NYC NOW - December 19, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Governor Hochul has signed a bill creating a nine-member commission to examine New York's history of slavery and its lasting effects on residents. Meanwhile, New York City is trying to improve its management of catch basins to make future clean-ups more streamlined. Also, NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn must pay out at least $35,000 to employees for having too few nurses on some shifts. Plus, developers behind the city's first professional soccer stadium are set to break ground in Queens this week. The plan includes the construction of more than a thousand affordable housing units at the Willets Point site.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, December 19. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. New York will study whether the state should pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people. Governor Kathy Hochel today signed a bill creating a nine-member commission to examine New York's history of slavery and its lasting effects on residents. The panel will recommend potential.

remedies, including investments in disadvantaged communities and even direct payments to descendants in the state. California Task Force recommended cash payments among other reparations this year. Governor Hogle and legislative leaders have six months to appoint commission members who will then have a year to complete their work. Communities continue to clean up after heavy rainfall, wallet parts of the area yesterday, but a New York City initiative to improve its management of catch basins might make future cleanup's more streamlined. Red Agarola is Commissioner of the City Department of Environmental Protection. He says the city has ramped up the speed at which it clears its 168,000 catch basins since he took over

two years ago. It took us up to 70 days to clean a catch basin once we found that it was clogged. Now we are down to 30. Over the course of 2024, I want to get us down to seven. The Commissioner said the agency is now using a risk-based algorithm to help to which catch basins to check and how often to check them. NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn must pay out at least $35,000 to employees for having too few nurses on some shifts. An arbitrator levied the fine after the nurses union came forward and registered its complaints. They say the hospital failed to reach agreed upon staffing levels in a medical surgical unit. The money will be divided up among the nurses who work the understaffed shifts in question,

This is the latest in a series of similar arbitration awards that are being used to enforce staffing ratios in hospitals. Many nurses in New York City fought to include these penalties in their most recent union contracts. Developers of the city's first professional soccer stadium are set to break ground tomorrow in Queens. That includes more than a thousand affordable housing units at the sprawling. Willits Point site. Queensborough President Donovan Richard says some of the units will go to people who were unhoused in more than half to thousands or to households making 80% or less than the area's median income. We really worked extremely hard to make sure that we reached the lowest depths of affordability,

which was a sticking point for us. Phase one on the project includes retail shops, community spaces, and a 650-seat school, Phase two, a 25,000 seat soccer stadium, which is still pending approvals. 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. We'll be back this evening.