NYC NOW - August 9, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day: Dozens of people convicted of drug possession, trespassing, and other misdemeanors are having those charges cleared after former NYPD detective James Donovan, who investigated their cases, pleaded guilty to perjury. Meanwhile, state officials report that more consumers are turning to legal marijuana dispensaries, though many cannabis users say product regulation isn't a top concern. Plus, local leaders are gearing up for New York City’s biggest annual Dominican Republic celebration on 6th Avenue this Sunday. Finally, on this week’s segment of On The Way, WNYC editor Clayton Guse discusses a years-long Amtrak construction project impacting the LIRR, while digital producer James Ramsay speaks about his experience with a train being shut down. They also provide updates on the MTA’s Grand Central Madison station and answer a listener question about the OMNY system.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, August 9th. Here's the morning headlines from David First. Dozens of people convicted of drug possession, trespassing, and other misdemeanor crimes are getting those charges cleared from their records. WNYC's Samantha Max reports that's after the former NYPD detective who investigated their cases pleaded guilty to perjury. The conviction and security unit at the Queens DA's office says former detective James Donovan admitted to lying in court about one case. Court records show he told a grand jury that he had

arrested someone and found a gun, but it was actually another officer who made the arrest out of his view. After that, prosecutors reviewed other cases he had investigated and found his police work was no longer reliable. The NYPD says Donovan retired in 2023. The union representing city detectives and Donovan's attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment. As New York's unlicensed marijuana shops get shut down, state officials say consumers are increasingly turning to legal dispensaries where sales are up. But some cannabis consumers say that whether a product is regulated is low on their list of concerns. Clifford Key lives in the East village, he says other factors are more important.

Probably just the price and just vicinity towards me. It's like I'm not going to go out of my way to go to a smoke shop. It just has to be kind of on the way home. Governor Kathy Hokel is pushing state regulators to license legal dispensaries more quickly, but it can take time for them to get up and running. There are currently about 60 operating across New York City. Local leaders are prepping for New York City's biggest annual celebration of the Dominican Republic this weekend. The Dominican Day parade will march down 6th Avenue this Sunday.

U.S. Representative Adriano Espayat says you can expect floats, music, and dancing, maybe even a new surge of national pride, no matter who you are. Everybody will be Dominican on Sunday. And Espiont isn't exaggerating too much. City statistics show that Dominicans make up New York City's largest Latino subgroup. This year's festivities will specifically celebrate Marengay, one of the most iconic forms of music and dance from the Island Nation. Marchers will step off at noon on Sunday starting at 37th Street. 76 degrees, cloudy and breezy today with a high of 82. It's Friday. That means it's time for a weekly segment of On the Way.

Covering all things transportation, that's after the break. On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson. If you have questions for a week to report. It is time for On the Way, our weekly segment on all things considered breaking down the week's transit news. Joining us is WNYC editor Clayton Gousa and digital producer James Ramsey. Amtrak is about to launch a year-long project that experts warn could lead to big problems for Long Island Railroad commuters. Clayton, what's going on? So the Amtrak is fixing a key set of East River tunnels that are 114 years old.

People might be familiar with the work they're doing on the Hudson, but Hurricane Sandy in 2012 also damaged the East River tunnels. These are pretty crucial links for the region's transit environment. Hundreds of Long Island Railroad trains run through them every day. Dozens of Amtrak trains through the Northeast run through them every day. And NJ Transit trains actually run through them in the middle of the day because they are stored between rush hours out in Sunnyside before they kick back to Jersey for rush hour service. Now, these repairs need to be done. they've needed to be going get done for a long time and amtrak has taken the approach where they say okay there are four tubes four tracks in these tunnels two of them were damaged by sandies we're going

to close each of the damage tubes completely rebuild them entirely one by one so basically reducing the amount of tracks between penn station and queens for the next three and a half years from four tracks to three tracks all fine and well everyone says there won't be service disruptions but the federal officials we spoke to, some other experts we spoke to, say, hey, this could be a problem, because if something goes wrong in one of the trains, if something goes wrong in one of the tunnels, if something stalls, you have less room to move around the delays. And that could have cascading effects across three different railroads who all kind of compete for interest. Now, what's interesting here is that the MTA for years, until recently, said, hey, Amtrak, don't close these

tunnels entirely. Repair them in place. They kept saying, look at what we did with the L train. tunnel. People might remember that was going to close entirely until the MTA and former Governor Cuomo came in and said, hey, we don't need to do that. We'll just kind of patch up the busted spots in that tunnel and do the repairs on nights and weekends, saving the commutes of all the L train commuters. They say, do that for your East River Tunnels Amtrak, because we don't want the delays. Now Amtrak saying, hey, that's not feasible. We're not going to do that. For the MTA's part, they say, hey, we opened Grand Central Madison last year, this east side tunnel, not going to be affected by this Amtrak work so we can flex more of the trains into that terminal instead.

