NYC NOW - January 2, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

More on the 1.7 magnitude earthquake reported near Astoria, Queens on Tuesday morning. Also, Governor Hochul introduces a new bill prohibiting certain insurers from charging copays for insulin. Plus,Columbia University business professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh suggests vacant offices throughout the city could be viable housing options in the future. Finally, WNYC’s David Furst chats with Tik Toker Jane August about her goal of visiting the over 170 museums located throughout the city.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. We begin with an update on the developing story from earlier today. The U.S. Geological Survey says there was a 1.7 magnitude earthquake a little before 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning in the vicinity of Astoria, Queens. Residents along the East River and on Roosevelt Island reported hearing booms. Jessica Turner is a geophysicist. She explains why some residents thought it was a way.

was an explosion. It was an earthquake that shook the building, and because people in this area of New York are not used to earthquakes, they didn't know what it was. No damage or injuries were reported. New York City Emergency Management says the Department of Buildings, the NYPD, Con Ed, and a few other agencies confirmed that the earthquake did not impact transit, traffic utilities, or the structural stability of any buildings. Governor Hockel says she'll be targeting insulin costs in the new year.

The governor unveiled what she's calling her consumer protection and affordability agenda earlier on Tuesday. As part of it, she says she'll introduce a bill that would prohibit certain insurers from charging copays for insulin. You shouldn't face financial ruin if you're faced with a chronic illness like diabetes. The governor didn't provide many details surrounding her proposal. That'll come later this month when she delivers her state of the state address and budget proposal. The state legislature, meanwhile, will kick off its annual session at the state capital in Albany on Wednesday. A Columbia University Business School professor who raised alarms about the city's post-pandemic future says there's a silver lining in the disruption. WDNYC's Runevenegopal has more.

A doom loop, according to Sten van Uyberg, is what would happen if workers didn't return to their offices, sending commercial tax revenues plunging and prompting the city to cut back on vital services. While he says it's too early to declare victory, he now thinks the city is headed in the right direction. And he wants New Yorkers to imagine a future where empty offices are put to better use. Then years from now, we could have possibly 50,000 new housing units that we don't have today from office conversions. That would make these neighborhoods like downtown and midtown more vibrant, more diverse. Van Uerberg says offices should be converted to housing, schools, artist studios. Whatever mix makes a neighborhood feel truly alive. Up next, we'll hear from someone who made it their goal to visit every,

Every museum in New York City, all 170 of them. That's after the break. There are more than 170 museums in New York City. Now, most New Yorkers can name the big ones, right? Like the Met, MoMA, Museum of Natural History, the Whitney, maybe even the Brooklyn Museum. But Jane August is visiting every single one, and now she's documenting that journey on TikTok. Recently, Jane sat with my colleague David First to explain why she's doing it and share which museum stand out the most to her. This sounds like a lot of fun, but also very time-consuming.

What made you want to visit every single museum? Well, in February of 21, I was still furloughed for my job in the music industry. I work in live music. And I really needed to get out of my house. I needed to feel like fulfilled in some way, like my brain was working. That wasn't just me watching movies in my house. Movie theaters were closed. Theaters were closed.

Concert venues were closed. but the one art thing that was still open or that reopened were museums. And me and my friends had gone to the Brooklyn Museum in the fall and realized that that's a great way to experience art and learn things and not have to be close to strangers at all. So that's kind of how it started. Visiting a museum, you know, that's a nice way to get started, but that is not deciding to visit every single museum.

Well, and so I started looking up what museums there are, and I realize there's a bunch. And I was like, hey, what if I visit them all? I like hefty goals. I like having something to do. So I felt like that's one that I could accomplish in the next couple of years or so. So you posted that on TikTok, and what happened? If I was going to visit all the museums, I wanted to have some sort of documentation of it, at least for me, maybe for others who were interested.

And so I went to my first museums and then I made a video saying, I'm going to visit all the museums in New York City. And it kind of went viral overnight. and suddenly I had thousands of followers who were interested in this museum project of mine. You've been to over 100 museums in the past three years. What museums really stand out for you? Maybe a few that might not be the most obvious choices. Recently I went to the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum that recently opened, and that one was really fun. The Brooklyn Seltzer Museum.

Yeah. Is it what it sounds like? It is a museum of Seltzer? Yeah, it's about the history of seltzer and the history of seltzer in New York City, and it's at a seltzer factory where they make and bottle seltzer and then deliver it around to New York and the tri-state area. Very fun. This does sound like it might be a slightly shorter trip than a visit to the Met. Yeah, it's about like an hour tour, but I think that's depending how long you want to spend at the Met. But that's a cool museum. Yeah, I really enjoy that one. They have like interns who helped build it. It's this like fourth generation of this family that's really.

running this factory and then the Alex, who's like the fourth generation to run it. It's like, I'm going to make a museum to uphold the history. It's very cool. Okay, the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum. What next? One of the most surprising ones that I found was the Jacques Marche Museum of Tibetan Art, which is on Staten Island of all places. And it's the only replica of a Tibetan monastery in the United States. And it's in the middle of Staten Island. Fascinating. What do you see when you go there? They have some rooms of Tibetan art, but it's this whole campus, and it's a big, like, cliff, and it overlooks nature. And then they have a prayer room, and they have a big courtyard. It's something you would never imagine would be on Staten Island, or maybe in New York City in general, because it's, like, such a space.

And once you're in there, you don't see any of the other buildings. It feels like you're away in a mountain somewhere. That's the Jacques Marche Museum of Tibetan Art. And what's one more? One more I also love the South Street Seaport Museum. And that's in the South Street Seaport neighborhood by Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. And that one's not in one building. It's kind of spread across the neighborhood.

There's like a little gallery area. And then there's a bunch of different boats that you can go aboard. And those are the museum. What about those big name museums in town? Do you have any tips on how to maybe? best enjoy the experience when you're going to one of these major destinations? The major museums, I say don't visit on the weekend if you can. For me, I work on weekends, so I have the luxury of having my daytime to go to museums.

But I feel like weekends are where all the other New Yorkers who have nine to fives go, going during the daytime when it isn't promoted for everyone to go. Also visiting museums, I think January, a great time to visit museums. because tourism's down a little bit and people don't want to leave the house. So if you're willing to leave the house, you can have spaces to yourself. Well, as someone who also works on the weekends, I do appreciate this tip. That's my colleague, David First, in conversation with Jane August on her citywide museum tour. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNMIC.

Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Sean Carlson. We'll be back tomorrow.