NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Mayor Adams’ Investment in After-School Programs, NY Sues Trump Over Cuts to Services for Unauthorized Immigrants, Rebate Checks Expected This Fall, and Mamdani’s Call for City-Owned Grocery Stores

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced after-school programming for 40 new schools beginning this fall. Plus, New York is one of several states suing the Trump administration over new rules that block undocumented immigrants from receiving social services. Meanwhile, federal aid cuts won’t stop New York State officials from sending out rebate checks this fall. And finally, a mayoral frontrunner is calling for city-owned grocery stores across the five boroughs. But New York City already has them.

Mayor Adams' investment in after-school programs. New York sues the Trump administration overcuts to services for unauthorized immigrants. New York officials will distribute rebate checks this fall. And Zeramam Dani's call for city-owned grocery stores. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. 40 new schools across New York City will begin offering after-school programming in the fall. It's part of the Adams administration's push to make after-school universal

over the next three years. Mayor Eric Adams says that's another 5,000 elementary age students who would be able to participate in sports, robotics, the arts, tennis lessons, all of those things that children should enjoy after the classroom experience. Roken class, New York is deserved nothing less. Adam says the city is investing $21 million in free after-school program. this year. His plan is to ramp up after-school seats in the coming years and eventually serve 184,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. New York is one of several states suing the Trump administration over new rules that block undocumented immigrants from accessing federally funded health clinics, food banks, and other safety net programs. The complaint argues the new

rules put funding for many social services at risk. The New York Attorney General's office, says the affected programs usually serve anyone in need, regardless of immigration status. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the goal is to avoid using tax dollars on programs that incentivize illegal immigration. The agency did not comment on the lawsuit. Federal aid cuts won't stop New York State officials from sending out rebate checks this fall. WMYC's Jimmy Vilkine has the details. Most families in the Empire's day are on track to get a $400 rebate check this autumn. Governor Kathy Hokel says the payments are going forward, even as the state braces for cuts

to federal aid caused by the tax and spending bill signed by President Trump. State officials say that measure will cost the state's $750 million this year. Hockel says New York can make up that shortfall and still spend around $2 billion on the rebate checks. I think now more than ever, families across New York will appreciate what I did and standing up for them and putting money back in their pockets. yes, they're going out. State officials say the checks will be mailed starting in October.

The rebates will not be made available via direct deposit. A mayoral frontrunner is calling for city-owned grocery stores across the five boroughs. But New York City already has them. More on that after the break. Mayoral frontrunner, Zeranam Dhani, has promised to experiment with city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough. Many progressives like the idea. While some critics have called it radical socialism,

But WMYC's Ryan Kylath explains, both sides are missing a key point. New York already has city-owned grocery stores. Have you been coming here a long time? My grandma, I used to come with my grandmother, so I've been coming ever since I was a little girl. We're talking about, well, I won't even mention how long, but a very, very long time, like, decades. Angel G lives in Midtown, but she comes down to the Lower East Side every week to shop the produce stands at SS. market. I was making my empanadas. I came here to get the discos, which is just like the pattys, and then the Maduro's, which are the sweet plantains, but you have to wait like a few days,

and then they get dark, and they're so sweet. The yucca or the other... Yeah, all those root vegetables that I don't even know the names of. It's so good. People sometimes think of the Essex Street Market as a fancy food hall, and it has that stuff, too. Stolls selling $40 balsamic vinegars or exotic alpine cheese. But it also has to have a lot of food market. But it also has five grocery stands, like Viva fruits and vegetables run by a Dominican-American family since the Giuliani administration. The prices are great. Five limes for a dollar. Every fresh herb you can name, one dollar a clamshell. Scalions were a dollar for two bunches until the inflation spike. Now they're a buck fifty. Yeah, that's why everybody comes here. Lucy Valet lives on Rivington Street.

How many years? I live here. I live here in 1974. Wow. Have you been coming to Essex Market that whole time? Yeah, that one. Does everybody come here? Yeah, that's right. From the neighborhood, because in the supermarket, it's expensive.

It's very expensive. There are five supermarkets within five blocks of here, including a trader Joe's and a fine fare. Viva beats them all on price. And that's on purpose. The city owns Essex Market, which is managed by the next. nonprofit EDC, the Economic Development Corporation.

It's one of six city markets still standing from a LaGuardia-era program that moved push-cart vendors off the street in exchange for cheap rent in city buildings. As an EDC spokesperson said, these public markets aren't here to make a profit, but to provide a service, community access to healthy food. That is exactly what worries people, like Gristides' owner, John Katzmatidis. You're not going to close down Gristides. Well, I'm not going to fight City Hall. If City Hall is running the grocery stores, let them run it.

Give it away for free and let the people eat. He worries, on Fox Business here, that private groceries wouldn't be able to compete with city-owned stores. Nevin Cohen of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute says those fears are overblown. The government has been in the food retail business for generations, and government, supermarkets, green markets, and other kinds of food programs are all around us. He says one way the city tries to improve food access is through the Fresh Program, or food retail expansion to support health, which gives tax exemptions and other subsidies to grocery stores in underserved areas.

A city comptroller report last year found it provided modest benefits for health and affordability at a relatively low cost, three or four million a year. Some of the other comments and news articles were saying that, I lived in Poland in the 80s, and the stores had no food. People think of Soviet-style food retail, and that's not what this is about. But Mamdani's proposal differs from these programs in a key way. He's proposing no rent and no property taxes, not low rent and tax breaks. The scale is different, but the thrust is the same.

Lowering costs for grocery businesses so they can pass on the savings and improve food access. Cohen says there's plenty of room to design a program flexibly, even soliciting bids from private operators. You know, the city runs the sewer system, but it uses private contractors for construction, for repairs, for maintenance. And we don't think of it as a public-private partnership for the sewer system of New York. We think of it as New City sewers. Mamdani's been fairly quiet on the grocery proposal since his primary upset. We reached out to the campaign several times for comment with no response. As it turns out, he may not have to pilot new city-owned grocery stores at all, since they're already here.

That's WMYC's Ryan Kailat. It's been really nice outside, hasn't it? New Yorkers can enjoy the somewhat cooler weather this week before temperatures start climbing again when we get closer to the weekend. The National Weather Service says highs Wednesday are expected to be in the low to mid-80s. But higher heat indices will return Thursday when real-filled temperatures climb into the 90s. They'll possibly hit the low 100s Friday, which meteorologists say could be one of the hottest days of the season. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.