NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Residents Evacuate Partially Collapsed NYCHA Building in the Bronx, Trump Administration Halts Funds for NYC Infrastructure Projects, and New York State Lawmakers Consider Legalizing Psychedelic Mushrooms

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Residents are being evacuated from NYCHA's Mitchel Houses after reports of an explosion. Also, the Trump administration is holding money for two of New York's biggest infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, New York state has already legalized marijuana and state lawmakers are considering whether psychedelic mushrooms will be next.

Residents evacuate a partially collapsed NYCHA building in the Bronx, and New York State lawmakers consider legalizing psychedelic mushrooms. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jenei Pierre. What's your name? El Salvador Salsa. My kids were calling me. Mom, calm down.

They didn't tell me that the building had collapsed. So I just worried about my puppy. They were so scared that they ran out of the house. the bed and I could pull them. It's okay, it's okay. It's okay. We're going to get them. We're going to get your dogs. You hear me? It's all right. You hear, you're alive, you're good. We begin in the Bronx, where a public housing tower partially collapsed Wednesday morning, forcing residents to evacuate.

Emergency responders were called to Nijie's Mitchell Houses in Mott Haven just after eight as the day was beginning. WMYC's Brittany Crickstein was on the scene. She joins us now with the latest. So Brittany, what exactly happened? Janay, about 20 stories worth of bricks came crashing down this morning after some sort of explosion in the boiler shaft of a Bronx apartment building. And residents closest to the shaft were told to evacuate, but many others left the building on their own after realizing what was happening, saying they heard the loud boom and saw the crumbling and felt like the best thing for them to do was just to get out. Yeah, here's some of what you heard out there. What was your name?

Is it well. What's your last name is about? Sanchez. And you said you lived here 10 years. Yeah. At first it sounded like maybe like a car crash or something happened. But we was like, no, that was too close. And that's when we look out the window because it's so smoky.

And then we see the whole thing just slipping down. That's the first time we've ever seen anything like that, especially around here. I was just waking up to there. Yeah. What floor do you live on? 16. So it's sort of having it. happened on 17, but I'm not too sure it looked like it started from the top.

Yeah. How do you feel? Worryed because my cats are up there, but hoping that everything's okay that we could come back in soon. Have they told you anything? Nothing yet. Nothing yet. And are you on this side? The front. The front. Okay. That's good. And what's your name? Sabatha. What do we know about what caused this collapse? So it's still under investigation. There were FDNY crews scouring the scene and checking the building itself. But so far what we know is that the FDNY said a ventilator shaft collapse. So it wasn't actually part of anybody's apartment. It was this special sort of column in the building, right? And this came down due to an explosion. Firefighters were investigating a potential gas leak. Knight just said preliminary reports

said it was an explosion in this chimney, but not involving an incinerator. So not really the garbage shoot area. So they're trying to figure out if it was directly related to one of the building's boilers, if the boiler was maybe just turning on or being inspected for the first time, you know, ahead of winter. These are all the details that are still coming out. Now, Brittany, I saw the photos on social media and they are telling. Can you describe what it looked like out there? Totally. It was like the whole corner of that pretty tall, you know, 20-story brick building, one whole corner of it was just gone. like a gaping hole. But instead of seeing apartments, like I said, it was really a separate area. So it was

kind of just like the whole shaft. And it looked like all of the debris had fallen into a pile near the garbage area. So thankfully not on top of the playground or benches or any place where people had gathered or were hanging out in the morning. And what can you tell us about the building itself, the Mitchell Houses? Is there a history of neglect there? So so far we found at least three boiler violations that we're asking the Department of Buildings about for that specific building. But we're still looking into the rest of its history. Residents told me that there were all sorts of issues, which are frankly common to Nica's aging infrastructure overall, like water leaks, fires, general disrepair. Just last week, a fire in this particular building left a 16-year-old

girl in critical condition. And I'm not exactly sure why, you know, the cause of that. But just to speak to of the general conditions. And then in 2021, a fire in the trash chute of a neighboring building killed a six-year-old boy. Some residents say that they smelled gas before this explosion that happened today. So obviously, still trying to figure out exactly what caused it. Yeah. And I want to reiterate, no injuries, no debts in this Bronx building collapse Wednesday. That's right. It was really miraculous. City officials say, of course, that's something to be so grateful for. but a lot of residents were displaced and have been affected by this, of course. So after this happened, residents were as to evacuate. Any idea how many families we're talking about here?

Not sure of the specific number, but this affects at least 40 apartments. So it was two apartment lines, you think 20 stories, two different lines closest to where this shaft came down. That's where city officials told residents to get out. Now, a lot of residents got themselves out from other parts of the building, because they don't feel safe given what's happening. But there's another problem besides just the structural soundness of the building. That Boilersheft controlled the gas and hot water for the entire 11 building complex. So residents in other buildings are also going to have to grapple with that.

