NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Judge Dismisses Top Charge in Daniel Penny Trial, What’s Next for New NYC Housing Plan, WNBA Champs’ Impact on Local Girls Basketball, and Family Recipes

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

A judge is dismissing the top charge against Daniel Penny, the man on trial for fatally choking fellow subway rider, Jordan Neely. Plus, New York City is moving ahead with a plan to permit thousands of new housing units but most of those homes won't be hitting the market any time soon. Also, WNYC’s Janae Pierre talks with coach Abby O’Connor about how the New York Liberty’s recent WNBA championship win is affecting girls basketball at the grassroots level. And finally, a New Yorker shares one of her favorite family recipes.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Junae Pierre. A Manhattan judge is dismissing the top charge against the man on trial for fatally choking a fellow subway rider last spring. The decision came after a jury indicated they were unable to reach a verdict on that charge. Daniel Penny, who held Jordan Neely in a chokehold for several minutes on an F train last May, was facing manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges. The jury will reconvene Monday to consider the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide. Penny's defense team argued against the decision, saying it would coerce the jury to reach a compromised verdict.

Penny's case has sparked intense public debate over safety on the subway, homelessness, and mental illness. Penny says nearly was scaring other passengers by yelling threats, and he was only trying to bring him under control. New York City is moving ahead with a plan to permit 80,000 new housing units over the next 15 years. But as WMYC's David Brain reports, most of those homes won't be hitting the market anytime soon. The City Council just approved the new housing plan. And while developers can quickly build smaller projects, it can take years to construct the kind of larger apartment buildings that can add more units to the city's housing supply. Some developers also say they're now really working their existing plans to fit even more units or bedrooms inside. That could

prolong the construction process. And the city's plan faces another potential delay. A collection of civic groups are already threatening to sue to block changes to the zoning code that will make new housing possible. It's been nearly two months since the New York Liberty won the WMBA championship, but fans regained momentum this week as the team released its schedule for next season. Coming up, we talk with a coach whose younger ballers are building off of the energy of the Leach, champions, and other exciting players. That kind of conversation after the break. Temazim the NYC now.

Safe to say that women's basketball is having a moment. The sport is more popular than ever, thanks to a group of rising stars in the WNBA and an exploding fan base. And of course, locally, the New York Liberty are fresh off their first ever league championship. This week brought us a first look at the Libs' schedule for next season. The WNBA champs will begin their title to three. on Saturday, May 17th at Barclays Center against the Las Vegas Aces.

That's a matchup of the last two WNBA champions. I wondered how all of this excitement was affecting girls at the grassroots level. So I talked with Abby O'Connor, who has a front row seat to the sport. She's a former college and professional player who now coaches girls through Team Hustle, NYC.

Abby, tell us more about your basketball journey, from player to coach. So I started playing when I was, around nine years old. And when I got into high school, I started playing AUU and then ended up getting a scholarship. So I went to playing college, L.A.L. Chicago, as well as Gonzaga University. And then finished up my career playing professionally in Greece and in Mexico for about two years. So, yeah, basketball has been a big part of my life for a while. Nice. Now, we can't talk about women's basketball without mentioning

Caitlin Clark, right? That's the standout college and professional player who has helped to fuel this moment we're having in women's basketball. I'm wondering, how is she inspiring younger players with her style of play and, you know, her approach to the game? Yeah, I think she's super inspirational in what she's done and what she's achieved in a lot of ways. It shows the young girls that, like, girls can do it too. So I think that part's huge. But then I think also like her style of play and she does these really cool deep shots that really like the only other person that does consistently like her is probably Steph Curry. Caitlin Clark has had many 30-point games. She's also had many games with 10 plus assists. So we can be really good scores and passers and just that role model that

she provides to so many girls that she doesn't even know. But the effect that she has is just so massive is pretty cool. The Liberty's Championship was also a huge moment. for local basketball. How important is it to have our Liberty players like Sabrina UNESCO and Brianna Stewart as visible role models to the young girls on Team Hustled, NYC?

Yeah, I think it's super important. The girls being able to go and see Sabrina Inescu do what she does on a nightly basis because they live here and they have that access is super cool. That, like, real-life interaction that they get to have at a game experience

is something that I think the girls value. The last finals between Minnesota and Liberty, the physicality of the game, I thought, was at a whole other level than what we've been seeing. And I think that's going to continue to grow and that continues to grow the game and grow the interests that everybody has in it. So the girls that you coach through Team Hustle, NYC, at what age do you see those girls start to get competitive? Yeah, so I think right around 9, 10 is kind of that age where they can really understand the game and like how to play with each other. We have a team of fourth fifth graders who are part of our all-star team and watching them compete is really fun. I feel like that's kind of the age

that they really start to like get it and it starts to click on how to really like work together. So it's been really fun to see their progress. Yeah. With all of that, mind. I mean, how are you training nine-year-olds? Yeah, I think with the younger girls, it's really trying to teach them the fundamentals of the game. I think the biggest thing with nine-year-olds is kind of how they shoot the ball, making sure that we're using our fingertips. We don't want to be shooting the basketball off our palm and creating that bad habit. Just working on really little details like that and teaching them the different words and like lingo that come with being around the game. So yeah, really just focusing on the fundamentals is key.

I'm wondering, are there specific values, habits, or skills that you focus on to prepare the girls for success off the court? I think that it's important, like being a good teammate on a basketball team when you're nine may not seem like a big deal. It's laying the groundwork of you being a good teammate in life, whether that's going to be later in college in a group project or in a job or in your relationships in general. I think that being on a team and learning how to work with others and be accepting of others at where they're at and helping bring them along with you, all of those skills are things that they're learning right now and they may not even really realize that they're

learning. That's Coach Abby O'Connor with Team Hustle, NYC. This time of year, the taste of a particular dish has the power to evoke flavorful memories. As people gather with family and friends over food this holiday season, we're asking New Yorkers to share stories about recipes with special meaning. My name is Demiguo. I'm 29 years old. I'm from Flushing, Queens, and my family is from Beijing, China. Growing up in Flushing, where we have a lot of Chinese people, people from our region were kind of rare. So I do have a lot of specific dishes that I grew up with that are a little harder to find in your average flushing restaurant. But the one I can make is oxtail soup.

I wouldn't say it's traditional Chinese food. It's a struggle food because oxtail was just the leftover meat that used to be expensive and isn't anymore. There are a lot of variations throughout the regions. The way my mother always made it, it was very thick, very stew-like, and she put a lot more on top. of just a stew. So she would stew the ox tail for a few hours and then add like carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and sometimes radish as well. The ox tail carries so much of the flavor. We also add a lot of tomato because I love tomato. During my last year of college, I spent it studying abroad in Germany, which is when I decided maybe I should cook something that isn't instant

noodles or pasta. That part of Germany was very sparse on Asian food. I had to travel like an hour to the nearest Asian grocery stores that had all the things I wanted. The hardest part was getting the ox tail. I looked up the recipe online and I was like, this doesn't seem right. So I asked my mom and she was just like, just boil the hell out of everything. I had to boil it longer than usual because I only had literally one ox tail whereas you're supposed to have like 10 of them to make a pot, but I may do. I actually made Oxtail exactly the way my mother always made it. It's good to know that I have that with me no matter where I go. And it's not like a tangible thing. It's not like a necklace or a personal belonging. It's something that cannot be taken from me,

no matter if you beat it out of me or anything. Demiguo lives in Fleshing Queens. We talked with her as part of a collaboration with the Queen's Memory Project. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WMYC. Shout out to our production team. It includes Sean Boutage, Amber Bruce, Audrey Cooper, Owen Kaplan, Leora Noam Kravitz, Jared Marcel, Jen Munson, and Wayne Schoemister, with help from all of my wonderful colleagues in the WMYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the people at Buck,

and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrato. I'm Jenae Pierre. Have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday.