NYC NOW - February 16, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

The MTA doesn’t have enough money to start new construction projects. Plus, a Queens man faces charges in connection to a Brooklyn hit-and-run that killed a cyclist last year. Also, WNYC’s Jessica Gould reports some providers worry the mayor's proposed budget cuts could undermine an effort to create a new curriculum for the city’s youngest students that could help them become stronger readers. And finally, WNYC’s Sean Carlson and Jon Campbell discuss New York’s new congressional map.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. The MTA says it no longer has enough money to start new construction projects. In a letter to contractors, the transit agency wrote that lawsuits challenging congestion pricing have created financial uncertainty. The MTA hopes to begin tolling drivers this spring. But if the lawsuits drag on and delay the planned rollout, it can no longer count on raising 15 bills. billion dollars through tolls. Kate Slevin is with the Regional Plan Association and says the pause has major implications. It means that we're going to see delays on making our transit system

more reliable. This is not good news for transit riders. It's not good news for the contracting community and it's not good news for our economy as a whole. The MTA says projects on hold include new signs on the A&C lines, the next phase of the 2nd Avenue subway station and several accessibility projects. A 34-year-old queensman. A 34-year-old queensman is facing charges in connection to a Brooklyn hit and run that killed a cyclist last year. WMYC's Catalina Gonella has the details. Police allege Akilo Cadigan fled the scene after he struck and killed 56-year-old Eugene Schroeder with his truck.

The crash happened in Bushwick on March 10th of last year. Schroeder's husband, John Rappapour, says he wants to see justice. Can you imagine somebody that you lived with for 17 years that was supposed to come home? was killed by somebody and left him like a rat in the street, like a flattened rat. Authority say Schroeder was riding in the designated bike lane on Morgan Avenue when Cadigan hit him while making a right turn. Cattigan is charged with leaving an accident resulting in a death. Categan pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Thursday.

An attorney could not be reached for comment. Stay close. There's more after the break. The Adams administration says a new curriculum for the city's youngest students will make them stronger readers. But some providers worry the mayor's proposed budget cuts could undermine the effort. WNYC's Jessica Gould has more. Here we go. A, B. In the 3K class at PS-147 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, teacher Sandra Gomez is practicing letter sounds with her students.

So, I have some letters in my bag. here. Let's see. Oh, this one makes the j-j-j-sound, like jump and joy, which is what we feel when we're here at school today. It is the letter J. Everybody say J. This focus on letters and combinations, vocabulary, and comprehension is part of the city's broader effort to overhaul literacy instruction in the public schools. Kara Ahmed is Deputy Chancellor for Early Education. If we truly want children to be proficient readers by the third grade, we have to start at their earliest stages. The city has required schools to adopt curricula with a stronger focus on phonics. Now, the effort has expanded to early education providers from preschool down.

They're being trained on a new curriculum, Ahmed says, will give kids the consistency and the foundational skills they need to eventually learn to read. She only get one chance. They don't get a do-over. And so we owe it to them to get it right. Teacher Sandra Gomez says she's seen a difference among her students. They're able to recognize letters and just engaging and increasing their vocabulary. But not all providers are fans of the new curriculum. Some don't like what they call a one-size-fits-all approach. They're also alarmed by Mayor Adams' proposed budget cuts to early education. Gregory Brenda is policy director at the Daycare Council of New York. The mayor cannot achieve his goals of improving education and cut early childhood at the same time.

The mayor's proposed budget calls for slashing $170 million from early education. Officials at the Education Department say the plan is to cut vacant slots and keep seats where there's need. But Brenda says some classrooms or even whole programs would have to close, and more families will be shut out. A cut of this magnitude would require really cutting into programs that are serving children. The Adams administration and city council are negotiating the budget ahead of the new fiscal year that starts in July. That's WMYC's Jessica Gould. New York State is on the verge of getting a new congressional map, but you might not notice if you live in New York City or on Long Island. This week, the State Independent Redistricting Commission approved a map that makes modest

changes to some of New York's 26 congressional districts. In Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx, there aren't any changes at all, and there are only minor tweaks in a handful of neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. But in other parts of the state, the changes could have a big effect on the 2024 elections, and it'll be up to Democrats in Albany to determine if those changes get implemented. For more, my colleague Sean Carlson talked with WMYC's John Campbell. John, can you remind us how we got here? Why does New York keep changing? its congressional map. Well, how long do you have? Because it's been a long saga. Yeah, it's the culmination of a few years of legal wrangling between Democrats and Republicans.

