NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Quality of Life Teams Expand to Brooklyn, Senior Residents Ordered to Vacate Elliott-Chelsea Houses, Hochul Vows to Protect Weed Dispensaries from Relocation, NYC’s Department of Sustainable Delivery and Free Things to do in August

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

The NYPD's quality of life enforcement teams are expanding to Brooklyn after launching in the Bronx and Manhattan last month. Plus, New York City is moving forward with a plan to build new affordable and market-rate housing at the Elliott-Chelsea Houses but not before vacating its senior residents. Meanwhile, Gov. Hochul is promising to protect cannabis dispensary owners who are facing relocation after state officials already approved their licenses and locations. Also, a crackdown on cyclists and e-bike riders is impacting delivery workers. And finally, we share a few free events to get into this month.

Quality of life teams expand to Brooklyn. Senior residents ordered to vacate the L.E. Chelsea houses. Governor Hockel vows to protect weed dispensaries from relocation. New York City's Department of Sustainable Delivery and free thanks to do in August. From WMYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. The NYPD's Quality of Life Enforcement teams are expanding to Brooklyn

after launching in the Bronx and Manhattan last month. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the new so-called Q teams is about projecting the appearance of safety. It's not just the numbers and the stats, but do you feel safe? That has been our driving focus in ensuring New Yorkers felt safe. According to officials, NYPD officers have responded to more than 23,000 calls, towed more than 600 cars, and seized nearly 300 illegal e-bikes and mopeds. The enforcement is set to expand to Queens and. Staten Island next month. Senior residents at Manhattan's Fulton and Elliott Chelsea houses have been ordered to vacate the public housing development.

The order comes as the city moves forward with a plan to build new affordable and market rate housing on the land. WMYC's Joe Hong has more. Residents will be placed into other Nitro apartments during construction of the new buildings. The city and developers will also provide moving assistance. But tenants like Maria Santos are worried about the safety and comfort of seniors who are. who are being placed into general public housing. It's dangerous because they're surrounded by all kinds of other people. They're not going to feel safe.

Whereas here, we're all seniors here. Jamar Adams is the CEO of Essence, one of the developers on the project. He says his team is considering enhancing security in the buildings where seniors will be placed. Governor Kathy Hogle is promising to protect cannabis dispensary owners who are facing relocation after state officials already approved their licenses and locations. A state law requires cannabis shops to be at least 500 feet from a school. Regulators were measuring the door-to-door distance, but now say they should have measured from the school property lines.

Hockel says she'll fight to change the law in the next session. I'm not going to make someone who put their life savings into this business doing what they thought was right. I'm going to stand up for them and say, will find a path forward. Regulators say shops should stay put for now in hopes that the legislature can rewrite the laws when it reconvenes in January.

In New York City, 89 dispensaries are affected. A crackdown on cyclists and e-bike riders is impacting delivery workers, but advocates say delivery companies are the ones that should be held accountable. More on that after the break. This is NYC Aura.

Mayor Eric Adams is touting a new Department of Sustainable Delivery, which will regulate the tens of thousands of delivery workers on e-bikes and mopeds across New York City. The department will be funded by this year's city budget. It comes as new data from the NYPD shows criminal summons have increased tenfold since a crackdown on cyclists and e-bike riders began back in April. The summonses, or pink tickets for cyclists, jumped from 561 before the directive to nearly 6,000 tickets in the second quarter.

quarter of this year. And some experts say delivery workers are filling the brunt of this. Lahia Huapa is executive director of the Workers Justice Project. For about a year, she's been in talks with the mayor's office about ways to build a department of sustainable delivery that helps regulate app delivery companies instead of criminalizing delivery workers. But she says that's not completely what's happening. What we have seen is how the mayor has been more focused on enforcement, intensifying the punishment of delivery workers instead of addressing the structural problems that workers are experiencing, which actually are caused by multibillion dollar corporations like Uber, Grop Hub, and DoorDash.

Even though it's the drivers themselves who are on the street during the work, Kwapa says those companies own some of that responsibility because of their business model. They created a whole business where they're promising. to consumers faster deliveries, promising restaurants that they will be able to expand their business model because now somebody that lives in the Bronx will be able to buy noodles from a restaurant in Manhattan, forcing Deliveristas to drive faster, forcing them into moving from regular bikes to actually e-bikes. And on top of that, forcing Deliveristas also to be connected long hours with the promise

that they will be able to make enough income. The Adams administration says its proposals for the Department of Sustainable Delivery focus on holding the delivery app companies accountable for incentivizing bad behavior. They want to establish so-called safe delivery times, penalize app companies that break the law, and allow the city to revoke delivery app licenses over continued bad behavior. Wapa says she strongly supports those proposals. And that has been the whole vision of the Department of Sustainability, that it is the app companies who need to release data.

It is the app companies who need to set realistic timeframes. It is workers who should have the rights to be able to say no every time the app delivery companies are pressuring to deliver faster. And most importantly, I think it is also to figure out how we can bring workers to the conversation and to redesigning and visioning what this new Department of Sustainability should be. Leahyahuapa is executive director of the Workers' Justice Project. It's August.

Most people are out of town. Your office may be empty. Your group chat has gone quiet. And the corner table at your favorite bar is somehow available. It may feel like the city belongs to you, right? And if you know where to look, it's full of free stuff we're sticking around for. WMYC's Ryan Kylath shares some of its favorite things to do this month at the low cost of free 99.

The first is a classic, U.S. Open Fan Week. So this is August 18th through 23rd. It's the week before the actual tournament starts. So Flushing Meadows becomes like this big free tennis fairground. You can see the early qualifying matches, lots of fan activities set up, all free. No tickets needed even, no reservations. You just walk in and don't forget your sunscreen. If you're uninterested in being outdoors, Ryan says,

Open call Portals is a pretty cool art exhibit at the shed in Hudson Yards. It's 12 different early career New York artists, quite a bunch, all exhibited in that huge space there together. So this is through August 24th. There's paintings, there's performances, there's sculpture, mixed media. This one, you do have to book free timed tickets to get in, but it's indoors, which is key. August marks the celebration of one of Manhattan's most storied neighborhoods. Harlem. Harlem Week is currently underway. The celebration is more than two weeks and highlights a lot of community happenings.

But the centerpiece of it is the Afre-Bembe Festival. That happens at the part of Morningside Park that's up by Grant's Tomb. It's music, it's dance. You know, they call it ancestral rhythms. I think it's their seventh year doing this festival, which is really great. Also part of the Harlem Week, or weeks stuff. You've got the night market uptown.

There's a speaker series. They do that jazz on the Great Hill Day in Central Park. Lots of fun stuff. Another free event happening this month is the Lincoln Center's Met Opera H.D. Festival. This is where they do the big screenings on the plaza there. Very fun. Sun has set. It's like a nice late summer evening activity.

You can bring blankets. You can bring chairs even, I think. The first screening this time is. actually a film screening. It's the Leonard Bernstein biopic, maestro. And then they're getting to opera and it's the hits. It's Aida, it's Toska, Barbara Seville, all the good stuff. That's August 22nd through the end of the month. Totally free at the opera. That's WMYC's Ryan Kaila. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.