NYC NOW - Midday News: The Future of a Long Planned Housing Development in Brooklyn, 5G Cell Service is Coming to the G Train, and the Latest Twists and Turns in the NYC Mayoral Race

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

The owners of a housing development that was supposed to be built as part of the original deal to construct Barclays Center won't face any penalties for failing to build it by deadline. Plus, 5G cell service is coming to the G train between Court Square and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets. The network is expected to go live as early as this fall. Finally, we get the latest on the race for New York City mayor.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, May 29th. Here's the midday news from Veronica Del Valle. The owners of a housing development that was supposed to be built as part of the original deal to construct the Barclay Center won't face any penalties for bailing to build it by deadline. New York's Empire State Development Agency says it'll waive the $1.75 million. a month, property owners were set to pay for not building the promised affordable housing. The deadline is May 31st of this year, more than a decade after it was set.

And WNIC's David Brand says those payments would have gone on for much longer than just one month. If you've been over there, you know that not only is that affordable housing not done, the development hasn't even begun. So it's not quite going to get finished before that Saturday deadline. Developers had promised to build more than 2,200. affordable apartments in time. So far, only about 1,400 have gone up. G-Train riders are about to get a lot more screen time. MTA officials say 5G cell services coming to the underground tunnels on the line between Quartz Square and Hoyt-Skirmahorn Streets. The network should we go live as early as this fall. It's part of a

$600 million investment by Bolden Networks, which is covering the cost of the installation, but will also collect all the revenue from the service. The MTA says the tech was implemented during the G-Train closure last summer. The East River Tunnel that carries the four and five trains will also get self-service as soon as the fall. Today, mostly cloudy and a high of 71, winds up to 13 miles per hour. Tonight, a chance of overnight showers, a low around 61. Stay tuned for more after the break. I'm Sean Carlson. And it's time for politics brief, our weekly segment where we break down the news out of City Hall and Albany. This week, the mayor's race is heating up with four weeks to go until a primary day.

And a controversial casino proposal took another step forward in Albany. We're joined by WDMIC's John Campbell at the state capital and WNYC's Elizabeth Kim right here in downtown Manhattan. All right, Liz, we're going to start with the mayor's race. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo held a press conference with a bunch of unions where he rolled out a plan to raise the minimum wage. Can he walk us through that plan? He can't just unilaterally do that, right? No, he can't unilaterally do this. He meets Governor Kathy Hokel and the state legislature to help him pass a bill like this. But he can use the bully pulpit of the mayoralty to put pressure on Albany to get this done. It's a smart pivot for Cuomo because it follows news of all of these campaign disclosures where there were headlines about billionaires, funding. his campaign, right? So he is relying on a base that consists of working class New Yorkers. And these were many of the same people who voted for Eric Adams. So he's putting out a plan that centers on

improving their lives. Now, the current minimum wage is $16.50 in New York City. He wants to raise that to $20 by 2027. Here's a bit of what he said at that speech today. The pundits are going to say, oh, it's going to be too hard to get it passed politically. The politicians are going to be afraid to get it passed. But I'll tell you this, they're wrong. And you know how we know they're wrong? Because we did it before and we're going to do it again. We're raising the top of the high freedom of wage in the United States.

And what happened when we did it? The economy went up, not down. Ah, yes, the pundits are going to say it's too hard. That's a pretty classic Andrew Cuomo line, even dating back to when he was governor. Yeah, so he's taking credit for signing a bill in 2016 that increased the minimum wage to $15. But in New York City, I should say, the campaign to get to that higher minimum wage, which was known as the fight for 15, involved a lot of activists, including the mayor at the time, Bill de Blasio, who, you know, Like I said, he used his bully pulpit to put pressure on the governor to do this. Yeah.

Well, that tip you just played. He's very clearly taking credit for saying, we did it. It's basically saying I did it. But, John, you covered Andrew Cuomo when he was governor. How much did he lead the campaign to raise the minimum wage in New York? Well, I mean, that's on his record. He does have a history of raising the minimum wage as governor. That includes that 2016 wage increase that Liz just referred to.

