NYC NOW - July 3, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

The Adams administration will expand a controversial program providing prepaid debit cards to migrants. Plus, WNYC’s Sean Carlson and Stephen Nessen discuss the latest development in New York’s delayed congestion pricing plan. And finally, WNYC’s Arun Venugopal takes us to one New York City school where migrant youth use music to heal and forge friendships.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WMYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. The Adams administration will expand a controversial program providing prepaid debit cards to migrants. Over 1,200 migrants a month will receive the cards to buy food and baby supplies through the end of the year. That's about 2% of the current population of migrants in city shelters. Critics have said the cards could be magnets for waste. fraud and abuse. City Hall says that hasn't been a problem since they launched a pilot in March.

City officials say the program helps slash costs, reduces food waste, and funnels money back into local grocery and convenience stores. What's the right price for congestion pricing? The question is at the heart of an effort by some New York state lawmakers trying to revive the controversial tolling scheme for drivers heading into Manhattan south of 60th Street. Governor Kathy Hokel justified her indefinite pause of the plan by saying $15 is just too much for drivers to pay on a regular basis. My colleague Sean Carlson talked with WMYC's transportation reporter Stephen Nesson about the latest development in this seemingly never-ending saga. Okay, Stephen, the governor says charging drivers $15 a day could scare people off and damage Manhattan's post-COVID recovery.

Is there actually a price that everybody can agree on? Some lawmakers are discussing the, let's call it the Goldilocks price, not too high, not too low, but could still raise the money to fill some of the $15 billion gap created by this pause in congestion pricing. I spoke with one traffic expert who noted most people would pay $10 for anything these days. It's a streaming service monthly fee. He also noted that $5 is low enough that probably no one's going to get too worked up about it. But neither of those would raise the money the MTA needs for its plans, nor would it likely deter most drivers and reduce congestion in the zone. State Senator Brad Hoyleman-Sigel says he's in talks now with other lawmakers. My colleagues and I have been talking informally about whether we would accept a lower price point.

I think the answer is yes. Nobody's wedded to $15. We are wedded to the improvements that congestion pricing will provide for mass transit or state. on our streets for cleaner air. He also floated something I hadn't heard from other folks. That's dynamic pricing, charging more when the streets have more traffic and less at other times. Singapore does this.

And, you know, the plan Hockel paused actually did allow for this, at least on gridlock alert days. Now, theoretically, if everyone agrees on a new price and says, hey, yes, this is the just-to-right price. Could the MTA just plug that in and start tolling, like, next week? It's not that simple. Okay. Depends on what they come up with, of course.

But the congestion pricing law doesn't actually state how much the MTA should charge. But it does state clearly that whatever the rate is, it has to bring in $1 billion a year. So if they want to change that, first lawmakers will likely have to amend the law. Remember, they're on vacation now. The new legislative session doesn't start until January. They would need a special session. And Hockel would call them back to Albany to do that. But my understanding is they don't usually do this unless everything has already been agreed on behind the scenes.

And I didn't get the sense from any lawmakers that they're. anywhere close to an agreement on this right now. And there is also concerned about the federal government having to do more reviews of whatever a new plan would be. Right. The federal government had to approve the final plan that we thought was the final plan by signing off on the MTA's 4,000-page review. Now, if they decide on another price, do they have to do this whole review over yet? That's not clear to me. But likely they would not need to redo the whole thing. But if they change the toll fees, it could require another final review. The last time the feds did this, It took about three months, and that's just one step in a very long process.

The MTA board would have to vote on it. There could be another 60-day public comment period. Remember, there's still nothing concrete on the table that we're actually looking at here, which has many people worried that nothing's going to happen before the presidential election. And if Donald Trump wins re-election, well, let's just say he's not a fan of congestion pricing. Okay, so what has former President Trump said about the plan? And do lawmakers have a plan themselves should Trump return to the White House? year. I should say, he's been pretty explicit on truth social, writing in all caps, terminate

regular writing again, congestion pricing in my first caps, first week back in office, exclamation point. You know, he's also said that congestion pricing has, quote, been a failure everywhere it's been tried, and he said it would only work if a place were in all caps, hot, hot, hot, which New York city is not right now. Quick fact check, congestion pricing has not been a failure everywhere it's been tried. And as far as whatever is hot, hot, hot, traffic is back up to pre-COVID levels. Some of the highest traffic actually the city's ever seen. Average traffic speeds in Manhattan are something like 4.5 miles per hour. But remember, his administration held up congestion pricing in the first place. It wasn't until Biden took office that the sort of machinery started working again and they

got the current plan moving. And that is until Governor Hockel paused it last month. And remember, Hockel repeatedly paused the plan because she was worried about losing. using congressional seats on Long Island and the Hudson Valley. So the politics of congestion pricing are, let's say, complicated. For now, though, Hockel does not have a new plan or a new price. Even though it's only July, you know, it does feel like time is running out. That's WNYC's Stephen Nesson talking with my colleague, Sean Carlson. A small group of migrant youth are using music to create friendships.

