NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: New York Gov. Hochul Moves to Fund Planned Parenthood, E-Bike Speed Limit Takes Effect, and the Erie Canal Turns 200

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

New York Governor Kathy Hochul says New York will use millions in state funds to keep Planned Parenthood clinics open to Medicaid patients after federal cuts. Meanwhile, starting this Friday, e-bike and scooter riders in New York City will have to follow a new 15 mile per hour speed limit. Plus, New Yorkers celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal. Finally, pear season is in full swing.

New York Governor Kathy Hokel backfills millions of dollars to plan parenthood. The new e-bike speed limit takes effect. The Erie Canal turns 200 and its pear season. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Elizabeth Shway. Governor Hokel is helping make sure New York's 47 planned parenthood clinics can keep serving low-income patients on Medicaid. Hockel says she'll use millions of dollars in state. funds to cover the cost of care for these patients. Congressional Republicans voted to defund

Planned Parenthood this summer. According to the state, Planned Parenthood clinics in New York see 100,000 Medicaid patients a year at a cost of $35 million. Until now, the state only picked up part of that tab. New York City's e-bike and scooter riders will have to slow down starting Friday. A new speed limit of 15 miles per hour is in effect for these electric two-wheelers. Mayor Eric Adams and other city officials have pushed to lower e-bike and scooter speeds, saying it'll improve safety for riders, pedestrians, and drivers. City bike rider John Busquito says he thinks it'll make commuters think twice before speeding. I personally like this slower pace. It feels a lot safer.

The mayor's office says it'll first focus on educating riders about the lower speed limit before strictly enforcing it. The NYPD will issue warnings to some. cyclists who exceed the limit and track collision data. Officials say they're also adding new signage about the rules along busy bike corridors. If you've been thinking about getting a new pet, you can visit the Brooklyn Borough Hall on Saturday for a day-long adoption fair. Borough President Antonio Reynoso is hosting the event in the plaza outside the building in downtown Brooklyn. Six local organizations will be there to connect potential pet owners with dogs and cats that need permanent homes. Raynoso's office says they're trying to make pet adoption more accessible as local animal shelters struggle with overcrowding.

The fair starts at 11 in the morning and runs until 4 in the afternoon. Up next, New Yorkers are celebrating two centuries of the Erie Canal. More on that, after the break. The Erie Canal is turning 200 years old. And to mark the anniversary, a replica boat is recreating the first trip from Buffalo to New York Harbor. WNYC's Jimmy Veilkind tagged along and spoke with people about what the voyage means. On a crisp October morning, the Seneca Chief, with its bright yellow siding and long narrow profile, glides along the water. She draws two feet of water because the original canal restricted the size of the boats.

That's Roger Allen. He's one of a dozen people traveling all 363 miles of the canal from Buffalo to Albany, then down the Hudson River to New York City. Allen helped build the boat, part of a year's long project by the Buffalo Maritime Center. They were towed by horses or mules. This particular one, the Seneca Chief, is a replica of the one that Governor Dwight Clinton took. She's as close to the original as possible. There's no toilet.

Bunks hang from rope, and a single writing desk occupies a corner. Eddie Nieblo has been living on the boat since it left Buffalo on September 24th. He says the Seneca Chief is part vessel, part quarters, and part floating museum. Well, as a kid, I always dreamed of living in a museum exhibit, and you can't live exactly like it's 1825, but you can get little glimpses at what that world would have been like. One big change, the Seneca Chief isn't being pulled by mules. A diesel tugboat is yoked to our starboard side, pushing us at around six knots.

That slow pace is a reminder that the canal is a relic from another era. It took five hours for the Seneca Chief to travel from Amsterdam to Schenectady, a distance of about 18 miles. We were passed by bicycles, a freight train, as well as countless trucks on the nearby interstate highway. The canal was an engineering marvel that shaped New York. It accelerated western settlement of the state and nation. Cities like Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse bloomed with manual.

manufacturing and commerce. Now, New York State spends about $140 million a year to keep it open, mostly for recreation. Canal Corporation Director Brian Stratton says it's a worthwhile investment. It still does what it was intended to do. In recent weeks, we've had major commercial shipments going up and down the canal. So it's largely recreational, yes, but it's a very important economic engine. Coming on the right side. The Seneca Chief's trip has become something of a floating spectacle. Jim Amel and Gary McLean live in Saratoga County.

They kept pace with the Chief for miles. In a canoe. Amel grew up near the canal and remembers when it was treated like a sewer. To him, the anniversary is a chance to celebrate the change. It's great for recreation, great for fishing, and honoring the history is really cool. Brian Trejack runs the Buffalo Maritime Center and has met lots of people over the course of the voyage. He says they all bring a different perspective about the canal and how to market's bicentennial. There are problems with invasive species. There's problems with the environment.

There's people who want to just live in that past and just keep on lifting it up. But what we want to do is have these conversations. That's what this boat is trying to do. We finally pulled into Schenectady, passing a small, nuclear reactor and a casino. A crowd was waiting, and a band was playing. DeWitt Clinton's first voyage included what he called the mixing of the waters. He triumphantly poured a keg of fresh water from Lake Erie into New York Harbor. For this voyage, the crew is drawing a cup from each stop along the way. They'll use it to water a white pine sapling, a sign of peace that honors the Haudnoshone

Indians who were displaced by the canal's construction. Students sing after the water is collected. The crowd lines up to look at the boat. The Seneca Chief will arrive in New York on October 25th. There will be ceremonies at Pier 26 on Saturday and Sunday. That's WNYC's Jimmy Vealkind. Every now and then, we like to keep up with what's in season at your local market. And this week, Amelia Tarpie with GrowNYC Green Market says it's pear season.

One of those is the Seckel pear, also sometimes known as sugar pears. Some of our orchards grow these, so you won't necessarily find them at all the markets, but when you do see them, definitely grab them. They're really cute small pairs, and they're great for fresh eating, but then also they're popular to pickle. You can almost do like a sweet pickle, you know, use warming spices in the brines, such as cinnamon sticks and cloves. You're going to want to find ones that are kind of underripe for pickling.

So, you know, a harder pear, slight. them in half, they're going to hold their shape really nicely. Another variety of pair that you'll find this time of year are Asian pairs, and those are going to be these gold-colored pairs that are more apple-shaped. They're nice and round, and they can rain from being sort of, you know, small golf ball shaped all the way up to bigger, like, softball shapes. They're also often used, and if you're making like beef bowl-googie, Asian pears are often used in the marinade, either blended or grated, to add sweetness and to also help tenderize the meat. And this variety is one that you're going to find kind of throughout the winter, the Bosque pair.

It has this elongated neck and this deep bronze color. And they have a sort of sweet, spicy, warming flavor. These pairs are really nice for poaching. You could also, you know, bake them with a little bit of brown. sugar and get them nice and caramelized and have it with ice cream or yogurt. One really fun cake to bake is an upside-down pear cake, similar to an upside-down pineapple cake, but with a local twist. So you, again, would just slice those pears in half, carve out the seeds, and then you place them face down in a baking pan with a little bit of brown sugar and

butter and warming spices, and then you would pour the cake batter over top and bake that. then when you flip it out, you have the whole pair, and it's nice and caramelized and delicious. Amelia Tarpie is a program and publicity manager for Grow NYC Green Markets. She says pairs are ranging from $3 to $5 a pound at green markets. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Elizabeth Shui. We'll be back tomorrow.