NYC NOW - July 26, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here's all the local news you need to start your day: In New York City, homeless families without children increasingly have to apply multiple times to get placed in a shelter. WNYC’s Karen Yi reports. Meanwhile, officials in Princeton, New Jersey, have approved a controversial plan to bring affordable housing to the campus of a 200-year-old theological seminary. Plus, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says eight organizations that work to fight gun violence in the borough will each get $20,000 for various initiatives that build on their current efforts. Finally, on this week’s episode of On The Way, WNYC’s transportation reporter Stephen Nessen and editor Clayton Guse discuss two new lawsuits against congestion pricing, one which challenges it on environmental grounds and the other argues that Governor Hochul doesn’t have the authority to halt the plan. Also discussed is the NYPD testing gun detectors in high-traffic subway stations this week, and problems with the 1 train line’s air conditioners.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, July 26th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. In New York City, homeless families without children increasingly have to apply multiple times to get placed in a shelter. That's according to a new analysis by WNIC's Karen Yee. City data shows adult families, typically couples, an adult child and parent are regularly denied shelter placement because they can't come up with

the required paperwork. Since last fall, 15% of adult families applied at least six times before they were granted a bed. That's double what the rate used to be. Tim Campbell is with the coalition for the homeless. He says families have to navigate cumbersome requirements to demonstrate their housing history and prove their domestic partnerships. You can reapply for shelter, but at some point people get the message that they're not going to help me and that they're not going to find me eligible. three quarters of adult families who applied for shelter in the first half of 2024 were denied. One of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Princeton, New Jersey, is about to see an increase in affordable housing. Town officials approved a plan that will bring almost 50 affordable apartments

to the campus of a 200-year-old theological seminary. Town Council President Mia Sacks says the seminary originally hoped to build student housing on the site, but residents blocked that concept. We are trying to make the best of the situation as it presents itself to us now, and I feel that we have. The seminary's neighbors say they're considering suing over the approved plan. Some of them have expressed concern that the development will bring traffic and become an eyesore. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says eight organizations that work to fight gun violence in the borough are getting an infusion of cash. They include the Children's Aid Society, the Police Athletic League, Muslim community network and a nonprofit known as Not Another Child.

Bragg says they'll each get $20,000 for a variety of initiatives that build on work they're already doing. Together, we've driven down gun violence the last two years, almost 40%. That's what this collective effort has brought. Police data show that gun violence continues, though, to decrease citywide since a spike during the pandemic. at forecast now 68 and sunny on our way to a sunny day high into mid-80s with a slight wind and then tomorrow and Sunday and Monday sunny and upper 80s up next a weekly segment of on the way covering all things transportation that's after the break I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC it's Friday which means it is time for on the way our weekly segment on all things considered breaking down the week's transit news joining us joining us This is WNYC's transportation reporter Stephen Nesson and editor Clayton Gousa.

It is the New York transit story of the summer. Congestion pricing is on indefinite pause after Governor Hokel pumped the brakes on the Manhattan tolls last month. But new lawsuits filed out there are arguing her order breaks the law. Stephen, who is suing and what are they alleging? Well, there's actually two suits. One is on environmental grounds. It's basically arguing that by not tolling drivers, it may violate the state's community Protection Act. That's basically a new law that requires the state to reduce its greenhouse

emissions progressively over the next several years. You know, the final toll structure of $15 a day was expected to reduce vehicles in the tolling zone by 17%. It was supposed to reduce truck traffic by as much as 55%. So that suit was filed by Riders Alliance, Sierra Club, and New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. The other suit alleges that Hockel doesn't actually have the authority just not implement congestion pricing since it was a law passed by the state legislature. That suit was filed by the City Club of New York. Now, comptroller Brad Lander comes into the discussion. He says no city taxpayer dollars are being spent on these suits,

but he is the one his office helped to coordinate these lawsuits. And here he is speaking. The core charge here is that the governor does not have the unilateral authority to cancel congestion pricing. It is the law. And that's why these lawsuits are being filed. Believe me, we wish we did not have to go into court to force the implementation of laws that were passed by the legislature, signed by the governor, and transparently require implementation. And basically what they want is for Governor Hockel to just sign this document.

That's really the last step to implementing congestion pricing. They want to force her to do it. Now, could these lawsuits actually force Hockel's hand and make her launch congestion pricing? So, Sean, it could, right? It's a lawsuit. It's seeking to do exactly that. Or these lawsuits are seeking to do exactly that. It'll be at the discretion of whatever judge takes them up. But I wouldn't expect that to happen in the immediate future, not just because court proceedings can drag on for months and months and months. And also because the lawyers in the case are saying, hey, we don't expect to be in front of a judge until September. So, you know, at least six or so weeks away. But either case, you know, a judge could compel Hockel to say, hey, you did break the law. Hey, you are violating the environmental protections in some state legislature. But, you know, that's going to be a hard case to make. And it's going to have a lot to do with how much executive authority Hockel has over kind of what Stephen was laying out this form that the state needs to sign in order to launch the tolls.

