NYC NOW - Midday News: NYPD Prepares for Marathon Sunday, Gusty Winds Ahead of Halloween, and Latest on New Jersey’s Governor’s Race

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

More than 50,000 runners and a million spectators are expected at the New York City Marathon this Sunday, with police deploying thousands of officers to keep watch from the streets and the sky. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service is warning of strong winds up to 40 miles per hour across the region heading into Halloween weekend. Plus, in New Jersey, voters head to the polls Tuesday to pick a new governor in a tight race between Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill, with transit and education expected to top the new administration’s agenda. Bergen Record transportation reporter Colleen Wilson joins us to explain.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, October 29th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. More than 50,000 runners, 150 countries are expected to take part in the New York Marathon this Sunday, and more than one million spectators will be cheering them on. NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tiss says thousands of officers will be monitoring one of the world's biggest races from the streets and the sky. She says there are no specific threats to this year's event,

Bud urged vigilance. Cops will be out there to keep you safe, but we ask everyone to stay alert. If you see something, say something. Let a police officer know or call 911. Coolers, oversized bags, chairs, umbrellas, and all weapons are forbidden from the finish line in Central Park, and people should expect to have their bags checked.

Witches, ghouls, and goblins across the region may have to hang on to their costumes this Halloween. The National Weather Service has strong gusts at 30 to 40-mile-an-hour winds are expected to blow through New York City and the surrounding areas starting Friday afternoon. That's great flying weather for anyone with a broomstick, but less ideal for outdoor decorations that could become airborne. Meteorologist Matt once says people should definitely consider tying down any items that could. could blow away like inflatables. It'll be dry, but it'll be windy for, you know, all the trip and treaters out there. The blustry weather will follow rain showers later today and tomorrow.

So far, the weekend is looking dry, sunny in the mid-50s for Sunday's New York Marathon. More about that weather now. We're in the mid-50s in the city with cloudy skies, partly sunny today, high temperature in the mid-50s, winds gusting at 20 miles an hour, and then a 50-50 chance of overnight showers, low-fifeties, high-year. wins. Stay close. There's more after the break. New Jersey elects a new governor on Tuesday. It remains a tight race between Republican, Jack Chittarelli, and Democrat Mikey Sherrill as the two major party candidates. Whoever

is elected will right away have a lot on their plate, including two major issues for the state, transit and education. We're going to talk about both of those now. We'll start with New Jersey Transit. Reporter Colleen Wilson, covers transportation for the Bergen record, and she joins us now. Colleen, let's start with what exactly is wrong with NJ Transit and how it's affected riders. Sure. I mean, riders have been hit with lots of cancellations, delays over several years for a number of reasons. Some of them are Amtrak related. Some of them are mechanical. And then coupled with that is also 3% fair increases every year.

That was a new policy implemented during the Murphy's. administration and it's definitely hurting people in their wallets and as they're delayed or standing on platforms waiting for canceled trains. What have the candidates said about how they would fund NJ Transit? How would they, in so many words, how would they fix it too? So as far as funding, neither seemed in on the 3% fare hike. Both said it seemed like something they would want to revisit. No firm commitment there, but something that they felt discouraged by.

And as far as the funding, which that would leave some gap for revenues for the agency, and so would a disappearance of the corporate business transit fee, which is a new tax that the Murphy administration implemented and has been dedicating to New Jersey Transit. And it would leave, you know, around an $800 million budget hole if that tax went away. And Chittarelli has said that that is something he plans to do. He thinks it's an unfair tax. it expires the end of 2028. Cheryl has not said firmly what she would do. She said most recently that she would get away from it,

but has also said that it's something she wants to revisit when that comes up for expiration at the end of 2028. So how they would fill those gaps, not really clear. Yeah, that's my next question. Are they even talking about how they would fill the gap? Because it's wonderful to tell people you'd get rid of attacks like this, but how would you replace the $800 million that it generates? Right, exactly.

