NYC NOW - Midday News: Police Investigate Death of Man in Ride-Hail Car, NYC Restaurants Nominated for James Beard Awards, Hochul’s State Budget Proposal, and “Must-See Week” Kicks Off

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

Police are investigating the death of a man who was apparently beaten and robbed in the back of a ride-hail car on Coney Island Tuesday night. Meanwhile, dozens of New York City restaurants are semifinalists for various James Beard Awards. Plus, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed $250 billion state budget includes a small income tax cut for most filers and a ban on student smartphone use during school hours. Finally, WNYC’s Hannah Frishberg previews this year’s “Must-See Week” in New York City.

Welcome to NYC now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, January 22nd. Here's the midday news from David Furze. Police are investigating the death of a man who they say was beaten and robbed in a ride-hale car in Brooklyn last night. NYPD officials say Michael Shalanchic was sitting in the back of the vehicle at West 5th Street and Neptune Avenue in Coney Island, and that's when police say two men opened the door, attacked him, and snatched a chain off of his neck. According to officials, the rideshare driver tried to drive away, but made it only a few blocks before Shalanchik lost consciousness. Shalanchich later died

at a local hospital. Investigators have yet to determine his cause of death. Police have not announced any arrests. The James Beard Awards are sometimes called the Foodie Oscars, and they are out with their long list of semi-finalists. Dozens of restaurants in the New York area made the cut, including in the prestigious best-new restaurant category, where the Flat Iron Restaurant Cafe Carmelini was picked. Jersey City Pizza Spot Raza was nominated yet again in the Best Chef category,

and Clinton Hills fan-fan donuts was among the outstanding bakery nominees. The winners will be crowned at a ceremony in June. Taking a look at the weather, it is cold, 15 degrees at the moment, just inching up to a high of 21 today. It will be sunny, so that's something. Tonight, mostly cloudy, a low of 17 degrees, and then tomorrow, actually a little bit warmer. Mostly sunny skies with a high near 30 degrees. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson.

We're getting a look at Governor Hokel's latest state budget presentation. proposal, and for the first time, it's set to top a quarter of a trillion dollars. The governor's plan includes a small income tax cut for most tax filers, as well as rebate checks for millions of New Yorkers. But it's not just dollars and cents. The governor's budget would also prohibit students from using smartphones during school hours. Joining us now from the state capital is WNIC state government reporter John Campbell to break it down more for us.

So, John, we spoke last week about the governor's state of the state agenda, and now we know how she plans to pay for it. What is the biggest takeaway from her budget proposal? Well, Sean, the biggest thing is the state is projecting a $5 billion surplus. And there's a number of reasons for that, but the economy is doing reasonably well. Wall Street had a strong year and the state's taking in more money than it expected. And that's what's paying for things like this, which the governor laid out in her budget address. I'm fighting for an historic middle class tax got $1 billion of investment. to bring rates to their lowest level in 70 years.

Now, that tax cut would apply to people in the first five state tax brackets. If you're a joint filer, that's under $323,000. But don't get too excited. I mean, it's a cut of 0.2 percentage points over the next two years. So if you were paying, say, 6% in state income taxes, it'll be 5.8% if this goes through. Now, John, we mentioned the governor wants to ban smartphones in schools. What can you tell us about that? Yeah, this is something the governor's been teasing for months, and basically it'll apply to not just smartphones, but a bunch of internet-enabled devices, smartphones, smartwashes, tablets. Every school district in the state would have to come up with a policy to implement it.

And basically, the governor makes the case that phones are a huge distraction in schools. And at this point, legislative leaders seem to agree. Assembly Speaker Carl Hasty is a Democrat from the Bronx. He says he gets it. You know, you always think about wanting to be in communication with your child, you know, if it's important. But I do think the cell phones can be very distracting in schools. And I think we need to make sure that children are to learn not to be distracted. Andrea Stewart Cousins is the Senate majority leader.

She said something similar, and she said she anticipates they'll be able to strike a deal on this. Here's what I want to know about this. Like, as governor, Hockel could just propose a bill to ban smartphones in school. So why is this a thing that's in the state budget? Well, this is pretty classic Albany, Sean. I mean, governors always put a ton of policy proposals into the budget because it increases their leverage with lawmakers. I mean, these budget bills end up with lots of different proposals in them, and it makes it really tough to vote them down because surely there's something in there

that a lawmaker isn't going to want to vote against. So this isn't unusual, at least by Albany standards. But that said, the governor's proposal does come with some money attached to it. She wants to put up $13.5 million to help school districts buy equipment to lock phones up during the day. And, you know, we should mention here, too, there are some exceptions. to the rule, districts would have to come up with a policy on those exceptions like, say, a student has to use their phone to monitor their insulin, or maybe it's English as a second language student who has to use their phone to translate.

