NYC NOW - August 16, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day: A story first reported by The New York Times says that in July, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, his election committee, and City Hall received three subpoenas seeking communications related to a broad investigation into Adams’ campaign ties with Turkish officials. Meanwhile, Millburn Township in New Jersey is asking a judge to pause an order to proceed with a 75-unit development downtown. Plus, fiscal experts warn that New York may be headed for an economic slowdown. Finally, on this week’s segment of On The Way, WNYC’s transportation reporter Stephen Nessen and editor Clayton Guse discuss news that NJ Transit will be free for a week, changes to taxi services in New York City, and updates to MTA safety measures.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, August 16th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. New York City Hall says Mayor Adams has received multiple federal subpoenas, a story first reporter in the New York Times last night, notes that in July, Adams, his election committee in City Hall received three subpoenas seeking a range of communications.

The subpoenas pertain to a sprawling investigation into Adams' campaign's relationship with Turkish officials, as we have been reporting here on WNYC. Neither Adams nor his campaign staff have been charged with any wrongdoing. Adams' lawyer says the campaign has been conducting its own investigation, and its findings undermine what has been reported in the media. The Earl spokesperson Fabian Levy says Adams expects everyone to cooperate to swiftly, bring this investigation to a close. One of the New Jersey's wealthiest towns is continuing its fight to scrap an affordable housing development. The township of Milburn is asking a judge to

pause an order directing the town to move forward on a 75-unit development downtown. Town lawyers filed a motion Wednesday asking for time to appeal a judge's ruling. Josh Bowers is an attorney with fair share housing center, a non-profit suing Milburn over its resistance. to move forward with the project. Bauer says his organization is disappointed that the town is once again continuing to fight the plan. I think we were very hopeful that the town was finally ready to step up to the plate and abide by the agreement they signed, you know, at this point, three years ago. Bauer says they will oppose Milburn's motion to block the order to build the development.

Bill Burns mayor and lawyers representing the town did not immediately respond to our request. comment. Fiscal experts are warning that New York City's economy may be heading for a slowdown. That's after years of better than expected revenue. State controller Thomas Donapley says, while jobs have been growing overall, some areas are struggling. Certain key sectors such as information and financial activities have seen employment decline in 2024, while other industries such as retail and construction remain behind pre-pandemic employment levels. The Napoli says the city's commercial real estate market is another area of concern. State finance officials cited data from the real estate company,

Cushman, and Wakefield that shows office vacancy rates between April and June were the highest since 1998. This comes as companies need less space thanks to hybrid work. Delays on southbound two trains, the LRR has scattered outbound delays on the far rockaway branch. 74 and clear, sunny and hot up to 88 today. It's Friday. means it's time for our weekly segment of On the Way, covering all things transportation. That's after the break. On WNYC, on WNIC, I'm Sean Carlson. It is time for On the Way, our weekly segment on all things considered, breaking down the week's transit news.

Joining us is WNIC Transportation Reporter, Stephen Nesson, and editor Clayton Goosa. Okay, Governor Murphy made some news. He announced that NJ Transit will be free for one week from August 26th until. Labor Day, that's September 2nd. We know there have been rail problems all summer, but why is the governor doing this? I mean, anyone who's ridden NJ Transit, I mean, who's thought about writing NJ Transit might understand. I mean, it's been, it's been a summer of misery on NJ transit. There's been constant meltdowns. There have been constant service disruptions. If you ride during rush hour, there's, there's no guarantee you're going to get home within an hour or two of your scheduled time. It happens time and again. The, a lot of

of the problems here in the tunnel, these very old Hudson River tunnels that they're going to fix at some point through the Gateway Program that connect New Jersey to Penn Station. They're owned by Amtrak, right? But they're mostly used by NJ Transit trains. New Jersey Transit says, hey, Amtrak's fault, the wiring in these tunnels that power the trains keeps breaking. You ask Amtrak about this. They say, hey, it's New Jersey Transit's fault. Your train equipment is very shoddy. In any case, it's been causing a lot of mess. meltdowns for commuters, Governor Murphy says, here's a free week as restitution. And ultimately, riders don't care who's at fault. They just want to get home on time.

So I think Murphy's move is sort of a bit of an olive branch. He said it's to offer commuter some relief. But still, even he admitted, they don't really know the root cause of what caused these incidents. Everyone's pointing fingers. And this also comes, as NJ Transit riders well know, after a 15% fair hike in July. So I'm sure it's somewhat galling that the service was so atrocious this summer after paying so much more. And for folks who say, hey, wait, it's already mid-August. I already paid for a monthly pass. What about me?

