NYC NOW - July 13, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

A new report reveals that reducing class sizes in New York City public schools could result in nearly $2 billion in annual costs, as WNYC’s Jessica Gould reports. Meanwhile, Public Advocate Jumanne Williams interrogated the handling of last month’s air quality emergency by the Adams administration in yesterday’s City Council hearing. WNYC’s Michael Hill talks with him about what went down. Lastly, the city remembers the 46th anniversary of the 1977 blackout, an evening marked by sudden darkness, wide-scale disorder, and extensive looting following a destructive lightning storm.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, July 13th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. A new report says reducing class sizes at New York City public schools could cost nearly $2 billion a year. WNMC's Jessica Gould reports. A law that forces city schools to shrink their class sizes is a major victory for many parents and teachers who point to research that shows smaller classes improve students' achievement and behavior.

But it will be pricey. A report from the city's independent budget office says it will cost between $1.3 and $1.9 billion a year once the law is phased in, and it says the city will need to hire nearly 18,000 new teachers. The Adams administration pushed back against the law, which was passed by the state legislature last year. And officials say they don't know how they will find the funding, space, and staff to meet the new requirements. requirements once it's fully in effect. The city has five years starting this fall to comply. 87 with sunshine, partly sunny, and 91, Real Field 96. We could be enforced some severe weather this afternoon through tonight with thunderstorms and flash flooding. Be careful.

One day last month, the sky turned orange from Canada wildfire smoke. Now the New York City Council examining how the Adams administration handled that moment and the air quality concerns that came with it. Public advocate, Jamani Williams, was among those who testified at a council hearing yesterday, and he joins us now. What did you learn from the hearing yesterday? What can you tell us today that you didn't know before? Well, most importantly, it seems that the administration are the only ones that think they did the best job they could have. And that's just not the truth. And what it turns out is that the information that we had, although we could have

never planned for what actually happened. The information that we had from June 2nd to June 7th when the sky actually turned orange, we just did not effectively communicate that to the public. And that's where the lesson I'm hoping we can learn going forward, most New Yorkers don't have notify NYC, nor the information that went to notify NYC really showed how bad it actually was. Before the hearing your team issued a report about air quality emergencies, what does your team recommend? Well, we reached out to sister eight, sister cities in California that actually deal with this kind of thing on a regular basis and had a bunch of recommendations. 17 of them are in our report, orange sky or red alert, which people can look on our website, advocate to nyc.gov. We focus a lot

on better ways to communicate to the public. And that's something that doesn't cost a lot of money, but it does require an administration to admit that there's something to learn and do better. We We also recommend some infrastructure changes like clean health centers, the same way we have cooling centers in the winter, some better ways to gather data and information. Among your ideas is creating a city air quality agency and adding an air quality officer to the city's emergency management department. What do you envision that person doing? Yeah, so we found that there was actually a board in California in those cities and

is actually people in those cities that are focused on, one, monitoring the air quality and getting the plan together of how to deal with it and really making sure that plan is communicated to everyone. There was a lot of miscommunication when it happened in trying to adjust in real time, which made things very difficult, albeit this is not something we had dealt with in the past, but it was something we could have better prepared for and then better communicated as it was happening. And if you have something like a board, when you're purchasing hopefully things like new age facts for school systems, because this is going to be an ongoing thing, unfortunately, the board has the expertise to make sure that what you're purchasing

is actually going to be the most effective. I'm wondering, what did you hear from the public testimony at the hearing yesterday that you thought was a good idea or felt actionable by your team or by the city? Well, I think the general theme is that people did. not get information and they did not understand how bad this thing was or what it could actually do to them. And that's the message that we're trying to get to the administration who was doubling down saying that they did the best they could to communicate. And they simply didn't.

And the mayor's first press conference was on the morning of the sky turning orange when we had information days before and especially the day before that it was increasingly getting dangerous. We want to make sure that we are getting to press outlets a lot sooner than that. We want to make sure that we have a better way to text New Yorkers a lot sooner than the information went out. And we want to be clearer about what bad air quality means. Since this is new, the public needed more information about what that actually means, not less. What do you expect from the administration going forward if based on what your assessment is,

and it seems that you're encountering an administration that's defensive about what happened, back in June with the orange sky going forward. What do you expect from this administration, though? I mean, my hope is even if they're being needlessly defensive, that they will take some of these ideas and implement them. I would say the last time we had a air quality scare a couple weeks ago, we did see the mayor and the governor immediately get on TV and start having a discussion, which I think is important. I also add that I think every level of government dropped the ball, not just city, but also

the state and the federal government. because this was the international incident, and we want to make sure folks are stepping up a lot sooner. And so, you know, it's one thing to be defensive. My hope is that even with that, they will take some of the lessons that should have been learned. You know, with the extreme weather events expect to become more frequent, as the climate crisis intensifies, as you say, what do you want to see from the federal government right now? Well, it's interesting, as I mentioned, it was an international incident that occurred, and we also didn't hear anything from the federal government. So we want to make sure the federal government is stepping up sooner, also beginning the educational process about what something like air quality means. Unfortunately, because people didn't listen, the climate is changing and it may get worse.

And hopefully the federal government can help reverse some of that trend, but also send information about what that means, what is happening when the climate change and funding so that we can address our infrastructure frailties to help. better deal with things like flooding, like being able to have infrastructure to deal with air quality, like the clean health center. So we need education, we need money, and we need some things to change. New York City public advocate, Jamani Williams. I hope you come back and see us on other issues, too. Thanks so much for joining us. I love to. Thank you. Today marks the 46th anniversary of the 1977 blockout. that hot July evening, a lightning storm caused the power system of New York City to collapse, plunging 8 million people into sudden darkness. People were stuck on subways and in elevators,

hours of traffic built up on the roads, and stores were looted across the city. WNMIC's Amanda O'Sahn and Brea Suggs asked New Yorkers where they were and what they remember from those two days in 1977 when the city went dark. Calvin Harris of Harlem was 11 years old in 1977. First thing I remember is the traffic lights didn't work. The cars were stolen, everybody was beeping their horns and everything. The city just shut down. Harris remembers the looting, especially of one iconic electronics store.

And Crazy Yetty, that's one thing I recall. That's one thing I remember. They ransacked Crazy Yeti. I mean, it was unlawful, but it was a crazy time. 70-year-old Zeldie Stewart of the Upper East Side also remembers it. as chaotic. I was pregnant. I had a little boy, and it was super scary because no one had experienced such a dark, dark blackout, and you had no clue what was going on. Don't forget, no cell phones, no texting, no computers. Stuart remembers feeling like they were being attacked

and that rumors were flying like crazy. The police department, I mean, the private department, like everybody was out trying, they didn't even know what was going on. 59-year-old Jalil Muhammad of Manhattan was just sad to miss out. I was thinking I was like 13 at the time and I was a little frustrated, you know what I'm saying? Because I couldn't be a part of the crowd that was doing the looting. But Muhammad says in retrospect he's glad he didn't take part. When you're young, you don't have that emotional maturity yet. What tends to happen, especially in the economic depressed area, you live among the half-nought.

So when you see things and you want it, this is the opportunity to go and get it. On August 14, 2003, another widespread blackout would hit much of the Northeast and last several days. And if you were here then, we want to hear from you. You can record yourself on your phone and email the voice memo to us at your voice at wNyc.org. That's your voice at wNyc.com. Org. Tell us where you were, what you remember, and your name, age, and where you live now. We may play your recording right here on WNYC. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC.

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