NYC NOW - June 29, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: June 29, 2023

Smoke from Canadian wildfires is once again passing through the New York City region. Also, local reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action. Plus, New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie speaks out after failing to bring “Sammy’s law” up for a vote this legislative session; the bill would have let New York City lower its speed limit. And finally, New York City’s public pools are officially open despite a lifeguard shortage. WNYC’s Sean Carlson talks with Henry Garrido, executive director of District Council 37.

NYC. Good evening and welcome to NYC now. I'm Junae Pierre for WNYC. Smoke from Canadian wildfires is once again passing through the New York City region, and it could linger around much of the state through Friday. Governor Kathy Hogle says, although we've seen worse, it's worth being careful. The numbers at this moment do not seem to be trending to be as high as they were three weeks ago when the skies were literally orange, but there are still significant public health risks.

Hogle says senior citizens and those with heart conditions or respiratory illnesses should take precautions, like limiting their time outdoors and avoiding strenuous activities. The governor says it's too soon to say whether the air quality will be affected for the 4th of July. She urged New Yorkers to check the latest conditions in their area before holding any outdoor celebrations. The U.S. Supreme Court has shut down race-conscious admissions programs at the nation's colleges and universities. WNYC's Arun Venigapal has some of the local reaction to the key ruling on affirmative action. Congresswoman Nidia Velasquez said by ending affirmative action, this court has enshrined racial inequality in our education system,

while Bethany Lee of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund said today's decision asserts the false myth of colorblindness to undermine an important tool to correcting education disparities. However, the New Jersey-based Asian American Coalition for Education, which represents 360 organizations, called it a historic victory for Asians and all Americans, and said it would monitor the implementation of the decision starting today. Stick around. There's more after the break. Earlier this month, Assembly Speaker Carl Hasty failed to bring a widely supported bill that would have let New York City lower its speed limit up for a vote. Now, Hasty says his reasoning had little to do with the bill itself. WNYC's Stephen Nesson has the details. The bill called Sammy's Law would allow New York City lawmakers to lower the speed limit to 20 miles per hour in some areas without approval from Albany.

It passed the Senate. It had support from Governor Hockel and Mayor Adams, as well as 60 co-sponsors. But Hasty never even brought it up for a vote. He tells WNYC that some members of the Assembly representing New York City, wouldn't vote on it because they were more concerned about unrelated traffic issues, such as where the city's Department of Transportation installs speed bumps, and the growing number of e-bikes across the five boroughs. There seems to be no enforcement on how to deal with e-bikes.

Amy Cohen's son, Sammy, was killed by a driver in 2013. The bill is named after him. Earlier this month, she went on a hunger strike for several days as the legislative session in Albany neared its end. She said by her count, 99 out of 150 assembly members told her they'd back the bill. That's enough for it to pass. She even confronted Hasty about it. He told her he couldn't do anything.

He just has one vote. What kind of a leader is he to say that he only is one vote? He had the authority to bring this bill to a vote and he failed to do so. Hasty said he would bring Sammy's law up for a vote next year if it gets support from more assembly members from New York City. That's WNYC's. Stephen Nesson. It's summertime, and New York City's public pools are officially open, despite an ongoing lifeguard shortage. Last week, the Parks Department said they were short about 900 lifeguards compared to pre-pandemic hiring levels, and because of that, at least

three public pools will be closed, given the constraints. New York City has some of the state's strictest training guidelines for lifeguards working at public pools and beaches. Meanwhile, neighboring counties, with more relaxed requirements, have hired enough lifeguards for summer. The city's policy funnels lifeguard training through a program run by District Council 37, Local 508. WNYC's Sean Carlson talked with DC37's executive director, Henry Garito, about what to expect with a lifeguard shortage this summer. Why is the city struggling to hire enough lifeguards this season? And what do you think would encourage more aspiring lifeguards to join? The number one issue we're having the struggle is pay. The area jurisdictions,

which include the state parks have increased salaries far sooner than New York City has. And New York City finally caught up when we finished a collective bargaining agreement, but by then most of the state facilities had increased the entry-level pay for life cards to $22 an hour. We started at $16. The state facilities also put in a retention bonus for anybody who comes to work for the state. New York City finally caught up two months later to do the same, but by that time, most of the people had already signed up with the state facilities. So, yeah, let's talk about that pay issue.

The city has increased pay for new and second year seasonal lifeguards from the previous 1610 an hour to 21, 26 per hour. Lifeguards who work through mid-August will also be eligible for a bonus of $1,000. Is the union asking for a certain amount at this point? No, I think that we finally got there. We reached a collective bargaining agreement. in late in April, and people are now being acknowledged. But remember, the season where you start preparing a life card starts well early in the

beginning of March. So people had already committed to other facilities where the wages have already previously been announced. So we sort of a little bit late in the game in negotiating wages. So while we did well in recruiting younger people, especially people coming from high school, we were behind and people returning back from colleges. Is there enough time for new people, say they hear this right now or otherwise want to sign up right now? Is there enough time if they want to be lifeguards this summer?

Well, absolutely. If they want to come. I mean, we have training facilities. We're extending the hours of which we could do in the testing so that we can have more tests done that we've ever done. Sometimes we have the pools open as late as 10 p.m. in order to allow for the testing to take place. But let's be clear, we have a national shortage here of lifeguards. And part of it is the training.

Part of it is the wages that I mentioned. But we're open for business now. We want to hire more lifeguards. And we're open to do that. Can you explain a little bit what the city's lifeguard training program has like and what the union's role in it is? Well, I mean, this is one of those misconceptions that the union set the standards. We don't. The standards are actually set by state law and by ordinances that are put by the city of New York.

And there's a requirement that you have to swim at a certain speed. So that's one of the things that it's always holding back a lot of the people where I'm a good swimmer. I can swim very well, but when it comes to rescuing somebody, that changes. So while people say, well, maybe you should just lower the standards in New York to recruit more lifeguards, we believe it is those standards that have kept our seasons, you know, without any drowning for 10 straight years. And we believe that some of those other requirements like the Red Cross are just not sufficient. Yeah, you know, we wanted to ask you about that Red Cross certification. If the pool lifeguards could be Red Cross certified and that would be accepted to let somebody be a lifeguard, wouldn't that allow the Parks Department and their trained lifeguard to be. be deployed to beaches and ease that staffing crunch? Well, yeah, conceivably, yes, but at what cost? I don't personally think that we should be lowering the standards in order to recruit most life cards. I think what we should do, do a better job, pay them better, respect them better,

you know, make the lifeguards estates stations like a place that you really want to work on. There are some critics out there who would say that union leaders have too much power over lifeguard operations in the city and that might be contributing to the shortages. What would you say to that? What do you say to that? I think I like to believe that. I wish that was true, but it's not. Think about it. Who do want more guards and more members that we do?

I think our union benefits from having more members, pay more dues, so we would want to certify it as many people as possible. But we also feel that sense of responsibility that we have to do it with the current standards that are there. We don't create those standards. We just make sure that we are here to. That's Henry Garito, executive director of District Council 37, talking with WNYC's Sean Carlson. City pools will welcome swimmers every day from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. at no cost.

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