NYC NOW - May 1, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

G train service disrupted, Governor Hochul's budget deal excludes suburban housing plans, and it’s time for the Met Gala today, the annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Also, are you looking to get active on a budget? New York City offers nearly 100 free classes across the five boroughs, WNYC’s health reporter Caroline Lewis reports. And finally, Newark officials say their police department has improved since 2016, when it was put under federal monitoring because of a history that included a pattern of excessive violence. Now, homicides are at their lowest rate in 60 years, shootings are down and officials say it’s happening with fewer arrests. Last week, Newark’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery unveiled its first strategic plan. WNYC’s Michael Hill speaks with the office’s director Lakeesha Eure, and Sonia Rogers – a Newark resident who lost all three of her sons to gun violence.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, May 1st. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. Heads up G train riders. The MTA says the G is not running north of the Bedford-Nostrand Avenue stop in either direction because of smoke in the Greenpoint Tunnel. So if you're trying to take the G between Bedford-Nostron and Court Square in Long Island City,

you'll have to find an alternate route. We'll let you know when the trains are back to normal operation. One thing that's not in Governor Hokel's budget deal, a housing plan that would have allowed more construction in the suburbs. But New York City public advocate Jimani Williams told WNYC's Brian Lair, the governor should have pushed harder on other housing initiatives, namely housing vouchers and good cause eviction. Those are the two things that can help us right now,

and the government did the least on those. And again, that's hard to watch. That's not going on vacation. That's not trying to go to a play or a movie. That's literally trying to feed themselves and house themselves. William says he wants to see housing vouchers included in the final budget. It's the first Monday in May. And here in New York City, that means it's time for the Met Gala.

The annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute takes place tonight. And the Met Red Carpet will welcome fashionistas and other celebrities. decked out in their finest, flashiest clothing. This year's gala celebrates the work of designer Carl Lagerfeld, and the opening of an exhibit showcasing his prolific body of work. The German-born designer was the creative director of Italian fashion house Fendi and designed for many other companies and is best known for his stewardship of Chanel. The red carpet festivities began at six.

Arrivals will stream on Vogue magazine's website as well as other platforms. on WNYC. I'm Michael Hill. If your workout routine fell by the wayside this winter, and boy did it, and you're looking to get active again on a budget, New York City offers nearly 100 free fitness classes across the five boroughs. Our health reporter Caroline Lewis sampled a few of the workouts on offer this spring. It's a Wednesday evening in Forest Park in Queens, and about a dozen people are chanting affirmations as they do aerobic, exercises in a circle. Through the city's Shape Up NYC program, I've tried a hip-hop class in Brooklyn, a cardio class in the Bronx, and a belly dancing class in Washington Heights over the past three days. But I had no idea what to expect from this one, called Intensati. It's a workout with

mindfulness, dance, yoga, and kickboxing. That's Julia Varela. She's been teaching with Shape Up since 2016. She says she also likes attending workout classes herself. But outside, of the city's program, they can be expensive. Honestly, right now I'm going to fix the income and I can't afford it. You know, and the way things are going up, I don't know if anyone will continue to afford specialty classes. Shape Up started in 2003. The program offers a 12-week course for instructors with topics such as anatomy and injury prevention. Some teachers then get paid between $17 and $28 per hour, but most, like Varela, are volunteers.

To offer an hour of my time is a blessing. Some shape-up attendees get more than a workout. They've also made long-lasting friends. I'm 66. Okay, and how old are you? She has a spirit of a 25-year-old. I'm 36. Corrine Darnell and Julie McNamara met at a shape-up class a few years ago.

They're just not sure which one. It was Zumba or a low-impact dance class, one of those. We took a couple. Yeah, and then, well, hold on. There was also that really intense. workout class that was like... Yeah, she was amazing. This workout...

The Shape Up NYC schedule is listed online at NYCGOV Parks.org. Caroline Lewis, WNYC News. Newark City officials say their police department has turned a corner since 2016 when it was put under federal monitoring because of a history that included a pattern of excessive violence.

Now, homicides are at their lowest rate in 60 years. Shootings are downed, and officials say they're making it happen with fewer arrests. Last week, Newark's Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery, created just weeks after George Floyd's murder in 2020, unveiled its first strategic plan. It's about more than enforcement, but also healing and collaboration between community groups and law enforcement. Joining us now, the office's director, Keisha Yuri, and Sonia Rogers, a resident of Newark, who lost all three of her sons to gun violence.

Keisha and Sonia, thank you very much for joining us this morning. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Thank you for having us. Keisha, when your office announced its plan, you talk about identifying hotspots, areas where both police and the community response can be focused. What does a community response to a crime hotspot look like? The Office of Violence Prevention, as you said, was ultimately started, in 2020, but we have been laying a groundwork prior to that for several years.

And so the hot spots is data that we get from law enforcement. And so we're using a data-informed approach to be able to know where to go, what is needed, how we deploy it, and really having a strategy around going into those locations to put resources there. Keisha, you also put an emphasis on community groups working with police. Tell us more about that. So this is not a public safety approach, right? We're doing public health, but we also know that public health, public safety, community-based

organizations and city government is needed to work together. So what we talk about in this approach is shifting a culture because when we were to start the Office of Violence Prevention under George Floyd, there was a rally and cry nationally around defunding of the police. And so the defunding of the police for us was a reallocation of 5% of their budget to be able to put resources back into the community. We are a city that has been written with trauma. And so there has to be some healing that happens.

And so the investment from city government, the investment, because there's a state investment now, a federal investment now, to see that violence prevention programs, people who are closest to the problem or closest to the solution, investing in people who are not just law enforcement, because law enforcement doesn't always mean more safety. Sonia, our hearts go out to you for your family's experience.

None of your sons lived past 21. What would you have wanted from the city, from the community, to help keep them away from the violence? I would have liked for the things that's going on now to be involved back then. Because back then, when my boys were, coming up, you only had sports activities. So, you know, when I lost my children, I didn't, it was, it was no office of violent prevention out here that would come around how they're coming around now

and things of that nature. They wasn't doing that. One of the things this office focuses on is trauma response. What can be done for families who've lost loved ones to violence? How is that helpful, Sonia? and does it prevent more violence? It can, and it can be effective. But as a family and as a person that's on the inside, you have to take the initiative to wanting. It takes a village to help raise these children. And if you don't take the initiative to take the help

or the work that's trying to be given out, it's not going to be forced effect. Because I wish that I could have gotten that help. I see these young men, these young women. I see these people doing these things for these children. And it's amazing to me because I know that the children that I had my sons, they would have reciprocated to that. Those three young men graduated out of high school.

And that last young man also went to college. I like to state that because I just always wanted to be known that they graduated out of high school. Well, Keisha, go ahead. One of the things, too, as a continuum of that, right, if we had the office and we had all of these services and people working together, right, there could have been a mediation if there was a conflict, right? Our organizations are doing conflict resolution now. We're doing mediations. We're doing problem solving. We're doing de-escalation.

Now we have those alternatives. Keisha, reform, as we know, has been expensive. And the city's paying for a federal monitor to make sure police practices are fission. and constitutional. What assurances do residents in Newark have that this administration and succeeding administrations will follow through on this community-based approach to violence, not just now, but as I said, four years to come? So we are building the credibility of this office to show that it has to be all of us or none of us. And so, you know, we're really building and we have a strategic plan to say how we're doing it. We have a sustainability.

plan that we're building, but ultimately it comes down to funding it and who's going to fund it and how does it get funded? And so people want to take away the funding. It don't work. But do we really look at policing and say when policing don't work, we don't take their budget away? They get to make mistakes. And it should be that same amount of grace extended to community-based programs for the Office of Violence Prevention, that we are not expected to solve crime and violence overnight. That's not our goal. Our goal is to do the prevention work. And so we are really working aggressively to build this ecosystem with the right amount of support that it needs and funding so that it is sustainable. Kisha, Sonia, Sonia, thank you very much for joining.

Thank you for having me. You can read the strategic plan at norknj.gov. 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. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More this evening.