NJ. Transit says your September pass will be 25% off, and you can do that through the NJ Transit app or vending machine or ticket booths. Okay, from the rails to the roads, we got an update on some changes coming to taxis later this year. Stephen, tell us what you learned this week. So, you know, when you get in the back of the... of a yellow cab and forgive me, I don't get in cabs often enough. So I had to pull some archival tape for this. But here's what it might sound like. It's an adjacent Bateman exchange bodies. If you're smart, you'll exchange. I think everyone's familiar with that. Right. So I mean, most people just mute that sound.

But the fact is, it's a revenue generator. And so this sort of taxi TV could be coming to the city's more than 80,000 ride-hailing vehicles, Uber and Lyft. Earlier this year, the city council actually passed a law that allows ride-hailing apps to install those screens in the back of those vehicles, the display ads, and a minimum of 25% of the ad revenue is going to go to the drivers. So that's obviously really popular with them. And, you know, pretty much every U.S. city that has Uber and Lyft already does this, actually. I'm told New York is one of the last cities to allow it. But it's up to the taxi and limousine commission to draft the rules around this program. And that's what they're doing now.

and they held a hearing on the proposal for this plan this week. Hmm. How did that go? Well, you know, for what seems like a relatively simple request, they drafted some very lengthy rules and requirements. And actually, there's a key feature of these ad screens that's available in other cities, which the TLC did not want to allow in New York City. And that is the ability to tip drivers through the screen.

Supporters, drivers say this actually leads to higher tips than just doing it on the app itself. drivers actually make more money from this feature than the ad revenue itself. Here's one of the drivers that testified at the hearing, Larby Atabu. He's been a driver for 10 years and is with the group the Independent Drivers Guild. Yes, sometimes people, they don't want a tip. We understand that. Most of the people that come to visit New York City from abroad, now we don't tip, especially the French.

Oh, wow. He says, you know, but if they see it on a big screen, maybe they would be more encourage to tip. The TLC is a little bit worried. They don't know whether they need to add a credit card reader if there's tipping involved. So they're going to go back to the drawing board on that one, but they are going to work on that. And it does push the start date of this, maybe back to the end of this year. Now, this week, federal officials ordered the MTA to improve its safety measures. They say there's been an alarming increase in near misses with trains. How bad is it? And why did the feds have to step in? So we've seen some instances that have been

very public, right? Last November, a track worker and MTA track work in Manhattan was killed after he was struck by a train on the tracks who had that derailment on the Upper West Side, that gummed up service in January. There's been a few other incidents. But the federal review, federal regulators came in yesterday and they said, hey, that's not all. There have been an alarming increase in near misses, right? People in workers and riders and even property almost struck by trains in 23 compared to the years before. So they came in and said, hey, MTA and New York state regulators, you have to reform your safety training. You have to reform the ways that you review some of these near misses. And they actually, they had a pretty jarring line in this directive, in this,

in this federal directive that said, right now the status quo puts riders and workers at, quote, substantial risk of death and personal injury, not something you usually see from normally more kind of more reserved federal regulators. This kind of raised the ire of Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelson, who's been very critical of the MTA and the governor. He says he's kind of putting it at their feet and saying they've been asleep at the wheel, MTA chairman Janu Lieber and Governor Hokel. He says it's not doing enough to protect his worker as much less riders. The MTA for its part disputes this. You know, the agency notes that the safety incidents that the federal government identified are really just a small fraction of the thousands of times that workers have to do work in close proximity to moving trains.

You know, they say the agency has a 99.97% safety rating when it comes to this kind of work. And it really challenges the FTA to find a railroad in the country with a better safety record. As for the few incidents that they have identified, the worker that was. was killed in November, one that was injured in June. They say those incidents are still under investigation, and it's just not clear actually what went wrong. And, you know, they're appealing the directive. Okay, every week in Gothamus on the way newsletter, we answer a question from a curious commuter. This week is from Elena in Manhattan who asks the question with the MTA increasing fare enforcement on select bus routes, the SBS routes, and the ability to use Omni with the

physical credit card or Apple Pay that does not produce a physical receipt. How can I prove to an officer that I paid the fare when they come on board. Well, if you've been on one, MTA inspectors occasionally hop on these buses with what's called an onboard validation device, a fancy machine that basically scans your credit card or your smartphone or whatever you use to pay to get on the bus. And they can tell whether you've paid and when you paid. And there have been a few reported instances when these have not worked. Rare instances, the MTA says. So if it shows that you didn't pay, they will kick you off and give you a $100 fine. And obviously, this is raising concerns right now because the MTA says, hey, we're going to increase enforcement of fare evasion.

They're saying that nearly half the bus riders in the city don't pay right now. Or aren't paying this year, costing them a lot of money. Well, thanks, Lina for that question. That's WDMIC Transportation Reporter, Steven Nesson, editor Clayton Goza. You can stay in the know in all things transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for our weekend newsletter at gotthmus.com slash on the way. Thanks to you both, as always. Thanks, Sean. Thank you.

and clear of the closing doors, please. 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 podcasts.

See you this afternoon.