NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Street Vendors Press City Council on License Limitations, Early Voter Turnout in NJ, and Mamdani’s Push for Transit Ambassadors

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

New York City street vendors are calling on the city council to pass legislation that would remove limits on the number of licenses issued by the city. Meanwhile, more than 160,000 New Jerseyans have already cast their ballot in the hotly contested race for governor. And finally, mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani wants transit ambassadors to handle mental health calls instead of the NYPD.

Street vendors pressed the New York City Council on license limitations. Early voter turnout surges in New Jersey. And Mamdani's push for transit ambassadors if he's elected mayor. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jinné Pierre. New York City street vendors are calling on the City Council to pass legislation that would remove limits on the number of licenses issued by the city. Vendors argue that being unlicensed,

puts them in the crosshairs of immigration crackdowns. But increasing the number of licenses means they wouldn't be stopped for unlicensed vending. Council member Shahana Hanif backs the proposal. There are ways to organize against Trump, and there are ways to legislate against Trump. And this is what legislating against Trump looks like. City Council Speaker Adrian Adams says

she's reviewing the proposals, but hasn't committed to scheduling a vote. Environmental groups are pushing New York state and local governments to take on the responsibility of replacing the city's half million lead pipes. A federal mandate requires lead pipes that connect homes to the main water line be replaced by 2037. A new study shows the process would be more efficient if it was centrally controlled. Rob Hayes is one of the authors of the study. He says the service lines are one of the greatest sources of lead contamination because it's longer than any other piping internal to the home.

And so when water is running through that pipe or it's sitting and stagnating in that pipe, it has the greatest chance to pick up greater levels of lead contamination. State and local officials say taking over the process is unlikely. The Environmental Protection Agency says there's no safe level of lead. The heavy metal can cause organ damage and lower IQs in children. In New Jersey, voter turnout is surging through the first few days of early voting. So far, tallies in the gubernatorial race show an advantage. for Democratic nominee Mikey Cheryl over her Republican opponent, Jack Shudorelli.

More than 160,000 New Jerseyans cast their ballot in the hotly contested race for governor. According to the numbers, Democrats hold a slim 1% lead of about 5,000 votes for early in-person voting. The party leads in 11 of the state's 21 counties, with Republicans leading in the other 10. Together with mail-in votes, roughly 200,000 more Democrats have voted so far than Republicans. Early voting in New Jersey continues through Sunday. Mayor will hopeful, Zeramam Dani wants transit ambassadors to handle mental health calls instead of the NYPD. The move will gut a program that forces people with mental illnesses from the subways and into treatment. We'll have more on that after the break.

This time next week, New Yorkers will have a new mayor-elect. The frontrunner, Zeramam Dani, says he'll remove police from mental health calls if he wins the election. But that could also mean the end of a subway outreach program created by Mayor Eric Adams that pairs police with homeless outreach teams. WMYC's Stephen Nesson did a ride along with the team to see how they handle homeless people struggling with mental health issues in the subway system. Walking down the platform at 34th Street, Herald Square, it doesn't take long to spot someone who doesn't look well. 60-year-old behavioral nurse Richard Perkins walks up to a woman sitting on a bench surrounded by several black tracks. trash bags, with her shirt partially open. You know what interested in your wedding services?

I'm not here. No. You have any medical issues? Anything like that? Perkins isn't alone. He's the lead nurse on a PATH team. Path stands for partnership assistance for transit homelessness. He's with two outreach workers in orange sweatshirts and five police officers.

Okay. We've got to take you to the hospital and get you checked out, okay? Just to make sure that everything is okay. Yeah. All right? Yeah. In it, Perkins has determined she's at imminent risk of harm and needs to be taken in for a 72-hour, involuntary psychiatric evaluation and medical check. He tells her she's going to the hospital, but it seems she doesn't get it yet.

And that's when NYPD captain Hanji Liu steps in with handcuffs. They're going to have a coffee for everybody to save. No, no, I have everything. I'm okay. I know. I know. Everything is okay. No.

Everything is okay. No. No. Where are you? This is okay. You're not being arrested. Why? You're not being arrested.

Yeah. This is the kind of thing that homeless advocates say erodes trust between outreach workers and the homeless. Throughout the entire interaction, even as officers quickly slip handcuffs on her, she barely budges from the bench. She's not spitting, not thrashing, just pleading. You're not in any trouble, okay? You're not in any trouble. Perkins says having police with nurses when you're dealing with people who have a severe mental health issue is helpful. And it's what makes path teams different from other homeless outreach programs.

