NYC NOW - Midday News: Hochul Appeals Directly to Striking Corrections Officers, Kean University Merger, Cuomo’s NYC Residency Questioned, and Businesses Brace for Trade War

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Governor Kathy Hochul is bypassing the corrections officers’ union, making a direct appeal to striking officers to return to work. Meanwhile, Kean University is moving forward with a merger with a Jersey City institution, expanding its footprint in New Jersey. Also, former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s claim of Midtown residency is raising eyebrows in the mayoral race as some neighbors say they’ve never seen him. Plus, the Trump administration is delaying new tariffs on Canadian goods, but concerns remain among New York businesses about a potential trade war.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, March 7th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Dear Governor Kathy Hokel's administration is bypassing the corrections officers' union, making a direct appeal to striking officers to return to work. WNIC's John Campbell reports. State officials negotiated directly with striking officers,

and they thought they reached a deal to end the work stoppage. That angered the union's leadership, which refused to sign off. State Homeland Security Commissioner Jackie Bray says officers still have a chance to take the deal. But if they don't, the state is ready to act. We are prepared to and we will exercise all of our rights and all remedies, criminal and civil, to end this illegal strike. The union says it's the only entity the state can legally. bargain with. New Jersey's Kane University is poised to merge with a university in Jersey City, WNIC's Veronica Del Valle has more. It's been a troublesome few years for New Jersey City University.

The school has been under the supervision of a state monitor since 2023 following years of financial turmoil. Now its board of trustees is saying yes to a merger proposal from Kane, a university about half an hour away in Union Township. The vote is only a first step in the process. A proposed timeline from Kane University shows it expects to complete the merger by 2026. Kane currently serves 18,000 students, including some at a campus in Wenzhou, China. NJCU has about 5,000 students. NJCU's interim president says the two schools will begin a due diligence process in the coming weeks as they work towards combining. 45 with Sunshine now, Sunny and 49, and Gusty.

Stay close. There's more after the break. When former Governor Cuomo jumped into the New York City mayor's race, his opponents pounced on his longtime residency in Westchester and Albany. WNIC's Bridget Bergen reports, the new mayoral candidate is claiming a luxury apartment in Midtown East as his current home, even if that's news to some of his neighbors. Hi. At a chilly afternoon, Cheryl Schwartz is taking her daughter.

for a walk outside her soaring 39-story luxury building. She's a toy poodle. Oh, my gosh. Schwartz moved to the city five years ago, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and splits her time between here and Long Island. When I ask her about one of the city's newest mayoral candidates, former governor Andrew Cuomo, she says she's seen him. I don't know.

I know his daughter lives here and lives on my friend's floor, but other than that, I don't, I don't know. I've only seen him a couple of times. At Cuomo's first campaign event on Sunday, his daughter, Kara Kennedy Cuomo, says she did recently move. And as a person who just spent several months looking for a new apartment, I can tell you there's not enough affordable housing. What she didn't say is that up to now, she was living in that luxury, two-bedroom apartment in Midtown East in Manhattan that recently became the permanent residence of her father. An online listing shows the apartment has rented for $8,200 a month. Cuomo's rivals in the mayoral contest are questioning his New York City bona fides.

Here's assembly member Zoran Mamdani. Now he's decided to move from Westchester to New York City, with the promise of leading us through the chaos of Donald Trump. But Andrew Cuomo is the chaos. Residency questions have become a recurring theme in the mayoral race. Just ask Eric Adams, who took reporters for a tour of his bedstay apartment and refrigerator back in 2021 to push back on claims he was living in. a New Jersey condo.

Another building resident, Heidi Cohen, Sysquamma once commented to her husband about Louis, Hermini Schnauzer, when he was taking him out for a walk. He's been in the elevator twice when I've been in the elevator, and he's been in the lobby coming and going three or four times when my husband's been coming and going with the dog. But mostly, she says he keeps to himself. In a suit with his briefcase, doesn't really chat to anybody,

just walk, I think, you know, New Yorkers, people leave them alone. Until you're running for mayor, and then everyone wants to know where you live. Bridget Bergen, WNYC News. The Trump administration is delaying planned tariffs on Canadian goods, but New York businesses still worry about the effects of a trade war. WNYC's Jimmy Vilkine reports. Walking around the lades and milling machines, on the shop floor of precision valve and automation,

CEO Tony Hines points to the raw materials that would be impacted by new tariffs. Most of our aluminum that goes into our bulk aluminum for making our parts comes from Canada. So now that's tariff. Our machines are made up of thousands of thousands of parts. Many that we make, but many are sourced from all over the world. If they tariff all this stuff, it's only going to drive up our costs.

More than 200 people work in PVA's three buildings here in Half Moon. which is halfway between Albany and Saratoga Springs. Consumers don't usually see what PVA does. Cars. The company sells machines that can precisely spray adhesives in... Telecommunications equipment. Well, just about anything. Trains, planes, automobiles, as they say.

It's a relatively small firm, but one that highlights the feared downside of new tariffs. New York imports almost $23 billion worth of goods from Canada each year. Trump announced 25% tariffs on all those products earlier. this week, but later said they would be postponed until April. Some business and governmental leaders pushed back. Governor Hockel estimates that tariffs could cost the average family more than $1,000 a year. This is a real, real hit on our families at a time we were promised affordability. The governor is warning of shocks to the agriculture sector as well. Items used on farms, like the fertilizer potash, are imported from Canada. And Trump's tariffs

could mean less business for a big dairy processing facility that's currently under construction. It's an extraordinary opportunity for there to be a marketplace for our dairy farmers, but these tariffs are going to make it so much more complicated. Republicans say that short-term pain is worth the long-term gain. Trump told Congress on Tuesday that tariffs will bring jobs back to the United States. If you don't make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff, and in some cases, a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it's our turn to start using them against those other countries.

But in some areas along the border, that doesn't ring true. Plattsburgh identifies itself and is regarded broadly in Quebec as Montreal's U.S. suburb. That's Gary Douglas, CEO of the North Country Chamber of Commerce. The area, which includes the Adirondack Mountains, depends on natural gas and fuel from over the border. Canadian tourists fill hotels and restaurants. And the factories in Clinton County, which includes Plattsburgh, have supply chains that cross the border multiple times. In Clinton County, 20% of the workforce got up this morning and went to work either for a Canadian employer on this side of the border or a job that's dependent on cross-border commerce.

We don't want to hear that this is to create jobs. It's endangering jobs. On Tuesday, Canada placed tariffs on more than $100 billion worth of U.S. goods. And China slapped levees on agricultural products. Back at PBA, Hines points to several machines that are set to be shipped to Mexico and shakes his head. These are global markets. It's a competitive landscape out there. Tariffing us is only going to make it harder for people to buy our machines outside of the United States. If Mexico does not tariff China and they tariff us, forget it. Eventually, he says, fewer sales could mean fewer sales could be in fewer.

jobs. Jimmy Vialkind, WNYC News. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. 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 podcasts. See you this evening.