NYC NOW - May 12, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

We have an update on Daniel Penny, the man accused of choking fellow subway rider Jordan Neely to death last week on the F train. Also, it’s been a year since Texas Governor Greg Abbott started busing migrants to New York City and officials are expecting many more. Mayor Eric Adams’ office is still scrambling for places to house new arrivals. WNYC’s Sean Carlson and Arya Sundaram talk about the city’s response so far and what to expect going forward. Plus, we venture to the Paradise Community Garden in Jamaica, Queens to wrap up our weeklong garden hop.

Good evening and welcome to NYC now. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. Daniel Penny, the man accused of choking fellow sobri rider Jordan Neely to death last week on the F train, is out on bond. Penny was arraigned earlier today at Manhattan Criminal Court on a manslaughter charge. He turned himself into police this morning. Penny's attorneys say Neely's death was unintended and that they expect him to be exonerated. The next step in the case is a grand jury, which will evaluate the evidence gathered so far and decide whether or not to indict Penn. It's been about a year since Texas Governor Greg Abbott started busing migrants to New York City, and officials are expecting many more. Mayor Eric Adams' office is still scrambling for places to house new arrivals.

But lawmakers and nonprofits say the city's approach hasn't changed much since last year, describing that as a months-long black box of chaos and confusion. I spoke with WNYC reporter Ariasundrum about the city's response so far and what to expect going forward. Our conversation after the break. What are the biggest challenges facing the city right now on this? Many people have called this whole situation, this influx of migrants, a migrant crisis. But, you know, at least for the city right now, it's really become a shelter and a budget crisis. You know, that's really exposed and intensified, longerstanding issues that have been here prior to the migrants even coming.

And anyone who lives in New York City has a right to a bed for the night. And to its credit, the city has rapidly expanded the homeless shelter system, which was already. overcrowded to accommodate a record high number of people. You know, it mostly meant finding hotels over 120 at this point. But that's really eaten into the city's budget, which was already facing a tax revenue shortfall in the first place. And the city's already spent about a billion so far on caring for migrants, mostly on the shelter costs.

And that price tag is supposed to rise to $4 billion by June of next year. What role are nonprofits playing and how the city is responding to what they're saying as a crisis? The city and really the country is relying on charities, relying on Good Samarit. that are stretched thinner every single day. You know, they're the ones who are taking on the lion's share of greeting new arrivals, getting them clothes and other basic necessities, helping them navigate the whole legal system. How are asylum seekers feeling about all of this?

At this point, a year into this, they're stuck in limbo. You know, some have found places to stay long term, but most are living in hotels, like I said, are other temporary sites. You know, many don't even have laundry or kitchen appliances. And their biggest request at this point is a job, you know, a way to legally support themselves and their families, but it could take months and even years to apply for asylum, which would kickstart their process of them getting work permits to legally work here. Now, as we said, the city is preparing itself for more migrants. A lot of big changes happening.

Has anything changed in the last year in how it responds? And what could New Yorkers see in the coming weeks? The city's approach hasn't changed much. Lately, the city has been receiving about 200 people per day, and that number could go up to over 1,000 with the end of Title 42. And when I'm I asked the administration about what they're doing now to prepare. They said they're still scrambling to find places that people can stay, which is where they were last year, you know, renting out hotels upstate, as you mentioned, considering erecting more tense in Central Park. And Mayor Adams put out a blueprint in March with a list of longer-term strategies that he was trying to tackle with all

of this, but we're still waiting on some of the key policies in that blueprint. Like, for example, there was a dedicated office to manage new arrivals in a 24-7 arrival center instead of the current makeshift setup run by volunteers at Port Authority, but those still haven't materialized. Why has Mayor Adams not implemented these things that he talked about two months ago? They say they're still struggling to keep up with the short term at this point. You know, lawmakers across the political spectrum, including Mayor Adams, are pointing blame at the state and especially the federal government. Here's Councilmember Bob Holden, who's a moderate Democrat from Queens.

The city is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The mayor is banging now the Biden administration to do something, but we're not hearing any answers. We're not hearing any plans. In those higher level governments, the federal government, the state government, will soon be chipping in money, but that'll only cover a fraction of the city's total costs and all this. And if they won't give more money, what Adams at least wants is a plan from Congress or President Biden, you know, mostly just to expedite this work permit process so these people can support themselves and eventually move out of city shelters. So assuming the federal government doesn't intervene here? Is there anything else the city can do?

Immigration law and the work permit process like we talked about is in the federal domain. So that's up to Congress and that's up to Biden. But several elected officials and advocates are telling me that the city really could take more steps to alleviate the strain on the whole safety net system at this point, which could help not only the budget and the shelter system, but also migrants too. So for example, that might mean really getting serious about finally moving people who have been in shelter for years and years into longer term housing by expanding the voucher system. example. And the comptroller, Bradlander has said the need to do these kinds of solutions

become even more dire with the end of Title 42. And we don't stand up this thing we could do on our own that will help people get work authorization and move out of shelter. That would be very short-sighted. But the city says it's still struggling to keep up. That's WNIC reporter Aria Sundaro. It's Friday, which means it is our last installment in our community garden series. These green spaces play an important role in bringing people together and providing access to fresh fruits and vegetables. WNYC has been crisscrossing the five boroughs all week long to meet some of the volunteers who work in them. A lot of people need therapy. This is what you need.

You need to come out to Paradise and sit down and meditate. My name is Sonia Ferraro. I'm the founder of Paradise Community Garden, located in Jamaica, Queens. It was founded in 2020. just at the beginning of the pandemic. There was a lot of debris in here, a lot of garbage, embedded stuff in the ground. But to me, I just saw beauty and a lot of potential. And we grew watermelon, cantaloupe, pocchoy, collard greens, sugar cane.

My parents are from Jamaica. We always garden. As a child, I was always in the garden with my parents. It was fun. It was fun growing up. There were fruit trees in the backyard. I'm from a farming family. So when we would go back to Jamaica, as children, we would go to the country to visit the family and the farm and all the fruits.

And I was just very active just doing stuff on the farm. Being familiar with the land, it just came as second nature. So I've always gotten, always at my house. and I've gotten in a community garden. I like community gardens because you meet people. You get to talk about plants and you share. We find pleasure in watching a plant sprout or waiting for weeks and then all of a sudden it bursts through the soil.

It's a culturally diverse community. There's so many new foods that now I eat regularly that I would not have grown but because my neighbor gardener in the bed next to me might be growing something like yard-long beans or kabusha. It's nice to share the company of people who have the same feelings about the earth and the land and plants. Sonia Ferraro is the founder of Paradise Community Garden in Jamaica, Queens, and this is NYC now from WNYC. If you like what we're doing, subscribe, leave a review, and share widely. We want to make sure to thank our small but mighty production team. It includes Sean Boutich, Ave Carrillo, Audrey Cooper, Lyora Noam Cravitz, Jared Marcel, Jemet Pierre, and Wayne Schomeister, with the help from the entire WMIC Newsroom.

Our show art was designed by the people at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrato. I'm Sean Carlson. We'll be back Monday.