NYC NOW - July 2, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

New York State won't charge an entry fee for swimming pools at state parks this summer. In other news, New York City’s Community Food Connection program will continue helping hungry New Yorkers across the five boroughs after the city rolled back cuts. Plus, an upcoming disciplinary case against Jeffrey Maddrey, the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed officer, is testing the power of New York City’s police watchdog agency. WNYC’s Samantha Max shares what's at stake . Finally, helicopter traffic in and around New York City is on the rise. Now, lawmakers are trying to control this long-standing problem for some city residents. WNYC’s Sean Carlson investigates why regulating the growing flight industry is proving difficult.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm NYC now producer Jared Marcell. New York State won't be charging an entry fee for swimming pools at state parks this summer. WNYC's John Campbell reports. New York State Parks usually charge a couple bucks to swim at their 14 pools across the state. But not this year. The state is waiving the fee this summer as part of its new get offline, get outside, campaign. Governor Kathy Hokel made the announcement at Riverbank State Park in Manhattan.

We might just make it easier and more affordable for our families, some of them which are struggling. Both pools at Riverbank will be free through Labor Day. So will the pool at Roberto Clemente State Park in the Bronx. New York City-owned pools, meanwhile, are already admission-free. A critical emergency food program in New York City will continue helping hungry New Yorkers across the five boroughs. WNYC's Karen Yee reports last week's budget deal between Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council rolls back planned cuts to the program. Adams initially proposed slashing funding for the $57 million community food connection program by more than half, citing the migrant crisis. But food pantries and soup kitchens decried the cuts and said demand remained high, particularly among children. Under the budget deal, the program will remain at current funding levels, allowing about 700,

organizations who receive money to keep feeding New Yorkers. The program became a lifeline for many pantries after pandemic-era federal and state funding for food programs expired. Up next, a disciplinary case against the NYPD's highest-ranking officer is testing the power of New York City's police watchdog agency. That story after the break. This summer, the NYPD's highest-ranked uniform officer is set to face a disciplinary trial over claims he abused his authority when he voided the arrest of a retired member of the force. Officially, Chief of Department Jeffrey Madri won't lose more than a few vacation days, but WNYC's public safety reporter Samantha Max has been looking into the case, and she says the actual stakes are quite a bit higher.

My colleague David First spoke with her. First, what happened here? So, according to NYPD records back in November 2021, there's a lot of, these three kids age 12, 13, and 14 at the time they're bouncing in basketball in Brownsville. When the basketball breaks a security camera at a building where a retired police officer is working, the kids say it's an accident, but the retired officer thinks that it was on purpose and starts chasing after them. We know from video obtained by the nonprofit news from the city that he chased after them for multiple minutes.

and that he told police later that he actually had a gun in his holster on his hip and that he told the kids he was going to shoot them. The kids told police that he pointed his weapon at them and described what the gun looked like. But the retired officer told police that he never actually took the gun out or fired it. This retired officer was arrested and once he gets to the precinct where he used to work and where now chief of department, Jeffrey Madre, used to work. work. He asked for Madri by name. And shortly after Madri comes, the arrest is voided and he gets to go home. Okay, let's talk about the Civilian Complaint Review Board. First, remind us what it is and why it's involved in this case. Yeah, so the Civilian Complaint Review Board investigates complaints, you know, typically brought by the public pertaining to some types of policy violations, including what they

call abuse of authority. That is a category that has a pretty broad definition, but an example might be like searching someone just because you can't because you're a police officer. In this case, they found that Madri did abuse his authority and he's supposed to face this disciplinary trial. But his attorney last week asked a judge to throw out the case because he says it didn't actually affect the public. It's an internal NYPD matter. I spoke with Nicole Napolitano. She is the former policy director for the oversight agency. And she told me Madri's case absolutely does affect the public, especially the kids at the center of this incident.

And she says Madri did abuse his authority. I'm not really sure how it's going to shake out. But it's definitely a pivotal decision because it'll shape how CCRB is going to be able to do things in the future. So the boy's attorney told me that she's upset. set that these kids are being dragged into this political saga with Madri and that her clients are still affected to this day. Okay, so what is at stake for Chief of Department Madri? So the oversight agency is asking for him to lose 10 vacation days. He could actually lose up to 20 vacation days if found guilty of this disciplinary charge. But it's a, you know, it's about more than just

lost vacation days. Madri has a huge job at the department. And if there's, are questions about whether he's abusing his power, that can make the public less likely to trust him. And we know that obviously, especially after the last few years, you know, a lot of people don't trust the police, whether in New York City or elsewhere. So it's just a lot of scrutiny on him right now. I did reach out to his attorney. He didn't get back to me. But in paperwork that he filed last week, he called his client an experienced supervisor who was acting to fix the mistake of an inexperienced sergeant who made this arrest. Okay, so what happens next year? So now an administrative judge will decide whether the case should move forward. If no, all this will be done soon. If yes,

