Pete Nabosny is the policy director for the children's agenda, and this is how he put it.

A lot of our child care challenges, the shortage of care, the lack of affordability of care, all these things are rooted in. you know, a decision that we've made as a country to not treat child care like a public good. You have families in parts of the Bronx like Hunts Point and Mont Haven spending as much as 63% of their household income on infant and toddler care. But this isn't just a problem for low-income communities. A report by the Citizens Committee for Children found that there are just two community districts in all of New York City where a majority of families can actually afford child care, and that's Tribeca and Greenwich Village. So even in more affluent areas, you still have large portions of families paying way more than they can afford. Now, this is New York City. So, yeah, things are expensive here. But is there something particular to New York City that makes childcare even less affordable?

I mean, the cost of living here is definitely makes things worse, both for providers who are navigating the cost of renting commercial buildings and for families who are just juggling housing and rental costs and the price of food. There are two general types of child care where we're talking about care. some of these are based in commercial spaces, and that's called center-based care. And then there's others that are run out of people's homes, and that's home-based care. So for center-based care, real estate prices are very expensive. And for home providers who don't own their residences, they also have to navigate the city's skyrocketing rental housing market. So as expensive as child's care is, providers tell me that they're not actually charging

what they wish they could or what it takes to actually cover their costs. I spoke with Doris Iriz Ari who runs a child's care center in her home in Castle Hill in the Bronx. I have parents that are making $40,000, $47, $50. Even with two children, they cannot make, pay their rent, their utility. We can't charge more than the subsidy because nobody could afford it. Irizari is talking about the vouchers and that most providers don't charge above what the state has set as the reimbursement rate. What exactly are families paying for with all this money? Yes, so child's care workers wear a lot of different hats.

I spoke to Andrea Davilaar, who runs a program out of her home in Queens. We're not just teaching the kids. We're providing meals for them, so we're cooking daily. We're diaper changers. We're teaching them how to use the potty. We're potty training them. You've got to be able to comfort the child if they're upset about something. So these are a lot of different things and for children of a lot of different ages,

but providers like Davila who run smaller programs say that they also offer more flexible hours for, than centers do, right? So if a parent works non-traditional hours or has to work late, they accommodate that. And one provider told me that they've, you know, even opened their doors at five in the morning for a parent who was a school bus driver. You know, hearing you talk about the overhead of being a provider of child care, it makes me wonder, what about them? Are they even making any money? Right. Providers are really struggling to make ends meet. And many of them close after the pandemic, particularly those who operate out of their homes and are small businesses. A quarter of child's care workers live in poverty and actually qualify for these child's care vouchers for

their own children. Irizari says many providers can stay in business because of their partners who also provide health insurance, which they don't have. I'm in this business, not because of what I earned because of the generosity of my husband that he has carrying the bills. Because if it was because of me, I'd be in the poor house. Home providers like Yerazari say they pay their staff if they have an assistant first, and that's usually just minimum wage.

And they can't really afford to pay their workers' health insurance, so there's a lot of turnover and issues with retention. After they pay their workers, the mortgage, the rent, the utilities, materials, and food for the children, there really sometimes isn't anything left over for them to earn a salary. The Center for New York City Affairs found that in 2021, the median home-based provider made $10.61. And that's way below minimum wage. How can we solve this problem, Karen? Yes.

everyone I spoke to agreed that the city needs to move toward universal child care and away from what's become a really private transaction between a parent and a caretaker. The pre-K and 3K expansion were major steps in that direction by the city, but there's still the question of whether these programs will be rolled back under the budget proposal. And even if they're not, families still have to figure out what to do with their children until they're three years old. And many are opting to leave the workforce or just leave the city. That's WNIC's Karen Yee. For more on child care costs, visit gothamists.com. Karen, thanks so much. Thanks, Sean.

On WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. We're playing your poems on the air. Our theme this year is local. We want to hear your poems about the nearby places that matter to you and what's happening there. Listener Ryan Beck of Brooklyn centers, this poem, looking out my Crown Heights window. If I look past the water seeping in through my ceiling and over the scaffolding that's been up for 10 literal years,

I see my favorite tucked-away street, the place I parked my car, the place my son rides his bike, and the place where the lady who lives in the basement illegally blocks off parking spaces with cones she stole from Con Edison. I will miss this window. Not now, but someday. Well, we want to hear from you,

even about your neighbors, maybe. Send us your poems about your neighborhood, your street, your building, your neighbor, whatever local means to you. Go to WNYC.org slash poetry to find out exactly how. Remember to join us in the Greenspace this Friday, April 19, for live poetry. We've invited some of our favorite local poets to share their work. Tickets are up pay as you wish. Reserve yours at WNYC.org slash the Greenspace. Thanks for listening.

This is NYC Now from W. be sure to catch us every weekday three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts we'll be back this evening