NYC NOW - Midday News: Another Manhattan Casino Plan Rejected, NYC Sees Rise in Public Urination Summonses, and New Jersey Approves Human Composting

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

Manhattan’s East Side casino proposal has been voted down, marking the third failed bid for a casino in the borough. Meanwhile, new city data shows public urination summonses have surged nearly fivefold in recent years. In Queens, a 13-year-old boy is in critical condition after being shot in the head outside a Dunkin’ store in Cambria Heights. And across the Hudson, New Jersey has legalized human composting as an alternative to burial and cremation, with families already beginning to use the new option.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, September 22nd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. There will be no casino in Manhattan this morning. Community Advisory Committee rejected plans to put a casino next to the United Nations on Manhattan's east side. The 42 vote marked the third Manhattan-based casino proposal to fail. Last week, a different set of community advisory panels rejected plans for a Caesar's Palace in Times Square as well as a casino set for the West Side. Five other casino proposals remain in contention for three downstate casino licenses.

They're expected to be awarded by the end of this year. It has been a rise in summons as in New York City for public urination. WNIC's Samantha Max reports. The NYPD issued almost five times. many public urination tickets between July 24 and June 2025 as between July 2021 through June 2022. That's according to data in a new city report. William Singleton says he recently tried to use the bathroom in a restaurant, but it was out of order. So he darted across the street and got a ticket. If I could have held it, I would have held it, but obviously I couldn't hold it. A judge ordered him to pay a $50 fine.

Police say a 13-year-old boy is in critical condition right now after someone shot him this morning outside a Dunkin Donuts store at Linden and Springfield Boulevard in Cambria Heights, Queens. They say the boy suffered a shot to his head and was taken to Cohen Children's Medical Center for Treatment. Police are investigated. We're at 69 with partly sunny skies right now on the way to a mostly sunny day with the high of 75 and fall begins this afternoon at 2.5. 19. Stay close. There's more after the break. It's all things considered on double the NYC. I'm Sean Carlson. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy recently signed a bill into law that would allow the composting of human bodies as an alternative to cremation and traditional burial. Families can choose to scatter or plant the soil that comes out

of it or send it to local conservation sites where it's used for reforestation or growing trees. Joining us now to talk more about it are Samantha Link, the director of Government Affairs for the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association, and Diane Thompson-Staniel, a resident of New Jersey, whose husband went through the human composting process this year. Samantha, we're going to start with you. For folks who don't know what exactly human composting is, can you just tell us about it? How does the process work? How long does it take? Natural organic reduction, as it's called in New Jersey, is the process of supervised, controlled decomposition of human remains into a soil-like product.

The intent of the bill was to provide consumers a new option when it comes to their death care. Traditionally, we've had burial or cremation. So the process involves laying a decedent into a vessel along with organic material like wood chips, straw, alfalfa, and then once the vessel is closed, the combination of the decedents, air, moisture, and the temperature breaks down pathogens and decomposes the body into a compost-like product. Now, Diane, as we mentioned, you helped your late husband, Kenneth, go through the process earlier this year. Can you tell us more about what led him to come to the decision to do that? Oh, sure, yeah. It was actually a friend of ours that had either heard about or read about Earth funeral in Washington State.

So he contacted us because he knew we were vacillating. We didn't know what we wanted to do for our end-of-life wishes. We didn't want to have a funeral. we didn't want to be cremated, and we didn't know there was another alternative. So we decided to look up Earth funeral. We found out everything we needed to know, and then we revised our will and added it to it. Ironically, Ken passed away just a few months later in the middle of the night, and I contacted Earth right away.

They asked me for the name of the local funeral home. I put them together, and they did everything from there. I didn't have to do one thing. They coordinated with each other. And we also thought about the fact that caskets are enormously expensive, and so are the limousines and the programs and a tombstone and everything else. And this actually turned out to be a lot more financially easy. Now, Samantha, this idea that we compost people who have passed away is relatively new.

