NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: American-born Cardinal Elected as Pope, Adams’ Budget Invests in Cleaner Parks, NYC Students’ Xenophobic Border Patrol Prank, NJ Mayor Riled up Over Uninspected Detention Center and NJ GOP Governor Hopefuls Clash in Forum

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

New Yorkers gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan as a new pope was elected. Meanwhile, Mayor Adams is promoting his new budget proposal to restore cleaning crews to some of New York City's busiest green spaces. Plus, a school on the Upper West Side is wrestling with how to discipline seniors who staged a prank some teachers described as xenophobic. Also, a new ICE detention center in Newark is drawing the ire of the mayor of New Jersey's largest city. And finally, three Republican candidates vying to be New Jersey’s next governor made their case to voters at a forum Wednesday hosted by WNYC and NJ Spotlight News.

An American-born Cardinal elected as Pope. Mayor Adams' budget to invest in cleaner parks. Some high school seniors' xenophobic border patrol prank. Newark Mayor riled up over an uninspected detention center. And New Jersey GOP Governor Hopefuls clash in a forum. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre. New Yorkers gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan

as a new pope was elected. Cardinal Robert Prevost has taken the name Pope Leo the 14th. He's the first pope from the United States in the 2000-year history of the Catholic Church. The 69-year-old Chicago Native spent his career ministering in Peru and as the head of the Vatican's Office of Bishops. 133 cartels gathered at the Sistine Chapel for several rounds of voting before making their announcement. Mayor Eric Adams is promoting his new budget proposal to restore cleaning crews to some of New York City's busiest green spaces. The mayor says the funding would also pay for park bathrooms to be open longer. Everyone knows when you got to go, you got to go, and you don't want to be looking for a place

to go. And so we're going to allow our restrooms to be open and allow people to enjoy the restrooms and families to enjoy the restrooms without frustration. Adam says bathrooms would be open two hours longer on average for five days out of the week. The Parks Department has faced repeated budget cuts during his administration. The mayor blamed the influx of new immigrants to the city for putting that money out of reach. The budget would also add additional sanitation crews to clean up neglected green spaces around the city. Mayor Adams is negotiating the budget with the city council. A prestigious all-boys school on the Upper West side is wrestling with how to discipline seniors who staged an elaborate prank some teachers described

as xenophobic. WMYC's Jessica Gould has more. Sources say the prank involved a cardboard border patrol checkpoint set up in the lobby. Participants told students to fill out fake naturalization papers. Caution tape was put on the desks of some teachers of color. President Trump's book, The Art of the Deal, was also left on display. Sources say some students were called un-American, and some put in zip ties. Seniors who participated in the prank are banned from going on trips to a bowling alley and go-kart course with classmates. But teachers tell WNYC that's not nearly enough. Some teachers say universities accepting the seniors most involved should be alerted to the incident. Administrators told staff they're making the pranksters work on a letter of apology.

Collegiate did not respond to request for comment. A New Jersey mayor is heated after ice opened an immigrant detention center in Newark without it being fully inspected. More on that after the break. A new ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, has the mayor of the state's largest city riled up. Mayor Rast Baraka joined a protest Wednesday outside Delaney Hall in Newark's East Ward. He says the site hasn't been fully inspected by the city and says any occupation of the facility without required permits would be violating city law. This is blatant, disregard for the courts, blatant disregard for laws. Baraka says he'll join protesters every day until city inspectors are allowed access to the site.

WMYC's Arias Sundaram has been covering the story. She says this isn't the first time that Mayor Baraka has been denied access to the site. It all started this whole thing at the end of March when city fire inspectors tried to access the site and they were turned away then. So the city took the geo group to Corrin. That's the private contractor that runs the facility. And they were eventually able to schedule the inspections, and there were about a dozen things wrong. It's unclear how serious they were. And mind you, the geo group has a totally different story for what happened. They still say that they denied the city from coming in, but their line is, is all you need to do was schedule time.

Aria says officials attempted to do just that, but it's been weeks of back and forth. In spite of that, the site officially opened on May 1st. And as of this recording, fire inspectors and Mayor Baraka still haven't been granted access to those. Lainey Hall. And so of course, Mayor Baraka is mad and outraged because he feels like the state still needs the required inspections, and he's been a pretty vocal advocate against a site coming to the city in the first place. You may remember, New Jersey banned ICE detention in the state back in 2021, but Aria says part of that law was struck down by a state Supreme Court judge. So as per the law, public institutions can't contract with ICE anymore. So that's like city jails,

for example. But private companies still can. which is why a place like Delaney Hall can still operate in the first place. But actually, that ruling is being contested in federal court. So the New Jersey Attorney General appealed the ruling. And just last week, a panel of judges for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia heard oral arguments in the case. Meanwhile, Aria says Mayor Baraka will have to continue his fight for Delaney Hall through the courts as well. It's still playing out.

We'll see what will happen next. The city has requested a preliminary injunction, so like a judicial order to keep the facility from operating until the inspections are complete, but the judge hasn't made any decisions just quite yet. That's WMYC's ARIA Sundaram. More in New Jersey. Three Republican candidates, buying to be the next governor of the Garden State,

made their case to voters at a forum Wednesday night hosted by WMYC and NJ Spotlight News. WMYC's David Brand reports on a frequently contentious conversation. This guy will check any box to get any vote. The race for New Jersey's Republican nomination for governor is getting testy. That's coming to somebody without character. I grew up. But the three candidates do agree on one thing.

New Jersey needs to scrap rules requiring individual towns to build more affordable housing. Radio host Bill Spadia says the suburbs are no place for new homes. We're going to take those units out of the suburbs and shove them into the cities. Former State Assembly member Jack Chittarelli says he'd appoint more conservatives to the state Supreme Court to undo a decades-old ruling that impose the housing requirements. We're overdeveloping suburbs where there's no mass transit, no infrastructure, no jobs. State Senator John Bramnick says he supports mandates, but not on a town-by-town basis. Right now, the Democrats have passed a law that says each town has to have a certain number of affordable housing units instead of doing it by region.

The Garden State is still blue in terms of voter registration. Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 900,000 people. But the GOP is gaining ground, and President Trump looms large over the contest. A nod from Trump could tip the scales, and Chittarelli and Spadia are both trying to win the president's endorsement, while Bramnik's been distancing himself from the president. Spadia says he even supports Trump's effort to fast-track deportations without due process. As a Supreme Court justice said back in the 1940s, the Constitution is not a suicide pact. And if we have criminal aliens coming over the border and many are connected to MS-13, many are cartels, that is an invasion.

Invaders do not get due process. But Bramnik cautioned that campaigning on tough talk and soundbites could backfire in the general election. And he says his anti-Trump, quote, traditional Republican candidacy is the only one Democrats would truly fear in November. If you guys don't show a heart and you don't show some warmth to other human beings and just a cold calculated soundbite campaign, we're going to look at. lose again. The election is June 10th. That's WNYC's David Brand. Thanks for listening to

NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.