NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Correction Officer Violates NYC's Sanctuary Protections, Yonkers Casino Plan Moves to Next Phase, “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” Returns to the Big Screen, and Climate Talk in Harlem

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

A new report finds a city correction staffer aided federal immigration officers on multiple occasions in 2024 and 2025, in violation of city sanctuary protections for immigrants. Meanwhile, a community advisory panel voted in favor of a plan to bring full-scale casino gambling to Yonkers. Plus, New York City is facing wrongful death claims from the families of at least four people who died in Harlem's Legionnaires' disease outbreak. Also, a cult classic documentary about New York City's parks, plazas, and sidewalks returns to the big screen this week. And finally, the environment is on the minds of some Harlem residents as Climate Week continues at the UN General Assembly.

A correction officer violates New York City's sanctuary protections. A casino plan in Yonkers moves to the next phase. The social life of small urban spaces returns to the big screen. And climate talk in Harlem. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre. The Department of Investigation says a New York City correction officer violated the city's sanctuary protections for immigrants

repeatedly over the course of two years. According to the new DOI report, the officer provided information to federal immigration officers in multiple cases back in 2024 and 2025. The DOI says in one case, the officer helped federal agents arrest and detain a man shortly after his release from Rikers Island. Jocelyn Straubber is the commissioner of the Department of Investigation.

The Department of Correction needs to do a better job in providing guidance to their service. staff who regularly work with federal agents as part of task forces. The report says the officer claims he was unaware he violated any law or policy. His name has not been released. There was no immediate comment from City Hall or the Department of Correction. A community advisory panel voted in favor of a plan to bring full-scale casino gambling to Yonkers.

The MGM Empire City proposal was OK Thursday in a 5-0 vote. It follows a string of rejections for casino projects proposed for Manhattan. The $2 billion proposal now advances to a final round of decision-making. A state gaming facility location board is expected to award three downstate casino licenses before the end of the year. The Yonkers plan includes renovating and expanding gaming operations at Yonkers Raceway. New York City is facing wrongful death claims from the families of at least four people who died in this summer's Legionnaire's disease outbreak. One of the claims is for the deaths of 53-year-old Bruce Scott, who left behind a six-year-old daughter. A legal notice filed with the city this week says Scott died on July 26th,

and his family was informed on September 10th that the cause was legionnaires. The notice says his family will be seeking $20 million in damages. The city health department confirmed that the outbreak was tied to two cooling towers on city-owned properties. The city says any lawsuits will be reviewed, and that city efforts to contain the outbreak prevented more people from dying. A newly restored documentary from the 1980s will return to the big screen this week.

It looks at how New Yorkers use their public spaces. More on that after the break. A cult classic documentary about New York City's parks, plazas, and sidewalks is back on the big screen this week. WMYC's Ryan Kylath has more. The social life of small urban spaces, a book and documentary, is a foundational text.

in the world of urban design. It came out in 1980, and bootleg copies of a low-quality film transfer have been passed around ever since. It goes up on YouTube periodically, gets taken down. Filmmaker John Wilson screened one of the copies at Anthology Film Archives a couple years ago. People were coming up to me for months afterwards

talking about how they see the city in a slightly different way after seeing this movie. Wilson, who spent years gathering footage of regular New Yorkers doing New York stuff for his HBO show How To, cites this documentary as a prime inspiration. I think about William White's work all the time whenever I'm shooting. White was an author who coined the term group think and wrote a best-selling book about conformity in corporate America. In the 70s, he turned his attention to urban design and began to study New York with an anthropological aisle. This is the plaza of the Seagram building in New York.

