NYC NOW - May 10, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day: New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is critical of Mayor Eric Adams' 60-day limits on shelter stays for migrant families, calling it inadequate and rushed. In other news, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is questioning top NYPD officials about their use of social media. Plus, this week on 'On the Way,' reporters Stephen Nessen and editor Clayton Guse discuss Sammy’s Law, which lowers the speed limit to 20 MPH, an increase in electric taxi cars, and a new report from the New York State Comptroller indicating that the MTA needs more funding to upgrade the city’s transit system.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, May 10th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. A new investigation into Mayor Adam's 60-day limits on shelter stays from migrant family says the rollout has been inadequate and rushed. As from city controller, Brad Lander, whose auditors review training materials and policies for the program. Even if you think the policy was appropriate, you would find that it was implemented in a way that was entirely haphazard, that didn't live up to its own goals and standards, that didn't provide written policies to staff or contractors, that didn't track the outcomes in any meaningful way. City Hall spokesperson says the city has policies for some of the areas he highlighted such as for pregnant women and disabled migrants, but she didn't provide a copy of the rules.

the city has so far handed out eviction notices to more than 10,000 families. More than half of those families have since left the shelter system. City officials don't track where they end up. City Council Speaker Adrian Adams is challenging top NYPD officials about the use of social media. She says they've been using their official accounts for, quote, political purposes. The speaker and the NYPD Commissioner, Edward Caban, discussed the issue at a council hearing yesterday, including a post by Chief of Patrol John Shell that attacked a member of the council. Do you feel the post should have been deleted?

Speaker Adams. Do you feel it was deleted improperly? I am not. You feel it should have come back? Speaker Adams. Commissioner, do you feel that the post was appropriate? Shell was scheduled to appear at yesterday's hearing but was a no-show. The city's Department of Investigation is now looking into how NYPD Brass uses official social media accounts.

The New York Rangers remain undefeated in the Stanley Cup playoffs this postseason. The Blue Shirts won another overtime thriller last night to take a 3-0 series lead in the best of 7 series. That's the second round against the Carolina Hurricanes. It's the first time the Rangers have started a playoff run with seven straight wins since 1994. You know what that means. That was a year both the NICS and the Rangers went to the finals. And speaking of the NICs, they're in Indianapolis tonight, trying to take a 3-0 series lead themselves. against the Indiana Paceous. They'll tip things off there at 7 o'clock. 50 with rain, as we said.

Rain today in a high near just 55. That's rather cool after what we've had the past few days. Rain and showers likely tonight we dip to the 40s. Watch out for coastal flooding late tonight in Brooklyn and Queens. Right now, 50 with rain. Stay close. There's more after the break. It's Friday. That means it's time for a weekly segment of On the Way, covering all things transportation with WMYC reporter Stephen Nesson and editor Clayton Guse. On WNMIC, I'm Sean Carlson. New York City can now officially lower its speed limit to 20 miles per hour.

Folks may have heard about Sammy's law. It was named in honor of a child who was killed by a driver more than a decade ago. It was included in the most recent state budget and Governor Hokel held a ceremonial signing. Stephen, you were there. Tell us about the law and the event. Well, just a quick reminder first. You know, the law, like you mentioned, does allow the city to change the speed limit from 25 miles per hour now down to 20 miles per hour without asking Albany to do it. They can do it themselves.

You know, for years, advocates have tried and failed to get this bill passed. Last year, several even held a hunger strike. But this year, Hockel got it done. And today, she stood with the group Families for Safe Streets, which was really formed after Sammy Cohen Eckstein, whom the bill is named after, died. He was 12 years old, hit by a truck driver on Prospect Park West near his home. His mom, Amy Cohen, leads the group, and she stood with Hokel, Mayor Adams, and other people who loved lost ones to traffic deaths. And they were at MS-51 in Park Slope. That's where Sammy went.

Here's Amy speaking today. So many may now know Sammy's name only because his life was cut short. And with this legislation, I hope we can learn more children's names because of their own. accomplishments, their personalities, and their spirit, not their final moments. Of course, now it is up to the Department of Transportation and Mayor Adams, who we should note doesn't have a strong record of sticking with planned street improvement projects. But the law goes into effect on June 19th, and if the city wants to change the speed limit, it does need a city council vote.

The DOT says it will have a plan ready on June 19th, and the advocates really do expect this will make a dent in traffic deaths in the city. Yeah, and they have a good reason to think so. You look at the data, you look at the research, what happens, the difference in getting hit by a car at 20 miles an hour and getting hit by a car at 25 miles an hour. The AAA has data showing you're 70% more likely to die, but that 25 mile an hour crash versus the 20 mile an hour crash. You're also just less likely to be hit. You can stop faster. You know, someone comes out of the road. You don't see them. You can stop faster if you're moving slower. simple physics. So there's a big reason for this. And, you know, this could turn around some kind of concerning trends on traffic deaths in the city because under Mayor Adams, we've seen under Vision

Zero, the city's program to make streets safer kind of things go in the opposite direction. The first three months of this year, there were 60, 60 people killed in crashes. That's more than any other start to the year. Census program launched 10 years ago. So there's a really kind of a good reasoning behind this why people have been so frustrated with its lack of passage in previous years and so excited that it passed today. One thing that we haven't really talked about during our segment, our cherished time together every week here, the city's taxi industry. Clayton, you noticed something very different on city streets recently.

