NYC NOW - April 20, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is taking direct aim at President Biden for failing to deliver more aid to the city to help manage a nearly year-long migrant crisis. More than 34,000 migrants are receiving shelter and city services. And finally, WNYC’s Brigid Bergin recently spent a day with New York City’s newest member of Congress, Rep. Dan Goldman. The Democrat knows Washington D.C well but admits he’s still learning his very diverse district.

Good evening and welcome to NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre for WNYC. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is taking direct aim at President Biden for failing to deliver more aid to the city to help manage a nearly year-long migrant crisis. The president and the White House has failed New York City on this issue. More than 34,000 migrants are now getting shelter and city services. The city projects the costs will increase to more than $4 billion over the next two years. years. Mayor Adams says footing the bulk of those costs is affecting everyday New Yorkers. This has impacted our schools, public safety, our ability to take care of those who are already in shelters. This is impacting the entire city. The city is urging Biden to expedite work

permits for asylum seekers. A spokesperson for the White House says the federal government will announce more migrant funding in the coming weeks. A staffer at a juvenile detention center in the Bronx was arrested and fired last week for having sex with an 18-year-old detainee. WNYC reporter Bahar Oestadon has more. Prosecutors say video surveillance footage shows Natasha Robinson, who's 34, with a male teenager inside the Horizon Juvenile Detention Center. But the incident doesn't come as a shock to employees.

They say conditions at the center have actually worsened since the city's administration for children's services took over the detention of older teenagers after the state stopped sending them to adult jails but john j professor geoffrey butt says sending them back to rikers won't do any good lots of people studied this for the last 34 years and never found solid evidence that actually improves public safety what it does is satisfy the political messaging agenda an ac s spokesperson said the agency is investigating the incident Stay close. There's more after the break. Before becoming New York City's newest member of Congress, Dan Goldman served as the lead attorney in former President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial

and was later an MSNBC analyst. The Democrat knows Washington, D.C. really well. But back home, Goldman is still learning the contours of his diverse district. The 10th congressional district spans Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Waterfront. Ahead of his 100-day mark, WNYC's Bridget Bergen spent a day with Representative Goldman to find out how he's engaging his constituents. Congressman Dan Goldman steps gingerly out of an Uber in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He's wearing a knee-high, orthopedic walking boot

on his right leg. Hey, Bridget. Congressman. How are you? What happened? I tore my calf muscle. It's actually oddly enough called tennis leg because it happens a lot

when people play tennis or racket sports. so I'm just getting old. The boot is disarming. It's an icebreaker of sorts, giving off an everyman vibe, except Goldman is a multi-millionaire. He lives with his wife and five kids in Tribeca. His family made your Levi jeans. He put $5 million of his own money

towards winning the seat in the 10th Congressional District. To keep it, he needs to make inroads in places like this working-class immigrant community where he did not do well in the primary. We're visiting Nizteca, a two decades-old community organization focused on issues affecting the Mexican and Latin American immigrants

in the neighborhood. How are you? What happened? One of the kids. Executive director Lorena Corusius invites him to sit down at the front of the room. There were folding tables striped in bright pink linens.

Thank you everyone for having this pain. In March, his office helped 22 recipients of deferred action for childhood arrivals, or DACA, with the paperwork they needed to travel to Mexico City. They had been turned down twice before. Now, half a dozen of these dreamers are here to tell him about their trip and thank him. 40-year-old Ariselli Ortega says she saw her mother for the first time in two decades. It was a blessing. It was heaven when I Another attendee asks Goldman, what will it take to move the needle on immigration reform? His response is measured, focused on one dimension of this complex issue.

It's also in line with a push from city officials. What I am hopeful for is that we start getting more pressure from the business community on Republicans to reach some sort of an agreement so we can provide more work authorization so people can work. legally in much greater numbers, and that that can help be the breakthrough that we need. After about an hour, we take the R train to his office in Park Slope for a brief stop, and then hop in an Uber to Manhattan to tour the Trinity Lower East Side Food Pantry. Goldman helps load bags of apples into a colorfully painted community refrigerator on the corner of East 9th Street.

Hi, how are you? Dan Goldman. Congressman, nice to see you. 83-year-old Linda Jacobson stops to see him. I have a question for you. Yeah. What about the rent being too down high? I agree with you.

What are we going to do? Well, one of the things we have to do is... He says, build more affordable housing. Stop landlords from warehousing empty apartments to drive up rent. Look at unused federal land. Jacobson says that's not enough. The amount of luxury development, office space, and residential, makes you sick to your stomach.

And it makes people disrespect government. Well, yes, I certainly hear what you're saying. She wants him to change the system. He talks about working within it. He tells her he's meeting with an affordable housing developer later in the day. That was not part of the on-the-record schedule. As we head to the next stop, I ask him what he made of job. Jacobson's comments. He says he hears that frustration a lot, but believes in striking a balance.

What I hope to bring is to encourage business development, but to do it with a more civic-minded engagement because we really need the additional housing. Being out and about in the district means unpredictable moments from constituents and otherwise. Outside a coffee shop on East 9th Street, a bird poops on Goldman's pant like. Oh man, it's supposed to be good luck, right? Yeah. It's the kind of thing that happens to everyone. Even Goldman. A staffer quickly offers a tide stick to clean it up. That's WNYC's Bridget Bergen.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.