NYC NOW - Midday News: MetroCards Will Soon Be History, Feds Demand Subway Safety Plan from MTA, and Eviction Filings Fall

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

The MTA says they'll stop selling MetroCards by the end of the year, as part of the agency's push to convert all subway and bus fare collection to the tap-to-pay OMNY system. Plus, a new report reveals the number of eviction filings in the city declined nearly 50% between 2017 and 2024. And finally, a doctor and her patient reflect on the COVID pandemic, 5 years on.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, March 19th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. It is the end of an era for New York City subways. The MTA says it'll stop selling metro cards by the end of the year as part of the agency's push to convert all subway and bus fare collection to the tap-to-pay Omni system. Transit officials say riders still will be able to use the metro cars until the end of next year,

2026. After that, the art of the subway swipe will be lost to history. MTA officials say the vast majority of riders already use Omni to pay their fares. And the Trump administration is threatening to withhold federal funding from the MTA unless the agency's leaders improve safety in New York City's mass transit system. Federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is demanding plans. by the end of this month, the MTA says the agency is happy to discuss its efforts, noting that crime is down in the system. Eviction filings in New York City declined by nearly 50 percent between 2017 and last year. That's according to a new report from the Community Service Society of New York.

Oksana Mernova is a senior policy analyst there. She says the sharp decrease is largely due to a 2017 law that guaranteed low-income New Yorkers the right to free counsel in city housing court. These type of numbers are essentially unheard of because of a policy intervention. So this is a pretty huge deal. Maranova says moderate income New Yorkers now represent a larger share of people at risk of eviction, in part because they don't have a right to free counsel. 53 in sunny right now, sunny and 61 for a high.

Tomorrow chances of morning drizzle and afternoon showers are high of 56. Stay close. There's more after the break. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. The Tri-State area is reflecting on five years since COVID brought the world to a complete halt. Do you remember where you were in March of 2020 when hospitals were overwhelmed with patients and struggled to have enough beds? Well, James Cologne was one of those patients. He arrived at Mount Sinai, Queens, in April 2020, and he eventually beat an extreme case of COVID. Joining us now to talk more about this time and what we can learn from it is James and his pulmonary

doctor, Mary O'Sullivan, from Mount Sinai. Dr. O'Sullivan, what do you remember the most about working in city hospitals back in 2020? The team, the suffering, you see a patient, you'd be afraid for them. We were inundated. So we had to move around beds. We had to make different teams. We had to shift ICUs, put in other ICU just non-stop. And then the patients who are usually in the hospital, they were there too.

So all of a sudden you were overwhelmed by this force. And it took the spirit of really good care and good people. I can't emphasize that enough. You know, roll up your sleeves and let's get this done. Let's do the best we can. It was vital. And everybody is trying to take care of everybody else because you didn't know, are you going to catch it? How to take care of each other.

How to take care of the patient. How to take care of the family. Oh, my God, that part. That part was, we don't want to go back there. We don't want to go back there ever. Yeah. Let's talk about your experience, James. As we said, you still see Dr. O'Sullivan.

Yeah. But let's talk about what happened five years ago. You arrived at Mount Sinai Queens in April of 2020 after experiencing difficulty breathing. Tell us more about your experience with COVID. What happened was I started feeling very weak. I would say around the ending of January, February, and I passed out in my apartment, and I went to the hospital, and I had a fracture in my nose, and they hadn't mentioned anything about COVID to me. And I was working at the time was not requiring us to wear any masks. So as time went by, I started actually getting weaker and weaker.

And I called my sister and I said, Edith, I don't know what's going on with me. Maybe I'm getting old. And one day a friend of mine was in my apartment and I told her, Sarah, I can't breathe anymore. I can't breathe. And I just passed out. But prior to that, my niece, Veronica, who was living, like my guardian angel, told me that I had been defecating on myself. Honestly, I don't remember most of it.

I live in Astoria, Queens, near Mount Sinai, Astoria. That's where I ended up almost for seven months. I was in a coma, I guess, a medically induced coma. I'm not sure. And I was told all kinds of things. My family was zooming with doctors, and all my organs were failing. they'd come back, and I was just there existing. And I woke up three months later, and I was a mess.

I really was. I was extremely weak. So this question is for both of you. Doctor, you can start. How has your relationship evolved since you first met in 2020? Just amazed, always amazed, that he sticks with it, positive, determined to get better, never complaining. How's that possible? I'm in admiration.

What about you? How is your relationship with the doctor evolved? Well, I mean, she's amazing, you know, and she's so kind and nice. And I can see, I can feel the warmth, especially when she saw me in the past. And she came in and she says, you know, it's so good to see you. You're doing well. This makes my career worth it, you know. I mean, the sincerity is unbelievable.

And many of the doctors and nurses were. like that. And it's just beautiful to be around people that actually really care for the well-being of other people. Dr. How has your experience with COVID changed the way that you do your work today? And has your view of COVID changed since 2020? Well, I'm really old. You know, I remember the HIV epidemic. Yeah. And that and all those deaths. And I have cards from my dead patients. I have, I I keep a drawer full of cards from my dead patients. How terrible is that? And we all died with them.

And this was different. That was a slow, long-haul thing. This was like a tornado. But the biggest thing I learned was vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. This did not have to happen. Millions of people died. And thanks to the hard, hard work of the people who did the biology, who did the science, worked with the virus. We got vaccines that work. Now, I'm hearing my patients say, I don't want

my vaccine. And they're saying, my kids tell me, no, they're dangerous. And I want to say, don't you remember? This didn't have to happen. And for the people who got the vaccines, they were protected. So that whole side of it, the nightmare, the pain, the death, the morning, much part of it. But the recovery and the prevention, those are the other side of it, that we cannot forget. We cannot forget that. Unfortunately, I just missed it. And as a consequence, you know, this is what happened to me. But honestly, I feel that with the help of the doctors and nurses and all the other medical staff, physical therapists, occupational therapists, just so amazing people that I came out of this pretty good.

I don't get brain fog. I think I'm sharper than I was prior to COVID. It's done its job on me physically, but slowly I'm getting back. I can walk. I'm independent. You know, but my lungs are compromised, and I doubt if they'll ever be the same.

But every time I see you, they're better and better and better. Yeah. I mean, I do discipline myself and I push myself, and I try and stay positive. And I think a great deal of my recovery, a lot of it was mental. How has your life changed?

The way that you approach your life changed since your experience with COVID. Well, I'm a father, and my son lives with me, and our relationship is very good, and I realize that that's, like, a priority for me. You know, I mean, we can dwell on the negative things that are going on, but, you know, I don't live in a fantasy, but I try and focus on the blessings that I have. I get up every morning and I open my window and I breathe and I say, well, this is a luxury for me. It's a blessing. Doctor, if we have another epidemic, what would you hope that officials in the public do differently this time?

The development of the vaccine was a bloody miracle. How they did that so fast, that was incredible. I think that the communication that we had with the hospital, with the Department of Health, with the CDC, with the NIH, all those things were amazing. I think the problems of what should have been better, I think that more acceptance of the vaccines. We have to somehow get over the fear that's been promulated about having vaccines. It's so vital. Prevention is ever. wearing a mask is everything. You know, those simple things. That was James Cologne and his pulmonary doctor, Mario Sullivan from Mount Sinai. Thanks so much to the both of you. I know it's not easy

to talk about this. Thank you. Thank you for having us. It's a pleasure. Thank you. 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 podcasts. See you this evening.