NYC NOW - Midday News: Port Authority Hikes Tolls, MTA Urges Reconsideration of Construction Plan Veto, NYC Nightlife Safety Tips, and New Bill Could Expand Short-Term Rentals

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

The Port Authority is raising tolls on its bridges and tunnels Sunday, increasing costs for most drivers crossing between New Jersey and New York by 68 cents. It’s the same day the MTA’s congestion pricing begins, charging drivers $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. Meanwhile, MTA leaders are urging state lawmakers to reconsider their Christmas Eve veto of the transit agency’s next construction plan. Plus, as New Year’s Eve approaches, Jeffery Garcia, executive director of the Office of Nightlife, shares insights on the city’s nightlife and tips for staying safe during celebrations. Finally, a new bill in the City Council could expand short-term rentals in the five boroughs by allowing owners of one- and two-family homes to list units for tourists and temporary tenants, as long as they are present during stays. WNYC’s David Brand reports.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, December 31st. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The Port Authority is increasing tolls on its bridges and tunnels on Sunday, hiking the cost from most drivers crossing between the Garden State and New York by 68 cents. It's the same day the MTA's congestion pricing begins charging charges, charging drivers $9 daytime to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street, the MTA calls the timing a coincidence. MTA leaders are urging state lawmakers to reconsider their Christmas Eve veto of the transit agency's

next construction plan. WNMIC Stephen Nesson reports the MTA sent a letter yesterday saying it could have an immediate impact on its construction projects. Without a new five-year capital plan approved by January 1st, the MTA says track improvement projects, could be halted as the agency scrambles to find money to keep them going. In a letter to top state leaders, Andrea Stewart Cousins and Carl Hasty, MTA chair Jan O'Leber pleads with them to reconsider their rejection of the agency's $65 billion capital plan. Half the money was supposed to come from state lawmakers. A spokesperson for Stuart Cousins calls Lieber's comments absurd, noting many projects from the last five-year construction plan haven't even begun yet. If the plan isn't approved

by this Friday, the MTA will need to submit a new one. 51 and partly sunny, mostly sunny today. In mid-50s, over-night rain, it may be a thunderstorm, steady temperature around 48, then tomorrow, a high of 51 gusty with a slim chance of showers. This is WNYC. Stay close. There's more after the break. NYC. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. 2025 is just around the corner. And if you're ringing in the new year, In the city, we have some safety tips to stay safe and have a good time.

Jeffrey Garcia is the executive director of the Office of Nightlife, or New York City's Nightlife Mayor. He joins us out to provide his insights on the state of nightlife in the city and how to stay safe on New Year's Eve. Okay, can we just start with some party tips maybe for folks who are going out on New Year's Eve? Hey, Sean, absolutely. It's such a great time to be in New York City. I love New York. New York is such an amazing place. It's the city that never sleeps.

And we've compiled the list of party safety 101 here at the office of nightlife, now at small business services, to make sure that people can be aware on how to stay safe during these very festive times. And if I could just go into some of them. Sure. So one of the things we always find very important is stuff that I tell my family. I mean, this is stuff that goes back to my time and law enforcement myself. Always share your location with people, right? with family and friends, make sure you let them know where you are, especially now that

makes it so easy with having a cell phone. Know your limits, you know, when you're going out, drinking, you're having fun, be careful who you accept drinks from, right? Make sure that if you're out with friends, you're accepting drinks from friends, right? Don't take drinks from strangers. Don't leave your drinks and attend it is very important. You're going to go to the bathroom. You're going to step away.

Take your drink with you. And if you don't, then don't come. back to it and drink it, all right? Get another one. There are many places now carry fentanyl test strips that people can test their drinks to make sure that they haven't been tampered with. Most places also participate in our Narcan behind every bar. So in case you or someone you know is going through an overdose, most of these places have Narcan in one of their locations. Be a good bystander. If you see something, if you can in a safe way, get involved. involved or call 911. If you're inside an establishment, call security. Let them know that you're seeing

something that doesn't seem right. Before you leave your house, charge your phone. Make sure it's fully charged. Make sure that your phone can get you through the night. Be aware of your surroundings as you're walking to and from, whether the subway or in the subway, be aware of your surroundings, stay with your group. Have a travel plan. And also, when you do call an Uber, if you're going to use one of these services, make sure that before you get into the vehicle, that you check the plate to make sure it's the same plate that you have on your device. How are nightlife businesses doing since the pandemic? Listen, we've seen nightlife businesses emerge, you know, post-pandemic where we've seen more than 6,000 of them open in our city, across our city. So we still, obviously,

are recovering from COVID, right? You know, with some businesses still having some background and other things. But I think that the fact that we've seen so many businesses open still means people still believe in our city, right? They still want to come here and open up businesses and live that New York and that American dream here in our city. Lots of people probably coming in from out of town, right? A lot of them come into Times Square for the ball drop. Is there anything in particular you'd recommend for either out of towners or local residents who have to navigate crowded spaces in the city on New Year's Eve? Obviously, be aware of your. surroundings, right? If you're going to go down to the ball drop, make sure you dress warm. That's one

