NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Mayor Adams Defends his handling of ICE Arrests, Newark Mayor Baraka Sues Trump Administration Appointee, Sewer Feud Slows Affordable Housing Development, and Single-Family Homes with a New Look

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is pushing back against questions about how he's responding to ICE arrests in the city. Plus, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is suing a Trump administration appointee following his arrest at a controversial immigration detention center last month. Also, a lack of local infrastructure and resident resistance are delaying some construction projects for affordable homes in New Jersey. And finally, a new style duplex is replacing traditional, single-family homes in northern New Jersey.

Mayor Adams defends his handling of ICE arrests in New York City. Newark Mayor Baraka sues a Trump administration appointee over trespassing charges. A sewer feud in New Jersey slows progress on an affordable housing development. And single-family homes with a new look in northern New Jersey. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jenae Pierre. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is pushing back as immigration advocates question his response to arrests in the city.

Federal authorities are empowered to deal with this issue. And dealing with this issue is not merely holding rallies. Go to the federal authorities who are elected to handle this issue. His comments come after the city's law department filed a legal brief in support of releasing the Bronx high school student who was taken into custody by ICE agents. The student was detained during a routine immigration court appearance. The city says the move will. discourage other immigrants from showing up to court. Last week, Adams declined to criticize the

arrest, saying he didn't know enough to comment. In New Jersey, the mayor of Newark is taking legal action following his arrest at a controversial immigration detention center last month. Mayor Ross Baraka is suing interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Alina Haba, after she brought trespassing charges against him. Baraka says he was trying to join some Garden State Congress members to inspect the detention Center at the time of his arrest. The charges were later dropped. Now, the mayor says Haba pursued the case out of political malice, not justice. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called a lawsuit frivolous. Also in the Garden State, New Jersey plans to build 80,000 new affordable homes over the next decade. But a lack of local infrastructure and resident resistance are

delaying some construction projects. WMYC's Mike Hayes has one example in Saddle River New Jersey. An abandoned office park along Route 17 in the heart of Bergen County is set to be transformed into more than 200 apartments. The project will include about 20 low-priced affordable units, as well as nearly 40 apartments set aside for adults with developmental disabilities. Its developer Ron Liddell says he's had approval for the project for nine months. I'm ready to go. I've already got my flight plan approval. So what's holding up progress? The project is on the border of Saddle River and neighboring Allendale. And Liddell needs to tap into Allendale's sewer system.

But town officials there won't sign off, despite a sewer sharing agreement that's already in place. State law requires each town to build its own share of affordable housing. And Allendale officials say the project will prevent them from meeting their mandates. Lidell says the holdup is not only costing him money, it's depriving New Jerseyans of much-needed, low-priced housing. Not only does my project provide affordable housing, my project provides supportive housing for those in need. None of that gets built until I get this resolved. Avalon is now asking a state judge to order Allendale to let them use the pipes. Allendale and Saddle Rivers attorneys did not respond the questions about the sewer dispute.

That's WMYC's Mike Hayes. In Northern New Jersey, a new style duplex is replacing traditional. single-family homes. More on that after the break. New construction is on the rise along the Hudson River in New York City and parts of New Jersey. Public officials say it's needed to address a dire housing shortage. But have you ever noticed the same type of building going up over and over again? WMYC's David Brand explains a style of architecture symbolizing change in northern New Jersey. I'm walking around Cliffside Park in southern Bergen County, New Jersey right now. I'm walking around Cliffside Park in southern Bergen County, New Jersey right now. right across from Morningside Heights in Manhattan.

There's this one building type here that really stands out. They mostly come in like cream, dark gray, black. I'm looking at one across the street for me. It's kind of this beige box with two black garage doors and gray brick staircases on either side. It's got a nice big rooftop deck. They're everywhere. On this block I see, let's see, one, two, three,

just on this side of the street. There's one right across the street that I was just describing. The duplexes are replacing single-family homes, and most of them are designed by the same architect. I want to know why so many of them are going up all over this part of Jersey, and I want to see what people in the area think of them. I don't love them. I meet Mary Morales walking along Palisade Avenue. She's in her 60s, and she's been living in Cliffside Park for 35 years. They look to me like they should be in California on a beach, not in this neighborhood.

We need a name for them. You know, as I saw somebody call it, the Fort Lee. special. Oh, I don't know. I just call them the, I don't know what I called them. I always just go, the California Beach House. It should be in Malibu. I spot Nafia Hoti, outside her yellow clapboard home on a quiet side street a few blocks away. She's surrounded by three of the duplexes and says a new owner is about to tear down the old home caddy corner to hers to make way for yet another. She says she hates them. So how do you describe this style when you're talking about it, when you're like, oh, I can't, I can't stand these new places? I can't. I really cannot stand these.

Big, big, big, big, giant cubes. A lot of cubes. Hmm. So maybe cliffside cubes? That's pretty catchy. It reminds me of the way some people describe new buildings in southern Hudson County, the infamous Bayonne boxes, three-story rectangles wedged between older, homes. So some people dislike all these new cookie cutter cubes, but others think these duplexes are pretty cool with a chic, modern vibe overlooking the Manhattan cityscape. I call it the viewhouse. The view house. Yeah, because I mean, I think we're the only ones to have a rooftop view. Aisha Ozoya says two years ago she bought a unit of her own on a quiet block in Cliffside Park. What's the view like? It's better in the winter when all the leaves are

gone. But it's nice, especially at night. You see all the New York lights. She says she gets why some of her neighbors don't love how the boxy duplexes are replacing more traditional single-family homes. People may think differently, right, because then they don't want it to become too dense. It's a quiet street. The more you build, the more people, right? I wanted to know what housing experts think. Zoe Baldwin is a vice president at the Regional Plan Association, and she says the duplexes are doubling housing. And that's good for towns in a region facing a housing shortage.

there's sometimes this gut reaction to say like, oh, well, it's going to be like Hoboken and there's kind of this image that they pull up of suddenly their queen suburban town being turned into a dense urban node. But Baldwin says that's not what's happening here. Instead, she says this is what experts call gentle density or missing middle housing. In no matter what people's opinions are, a population is increasing. It just is. That's a fact. And that means that we need more houses because we have more people. right of basic math. Now back to my other question. Why are we seeing so many of these houses here?

The duplexes are going up all around southern Bergen and northern Hudson counties. The New Jersey towns packed between the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge. State data shows owners demolished 93, one-and-two-family homes in Cliffside Park between 2021 and 2021 and 23. The town's top zoning official told me most of those knockdowns made way for new duplexes. Hey, Greg? How are you doing? Developer Greg Garboos is one of the people building them. They're selling for well over a million dollars.

And he says there's an intense competition for these valuable lots. Everybody, all the developers in this area, they're all looking for the same thing. And he says many are concentrated in Cliffside Park because the land use rules are ideal. Cliffside Park is number one. It's easy to do because you don't need to pass a variance. A variance is an individual approval from the town. We're doing right now seven at the same time. What town?

We have Clipside Park, mostly, Palisades Park, and we have one in Fort Lee. And he says his company has the construction down to a science, with 36 subcontractors on call. One could be an electrician, one is a plumber. We have a roofer, excavation company, painter, flooring. So we have a really good system put together. Sounds like an assembly line. Assembly line, pretty much. Maybe we got to call them like the Bergen box.

The Bergen box. I like that. It's cool. The Bergen expensive box. Pretty good. But I'm still casting my vote for. Cliffside Cube. That's WNYC's David Brand. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jenei Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.