NYC NOW - July 5, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

Particle pollution levels surpass healthy thresholds following the 4th of July fireworks, state environmental officials warn. Ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chirlane McCray announce a “trial separation” after close to three decades of marriage. Meanwhile, Riverside Park reintroduces its goat gardeners to handle invasive plants starting this Friday. Volunteers at Van Cortlandt Park are mounting a resistance against an invasive plant threatening New York City’s waterways, as reported by WNYC’s Amy Pearl. Finally, a lawsuit challenging New York City’s affordable housing lottery system on grounds of perpetuating segregation is set to proceed to federal trial. WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen and reporter Arya Sundaram delve into the matter.

NYC now. Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, July 5th. There's the midday news from Michael Hill. Air quality in New York City is still suffering the consequences of 4th of July fireworks today. State environmental officials report higher than healthy levels of fine particle pollution in the sky, something data have found to be typical after fireworks-centric holidays. Dr. Terry Gordon studies the health impacts of inhaled pollutants. He brought a team of students to the banks of the East River

to monitor how particle concentrations spiked during yesterday's festivities. After that first 10 or 15 minutes where it was like 100 or so, then they started saying it's going up, it's going up, and then someone said, I got 2,000. Someone said I got 3,300. Fireworks burn metals like coffee, and lead to produce the brilliant colors in the explosions, research shows increased exposure to the metals can be dangerous to human health.

One of New York's most visible political couples is separating. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio and Charlene McRae tell the New York Times they're embarking on a so-called trial separation after almost 30 years of marriage. The two who met while working for former mayor David Dinkins will not divorce and will continue living together in their park slope home. Riverside parks, goat gardeners named Calgirl, Chico, Charlie, and Malamar are coming back this Friday to munch on invasive plants and clear a sharp incline in the park between 119th and 1202nd streets in Morningside Heights. It'll be hot for them too. 87 with sunshine now, mostly sunny in a high of 92 today.

And then tomorrow, mostly sunny in 89 on Friday and Saturday, Slim Chance. of afternoon showers and thunderstorms, partly sunny and upper 80s. Again, 87 in the city now. An invasive plan is attempting to take over some of New York City's waterways, but in Van Cortland Park, a small team of volunteers is making a stand. W.N. W.N. W.C.'s Amy Pearl explains. In a quiet corner of the park, Noel Heffley is handing out rubber hip waiters. Are you guys here to volunteer today? You're in the right place? place. We're going to be getting in the lake today. Noel is a volunteer coordinator for the Van Coralent Park Alliance, and today is Water Chestnut Wednesday.

Now you might be thinking, I know water chestnut. No, not the crunchy water chestnuts from the corner takeout place. We're talking about an invasive aquatic plant. It's a problem all over the northeast, and now it's here at Hester and Piro's Mill Pond in Van Cortland Park. Everybody have gloves. Everybody suited up. So every summer, volunteers wearing chest-high waiters and armed with long rakes and blue rubber gloves

attempt to hold it at bay. What's your name? Timothy. How old are you? 14. What brings you out here today? Cleaning up. I don't remember what it was.

But volunteer? Your chestnuts. Oh, water chestnuts. Waddling in waiters, we make our way to the shore of the pond. The water's invisible under a thick mat of what looks like cilantro on steroids. So this is our friend, the water chestnut. Noel pulls up a plant, dragging out about five feet of roots.

It becomes quite a tangled mess. Which is terrible for swimming, boating, and fishing. Native plants are shaded out, and when the water chestnuts decay, it sucks all the oxygen out of the water. Honestly, the water smells kind of gross. Who wants to be first? We're taking it. We'll follow her. Soon the volunteers are as deep as their waiters will allow,

pulling up plants and leaving clear water in their wake. Oh, yeah, look what you've done. Christina Taylor, deputy director of the Van Cortland Park Alliance, looks on with pride. Our volunteers are amazing. And it's really rewarding also because we start and you see all this water chestnut and then you're done and it's all gone. The pile of plants on the shore is growing,

but beating this weed is going to take a lot more water. chestnut Wednesdays and a lot more volunteers. Yeah, put on some waiters, give it a try as do what happens. Maybe you'll file in love and you'll be back next week. Amy Pearl, WNYC News. What is it? A spider, a leech. A leech?

