NYC NOW - Midday News: Airport Delays Mount Amid Federal Shutdown, Heating Aid Applications Postponed, and Early Voting Begins in New York City

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

LaGuardia Airport is reporting inbound flight delays of more than an hour, with similar slowdowns at JFK and Newark, as air traffic controllers work without pay during the month-long federal shutdown. Meanwhile, the same shutdown is delaying New York State’s heating assistance program until at least November 17th, leaving low-income residents waiting for help. And early voting is underway in New York City, where WNYC’s David Brand breaks down a ballot proposal to digitize the city’s paper map archives.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, October 30th. Here's the midday news from Veronica Del Valle. LaGuardia Airport is reporting inbound flight delays of more than an hour. The Federal Aviation Administration is blaming current wind speeds. There are also some delays for JFK airports departing flights because of high traffic. Over in New Jersey, the FAA issued a ground stop for Norke Airport late in the afternoon yesterday for about 45 minutes. The administration says that that was due to staffing shortages.

Flights seem to be on or close to schedule now. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says travelers will start to see more flights delayed and canceled as the nation's air traffic controllers work without pay during the shutdown. New Yorkers who need help paying for their heating bills will have to wait longer to apply. W.NIC's Julia Hayward reports. According to the New York State Comptroller, more than a million New Yorkers used the state's home energy assistance program last year

to help cover heating or cooling costs. But this year, the federal government shutdown is delaying applications. The program won't open until at least November 17th. Governor Kathy Hockel says the shutdown is hurting low-income residents who rely on government support. She calls it a needless disruption to essential services.

A look at the weather right now, 59 and showers at the moment with tons of wind expect flooding throughout the day. Today, showers and rain, heavy at times, maybe some mid-afternoon thunderstorms. The high will be at about 61, and some places could get as much as two inches of rain. Tonight, more chances of showers and some thunderstorms, a low of around 50. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. Voters are already lining up for the polls in New York City

with early voting well underway. Aside from the high-profile mayor's race this year, New Yorkers are also casting their votes on several ballot initiatives. Here to talk us through one of these proposals, which combine thousands of paper city maps into a single online one. It's WNYC's housing reporter, David Brandt, All right, David, what exactly would this initiative change? So the city has about 8,000 official paper maps that are currently kept in offices around the five boroughs in Burrow Hall in each borough.

And some of them date back to the 19th century. So it's a fun bit of history, pretty cool, but it's also pretty inefficient. So this proposal is a technical fix that would make all those old musty maps digital. Who does this most impact? Well, the main goal here is to speed up the planning and rezoning process for things like infrastructure and housing projects, some of which can be pretty complicated and time intensive and do occasionally cross borough boundaries. So this is meant to make it easier for developers and city planners to propose land use changes without having to dig out the decades old paper maps. And that is supposed to save time and energy for developers, their consultants, and also city officials. So they don't have to find the map carve out specific lots and then report back.

Are there any arguments against making the map digital? Well, there are a few. So Staten Island Borough President Vito Fasela, Council Member Robert Holden of Queens, have both spoken out against the proposal saying they don't think the city's planning commission can handle the digitization. process. They also say something would be lost by taking this role out of the hands of local officials. And then there's one other reason that people are posing this one. It kind of gets lumped in with other more controversial proposals on the ballot. And so it's easier for opponents of those to just say vote no down the line instead of picking out specific ones. That's WNYC's David Brand. David,

thanks for joining us on this. Thanks a lot, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now. from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep times and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.