NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Adams Skips Mayoral Forum, Golden Ticket to Avoid MTA Toll, and Norcross Case Dismissal Explained

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Mayoral candidates are slamming Mayor Adams for skipping out of a scheduled forum. Plus, thousands of special license plates from the taxi and limousine commission allow drivers to avoid the MTA’s congestion pricing toll. And finally, a judge has dismissed all charges against George Norcross, the south New Jersey political boss who was accused of running a criminal enterprise.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. Candidates hoping to become New York City's next mayor took turns taking shots at current mayor Eric Adams after he pulled out of a scheduled forum Wednesday night. The forum was hosted by Municipal Union DC37, who endorsed Adams back in 2021. A spokesperson for the group says Adams told them he would no longer participate at the advice of his lawyers. The forum was the first Adams had agreed to do ahead of the June primary. Six other candidates did participate.

City Comptroller Brad Lander, State Senators Zellnor Mirey and Jessica Ramos, Assembly Member Zoran Mandani, former city controller Scott Stringer and former Assembly member Michael Blake. The mayor faces a difficult battle for re-election amid poor approval ratings, federal corruption charges, and growing scrutiny over his relationship with President Trump. A lawyer for Adams' campaign did not respond to requests for comments. There are more than 100,000 cars in New York City with special license plates from the taxi and limousine commission that allow them to operate on apps like Uber and Lyft.

Those plates also give drivers a golden ticket to avoid the MTA's congestion pricing tolls. WMYC's Ramsey Caliphate explains. Dozens of Uber drivers double-parked their cars along Steinway Street in Astoria, to grab a bite to eat or to pray in the Al-Iman mosque. Many of them, like 61-year-old Ahmed Fani, say they were short. surprised when they learned that they wouldn't have to pay the $9 congestion toll as long as they drive around in their work car. In the beginning, it was very confusing for us. When you enter Manhattan, okay, I'm going to pay the $9.

But after that, I figured out the TLC plates. It doesn't charge any time. The MTS congestion pricing policy says the cost to enter Manhattan for taxis and ride chair vehicles is passed along to passengers instead of drivers. It's in the form of a 75 cents surcharge for yellow cabs and $1.50. for hire vehicles. Before a cruise off duty or free time, the vehicles aren't charged at all.

Sometimes I went down in Manhattan to do something with a car. Sometimes I have a doctor's appointment or so maybe I go for shopping. The MTA confirmed the arrangement. They say that during the agreement process, the transit agency determined that TLC plates would only pay on a per-trip basis and wouldn't be subject to daily toll rates that private cars are told. But Beda-V-Dissai,

a founding member of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, argues that even with the arrangement, drivers would rather use their cars to make money than run personal errands. Drivers work six to seven days a week. Could people occasionally drive in, like either empty toward an appointment or with family on a day off?

It's possible, but I think, you know, they generate so much revenue on the days that they're working. Since the tolls went live, TLC data shows a 4% bump in for-hire vehicle ridership throughout the city, compared to the same period last year. That's WNYC's Ramsey Caliphate. Racketeering charges have been dropped

against New Jersey power broker George Norcross. We explain why after the break. You're listening to NYC now. A judge has dismissed all charges against George Norcross, the South New Jersey political boss who was accused of running a criminal enterprise. All the counts against the six defendants were thrown out in a sweeping case

that focused on the redevelopment of the Camden waterfront, lucrative state tax breaks and political influence over City Hall. For more on all of this, my colleague Sean Carlson talked with WMYC's Nancy Solomon. Nancy, we got to say this is a very complicated case. So can you just give us like a quick 101 on what this is all about? Yes, indeed. It's complicated. So the case was brought by state attorney general Matt Plattgen. The indictment alleged that George Norcross used his political power at Camden's.

City Hall to obtain very valuable property that is right across the Delaware River from downtown Philadelphia. There was alleged extortion of two victims. One was a real estate developer who said he was forced to give up development rights there on the waterfront. And then there was the leader of a nonprofit in Camden that had to give up a valuable deal to purchase an office complex also on the waterfront. And then the Norcross machine also obtained $1.1 billion worth of state tax breaks for himself, his business partners, and other favored businesses in his orbit. But the judge didn't buy it. Yeah, tell us about that. What did the judge say about why he dismissed the case? Well, you know, the defense attorneys for Norcross and his co-defendants had argued that there was

no extortion and no other crimes committed, that all the behavior in action, taken were just part of the hard bargaining world of business. Judge Peter Warshaw agreed, basically, like 100%. He had four findings. He basically said, one, the facts laid out in the indictment didn't constitute extortion or criminal coercion. Two, that there was no racketeering enterprise. Three, that Camden Mayor Dana Red did not commit official misconduct. And four, that the statute of limitations had run out. This is what the defense attorney for George Norcross, Michael Critchley, had to say about it. The judge saw through it clearly and in a hundred-page opinion just obliterated every allegation the state had made saying as a matter of fairness and justice, there was absolutely no crime involved here. So, Nancy, you've reported on George Norcross and the Camp in Waterfront for a long time now. It's been like six years?

Yes. You probably better than most are equipped to answer this question. Are you surprised by this? Totally surprised. I've covered the ways that George and his brother Phil Norcross held power over elected officials in Camden. Phil met every week with top officials in City Hall and basically gave a thumbs up or thumbs down to development there. The city attorney said in a deposition under oath that Phil Norcross told her to hold up progress on permits for the developer that the machine was fighting with. I have an email that shows how the president of the state Senate, Steve Sweeney, sent a list of bills to George Norcross and asked whether anything on that list bothered him before bringing these bills to a vote. And then along with my co-reporter, Jeff Pillets, we broke stories in 2019 about the control that the Norcross brothers exerted over the state tax break program and the ways that they game that system. You know, and remember, the Norcross brothers aren't elected to anything.

But, you know, obviously, I'm not a lawyer. So, you know, I'm going to have to talk to some lawyers and legal experts over the next days and weeks to really try to understand and grapple with what the judge found in this case. Now, zooming out from this a little bit, it is really stunning this reversal, given what's happening in New York City and the federal corruption charges that were dropped against Mayor Adams. What's the deal? I mean, is there any conclusion we can draw off on this? Like, is it just harder to bring political corruption cases these days? And it's an interesting comparison. You know, the Adams case is federal, and by all appearances, the dropping of the case was quite political.

And the U.S. Supreme Court has made it much harder to get political corruption convictions. George Norcross is a friend of Donald Trump and is a member of Mar-a-Lago. But the Norcross case is a state case. And New Jersey has very strong anti-corruption laws. believe it or not. So the Attorney General says he plans to appeal the ruling, so this isn't quite over yet. And we'll see if the difficulties prosecutors are having at the federal level in getting corruption convictions are going to extend to state cases as well. That's WMYC's Nancy Solomon talking with my colleague, Sean Carlson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC.

I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow. Thank you.