NYC NOW - August 2, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, August 2nd. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. A state judge is siding with Mayor Adams in an ongoing dispute with the City Council over laws meant to expand eligibility for a key rental assistance program. WNYC's David Brand reports. It's a win for the mayor.

and a setback for thousands of New Yorkers on the brink of eviction because they can't afford the rent. The judge struck down a lawsuit from low-income renters trying to force the mayor to implement measures giving them access to city-funded housing vouchers. The council passed the laws last summer. One measure would have allowed people facing eviction to get the aid. The judge said the council doesn't have authority to change eligibility rules. Adam says his administration is already issuing 10,000 vouchers to people in shelters. He says he's pleased with the ruling. The council says they plan to appeal. New York State wants to hear what you think about new laws cracking down on how social media platforms cater to children.

W&MAC's John Campbell reports. State Attorney General Letitia James's office is seeking public comment on the two new laws that have yet to take effect. One of them prohibits social media companies from using addictive algorithms on users under the age of 18, at least without parental consent. The other restricts them from collecting and selling those same user's data. Governor Hockel signed the bills into law earlier this year, but they won't take effect until the AG's office finalizes regulations. The state is looking for input on things like the methods companies use to obtain parental consent, and what should count as an addictive fee.

We have details on how to submit your thoughts at the Attorney General's website. The U.S. Olympic Fencing Team is celebrating a gold medal. and they have a Queens native to thank for taking top honors. Ozone Park's own Lauren Scruggs led the Americans to victory in the team fencing final against Italy. She scored the final three points needed to bring the gold home for the U.S. team. Scruggs became the first black fencer to win an Olympic medal in an individual women's event for the U.S. when she won silver on Sunday. Here's your forecast now.

80 and partly sunny with that heat advisory extended all the way now. to Saturday night, tomorrow night. Late afternoon showers and thunderstorms likely today, partly sunny and 89, but the real feel close to 100 once again, and then tomorrow showers and storms likely, patchy fog of the morning, otherwise partly sunny, 88, real feel, mid-90s. Stay close. It's time for our weekly segment of On the Way.

Covering all things transportation, that's after the break. I'm Sean Carlson for W1.1. It's Friday, which means it's time for On the Way, our weekly segment breaking down the week's transit news. Joining us is WNYC's newest transportation reporter, Ramsey Caliphay, and editor Clayton Gousa. Okay, the MTA is warning that they're facing a major financial shortfall in the coming years, and they're saying fare evasion is a main reason why. Ramsey, you were at the MTA board meeting this week when transit officials laid out the problem. How bad is it? The board has made it clear that fair evasion is a big problem.

They're now projecting big deficits in the future, and they see one of the main contributors of the deficit is lower than expected revenue from subways and buses. Look, subway fare evasion, it's pretty obvious. You see people jumping the turnstiles, you see people running through the emergency gate. But buses are actually where a lot of the fare evasion is taking place. The ladies figure showed that almost half of New York City's 2 million bus riders

every day are actually not paying the fare on buses. Last year, the MTA said that they lost 300. million dollars to bus fare evasion. And now looking ahead, they say that this problem, alongside a drop in real estate tax receipts, will contribute to deep, deep deficits. We're talking more than $400 million in 2027. And what's interesting is that these forecasts don't include the possibility that the MTA won't get back the money from congestion pricing. Here's MTA chair, Janet Lieber, talking about the bus fare evasion problem. People are riding the buses. The problem is that habit of not paying for the buses, which got into people during COVID has not left. And so we do need to do

something to reestablish the principle that we all got to pay. We got to be respectful of each other. Right. And he attributes this to as a kind of psychological thing. And he has for a while that in 2020, some people might remember the buses for a few months were free. It was part of a program, hey, we don't want people who might have COVID boarding through the front doors and getting the bus drivers sick. Fair enough. So everyone boarded through the back doors. Lieber is kind of saying there, hey, we offered free buses, and since then, everyone's gotten confused. He also kind of doubles down on that point in kind of a way when he references this pilot program that's been going on last year that's offered a free bus route in each borough. It's funded by the state, and he's saying, hey, people get on those buses, and maybe they don't think they have to pay for some other ones.