I mean, that increased the hourly minimum wage to $15 over a period. period of years at different points in different parts of the state. And he used his bully pulpit for that. He traveled the state with a series of labor unions to push for the change. Some of the very same labor unions that are endorsing him now for mayor. They called it the Mario Cuomo campaign for economic justice. That's a reference to his father, the former governor. And that was an increase that he had to negotiate with the state legislature, which at the time included a Republican-led Senate. But the year before that, Andrew Cuomo actually acted unilaterally to increase the minimum wage for fast food workers. He utilized this rarely used state law where the governor's administration can

appoint a board, that it can effectively raise the minimum wage for a particular industry. And those minimum wage hikes are often what Andrew Cuomo points to when people on the left of his party challenge his progressive bona fides. He says, hey, look, I increase the minimum wage. Okay, John, let's talk about something else that'll be in the hands of Albany policymakers. The plan to bring up to three casinos to the area, you're reporting that Mets owner Steve Cohen cleared a critical hurdle in the state legislature. It feels like this project has gone from kind of seeming like he was dead in the water to actually getting approved. Just tell us what happened and how much closer it brings Cohen to getting his casino in Queens. Yeah, Sean, I mean, for the last two years, Steve Cohen has basically been employing a small army of lobbyists in Albany in New York City to push for.

this casino near city field. He wants to build it on the parking lots surrounding the stadium, but those are actually public park land. So he needed state lawmakers to pass this bill to reclassify that land. That would clear the way so he can build this $8 billion entertainment complex and a 20-acre park. That's all centered around this casino that he wants to build with Hard Rock International. The state senate passed that bill overwhelmingly.

It was 54 to 5. And that came after more than a year of this, you know, will they, won't they, hemming and hawing. And the assembly had actually passed it earlier this month. So now it goes to Governor Kathy Hockel for her signature or veto. We should say that Steve Cohen has contributed financially to the New York State Democratic Party, which is run by Kathy Hockel. But even if she signs it here, it's not a done deal. Cohen and Hard Rock would still have to win one of the three remaining state casino licenses. and they're up against eight other projects in the New York City area.

Yeah, tall odds, as they say. Liz, let's take things downstate, as it were. The city's campaign finance board is reviewing the latest filings for candidates seeking matching funds this week. Some would say it's make or break time for city council speaker Adrian Adams, right? That's right. You know, she entered the race late, so she's had less time to raise money. And, you know, it could be tight. She's reporting around $291,000 in qualifying matching donations.

Now, you need a minimum of $250,000. But there are rules on what kinds of donations qualify. And the paperwork can trip up candidates. And, you know, we've seen that with Andrew Cuomo, who was initially denied matching funds because he didn't have all of the donor information required by the city. But if she qualifies, she could stand to get over $2 million in matching funds. That's much needed cash to get a TV ad in the final stretch of the race. She's also sort of at a pivotal moment of her campaign.

She delivered this very emotional speech at Elmhurst Hospital last week. It was centered on her father who died during COVID. Now, it was at Elmhurst Hospital because that was the hospital. in which he couldn't gain entry to at the time because the hospital, it was the, you know, it was the epicenter of the pandemic and it was full. He instead had to go to a hospital further away, which was Long Island Jewish Medical Center. And she essentially blamed Cuomo for making decisions, not necessarily just around the pandemic, but even prior to the pandemic, like not giving enough funding to public hospitals. that she says ultimately affected her father's care.

Now, to be clear, her father was among 30,000 people who died from COVID. The Cuomo campaign has vigorously pushed back on her criticisms saying that Elmhurst was a city hospital. And Elmhurst actually did receive, they say, around $412 million in increased state funding when Cuomo was governor. But at the same time, Cuomo's management of the pandemic is something that his opponents are seizing on. And it's not just the mayoral opponents. Last week, the New York Times reported that the Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether Cuomo lied to Congress when he was questioned by Republicans about how he managed the pandemic. Well, Cuomo's campaign is countering this narrative. They didn't waste any time responding.

You know, they cut a commercial framing the investigation as evidence that President Trump is weaponizing the Justice Department. Does that sound familiar? And that basically Trump doesn't want him to be mayor. And that's reason enough for Democratic voters in New York City to make him mayor. All right. Now it's time for our question for listeners. Tomorrow night is the first debate between two candidates running for city controller. Manhattan Borough president, Mark Levine, and Brooklyn City Council member Justin Brand.

which candidate are you ranking first? Sign up for our newsletter to tell us why or why not. That's politics brief. If you want to answer a question or keep hearing more from our politics team, be sure to sign up for emails at gotthmus.com slash newsletters. Liz John, thanks so much. Thanks, John. Thank you.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a date for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcast.