NYC NOW - June 7, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

New York state lawmakers say Governor Kathy Hochul's alternative to congestion pricing would commit the state to sending a billion dollars a year to the MTA without clarifying the source of the funds. In other news, Tommy Lin, a former director at the New York City Mayor's Office, has been arrested and charged with bank fraud. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Pride Festival and the famous Twilight Parade take place on Saturday. Also, as the American Ballet Theater gears up for its summer season, Alexandra Starr reports that for one young soloist, talent runs in the family. Plus, a lawsuit claiming false advertising over pistachio ice cream is moving forward in Long Island. Finally, WNYC’s Ryan Kailath reports on the odds of finding the elusive and wealthy, six-foot-five man with blue eyes.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WNYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. New York State lawmakers turned down Governor Hokel's push to hike a payroll tax after she pulled the plug on congestion pricing. Now they're turning to an IOU. Lawmakers say Hokel's latest plan will commit the state to sending a billion dollars to the MTA. But it's not clear where that money would come from. Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Giannarris of Queens told Spectrum News about the plan.

I think it's very simply something that just says that there will be a billion dollars for the MTA in the following year's budget, but without any specifics as to what that means. Hopewell used to be a major supporter of congestion pricing, but she reversed course Wednesday leaving a big hole in the MTA's capital budget. She says a $15 toll for driving into part of Manhattan would have been too much of a burden for New Yorkers. A former director at the New York City Mayor's Office has been arrested and charged for taking part in a bank fraud scheme, according to a Manhattan federal court. Tommy Lynn, who served under the de Blasio administration, is alleged to have participated in a scheme that resulted in the theft of over $10 million from financial institutions. Lynn is charged with one count of bank fraud conspiracy among other charges. He could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

He currently serves as the Queen's Community Coordinator at the City's Department of Environmental Protection. DEP spokesperson Edward Timbers said Lynn will be placed on leave pending an internal review. June is Pride Month, and Brooklyn is getting its turn to celebrate this weekend. The Brooklyn Pride Festival and the famous Twilight Parade take place on Saturday. The multicultural festival starts at 11 in the morning and runs till about five. Fifth Avenue and Park Slope between Union and Ninth Streets will be full of vendors offering food and chotchkes. Then, as the sun sets, the parade gets going. That'll start around 7.30 at night and run along Fifth Avenue from Lincoln Place to 8th Street.

Coming up after the break, if you like actual pistachios and your pistachio ice cream and have been disappointed to find none, Well, you might be getting some money for that. Stick around. As the American Ballet Theater gears up for its summer season, one young dancer will be celebrating a promotion. Jake Roxander was recently named a soloist at ABT, and he will play Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. He's just 22. And as Alexander Star reports, the talent runs in the family. Jake Roxander made his debut in Romeo and Juliet in 2023. Critics showered praise on his performance. He has this wonderful jump, and he also clearly has an idea of the character he wants to create on stage and of the impression.

That's Marina Harz. She's the author of a book on the choreographer Alexei Radmanski. She's followed ballet for two decades. I think coming from a family where dance is something that's discussed at the dinner, table may be part of that. Both of Roxander's parents were professional ballet dancers, and his brother, Ashton, is a principal dancer with Philadelphia ballet. Jake ended up forging an unusual connection with them last year. He went for a costume fitting for the role of Puck in ABT's production of the dream.

The wardrobe supervisor assumed he danced it before because his name was in the costume. And it was kind of that moment that I, like, felt the hairs on the back. back of my neck stand-up, and I said, okay, so I don't think you understand. That's not my name. That's my father's name. It was the costume his father had worn when he played puck at the National Ballet of Canada. After Jake performed in it, his brother did the same role in Philadelphia. So now it's my father, my brother, and myself that have all done the same role with the same costume. In order to do the requisite training to turn professional, Roxander was homeschooled after sixth grade. He says it was a sacrifice, but one well worth it.

It's what my father calls delayed gratification. Do the thing that you don't want to do now, that you know will make you better in the future, and in the future, you'll be so much happier for it. As Horace points out, that's powerful advice. What having a parent who was in that same art form gives you as a model. They know that hard work can lead to something. That hard work has landed Roxander some prominent roles this upcoming season. including one of his favorites. He will once again star as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet on July 10th and 13th. That's reporter Alexandra Star. We bring you now a scoop from Long Island. Jenna Marie Duncan just wanted some pistachio ice cream. But when she ordered some from the Coldstone

creamery in Levittown, she says her taste buds were tricked. Now a lawsuit she filed could bring a delicious payout for ice cream lovers nationwide. WMYC's Samantha Max has the story. Duncan filed a class action lawsuit against Coldstone Creamery's parent company after learning the so-called pistachio ice cream she bought in the summer of 2022 was nutless. She accused the frosty franchise of false advertising for scoops that don't come cheap. The price of a small at Goldstone starts at a whopping $7.50. since. Now, a federal judge on Long Island has ruled the case can move forward. His decision was sprinkled with lyrics from songs about ice cream. You might call it a sweet opinion.

Jeff Sovereign is a consumer protection law expert at the University of Maryland. He says Duncan's lawsuit makes a tasty point. The average ice cream eater shouldn't have had to look up the ingredients online to find out if there are real pistachios inside. Well, I don't think the reasonable consumer would Do that. On a recent hot and humid afternoon, I visited the Coldstone Creamery on 42nd Street near Times Square to find out why their pistachio ice cream doesn't have pistachios. The manager told me they use artificial flavoring because some people are allergic, or they just don't want nuts, even in pistachio ice cream.

He said customers can get real peanuts, pecans, and almonds mixed in, but not pistachios. Outside the shop, 14-year-old Eden Hernandez says he's not surprised there aren't real pistachios and Coldstone's ice cream. Well, because it just seems like man-made, created, not natural. You know what I mean? Real nuts included or not, Hernandez says he typically avoids pistachio ice cream. I may be biased, but I don't like it. So for today, Hernandez is sticking with cookie dough and cake batter. That's WNYC's public safety reporter Samantha Max.

For some, tall, dark, and handsome is enough. But what are the odds of finding a man in finance, 6'5, with blue eyes, and a trust fund? It's a question the internet is set on solving after a ubiquitous meme about a New York City woman looking for such a man. WMYC's Ryan Kyloth crunches the numbers. In the beginning, there was a TikTok. I'm looking for a man in finance with trust fund. 26-5, blue eyes. 26-year-old Megan Bonnie joked that somebody should remix her silly TikTok audio,

and of course, they did. I'm looking for a man in finance. Trust fun. Six-five, blue eyes. 40 million views later, the original TikTok has remixes from star DJs like David Ghetto. Bonnie even landed a talent deal with Universal Music and quit her day job in marketing. All this got another TikToker wondering, how many men out there actually fit the bill.

Can she do it? Like, look at the numbers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 7.6 million. Ray Hodge crunches numbers on silly topics for fun. The former engineering major found that, statistically speaking, exactly two men in the entire country fit the bill. Finance job, 65 height, Blue Eyes, Trust Fund. A lot of people in the comments were like,

this girl never passed a statistics class in her. her life. This math is wrong. This is girl math. Okay, right off the bat, the issue that I think people are having with this TikTok isn't really with the math. It's with the independence assumption. Chelsea Daniels is a PhD sociology candidate who teaches intro to statistics at NYU. She says Hodges' math checks out. The issue is she assumes these traits are uncorrelated, what they call in probability independent. But in probability, that doesn't work if those two things aren't independent. I'm 1,000% sure that people with trust funds are overrepresented in finance, right?

Decades of research show a correlation between height and financial success. Both having blue eyes and generational wealth correlate with whiteness in America. My analysis tried to correct for all these correlations, and I found that perhaps 250 men in the U.S. fit the bill. If we narrow it down to New York City, it's maybe 30. Though, as Hodge points out, the TikToker never specified where she was looking. She never said just the U.S. She might have more luck going somewhere like Denmark.

I don't know. Daniels said my stats are still squishy, but they get us a little closer. That's WNYC's Culture and Arts reporter, Ryan Kailat. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WN. New NYC. Got a shout out our production team. It includes Sean Boutich, Amber Bruce, Avae Carrillo, Audrey Cooper, Owen Kaplan, Leora Noam Cravids,

Jared Marcel, Jen Munson, and Wayne Schoenmeister, with help from all of my wonderful colleagues in the WMYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the folks at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrata. I'm Jenae Pierre. Have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday.