NYC NOW - April 2, 2024: Midday news

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Two men are facing drug charges in the February death of trans rights advocate Cecilia Gentili after allegedly supplying her with fentanyl laced heroin. Meanwhile, the first Ramadan Night Market in New York City is opening Wednesday night in Astoria, Queens. Plus, New York City’s budget is due by the end of June but Mayor Adams and the City Council need to agree on it first. The Mayor has recently overseen a series of cuts to city services, including schools, parks and libraries. He says the cuts are due to the number of migrants in the city and the end of federal pandemic aid. But the City Council is claiming an extra $6 billion is available from a variety of sources the administration didn’t account for. The Council released its response to the Mayor's preliminary budget for the 2025 fiscal year on Monday afternoon. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with City Council Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan to understand city lawmakers’ priorities. Finally, WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk is highlighting hidden gems across New York City. Today, we explore an alley on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, renowned for its vibrant and impactful street art.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, April 2nd. Here's the midday news for Michael Hill. Two men are facing drug charges in the February death of trans rights advocate, Cecilia Gentile. WNYC's Catalina Grona reports. Prosecutors say 44-year-old Michael Cullen supplied at 52-year-old Antonio Vente with the fentanyl-laced heroin he allegedly sold to Hintili. She was found dead in her apartment on February 6th.

Both men are charged with distributing the heroin in fentanyl. Kulin is also charged with unlawful gun possession. They pleaded not guilty in court on Monday and were released on bail. Venti's attorney says his client knew Hintili personally and was himself a drug user. Hentili was well known for her work as a trans-rights advocate. She also helped launch the movement to decriminalize sex work in New York. Both men are due back in court on April 22. The first Ramadan night market in New York City is opening tomorrow night in a story of vendors from Muslim-owned businesses across the city will sell all halal food from nine until one to accommodate the fasting period. Malika, a Muslim women's empowerment and anti-violence group, is organizing the night market. It's been handing out free if there

meals along Steinway Street, this Ramadan along with controller, Brad Lander. The market is free to attend and will be along Steinway between 25th and 28th avidiers near the Al-Iman Mosque. 47 with light rain out there. Rain, and could be heavy at times the rest of the day, a high near 50, it'll be gusty, and then rain again tomorrow, maybe with some late afternoon thunderstorms, a high just below 50, breezy and gusty, and then more rain likely on Thursday. Stay close. There's more after the break. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC.

New York City's budget is due by the end of June. But before that happens, Mayor Adams and the City Council need to agree on what the budget looks like. The mayor has recently overseen a series of cuts to city services like schools and parks and libraries, and he says the cuts are due to the number of migrants in the city and the end of federal pandemic aid. But the City Council says it's actually. identified billions of dollars in additional money that can reverse many of Adams' cuts. The council released its response to the mayor's preliminary budget for the 2025 fiscal year. Council Finance Committee Chair Justin Brennan joined us now to walk us through the city

lawmakers' priorities. Councilmember Brandon, can you walk us through the council's response and in doing so? Talk about what the council's priorities are and where they may differ from the mayor's priorities? Sure. So I think the main takeaway here is that the council maintains that the administration's blunt cuts and proposed cuts that you've seen over the past couple of months were never necessary in the first place. So the council will be fighting for and expecting to see full restorations across the board.

And we know that we can afford to do this because the council's updated economic forecast identifies a combined $3.35 billion in additional tax revenue over the next two fiscal years, which is above the mayor's estimate. We have what we need to restore all these cuts, and that's what we want to do. Yeah, let's talk more about that. You said there were some tax savings there. If you were to ask the mayor, he would say that these cuts are necessary to close a multi-billion dollar budget gap.

So what accounts for this difference here? Is he wrong? Well, I think, you know, I think we have different ways of seeing things, right? I mean, our economists sort of give us the raw numbers and then they let the politicians put the spin on it. And, you know, so long as we can all agree on the amount of money that we're working with, then the budget negotiations do not need to be hostile in any way. So we've also, in addition to the additional tax revenues that we forecast,

we're also recognizing about $2.2 billion of potential underspending and about $550 million of in-year reserves from FY24 that, you know, this is money that just wasn't spent. And what we're seeing right now is, you know, you hear a lot about the costs related to the migrant influx. our biggest budgetary burden right now is not managing costs related to the migrant influx, but rather coping with the extinction of the COVID stimulus funds. Let's talk more about the ongoing migrant crisis. Now, Councilmember, you said that there's potential for doing a better job with the crisis costs.