There was a Democratic-friendly map put in place in 2022. Republicans sued and got it overturned. Then a court-appointed expert drew a new map. And that's what was in place for the 2022 elections. But then the Democrats didn't like that map. So they sued and they won. And add all of that up, It brings us to today, and that's when the redistricting commission released its proposal that now goes to the state legislature. Okay, let's dig into this new map. Like we said, is very similar to the current map in place. What are the big changes, though? The biggest changes are all north of New York City.

The biggest one in particular is in the Syracuse area. That's where Brandon Williams, he's a freshman Republican who's vulnerable in this year's election. The commission, which has both Democrats and Republicans, by the way, they took away some of Williams' Republican turf from his district and added the village of Auburn, which leans Democratic. Closer to home, there were some minor swaps in the Hudson Valley. Pat Ryan is a Democrat. He picked up parts of Ulster County that are very democratic, places like Woodstock,

and he gave up some Republican-leaning towns in Orange County. Those went to Mark Malinaro, who's a Republican. And in New York City, hardly anything changes aside from little bits of Brooklyn and Queens. Where are those changes in Brooklyn and Queens? Where might our listeners be affected by it? Really, there's only a few dozen blocks that are affected at all. The commission fixed what was kind of an oddity in the current districts. That was the line between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's district and Grace Meng's district and Queens. it actually cuts right through the city field parking lots. So the commission rectified that.

They moved city field to Meng's district out of Acacio-Cortez's district. And aside from that, there really are only minor changes. There's a few blocks in Canarsie going from one district to another, a few blocks in Bushwick, a block or two in Prospect Heights. And we're looking into whether that affects any particular representatives, whether their homes move from one district to another. but no significant changes that affect wide swaths of people. Now this goes to the state legislature.

It'll need a two-thirds vote in order to be enacted. What happens if it fails? Well, I mean, first things first, the legislature is dominated by Democrats. They have a two-thirds majority in both houses, the Senate and the Assembly. So as long as there aren't too many people who break away, they can pass this if they want to without any Republican support. But we're already starting to hear a little bit of discontent, I should say. James Scoofus is a Democrat from Orange County. He's angry that his home county is split between districts, so he's against the map.

And really the key here is if this map fails, then the Democrats who control the legislature can draw a new map on their own with certain restrictions. And that could be a really big deal because they might be tempted to draw this map in a way that could have. help their party win back control of Congress. And they'd really be playing with fire if they do that because Republicans have said they'll sue if that's the case. But that's what really we're going to be looking for going forward. Yeah, a lot of suing going on. So what are congressional Democrats saying about this?

Hakeem Jeffries is the Democratic leader. He's also from Brooklyn. Have we heard from him yet on this? I've reached out to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. I haven't heard back yet. Hakeem Jeffries, actually, his district office will move from one. district to another. It's actually not within his district right now. But whatever he says, whatever the DCCC says, that's going to carry a lot of weight with Democrats in Albany. So it's going to be

really interesting to see whether he gives this plan his blessing or whether he opposes it. And that could be all the difference in the world between this map passing or failing up at the state capital. That's WMYC's John Campbell talking with my colleague Sean Carlson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Two quick notes before we go. We're dropping a special episode this Saturday. It's an excerpt from WMYC's new podcast, Blind Spot, A Plague in the Shadows. The show delves into the history of the AIDS epidemic, and it's hosted by our very own Kai Wright.

Trust me, you don't want to miss it. And on Monday, we're taking a day off in observance of President's Day, but we'll drop one midday episode to keep you in the know with your news headlines. Got to shout out our production team. It includes Sean Boutter. Amber Bruce, Ave Carrillo, Audrey Cooper, Leora Noam Kravitz, Jared Marcel, and Wayne Schollmeister, with help from the entire WNYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the folks at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrado. I'm Jene Pierre. Have a nice weekend. We'll be back tomorrow.