NYC NOW - December 7, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

Mayor Adams is headed to D.C., where he plans to lobby for more migrant funding amid the ongoing influx of new arrivals. Also, a new Quinnipiac University poll finds nearly two-thirds of New York City voters disapprove of Mayor Adams’ job performance. Finally, on Wednesday, the MTA board approved a fee structure for congestion pricing, moving New York City a step closer to becoming the first city in the country to charge drivers such fees. WNYC’s Michael Hill sat down with transportation reporter Stephen Nessen who has been following the story.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, December 7th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Mayor Eric Adams is going to Washington, D.C. today, where he plans the lobby for more migrant funding amid the ongoing influx of new arrivals. Meetings with Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer

and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries are both on his schedule, President Biden, whom Adams has criticized for a lack of help on migrants, is not on that schedule. Adam's last trip to the District of Columbia was cut short when a campaign staffer's home was rated by the FBI as part of a probe into potential illegal donations. And nearly two-thirds of New York City voters disapprove of Mayor Adams' job performance. WDemite's Catalina Gonella digs into the results of a new Klinnipeak University poll released just yesterday. The mayor's approval rating is the lowest on record since Quinnipiac began polling on New York City mayors in 1996. Nearly 1,300 registered voters were surveyed from late November to early December. The mayor's budget cuts, as well as his handling of the migrant crisis, homelessness, and public schools were at the root of their dissatisfaction.

58% of voters specifically disapproved of Adams' handling of crime, the biggest issue he campaigned on. City Hall spokesperson, Fabian Levy, says the city is, quote, in a better place under the mayor's leadership, but there's still more work to do. 36, with clouds out there right now, we had some snow early. We may see more snow, some sprinkles and flurries through the day, a high near 40 with a slight breeze, and tomorrow, mostly sunny, we reach into the mid-40s and the mid-50s on Saturday. New York City is now one more step closer to becoming the first city in the first city. America to charge drivers a fee to enter the busiest areas. Yesterday, the MTA Board approved a fee structure for congestion pricing. WNIC Stephen Nesson, as you know, has been reporting on this and sharing details with us for months now, and he joins us right now.

Steven, you were with us last week when the commission at the MTA in charge of coming up with the fees released its final report. That's when we learned drivers will have to pay $15 to enter that zone. What does yesterday's vote mean? Well, yesterday, the MTA board officially signed off on those costs. They voted on it. It was a nine to one vote. And they approved it, which means basically the process is moving forward.

That was a key vote, you know. And just to review for our listeners, because it's a lot of numbers. It's a lot of information. Like you said, $15 is the big number. That's what passenger vehicles are going to pay to enter Manhattan below 60th Street between 5am and 9 p.m. $15. And the overnight hours is one of the big discussions. You know, one of the questions, you know, a lot of drivers drive in overnight.

So they would get a 75% discount on the tolls if they drive in from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. That would put the after hour tolls for those of us that aren't good at math at 375. And, you know, there's a $24 toll for smaller trucks and box trucks, a $36 toll for large trucks. Another major contentious point is how much to charge taxis. There was some debate about it yesterday, but ultimately the board signed off on the plan to charge yellow, green, and black taxis, $1.25. Vehicles like Uber and Lyft, they would be charged $2.50. And another sort of issue of debate was the inner city buses, charter buses. They would pay $24 and the big ones would pay $36.

dollars. And of course, one of the major, major topics is exemptions. Like, you know, I don't know if you remember, something like 120 different groups are calling for exemptions to not pay the toll because they have to travel into the zone for various reasons. But ultimately, the board and the body that, you know, came up with the scheme, chose a $5 credit for drivers that enter via one of the tunnels that goes directly into the zone, you know, the Holland Tunnel, the Lincoln Tunnel, Queens Midtown, et cetera. And low-income New Yorkers, this is another group that would get somewhat of a break on it. And they defined that yesterday as people who earn $50,000 a year, they would get a credit after paying for 10 trips in one month.

But even still, Michael, you know, they're not going to make big changes to the plan, such as I just laid out. And one of the reasons is the plan is almost like, think of it as a jenga puzzle. You know, there are no, once you change one thing, it kind of all falls apart and it's put together again. Here's MTA chair, General Lieber, speaking about that yesterday. When you make tweaks to it, it definitely, what it does is it creates diversions, different traffic patterns, which then have to be restudied, and in a doomsday scenario, would run afoul of the limits placed on up by the environmental assessments. That environmental assessment, that's what the federal government. signed off on, which was the MTA's sort of original congestion pricing plan. And they do not want to go back to the feds to re-review everything. That took, you know, almost a year of review. So, you know, and I should add, Michael, there was some one new update yesterday that we didn't discuss last week. And it's that the board signed off on a plan to increase the tolling rate by 25% on gridlock alert days. They have the right to do it. They're not, it's not guaranteed. But if they want to, they could do that. That's

of interesting. That really is. So, Stephen, what's been the reaction to this week's news? Well, Governor Hockel has been cheering it, throwing her full support behind the plan. Of course, let's all remember. The MTA is a state agency, so, and it's her agency, so she's backing it. But, you know, it's a politically tough thing because a lot of people, you know, especially in the suburbs, do not like the idea of paying to drive into Manhattan. But Hockel's backing it, full-throated. Her counterpart in the city, Mayor Eric Adams, he was actually showing some tepid enthusiasm this week. You know, he said something to the effect of, I think this is the start of the conversation. We have more discussion on this, but as far as

folks watching it are concerned, this is pretty much the end of the road here. There were a few MTA board members who weren't happy about it, but truly, like I said, only one member voted against it, and that was David Mack. He represents Nassau County, and he said he was worried about outer borough people and you know suburban people he represents nassau county you know driving into the city to go to museums or theater he noted um you know that report this week that wealthy residents are leaving because you know you're left during covid and aren't coming back um and he said you know despite the fact that the real estate community supports the program he's still worried about it hurting office vacancy rates i have no axe to grind here i'm just looking out for my fellow americans

One interesting thing to note here, Michael, is that he's the chair of the bridge and tunnel committee at the MTA, which will oversee the congestion pricing program and actually asked MTA chair, General Lieber, if he thinks maybe he's not qualified now to carry out the duties of running this program. And chair Lieber said, no, no, Mac is very professional. Fine. And there is one other member at the MTA board. He did not vote on it because he's not a voting member, but he was part of the group that came up with the tolling plan in the first. place. And that's John Samuelson. He's with the Transport Workers Union. And he was actually, you know, resigned from this position just as the tolling announcement came out. And it's only interesting to note is that, you know, he represents transit workers. And what he wants is for the

MTA to spend more money on more service for when congestion pricing does go into effect. So, Stephen, when can we expect to start paying? When does it go into effect? Well, the MTA's plan is for it to go into effect in the, late spring. You may notice in Midtown the tolling structures are already up in, up in place. And that's like the easy pass reader that will read your license plate and, you know, give you the fine, or, you know, the fine, excuse me, the toll and fine you if you don't pay it or send it to you. But there is, you know, one major hurdle the MTA still faces, and that's a lawsuit from the state of New Jersey. And, Stephen, we know that legal action, what it could mean in this case, might the lawsuit hold up the whole point?

program, we have a few seconds left. Yeah, it's very much the fear that this lawsuit is going to drag on and delay the program. And what that would mean, though, is that the MTA is not getting money, so it's going to have to delay some of its major construction projects. It's already said there's delays on putting new signals on the A and C line. WNIC, Stephen S, and Stephen, thank you. Thank you, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day. headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.