NYC NOW - Midday News: Carriage Horse Dies in Hell’s Kitchen, JFK Adds Truck Parking, and Harlem Legionnaires’ Outbreak Grows

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

A 15-year-old carriage horse named Lady collapsed and died on a Hell’s Kitchen street Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Port Authority has broken ground on a new truck parking plaza at JFK Airport to reduce congestion in southeast Queens. Plus, New York City health officials are urging residents in Central Harlem to remain alert for signs of Legionnaires’ disease, as the outbreak in the area grows to 67 cases and three deaths. Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse joins us with the latest.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, August 5th. Here's the midday news from David First. Officials say a 15-year-old carriage horse named Lady collapsed and died yesterday afternoon on a busy Hell's Kitchen Street. It happened just blocks from where a horse named Ryder fell in 2022, sparking a citywide debate over animal welfare. Now some advocates are renewing calls to ban horse-drawn carriages altogether. Edita Bernkrant is the executive director of the Animal Rights Group, NY Class. New Yorkers are sick and tired of seeing horses work to death on our streets.

The NYPD is investigating the collapse. No arrests have been made. The Port Authority is starting work on a new truck parking plaza at JFK Airport. Officials say it will triple the number of available spaces and help keep trucks. off neighborhood streets in southeast Queens. Queensland, President Donovan Richards, says the project addresses a long-standing problem. One of the definitions of insanity

is to keep doing the same thing over and over again. And we know that for a lot of the truckers, unfortunately in the companies, that this was just the course of doing business, eating the tickets, partially because the infrastructure was not put in place. The plaza will add amenities like bathrooms and food options for the truckers,

Officials expect the new parking area to open in late 2026. The State Department of Environmental Conservation says air quality will be unhealthy for people in some sensitive groups today throughout much of northern and central New York. That's due to wildfire smoke coming down to our region from Canada. Around New York City, Long Island and the Adirondacks, the air quality will be moderate. Stay tuned for more after the break. NYCC New York City's health department continues to urge people who live or work in Central Harlem

to look out for flu-like symptoms that could be Legionaire's disease. The city says at least 67 people have gotten sick and three people have died from an ongoing outbreak in the area. With us now is the city's Health Commissioner, Dr. Michelle Morse. Commissioner, many people in and around Central Harlem are likely on edge and wondering if they were at risk for legionaires. So what symptoms should people be looking out for?

We are really concerned about Central Harlem. There are five zip codes specifically that may be impacted by this cluster of Legionnaires cases. And the symptoms that we are asking the people who live in these five zip codes in Central Harlem to look out for are number one. If they're having any flu-like symptoms, that would be things like cough, trouble breathing, fever, muscle aches, those kinds of symptoms should cause anyone living in those zip codes to immediately contact their health provider

and to try to get tested and potentially treated as quickly as possible. The good news about Legionella is that when it's diagnosed and treated early, it is very, very treatable. Outcomes are great and antibiotics are life-saving. The challenge, of course, is delayed care. And so we're really pushing for everyone listening this morning, if you live in those five zip codes and you have those symptoms, please seek medical care immediately. Who is most at risk? Thank you for asking that. The people that we worry about the most with exposure to lesionnaires and potentially developing the disease, which is a pneumonia, essentially is what it is, are people who are over the age of 50, people who smoke or have chronic lung disease, and people whose immune systems are not working quite normally.

those are the folks that have highest risk of worse outcomes from Legionnaires disease. Well, Legionnaires typically spreads when people inhale mist containing Legionella bacteria, which can grow in water cooling towers. What is New York City doing to contain the outbreak? This is our top priority. We are extremely concerned about this. And we have very rigorous protocols that we follow to make sure that as soon as we detect a cluster like this, which comes from our really powerful and strong data surveillance systems

and expert epidemiologists at the health department, that we act immediately. We have already tested many cooling towers in these five zip codes. 11 of them have been positive for initial screening for Legionella. Those 11 cooling towers have already been treated with an antibacterial chemical that prevents further spread of legionaire's disease through those cooling towers. And in addition to that, we've done extensive community and public outreach and provider and clinician outreach as well. Well, as you just mentioned, the city has said that 11 buildings in the affected area have tested positive for Legionella bacteria.

But will the city inform the public of which specific building or buildings caused the outbreak once they're identified? The nature of how the cooling towers work, they sit on top of tall buildings, and they're used, of course, to really cool down those buildings and the surrounding areas. But the way that Legionnaires spreads, when the bacteria is in droplets, like you said, from those cooling towers, the mist can spread in really lots of different directions. So it doesn't really help to give the specific addresses of those 11 cooling towers. What's most important is that anyone in those five zip codes really could have been exposed.

And in the summertime, people are outside more. The risk of the exposure is a little bit higher. And so we want to make sure that no one feels either overly concerned or not concerned at all. And that's why our most important message is that if you live in those five zip codes in central Harlem, those are the people we want to really be on alert for any flu-like symptoms and to seek medical care immediately. After the outbreak in the Bronx in 2015, the city put in place new regulations around registering and maintaining water cooling towers. But we still see hundreds of cases of Legionnaires each year. Do you think more needs to be done around prevention? The outbreak in 2015 was very, very concerning. There were over 130 cases and 16 deaths in that outbreak.

and that is actually what led to the regulatory framework that we have now, where the health department is responsible for registration, for monitoring registration of cooling towers and inspecting cooling towers. That is a really positive move. And in fact, we would have never been able to identify these 11 cooling towers so quickly after detecting a cluster of cases in Central Harlem if we hadn't had that legislation and regulatory framework. So from my perspective there is, of course, always more that we can do to advance our prevention efforts. And this is why investing in public health is so important. But we're lucky, and I'm, you know, very supportive of the fact that we have this existing regulation that allows us to track and inspect cooling towers and work closely with building managers to make sure that they are following and are in compliance with any remediation efforts. Our guest has been New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse. Thank you for joining us.

My pleasure. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcast. See you this evening.