NYC NOW - July 28, 2023: Morning Headlines
Episode Date: July 28, 2023Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day: Con Ed and city officials urge New Yorkers to conserve energy during peak hours amidst a heat wave. Also, a landlords' ...group sues Jersey City over new legislation providing low-income tenants with free legal counsel in housing court. Meanwhile, the Bowery Residents Committee lands a $103-million contract to aid subway homeless, despite past performance issues.
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Welcome to NYC Now.
Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC.
It's Friday, July 28th.
Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill.
Con Ed and city officials are asking New Yorkers to limit energy use during peak hours
to preserve the electrical grid as the city sweats through an intense heat wave.
Demand on the city grid is typically highest between 2 and 10 p.m.
when air conditioners are on full blast.
By limiting the use of appliances and putting air conditioners on their lowest settings during these times,
city and utility leaders say New Yorkers can help avoid power outages that resolve from an overburdened electrical grid.
The city's biggest grid failures tend to happen during the hottest days of the year, like right now,
New York City's emergency management department suggests leaving the AC at 78 degrees or on the low settings.
A landlords group is suing Jersey City over its new legislation that guarantees low-income tenants freed lawyers in housing court.
WNMIC's Karen Yee reports.
The Jersey City Property Owners Association wants to overturn the city's right to counsel ordinance, which passed in June.
The landlords group alleges Jersey City exceeded its municipal authority and says the city's plan to use developer's fees to pay for lawyers,
provides a free benefit to just one group of people, low-income tenants, but not to any landlords.
Supporters of the legislation decried the suit and say tenants need protection amid skyrocketing rents
and a shortage of affordable housing. Studies show most tenants have no legal representation in court,
while landlords do. In Jersey City, about 70% of residents are renters.
A nonprofit with a shaky track record received a top dollar contract renewal with the City's Department of Homeless Services,
The organization Bowery Residence Committee is getting $103 million over the next three years to perform outreach to homeless people on the subways.
That's about $40 million more than the group got for its last three-year contract.
Bowery Residents Committee has faced audits from state officials in recent years.
One of them found the group was reimbursed for entertainment expenses like movie theater tickets and a harbor cruise.
Another found its homeless outreach workers did not visit subway station,
as frequently as they had reported.
Another air quality alert day, 77 and mostly sunny now,
sunny and 95 but Real Field 101 today.
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