NYC NOW - Mamdani to Meet Trump Friday, Citywide Life Expectancy Hits 83 Years, and School Bus Companies Get Contract Extension

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani plans to meet with President Trump Friday in Washington DC following months of tension. Plus, Mayor Adams' office says New York City has reached its life expectancy goal of 83 years. And finally, a New York City education panel voted to give some of the largest school-bus companies a three-year contract extension. The extension comes as school bus horror stories persist.

Zora Mamdani plans to meet President Trump Friday. New Yorkers are living longer. And school bus companies get a three-year contract extension. From WMYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. Mayor-elect Zeran Mamdani plans to meet with President Trump Friday in Washington, D.C. Speaking to MS Now's Chris Hayes, Mamdani said he wants to speak plainly to Trump.

About what it means to actually stand. up for New Yorkers and the way in which New Yorkers are struggling to afford this city. And frankly, cost of living is something that I heard time and time again from New Yorkers about why they voted for Donald Trump. The meeting follows months of tension, with Trump falsely calling Mondani a communist and threatening to cut off federal funding to New York City. Trump recently said the two will, quote, work something out. A state labor department is ordering the owner of Park Slope's Indian Spice Restaurant

to pay $3 million in back wages to former employees. employees, as well as civil penalties. The department says owner Merriam Kandaker failed to pay workers a minimum wage, provide a lunch break, or maintain pay records for years. The workers sought the help of Brooklyn City Council member Shahana Hanif. She says labor exploitation is increasing, and in this case, involves an employer and workers who are originally from Bangladesh. Our newly arrived immigrants or those who are undocumented or not yet citizens,

are treated very differently by the community that has been here for a longer time. The restaurant owner did not respond to requests for comment. She has days to appeal the findings. Congratulations, New Yorkers. Apparently, you're living longer than ever. Mayor Eric Adams' office says the city has reached its life expectancy goal of 83 years ahead of schedule. Health officials aim to hit that mark by 2030, and it's a new record for the city. Officials say various declines in mortality causes are behind the trend, including COVID-19, heart disease and diabetes, homicides, and overdoses.

Up next, a New York City Education Panel voted to give some of the largest school bus companies a three-year contract extension. It comes that school bus horror stories persist. More on that after the break. A New York City Education Panel has voted in favor of a three-year contract extension with school bus companies, even as parents and students continue to share horror stories about getting to and from school. WMYC's education reporter, Jessica Gould, joins me to talk about what's at stake for 150,000 kids who depend on the yellow school buses. Hey, Jessica. Hey, Jeney. So this vote happened on Wednesday night, and they're going to move forward with these controversial school bus contracts.

Can you remind us why these contracts have become an issue? I can. Families and advocates have been focusing in on these contracts as a lever they can pull to reform a deeply dysfunctional system. Parents want more accountability from the bus companies. They want more penalties when there's bad service, like delays or lack of air conditioning. in the summer. And then they want new things, like they want later bus options for students with disabilities who want to stay after school for tutoring or extracurriculars, which doesn't exist now. The city's contract with some of the largest bus companies are very old,

46 years old, middle-aged, and they were expiring. So the family saw this as their chance for change. So it sounds like with these contracts expiring, parents and advocates are trying put some pressure on these companies. What are the parents you've talked to saying? Yeah, I talked to a parent named Chris Van Dyke, whose son is a junior in high school in Queens, and he says his son's school bus was involved in a crash last month when a car opened its door as the bus was passing, and the bus ripped off the door and slammed on the brakes. The kids were okay, but Van Dyke says the problem is that the only way he heard about this was because he was getting text messages from his son. He was texting me, and he said he was going to Elmer's as like Elmer's, and I finally figured I was like, do you need Elmhurst?

