NYC NOW - February 2, 2024 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Drivers in the Bronx and Queens will get a full rebate on two bridge tolls beginning this weekend. Plus, parent leaders elected to an advisory panel on education policies are resisting Schools Chancellor David Banks’ demands that they hold meetings in-person, citing threats over support of Palestine. Also, WNYC's Ramsey Khalifeh looks into a new effort by Manhattan’s borough president to take down some of the city's oldest scaffolding. And finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill talks with wildlife observer Daniel Lei about an owl named Flaco, who escaped from New York’s Central Park Zoo last year.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WMYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. Beginning Saturday, drivers in the Bronx and Queens will get a full rebate on two bridge tolls. Bronx drivers with an easy pass account won't have to pay for crossing the Henry Hudson Bridge, and Queens drivers will get a break on the toll for the cross bay bridge. State lawmakers are paying for the rebates with a pool of money collected from surcharges on taxis. Much of that money goes towards subway repairs, but state lawmakers are spending $20 million on the free tolls. However, Rachel Foss with the Good Government Group, Reinvent Alabama, says that money should be used for public transportation.

There's a huge missed opportunity to make it easier for people to take mass transit rather than incentivize them to drive their cars. Drivers eligible for the discount should have received a letter in the mail. They can also check their eligibility on the MTA's website. The New York City Schools Chancellor is demanding a local parent council reopen its meetings to the public. But the advisory panel on education policy says their outspoken support for Palestinians has led to death threats. WMYC's Jessica Gould has the details. Members of Community Education Council 14 in North Brooklyn say they've faced harassment since they called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Members say they've received menacing phone calls and even feces in the mail.

They say they're only holding meetings virtually for their own safety. But some Jewish and pro-Israel parents say they've been blocked from the meetings. The school's chancellor summoned leaders of the council to education department headquarters this week, saying the law requires they meet in person. But after hours of talks, the council members said they still feel unsafe. Stick around. There's more after the break. More than 400 miles of New York City sidewalks are covered by scaffolding. And many have been in place for more than a day.

decade. There's a new effort by Manhattan's borough president to take down some of the city's oldest sidewalk sheds. WNYC's Ramsey Caliphate has more. Thomas Strausky is standing in front of a vacant school in the East Village. The building's been covered by scaffolding for 13 years, making it one of the city's oldest sidewalk sheds. The longtime East Village resident says the scaffolding's been up so long, he doesn't even remember what the building looks like without it. I guess the scaffolding, you just get so used to it, you know, that there's always scaffolding somewhere in the city. So the fact that this has been here for so long doesn't really, doesn't register with me. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine says the scaffolding is the second oldest in the borough

due to a long-standing dispute between the building owner and the city. He points to the site as a reason why the city needs to pass legislation, reforming laws on sidewalk sheds. We need to totally reform the system so that we continue to protect pedestrians, which is why, we need these kinds of protections, but that work is done expeditiously. Last summer, Mayor Eric Adams announced his own scaffolding plan called Get Sheds Down. Levine backs that program, but says more needs to be done. He plans to reintroduce city council legislation in the next few months that would expedite the removal of those sheds.

He says one of the many measures would help finance facade repairs for building owners who can't afford it. We've called for creation of a low interest or no interest loan fund for buildings that want to do the right thing, but just don't have the cash flow for it. Levine compiled a list of the oldest scaffolding in Manhattan. Coming in at number one is scaffolding at the city's medical examiner's office on 1st Avenue in Kipps Bay. It's been there for 14 years.

