NYC NOW - February 9, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

New York City’s latest housing survey shows the lowest vacancy rate in over a half century. Plus, Asian communities gear up to ring in the "Year of the Dragon," as the Lunar New Year begins this weekend. Also, New York state has relaxed the minimum requirements for some entry-level jobs, potentially opening up thousands of positions to new migrants. And finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill and Ramsey Khalifeh discuss tips on how to prevent rats from getting in your car and what to do if it happens.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WNYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. Looking for an apartment for less than $2,400? New York City's latest housing survey was released this week, and it has some bad news for you. The report finds less than 1% of apartments priced below $2,400 were empty and available for rent last year. Overall, just 1.4% of all apartments were available on the market. market. City officials say it's the lowest vacancy rate in over a half century. Mayor Eric Adams says

the survey results show the dire need for new laws to ease housing construction. Asian communities throughout our area are gearing up to ring in the year of the dragon. The lunar new year begins this weekend. WMYC's Ryan Kyloth caught up with the organizer of a parade in Flushing's Chinatown. February 10th is the next new moon. On the lunar calendar, that's the first new moon, of the year, and it marks the start of Chinese New Year season. In Flushing, there'll be parades all weekend. On Sunday, the 11th at the Flushing Town Hall, organizer Brooke Ye says you can enjoy all-day festivities.

Like Chinese calligraphy, dough figurines, arts and crafts. There are also going to be vendors selling snacks like Taunulu and dumplings. So it's very festive and it's free to the public. The Sunday parade starts at 1130 at Glow Cultural Center. Yay says anyone is welcome to join in. We have boxes and boxes of traditional costumes and attire prepared for people who want to join the parade. We will have our own people doing dragon river banners. We will even have a wedding possession team.

And we also have elementary school kids dressed up as zodiac animals in the parade as well. You can find the details on their website, NYC.org. Stick around. There's more after the break. NYC. New York State has relaxed the minimum requirements for some entry-level jobs

that are hard to recruit for. This could potentially open up thousands of positions to new migrants who otherwise face several roadblocks to legal employment. There's growing support for the plan, most notably from Governor Kathy Hokel. I'm anxious to get this moving quickly, and once they're proven,

and match people to jobs. WMYC's ARIA Sundaram has been covering this story for us. Here's what's up. So there's seven different hard-to-fell hourly jobs that are on the table here. As office aides, for example, food service workers, custodians. To help fill them, state agencies are proposing to drop certain requirements, like English language proficiency or verification of previous employment. Agencies have also suggested removing the need to verify that somebody has a high school degree,

for example, which can be difficult. If somebody is traveling from abroad, they don't have all their papers together. And the positions would only be temporary, so it wouldn't change the requirements for permanent jobs. But it's open to anyone who's legally authorized to work in the U.S. So that's, you know, not just these new migrants here, but green card holders and citizens as well. Migrant advocates are supportive of the plan, calling it an encouraging sign. But they say it will only affect about 4,000 jobs. Many advocates say the biggest need is to get migrants' work permits.

a process that is primarily handled at the federal level. Until there's movement on that front, ARIA reports migrants will continue to rely on jobs in the so-called underground economy. So in restaurants, as delivery bike drivers, construction day laborers, but these kinds of positions can be quite ripe for wage theft or exploitation, is what advocates tell me. And there's still a bunch of people who can't find employers who are willing to hire them off the books. So New York City's open to Help Center to help migrants supply for asylum. and then try to get these hard-to-get work permits. There's also the Empire State Licensing Act,

which is a state bill that's on the books that would allow residents to get professional and business licenses, even if they're undocumented. And then assembly member Catalina Cruz proposed a bill for state-level work permits that the state could actually give out to allow people to legally work, but the thing is that kind of legislation

would likely face legal challenges. So there's still this big push to get the federal government to step up and to try to approve work permits for these new migrants. Even with the easing of certain work requirements, many migrants still face considerable challenges finding work. There's still, you know, an open question of how migrants specifically will get connected to these jobs.

And then there's also the question of how will new migrants know to apply for state jobs in the first place? And so the governor's office is actually trying to get contact info from the federal government about new migrants who have work permits, but it's all a little TBD. So we'll have to see as it plays out. That's WMYC's ARIA Sundaram. Hate to ask this question, but as New Yorkers, it's a pretty valid one. Have you ever had a rat infestation in your car engine?

