NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: NYC Issues More Housing Vouchers Than Ever, Sen. Schumer Booed at the Met, a Renewed Plan for Columbia Street Waterfront, and No Answers for Family of Man Killed at 2024 West Indian Day Parade

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

New Data shows the city's social services agency is playing a bigger role than ever when it comes to stemming an affordable housing crisis. Plus, pressure is mounting on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to weigh in on the mayor’s race. Also, a new plan to develop the Columbia Street Waterfront District took a big step towards becoming reality. And finally, the parents of a man killed at New York City’s West Indian Day Parade last year say they’ve barely heard from the police working to solve the case.

New York City issues more housing vouchers than ever. Senator Chuck Schumer gets booed at the Met, a renewed plan for the Columbia Street Waterfront, and no answers for the family of a man killed at the 2024 West Indian Day parade. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre. New data shows New York City's welfare agency is now running one of the largest housing programs in the country.

The Department of Social Services helps 96,000 households pay rent each month through one of the nation's largest rental assistance programs. Commissioner Molly Park says the agency is issuing more aid at the same time the federal government is cutting housing assistance. What we're seeing is really city funds stepping in and filling that void. Lawmakers and advocates say the city could do even more by implementing measures that make more renters eligible for housing aid. The city council approved the expansion in 2023,

but Mayor Eric Adams has so far blocked them over budget concerns. With six weeks to go in the race for mayor, pressure is mounting on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to weigh in from some unusual places. WMYC's Elizabeth Kim has more. Schumer was hit with a chorus of booze when he took the stage at the Metropolitan Opera, and it wasn't for his singing. Some in the black tie crowd yelled endorse and Mamdani.

Schumer has withheld an endorsement in the mayoral race. The episode suggests that Zoran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist and frontrunner, has won fans among the city's economic and cultural elite. Schumer has reportedly held off on backing him because he worries it will complicate efforts by Democrats to win elections in other parts of the country, as well as concerns about how donors and some Jewish voters would react. A spokesman for Schumer said, hearing many things from crowds is a tale as old as time in politics. This week, Brooklyn leaders approved a plan to transform the Columbia Street Waterfront into a new neighborhood.

More on that after the break. Ever walked or biked on the paths just south of Brooklyn Bridge Park? If so, you may have noticed a giant industrial space known as the Columbia Street Waterfront District. It sits between the Brooklyn Waterfront and the BQE and is right next to Cobble Hill, close to Red Hook. Well, for years, city officials and Brooklyn leaders have been trying to figure out what to do with that space. This week, a new plan to develop that neighborhood took a big step towards becoming reality. WMYC's David Brand is here to explain it all.

So, David, what's up with this space? Well, it's a working port. You might have realized that seeing the giant cranes that take cargo off of ships, the big stacks of containers. It's an industrial area. There's a lot of warehouses. There's trucks that are driving through on these streets, taking cargo away from the waterfront to other parts of the five boroughs.

And it's been like that for decades. We all know that New York City real estate is just so coveted, especially along the waterfront there. It's kind of surprising to me that there aren't already luxury condos there. Yeah, you're right. I mean, think about it. It's waterfront in Brooklyn. That's like some of the most.

prime real estate and the country. The Brooklyn Bridge Park had this kind of renaissance with all this new development, beautiful park, almost like a world famous setting now. So city leaders in the city's economic development corporation have been eyeing this area for redevelopment for years. And they got their way Monday. But there are a few reasons this area has remained industrial. Here's how Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Renoso described it on the Brian Lair show the other day. So it's a port, obviously, that has been working outside of its capacity for quite some time. It's pretty much been neglected or abandoned, I would say, by the New York and New Jersey Port Authority. EDC or the agency EDC is not going to take over the site and look to redevelop it, not only for housing and manufacturing, but is also adding some other amenities, I guess.

David, will those amenities include better transportation? Yeah, that's a big question because this area is pretty isolated. from public transit aside from a few slow bus lines. It could be like a 15 or 20 minute walk or even more to get to the closest subway station. And that's really been an issue that opponents of this development plan have raised. You're going to add so many more people. How are they going to get around? Yeah.

