NYC NOW - May 6, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

The New York City Council began its formal review of Mayor Eric Adams’ $112 billion spending plan for the city’s next fiscal year. Advocates say the cuts to local parks would eliminate up to 700 jobs for maintaining the city's parks, playgrounds and recreation areas. Also, WNYC’s Michael Hill and David Brand discuss federal investigations into Mayor Adams and what they mean. And finally, we highlight the Weeksville Heritage Center in Crown Heights, Brooklyn -- one of New York City's many neighborhood gems.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. The New York City Council began its formal review of Mayor Eric Adams' $112 billion spending plan for the city's next fiscal year, which starts in July. Council committees will hold a series of hearings at City Hall on the proposed budget through May 22nd. Members of the public are invited to testify on how the city's. should spend New Yorkers tax dollars. Those interested can sign up at the council's website to testify in person, in writing, or via Zoom. The proposed budget includes cuts for local parks, and park advocates are not pleased.

Here's WMYC's Julia Hayward. Advocates say the cuts and an ongoing hiring freeze would eliminate up to 700 jobs for maintaining the city's parks, playgrounds, and recreation areas. Adam Genser heads the group New Yorkers for Parks. He says that with summer coming up, the mayor's spending plan is a slap in the face. These budget cuts are going to affect every line, every staffing line in the Parks Department, and ultimately they're going to impact every New Yorker's experience of our city's parks. Adams made a campaign promise to dedicate 1% of the city's overall budget to parks,

but currently it's at only half of 1%. The mayor's office commented and said it intends to reach its goal eventually. Federal investigations are swirling around Mayor Adams. After the break, we'll explain why they matter. Stick around for that story and more. Six months have passed since FBI agents raided the home of Mayor Eric Adams' top fundraiser. And since that time, the cases have been piling up. He's facing four investigations into his fundraising, along with a sexual

assault claim. My colleague Michael Hill talked with WNYC's David Brand for a refresher on the cases and explain why they matter. David, would you talk us through some of the investigations and tell us what prosecutors are looking for? Sure thing, Michael. So let's start with the investigation in the Southern District of New York. That's the Manhattan Federal Prosecutor's Office. So six months ago, you might recall, federal agents raided the homes of Adams' campaign fundraiser, along with a city hall aide, a former executive at Turkish Airlines, and the offices of a construction company with ties to the Turkish government. A few days later, they actually stopped the mayor on the street, seized his phone and iPad, and that was seen as a serious

escalation and actually a pretty shocking one. They appear to be investigating fundraising and potential influence by the Turkish government or Turkish nationals, and that would be illegal, potentially. So along with that, there are two other investigations in the Eastern District of New York. That's the federal prosecutor's office covering Brooklyn and Queens. One of those investigations is into his close advisor, Winnie Greco. She's a key fundraiser and liaison in the Chinese community. But back in February, the FBI raided her home in the Bronx. The other was targeting a Chinese billionaire who actually pleaded guilty to funneling illegal campaign contributions to Adams through other people who he then reimbursed.

That's known as a straw donor scheme, and it's illegal. Straw donors are also the subject of the fourth investigation from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. The Manhattan DA has charged six people as straw donors, including a former NYPD colleague of Adams. And so far, four of those people have pleaded guilty. David, has the mayor himself been accused of any wrongdoing? No, we have to make clear here.

Adams has not been accused of wrongdoing with the campaign finance cases. the full scope of these investigations are often unclear until they come to a conclusion with indictments. But he's facing some other problems. He has been directly accused in a lawsuit alleging sexual assault. He denies the claim and he says he doesn't even know the accuser. Would you talk us through that case? What are the allegations? So in that case, a former transit police colleague is suing Adams. She says back in 1993, she asked him for help advocating for her for a promotion. And this was back time when Adams was an outspoken reformer and advocate for fellow black officers in the NYPD.