But some context here, it could all be moot if, you know, there's. this goes on beyond November. And that's because a lot of speculation around Hockel's decision to pause the tolls is that it's political to help Democrats in suburban districts. You know, this is one thing she can do to help them get elected. Republicans have very much targeted the congestion pricing tolls. So if she says, hey, in November after the election, oh, we're going to turn the tolls on, give the MTA its money that they were going to get from the tolls, that could kind of change

the equation. In the meantime, the MTA has to form its new capital plan, its new construction program for the next five years. They weren't planning to use congestion pricing money for that. They need to find a whole different funding stream. And for her part, Hockel did put out a statement through a spokesperson who writes, in response to these lawsuits, quote, get in line. There are now 11 separate congestion pricing lawsuits filed by groups trying to weaponize

the judicial system to score political points. The other lawsuits, of course, were against congestion pricing. These are the first ones that are really for congestions. pricing. Next up this week, something we've talked about here and on the way, guns are strictly forbidden in New York City subway and the NYPD is rolling out new technology with the hopes of enforcing the law. The department is testing out these new gun detectors at some high traffic subway stations

this week. Is this something that we might be seeing in subway stations across the city in the future? Well, that's certainly what Mayor Eric Adams says that he wants. He's really been invested in this technology, particularly from a group called Eighty. evolve. These are metal detectors. You don't have to empty your pockets. You walk through. If something that appears looks like a gun, then it'll be flagged in an automated screen that's monitored by a police official or police officer. You might know them from, you know, they haven't been in place at City Field and other ball games that you might go to. But Adams is excited about this. He's saying

that they should be put in place at every single turnstile in the city. That's a huge area. I think this is going to become a norm for us. I think that the, the, turnstiles are going to change and eventually every turnstile is going to be able to identify if someone is carrying a gun. I think it's a game changer for the transportation system across the globe. And as always, New York is going to lead the way. Now, of course, the MTA for its part is trying to redesign turnstiles so that they're harder to jump over. It's a way to kind of crack down on fare evasion, which they say is a hundreds of million dollar a year problem. They even have their own lab where they're trying to work on new kind of turnstiles that that meet that order.

I spoke with some experts about this. And like, for example, civil liberties groups say it could actually be unlawful. Gun detectors are allowed at a handful of specific places, airports, hospitals, schools, but a subway where millions of people pass through it every day, they say is not appropriate. Adam says it could be used around the world. Well, experts I spoke with say places around the world don't really have the same issues with guns that we do here in New York, so that probably isn't as much demand as you would think. Adam Scott Want, he's deputy chair for technology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, actually thinks it's not a bad idea, but he says it wouldn't be enough to just put the technology in.

Police would have to be there to do something if the detector goes off and spots a gun. So there's definitely going to need to be a manpower increase. in order to get these detection systems physically monitored by law enforcement because people will just bypass them or jump over them or go through the gate like they always do. I should add that this program that Adams is rolling out is really just a pilot, and it will entail exactly one gun detector that will move around to different locations, and it will be monitored by police. Okay, to close out this week's On the Way every week in the Gothamist On the Way newsletter,

We answer a question from a curious commuter. This one is from Dante in the Bronx. You all gave extra special attention, actually, to this issue this week. Dante says, hot cars. I know the one train has so many. What's the timetable for updating the one train fleet to be more equipped for the heat? What does the congestion pricing pause mean for that timeline? So, yeah, we did give Dante's question extra special.

In fact, it's a good name to ask this question because his commute might really be classified as Dante's Inferno. But we put our reporter on it this week, Remsey Caliphah, and he unpacked what's going on on the one train. And a big part of this is that these cars that run on the one train, that exclusively run on the run train, all the cars that run on the one train are old. They're 40 years old. Where the AC is placing in them is hard to repair. It's hard to maintain. They break down more often than a lot of the newer fleet.

And to answer Dante's question, the MTA had big plans. to replace those train cars with new ones that they were going to order. Because, you know, a lot of people like to blame congestion pricing for everything, but in this case you can blame congestion pricing. They were going to order more train cars. That's WNYC Transportation Reporter, Stephen Nesson and editor Clayton Goosey. You can stay in the know on all things transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for our weekly newsletter at gotthmus.com slash on the way.

Stephen Clayton, thanks so much. Talk to you next week. Thank you. 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. See you this afternoon.