It doesn't help Westside commuters going to Penn Station, but, you know, we're going to see as over the next three years as to what kind of disruptions this might cause. Actually, speaking of Grand Central Madison, we've reported that the MTA is still finishing work on the station 18 months after it first open. What's the latest with that project? Yeah, 18 months after it first opened and really kind of 55 years after the project started. The MTA put out a forbid a contract. They're looking for a company to come in and do what they're calling, quote, miscellaneous work at Grand Central Madison. Obviously, this opened early 2023 after years of delays and billions over budget.

It was heralded as, you know, this first new major train terminal in New York in decades and decades and decades. But there's still some ongoing work that they need to do. They need to set up some utilities. They need to add in more security cameras. MTA says this isn't going to affect the actual operations of the station, but what it will do is add some essential equipment that they need to provide retailers with service. Now, there's this underground station, 15 stories underground. It's been open for a year and a half, but all the retail spaces have remained conspicuously empty. So the hope is that this miscellaneous work over the next period of time will allow stores and other bars and restaurants to move into this train terminal.

Yeah, James chiming in here. Hey, Sean, hey Clayton. Hey. Good news. I don't know if you saw this, but Tracks, Rob, Bar and Grill, beloved NYC institution. Apparently, it's planning to opening Grand Central Madison around the time of Thanksgiving. And I saw some renderings of it, and it looks very mahogany, very classy. Yeah, and they're also returned.

They were kicked out of Penn Station for the repairs there. They're moving back to Penn Station as well. So Long Island Railroad Rider as well at some point have their God-given right to have oysters and pier before they ride the train home. Well, I'll meet you all at Trax Bar when it does. does finally open. James, welcome. In last week's On the Way newsletter, you wrote about an experience you had on the subway a few months back. And you say major train delays really highlight just how crucial the system is for the city's existence. Can you walk us through what happened? Yes, it's a situation that probably everyone who's ever taken the subway has dealt with at

some point. I was on my way home from work. I live in Bay Ridge, kind of at the end of the R line. And there was an emergency that caused the line to shut down. It wound up being closed for about two hours, which meant that all of us got off the train, hopped onto the B-37 bus, packed on like sardines, and basically sat on 3rd Avenue and went nowhere for an hour and a half until finally the train started running again, and we were able to scurry off and get back on the subway. And as I'm sitting there and I'm looking at, you know, what could I possibly do to get home? And the fact is, there was just nothing. And in fact, I followed up with the MTA.

I asked about this. during this two-hour window where I was sitting waiting to get home, about on a normal afternoon, about 5,500 people would be transported by subway, just southbound our train from J Street Metro Tech down to 95th Street. And during that same window, about 200 people could take that bus that I was on. It was just, it was illustrative to me of even if you hate the subway, even if these, you know, meltdowns stink, there's just no other alternative. And we put a call out in our news, letter, has anybody else dealt with an experience like this? And what do you do when your train line shuts down? Is there an alternate mode for you to get where you're going? And we got one letter

from a Queens writer named Jalisa Quigley. She lives in Jamaica, Queens at the end of the E-line. And she said that after dealing with this so many times over the years, she has finally figured out sort of the perfect workaround. And there was one day where the train shut down. She was in Forest Hills. And this is what she did. So this particular day was very nice outside. I was like, you know what? I'm not going to do it. I just got. I'm out of the train. I'm like, you know, I'm already in Farr's Hills. I walked over to Austin Street, and I ended up going to a little taco shop of just having a couple watermelon margaritas and tacos. I stayed for about an hour, and, you know, by the time that I was finished, the train was running again.

And I was like, okay, that's going to be the game plan for the next time. See, Sean, this is why tracks raw bar and grill is so crucial. Sometimes you just need a place to wait out a train meltdown. Absolutely. I do enjoy the theme of this week's on the way. Every week in the WDYC Gothamist on the way newsletter, we answer a question from a curious commuter. This one from Brian in Manhattan who asks many months ago, Omni suspended its trip history feature, citing security concerns. When will this feature be back online? So no time soon is the short answer, but the context here, right, is that most people who use Omni to get into the subway or pay their fare are tapping their credit cards or tapping their smartphones at the turnstiles. But the MTA also is another option where you can buy either at a machine or at a retail store, a physical Omnicard.

And you can reload that with credit online. And until last year, when you would have one of those cards and you would tap, your online account would show where you tapped at. All fine and well kind of interesting for you to track where you're going. But some real security concerns were raised around this. Specifically, if someone was trying to, say, avoid an abusive partner, their whereabouts could be easily found by the the person if they had access to their online Omni account. So they took away that trip history record from their online feature. And they say they're, hey, we're thinking about this, but they don't want to deal with it. They have no plans to bring it back. MTA spokesperson says they

continue to explore ways to balance customer privacy and provide while providing additional information. Long story short, Brian and Manhattan don't expect that feature back anytime in the near future. Well, thank you, Brian in Manhattan for that question. And thank you to WNIC editor, Clayton Gives, and digital producer, James Ramsey. You can stay in the know on all things transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for a weekly newsletter at gotthmus.com slash on the way. Clayton James, thanks again. 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.