For decades, outreach teams have approached people and offered services, but then just moved along if the person refused. You can't do this about police. It's impossible. You're looking to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. In the past, they tried it with just nurses, and they will not approach. Perkins has been doing this type of work for 14 years, and he's a big man, well over six feet and wide. Still? Sometimes they can take up to eight of us to get the person under control, and still someone, they still get hurt.

It's very important. We need for our safety, for the patient safety, and track safety. While the path team waits for EMTs to arrive, Perkins speaks with the woman. She says her name's Bridget. She's 45 years old. on some kind of medication. She says her family doesn't have a history of alcohol or drug abuse. All the while, she's begging them to unlock the handcuffs.

Please, open it this. Open this. I can know, I can open only this. Yeah. Open this. Perkins says once they're at the hospital, the cuffs can come off. Yeah. When we get to the hospital first, okay?

Why are in hospital? I'm not sick. Why can you go hospital? You're going to get you evaluated, all right? Because I'm not sick. Where to can you go hospital? Perkins explains why and how he made such a fast determination that this woman needs to be involuntarily removed. Her rapid speech, which goes along with bipolar disorder, and her fearfulness, you know, she shouldn't a lot of fear, which could be a lot of paranoia also.

He says she also told him she wanted to kill her husband. And so that's enough? That's enough, yeah. And as far as handcuffing her, why was that? It's for her safety and everybody's safety. She could easily, if her hands were free, put up a bigger resistance. And you see all close to you out of the train tracks, someone could fall on the train tracks and get hurt.

As we keep waiting, trains pull in, and nearly a dozen riders stop to watch what's happening. They're not understanding what we're out doing, so they assume the worst. That's James Goodwin. He's a community coordinator with Department of Homeless Services. He's part of the PATH team, too. Like we're ganging up on somebody.

and that's not it. You know, this is part of everybody helping everybody else out. The creator of this program is Brian Stettin. He's Mayor Adams' senior advisor for mental illness. He started Path in August of 2024 and says he's worried. If Mom Donnie's elected, he'll take police out of these teams. Then it just becomes the kind of street outreach we've been doing for decades with not a huge amount of effectiveness.

Stetton drafted Kendra's. law in the 1990s as the state's assistant attorney general. It's a controversial law that allows a court to order people to be involuntarily hospitalized or given treatment if they have a severe mental illness. He estimates there are as many as 2,000 homeless people on the streets with a severe mental illness at any given time. The majority of people we're encountering don't need to go to the hospital, so I don't want to suggest that there isn't some value in just doing traditional street outreach. But if part of the goal is to get people who are in psychiatric crisis connected with care, that's simply going to fall away if we take police out of this program. Advocacy groups like

the Coalition for the Homeless strongly disagree. Dave Giffin is the executive director. For the most part, all of the interactions that unsheltered people have had with law enforcement have not been ones that they want to repeat. And they've not been ones that communicate to them that people approaching them are there to help. Homeless advocates like Giffin say more outreach and permanent housing is how to prevent people from ending up living in the subway system in the first place. Back on the platform, EMTs have finally arrived. What happened tonight?

Why are you in handcuffs right now? As they try to coax Bridget into a stretcher, Captain Liu makes an offer. Say that, we'll take it off. But once we take it off, you got to see it. here, okay? All right? The cuffs are finally off, and Bridget says she's fine to walk out of the station. I can't get you on. Do go. Ms. Bridgett. Come here.

One of the police officers helps button your shirt. Let me fasten your shirt. Let me fasten your shirt. Let me fasten your shirt. You expose you. Bridget and Perkins get into an ambulance. She's now one of the roughly 540 homeless people the path team has removed from the subway since the program began.

If Mom Donnie wins in November, he's pledged to remove the NYPD from the city's mental health outreach programs, replacing them with civilians. Stettin, who created Path, say taking the NYPD out of the equation would essentially end the program and leave more people like Bridget on subway platforms.

That's WMYC's Stephen Nesson. We still got to get past Halloween, but the holiday season is just around the corner and the Grand Central Terminal is nearly ready to celebrate. The MTA says the annual holiday fair at the train station will return on November 10th. For six weeks, New Yorkers and visitors will be able to buy plenty of handmade goods at the terminal through Christmas Eve.

The market will run seven days a week, from 10 in the morning to 7 at night, and on Sundays, the hours are 11 to 6. Just to note, the market will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, but you got some time to plan your visit. So don't forget. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre.

We'll be back tomorrow.