NYC NOW - July 20, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 20, 2023

New York City has agreed to pay protesters arrested during Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Manhattan and Brooklyn in 2020 nearly $10,000 apiece. The MTA has officially approved higher transit fares. And we look at why trucks might be getting stuck on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Good evening and welcome to NYC now. I'm David First for WNYC. Lawyers representing more than a thousand people arrested during Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Manhattan and Brooklyn in 2020 say the city has agreed to pay the protesters nearly $10,000 apiece. WNYC's Samantha Max has that story. Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit argued that NYPD officers who responded to the demonstration

took steps to chill the speech of protesters. The suit claimed police harmed protesters with batons and pepper spray, illegally arrested them, restrained them with flex cuffs so tight that they caused nerve damage, and detained them in close quarters as COVID-19 was still spreading rampantly through the city. The payout agreement is expected to total $13 million. It includes no admission of wrongdoing by the city. The NYPD declined to comment.

the city's law department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The MTA has officially approved higher transit fairs in New York City. A single subway ride will cost $2.90 starting August 20th. Bronx commuter Tommy Andalucci says he hopes the money will go towards improving safety on the trains, but he says he's not holding his breath. The safety issue is a major issue right now. Like, I only take the train during the daytime. If they are going to improve security, I'm off for it, but I think it's a joke.

The cost of weekly and monthly metro cards will also go up. So will LIRR and Metro North Fairs. Discount programs for students, seniors, and paratransit customers will not be affected. Federal authorities are charging a New Jersey man who had been previously pardoned by former President Trump with fraud for masterminding a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission says Eliyahu Weinstein, along with five other people, raised money allegedly to fund health care-related investments. When those investments proved unprofitable, the SEC claims the group started raising money from new investors to repay old ones.

The SEC says the group raised at least $38 million from investors, who didn't know Weinstein was connected to the scheme. Stay tuned. More after the break. For many New Yorkers, it's a well-known rule. Trucks aren't allowed on the Brooklyn Bridge. But some drivers don't know that. Big rigs are frequently causing traffic jams by trying and failing to cross the bridge into Manhattan. As WNYC's Clayton Goosa reports, one nearby office worker is pleading with government officials to do something. For more than a year, tech consultant Michael Katah has had a perfect view of an ongoing traffic catastrophe. At least once a week, peering down from his fifth floor office in Dumbo,

Katan and his colleagues watch, his large trucks on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway take an exit for the Brooklyn Bridge and get stuck. They'll drive up here and then they realize that, you know, the side of their trailers dragging against the side rails of this on-ramp, and then they're like, oh, no. So they'll get out of their cab. They'll look around.

You'll see a lot of gestures, a lot of, like, hand-waving kind of things. Katah's company even has a slug. Black Channel called Stuck Trucks. It's documented nearly 40 incidents over the last year in which a big rig driver has made a wrong turn, bringing eastbound traffic on the BQE to a halt. It's a big production when it happens. It's like usually a couple of police cruisers come out.

You know, the police officers are up there trying to direct traffic. Exactly when truck drivers realize their mistake depends on the size of the vehicle. 18-wheelers can't make the sharp turn onto the Brooklyn Bridge exit. Large box trucks can make the turn, but their trucks don't fit under the bridge's trusses. What follows is a lengthy ordeal where emergency teams close the exit and usher the truck off. It can take at least half an hour, I would say. I mean, we've seen cases where it's been like an hour, hour and a half, like when they're really, really wedged into that hairpin turn.

I needed to see this exit for myself. And while I don't have access to a truck, my editor, Stephen Rex Brown, does. own, well, something a little smaller. This is the 2015 Honda Fit stick ship. After crawling along the BQE, we finally approach the spot in question. The exit is a sharp turn up a hill. The exit sign, which notes the low clearance, is partially covered by tree branches.

There is a sign that says 11 feet, no commercial traffic. And there's no truck signs, but it's really easy to miss when you're... That was pretty easy to miss. If you're an avid trucker coming around in traffic and you're freaking out dealing with this gridlock, you're not reading those signs. There's another problem. The clearance chains dangling from a sign above the highway aren't serving their purpose. Again, Michael Katah. I kind of see the exit sign to the highway.

And one of the first things I noticed was that there's these chains that are supposed to be all the way down. but you'll see that they're like wrapped around the pole, literally wrapped around the pole, probably because they've been hit so many times. Kataz reached out to the city, state, and federal transportation agencies and suggested what he sees as an easy fix, make the clearance more obvious. And so my thinking was like, hey, that clearance bar,

if you can stop the high trucks, you're also going to stop the long trucks, and that would kind of kill two birds with one stone. His inquiries got lost in gun, government bureaucracy. The federal government sent him to the state. The state sent him to the city who didn't respond to his request to add a clearance bar at the exit. When we reached out to the DOT, they acknowledged the issue and said they installed two new signs for the exit in April. But Qatar says the problem continues. This is not fun and it feels like something where if you could,

If there's a quick fix to be had, I think, you know, pushing it through is an easy win. The DOT says they'll continue to work on the issue and that they'll educate shipping companies about the city's trucking routes. But barring major changes that keep trucks off the Brooklyn Bridge, they'll keep getting stuck. Clayton Goosa, WNYC News. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm David First. Catch us every weekday three times a day. See you tomorrow.