NYC NOW - April 4, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Nonprofit groups and the New York City Council are urging the Adams administration to keep funding in place for shelter staffers who help homeless students navigate the school system. Meanwhile, meteorologists are saying the worst is over with the storm that pounded New York City overnight but don't put that umbrella away yet. Plus, Texas Governor Greg Abbott will visit New York City on Thursday evening as the keynote speaker at the annual State Republican Party gala, a clear signal of the Republicans’ campaign strategy this election year: leaning into voters’ discontent over immigration. WNYC’s Arya Sundaram reports. Finally, a new report from a city watchdog finds that New York City police officers routinely ignore abuse of the parking permits issued to roughly 95,000 city employees. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with reporter Charles Lane, who has analyzed the report.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, April 4th. Here's the midday news for Michael Hill. Non-profit groups and the New York City Council are urging the Adams administration to keep funding in place for shelter staffers who help homeless students navigate the school system. The shelter-coordinated program runs out of money in June. The mayor's proposed budget does not include any money to keep the 100 positions going.

Jennifer Pringle is the project director for advocates for children. She says losing the staffers will have major consequences. If they get rid of these positions, attendance is going to fall. There's no question in my mind, none whatsoever. And I think you'll see school transfers increase. Pringle says shelter coordinators help students stay on track to graduate and act as a bridge between teachers and families. The mayor's office did not immediately respond for this story.

Meteorologists are saying the worst is over with the storm that pounded New York City overnight, but hold off putting away that rain gear just yet. Dominic Ramuni is with the National Weather Service. Not a complete washout by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly want to keep that umbrella nearby because there are going to be a few showers around throughout the day today and tomorrow. Ramuni says temperatures are expected to stay. in the 40s. That's about 10 degrees cooler than normal for this time of year. City officials say the storm

left the city relatively unscathed with some power outages and localized flooding. More than two and a half inches of rain fell in Central Park during the storm, which also recorded wind gusts of nearly 60 miles an hour. Forty-four and cloudy now. New Jersey still has flood warnings posted up along the Passaic River and Raritan River. Today's forecast, slim chance, of mid-afternoon showers, mostly cloudy in 50. Tomorrow, a slight chance of showers, mostly cloudy and 51. Stay close. There's more after the break. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas visits New York City this evening. He'll be the keynote speaker at the annual State Republican Party Gala. His presence is a clear signal of Republicans' campaign

strategy for this election year, which is lean into the voters' discontent over immigration. WNIC's ARIA Sundaram report. New York Republican Party chairman, Ed Cox, wants to hold on to a majority in the U.S. House representatives, a majority that New York voters helped win two years ago. And to do that, Cox says he's going to focus on what he sees as the big issue, immigration. And who better to represent that issue than Governor Abbott? The Republican governor began sending migrants to New York City and other Democrat-led cities two years ago. Abbott's now sent more than 40,000 migrants to New York, and another 80,000 to Chicago, D.C., and other cities.

Here's Abbott addressing the issue on Fox News. This is not a Texas problem. This is a United States problem. Mayor Adams has consistently condemned Abbott for busing migrants. Governor Abbott decided he wanted to play a political game and use human beings as pawns. But political analysts, on all sides, tell me it's worked, to divide Democrats and make immigrants, a local issue in cities and states far from the border. Basil Smichael is the former director of the State Democratic Committee. He's just the problem, not from the southern border, but to the northern states in these northern cities.

And now immigration is a top issue for voters across the country and in New York, according to recent polls from Gallup and Sienna College. The head of the State Democratic Party, Jay Jacobs, says he's dubious of the GOP strategy. We're not going to avoid the argument. We're going to lean into it. it, and we're going to be crystal clear about what the Republicans have failed to do and why they have failed to do it. He points to the recent special election to fill Republican George Santos's congressional seat

on Long Island. Tom Swazi, a Democrat, won in a race hard fought over immigration. But Ed Cox, from the right, says the election was a one-off. Or Whistland passed the graveyard. He says longtime officeholder Swazi had the upper hand because of his name recognition, and the Republican position on a one-office. immigration will prevail, he says. That's not going to go away.

And that's why he'll be welcoming Governor Abbott on Thursday evening at the Hilton in Midtown. Ari Asundrum, WNYC News. On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson. A new report from a city watchdog finds New York City police officers routinely ignore abuse of the parking permits issued to roughly 95,000 city employees. WNYC's Charles Lane read the report and joins us to talk about the takeaways. So, Charles, can we start just with what these permits are? So there are basically pieces of paper issued to city workers, and city workers can stick them on their

dashboard and park in legal spots and some no parking spots, but they do not allow workers to park just anywhere they want, like bus lanes or fire hydrants and especially bike lanes. But, and this is the problem, right? The report by the city's department investigation found lacks NYPD enforcement or almost non-existent enforcement in some places, particularly outside police stations. And complaints to 311 about all this illegal parking went almost completely ignored, galling those who regularly post about it on social media. Yeah, and there are a lot of folks who do post about it on social media. So this report we're talking about found flagrant abuse and lax enforcement of the rules just how bad is it? The watchdog report found that NYPD only enforced a

fraction of the 311 complaints about illegally parked cars that had the permits on them. Also, NYPD enforced only about 25% of the instances compared to when investigators went out and actually looked on their own. The distribution was roughly equal around the city, and this is interesting given that most city offices are in Manhattan. So the suggestion here is that these permits were not so much being used for work, but at people's homes. The report said that NYPD's enforcement just did not match the reality that's on the street.

And this was especially true outside police stations, according to the report. For example, outside the 26th and 34th precincts in upper Manhattan, investigators found dozens of illegally parked vehicles while NYPD found none. With 311 complaints, the report found that 91% of the calls did not read, result in a summons and that a quarter of those complaints were closed out in 20 minutes or less and resulted in no action. And the suggestion here is that NYPD didn't even go and investigate. I did ask the department about the report and a spokesperson said that the NYPD would, quote, carefully consider the recommendations. So as we've been saying online, you see folks get really

irritated at the abuse of these permits. What are the recommendations to fix the issue? this one is just getting NYPD to actually enforce it. The Department of Investigation had three key suggestions here. One would require officers to identify themselves when they close out a 3-1-1 complaint. It would also force them to, the recommendation is, to force them to take a picture of the spot to prove that they actually went there to inspect, kind of like delivery drivers do, and also stop sending uniformed officers to investigate complaints and instead send traffic enforcement agents. Another recommendation was to phase out those pieces of paper altogether and instead start using scannable barcode or barcode so offenders can't use expired permits.

Okay, we got to ask who are the biggest offenders? Right. Who watches the watchman is the question because they are, in fact, the biggest offenders here. Of the skaint enforcement that was done, the biggest offenders were the police officers, racking up 24% of all the summonses, followed by election workers. 20%. From there, it falls into the single digits with firefighters, school safety agents, correction officers, EMTs, and sanitation workers. An issue that affects us all. WNIC's Charles Lane. Thank you so much. No, thank you.

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. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.