there's technically supposed to be a trial in August, but I will say the trial has already been delayed once. If that trial happens, they'll play video, question witnesses, the judge will make a recommendation, and then it's up for the commissioner to decide whether to impose discipline. That's WNYC's David First in conversation with public safety reporter Samantha Max. Helicopter traffic in and around New York City is on the rise, and New Yorkers who live along popular flight paths are fed up. Now lawmakers are trying to get a longstanding problem for some city residents under control. WNYC's All Things Considered host, Sean Carlson, decided to look into why regulations of the growing flight industry repeatedly proved to be

difficult. How you doing, man? That's me as I greet a stone cold helicopter pilot climbing into the cockpit of a chopper in Midtown Manhattan. You might be wondering how I, who you normally hear from inside a quiet, comfortable radio studio, got here. Welcome back to the scene in just a minute, but for now, let's head to the ground to a backyard in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where I'm sitting with Mark Young, the president of the South Midwood Residents Association. It's a group of locals in central Brooklyn, pushing the city to do something about the helicopter noise they say has become a constant feature of neighborhood life. Most of the communities that are upset about the helicopter traffic are upset about the

environmental pollution and noise pollution. And a lot of people are upset. The city has seen a 17-fold increase in calls to 311 in recent years about helicopter noise. This is not just a South Midwood concern. This issue affects all neighborhoods of all types. New York City officials say of the thousands of helicopter complaints made to 311 every year, 96% of them are from flights outside New York City's jurisdiction. Young says that means any attempt to address the problem needs to go beyond City Hall.

We certainly have been urging our elected officials and representatives that if you care about Brooklyn, you really need to go further than just the proposals that affect the city-owned teleports. The way helicopters are regulated is complicated. The Federal Aviation Administration governs the airspace over New York City, so that means without federal intervention, there's little the city can do to stop helicopters coming from Long Island, New Jersey, or even within its own borders if a helipad falls under someone else's jurisdiction. Upper West Side City Councilmember Gail Brewer spoke at a recent hearing on helicopter noise

and acknowledged that the issue is larger than just the cities to solve. It ain't going to happen by itself without the federal government. New Jersey makes lots of money. I've been out there. I've tried to stop it. And the money keeps rolling in for the private helicopter industry. Take Blade. Its demand continues to grow. The company launched a decade ago and offers chartered helicopter flights from the city to the Hamptons, the Jersey Shore, and airports in the area, some for as little as $145.

Blade CEO Rob Wisenthal says his company is filling in need, given New York City's clogged roads and old infrastructure. These streets were designed in, you know, 1800s, 1800s, the roads haven't changed. The amount of people have changed. Transportation is going to have to have another layer between a commercial jet and a car on the ground. I met Wisenthall at Blade's sleek departures lounge at the 30th Street heliport. Remember those heliports within the five boroughs the city has no jurisdiction over? Well, this is one of them. It's administered by the Hudson River Park Trust, which is composed of appointees from both the state and local

level, and it's responsible for a lot of the helicopter flights over New York City. To get a sense of the flight path and the noise those choppers create, I accepted Blade's invitation to take the 10-minute flight from Midtown to JFK, bringing us back to where this story started. Our flight path corresponded with data W&YC collected about all helicopter flights in the region and where they go. The vast majority in Brooklyn follow Atlantic Avenue, and as in our case, hooked south towards JFK.

The return flight took us a second. across Jamaica Bay and up Flatbush Avenue over many of the neighborhoods petitioning to do something about the noise. The altitude and flight path are dictated by air traffic control at JFK, both of which are usually determined by variables like weather or other air traffic in the area. My fellow passengers on the flight were a family with young children. The father, Dan Wallace, says it's easier to take a comparably priced helicopter than an Uber. The Uber price city has gotten so expensive where there's no difference in cost and it's It's become like a bundle brand of him.

He says the time it takes to get to the airport via helicopter beats trying to find a taxi with car seats for his kids. It's easier to manage the nats. So what's to be done? For its part, Blade says it's committed to shifting to quieter, all-electric helicopters in the future. There are two bills currently being considered by the city council that would ban non-essential flights by traditional helicopters, but only from the two city-operated helipads at 34th Street and the financial district in Manhattan.

Mark Young from the South Midwood Residents Association says he supports the legislation, but doesn't think it'll address the noise over his neighborhood. To be very blunt, those two pieces of legislation do not impact the millions of people that live in the out of boroughs, particularly Brooklyn. The Hudson River Park Trust told us that because the heliport at West 30th Street predates the park itself, they're guided by the historic positions of the state and city regarding the necessity for a Westside heliport. As for a federal solution, Congressman Jerry Nadler's office says Washington needs to pass a bill that would change how the FAA manages New York City's airspace, something he says has been impossible to do given the increasingly partisan nature of Congress.

And for New Yorkers like Young and its Flatbush neighbors, that means helicopter noise will continue to be a part of the city's noisy streetscape for the foreseeable future. That's WNYC's Sean Carlson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jared Marcel. See you tomorrow.