NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: NYC’s Democratic Primary Election, Latest Front in the War on Rats, Congestion Pricing Tolls Bring Highest Revenue Yet, and Formerly-Incarcerated New Yorkers Become Bike Mechanics

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have already voted ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic Primary Election. Plus, the MTA says it collected $61 million from drivers through its congestion pricing program in May. Also, Mayor Adams announces a new strategy in the city’s war on rats. And finally, a nonprofit-run workforce development program is helping to give people with criminal records a second chance as bike mechanics.

Hundreds of thousands vote early ahead of New York City's Democratic primary election, the latest front in the war on rats. Congestion pricing tolls bring in the highest revenue yet, and formerly incarcerated New Yorkers become bike mechanics. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jinné Pierre. Tuesday is primary election day in New York City, and hundreds of thousands of voters have already cast their ballots. At stake are races for mayor. controller and public advocate. As WMYC's Bridget Bergen explains, voters shouldn't expect results immediately. So for people who are looking to see those results and maybe wake up to a headline that says someone is leading, but we don't have a winner, that is not a sign that anything is wrong.

Election officials will start tallying votes after polls closed Tuesday night. If no candidate reaches more than 50% of the vote by then, the next tally is scheduled for Tuesday, July 1st. And don't forget about mail-in and absentee ballots. They can continue to come in up to a week after election day. Poll sites open Tuesday from 6 in the morning to 9 at night. The MTA says it collected $61 million from drivers through its congestion pricing program in the month of May. That's the biggest monthly haul since it launched in early January.

Officials say they expect a boost in the tolls they collect during the summer. Historically, more cars enter the zone in the hotter months. The transit agency says congestion pricing is on pace to generate a half billion dollars this year, which is required by state law to pay for crucial upgrades to the city's aging mass transit infrastructure. The war on rats continues in New York City. Mayor Eric Adams says the city will try a new strategy, outsmarting the rodents by targeting street tree beds where they like to burrow. Adam says the city is hiring new teams to do the work across 600,000 tree beds,

thanks to a $900,000 investment. Rats are smart. I had a rat in my backyard that would pop the track off and eat the food, you know, so they are extremely skillful that's surviving. According to City Hall, street tree beds were the subject

of more than 2,300 rat-related 3-1-complains last year. Some animal advocates say there are less cruel ways to manage the city's rat population, such as putting out trash in sealed containers. A nonprofit-run workforce development program is helping to give people with criminal records a second chance as bike mechanics. More on that after the break. City bike continues to expand across the five boroughs. That isn't just good news for riders, but also for people who can fix bikes.

WMYC's Arun Vanekapal reports on a program that turns formerly incarcerated New Yorkers into the city's newest bike mechanics. Love VL Jones was 16 years. years old when he went to prison. I was engulfed in, you know, violence and the street life and the negativity and the gang culture and things of that nature. He served an 18-year sentence for murder. Now he's back out in the world, and at the age of 34, he's one of 20 men and women wrapping up a workforce development course run by the nonprofit Bike New York. It's called Bike Path, and it's turning each of these students into certified bike mechanics, who will help maintain the tens of thousands of bikes in the vast city bike.

fleet. For Jones, it's going to be his very first job. I just want to become successful in this free world. The unemployment rate for people who have been incarcerated is around 60%, according to 2022 data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. That's about 15 times the rate of the general population. This course is designed to close the gap. The course is three weeks long and is held in this large space in industry city in Brooklyn. There are hundreds of bicycles in here. including regular city bikes and electric ones. And the students have hoisted some of them up on racks and gathered around them as they learned the ins and outs of bike repair.

I'm learning what bike pedals and how to do the brake system onto the bike. I've never learned how to do that before. Tia Hopkins is from East New York. She's 59 and formerly incarcerated and has bright blue hair and a sly grin. I like hardcore work like this. I like being under a car. I like pulling things apart and trying to put it back together. A lot happens over this three-week course.

Jeremy Lockett, who runs the program for Bike New York, says on day one, the students tend to be apprehensive because they have criminal records and have seen doors repeatedly shut in their face. So he tells them about being a kid and visiting his own dad in prison. And so I think for me to open up my story from Jump, It goes a long way.

As the course progresses, he says students don't just gain mechanical knowledge, but learn how to ask questions without fear, how to present themselves at the job interview that's guaranteed to them. He says the training gives graduates the confidence to land jobs, namely with Motivate, a company that maintains the entire city bike fleet. We have 20 people in this cohort right now, and all 20 of them have been provided job offers to work at Motivate. BikePath says that 99% of its students in the last 18,000,

months have gotten jobs, starting at $27 an hour. Lockett says late in the course, the students understand they're part of something bigger than themselves. Many people share like, holy smokes, I'm a part of this city. Today is the last day of the course. The mood is light, playful. There's a boombox off to the side playing hip-hop. Students are full of praise for the instructors, including Lockett.

And they ain't even just about the bikes, you know what I'm saying? As an individual, if you're having personal problems, you know what I'm saying? He's there for you. He helps out. This is Richard Duckett, another student. I was having personal problem with the employment, with my hours and everything, and he hooked me up, man. He hooked me up. At the end of the final class, with job offers in hand, all the students head outside with bikes they've received as gifts from the program and hit the road. Come on, everybody ride out.

Ride up! Some of the biggest advocates of the Bike Path program are its alumni, like Stacey Manning. I was struggling to find employment. I was struggling to trying to find ways of establishing myself back into society. Manning recently marked his first anniversary of working as a bike mechanic at Motivate. He's 44. It's the first job he's had after spending 25 years in prison for murder. He thinks of this job in deeply spiritual terms.

After all, these bikes move people around, and it's partly up to him to keep them safe. and alive. We're serving a divine, a purpose, and a divine assignment, you know, for society. He's also profoundly moved by the idea that an employer was willing to give him a second chance. Now he says he has little interest in spending his earnings on fund staff or indulgences. He's just trying to be there for his mother in the same way she was there for him, even when things weren't going so well. The only thing she said to me, and she's constantly saying to me, and I hear her constantly say it to others, I'm proud of my child.

That's all that matters to him. That's WNYC's Arun Vanekapal. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jenei Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.