NYC NOW - Midday News: NYPD Targets Quality of Life Issues on the Subway, Public Hospitals Tackle Misinformation, and the Future of the Kingsbridge Armory

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

The NYPD is announcing two quality of life initiatives on the subways. Plus, New York City's public hospital system is confronting misinformation on social media. Finally, we look at an effort to reimagine the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, January 31st. Here's the midday news. I'm Jene Pierre. No panhandling, peeing, or taking up multiple seats on the subway. Those are some of the directives coming from two new NYPD Quality of Life Enforcement initiatives. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says the initiative, will also enforce transit rules like drinking, sleeping, and smoking in the subway system.

Our officers will not simply walk by someone who is violating the law and disrupting passengers. We are going to correct the condition. Tish says the new quality of life initiatives would be coupled with proactive measures to help homeless and mentally ill people. While major crime on the subway is rare for the MTA's millions of daily commuters, data shows serious assaults in transit more than tripled between in 2009 and last year. Tish says cracking down on quality of life issues will help people feel safer. New York City's public hospital system is confronting misinformation spreading on social media. WMYC's Arunvenica-Paul has more.

On social media, New York City health and hospitals says patients should seek care without fear. Its statements read, we care about your health, not your immigration status. The assurances are in response to social media posts that falsely claim, Homhurst Hospital in Queens reports anyone who doesn't have proof of citizenship to law enforcement. Immigrant rights activists worry that misinformation can make people stay away from the hospital. For years, sensitive locations like schools and houses of worship were off limits to immigration officers. Last week, the Trump administration said the prohibitions were no longer in place. Cloudy skies this afternoon, 42 degrees.

Stay close. There's more after the break. I see how I see how I see how I see how I'm Sean Carlson. If you've ever been to the corner of Kingsbridge Road and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, you may have noticed the huge red brick castle-like structure that seems like a remnant from another era. Well, that's the Kingsbridge Armory, and it was once an active armory, but for decades now, it has sat empty. But leaders in the neighborhood, like our next guest, are hoping that will soon change. New York City Councilmember Pira Sanchez represents the area.

She joins us now as the city has chosen a developer to reimagine. the site. Okay, councilmember, before we get into the specifics of that deal, let's just spend another minute here talking about the site itself. Like, in a city where space is at such a premium, thousands of square feet of unused space is just sitting there. So there's been a lot of interest and urgency about what to put there. Some listeners may even remember when hockey legend Mark Messier was part of a group that wanted to turn it into an ice skating facility. What have your constituents told you about what they want to see at the site? Yeah, 700,000. 60,000 square feet. That is six football stadiums. I don't know how many of my neighbors have made it to a

football game lately, but that is a lot of space. And in conversations with our neighbors, there's just a lot of hope for the armory. People want to see jobs for the community. People want to see a space that is intergenerational, that can serve the elderly, that can be a place where youth can go after school and have things to do and remain active. Folks want to see the promise that is a part of our community. They want to see that realized in the armory. So there's a lot of hopes and dreams. Four thousand Bronx sites, many of them concentrated right around the Kingsbridge neighborhood, participated in a community process in 2023 and shared their opinions. And there's generally an openness to the final uses. But these priorities about our kids, about our elderly

about the community having access to the space, those were resounding themes. So how does the proposal that was chosen address all of those concerns? Yeah. So I think that there's a lot of conversations to be had because the announcement that came from the city of New York is pretty, it's pretty open-ended right now. So what's in there, there's 90,000 square feet for sports field, sports field, 62,000 square feet for retail. there's film space allocation, cultural space allocation, an events venue. I mean, it's pretty broad right now what mad equities enjoy construction, which is the chosen team, what they have committed to working on with the city of New York.

And so over the next year, we're going to have to be very vigilant about what are the tenants that are being considered for the site, what are the end uses, and how do these plans that the development team is putting forward, how do they comport with the community's vision for the armory? Have you heard from anybody who's disappointed by the plan? Like maybe somebody hoped for more affordable housing or maybe wanted more recreational space for their kids? Yeah, you know, in the conversations, right, in the community planning conversations where these 4,000 neighbors were participating, we often had the conversation about affordable housing. And folks were really upset when the city would always answer, oh, we can't do affordable housing here because it's a historic structure. And so you can't actually change the layout of the space of the armory in certain ways that would give enough, say, light and air for an apartment.

But the good news is that there's a site on the Kingsbridge Armory that is currently being used by the National Guard. And the governor's team and the state of New York have committed to allowing that to be redeveloped as affordable housing. We're talking about just about 450 units. And so that missing piece is actually reflected, which is very exciting. When will your constituents actually be able to take advantage of what's coming to the armory, supposedly? Yeah. So that's an open question. But we estimate that it's about four to five years before the doors are open and folks can walk in and take advantage with all of the processes that need to happen and approvals and financing, finalization and everything. Can anything stop this development from happening at this point? Yeah, I mean, look, the pitfalls that faced us in the past could come and rear their ugly heads again.

You know, I think that even in the process of where we are today, there has already been some of that. And this development team is supposed to not, you know, have some of those pitfalls. And so these questions are all being asked. Do you have the money? what are your plans to continue engaging with the community? How are you comporting with the community's priorities to serve people and bring good-paying union jobs, for example? So, you know, I'm, again, hopeful that all of those answers are in the affirmative and they will continue to be, and the answers will only get stronger over time. But if they do not get stronger over time and if we get stuck on any of these pieces, that could, you know, present a big challenge.

But, you know, I'm going to try my best to do everything that I can't ensure success. And then, you know, it's the financial institutions that have to do the other part. So I'll do the community. I'll do the council. I'll do the politics. And then, you know, the team just has to make sure that the money is in order. That's New York City Councilmember Piraena Sanchez talking about the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx. Councilmember, thanks so much for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me. 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 podcast. We'll be back this evening.