NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Officials Break Ground on Affordable Housing in East NY, Hochul’s Response to Severe Weather Events, and Trump’s Tax Bill Guts NYC’s Healthy Eating Program

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

New York City and state officials are turning parts of the Christian Cultural Center's campus into a housing development. Plus, New York State has a dedicated team to push information about severe weather to emergency managers. And finally, the Trump administration’s tax bill will slash a $29 million program that helps some New Yorkers eat healthy on a budget.

Officials break ground on affordable housing in East New York. Governor Hokel's response to severe weather events, and President Trump's tax bill guts one of New York City's healthy eating programs. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre. More affordable housing is under construction in East New York. City and state officials are turning parts of the Christian Cultural Center's campus into a housing development.

They broke ground on the first phase of the project this week. Governor Hogle says the development will eventually include 2,000 apartments across 10 buildings. And I so look forward to handing a set of keys to the first occupant of this extraordinary project because you can see in their eyes up until that moment they didn't know if they were worthy of this. The campus will include a community space with child care, senior services, and a performing arts center. The first phase will cost about $270 million and include a little under 400 housing units. New York State now has a dedicated team to push information about severe weather to emergency managers. Officials say it could help save lives in flash flooding events like the one our region experienced on Monday.

WMYC's Jimmy Vilkind has more. So we've got the seven-day forecast. We have the space weather. New data come in every five minutes. They come from rain gauges, radar maps, and satellite images. In a windowless room at the University at Albany, meteorologists like Allison Finch, are refining their forecasts and looking for possible risks. This is the state weather risk communication center. The first-in-the-nation facility launched in 2023

and will be fully staffed later this month. Center Director Nick Basel explains the work. Our job here is to take that data and translate it into something that state officials or emergency managers who are not trained in meteorology can more easily digest. and use for their own purposes. The center's work often goes unnoticed. But after flash floods in Texas

killed more than 100 people, Basel says it's important for protecting New Yorkers. That means looking for vulnerable places in risky areas. Ideally, we can do things like pick out the campgrounds that are within that zone and email state parks and let them know, hey, you know,

these dozen campsites are going to be possibly susceptible to flash flooding. New York got serious about severe weather more than a decade ago. Rain from tropical storms Lee and Irene caused floods in the Catskills in Adirondacks in 2011. A year later, Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of New York City and Long Island. Governor Hokel in 2023 showed off the new Weather Risk Communication Center to NBC's famous meteorologist, Hal Roker. These systems don't know geographic boundaries.

They just sweep across our country. and the extent that we can prepare a model for other governors to adopt and implement, then we're all going to be safer. She said other states could follow New York's lead. That's WMYC's Jimmy Vilkine. The Trump administration's tax bill will slash a $29 million program that helps some New Yorkers eat healthy on a budget. More on that after the break.

President Trump's new spending bill is expected to push thousands of New Yorkers off their foodstores. But it also guts a lesser-known program that's long-educated families on how to eat healthy while on a budget. WMYC's Karen Ye reports, those lessons start with kids. At Fairmont School in the Bronx, a group of kindergartners roves around the garden, using their five senses to explore. An eagle-eyed student is just tall enough to peer over the flower beds and spots a red bulb covered in little freckles. The strawberries are growing. Then he sees... Look at the blueberries.

Blueberry! Instructor Aaron Mendel points to a plant that hasn't yet started to flower, trying to get the students to guess what it is. What's ketchup made from? What you make ketchup with? Tomatoes! The nonprofit children's aide runs gardening and cooking classes for students year-round. They want kids to get excited about where food comes from,

and expose them to fruits and vegetables they may not be eating at home. The goal is to help children and their families live healthier, even on limited incomes. But programs like this across the state will be forced to close by October after President Trump eliminated funding for SNAP-Ed in his massive tax cut bill that he says is meant to cut waste, fraud, and abuse. Snap-Ed is the educational wing of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. really sad, like looking around and knowing that that all has to come to an end. Tazy Kank directs food programs at the nonprofit.

She's overseeing another initiative, funded by Snap Ed, on Staten Island. It's just devastating to see programs that we've built up and that have become so beloved in our communities and that our participants have been coming for years to and adore, and it's helped them kind of have healthier habits and change their lives. Every week, families on Staten Islands North Shore get a new recipe for how to cook with fresh produce and can even try a sample. This week's recipe is Tabuli. Residents also line up at the community center, tucked in a 40-acre wooded area for a discounted bag of fruits and vegetables. $7 if you have snap or $14 if you don't.

It's practically free. Sarah Blas is with her twin nine-year-old daughters. Where else are you going to go to get an entire bag full of actually? actual fresh produce plus recipes, you know, and they're also answering questions if it's a new vegetable that maybe you haven't cooked with before. Blas says this program helps alleviate food insecurity in her community, where finding fresh produce can be hard and expensive. Children's aid says that same bag of food would easily cost $25 or $30 at a store. 68-year-old Alan Boyer says he's been coming to the food box program for years.

Carrots are always. For some reason, the carrots are always really poor. He says his family eats differently now. I never had colerabi before. I never made rhubarb combote twice in a summer. Boyer is interrupted by a woman, carting off tiny zucchini's and sugar snap peas. And you put her on vanilla.

For that rhubarb compote. Thank you. I could not find rhubarb in any of the supermarkets by us at all. State officials say they're losing $29 million in snap ed, funding this fall. But with other major cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, they won't be able to make up the gap. That'll mean an end to nutrition workshops for seniors and youth, obesity prevention training, and improving access to fresh produce. The state says even after one class or workshop, most participants say they intend to eat less sugar-sweetened drinks, cook more at home, and up their

intake of fruits and vegetables. The lessons are sticking with seven-year-olds, Zinas Azuela, and Camille Taoree back at the Bronx. Don't eat sugar. If you put sugar in cake or posticles, that would not make it good. But you can only eat cake a little bit, not the whole bowl of cake. The two students say, even if the program ends this fall, they'll keep what they've learned with them. I would say to my mom or dad who was ever with me, I would say,

do we go to a garden and smell some plants? That's WNYC's Karen Yee. Thanks for listening to NYC now for WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.