NYC NOW - April 22, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Columbia University is holding classes remotely on Monday as protests over the Israel-Hamas war continue to roil the school’s Morningside Heights campus. On ‘The Brian Lehrer Show,’ reporter Ramsey Khalifeh calls in from the campus with updates. Finally, for Earth Day, WNYC’s Community Partnerships Desk is highlighting various organizations promoting sustainability.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Brian Larry. Time now for the latest news with Michael Hill. Hi Michael, what's happening? Columbia University is holding classes remotely today as protests over the Israel-Hamas war continued to royal the school's Morningside Heights campus. Overnight University President, Minou Sheafi, said students who live off campus should stay off campus. She also said staff who can work remotely should do so.

The announcement comes amid reports of a number of anti-Semitic incidents at and near Columbia. It also follows the arrest last week of more than 100 people involved in protests over Israel's actions in Gaza. The arrest came after the school request of the NYPD's assistance with the campus demonstrations. WNYC reporter Ramsey Khalifa is there and he joins us now. Ramsey, what are you seeing there? Well, first thing I want to say is that I'm currently sitting inside one of the tents in this encampment. But what I noticed before getting to school is that there's this big tale of two worlds. Outside, there's NYPD drones, there's helicopters flying around.

There's several and several security members, both private and the NYPD themselves. And there's also counter-protesters preparing to do some sort of chance, some sort of protest in support of Israel. But when I got inside the campus, I was greeted to this encampment zone. people read me rules, like don't litter, don't take photos. This is a free zone as they describe it. You know, everybody's treating everyone with respect, but they've specifically told me not to engage with police or any agitators. But the type of things I'm seeing, you know, there's sit-down lectures,

there's people drinking tea and coffee. It's a beautiful morning eating breakfast. There's a group of people doing yoga and stretching together. And a first aid tent should, you know, God forbid, should something go down. But it seems like there's a big difference between the inside and the outside. outside of Columbia University right now. Ramsey, you mentioned the police. What's the police presence like there right now?

Look, it's pretty heavy. This is a big campus in Morningside Heights. It goes several blocks across, you know, Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. And every entrance either has NYPD or private security details covering every door, every gate, every gate is locked up. And students, you know, if they want to get inside, they have to show their Columbia ID. You have to verify that you actually go to. the school. So it's pretty tight. I've been covering Columbia for a while. I've never seen something

as intensive as before. And as we said, yes, go ahead, Brian. No, go ahead, Michael. No, no, Brian, go ahead. Go ahead. Ramsey, it's Brian. Hi. You mentioned that there was a big difference between the scene inside the Columbia campus and outside. I know I had read in some of the press coverage that some of the anti-Semitic remarks and at least one sign that I saw a video of, that were not just pro-Palestinian or stop killing people in Gaza, but that were really anti-Semitic, were taking place or were displayed outside the campus and not necessarily by Columbia students. So are you seeing this morning a difference between the scene outside and inside, including who the people seem to be, who are there? It's a great question. Look, I didn't see any anti-Semitic posters or remarks being

said outside. I have seen some of the videos you might be referring to from nights previous, but I've been told very clearly that those people don't represent what these students inside the incumbent zone are trying to do. There's pro-Israeli protesters right now, but look, I don't want to discredit that fear. I spoke to a student. His name is Shaius Swartz. He's a freshman here at Columbia. He told us that he's leaving. He's going home to Los Angeles. He's flying across the country for Passover, and he just feels unsafe. And other students feel unsafe. And other students feel unsafe. He mentioned that the House representatives just passed a bill that deems the slogan from the river to the sea is anti-Semitic, and he referenced that, being said,

at these protests. So I haven't seen anything directly, but I understand the students who feel that here, and I've spoken to some who say that as well. Yeah, and I saw in the New York Times coverage this morning that kind of a reminder that some of the protesters themselves are Jewish, and that Jews on campus are somewhat divided about how unsafe they actually feel or how committed to the protest cause they actually feel, even if there are some individual expressions of anti-Semitism. I'm just curious if you have any rough sense from inside the encampment and covering it, if there's a significant Jewish student presence among the protesters.

Yeah, what's good context here is the Jewish Voice for Peace group and SGP, which is students for Justin Palestine, they were both suspended in November. But that group is still active Jewish voice for peace. And there's very much a lot of Jewish students who describe themselves as anti-Zionists and are here in support of the encampment. You know, I helped coordinate getting into the encampment zone with a professor. And she's a Jewish professor. And she told me that her role is essentially to be a de-escalator. She's here and support the students. She agrees with their cause.