More on that after the break. Tens of thousands of people. Thousands of migrant youth entered the city's public school system last year. WMYC's Arun Vanekapal says a small group of them were provided with musical training meant to heal and to forge friendships. IS 235, Academy for New Americans and Astoria Queens is your typically chaotic, noisy middle school. What makes it especially interesting is that the kids are all new Americans. Even the shushing is bilingual.

The students here at IS-235 are among the tens of thousands of migrant youth who entered the city's public school system this year. A number of them come from Venezuela. And understanding that these students have faced unusual challenges, the school enrolled some of them in weekly music classes, guitar and percussion. This was the end-of-year concert, so the kids got up on stage, stifle. their giggles and incredible teenage embarrassment and showed their stuff. This is the Mexican folk song, Silito Lindo, also known as, ay, aye, aye, aye. The music program called Music Partners is conducted by the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music,

which takes music training and therapy to 4,500 public school students across the five boroughs. Chad Cooper is the organization's executive director and was on hand for the concert. These are students who are experiencing a lot of trauma. They are in constant transition. They have been displaced. They are going through what I imagine is a great deal of emotional turmoil. So I think, first of all, music is just a source of joy. It brings happiness.

Melanie David is 13 and arrived from Venezuela. Like the other kids, she wears a white polo t-shirt with a school logo, an image of Lady Liberty and the words, a passport to a new beginning. She's one of nine students in the guitar class and says she's been practicing every morning before school and as soon as she gets back home in the afternoon. She says she feels good about the school,

she can integrate, I don't know how it's said. Me could integrate in the college, and I could make more amissed with the professors and the students. She says she feels good about the school because she's gotten to know her teachers and make new friends. Her classmate Sarah Khalil is originally from Yemen, and says the guitar wasn't easy to learn at first, but is now fun. She says there's a lot to like about her new school.

Like the way the teachers here always use examples to convey a point, the fact that there even is a music program, and the diversity of her new friends, who come from Venezuela, Spain, Egypt, and Colombia. Jorge Suarez teaches technology and home language arts, and he says the students only. only occasionally reveal what they've experienced en route to the United States. One student wrote that they saw a young child that was asthmatic and he collapsed

because there is no medical help. As per the student's account, the child was briefly revived, then collapsed again. The people that are in charge of guiding the migrants basically just took the kid and threw him over a ravine. Since the students have been displaced from their homelands, instructors say it's important to blend the new with something more familiar. Augustine Grasso is a percussion teacher who has 75 students in his classes here. He's originally from Argentina and says he exposes kids

to a variety of Latin American rhythms, like cumbia, samba, chakadera. I think it definitely helps them to connect with something that they're familiar with in a different place. It's our music. The friendships cut across lines of language, culture and nationality. Deja Huka is from Albania and says her best friend is Gustavo Medina,

a 12-year-old from Venezuela in the percussion program. She likes how he comforts others when they're down. And in return, we just comfort him too when he's crying or having a bad time. Just then, Medina walked up in a bright yellow jersey. He says he walked the entire route from Venezuela to the U.S., as thousands of adults and children have done. But Medina says with some swagger that it wasn't a big deal. His young friend Dea is astonished by this very bold statement.

I have more energy than all the people. As for the music instruction, he says it's not really his thing. He's more of a baseball kind of guy. Suarez, the teacher, says whatever their dreams are, it's the responsibility of students to work hard and the school's responsibility to nurture them through art and other means. We try our best here at the school to provide an environment where they can kind of, I know it's,

It's difficult to say to forget, but to at least assure them that they're safe here and that their new life begins here. The students are now off for the summer, but the school will resume its music program in the fall. That's WMYC's A Room Vinegar Pool. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Heads up, we're taking a day off Thursday to observe the 4th of July, but we'll drop one episode in the middle of the day. So be sure to check it out before you celebrate the birth of our nation. Enjoy the holiday. I'm Jenae Pierre.