NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Mamdani Looks Ahead to General Election, New Affordable Housing in Coney Island, MTA Tweaks F and M Lines, a Battle Over Air Quality in Queens, and Statues that Commemorate Black Americans in New York City

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

With a commanding lead in the Democratic Primary, Zohran Mamdani says he’s now focusing his attention on New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Also, a slate of recently announced developments will create more than 700 affordable units in Coney Island. Plus, the MTA is making a small tweak to two lines that could bring big changes to riders. Meanwhile, residents in a small Queens neighborhood are in a battle over air quality. And finally, a new book dives into the stories behind thirty monuments and statues commemorating Black Americans around New York City.

Zora Mamdani looks ahead to the general election, new affordable housing in Coney Island. The MTA plans tweaks to the F and M lines, a battle over air quality in Queens, and statues that commemorate black Americans in New York City. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre. The presumed Democratic candidate for New York City Mayor Zora Mamdani says he's focusing his attention away from former Governor Andrew Cuomo and now, to Mayor Eric Adams. I have long been running against Eric Adams' second term for a number of months. That was a vision carried by Andrew Cuomo, and now it returns once again to its original

architect, Eric Adams. Adams is running as an independent in the general election in November, as is Jim Walden. Guardian Angels founder Curtis Lewell will be running as the Republican on the ticket. Cuomo conceded late Tuesday night after Mamdani built a significant lead. Technically, the primary's outcome will officially be decided by a run. ranked choice count next week, since neither Democrat received a majority of the vote. New York City is going big on affordable housing in Coney Island. A slate of recently announced developments will create more than 700 affordable units

designed for homeless New Yorkers and other vulnerable populations. The units are part of a larger transformation of the area by the Adams administration. It'll see the creation of 1,100 homes overall, as well as new streets and sewers, and the $42 million renovation of a sports center. Some residents say they welcome the additional housing, but worry the developments will generate more traffic and flood risk for the low-lying area. Construction is expected to start this year. The MTA is making a small tweak to the F and M lines that could bring big changes to riders.

WMYC's Ramsey Caliphé has more. Near the end of the year, the M and F trains will switch the tunnels they use between Manhattan and Queens. The F-Train will leave Manhattan farther south using the 53rd Street tunnel, and the M will run farther north beneath 63rd Street. Transit President Demetius Critchlow says the move aims to speed up service on the lines between the two boroughs. This change will increase reliability and reduce delays. It will result in a net travel time savings with two and a half times more customers benefiting

from shorter travel times than seeing longer routes. The change means the two lines will no longer have to cross in front of one another in Queens. Kretzel says that intersection has caused problems for years. Residents in a small Queens neighborhood are in a battle over air quality. More on that after the break. The small industrial neighborhood of Blissville, Queens is often overlooked. Many New Yorkers may be hard-pressed to even find it on a map. But it is in a big battle over air quality concerns in the area.

WMYC's Joe Hong has more. For the past year, Kim, Kim, Dosen has been trying what she calls the moving my bed around trick. Getting it away from the windows as much as possible because I wake up coughing. Her asthma has recently gotten worse, making it hard for her to breathe.

And she suspects it's the air quality outside her apartment. For the longest time, I thought it was somebody smoking under my window. Docent lives in Blissville, a tiny sliver of a neighborhood in Western Queens next Long Island City and Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's bordered by highways,

heavy industry, and the polluted Newtown Creek. It suffered from environmental problems for decades. More recently, Docent says she and her neighbors have had concerns with one facility in particular. She and I took a short walk across Blissville to go see it. Right now we're heading towards green asphalt. Green asphalt is an asphalt recycling company just a few blocks from Docent's apartment. The facility brings an old broken up asphalt, heats up the chunks, and sends them back out for paving. Dozen says that almost every day, the facility fills the air with smoke that smells a petroleum. The closer we walk to it, the air starts to taste metallic.

This isn't even heavy. This is pretty light compared to on a bad day. Last year, assembly member Emily Gallagher, who represents neighboring Greenpoint, set up an online form for complaints about the plant. And her office began collecting photos and videos of green asphalt smokestack, billowing smoke. across the neighborhood. In 2024, New York's Department of Environmental Conservation issued a nuisance violation against the company.

And just last week, the agency told green asphalt it has to double the height of its smokestack to keep smoke from wafting over Blissville. But local residents and environmental advocates say raising it doesn't deal with the real problem. With any environmental issue, just diverting it to another area, to avoid sort of more direct exposure isn't always the best solution. That's Willis Elkins, the executive director of the Newtown Creek Alliance, a local environmental advocacy group. He wants to know what's in the smoke, and he wants green asphalt to install filters to prevent any harmful emissions. State Assembly member Claire Valdez represents Blissville and surrounding neighborhoods in Queens. On Sunday, she and a coalition of other

elected officials asked the state to shut down green asphalt's operations, until until the smokestack is raised. We're heading into the summer months. People are going to be running the air conditioning, having their windows open. So we need a lot more information about what's going on so we can make sure people are staying safe. A spokesperson for green asphalt refused to be named for this story.

In a statement, the company said it's been in compliance with all environmental regulations since it first received its permit. And it said it will strive to remain in good standing with the community. Advocates like Elkins acknowledge that Green Asphalt, asphalt emits less carbon than traditional asphalt manufacturers and ships via barge, which reduces truck traffic. We've had positive open communication on a variety of things. It's just this air quality issue has been a little bit of a sticking point for a while.

Kim Dozen, the Blissville resident, says Raising Green Asphalt Smokstack is a good start. She hopes the issue will draw more attention to Blissville, which she feels lives in the shadows of the surrounding neighborhoods. Look at how they've developed. Everything. Oddly, this one little spot has remained untouched. That's WMYC's Joe Hong. A new book dives into the stories behind 30 monuments and statues commemorating Black Americans around New York City.

David Felsen is an 11th grade American history teacher at Avenues the World School in Chelsea, and the author of the book titled New York City Monuments of Black America. He says he uses statues in his lessons to help students reflect on history. As sort of examples of great pieces of evidence that tell us about what society values at any given point in time in history and how those values change. Felsen says the first statue of a black person appeared in 1876 at the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. It's a nameless figure who commemorates Civil War soldiers. In 1945, Booker T. Washington would become the first identifiable black American honored in a city monument. The first statue dedicated to a black woman was of Harriet Tubman in 2008.

There is an increasingly sort of heroic depiction of black Americans in a way that there wasn't before. Felsen says one of his favorite statues is in Riverside Park in Manhattan by the late Mexican-American sculptor Elizabeth Catlett. It's a large bronze rectangle with a cutout silhouette of what's supposed to be a black man, a depiction of Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel, Invisible Man. When you look through one side, you see the trees in Riverside Park, and then when you look back through the other way towards the city, you see the city in the apartment building that Ralph Ellison actually lived in. Felson says he just hopes readers get a better understanding of the city around them.

Or just in their neighborhood to go see something they maybe weren't aware. that was there, or maybe you'll make them look at their own neighborhood in a new light. Felsen says if he could choose New York City's next black statue, he'd be hard-pressed to pick between author James Baldwin and singer-songwriter Ella Fitzgerald. We'll see what happens. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.