A leech. Hoops. On WNYC, I'm Tiffany Hanson. A lawsuit challenging New York City's affordable housing. lottery has been cleared for federal trial. As a reminder, the lottery is how the city grants leases for below-market rate subsidized rentals. And the suit says one of the lottery rules perpetuates segregation and violates fair housing law. With me to talk about the case and what's at stake is WNYC's race and justice reporter, Arias Sundaram. Hi, Ariya. Hi, Tiffany. So millions of people

apply to rent a few thousand affordable housing units available every year. So, For folks who are unfamiliar, talk to us about why this lottery is so competitive. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to pay a low market rate for rent. That is a discount. Sometimes a pretty steep one, too. That could be a luxury studio in downtown Brooklyn for, say, $2,500 a month, or even a two-bedroom in the financial district for $1,000. And your eligibility just depends on your household income and size,

but more people qualify than you might think. So for our family of four, for example, the cutoff is over $200,000. All right. So this lawsuit now specifically takes issue with a rule called community preference policy. What does that policy do? And can you tell us why it was created in the first place? So under the community preference policy, half of the affordable units in a given housing development are reserved for people who already live in the community district. And historically, similar policies have been used by wealthier white suburbs and their affordable housing programs to effectively exclude black and bad residents that are living in surrounding towns. But when New York City put this policy in place, they were trying to use it towards a more inclusionary end.

But it was former mayor at Koch originally instituted the community preference policy in the late 80s in the midst of his massive campaign to ramp up the city's affordable housing stock. And the goal was to help residents of lower income neighborhoods where this new housing was being built and constructed and renovated in the first place so that they could get better housing. And also it was a kind of acknowledgement of decades of neglect that they faced. What does the lawsuit argue? How does it argue that it perpetuates segregation? The plaintiff said that's bringing the lawsuit, their whole argument here is based on the testimony of an expert who showed that this policy kept the city more segregation. than it would otherwise would be. And let me break that down for you.

So he looked at millions of applications in recent years and found that the vast majority for any given unit come from outsiders, or, you know, as he put it, or people that live outside the area. And he found that the moves that were sought by these outsiders were far more likely to integrate the city than the moves by insiders, you know, which were more likely to keep the city in its segregated status quo.

Here's how the attorney from that side, Craig Gurian, summed it all up. kind of an obvious way that the policy interferes with desegregation that would otherwise occur if you honored the choices that New Yorkers were making. And New York City consistently ranks as one of the most segregated cities in the country. And the lawsuit says that the policy discriminates against all races in some way, but the plaintiffs are black. And there's a particular concern you can tell with the policy preventing, black and brown residents from moving into wealthier white neighborhoods, which has historically been an

issue with many other policies like redlining and certain zoning rules. Well, I would assume that the mayor and some other New York City housing officials might balk at that assessment. So what are they saying? No, city officials have directly responded to me about this policy, but of course they hash it all out in court papers where, you know, they stanchly defend the importance of this policy. So city officials in the housing department, you know, say it's a really important tool to make sure that residents of low-income areas aren't priced out when their neighborhoods gentrify. And they also say it helps quell what they call fears of displacement to make sure that affordable housing gets built in the first place, you know, which can be

especially controversial. And they also say that it doesn't perpetuate segregation, you know, this policy. And they base this on findings from their very own expert who crunches the data. You know, he said that community preference has an insignificant effect on segregation. And overall, the affordable housing lottery actually reduces segregation anyway. So the policy itself is insignificant. Well, looking ahead, what can we expect moving forward then? You know, both sides are likely going to meet soon to discuss the possibility of the settlement and to, you know, clear this all up outside of court. But when I talked to the plaintiff's attorney, Craig Gurion, he said that's pretty unlikely and he expects to go to trial early next year.

Aria, thanks so much for all of your reporting on this. We appreciate it. Thanks to you, Tiffany. Ariya Sundrom is WNYC's Race and Justice reporter. You can read more of her reporting on this issue right now over at Gothamus.com. 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. More this evening.