NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Nadine Menendez Goes on Trial, Love Story Decides Fate in Apartment Battle and Billionaire Family Plans to Build Housing in NJ Forest

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

Jury selection is underway in the federal trial of Nadine Menendez, the wife of former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez. Plus, a rent-controlled apartment battle gets decided by a love story. And finally, a wealthy family plans to build affordable housing in a forest amid environmental concerns.

Nadine Menendez goes on trial. A love story decides the fate of a tenant in an apartment battle, and a billionaire family plans to build housing in a New Jersey forest. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jenae Pierre. Jury selection is underway in the federal trial of Nadine Menendez. She's the wife of former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. A grand jury indicted the couple for bribery in September 20,

23. Prosecutor said Bob Menendez traded his political influence for gold bars, wads of cash, and a Mercedes-Benz. A jury convicted him on all counts and a judge sentenced Menendez to 11 years in prison. Nadine Menendez is being tried separately because she's been undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She's pleaded not guilty. Here's a strategy to use in court. Share your love story with the judge. It might just work out in your favor. No, we're not. Not talking about the Menendez trial, but rather what a 78-year-old woman did to stay in her rent-controlled apartment. WMYC's Samantha Max has the story. Frida Henderson says she moved into her partner's rent-controlled apartment in Washington Heights more than three decades ago.

After he died in 2009, Henderson kept paying the rent. Years later, a new landlord found out and tried to evict her. Family members can inherit rent-controlled units if they live with the main tenant for an extended period of time. But Henderson and her partner never married, so she had to prove her relationship to a judge. It's not enough to be a roommate or casual acquaintance. Ronald Languedoc is a tenant's rights attorney.

He wasn't involved in this case, but he says it underscores the incentive for landlords to vacate rent-controlled apartments so they can find new tenants who will pay market rate. There's a lot more at stake for the landlord in a rent-controlled. situation, succession, and they can raise the rent, you know, dramatically. Several people who knew Henderson and her partner testified at trial about how they seem to be in love and extremely close.

Their testimony convinced a housing court judge to let Henderson stay in the rent-controlled unit. Court records show she was paying about $640 a month as of 2023. Another two-bedroom in the building has been listed for more than $2,500. Henderson's landlord plans to appeal and says she should have told management about her partner's death sooner. Languedoc says her response was common. People don't tell the landlord because they're afraid and they don't know what their rights are. Henderson declined to comment while the case is pending. Samantha Max, WNYC News.

A wealthy New Jersey family plans to build affordable housing in a forest amid environmental concerns. More on that after the break. NYC. In the face of rising home prices, New Jersey has embarked on a plan to build 84,000 new affordable homes over the next 10 years. But what happens when a billionaire family wants to build affordable housing on a forested mountaintop? WMYC's Mike Hayes recently visited West Orange, New Jersey and reports the state's goals are in conflict with environmental concerns. Hey, Joe, how you doing? Good, good you see it.

Joe Penulo's white brick five-bedroom house, with its well-manacured landscaping and roundabout driveway, sits less than a football field from a steep, densely wooded forest that's part of the Wachong Mountain Range. This is what the tree experts told us is a mature forest. You've got trees. Everyone in the backyard is 300-plus years old. I met Pinulo and his neighbor, Rachel Klein, at the bottom of the mountain on a snowy afternoon. And our goal was to get to the top. Can we make it all the way up there by foot if we walk?

Okay. At 120 acres, this forest is the largest remaining piece of land available for development in the heavily populated town of West Orange. The town that Thomas Edison and singer Carol King both used to call home is just a 25-minute train ride from New York City. It's a packed suburban area. The real estate developer, Garden Homes, owns this forested mountain. The company is run by the wealthy Wilf family. And now it wants to build a 500-unit apartment complex here.

At the top of this... Yeah. Where you can see the sky, there's going to be a building there. I was kind of hoping that that would be a safe, protected area. Neither Klein or Pinulo want to see this woodland disturbed. And they want to preserve the wildlife that depends on it. But their biggest worry is that removing thousands of trees and terrain that soak up storm water and replacing it with concrete and buildings will increase flooding.

This place floods now with 85,000 trees on the site. So you're going to split the forest into, what's the impact of that going to be? And it floods now. West Orange officials have considered a proposal to build on this mountain before. Two decades ago, the Wilf family planned to construct 136 single-family homes here. After holding 11 hearings, the town's planning board rejected that plan in 2006. And their reason then wasn't exactly over environmental concerns, but over public safety. There's only one way in and out of this property.

In the event of a fire or a flood or any kind of natural calamity might well trap the residents. That's Paul Tractonberg. He's lived in a condo next to the forest since 1998, and he was one of the original people who challenged the development of the forest. But now, West Orange officials have a legal mandate. to build hundreds of affordable homes as part of a statewide push to address a housing crisis in New Jersey. And to get approval for their latest proposal, the Wilfs have promised to build 100 affordable units as part of the complex.

Essex County, where West Orange is located, leans overwhelmingly to the left. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans here five to one, and Democrats are generally in favor of affordable housing. So far, the West Orange Township Council has greenlit the project. That includes Council President Joe Krikoviac. What you have to keep in mind is that virtually everybody in the state recognizes that there's an affordable housing challenge for a lot of people. But when you ask Krikoviac to explain his vote, you get a more nuanced picture. He says he agrees with environmental and safety concerns over the project,

and that West Orange has already spent millions of dollars to control flooding in the area. He believes the development may only make matters worse, and Krakoviac says placing affordable housing on the top of the mountain will be a disservice to the people who move into those apartments. They may have a residence, but it's going to be far from the schools, from the food markets, from the post office, from the bus service. And the developer put them there to help them get approval for the rest of their project. The question then, why did he and other council members approve the development?

Krakovic says it's because they feared what could replace the project if they rejected it. In New Jersey, if town officials say no to a developer's plans, that developer can ask a judge for what's known as a builder's remedy. It's basically a court order that forces a town to allow the development of more affordable housing. And in a situation like that, the town council could have very little control over. what gets built. That could give the builder even higher density in their project in order to provide this affordable housing portion of the development. So all the negotiations are going on with that in mind that if we don't reach a settlement, we will get a builder's remedy and the outcome is likely to be even more detrimental to the township. A spokesperson for garden homes declined WNYC's

request to interview a member of the Wilf family or other executives at the I think we're hitting the highest point. Once we reach the top of the mountain, Rachel Klein begins looking for a particular tree. I'm trying to find the building mark the tree mark B. Is it that orange one over there that says D? Yes. Oh. We at least know that that tree is kind of where they are planning to build building D.

Building D is one of four apartment buildings the developers proposing. Klein says it's going to include some of the affordable housing. housing. And then you can find the one all around the other side, 700 feet later. Klein says her opposition isn't about affordable housing. I'd oppose this if it was going to be one billionaire putting in a huge compound with the same idea of denuding the forest and destroying the wetlands. The West Orange Planning Board will host its 10th meeting on the proposal this week. Klein and Pinulo say they'll keep fighting to preserve the forest. That's WMY, Mike Hayes. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Junae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.