She says she went to him for help. He drove her to a vacant lot, demanded oral sex, and forced her to touch his penis. Again, Adams denies this. How has Adams responded to all of these cases? Well, he's hiring a number of high-powered attorneys to represent him, either personally or having the city hire them. So New York City retained a celebrity attorney named Alex Spiro. He's known for being very aggressive. He's represented people like Elon Musk, Jay-Z. He'll be defending Adams in the sexual assault lawsuit. He's also hiring the prominent law firm Wilmer Hale to rep him in the Southern District investigation. So that's the one that appears to be investigating those apparent ties to

Turkish government and Turkish officials. And recently, the administration floated Randy Mastro to take over his corporation counsel. That's the top attorney for the city. If that's a familiar name to a lot of listeners, it's because he's a former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani. He represents a lot of corporations in cases, and he takes on a number of controversial cases as well. He's representing landlords who are suing to end rent stabilization. He's also now representing New Jersey in a lawsuit to stop congestion pricing. This all sounds pretty expensive. Now, how was the mayor paying for his legal bills?

Well, it is expensive, and there's a couple ways. So first, he set up a legal defense fund soliciting cash. to pay for the private attorneys. So far, that's raised over $1.2 million. When it comes to the sexual assault lawsuit, taxpayers are footing the bill for his defense. And, you know, anytime taxpayers are paying the bill for, you know, personal defense, that's going to be controversial. But my colleague, Liz Kim, talked to good government groups about this. And one expert, John Caney from Reinvent Albany, says he thinks it's actually better that way because, you know, instead of having the mayor spend his time trying to get donors who might then try to cash in favors down the road, having this funded by the government by taxpayers might be a better solution.

With all this, I'm sure there are folks wondering, how has this affected the mayor's political future? Well, that's unclear. I mean, he's the incumbent and an incumbent, especially Democrat in New York City, is going to have a huge advantage when it comes to reelection. And usually the primaries are just a formality in that case. But I think it all really will depend on the outcomes of these investigations. and if there's more revelations, if there's an indictment, that would be a serious problem. At the same time, the mayor has been polling really poorly lately. And so so far one serious Democrat, former city controller, Scott Stringer is running and has begun campaigning. Others are probably waiting to see if the mayor gets indicted or what happens next.

But I guess we're going to see what the political fortunes are. That's WMYC's David Brandt talking with my colleague Michael Hill. New York City is known for its iconic cultural institutions like the Met and MoMA, but it's also home to many smaller neighborhood gyms. We've been highlighting these treasures across the five boroughs for the past few weeks. Today, we pay a visit to a center in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, that's built around one of America's first free black communities during the 19th century. My name is Dr. Raymond Codrington. I'm the president and CEO of Weeksville Heritage Center, and I've lived in Brooklyn for 17 years. Weeksville Heritage Center is both an historic site as well as a cultural institution. Weeksville was the second largest free black community in the pre-Civil War era.

We have houses from the mid-1800s in combination with a very contemporary arts, education and culture building, as well as a beautiful green space. What you're able to learn about Brooklyn history, about Brooklyn's Black history, about free black community, about free black communities is actually incredible. And then for the same institution to be able to offer contemporary arts, culture, and education programming, it's very unique. We also have an opportunity to serve in different ways

the community's needs and engage the community in different ways, whether that be acting as a polling site, COVID vaccination and through vaccination site. It's always been a place where a community has salt refuge. The neighborhood is changing, so I think for us, We're thinking about ways in which we can create more access as people become displaced. As fewer black spaces exist, people are being pushed out.

So I feel Weeksville can be that resource. You can come back, you can come home. You can have a space where you can experience firsthand black history, art, culture, education, in a safe space. For me, Weeksville is not only changing, but it's also reflecting the very reasons that it was created and that was to allow

access to pretty safe space and oasis for black folks. Dr. Raymond Codlington is the president and CEO of the Weeksville Heritage Center in Crown Heights, one of New York City's many neighborhood gems. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.