really important thing. Wear comfortable shoes. It's not really comfortable with being high heels, you know, for five or six hours. If you have to stand out there in one of those pens. And like I said, if you're going to be out there that long, you've got to make sure your phone is charged. Which areas would you avoid if you were trying to have a cozy night in? If you just want to stay cozy other than staying home, go to that local restaurant, go to that local bar, and just Just bring the night in locally. So then you could just walk home only a couple of blocks away. Everyone has that favorite bar in the area, you know, a restaurant and enjoy some time there with the local community members.

That was Jeffrey Garcia, the executive director of the city's office of Nightlight. Thanks so much again for joining us. Thank you so much. And have a great new year. And I hope everyone enjoys our city or their borough or their block wherever they are. Thank you. Happy New Year. Airbnb has been tightly regulated in New York City since a law that took effect last year removed more than 10,000 short-term rental units from the market.

But a new bill working its way through the City Council could mark the services return to the five boroughs by allowing owners of one and two family homes to list units for tourists and temporary tenants. The homeowners would need to be present for guest stays. WDIC's David Brand has been covering the issue he joins us now. Can we just start by learning what this measure is about? Sure. So as you said, this bill would allow owners of one and two family homes to list their units on platforms like Airbnb or Verbo for stays of less than 30 days. Right now, that's considered a short-term rental and it's illegal unless the owner gets permission from the city. There's a lot of units like that.

So the city's latest housing survey finds there's 900,000 units of housing in one and two family homes. And a third of those, about 300,000 units are rentals. Small property owners say they used to be able to rent on Airbnb and they made good money doing it. Over the past year, a group of those owners and Airbnb have been lobbying the city council and other elected officials to change the restrictions to, allow them to do that again. They found a friend in Brooklyn Councilmember Farah Lewis who introduced this bill last month. Now, why did the city crack down on Airbnb in the first place? Well, short-term rentals have been illegal for decades, and tenant groups say they take apartments off the market during a serious housing shortage. But there's more. The powerful hotel

industry and the hotel labor unions also say they cut into their business. Platforms like Airbnb B and Verbo made it possible for owners and renters to get around the law, though, by just listing online and it was really hard to enforce. That is until September 2023 when a new rule took effect, barring those companies from processing payments to people who rent out their apartments for less than 30 days. So they really went after the money to block payment on Airbnb and other platforms. So like we said, this new measure would allow landlords of one and two family homes to list their units as short-term rentals. But why not landlords of larger properties? Well, a lot of those owners and their supporters say they just want more flexibility. Maybe they have a two-family home,

and so they have an upstairs unit that they use whenever family comes to visit or friends come into town, and it's empty the rest of the time. So they don't want to have a tenant on a year-long lease because they want to be able to host people as they come and go. But let's be real, you can also make a lot more money by listing on Airbnb than you probably can in a lot of these neighborhoods by having a tenant on a year-long lease. And with Airbnb, there's no risk of a tenant not paying and having to go to housing court to try to get the money or evict the tenant. So it also gives the owner the property a little more power there and allows them to make more money. You know, you asked about large properties. There's a different issue there because we've seen in New York

city landlords were turning larger apartment complexes into de facto illegal hotels. So they would take a bunch of apartments or maybe all of the apartments in a larger building, take them off the rental market and turn them into short-term rentals, hotels essentially for tourists. Now, how effective has that ban that went and will affect last year been? It's been very effective. I've been reporting on this for the past year and a half and was looking back at August 23. Right before the crackdown took effect, there were 12,000 listings for short-term rentals on Airbnb across the city. A year later, August 2024, there was around 2,000, so it dropped by like 85%. Yeah.

Look specifically at one section of bedstay with the highest concentration of listings in this city. Number of listings dropped from around 1,000 to just about 100. Wow, that's quite a drop. Where does this current bill stand in the legislative process? And as Mayor Adams indicated, whether or not he would sign it, if it did make it throw? Well, it's early days. It was only introduced about a month ago, but notably had immediate backing from council speaker Adrian Adams, who controls what bills go forward in the council. Now, Mayor Adams hasn't weighed in on this one yet, and the politics here

are pretty interesting. So when the council passed the bill to crack down on short-term rentals, he never actually signed the bill. He let it lapse into law. He really does count on votes from kinds of homeowners in districts like central Brooklyn and southeast queens who want to be able to list their properties at Airbnb and have been trying to get the council to adjust the laws. But, you know, on the other hand, the very first union to endorse Adams was the Hotel Trades Council and they hate this bill. That's WNYC's David Brand. Thanks so much, David. Thanks a lot, Sean.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.