NYC NOW - Midday News: Car Thefts Drop in NYC, Rainy New Year’s Eve Forecast, and NJ Affordability Concerns

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Car thefts in New York City fell nearly 10% in 2024, reversing years of steady increases, according to NYPD data. The National Weather Service predicts rain across the region for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, New Jersey’s minimum wage is set to rise by 36 cents in 2025, but advocates say many residents still struggle to make ends meet. WNYC’s Michael Hill talks with Stephanie Hoopes of the United Way of Northern New Jersey about the ongoing affordability challenges.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, December 30th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Car thefts dipped by nearly 10% in New York City in 2024. This is according to NYPD data. It followed several years of steady increases. Robert Sinclair is with the American Automobile Association.

He attributes that in part to fewer people leaving their key fobs in their cars. Sinclair also says car makers made improvements to the onboard computer software. There has been a significant software update and they even have a sticker that you can put in your window to indicate that you have that software update. But the problem has not gone away. New York City still has double the number of car thefts compared to five years ago. The year is set to end on a wet, if warm, note. The National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Redell says New Year's Eve and the region will likely be a rainy affair.

We do bring in a rain chance late tomorrow evening into Tuesday night with another round of rain coming Tuesday night into New Year's Day. Low tomorrow night, about 45. So for folks that are heading out, it's Times Square, it's looking a little bit rainy, but at least it'll be on the warmer side. On New Year's day, temperatures are forecast to stay in the low 50s, with skies gradually clearing, though there could be some light. winds. Redell says it'll be one of the last warm days before it cools down later in the week. What kind of a cool down? We're talking about high temperatures in the 30s on this weekend. So it's going to be cold. Stay close. There's more after the break.

In the new year, the minimum wage in New Jersey will go up by 37. cents, that's to $15.49.49 an hour. In New York City, Long Island, and Westchester, the minimum wage for most workers will rise to $16.50 an hour, but advocates say many people making way more than that still struggle to make ends meet. Stephanie Hoops is with the nonprofit United Way of Northern New Jersey, and she joins us now. Dr. Hoops, you are the national director of a group that United Way calls United for Alice. Tell us, please, what is Al-Whorpe? Alice in this context? So Alice is an acronym that stands for asset limited, income constrained, employed. And we all know Alice, perhaps not by name, but I bet most of your listeners have already run into

several Alice workers this morning, getting their coffee, dropping their child off at child care, the security guard, the bank teller, so many people that we need to keep our economy running smoothly and yet struggle to support their families. What makes Alice? then perhaps a different marker, a better marker in this case, than the federal poverty level? So the federal poverty level is the same number across the country, and it really hasn't been updated since Lyndon Johnson created it as a measure for his war on poverty. So it doesn't take into the difference between the cost of living in southern New Jersey versus Metro, New York, let alone Manhattan to Mississippi. What we calculate is the bare minimum.

to live and work in every county in the country, and then how many households earn below that. So it takes into account the difference in the cost of living, but also the difference in what wages pay in different locations. For example, in Somerset County, New Jersey, for a family of four, two kids in child care, it can total $118,000. It's even more than that when you look in at Manhattan at about $136,000. The federal poverty level for a family of four is less than $30,000. So really irrelevant when you're looking at those bare minimum costs of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, a small technology line, and then Alice pays taxes. And your listeners know all those items add up. And those who are considered Alice

don't always benefit from public assistance, do they? Well, that's one of the things with the federal poverty level. Most public assistance is linked to that and not to the actual. cost of living. New Jersey has until recently been viewed as a less expensive alternative to New York City, and it has been for a while, especially places like Jersey City. But we spoke to some people recently who feel that has changed to a degree. Raya Kalara works as a nurse. She's a Jersey City resident now, but she used to live in Queens. Seven years ago, we decided to move here in Jersey City because we were thinking we can save more regarding the rentals and everything here. It's a lot of less expensive during that time. It's so hard to, you know, to live comfortably, even though

that you really work hard. Because what is happening for most people I know, even with all my friends that lives here in Jersey, it's just like a paycheck to paycheck salary, you know. And Kalaritolda she's had to cut out some non-essential expenses from her family's budget to keep up with her bills. Dr. Hoops, zooming in on housing as an expense here, how common would you say her experiences across New Jersey? Well, we are hearing across the country that housing, especially at the low end, is increasing, and New Jersey is no exception. When you look at rent, especially for small units and low-cost units, they're increasing faster than other size units and higher-cost living units. So I think her story, unfortunately, is fairly common.

We also spoke with charter school teacher, Catherine Ben Cosme. Now, she lives in an affordable housing unit in Jersey City's Journal Square. She says her rent has barely gone up since she moved in a few years ago. We asked her if her salary has increased. It has by the same percentage of inflation, which I think is like 5%. That's the protocol that they use at my job to determine salary increases. I don't think that's a good reflection of what the situation is like. overall. Dr. Hoops, given what we're hearing here, is there too much importance put on minimum wages

to help alleviate some of the financial pressures people are facing? So minimum wage is certainly one tactic, and we know that Alice would benefit from an increase in wages. But I think the story that Catherine was sharing is very important that CPI... And CPI is a consumer price index. Exactly. It's often used to increase things like wages. with the Alice Essentials Index, we track the costs of just the basics, and we see that those costs are increasing faster than CPI. Dr. Hoops on your website, you have a wage tool. What does that do? So on United forales.org, we have a terrific tool that you can go and look at your state or

your county and put in any different hourly wage, so $14, $15, $16 an hour, and then you can choose your family type. So for example, since we've been talking about minimum wage around the $15 level, you could put $15 for a family of two with one worker and one child, and you would see that there is no county in the country where that wage would support just that basic Alice household survival budget. Dr. Stephanie Hoops is the National Director of United for Alice at the nonprofit United Way of Northern New Jersey. Dr. Hoops, thank you for this. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for listening.

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