Laura Sellexon lives next door to the building. She says the block is ugly and the scaffolding doesn't help. If you look around, there is a lot of scaffolding. It's not that attractive. That's true, but the buildings aren't attractive either. The Department of Buildings didn't call. comment on Levine's legislation. But the agency says removing scaffolding is one of Mayor Adams' most important goals. That's WMYC's Ramsey Caliphate. This time last year, an aisle named

Flacco escaped from New York's Central Park Zoo after Vandals damaged his mesh cave. Before long, the Eurasian Eagle Isle would amass a huge fan base of New Yorkers and people all over the world who worried about the bird's ability to survive in the big city. One year later, Flacco is thriving. New Yorkers continue to spot him on fire escapes, cornices, and peering into windows. There's even a new line of merchandise that features his feathery form on sweatshirts and coffee mugs. WMYC's Michael Hill talked with David Lee, a wildlife observer and photographer based in Manhattan who specializes in urban owls. He's been following Flocko for the past year. David, you probably know Flocko pretty well by now. Describe him for us and tell us a bit about

his personality and his habits. Well, first of all, Flacco is beautiful, just absolutely majestic and magnificent. He looks much like our native Great Horned Owls, but quite different as well. With beautiful orange plumage and orange eyes, he's got a massive six-foot wingspan, and it's just a delight to behold him. and in addition to that, he really has an interesting personality. First of all, he is very curious. There was one time in particular where we saw him on a pitcher's mound

on one of the Central Park baseball fields, and somebody had left behind their pitcher's Rosenbag, and he started playing with it. Owls are occasionally playful, but it was very interesting to, of course, observe him to do that. In the beginning, there was concerned that Flocko wouldn't know how to hunt and survive in the city after it was discovered. He's not native to here and instead had escaped captivity, but now he's a true New Yorker. How do you think he was able to adjust?

He really just needed to embrace that instinct and rediscover his wild nature. So, very early on, saw him develop his flight skills. He initially wasn't very good at flying. He would get exhausted quite quickly, flying a short distance from one tree to the next, crashing into branches when he went to land. But he kept at it. And over time, he got better.

He got better very quickly, actually. And before long, he was quite graceful in flight. We were also quite fortunate to watch him learn how to hunt. One other way that I could see Blocko's confidence increasing was in his hooting. Initially, you would hoot quite softly. I overheard one of the zookeepers tell a fellow birder that he scarcely ever... What does the hoot sound like? Very soft.

It's something like, who, who, but something we do is drive what I like to call the hoot root. I do that with my girlfriend, Jacqueline, who is also an avid birder and bird photographer, get in the car, drive slowly past some of the locations where we've seen him recently at night with the windows down listening for the hooting. And, you know, if we can hear him, there's a good chance we'll be able to locate him. David, how many photos would you say you've taken a flock on? What's your favorite one? Easily tens of thousands, though perhaps they're only, you know, a few hundred keepers, so to speak. My favorite one, I would say, is one of him sitting on a Central Park bench. That's something that had been on my wish list, you know, of locations to see him actually from fairly early on in observing him.

And amazingly, one night, it actually happened. And I think it just speaks to how he is an owl of the city. Where was Flacco last spotted and how's he doing? I lost off Flacco in the Upper West Side around 90th and Broadway two nights ago. He was hooting from what's become a favorite building in the past week or two. And he looked great. He seems to be doing really well. The hooting does appear to require a fair bit of energy to project that sound, right, two blocks away.

and to keep at it for, you know, perhaps hours on end. I'm not sure how long he was at it the other night because he had more stamina than I did. But if he's got the stamina to do that, I think he, you know, is quite healthy. And he looks healthy. David, what has the last year taught you, not just about Flacco, but about all the people who are really rooting for him? Something I think that's really resonated with people about Flacco is how he was able to completely transform. himself. Blocko is now going on 14. He is well into adulthood for the lifespan of an owl

and had lived in captivity his whole life, been born to captive owls, and didn't know how to fly, didn't know how to hunt, didn't know how to survive in the wild when he was first released. And yet he was able to figure all that out and create a totally new life for himself in New York City. That's Wildlife Observer David Lee, talking with WM. NYC's Michael Hill. Shout out to our production team. It includes Sean Bowdage, Amber Bruce, Ava Careo, Audrey Cooper,

Leora Noam Kravitz, Jared Marcel, Wayne Schoemeister, and Gina Volsteen, 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 Jenae Pierre. We'll be back next week.