And eventually what happened is all the kids were taken by ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital. The crazy part was this, we were never informed at any point. So nothing directly from the company, Logan, he says. Logan disputes this saying they did contact parents, the school, and the education department. But the education department says it gave the company a violation for its lack of communication. to parents. Wow. Have you heard other stories like this? Yeah. At the start of the school year, you may remember I reported with our colleague Joe Hong on flaws in the city's data on school bus delays. We found many delays aren't reflected in the data. And the education

department relies on the bus companies to self-report when they're late or if they don't show up. We heard from many parents at recent hearings, though, about buses not showing up a lot or showing up so late that kids missed whole academic periods and special education services day after day. Now, in October, the bus company said they'd have to stop running school buses unless they got a longer contract. And we know that that could have caused chaos for thousands of students, right? But they were able to avoid that. So tell me how the vote went down. Sure. The panel approved contracts for a three-year extension for these large bus companies. that was shorter than what the companies wanted and longer than what many parents wanted.

Panel members were split, but ultimately the majority agreed that the city needs more time to negotiate new contracts. And part of that is because of this complicated issue where they need help from state lawmakers to pass legislation to overcome this labor hurdle with drivers. Okay. So tell me about this complicated labor issue. Okay. It gets a bit in the weeds, but we're going to do it. The old contracts have a provision that ensures unionized bus workers who are laid off by one company are prioritized for hiring by other companies, and they can keep their wages. The drivers and the unions say this is crucial, especially given that driving a school bus is difficult, low-paid work. And in the past, the driver's unions have threatened to go on strike or gone on strike if they didn't have this protection in their contracts. years ago though the court struck down this provision that's in the contracts that means the city couldn't put it in their new documents so they've been extending these old ones for years and years that's how we got to these 46 year old contracts now many advocates and city officials are calling on state lawmakers to pass this new labor law for bus drivers which would finally pave the way for new contracts there are bills in the legislature on this already but so far they haven't been passed advocates for better bus drivers

Service say they're going to be pushing politicians in Albany to pass this bill, and that's the next step. So these contracts we know are in place for another three years. How did parents and politicians respond to this? Some parents at the meeting said the problem is so bad that these large companies don't deserve to get an extension at all. And they said it's a bad message to send to kids, especially kids with disabilities, that the city will keep allowing shoddy service for them. But the majority said, you know, what's needed now are new contracts, this total overhaul, but it's going to take some time to get there. And this extension is about buying that time so they can get the labor issue resolved in Albany and start fresh. But it's not just the issue with the bus companies.

I want to emphasize that the city has a role to play here too. We've reported on GPS that doesn't work much of the time and routes that are far too long and inefficient. So advocates for better bus service say there's plenty of blame to go around, and there are lots of things the city can do better. But they say improving these contracts is a big piece of that puzzle. All right. That's WMYC's Jessica Gould. Thanks a lot, Jess. Thank you.

A new women's professional baseball league will debut next year with four teams, including New York. But who will play on those teams? WMYC's Amanda Roseone reports on one New Yorker hoping to get drafted Thursday night. It'll be the first pro league for women since the 1940s All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the one you might know about from the movie A League of Their Own. All these girls are going to be in the league? You wish. You do wish.

They're going to have 14, 16 girls to a team. That's right. 64 girls. Yeah, what are you a genius? This league will actually have 15 players to a team. They'll represent San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York for the inaugural season. The league recently announced all games next year will be played on neutral grounds at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois, generating frustration from fans who wish to see their team play in their respective states. The top 100 players, mostly from this summer's tryouts, have advanced to the draft.

That includes former Little League star Monet Davis, who in 2014 became the first girl to earn a win and pitiful. a shutout in the Little League World Series. Other players to look out for are Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato and right-handed pitcher Nikki Eckert. She's from Terrytown, New York, and for the last few years, she's played on the women's USA national team. She says she wants to play for New York, but she's happy to go anywhere. And she hopes sports fans will get on board with women's baseball, the way they have for women's basketball and soccer. That's taken a long time, so I think it comes with a lot of patience. But starting out for what we have now,

I think we do have great people on our side who are advocating for women in this sport. Best of luck to all the ladies participating in the new league. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow. Thank you.