Tell us more about it. Well, that's the thing. Not just me, a bunch of people in our newsroom. You look around, there's Tesla's all over the place. I have noticed that. is just Tesla's, Tesla's. They're all over the place. And a lot of them have taxi and limousine commission plates. I talk to my friends. They get NUBERS. They say they're they rode in a Tesla. So that's weird. And, you know, there might be some reason behind that. The Inflation Reduction

Act a couple years ago gave a bunch of subsidies to battery electric vehicles. Charging stations are going up all over the place. But there's also a regulatory reason. The TLC very briefly, last year under Mayor Adams lifted a cap on new for hire vehicle licenses. So this one's given out to Uber and Lyft, right? For just five days last November, to be precise. And they lifted the cap, but only if they're electric vehicles like a Tesla. So there was a cap that was put in place by Mayor de Blasio in 2019 to finally crack down on that flood of Uber and Lyft vehicles on city streets.

The Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents yellow cabs, which were hurt by the ride hail, apps sued to block Mayor Adams from lifting the cap. And a judge did issue an injunction stopping Adams move. But before that ruling came down, there were five days last year when the city allowed new licenses to be issued for four higher vehicles if they're electric. And it was like the floodgates opened. In those five days, the TLC reports over 8,000 people applied for a license for a new electric vehicle. And the reason Clayton is seeing so many Teslas is because about 80% of them We're Teslas. And I've never seen the city do something like that in five days. Yeah, totally, totally.

Well, this is the part that I'm very excited about because, Stephen, you actually went out, talk to some of these drivers? What is it like driving a Tesla for a taxi? So I stopped by this charging hub near 42nd Street. It's called Gravity. I went there because reportedly, it's the fastest chargers in the country. There are more than a dozen spaces for electrical vehicles to plug in and juice up. And while they're juicing up, they have time to chat. So I spoke with Lottie Jackson. He's 50 years old.

He's been a taxi driver for 24 years. He tells me he's driven every taxi in that time that's been around. The Crown Vic, the Ford Explorer. And he says, by far, the best vehicle is the Tesla. He says people even tap on the window trying to get in when he's clearly got a customer already. It's just crazy. Some people get in this car, they just said, oh, I just want to ride it for two blocks, three blocks, just to say they drove in a Tesla.

But not all Tesla owners were big fans. One driver I spoke with, he's had one since 2021, is pretty disappointed. And that's because he says his old Toyota was very easy to fix when something went wrong. They've got parts. The mechanics are easy enough. But when his Tesla gets dinged up or needs a fix, he's had to wait as long as a month for it to be repaired. That's a month he's not working. Other drivers complain there just aren't enough chargers around the city.

They used to go to the airport, but that's a long schlep. And drivers in the Bronx say there's just not enough chargers. there either, although the city is moving forward with some plans for new charging hubs, but it is kind of like a chicken and egg problem, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so there's a new report from the state controller, and it says that the MTA needs a lot more money to fix and upgrade the city's transit system. This is our favorite topic here on the way.

Clayton, isn't that what congestion pricing is supposed to do is raise revenue for mass transit? Right. This is a whole can of banana, so everyone just stay with me. to understand what congestion pricing pays for. You have to understand how the MTA plans its long-term construction projects, right? That's upgrades to subways, new train cars, fixing the old subways, the whole kit and caboodle. So they set up five-year capital plans, right? They establish a budget for it. It's passed by lawmakers. And that money is separate from the money that's used to run the system, right, to pay transit workers to run the subways. And each capital plan,

This previous one, the current one we're in, goes, ends this year. You know, it'll still keep going on. But they allocated money from 2020 to 2024. And that that relies on congestion pricing money. That relies on new taxes on mentions and internet sales that were approved five years ago. Okay, so they passed these dedicated taxes. And all those combined together to about $25 billion in funding for all this stuff we need. What the comptroller is saying is, hey, that that, that,

hot of $25 billion, you're not going to have that for the next plan. So as they're forming that, they're saying, the comptroller's saying, hey, where are you going to get this money? You know, we'll still have the congestion pricing money for all this stuff in the plan past five years ago. But when it comes to all these climate change and resiliency efforts and new trains and all the stuff that makes the city work and run, there's a really big concern over how we're going to pay for it. That's our WNIC transportation gurus. Editor Clayton Gozo and Transportation reporter Stephen Ness. And you can stay in the know in all things to transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for our weekly newsletter at gotthmus.com slash on the way.

Stephen Clayton, thanks so much. Thanks, Sean. Thank you. 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. See you this afternoon.