Now, what's actually interesting is that the state didn't fund that again, so those are. free bus routes are set to expire at the start of September. Okay, so now time for our favorite topic here on On the Way. It's been nearly two months since Governor Hokel put congestion pricing on an indefinite pause. Since then, the MTA has pumped the brakes on $15 billion worth of transit upgrades that were supposed to be paid for by those tolls. One of the projects was the extension of the 2nd Avenue subway, but Hockel found some money this week to keep work going. What's the deal, Clayton? Oh, yeah, I mean, it was really embarrassing last month when the MT construction leaders said, hey, we pause. work on the second half of subboat. We've been promising this for almost a century. You've got to wait

longer. But the work still in its early phases, right, to extend it from the out, the queue line from the Upper East Side East Harlem. And Hokel kind of went digging under the state couch cushions to try and find some money just to keep some work going. She finds 54 million in this kind of little known state infrastructure fund that was set up by former governor Cuomo that he used to pay for some of the work on the Hapenzee bridge replacement years ago. Nobody was kind of thinking about it. You know, there's, it's one piece of a larger puzzle in fixing this whole issue on this big, big project in trying to get advanced. And look, we have to put this into perspective here. I mean, that money, the governor's handout only covers less than one percent of the almost $8 billion price tag on this

project. I mean, all it does is allow for utilities to be relocated. and to keep the project moving, although obviously very slowly. The MTA is still holding off on issuing a contract to dig out the actual tunnels for the subway extension. That hasn't started yet. Right. Hard to have a subway without a tunnel. Right. Now, the second avenue subway extension is in the MTA's current five-year construction plan, but the MTA is also planning its next five-year plan.

Has the congestion pricing pause thrown a wrench into that process? As you mentioned, Sean, $15 billion of work, or in the current plan, right? All of which are pegged to congestion pricing and their revenue it could have generated. Now they're not canceling these projects. They're saying they've been put on pause. They're using the governor's language here.

But MTA officials have consistently said this week that they're going to take the governor at her word and that she'll find the money to fund these existing projects. What that means, one, either she's going to unpause the program or two, find the money elsewhere. Here's a small example of that, obviously not as significant. And it's a big assumption, you know, but they seem to be sticking to it. Lieber says they're going to move forward with this next construction plan with the assumption

that the money for the existing projects will be taken care of. Telling you about the capital program as it's coming, I'd be damned if I'm going to personally let it go down, let the system go backwards without a fight. That's what we've got on our agenda for the fall. So in September, they're going to release their next five-year plan to fix up and expand the transit system. Right. but we don't know how they're going to pay for it.

It's going to be significantly larger than the last one. The MTA last year identified all this climate resiliency and flood protection work that they need to do to just keep the system surviving in the face of climate change. We've heard some really crazy figures mulling around that, but it's all to say that it would be bigger than the previous five, the current five-year plan, which was upwards of $50 billion. But kind of the way that Lieber and the MTA are kind of talking about this, you're kind of watching negotiations in public a little bit. Because there was hints last month at the board meeting that after Hockel announced her pause of congestion pricing, that the MTA would just start slashing projects from its plan. What I think is going on now is that they're saying, hey, if we officially slash them instead of just put them on pause, that's an admission that congestion pricing is dead forever. So they're saying, hey, we take the governor out her word, kind of putting the ball in her court a little bit. Very interesting intrigue there.

Every week in Gothamist's On the Way newsletter, we answer a question from a curious commuter. This one from Mary Jo Mace in Manhattan, who asks, I've noticed recently that there are private security guards who seem to be on duty at the subway station on 79th in Broadway. I'm wondering why, and if there are any other stations with private security. Right. And some people might have noticed this, but since 2020, this iteration of private security. security guards have come into the system, kind of amid Adams and the MTAs push to crack down on crime and also fair evasion on the subways. But they kind of issued this contract, deployed people all over to high traffic stations. You see them at West Forth, and there are a radio station right here,

but they don't have policing power. They don't have ticketing power. But the kind of justification by the MTA is saying, hey, just having some kind of presence that seems authoritative by the Fairgates might make people less likely to jump through the emergency exits, jump over the turnsdials, but you wouldn't really expect them to go anywhere anytime soon. The effectiveness of these security guards and fair vision remains to be seen, even though they've been there for quite a bit, but at the very least, some people might call it security theater. The MTA might call it an effective deterrent towards crime and fairvation on the subways.

Well, thank you, Mary Jo for that question. And thank you, Clayton Goza, and our newest transportation reporter, Ramsey Khalifa. You can stay in the know on all things transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for our weekly newsletter at gothamist.com slash on the way. Thanks again, guys. 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 podcasts. See you this afternoon.