NYC NOW - January 3, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

The New York City Department of Buildings is paying a private engineering firm almost a million dollars to investigate the cause of the deadly parking garage collapse in lower Manhattan last April. Meanwhile, Democrat Tom Suozzi says he wants the upcoming special election on February 13th for the house seat vacated by George Santos, to address issues like immigration. Finally, in response to Mayor Eric Adams’ strict rules limiting when migrant buses can enter New York City, Texas Governor Abbott has begun sending migrants to city bound train stations in New Jersey. WNYC’s Sean Carlson sat with New Jersey reporter Nancy Solomon to explain.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, January 3rd. Here's the midday news from David First. The New York City Department of Buildings is paying a private engineering firm almost a million dollars to investigate the cause of the deadly parking garage collapse in Lower Manhattan last April. The building on 57 Ann Street was 100 years old when it crumbled. The garage's longtime manager was killed in the collapse. The DOB has contracted Lira Consulting Structural Engineers to assess the damage, collect data, and sift through historical records.

There's no date set for the release of the Forensic Engineering Report. Democrat Tom Swazi says he wants the upcoming special election in the third congressional district to be about issues, and a plan to address immigration is topping his list. The former Congress member sent a letter to House leaders and President Biden, urging them to come up with a bipartisan solution, one that secures the border and gets at the root causes of why people are fleeing their countries. You can't solve complicated problems in an environment of fear and anger with everybody yelling at each other. You need people of goodwill to sit down across the table from each other and negotiate a bipartisan deal. A spokesperson for Republican candidate Mazee Pillop has not yet responded to a request for Congress. comment. The special election for the eastern Queens and northern Nassau County seat will be February 13th.

It's for the seat vacated by ousted Representative George Santos. The EPA says the air quality is moderate today due to particle pollution. Currently 40 degrees in New York City. We're expecting mostly sunny skies this afternoon with a high of 45. Tonight, increasing clouds with a low of 34 degrees. This is WNYC. Stay close. There's more after the break. NYC I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC Buses of migrants sent to New York City by Texas Governor Greg Abbott

are now stopping in New Jersey Last week New York Mayor Eric Adams instituted rules about how and when those buses could enter the city So on Saturday buses showed up at several New Jersey train stations And the migrants were put on trains to New York So WBC's Nancy Salleman joins us now to explain, hey Nancy Hi, Sean. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you as well. Now, it appears that the intention of this new development is merely to get around those rules that Mayor Adams put in place and not an attempt to send migrants to New Jersey. Is that an accurate characterization? Yeah, that's correct. There were 13 buses that were aware of that showed up in various places, Edison, Trenton, Succas, Fanwood, and Jersey City. I was told by the mayor of Trenton that by the time

police were sent to the train station there, all but 10 migrants had already boarded trains to New York, and the remaining folks were waiting for family members to pick them up. Governor Phil Murphy's office says there were chaperones on the buses who helped the migrants get on the trains. That could include the provision of train tickets, but I wasn't able to confirm where the train tickets came from. To your knowledge, has there been any discussion about allowing migrants to stay in Jersey and offering emergency housing and services the way that New York has? Well, so far, Governor Murphy's office has said that they're closely coordinating with federal and local partners, including Mayor Eric Adams. Mayor Adams called Murphy a great partner today

and said they'd be talking about the migrant crisis. Later, I think that was happening sometime this afternoon. But so far, the Murphy administration says its role has been limited to notifying New York or that there are migrants coming. Governor Murphy was criticized by some progressives last September when he rejected the idea of creating a refugee camp in the state. And that was seen as contradicting his pro-immigration and, pro sanctuary stance. If these buses continue to arrive and yet migrants continue directly to New York,

this could become more of a political problem for the governor, though. Yeah. And even just in the past few days here, it's already causing some political maneuvering, right? The mayor of Edison, now, to be clear, this is a town of the very large Asian and South Asian immigrant population, suggested that he would put people on buses back to Texas, right? Yeah, that's exactly right. Mayor Sam Joshi, a Democrat, told News 12 that the asylum seekers are, quote, illegal and they belong on the other side of the border. We don't want them in Edison, period. That prompted Jersey City Mayor Steve Fullop to post a statement on social media opposing this view. Fullip grew up in Edison and is a good friend of Mayor Joshy says, and he says that he doesn't think this is the way to respond to this situation,

that every asylum seeker should be given an opportunity to make their case to stay. So just to say, put him on a bus and send him home where they should be on the other side of the border, I kind of think we're better than that, whether it's Edison, Jersey City, or New Jersey, or really this country. And Fullop says he understands that each town is flying solo on this, and he'd like to see the Murphy administration coordinate and provide resources. Philip also says Jersey City motels are already putting up migrants from New York, and that hasn't caused any problems. I also spoke with Trenton Mayor Reid Gushura today, and he says that Trenton does not have the resources to house migrants, and this requires a federal solution. The Republicans in the House that we need to really get back to work and not engage in the nonsense what they've been doing for the last year.

Nancy, New Yorkers have been dealing with and reacting to thousands of migrants coming to the city for the past year. Am I right in saying that it hasn't been that much of an issue in New Jersey so far? Yeah, I think that's fair to say. The Immigrant Rights Organization Make the Road has created a welcome center in Elizabeth, and they've gotten about 200 to 400 people each month who they're helping. But there's been, if there has been a much bigger, influx, we may see a very different, you know, if there is a bigger influx, we may see a very different kind of reaction in New Jersey compared to New York. Matt Hale, a political scientist

at Seton Hall University, told me he could envision New Jersey voters applying pressure on congressional representatives to work out a compromise with Republicans over immigration policy. He also says New Jersey Democrats, both voters and congressional representatives, are more centrist than in New York. I don't know the extent that it's going to overall move the bar. It might add to the number of Democrats who are willing to sit down and try and address a problem. But in the short term, we may learn more from Governor Murphy tomorrow about what he plans to do about this. He's got an event where he's expected to make himself available to reporters to talk about it.

WNIC's Nancy Solomon. Thanks so much for the update. Thanks, Sean. 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.

We'll be back this evening.