Let's talk about public transit a little bit here. There's been a lot of talk about the need for a new tax or fee to help pay for the MTA's capital plan. What's the governor proposing on that? Well, that's a little complicated, Sean. she's not proposing a new tax or fee. I mean, she's proposing that the state put in $3 billion, the city put in $3 billion, a lot more from the MTA, a lot more from the feds. But there's still going to be a gap there between what the state is funding and what the feds are funding and what

is needed to fund the capital plan. So that is to be negotiated over the coming months. The governor did not propose a new revenue stream for the MTA. Lawmakers haven't done that yet either, and they're all kind of just waiting to see who's first to blink. Okay. So now the governor and state lawmakers have to negotiate a final budget plan. Where do we go from here? What's next? Well, for the next few weeks, there'll be new budget hearings. The legislature will hold hearings on all sorts of different topics,

from mental health to health to transit and the MTA, and those will keep us busy at the Capitol for the coming weeks here. From there, they'll negotiate a, A final spending plan and the final budget is due March 31st. It's WMIC's John Campbell. Thanks so much, as always. My pleasure. January can be a rough month for the New York City cultural scene.

The cold temperatures and the post-holiday hangover can sometimes make it difficult for us to get off the couch. The city knows this and tries to counteract our inertia with deals to entice us to get back out on the town. You might know about Broadway Week and Restaurant Week, but today we're going to talk about Must See Week. Joining us to explain is WNYC Culture and Arts Reporter Hannah Frischberg. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Must See Week. What is this thing? It's a series of deals sponsored by the City's Tourism Bureau to help theaters, museums, and arts organizations get people through the doors in what's a notoriously tough month. What kind of deals are we talking about?

It's a lot of well-known organizations in New York City, Carnegie Hall, MoMA, The Nets. There's a meditation center in Chelsea. One that caught my attention is Life and Trust, which is the new show from the producers of the Freshly Closed Sleep No More. And tickets for that start at 140, but with the deals during Must See Week, you can get two for the price of one. You mentioned Life and Trust. What is that? Is this a theatrical production? It is.

It is a genuinely immersive show. It's 100,000 square foot set. in the basement of the financial district, a wordless, choreographed retelling of sorts about the 1929 crash and a Faustian bargain. It is fascinating. It is hard to follow, but it is an incredible experience. That's a wide mix there from a meditation center to an NBA game, seeing the Nets. Does this work, for example, for all of the events happening at Carnegie Hall? No, it doesn't. So at Carnegie Hall, the offer specifically applies to the orchestra of St. Luke's January 23rd show, Bruce Liu's January 24th show, and the International Contemporary

Ensemble's January 30th show. Okay, so you have to pick and choose your shows carefully. Is that true for most of the locations involved? Correct. I also see that you can go fishing in Central Park and take advantage of some savings. Do I have that right? You do. There is a usually $95 per person, now 95 for two people program. That's a catch and release class for all levels. and it includes snacks, drinks, a fishing rod, real, tackle, bait, and, you know, someone who's going to tell you how to go fishing in Central Park. In January. Yeah. You know, do these deals offer significant savings that you can't take advantage of at other times of the year?

That seems like there's always deals happening to some extent around town, right? Yeah. You know, with this one, it depends if you're going to go for one of the higher price ticket options. You are functionally getting 50% off if you get two for the price of one and then you split it with a friend. But, you know, some of the things on here, like there's a class at the Meditation Center in Chelsea that's $5. So, you know, 50% off $5. But 50% off 140, that's something. Okay.

When does quote-unquote must-see week actually begin? You know, the name is actually misleading because it is almost three full weeks, not a single week. And it starts this Tuesday, January 21st, and it goes till February 9th, which is almost 19 days. Must-see 19 days. A lot of fine print to check out. Make sure you know which shows. are actually part of the deal. WNYC's Hannah Frischberg. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday,

three times a day for the latest news headlines and occasional deep times and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.