late morning. For the time lapse camera, we were testing a hypothesis. The sun, we were pretty sure, would be the chief factor in determining where people would sit or not sit. Now, just after 12, they begin to sit. Right where the sun is, I was enormously pleased what a perfectly splendid correlation. It was quite misleading, as we would see later, but it was a very encouraging way to start. He had this remarkable notion. just observe what's happening in spaces. It sounds ridiculous, but it was sort of like a revelation. That's Gerald Caden, a Harvard design professor who wrote the book on New York City's Pops, or privately owned public spaces. He says white set up cameras at parks and plazas throughout the city,

making detailed charts of how people use them, where they sat and when, how they moved and gathered and followed sunbeams. What kind of spaces invited people to sit and what repelled them? The number one activity is people looking at other people. The documentary that came from this work is informative, strangely moving, and often hilarious. Here are the girl watchers. They're a bit disdainful, sort of looking down their nose as though the girls weren't quite worthy of their talents. But it's all machismo. We have never, ever seen a girl watcher make a pass at a girl.

In fact, White's insights made their way into city policy and zoning amendments that require developers to provide public amenities, like seating, trees, and lighting, when they build plazas in exchange for bonuses. Gerald Caden again. That all came about, in part because of William H. White's work and the street life project that he headed. After John Wilson screened the film two years ago, the public reaction was so positive

that Anthology Film Archives spearheaded a restoration of the film, which looks cleaner and better than the old 16mm copies ever did. Wilson said he might be interested in showing the film at his new movie theater in Ridgewood one day, low cinema. But Anthology has the first crack at it.

They're showing the social life of small urban spaces starting Friday. That's WMYC's Ryan Kailath. WMYC and the nonprofit street lab regularly team up to highlight stories from neighborhoods across New York City. We recently set up shop on St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem.

And though we didn't set out to talk about climate and the environment, it was certainly on people's minds. As Climate Week continues at the UN General Assembly, here's some of what we heard. My name is Aisha Kianney. I'm 23 years old, and I was originally born in Pakistan,

but I grew up in the Bronx and now I'm in Harlem. My first few experiences were learning experiences in terms of finding my footing. I biked a lot of the routes by Pelham Bay, Van Cortland, Bronx Parquise, so it was really just seeing the beauty of the Bronx, to be honest, we have so much nature. In the future, I hope to continue to take guidance from the people and mentors that are doing these,

studies to help forward climate justice related causes because everyone can be a victim of climate injustice. You won't know it until your house is flooding. You won't know it until you feel the heat on your skin and it's unbearable. So this is something imminent and this is something that is affected by the global powers and where money is going. And so my plan is to slowly and continuously bridge these gaps and that means you can go to community gardens and volunteer here in your neighborhood. You will know the soils. You will know what you can grow and you will also know how it's being harmed. Now we know bees have plastic in their guts. These things are going to affect us and our future generations.

And so we do need to take initiative to get more involved for our protection, but also for the earth, because we are Earth's beings. My name is Gregory Baggett. I am the president of the A. Philip Randolph Square Neighborhood Alliance. We're activating green space in central Harlem in order to improve pride of life for the residents of this district. In creating a greenway, a park out of a lifeless transportation corridor, the project actually served our environmental justice need. Harlem is suffering from heat island effect. The area doesn't have enough trees and shade to protect people

from the negative effects of sunlight and heat. If we're actually able to put trees along this 15-block stretch, we would actually help increase the tree canopy for the community. The benefit is obvious. It's an improved quality of life, whether it's transportation infrastructure, sidewalks, streets, parks. It's bringing the community that has largely retreated from the public realm.

My name is Cadeja DiLoshae, and I'm a long-term resident of Harlem. I've lived for over 35 years in the same building, and I'm sitting here today in A. Philip Randolph Park, enjoying the Harlem breeze. I feel like this park has been underused for at least the number of years that I've been here. So I'm a very big advocate for the revitalization of this park.

This is a community where the kids, we have Halloween for the children in the building, and that could be extended out here to this park. And we have a lot of seniors in my building. And we plan to be there forever, and we should be able to have a place where we can come out for all people in the community. Those were the voices from St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem,

as part of our partnership with the nonprofit street lab. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.