NYC NOW - March 19, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner is supporting a controversial executive order in Nassau County, banning transgender women from competing in women's sports at county facilities. Plus, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is being sued by a Florida woman for alleged sexual assault in 1993. Also, two of the MTA’s oldest stations will soon get some major upgrades. And finally, WNYC’s David Furst and Jessica Gould discuss how much of the New York state budget will go towards education.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WMYC, I'm Jene Pierre. For the protection of women and girls in sports, let's lead the way for all sports. Former Olympian Caitlin Jenner says she supports Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakman's controversial executive order banning transgender women from competing in women's sports at county facilities. gender came out as a transgender woman in 2015. She says transgender girls have an unfair advantage in sports. Trans women are competing against women, taking valuable opportunities for the long protected

class under Title IX and causing physical harm. State Attorney General Letitia James issued a cease and desist order earlier this month, ordering Blakman to rescind his order. In turn, Blakman is pursuing a federal lawsuit against James. The AG's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is denying graphic new details in connection to a sexual assault lawsuit against him. They came from a complaint filed earlier this week. WNYC's Charles Lane has the details.

The lawsuit claims that in 1993, Adams drove a colleague in the NYPD's Transit Bureau to an empty lot and demanded oral sex in exchange for helping her get a promotion. It also says when she refused, Adams forced her to touch his genitals. The woman, Lorna Beach Mathura, alleges this happened while Adams was a leader of the Guardians, a black fraternal organization in the NYPD. A spokesperson for Adams said the mayor expects to be vindicated in court. The lawsuit was filed within the window of the Adult Survivors Act, which temporary lifted the statute of limitations for survivors of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits. Two of the MTA's oldest stations will soon get some major upgrades.

WMYC's Stephen Nesson visited both stops, which are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Brooklyn Bridge City Hall Chamber Street Station was one of the first subway stations to open more than 100 years ago. The entrance at the municipal building is below a historic, well-maintained, white-tiled, domed roof. But down below, it's another story. I was very surprised when I came here first time how disgusting this station is and like smelly, neat renovation from a very long time. That's 47-year-old Anna Warwa who's been using this station for the past 18 years. Nearly every single column on the J-Train platform is chipped or missing tiles.

Most are covered in graffiti, flaps of brown paint dangle from the high ceiling, like bats in a cave. But help is on the way. The MTA plans to spend $100 million dollars. on historically sensitive repairs, adding ramps for people with disabilities, installing new artwork, and repainting the station. The contract includes similar renovations at the 190th Street Station in Washington Heights. It has stonework befitting its proximity to the cloisters, but many of the stones are chipped and cracked.

Doesn't it? That it looked like something from the hobbits. Because you walk right into the mountain. That's 69-year-old Patricia Finnegan standing in front of the Bennett Avenue entrance, with its curved rock face and small wooden green doors that creak when they open. The doors will be replaced with similar-looking ones, but ones that meet federal standards and can open with the push of a button. Stephen Nesson, WNYC News.

Want to see photos of these two dreary stations? Check out the story on our news website, Got the Mist. Governor Kathy Hokel and legislative leaders are in Albany kicking off their final stretch of state budget negotiations. After the break, we'll look into how New York City schools will fare. Stay close. It may be the first day of spring, but for New York State leaders in Albany, it's budget season. Negotiations are underway between Governor Kathy Holkell and state lawmakers on a budget that's supposed to be signed by April 1st. Hockel's $233 billion proposal calls for more than a quarter of that money going to education.

My colleague David First talked with WNYC's Jessica Gould about what's at stake for schools. Governor Hokel says her proposal includes the most education funding in state history, but teachers' unions are upset. Why is that? It's true that in recent years the governor and the legislature have dramatically increased funding for education. And they finally made good on this court order that required more money for schools. You're also right that the governor, touted her proposed budget for schools as a record-breaking high amount of funding, which it is in total. But she's also proposing some changes to how schools are funded that if passed would lead to some

school districts getting significantly less money. Okay, how does that work? One change she wants involves how inflation is calculated when estimating costs, factoring in an average inflation over the past 10 years rather than just last year when inflation was so high. So that could bring less money to schools. And she also wants to end a practice that prevents schools from losing funding year to year, even when their enrollment goes down. They have been able to keep the same amount of money even if their enrollment is less. This would change and would especially impact schools in rural upstate areas where enrollment has declined a lot. Fiscal watchdogs say school spending has spiked so much in recent years and needs to be reined in. So they support the governor's

plan to cut funds to schools with lower enrollment. But the legislature's proposals reject these changes, and they want to increase funding for education. I should say even activists calling for more education spending say that the funding formula needs to be updated with more money for students who have certain disabilities or for homeless students. But they just want to see that done over time and outside this year's budget process. How would the governor's budget affect the city's public schools? The state would be giving the city a little less money, about $130 million less out of a total of $9.7 billion in state aid. But that's also as the city is facing other cuts, including many programs paid for by stimulus funding that are about to expire.

Another big issue is the fate of mayoral control of the city's public schools. For more than two decades now, the state has given the mayor power over the school system. Why is it? Why is Is this year different? Governor Hockel called for a four-year extension of mayoral control in her budget, but the state Senate and Assembly didn't include that in their bills at all. Now, mayoral control is often a bit of a political football, and this doesn't actually have to be decided as part of the budget process. It probably won't be.

Right now, the state education department is supposed to be studying how well mayoral control is working, and there are a bunch of hearings on this in December and January. Okay, so let's play some political football. What are the arguments for and against mayoral control? Sure. So most of the people at these hearings that I just mentioned, especially teachers and parents, were big critics of mayoral control. They said policies change abruptly whenever a new mayor takes office and politicians don't understand what's happening on the ground enough in schools to make good decisions. But Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks say the way local school boards were in charge. charge before was way worse. It was inefficient and corrupt. And if you scan the archives, there were quite a few scandals back then. Here's what Banks said earlier this week. And I knew personally, people who had to pay for their positions to become a principal. You didn't even have a shot of being a principal in a particular district unless the head of the community board, you were close

to them or you were prepared to pay money for your position. That's not made up stuff. That was real. happening. There's a reason why we went to mayoral control in the first place. So Banks said if mayoral control expires, local community education councils would be in charge. These are the CECs where only a tiny portion of people actually vote for the representatives. And they have their own controversies in infighting. The state education department is supposed to release its findings on mayoral control in a few weeks. We'll be watching for that. Most experts I've talked to don't think we'll see an end to mayoral control, but there could be some changes to how it works. That's WNYC's Jessica Gould, talking with my colleague, David First. Thanks for listening to NYC

now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.