The ones I spoke to said they had no idea when gas and hot water would be turned back on. So in the meantime, the residents are gathering at the local community center and city officials have told us that they're coordinating with the Red Cross to, give them shelter options in the Bronx for those who really can't go into their apartments right away. But the city says that they're trying to work to get people back into the building as soon as it's safe enough, which is hard to say when. Yeah. That's WMYC's Brittany Krikstein. Brittany, thanks so much for being on the scene and bringing us up to date with the latest. Thank you so much, Jena. This is a developing story. You should visit our news site,

Gothamist, for the latest. In other news, the Trump administration is funding funds for two of New York's biggest infrastructure projects, the 2nd Avenue subway extension into East Harlem, and the Hudson River train tunnels being built as part of the Gateway program. Trump officials say New York State is violating the Constitution by requiring a percentage of the work on the projects go to minority and women-owned businesses. It's a practice used in states across the country that the feds have made a central issue this year. Governor Kathy Hokel says the feds are trying to make a culture war. out of job creation.

They've decided to put their own interpretation of proper culture ahead of our needs, the needs of a nation. So you can't make this up, folks. It just keeps getting worse and worse. The announcement came the same day the federal government shut down after Congress failed to pass a new funding agreement. Up next, there are lawmakers in Albany who were considering whether or not to legalize psychedelic mushrooms.

That's after the break. State has already legalized marijuana. And state lawmakers are considering whether psychedelic mushrooms will be next. WMYC's John Campbell has more. Joseph McKay is a retired New York City firefighter who responded to the 9-11 attacks. He dealt with intense feelings of grief and anguish as he worked at Ground Zero for months. He thought he hit Rock Bottom. Then I had my first attack.

I woke up at one in the morning feeling as if someone to just stare me in the eye with a burning hot ice pick. It was a cluster headache. Soon he'd beginning as many as eight a day. He struggled to cope. He was abusing painkillers. And then he heard about a study that suggested silo cybin could help him. So he tried a low dose. The excruciating pain that I endured for over a decade was gone.

I was in remission. Silocybin gave me my life back. Silocybin is the active compound in psychedelic mushrooms. New York state lawmakers held a hearing to weigh whether to legalize it for health purposes. Magic mushrooms are illegal on the federal level, but a growing body of research suggests they could help with a wide array of ailments, from anxiety and depression to headache disorders and even stroke patients. Assembly member Amy Paulin is a Westchester County Democrat who chairs the Health Committee and led the hearing. She said the committee was interested in perhaps

making it legal and appropriate for medical providers to dispense a product that they frankly have been acknowledging is effective for their patients. It's too early to say whether the state legislature will take up the issue. Lawmakers are due to return to the Capitol in January. All right, John, before I grab my tie-dye t-shirt, how seriously are lawmakers looking at this? I mean, is it really possible New York could legalize shrooms? It's possible, but it's certainly not a done deal by any stretch. I mean, yes, psychedelic mushrooms are illegal on the federal level, but, you know, the FDA has taken some steps in recent years to make it easier to research their effect on human health.

So far, three states have legalized them for medicinal purposes, and there are state lawmakers out there that want to make New York the fourth. So that's why they held the hearing on Tuesday to gather more information and kind of get the ball rolling on the issue. There's a couple different bills in Albany already that would authorize mushrooms for medical purposes and even one that would permit them for recreational purposes too. Those bills weren't put to a vote this year. Did the hearing move the needle at all? That's still unclear, but what was clear is that the lawmakers who were there at the hearing were taking it quite seriously. I spoke to Assembly member Paulin afterward. She's the lawmaker who chairs the health committee and, led the hearing, she told me she's ready to push for it. And that's significant because she has a history of taking out some really weighty bills and actually getting them passed. And, you know,

Janay, it was also interesting to me that the Republicans at the hearing were quite engaged. A lot of times at legislative hearings, it kind of turns into this partisan battle between Democrats and Republicans and they kind of ask different questions to push their point of view. But that really wasn't the case at this hearing. A lot of the questions were pretty substantive. I mean, it seemed like lawmakers on both sides of the aisle really wanted to learn. I'm wondering if this is any different than the approach to legalizing marijuana. Well, it's similar in the sense that first came medicinal marijuana, then came recreational marijuana. And so first you're seeing a push for medicinal mushrooms, if you want to call them that. I mean, it's- Yeah, it is some nice alliteration there. But some people are kind of viewing it as the first step. They are pointing to the growing body of research that shows that psilocybin in mushrooms,

we should say it's shown promise with treating a variety of elements. But some people say more research needs to be done. And that's kind of the crossroads where we're at right now. That's WMYC's John Campbell. Thanks a lot for joining us. Thank you. Before we go, you probably. probably heard by now that we're in the middle of a federal government shutdown.

Just a heads up, the shutdown won't immediately impact food stamp benefits for recipients in the Empire State. That means SNAP recipients will still be able to use their EBT cards in the grocery store through October, and New Yorkers will still be able to apply for benefits. Almost 2 million New York State residents rely on SNAP to help cover their grocery costs. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.