NYC NOW - January 12, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day: Mayor Adams is reversing cuts to sanitation and parks... one day after restoring police and fire funding. Meanwhile, New York State is working to reduce vaping among young people with a confidential texting service that supports them through the quitting process. Plus, the Whitney Museum is launching its new free Friday nights as well as free admission on the second Sunday of each month.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, January 12th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is reversing cuts to sanitation in parks. One day after restoring police and fire funding, WNMIC's Elizabeth Kim reports. The decision walks back two unpopular cuts that would have removed 9,000 trash cans and cost about 1,400 park staffers their jobs. But it raises the question of whether the cuts were necessary to begin with.

Adams has blamed his across-the-board cuts on the migrant crisis, but says the city found additional savings. Our roof caved in when 100, almost 70,000 people strapped in our city that we have to take care of. And so what you're seeing, you're seeing fiscal intelligence. Library and schools are among the areas that have not seen their funding restored. More cuts are in store when the mayor releases his preliminary 2025 budget next week. New York State is working to reduce vaping among young people with a confidential texting service that supports them through the quitting process. Sarah Phelps is the assistant director of New York's Bureau of Tobacco Control.

She says the Department of Health is spreading awareness of the texting service called Drop the Vap. Youth are not many adults and their addiction is not a mini version of adult addiction. addiction on a developing adolescent brain is really serious. It poses specific health concerns, and it's something that we're very committed to addressing. Young people can text 8-8709 for confidential support, including advice from peers. Officials say 19% of high schoolers across the state vaped in 2022. The Whitney Museum is launching its new free Friday nights tonight from 5 to 10, as well as free admission on the second Sunday of each month. The museum has had a pay-what-you-wish policy on Friday evenings for years,

but Director Scott Rothkoff says that didn't quite work as intended. I had a lot of interesting conversations over the last year or so with our board member, the artist Julie Maritou, and she actually kept telling me that pay-what-you-wish-and-free were not the same thing. By making the free part crystal clear, the museum hopes to attract new audiences as the traditional audience for art museums. declines. 40 and partly cloudy now. Increasing clouds

today in 47, rain in a lot of it and heavy at times. Forty-four overnight and then tomorrow, slim chance of morning showers. Partly sunny, temperature rising, then falling and then here comes a cold snap. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC.

Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you the afternoon.