Like, it was conceived in 2011 and it slowly gained popularity of the past few years. Washington State was the first state to legalize human composting. That was just back in 2019. Can you just give us more of the backstory of how this whole thing was conceived and how it has gained legalization in 14 states now? Apparently, this is what they do with animals all the time, larger animals, you know, horses, cows, things like. that. And the idea was, well, why can't we do this? You know, it is a more natural return to Earth. You know, there is some pushback from different people. This is not for everybody. But there are some religious individuals who think that this more aligns with their religion because it is a more natural return to Earth without the interventions of chemical embalming or, you know, the emissions that would result from flame cremation. Diane, can you tell us what you did with your late husband's soil? I have it in my houseplants.

I didn't put any outside, of course, because it attracts animals because it's compost. So I have it in my houseplants. And I sent some to his family in different parts of the country. We spent so much time together. We were married 26 years, and for the last few years, He was sick. So we were together all the time in the house. And that's the feeling I get when I see my plant.

It's like there's a sense of life in the house. I talk to it. I say good morning. I even tell it where I'm going when I go out. That's kind of crazy. But that's the relaxing feeling that it gives me. And it's interesting because like I said, this plant was drooping. It was dying.

And Ken couldn't stand it. Every day he'd tell me to get rid of it. In fact, he had unethical name for it. Okay, okay. And I said, now I'm not going to get rid of it. It's not yellow yet. And so when the compost came back, it was from Earth Funeral. It was the first plant that I put any compost in.

It's standing up to the ceiling. So, you know, talk about a honey-do list. Absolutely. This is his job. Save the plant. You didn't. I understand that everybody is not for this. I know the Catholic Church is not.

And ironically, Ken was Catholic, but he just wanted to do something that was more organically friendly. And so do I. I'm going to do the same thing. Now, Samantha, some people might be uncomfortable with the idea of, say, for example, you buy a home, right? and you find out that somebody put this human compost soil like in the lawn or something like that, you know, and that talking about the yick factor, that might be something that would freak somebody out. Are the regulations in New Jersey about how the soil can be used?

So that's the process we're going through right now. The law was just signed last week. Now our New Jersey State Board of Mortuary Science is going through the process of developing the regulations that will surround this law. We are the garden state, but we want to make sure that we are using this product. properly. That will include, you know, just as we do with cremains that result from cremation, right, with ashes. We have regulations on where those ashes can and cannot be placed, such as beaches or parks. It is written that the preferred place of disposition for this product in New Jersey will be cemeteries, but families will be able to take home the product to do with that as they

will. Now, I will say the product that comes out of natural organic reduction is significantly more than an urnful of ashes. So depending on the size of the decedent, it can be up to a cubic yard of soil, the back of a pickup truck, which some families say that they enjoy because that means, you know, not one person can have a piece of their loved one, but many can. And we've seen all different ideas of what to do with the soil. There are some states that have a dedicated nature preserve in a state park where, you know, they can receive the product and cemeteries have a set aside for, you know, a more natural area of the cemetery, which some, again, just conceptually find more appealing to come to a place like that rather than a place like a cemetery. So people have gotten really inventive with what to do with the product.

Diane, you mentioned that your husband was Catholic and that the Catholic Church does not approve of this. Is that an issue that you dealt with with Kenneth's family? And can you tell us how you dealt with it? And what advice would you give others who are going through that? No, they didn't make it an issue because they knew that this was what he wanted to do. He was a funny guy. And, I mean, he literally said after we learned more about Earth Funeral, he said to me, I don't want to be cremated because how long can you keep an urn on the mantle? It's not decorative, and you know how you are.

Well, we don't even have a mantle, but his point was well taken. And I tell you what it did for me, it gave me a sense of I didn't have to say goodbye right away. It's a feeling of life in the house. That was Samantha Link, the Director of Government Affairs for the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association, and Diane Thompson Stanciel, a resident of New Jersey whose husband went through the human composting process this year. Thanks so much to both of you. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC

now from WNYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.