NYC NOW - June 23, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

Commercial landlords in New York City could face fines under a new bill if they knowingly lease space to unlicensed marijuana shops. State Assembly member Inez Dickens voices concerns about migrants straining Harlem's scarce resources, amid her campaign for a local Council seat. Finally, amidst the economic turmoil and rising crime of 1973, Mayor John Lindsay and the Theater Development Fund introduced TKTS, a booth selling same-day Broadway tickets at half price. Now, fifty years later, TKTS has sold over $2.5 billion worth of tickets. More from reporter Jeff Lunden.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, June 23rd. Here's the midday news from David First. Commercial landlords who knowingly lease space to unlicensed marijuana shops could now face fines in New York City. That's the result of a new bill that the City Council passed yesterday. Commercial landlords could be slapped with penalties starting at $1,000 if they're found to be renting. space to anyone illegally selling weed, tobacco, or other controlled substances.

The vote comes two years after recreational marijuana became legal in New York State. Since then, the city has had trouble keeping hundreds of unlicensed dispensaries in check. New York State Assembly member Aynas Dickens says migrants are straining Harlem's already scant resources. This, as she runs for a council seat representing the area, WNYC's Michelle Bocenegra reports. is tapping into a decades-old pain point in Harlem, the fair distribution of public service sites like drug treatment centers across New York City. But as she vise for an open council seat, she's talking about it in reference to the city's

migrant crisis. She says migrants will overcrow the district schools and that her district already has more than its fair share of shelters and treatment centers. Harlem has been hit with an overabundance, a saturation of not just shelters, but all types of institutions such as the drug centers. So Harlem is tired of it. Her opponents, assembly member Al Taylor and Yusuf Salam, have not been as forward, saying the city must care for both migrants and the traditional homeless population.

67 degrees. Light rain, fog and mist in New York City, cloudy with showers today, possibly a thunderstorm this afternoon, a high of 78 degrees. This is WNYC. Broadway was at a crisis point in 1973 with a city in economic turmoil and looming concerns over crime. That's when Mayor John Lindsay and the Theatre Development Fund decided to try an experiment, a booth that would sell same-day Broadway tickets for half price. Fifty years later, TKTS has sold over $2.5 billion worth of tickets. Jeff London has the story.

Since June 25, 1973, people from New York, the U.S., and all over the world, have flocked to TKTS to get discount tickets for shows. On a recent Sunday afternoon, Helena Rospota, on holiday from Leviv, Ukraine, waited patiently online. We are in New York just for a few days, and after that, we will back home. Yes, we're here because we want to see some good... a performance on Broadway. That's why we stand in this line and wait for tickets. Rospota and her partner were hoping

to see New York, New York. But when TKTS opened 50 years ago, the theater district was a place to avoid. Bob Mayers helped to design the original booth and its famous all-lowercase logo. The city was depressed.

And Times Square was a disaster. There was very little pedestrian activity. It was considered dangerous. There were muggings. The people were afraid to come down to this area, at night especially, and the theaters were half empty. Victoria Bailey is executive director of the Theater Development Fund. TDF has run the booth since it was just a small trailer on 47th Street. Bailey says, despite industry skepticism, it was an immediate situation.

It proved what I think has always been the case and will always be the case that there are people who want to go to Broadway who can't afford a full-price ticket. Theater producer Immanuel Azenberg says TKTS helped bring in new audiences. It gave access to younger people, tickets to shows. It was a big boom to the industry. Over the decades, Times Square cleaned up and Broadway boomed, and so did ticket prices. When a chorus line opened in 1975, its top ticket went for $15. But Azenberg says prices went up considerably in the 1980s and 90s.

The booth becomes more and more a fixture because in order to solve all our economic problems, we raise the price. So therefore, the discounted price becomes a major attraction. TDF opened satellite booths in Brooklyn at the World Trade Center and in Lincoln Center. Victoria Bailey says the availability of half-price tickets may have helped keep some shows running for years. Shows like Phantom and Corsland, but my guess is over time, the booth was responsible for five or six years of their run, at least. TKTS has endured some challenges. Effects of the pandemic are still dampening sales. And Emmanuel Azenberg points out that audiences can now get discount tickets a lot of other ways.

If you can start getting half-price tickets, on the computer, will that affect the ticket booth in the middle of the street where you stand online? That's in real danger. For Casey Salter, a Long Island resident waiting online for tickets to Funny Girl, the booth is one of several ways she gets Broadway tickets. Yeah, I mean, go to the booth, enter lotteries, do rush tickets. There's a lot of affordable theater options. I don't necessarily have the money to see full price, so it's great that there's so much available for people to still get out and see theater. But TKTS retains its appeal. And now there's an app so people can see what shows are available. In 2008, the main booth in Times Square got a makeover, including a flight

of Red Steps where tourists and locals can meet up and hang out. TDF's Victoria Bailey says that's been a real draw. It has become that kind of town square, which I think is really popular. powerful because theater is part of community. The 50th anniversary of the TKTS booth will be celebrated officially on Wednesday morning with an event that includes a performance and audience sing-along. For WNYC News, I'm Jeff London. 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.

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