NYC NOW - August 22, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

A new report finds that more than 13,000 rent-stabilized apartments sat vacant for multiple years in New York City. Plus, the federal government has offered to lease space for a temporary shelter at Floyd Bennett Field to house 2,000 adult migrants. Also, WNYC’s Kerry Nolan speaks with NJ Advance Media’s Sean Sullivan and Deion Johnson about the troubled police force in Paterson, New Jersey.

Good evening and welcome to NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre for WNYC. We begin in Manhattan, where New York City's independent budget office says over 13,000 rent-stabilized apartments have been sitting empty for at least two years. The IBO included the number in a new report released this week. Those apartments have become a hotly contested subject as the city faces a dire housing shortage and record high rents. Tenant groups say landlords are where. air-housing the apartments to force a change to laws that cap rents on regulated units. But owners say it's just too expensive to renovate some apartments.

Overall, less than 5% of rent-stabilized apartments were vacant last year. In Brooklyn, a temporary shelter could soon be in the works for more than 2,000 adult migrants. WNYC's John Campbell has more. Governor Kathy Hokel says the federal government has offered to lease space for the shelter at Floyd Bennett Field, a former airfield along Jamaica Bay. The governor first asked President Biden to build a shelter there in May as New York City struggled to find beds

for thousands of migrants. At the time, she wanted the feds to pick up the cost. But now... I am fully prepared as part of our continuing efforts to help this situation to fund the cost of the shelter. The state hasn't signed the lease agreement yet. Hokel says there's still some details to finalize.

Stick around. more after the break. Let's hop over to New Jersey, where the city of Patterson has seen a series of scandals and allegations over its police force, culminating in a takeover by the state's attorney general's office earlier this year. It's also contending with a rise in crime. That combination leaves New Jersey's third largest city facing a complicated question. How do you clean up a police force while also fighting crime? For more, WNYC's Kerry Nolan talked with two reporters from NJ. Advanced Media, Sean Sullivan and Dion Johnson. Sean, it's been nearly five months since the state took over the police force. What prompted them to do this? A number of things led to this takeover.

It was sort of a slow-boiling controversy over the years. First, there was a number of cases involving the FBI arresting police officers there. The most famous case being members of the quote-unquote robbery squad. These were officers who were not investigating robberies, but perpetrating themselves at one point during the trial. One of the officers said the text message was introduced in evidence saying everything we do is illegal. These were officers who were shaking down drug suspects, but also just average citizens. And so that was something that was kind of in the background. And then earlier this year, there was a police shooting involving a crisis intervention worker by the name of Najee C. Brooks. He was a guy who dedicated his life to preventing violence on the streets. And then he had some sort

of mental health crisis and boarded himself up in his home. And after a very long stander, off with police, he was shot and killed. And that led to protests, which then led to the Attorney General to take over the department. I'd like to turn to Dion for a moment. Deanne, how did this incident with Najee Seabrooks prompt a broader conversation in the community about reform? You know, I think, as Sean mentioned, a lot of things have happened and transpired with residents in the community and with the Paris Police Department. And I think that was just icing on the cake. You know, I speak with a lot of activists frequently, and a lot of them have a lot of distrust for the police department. So I think that is the icing on the kick, and that's what led to the state

takeover. Now, Patterson is a majority Latino in Black City. Sean, what approach are police taking to repair their relationship with the community as they also try to reduce the violence? So the new officer in charge, Issa Abbasic, who's a former NYPD chief, he has really zeroed in on Broadway and Patterson, which is sort of this major corridor. And this summer focused a lot of their manpower, putting officers on the street and just having more of a presence. Broadway was a place that had a lot of drug activity, crime, and residents that I spoke to told me that, you know, the police had kind of ceded it to, you know, these elements and we're not interested in having a presence there. And so all of a sudden now you're seeing a lot more police on Broadway. And at the same time,

the city and the state are putting resources into, you know, drug interdiction, having people out on the street along with cops to steer people who are experiencing homelessness or drug addiction into shelters or treatment programs. They're calling it the summer strategy. They're calling it operational and it goes by a bunch of different names. But basically, the idea is putting a police presence on the street so that people see police and then also putting in social services so that the residents are identifying that, you know, this isn't just an enforcement effort, that this is something that they're trying to have more community policing. I'm curious about what residents are saying about the police presence there. What are the people who live there say? There's a big

distrust within the police department and the city, obviously. And residents there are saying, you know, they're angry. They're scared. They're nervous. The history of the police department isn't one that residents feel like is a bit of a one, you know, obviously a bossy coming in and take it over is a step in the right direction, but they want a little more transparency. And I would just add that, you know, the no community is a monolith. And so, you know, you're getting different opinions here. And it's almost a generational divide that you're seeing because, you know, I've talked to members of the clergy and other folks who are, you know, more closely aligned with the Attorney General's office and the administration there who, you know, will say the crime was a real problem in that

they're able to use the parks and other resources that they weren't able to use before. But as Deon said, there are other folks in the community who see, you know, basically the same old policing with a new coat of paint. Now, you mentioned that the state monitor in charge of the Patterson Police is a former NYPD officer Issa Abasi. What's the mayor's relationship with him? I described it in the story as something of a shotgun wedding because this is not a partnership that anybody chose. The attorney general's office in New Jersey has unique power to take over a police department. And that's what they did here and installed a new officer in charge. And so the relationship with the city can be very tense, particularly with the city

council, members of which are happy with the state takeover and other folks. And it is, On the surface, at least, right now they're playing nice. They call each other partners in crime. They're appearing at press conferences and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, this is still a state takeover. And so they have limited control and what they can do with regards to the police department. That's Sean Sullivan and Dion Johnson, both reporters with NJ Advanced Media talking with WNYC's Kerry Nolan. We're marking a major milestone for hip-hop this summer.

It's the 50th anniversary of when the culture burst onto the scene in the Bronx. To mark the occasion, we're spotlighting women from our area who are leaving their own mark on the genre. My name is Kim D. Holmes. I am a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. I grew up in Spanish Harlem. I didn't know that hip hop would take over my whole life as the inception of it began. They used to always have a black party every year. in the area that I lived in. And the first song that I heard was Planet Rock. And from that song, I've seen dancers that were, like, so flexible and just great in

being able to tell stories. But as a young kid, you're just like, I just want to be a part of that, you know, because it was different. That was back in the 80s. The thing for me is I was always in dance class. My grandmother put me in dance at the age of. before because he said all little girls needed grace and discipline. I still believe that to this day as I am an instructor and teacher and see how kids are able to grow from it and what goes on.

For me, it was power coming to the forefront and believing that I could do just as great as the men could. And a lot of times it was being exposed to what happens to women when they're not really aware to the experiences that's going on, like how they are kind of pushed to the side or told that they're not able to. And it was for me being encouraged to say that, no, I could take these steps. And then being able to see the trajectory of what happens when you take those steps. I changed the whole perspective for a lot of female friends of mine that was like, oh, until I've seen you on TV, you know, dancing behind us, Salt and Pepper or Little Kim. that I saw that I could do this, that it wasn't just about the fellas all the time.

We could be a part of this and not be so exposed of selling our bodies. You know, it was a way of standing and seeing women's rights and speaking about the issues and things that we go through, but through the art form of dance. Kim D. Holmes is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer who grew up in Spanish Harlem. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. We'll be back tomorrow.