NYC NOW - August 1, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

In New York City, around 150 migrants are now sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown due to lack of space in city shelters, with people like Omar Sall from Senegal marking his third day on the sidewalk. In another development, Thomas Abreu, the 25-year-old Brooklyn man accused of random scooter shootings last month, faced indictment arraignments yesterday. Also, the city pledges $500 million to the anti-gun violence initiative "A Blueprint for Community Safety," prioritizing six precincts with the highest gun violence rate last year. For more on this, WNYC’s Elizabeth Kim and public safety reporter Samantha Max have the latest.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, August 1st. Here's the midday news from David First. In New York City, about 150 migrants have been sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown while they wait for help from the city. Last week, Mayor Eric Adams said that New York City no longer has room for migrants in its shelter system. Omar Saul from Senegal says he's been sleeping on the sidewalk for three days. We need somewhere to sleeping, to shower, to pry. We are tired. Just that. But America is good. I like the country, bro.

Some say they've been there for as long as five days without access to bathrooms or showers. Advocates for the migrants say the city has a legal obligation to place people in shelters in a timely fashion. The 25-year-old Brooklyn man accused of shooting at people randomly from his scooter last month was arraigned on indictments yesterday. Prosecutors say Thomas Abreu shot and killed an 86-year-old and wounded several others across different locations in Brooklyn and Queens. He faces 14 counts including second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. He's due back in court in late September and could face life in prison if convicted.

Abreu's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was a rough night for Yankees fans last night. They lost to the raise 5-1. Aaron Judge says his team is just not doing the necessary things to score runs. You know, we're getting some pitches ahead, and we're just not capitalizing. We're not getting the guys on base. You know, we get guys on base and we can't, you know, move them over and drive them in. The Yankees are currently in last place in the American League East.

They play the rays again tonight in the Bronx. First pitch is just after 7 o'clock. Beautiful weather today. Sunny skies with a high near 80 this afternoon. This is WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. New York City will spend half a billion dollars on an anti-gun violence initiative. Mayor Adams rolled out what his administration is calling a blueprint for community safety

at a City Hall event alongside Governor Hockel and State Attorney General Letitia James. The plan builds on the recommendations of a newly released report from the mayor's gun violence prevention task force and will prioritize six precincts that experienced the highest rate of gun violence last year. WMISI's Public Safety Reporter Samantha Max is here to walk us through the plan. We're also joined by WNMIC's Elizabeth Kim. Hello to you both. Hi. Hi there.

So Sam, tell us what is in the mayor's plan. So there are seven different strategies to prevent. gun violence. One is looking at kind of early intervention, so that's programming that will be happening in schools, career advising for uni students and other types of initiatives to support young people. There's a focus on housing, so creating more affordable housing, upgrades to public housing, things like that, programs to help people access government benefits like SNAP, different community improvements to make the spaces that people are living in look and feel nice. officer, job training and counseling, and also mental health care. So it's really kind of looking at the systems that cause gun violence, kind of those underlying root causes and working it to improve those so that hopefully people will not turn to gun violence.

And as we mentioned, the plan will prioritize six precincts across the city. Can you tell us what those precincts are and what kind of resources they'll be receiving? Yeah, so it's the 40th precinct that includes Port Morris, Mott Haven, and Melrose, the 42nd precinct that includes Morissania, Claremont, and Crotona Park, the 44th precinct, that's the area around Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx, 47th precinct. That's also in the Bronx. And then two precincts in Brooklyn, the 73rd, which is Brownsville and Ocean Hill, and the 75th, which is East New York and Cypress Hill. So those neighborhoods accounted for, for 25% of shooting incidents last year. And they also have all kinds of other needs like high rates of child poverty, high rates of unemployment, lower median household incomes. And these programmings, while they will, you know, be carried out across the city, those six precincts will be bumped to the front of the line, as officials are saying they'll really be prioritized.

Liz, as we said that along the mayor today, there was the governor, there was the attorney general of the state. Now, this is essentially a city program, right? So what's the deal with all the state folks? That's right, Sean. Today's press conference really had the feel of a campaign event. This was, as you pointed out, a packed affair. You know, there were many members of his administration lined up on the stairs of the rotunda at City Hall. you had deputy mayors, you had the schools chancellor. And they were there in part to show support for a mayor who's having a difficult summer with some negative headlines. You know, as we've talked about on this air, you know, on the air before, he's facing an ongoing migrant crisis. There's been a campaign finance scandal and a potential federal takeover of Rikers. So from the mayor's

standpoint. Yes, this is, you know, an announcement that I, you know, that, you know, many members of his administration have been working on for months, but there's also a need to change the narrative. And what better way then to surround yourself with key allies? Yeah. Sam, can you give us some numbers about where gun violence stands now in the city? Adams has now been in an office for more than a year and a half. Where are we compared to where we're at in 2021? So things are down. Shooting incidents are down 27% compared to this time last year. And the number of people who have been shot that we know of has dropped by a little more than 28%. That follows a decline from last year compared to 2021.

So things are definitely taking down. Homicides are also down more than 11% compared to this time last year. We are still above pre-pandemic levels, though. And this is basically following a nationwide trend where, during the pandemic in many cities across the country, you saw gun violence spike up. And now that we are getting farther away from the pandemic, we are seeing things come down. It's still kind of unclear why that's happening. But there are all sorts of reasons that researchers are looking into at the press conference

today, Adams and other officials were repeatedly calling New York City the safest big city in America. and there is definitely, you know, truth to that, but it is not quite the safest when it comes to homicides, just a little fact check. It is the third lowest rate of homicides when you're looking at the 20 biggest cities in the U.S. Now, Liz, you mentioned that this felt like a campaign stop, right? And we've talked about this many times. The mayor has made public safety to centerpiece of his 2021 campaign. consequently his political identity during his time in City Hall is very connected to that. So how is this messaging on this, on this rah-rah for the cops?

Are there signs that folks are not buying what he's selling as he starts looking towards a second term? Well, the mayors made no secret that he's very annoyed at the press for what he believes is unfair coverage. You know, at one point during this press conference, he was asked, how should the public hold him accountable for this new state? set of policies. And his answer basically pointed back at the media. He said reporters need to do a better job of reporting the strides he's making. But by the way, the media has reported that crime has gone down and, you know, Sam just ticked off a lot of the metrics. But in terms of how the public is perceiving the mayor's performance, you know, Adams has argued that it's not

just the numbers that matter when it comes to crime, but perception as well. And I think that think, you know, it's fair to say that perception lags the actual crime stats. The mayor points to some good indicators like the return of tourism, subway riders. That's all evidence that he says that people feel safe in the city again. But following the pandemic, a lot of attention has been paid to seemingly random acts of violence. We saw that this weekend with a fatal stabbing at a Brooklyn gas station. The question is, how much will New Yorkers continue to be rattled by that? and how much blame will they put on the mayor? WNIC, Samantha Max and Elizabeth Kim.

My thanks to you both. Thanks, Sean. 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. And subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.