You are the city finance share. Can you specify some ways to minimize that particular price tank? That's a great question. I mean, we've really, the council been trying to dig into really to get to get under the hood, to understand where we can bring down costs, continue treating assailies with dignity and respect, but also just not spending with wild abandon in an emergency posture and trying to leverage the relationships that we have with a lot of immigration groups across the city that do this job day in and day out.

I often say that there's a reason why the city of New York does not have a department of resettlement. This is a federal responsibility. But I think the moral of the story here is that we've got the money we need and that managing the costs related to the migrant flux is not actually our biggest budget concern at this time. What aspects of the mayor's budget do you and other members of the council leadership agree with? You know, look, I think we all want to get to the same place. It's just a matter of how we get there. And I think, you know, early childhood education has become. you know, one of the flashpoints for us because it's something that we hear from our constituents

all the time that 3K and UPK have just absolute lifesavers for working families. And I think we're not necessarily asking to add more seats because we've got so many vacant seats currently. But, but to me, that's a sign that there's a break in the chain somewhere because you can't tell me that there aren't 30,000 working families in this city that wouldn't kill to have a 3K seat. There's a perception that the mayor and the council's relationship has been strained in recent months. And you occupy a unique position to give us some perspective here because you're the head of a powerful council committee. You're close with council speaker Adrian Adams. You endorse the mayor back in 2021.

So how would you characterize lawmakers' relationship with his administration at this point? So the mayor and I personally speak frequently. We always try to maintain a clear line of communication. And I think as long as we can do that, you know, the drama and the back and forth is, sort of, you know, inherent to the nature of our government, right? The city council, our job is to do oversight over the mayor and his agencies, right? That's our role in the charter. So there's always going to be a level of drama and conflict that's baked into that. But it shouldn't get to the point where it becomes a distraction. And I think that's at the end of the day, that's what

we try to do to maintain that no matter what is going on in the press or whatever drama is happening, that we're still constantly talking and working towards, at least this time of year, a budget that New Yorkers can see and touch and feel that we're doing the right thing by them. City Council Finance Chair, Justin Brannon. Councilmember, thanks so much for joining us on a busy day. All right on. Thanks for having me. On WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. From Hidden Gems to Family Run Bakery.

New York City boasts a variety of neighborhood gems. Double NYC's Community Partnerships Desk is highlighting some of these treasures across the five boroughs. Today we explore an alley on Manhattan's Lower East Side, renowned for its vibrant and impactful street art. My name is Jimmy Wright. I'm an artist, and I live at One Freeman Alley. Freeman Alley is a dead-in private street. Street located between the Bowery and Christie Street. It dates back to the 1800s when this would have been part of the Delancey Farm. Freeman Alley is an unmapped street. In about 1914, the city council

passed a resolution officially demapping it, so they walked away from any upkeep and liability as a city Street. The alley is about 150 feet long, maybe a little less than that. I'm in a building that was built as a stable in 1890. I moved to Freeman Alley in 1980. There's always been some graffiti art, even in 1980, but it was done by a high school kid. When the Black Lives Matter protest started, and the protesters would come off the Williamsburg Bridge, or they would come up the alley from Brooklyn Bridge. A whole new community discovered Freeman Alley, and suddenly large urban graffiti tags appeared like overnight.

It's a rainbow of images and colors and individual expression. A lot of people come to the alley just to see the graffiti and the paystops. That in itself is unique because you're only 12 feet between walls or nine feet between walls, so you're literally surrounded with urban individual self-expression. I walk out the door on a daily basis someone is saying to a friend, oh my God, isn't this beautiful or isn't this amazing? It's sort of surreal because it's totally unplanned. It's not a corporate expression at all. Jimmy Wright is an artist who lives on Freeman Alley, a neighborhood gem on Manhattan's

Lower East Side. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you this evening.