So Chitterelli has said that he thinks he can reduce the size of government and I think specifically New Jersey Transit through this model of consolidating New Jersey Transit with the Turnpike Authority and the South Jersey Turnpike Authority. He thinks that this could offer savings by having one procurement office, one set of lawyers, things like that. There's no data to really support that yet. have to do a study, I would think, to see if that would really result in savings and would it result at $800 million in savings? I'm pretty skeptical of that. Cheryl has talked about wanting to increase transit-oriented development and real estate opportunities. Chris Callori, the CEO of

New Jersey Transit, has put forward a plan to allow the next governor to really capitalize on those opportunities. But again, that's really not going to cover the cost of that tax. And if you were to eliminate it from New Jersey transit's budget. So I think there is still some work and some understanding about how either governor would fill that gap or if they would fill that gap. Now, Colleen, President Trump has paused funding indefinitely for the Gateway Project, a rail tunnel that would link New Jersey and New York for tens of the thousands of New Jersey commuters. How have the candidates talked about that? Yes, so Mikey Sherrill has been out front holding press conferences, wanting to talk about.

about this issue. This was really kind of a gift for her campaign to be able to push back on Trump and something that directly impacts so many people in New Jersey, something that has bipartisan support in New Jersey. So she has tried to frame herself as the fighter who would ensure that New Jersey gets that money back and goes to court, basically takes whatever means

necessary to keep it going forward. Chidorelli has had to backpedal a bit on this. This has been a difficult spot. He spoke to our editorial board, last week and said that he hasn't spoken to the president in a few weeks, but that's, you know, that he thinks that this is part of hardball tactics. He is of the belief that funding will eventually be restored is basically what Chitterelli said. And so we shall see.

We certainly shall, I guess, has been Colleen Wilson. She covers transportation issues for the Bergen record, and she's covered a lot for us here. Colleen, thank you. Thank you for having me. Now, let's move on to education in New Jersey. School districts across New Jersey have seen some improvements since the pandemic, including student performance and attendance. But education remains a key issue in this election. Jesse Gomez is an education reporter at Chalkby, Newark, and she joins us now.

Jesse, both the candidates say they'd reform the state's education funding formula. How does it work now and how would the candidates change it? Yeah, so Jack Charlie has really promised to reform the funding formula. his approach is really to reduce property taxes, but he hasn't really given any specifics on it. We know that New Jersey's budget is, you know, seeing a lot of increases. And so the big question here is how would a candidate

reform the funding formula to reduce property taxes, but also give schools with their owed? And so when we look at Cheryl, in contrast, she's also repeatedly said that she's looking to lower costs, but she's also focused on getting federal funding back from the Trump administration. if you recall, there has been some rollbacks at the federal level. So her approach is getting back the money that she believes states are owed from the federal government.

Now, there have been education improvements in the state, but progress has not been equal across the districts. Let's start with the Republican nominee, Chittarelli. What's his plan to boost student achievement? And does he have a plan for the city of Newark specifically? Yeah, so definitely student achievement has been on the radar a lot of education experts since the pandemic. And so Jack Chorrelli is really hoping that he would implement what is called a high-impact curriculum, which is basically a set of strategies that are in line with state standards to just help boost student skills and math, reading, and writing. Mikey Sherald's approach is pretty similar as well.

She's also hoping to instill a high-impact tutoring program. So high-impact tutoring is basically a research-based approach that says students in tutoring three times a week with the same tutor. is proven to help boost state test scores and just like really bring back that love of learning. So both are sort of looking to instill these really high impact curriculum, these tutoring approaches, but they're also sort of dueling approaches when it comes to what should be taught in schools. Again, Cheddar is more of a conservative sort of a candidate and Mikey Sherrill is more of a Democratic-aligned candidate as well. Where do the candidate stand on charter school expansion and school choice? Yeah, school choice is again, another really big topic in the education space. And I think we've heard

this repeatedly from Chattarelli. He has been very clear about expanding charter schools, but also what hasn't gotten as much as attention is he's also looking to instill a voucher program, sort of modeled after Florida's own a voucher program. So basically that means that if a family is looking to enroll their child in a private school, the state would fund whatever the the tuition was. But the big here, the big question for Chattarelli is, you know, how would he pay for vouchers really? And how would he plan to offer that to all families across New Jersey? For Mikey Cheryl, she hasn't really sort of been full force on her backing of expanding charter schools, but she has said that she would welcome an expansion of charter schools who are successful.

But again, it's sort of, well, if we expand charter schools in a place, let's say, like Newark, which is New Jersey's largest city, that could probably change the makeup and even the number of students in the public school district. Right now in Newark, about a third of students go to charter schools.

And there's been a lot of pushback in the city about the expansion of charter schools as well. So we'll see how that pans out in a city like Newark and across the state. Early voting is underway. Election Day is this coming Tuesday, November 4th. Our guest has been Jesse Gomez,

education reporter at Chalkbeat Newark. Jesse, as always, thank you. Thanks so much, Michael. 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.