The rodents are a common problem for New York City drivers. They bite wires under the hood and cause hundreds of dollars in damage. My colleague Michael Hill talked with WNYC's Ramsey Caliphate about some tips on how to prevent rats from getting in your car. And what to do if it happens? Ramsey, how big of a problem is this in the city? So I spoke to three mechanics, one in Ridgewood, one in Crown Heights, and East Harlem. Those are neighborhoods when I did some research that had the highest level of 311 complaints for rat sighting.

I filtered that through zip code and looked to see, okay, where are the most rats going? The mechanics all said that this is actually a very common repair. And it's getting worse since the pandemic. You can imagine more trash outside. That just means more rats all around. And also rats are getting more desperate to find food, shelter, all those things. They also work on cars with infestations anywhere from one to five times a week. So this is happening often for many car mechanics in the city.

So what are the signs of an infestation under the hood? I met Jeffrey Santos. He owns a Honda and lives in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. He said he realized he had a problem when lights on his dashboard started flickering. That was the first time he got a rat infestation. I went to the mechanic and they kind of just told me, yeah, like, we found droppings from rats and, like, your cables were basically chewed by them. So I ended up fixing the car and then, like, I kid you not, like less than a year later, it happened again. So the second time this happened to him, which is, you know, so unfortunate, the check engine light came on in his car and that also indicated that there was some sort of problem going on.

Probably the most common sign of an infestation is a really, really bad smell. You know, imagine a mix of rat urine and feces. It's really gross. Mechanics suggested, you know, popping the hood of your car and looking for evidence of rats, like droppings, sticks, and other materials can be found. Those are typically made when rats are making nests in car engines. Ramsey, I think a lot of people may be wondering, what should they actually do if rats are in their car?

Look, just go to a mechanic. Rats may have chewed up some of your wires in your car engine. Repairs can run up to almost $1,000, but that's just the worst-case scenario. Fortunately, I spoke to somebody from AAA, and they said, infestations are usually covered by insurance. Here's Louis Letizia. He's the co-owner of Manhattan Auto Repair. That's a mechanic shop in East Harlem. He's describing a really bad rat problem in one of his customers' cars.

When we open up the hood, there was a rat more than a foot long, dead from going into the belt area. My guys didn't really want to do it, but they did. But it was a little challenge to get them out of there because it was pretty stuck. and very, very, very large. Do you have any tips to prevent them from getting in? So another mechanic I spoke to, Jose Gomez. He works at Dependable Auto Repair and Ridgewood. He tells me that moving your car can really help.

Don't leave your vehicle standing for a long period times, you know, at least two to three times a week, move it, move it from place to place. Try not to park around restaurants or, you know, places that have a lot of garbage. He also said to have your engine cleaned at least once a year just to prevent that from happening altogether. Typically, if let's say a rat comes into your car and pees or poops in it, that smell can attract other rats later. So best to get it cleaned up. There's also a bunch of scented repellents. These are things based with peppermint or sesame.

I guess rats don't really like that. There's also sonic repellent devices. You can get these installed in your car. You can buy them on Amazon. It emits a high frequency noise and that can kind of deter rats from coming. There's also this product called Radoe. You can buy it at any mechanic shop and also online. It's a mixture that you can spray in your engine.

Rats hate that too. And then one general tip, you know, please be on the lookout in the winter. Rats can go into engines to stay warm, and that's just another way they're trying to seek shelter when it's cold out. Are some types of cars, Ramsey, more rat prone than others? Some people say that some Honda models can be prone to this. They're not the only ones, but some of their models had this soy-based casing or insulation around the wiring

that rats really like to bite onto. They were actually subject to a lawsuit in California, but that was withdrawn. Other big car companies have come up when I was talking to mechanics. They said because of certain designs of the engine, some cars have bigger engine compartments, so it's easier for rats to jump inside.

They mentioned Mercedes and Subaru's. We tried to reach out to these car manufacturers, but not all responded for comment on that way. That's WMYC's Ramsey Caliphate, talking with Michaeliope, colleague Michael Hill. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Shout out to our production team.

It includes Sean Boutich, Amber Bruce, Avey Carrillo, Audrey Cooper, Leora Noam Cravitz, Jared Marcel, and Wayne Schoemeister, with help from all of my wonderful colleagues in the WNYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the people at Buck, and our music, That Jam, was composed by Alexis Quadrato. I'm Jean-A-Pierre. Have a nice weekend. We'll be back next week.