NYC NOW - April 8, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

New York State's comptroller is calling for more oversight of New York City's infrastructure projects after his office says it found most were delayed and over-budget. actor Jonathan Majors has been sentenced to probation on domestic violence charges and ordered into a year-long counseling program. Plus, WNYC’s Arun Venugopal reports that the federal government has sped up it’s work permit process, impacting 10s of thousands of migrants looking for work in the city. Finally, WNYC’s Community Partnerships Desk spotlights an architectural wonder in Upper Manhattan.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm NYC Now producer Jared Marcel. New York State's Comptroller is calling for more oversight of New York City's infrastructure projects after his office says it found most were delayed and over budget. Of the more than 50,100 project studied, Thomas Dinappily's office says it found about half were completed up to three years after initially planned. They also say they found half or over budget, costing the state $54 billion more than expected. The city Department of Transportation has managed some of the largest projects, including

rehabilitation work on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. A spokesperson for the agency says DeNapoli's analysis is flawed because it includes ongoing maintenance projects. Movie star Jonathan Majors will avoid prison time in connection to domestic violence charges. A judge Monday sentenced Majors to probation and will require him to complete a year-long counseling program. The actor was found guilty of assaulting his now ex-girlfriend in the backseat of a car in New York City last year. Majors and his defense team have claimed the girlfriend was the aggressor. She has also filed a civil suit against him.

Majors is best known for his roles in HBO's Lovecraft Country and in the Marvel Universe. Up next, a look at the long, slow prize. process, migrants in New York City have to endure to obtain a work permit. Stick around after the break. For the tens of thousands of migrants who've arrived in the city in the past two years, one of the biggest obstacles they've faced is securing work permits. But WNYC's Arun Venegal-Paul says lately that's beginning to change, as the federal government is speeding up the approval process.

Patricia Ivisaka Ramos worked as a legal assistant at a law office in Ecuador. But when she arrived in New York two years ago, she took whatever work she could get. Usually that meant cleaning homes. She'd show up at a meeting point in Brooklyn and follow a stranger to an apartment or house. She says the arrangement felt unsafe. Each time, she says, she tried to remain alert and identify the entrances. and exits, just in case. But all of that changed in November

when she received her work permit from the federal government. In January, she started a full-time job at an immigrant rights organization in Queens. Suddenly, the 42-year-old no longer had to rely on the city's underground economy. She says it was life-changing.

Evisaka Ramos embodies a trend that's gone relatively unnoticed. The number of migrants getting work permits has quietly and steadily climbed since last summer. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says 360,000 work permits were granted nationwide in December. That's twice as many as were handed out 12 months earlier. I don't think they're getting enough credit where they deserve it.

Muzafar Chishti is the director of the Migration Policy Institute at New York University's School of Law. He says the improvements are largely thanks, thanks to the Biden administration, which started giving priority to work permits last year. The process also shifted from paper forms to online processing. That sped things up dramatically. Something that would habitually take more than two years is now taking only a few months. But immigration experts said change was slow to come,

and only happened after immigrant rights groups and mayors across the country mounted a public pressure campaign against the White House. Catalina Cruz is an assembly member from Queens and says an enormous number of migrants still do not have work permits. But for those who do, the universe of where they can find work opens up dramatically.

You may not be able to take up a brand new career, but you're certainly going to be able to have the job security that you didn't have before. That is, you're being mistreated at work because you now have a work permit, you have the luxury of saying, I'm not staying here. It also means that migrants are more likely to become self-sufficient. whether that means leaving a city shelter or an overcrowded apartment.

Maria Jose Rodriguez-Gomez is from Peru, where she says she and her family were subjected to threats from her criminal gang. They told her they'd force her into prostitution and kill her brother if they weren't paid off. She and her family fled the country instead. She arrived in the U.S. in 2022. She got her work permit last October and started a full. full-time job in December, helping migrants in need of legal assistance. With her first paycheck, Gomez bought her mom and necklace and earring set

and gifted her and her brother with a pair of sneakers. She says at that moment, she felt like the happiest person in the world. Once she's saved up enough, Gomez wants to move out of her uncle's apartment and maybe even bring over another family member from Peru, her dog Luna. Before Gomez got her job, she volunteered at the Jackson Heights. Immigrant Center. It's run by Nula Odori Naranjo. She says the work permit is a critical step,

not just for the material benefits, but for the sense of belonging it confers. Now they can kind of say this is my first start, my first step into my life here in New York City. I now have a security number. I have work authorization. I'm a New Yorker ready to work here and contribute

to my new life here in the United States. That's WNYC reporter Arun Venigal Paul. Have you ever stumbled upon a place in a neighborhood that left you full of joy, wonder, or excitement? Think indie bookstore with an inspiring poetry night or a beautiful garden sandwich between big apartment buildings. WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk is highlighting some neighborhood gems across the five boroughs. Today, we explore an architectural marvel in Upper Manhattan. My name is Afuya Preston.

I live on Sylvan Terrace in Manhattan, which is in the neighborhood. neighborhood of Washington Heights, also called Sugar Hill. Sylvan Terrace is a beautiful block with cobblestone streets and row houses. There's 20 row houses, 10 on each side. They're wooden. It's so unique. There's nothing like it. They were built in the 1890s for middle-class families.

In 1981, they were completely renovated the facades to look the same as they did when they were first built. This house was bought by my grandmother in 1968. There are artists here. There are doctors. There are some famous people. A big group of people who treat each other like neighbors. It reminds me a lot of when I used to live in the East Village where there were a lot of families and neighbors

and not the way the East Village now where no one knows anybody and everybody's young and they're out in six months. These are families, some of them, third, fourth generation. And we all know each other. We love each other. about our homes, we care about our streets. So it's just like a family, a family of people who, for whatever reason, somehow stumbled upon the street. It wasn't like they intentionally wanted to live here. A house is for sale. They grab it if they can. But people just walk up the steps,

because that's usually how people enter our black, walk up the steps from St. Nicholas Avenue. And as you're halfway through the steps, you just look and you see a beautiful garden and you see these houses. And you just wonder, what is this? Where did it come from? They think it's a museum. What I hear many tourists come up and say, oh my gosh, this looks like I've stepped in Europe because of the cobblestones. They don't know that people live here. And often we have to remind them that people do live here and to respect it.

But it's just this quiet gem oasis surrounded by, you know, your normal urban city. I really love the fact that there aren't high rises here. Although, you know, a block away, they're starting to build them up. But I like the fact that they're low-house. and just a community. You just can't beat that. A fool of Preston lives on Sylvan Terrace, a neighborhood gym in Washington Heights.

By the way, I hope you all enjoyed the solar eclipse. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jared Marcel. We'll be back tomorrow.