And she said that several other professors who are Jewish and also other Jewish students who are here in support and also are the ones in this encampment zone, I just want to de-escalate. Should there be, God forbid, a counter-protester should it get violent, which is, again, I'll be very clear, is far from reality right now. But yeah, I would say that there is some conflict between a lot of Israeli students, a lot of Jewish students who feel that they're also on different sides of this debate. Ramsey, I have to ask this. Classes are remote today, as we said. Are you seeing students there? Are they anticipating classes being remote again tomorrow, perhaps even the rest of the week?

I don't know about the rest of the week's plan, but, you know, a lot of the students who are here in the cabinet don't seem to be in class right now. Some of the students, again, that we spoke to outside said that if they're leaving campus or if they're staying at home, they're just going to go remote. As far as everything else, you know, the campus separate from the main lawn, you know, that's, in the center of the university, it's pretty quiet. You're not seeing students walk around, going into buildings, into out of buildings. It seems very much focused in the middle of this lawn. So that's all I really know right now. WNIC reporter Ramsey Caliphate there at Columbia University, watching what's taking place today.

Ramsey, thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Stay close. There's more after the break. Every day in New York City and the region, a whole lot of stuff finds its way into landfill from leftovers of yesterday's meals to scraps of fabric and fashion designer studios, even vibrant flowers that remain unsold at the corner store. But various organizations are

rewriting the narrative about promoting sustainability. On this Earth Day, WNIC's Community Partnerships Desk is introducing us to a few of them. My name is Dior-St. Hallair, and I am one of the co-directors at BK. Rott. BK. Rott is a local micro-hauling and composting. business, it's a nonprofit, and what we do is we collect food scraps locally, fossil fuel-free, so we use bikes in order to do it, and we process everything locally by hand at our sites and our different partner gardens that we have. I always say that waste is like the thief in the night, like you go to sleep and you wake up. I mean, if sanitation picks it up, you go to sleep and then like, poof, it's gone, but nobody's thinking about the labor that goes into

collecting that waste, where that waste is ending up, what other communities have to bear the brunt of that waste. And so the work that we do specifically around environmental justice is to say that where the organic waste is generated, it should be processed and also used locally. You know, I use hip hop in order to teach compost. So there's a line that I have that says compost means communities, so move is one unit. We all have a part to play interdependence is the movement, and we move it because we don't want no stinky smell. My name is Lauren Sweeney, co-founder and CEO at Deliver Zero. Most of us are used to walking into a coffee shop, getting a single-use coffee cup, or ordering

DoorDash and getting a single-use container that's used once and then it's thrown away. And of course there's no such thing as away. It has to go somewhere, which in New York State is likely a landfill or an incinerator, even if the stuff is marketed as recyclable. Deliver Zero is a network of reusable takeout packaging that's easy to receive on delivery orders through platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats. And it's also easy to return the packaging. At any restaurant that participates in our network or by scheduling pickups at your door. I was inspired to start this company by a problem I found in my own life, which was that I relied on single-use packaging as a busy working mom who worked long hours

in startups. I'd order sushi to my office or I'd order salad and started to feel really bad about all of the single-use packaging I was accumulating and thought there's a much bigger problem here to solve than just my frustration at not having a compost bin to put this compostable salad bowl in in my office. My name is Caroline Gates Anderson and I'm the founder of Bloom Again Brooklyn. Bloom again Brooklyn is an organization that takes the flowers that would ordinarily be trashed and go into the solid waste stream from retailers, event planners, florists, and others and repurposes them into beautiful arrangements

for the wellness of people in the community who would ordinarily not receive flowers, such as trauma survivors, people in hospitals, children at risk. We've diverted about 1.9 million flowers from the solid waste stream. That's about a quarter of a million gallons of floral waste. Many of the flowers that come through

and get to Weber to America, never get used at all. They would go straight to the 401st stream. We also compost petals and stems that are not usable go into the composting bins. We work with organizations that work with tie-dye, so there's all sorts of utilization for flowers and not putting them back into the solid waste stream. Moises from BK. Rock, Deliver Zero, and Bloom again, Brooklyn,

organizations working to reshape the city's relationship with weights. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. 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 podcast. We'll be back this evening.