Okay. So tell us what's coming. Please say housing. Please say housing. Well, you have me on for a reason. I'm the housing reporter. So I will tell you that there is housing, plenty of it coming. Nice.

This task force I mentioned was chaired by Congress. Congressman Dan Goldman and it approved what they're calling a vision plan for this waterfront area, they want to add 6,000 new units of housing to this stretch. That's actually scaled down from an original proposal for 12,000 units that they issued last year. And in negotiations, they have that. And those negotiations also led to some commitments to make about 40% of the new units affordable. So with rents cap for low and middle income tenants. They're also going to preserve some of the port operations in the manufacturing that currently exists there, and they want to make that more modern.

They say they're also going to make this a hub in the city's water freight system, what they call it's a cute name, the blue highway. And they're going to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in local public housing developments. You're talking about negotiations. And I just want to point out that they didn't have to use the normal land use process, right? Can you explain that? Right. That's what's made this kind of controversial. They're doing what's called a, quote, general project plan.

And that might sound like boring jargon, but it's actually pretty important because it basically means the city and state have the power to bypass the typical land use review process for this project. And that's what the vote was on Monday to allow the city and state to do this. People in the community worry that they're not going to have the input they otherwise would on what is going to be a huge project with a lot of components. And some people don't want to add more housing. Others worry about the strain that this is going to have on transportation and traffic. And then there's a lot of concern about what this means for flooding. This is low-lying waterfront property. What happens if there's another sandy?

Housing is a really big issue in this year's mayor's race. How soon will we see all that new housing? Well, this is going to take a long time. So it's not like we're going to see excavators in the ground tomorrow. The proposal that was voted on on Monday, basically gives the state and the city the power to proceed with planning. So this wasn't a binding like granular blueprint. They're now going to begin environmental review, issue requests for proposals to allocate the land to developers.

And so it really could be like a decade before we see this project really bare fruit and these apartment buildings go up and people start moving in. That's WMYC's David Brand. Now to another Brooklyn neighborhood, Crown Heights. Every year, the community hosts New York City's West Indian Day parade. And any violence that happens before, during, or after the event, sparks a lot of attention from police and city officials. We saw just that earlier this month when seven people were injured in four separate incidents at the end of the parade. But the parents of a man who was shot and killed at that same parade last year say they've been able to. barely heard from the police working to solve the case.

It's a pretty significant unsolved case in the city. That's my colleague Ben Fewerard, who has been following this specific killing. Here's what happened. Ben says at the 2024 West Indian Day parade, as hundreds of thousands of people were celebrating in the middle of the day, someone who witnesses said was walking the parade route jumped over a barricade on Eastern Parkway. He shot five people, and the shooting injured four people and killed a 25-year. old from Brooklyn named Denzel Chan. Ben has been following up with Chan's parents and says they're

frustrated, partially because police haven't solved the case, but also because they feel like there's a sort of radio silence from the NYPD. Since her son's death, Lynette Chan says she's only heard from the detective working the case twice, the last time being in October of last year. Lynette says she doesn't have the faith that the police will ever solve it. There's no reason I should be. put my faith in them if they're responding the way, you know, they're not responding, actually. Groups like the 77th Precinct Community Council are working to create dialogue between police, the precinct, and the community, all while managing the friction that can sometimes grow between NYPD investigators and families of crime victims. But Ben talked with a former homicide prosecutor

who says the NYPD and its detectives have to strike a. balance. There are certain things that they just can't share because cases are ongoing and the information can be sensitive. But at the same time, they may be dealing with family members who are distraught and really want information about where a case stands. So it's sort of this balancing act that they have to execute to keep families informed and keep information protected.

That's WMYC's been fewer heard. Before we go, it's the first week of autumn and you'll need an umbrella to be a new one. to complete your fall fashion look. The National Weather Service says we should expect rain for much of the rest of the week, plus a cold front on Wednesday. This comes after a relatively dry stretch where Central Park recorded about an inch of rain less than normal.

The National Weather Service says residents could see showers and even thunderstorms on Thursday heading into the weekend. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.