NYC NOW - May 30, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

The Asian American Federation in New York is warning of a mental health crisis throughout Asian communities in the city. Plus, a new report finds that leaders of city jails are withholding information about grisly incidents at Rikers Island. And finally, thousands of New York City buildings are still burning dirty fuels. WNYC’s David Brand and Rosemary Misdary look into the issue as owners struggle with a looming ban.

Good evening and welcome to NYC now. I'm Junae Pierre for WNYC. The anti-Asian violence, the joblessness, the homelessness, all of this, it is creating a crisis, and we have to talk about this. The executive director of the Asian American Federation in New York is warning of a mental health crisis throughout Asian communities in the city. Joanne Yu says getting help is a challenge. With our mental health, the next Asian-led, Asian-serving, Asian clinicians who are

speak an Asian language, they've said, you know, before I wait used to be like, you know, you can get an appointment two, three weeks. Now it's months, right? They are overwhelmed. They are swamped. The rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic has created more awareness of the need for mental health support, but providers haven't kept up with the demand. For details on mental health support available to Asian Americans, check out our story at gotamist.com. In a new report, the federal monitor overseeing Rikers Island, a legislative that leaders of city jails are withholding information about deadly incidents. It also found that they're failing to investigate officers' lethal use of force and neglecting to provide emergency medical care.

WNYC's Matt Katz has more. The Monitor's special report filed in federal court takes aim at correction commissioner Louis Molina over five incidents in city jails in May alone, including a detainee in his 80s with cognitive impairment who ended up in the intensive care unit after officers used force on him. A detainee left paralyzed after officers took him down because he ran out of an elevator, and a detainee assaulted by other detainees who was then left naked and alone and ignored by staff before finally being hospitalized with injuries so severe he had to have his spleen removed. Defense attorneys have renewed calls to have the jails taken over by the federal government. Stick around. There's more after the break. In New York City, some buildings still

the dirtiest power source allowed by law. Number four, fuel oil. It's a mix of diesel and the lowest quality crude oil. The resulting pollution produces greenhouse gases and worsens health conditions like asthma and heart disease. Landlords have only four years left to transition to natural gas or electric, but switching heat sources is expensive.

WNYC's Rosemary Mistairie and David Brann report. For over a decade, the tenants in an apartment building on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx have endured the coldest winter months. That's thanks to a 5,000-gallon tank of number four fuel oil in the basement. It looks like a submarine, and that's what generates our fuel and our heat to keep the tenants warm and happy. That's landlord Vinnie Jonae.

The tank powers a U-hole-sized boiler that serves his 78-unit building, but it spews nearly 300 metric tons of carbon dioxide during an average winter. In terms of weight, that's like pumping 50 T-Rex dinosaurs into the air. Landlords basically have two options, electric or natural gas. Joan Ice says his switch to gas has been bumpy and time-consuming. Gas job is about six years. We're six years in. But we had a halt because of the documentation on the boiler and burner installation.

A lot of red tape. Those kinds of headaches may soon become more common. This winter, the New York City Council and Mayor Eric Adams moved up the time table for a ban on number four oil in residential buildings. Jonah's building is one of about 3,000 that must transition away from fuel oil by 2027. Matthew Bremer is the president of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He cites other challenges. When you're talking about replacing fuel furnaces and the like, is there's usually

significant ancillary work to be performed around it. You might be redoing duck work. You have to get a giant old oil tank out of a basement or a subseller. In New York City, that can mean shelling out a lot of money. Whether it's a rental building with a landlord who very often just is not interested in upgrading, cheating for obvious financial reasons, or for cooperatives condos, It can be a hugely expensive proposition. Joe Nye has already spent over $100,000 for his building's fuel conversion,

funding it almost entirely on his own dime. He says the city does offer some assistance, but adds, it's not nearly enough. So what kind of support are you getting from the city to do this now that it's law that you have to switch? Nothing at all. We get some little rebates and incentive they give us $2,500 to $3,000. finances are part of the reason that building still burning fuel oil are concentrated in upper Manhattan and the Bronx. The residential profile of the communities tends to be where there are more people of color living

and lower income people. Then there are health consequences. Diana Hernandez is a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Air pollution has a lot of adverse health impacts, some of them around cardiovascular health, respiratory health, birth outcomes. Air pollution is the fourth leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide. Daniel Carillon is a researcher at the Yale School of Public Health. He was the lead author in a 2018 study that found more than half of these buildings are

north of 110th Street. It still ended up being the case that some of the poorest parts of the city still haven't transitioned. And then if you live in a smaller home, then that means any air pollution that you have inside of your home, the concentrations get higher because, of course, it's a smaller space. Burning fuel oil produces a long list of pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, as well as toxic heavy metals like lead and nickel. But the most dangerous on the list is fine particulate matter. Some of those particles can get deep down into our lungs, and then a

subset of those particles can actually make it into our bloodstream. And they can get to systemic circulation and impact almost every single part of our body. Fine particulate matter is also associated with childhood asthma. In high-density areas that are burning fuel oil, breathing in pollution can result in overall poorer health for a neighborhood. Chronic exposure to air pollution can compromise your immune system. People who have chronically high air pollution exposures are also more likely to have chronic diseases, and those chronic diseases are what make them potentially more susceptible to adverse

outcomes from COVID. The pollutants not only sick in human health, they exacerbate global warming. Carbon dioxide and black carbon, also known as soot, are greenhouse gases. Ritting New York City of number four fuel oil is part of the city's multi-phase plan to ban combustion in buildings. The next fuel to go will be natural gas. It will be prohibited for new buildings next year to meet the city's goal of zero-emission energy by 2040. That's WNYC's Rosemary Miss Derry and David Brand.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday. Three times a day. We'll be back tomorrow.