NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: NYC-area will Lose NY1 and News 12, Section of East River Park Reopens, Atlantic Yards Development Misses Deadline to Build Affordable Housing, and Neighbors in Washington Heights

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Thousands of cable subscribers in the New York City area are about to lose NY1 or News 12 thanks to a dispute between cable providers. Plus, the city says a new park along the East River waterfront will help prevent water from reaching the neighborhood. Also, New York’s Empire State Development is letting the owner of the Atlantic Yards avoid millions of dollars in monthly penalties for missing a decade-old affordable housing deadline. And finally, WNYC teamed up with the non-profit Street Lab to highlight voices in Washington Heights.

The New York City area will lose New York One and News 12. A section of East River Park reopens. The Atlantic Yards development misses the deadline to build affordable housing, but the owner won't be penalized. And we meet neighbors in Washington Heights. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre. Thousands of cable subscribers in the New York City area are about to lose New York One or News 12.

It's all thanks to a dispute between cable providers' spectrum and I'm. Optimum. Beginning June 30th, Spectrum subscribers will no longer get access to News 12, which is owned by Optimum's parent company. And Optimum subscribers won't be able to see New York One, which is owned by Spectrum's parent company. Spectrum says it broke off the deal because Optimum left some cable industry trade groups. Optimum says that's inaccurate and has been pressuring Spectrum to reverse course. It's been more than a decade since Hurricane Sandy flooded parts of the lower east side. Now, the city says a new park along the East River waterfront will help prevent water from reaching the neighborhood again. WMYC's Liam Quigley has more.

A section of the East River Park just south of the Williamsburg Bridge is reopening. There are new tennis and basketball courts and spots for a cookout. The $1.5 billion flood protection project along the Lower East Side, Esplanade wasn't popular with everyone. People protested the destruction of hundreds of old trees. The Parks Department says contractors planted 600 new ones. Now a section of the park around East 10th Street is closing for renovations. The full project is expected to be done in 2027. In our previous episode, we mentioned a story about the long-stalled Atlantic Yards mega-project

and its promise of affordable housing. After the break, we look into what happened with the development and why owners won't be facing penalties for not holding up their part of the bargain. Stick around. Years ago, before Brooklyn's Barclays Center became known for big concerts and events, it was the linchpin of a multifaceted project by a developer called Forest City Ratner. WMYC's David Brand steps back in time. The year was 2003.

Michael Bloomberg was mayor. George Bataki was governor. And the Nets were still in the swamps of New Jersey. And perhaps most shocking of all, they were playing in the NBA finals. David says that's also the year that's. the city, the state, and developer Bruce Ratner unveiled the Atlantic Yards Project. It was a plan to build new gleaming neighborhoods

around the Centrapiece Arena, the Barclays Center. It was all going to be led by celebrity architect Frank Gehry. Jay-Z was involved in celebrating the announcement. But getting to the point we are at now was not pretty and it didn't work out quite the way they planned. There was a ton of community opposition and foreshadowing here. A lot of skepticism.

about the proposed affordable housing and other pledges. The state even circumvented the typical land use review process for approval. And they used eminent domain to seize property. And that's before the developer also ended up buying the last holdout resident for $3 million. Fast forward, folks in that community are still waiting for affordable housing. David says the project is supposed to be on Atlantic Avenue east of where Barclays is, basically where Fort Green and Prospect Heights meet. But instead of a building, there's just a giant hole in a ground.

It's the rail yard. The plan was to deck over that yard and build six apartment buildings on top of it. In 2014, community groups in the state got the owner at the time Bruce Ratner and his firm Forest City Ratner to commit to a timeline for building 876 affordable apartments. The property has changed hands since then, but that commitment remained the same. You've got until May 31st, 2025 to build the affordable units or face monthly fines of $2,000 for every missing unit. And in total, that's $1.75 million. It's now the end of May.

And it's obvious that the development won't be complete by that Saturday deadline. Plus, David says the Empire State Development has agreed to waive the fines. It cited a couple reasons. Well, this project has been doomed for a while. The owner, a Chinese real estate firm called Greenland Holdings, defaulted on its debt. The lender is foreclosing and has been trying to bring on a new developer to take over. Empire State Development says they submitted a new application that state officials are now reviewing. Empire State Development also says they just want to get something built,

and millions of dollars in penalties would make that harder. The monthly fines were supposed to go to an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could be tapped to fund affordable housing in other Brooklyn neighborhoods. David says community leaders are not only frustrated with a lack of progress at the site, some are even angrier about the fines being waived. I talked with Michelle Dela-A-Uz. She's head of the Organization Fifth Avenue Committee, and she's a member of the coalition that helped secure that affordable housing deadline back in 2014.

And she told me the state's decision was unacceptable, and that they could use the penalties to help fund or finance the housing elsewhere. And she specifically mentioned the rezoning that the state's, City Council just approved for Atlantic Avenue, basically down the street from the Barclay Center, which is a plan to allow much more housing, including hundreds, thousands of affordable units along Atlantic Avenue. She said they could have used the money to make that easier and get it done faster. As far as the Atlantic Yards project, Empire State Development officials say there's a new project timeline. The owners have until August to transfer the development rights over to a new

company and they have brought on another real estate firm that's involved in that process and the state says it's reviewing the application for a new developer. Then under this new timeline, they have until August to get that done to transfer the development rights. And then they have until December to kick off a new community planning process. It'll be the latest chapter in this decades-long saga over at Atlantic Yards. That's WMYC's David Brand. WMYC is teaming up with a nonprofit street lab to highlight voices from neighborhoods across New York City. We recently set up shop on Audubon Avenue in Washington Heights. Here's what we heard from folks.

My name is Carilla Escoville. I'm 34 years old. And I'm a nurse working in Washington Heights. And I was born and raised in Passa County, New Jersey. I live in a community where there's not a lot of people of my ethnicity. And to come to a place where there are, it's kind of nice. Washington Heights is predominantly Dominican, but I'm Mexican. And I do see like Mexican restaurants, cafes, and Mexican people around too. And to work in a place where there's people of my ethnicity,

it makes me feel like I'm helping out family members. Any patient that I have, regardless of their background, I see them as my family. But when they're someone who speaks Spanish, I've seen the struggle of them communicating with like health care providers. There's a language barrier and it makes me feel good that I can kind of be a bridge and you know help them out when they're like in a vulnerable state. My name is Ophelia Rodriguez and I'm the cultural director for Alianza Dominicana an agency that was established 44 years ago in northern Manhattan and it's still alive. Today's a beautiful spring day and I'm a little tired but we have been locked up for so long that this is great. The parents are happy and the kids are free but protected.

After the pandemic the hips been like a dramatic shift where kids are not engaged that much. I think it's all the stuff that they're hearing. Right now these young children already know who I see. because children have come back from school and the parents are not there. So we're trying to teach our little ones that they belong here. And keep them sane, this is healthy for the kids. They're doing art work, they're running around in a beautiful blocking neighborhood, and these are the memories we want them to go with.

My name is Dr. Sharon Smith. I'm from Brooklyn, New York, and I'm in Washington Heights today to participate in a mental health month event on trauma and the way the body and mind react to it. We talked about intergenerational trauma, trauma that is perceived and how we carried in our bodies, but also how to do self-care, how to get therapy, what is therapy, what is trauma and, you know, the definitions of it. So I'm really excited today and my heart is full at the amount of people who came to the program. It's important for us to do this. especially now. And it's important to me personally because I know the effects of trauma

intergenerational trauma. And I think that there aren't enough spaces for us as people of color to experience this and hear from people who look like us and sound like us. So this was the labor of love and something that's really important for our community. Those are voices from Washington Heights as part of our collaboration with Street Lab. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WMYC, Now from WMYC, see. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.