NYC NOW - Midday News: The Latest Local News, City Plans Facelift for Broadway Junction and American Chestnuts Bear Fruit in Brooklyn

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

A new public plaza is in the works for East New York’s Broadway Junction, but residents fear being priced out. And finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill talks with Bart Chezar, a chestnut expert, about an effort to bring the trees back to Brooklyn.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. This is our one and only episode today. We're taking the day off to observe President's Day. Here's your news headlines from Michael Hill. French President Emmanuel Macron has called leaders from key European Union nations and the United Kingdom to his ornate Elise Palace for the emergency meeting today. He wants to discuss how to deal with the Trump administration and step up plans to increased defense spending.

European leaders have been stunned by a week-long diplomatic blitz on Ukraine from the Trump administration that seemed to embrace the Kremlin while the coal shouldered many of its age-old European allies. There were belligerent warnings ahead of Donald Trump's re-election as U.S. president, but EU leaders publicly ignore the ominous forebodings and somehow hoped Trump would stand side by side with Europe. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is adamant. He will not step down after.

growing calls to do so. A video posted to the administration's social media shows Adams addressing the congregation at a Baptist church yesterday in Queens Village. You're going to hear so many rumors and so many things. You're going to read so much. I am going nowhere. No way. No word. State's head majority leader, Andre Stewart Cousins, is one of the latest on the list of Democrats calling on Adams to resign. Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss corruption charges against the mayor on Friday. The Justice Department says it was necessary, so Adams can help the Trump administration with immigration enforcement in New York City.

A federal judge will decide whether to dismiss corruption charges against Adams. Officials in New York are warning consumers to be on the lookout for easy-pass phone scams. WNYC, Sean Carlson, has more. Governor Hogle's office says scammers are sending text messages. trying to claim unpaid tolls. The texts often come from international numbers and contain links to unofficial websites. Officials say Easy Pass and the state's mail tolling system will never send a text requesting sensitive personal information. The state's division of consumer protection is offering tips to avoid scams,

including never responding to text from numbers you don't know and using your phone's report junk feature. You should also delete those messages. Officials say reporting suspicious messages is one of the best ways to protect yourself as it helps to identify new or trending scams. 33 with sunshine now. Wind advisory till 6th this evening. It winds up to 50 miles an hour. Mostly sunny, mid-30s today, but the wind chills 20 to 25, so cold and breezy and gusty.

Tonight, mostly clear and cold in the teens for a low and gusty, and then tomorrow's still cold. Sunny, upper 20s for a high, and that wind will make it feel as cold as 10 degrees at time. 33 with sunshine now, Michael Hill. W. NYC News. A new public plaza is in the works for East New York's Broadway Junction, but residents there fear they could be priced out of their neighborhood. More on that after the break.

NYCLN. Big changes are coming to a busy transit hub in Brooklyn's East New York neighborhood. The community near Broadway Junction has been neglected for decades, but the city has a plan to add new buildings and public spaces to the area. However, some locals worry about what else might come with the big investment. Here's WMYC's Liam Quigley with more. The area around the Broadway Junction subway station isn't exactly welcoming for pedestrians. Cars race by on busy streets and trains rumble on elevated tracks overhead,

and the sidewalks are often blocked by parked cars. Ionna McFarland regularly commutes through the area. She says she only spends as much time here as she needs to. That's partially because she's worried about her safety. I always come here, like, in the morning and I don't, like, stay too long, you know, I don't, like, sit down and hang out and wait for something to happen. This is one of Brooklyn's main crossroads where some of the borough's busiest streets and subway lines converge. McFarlane just wishes it were nicer. They should make, like, this area better.

Now the city has a $500 million plan to improve the area. The MTA is renovating the subway station where five lines interstate. The Economic Development Corporation recently moved forward with a plan to tear down a police precinct attached to the station to build a pedestrian plaza. And there's also a new expanded park. Local council member Sandy Nurse says those improvements have been a long time coming. The idea of these public plazas is nice. And we want more open space, of course.

When it comes to Broadway Junction, there's a long list of outstanding needs. that the city has not prioritized. Other changes to the neighborhood are already underway. A massive new building for the city Human Resources Administration is nearly finished, adding a shiny glass facade to an area filled with rusty steel and broken sidewalks. But some residents are worried about what might happen to the neighborhood. I'm thinking gentification is coming and it won't be as much of a need for us and our outreach that we're doing now.

That's Shelley Woodard, who's volunteered at a nearby church for 15 years, helping out community members in need. She's concerned the changes to the area might force out locals, and she might be right. Developers are pitching plans to build a new tower in place of her church. Woodard says she's committed to volunteering in the area no matter how much it changes. We will still be here to help out those, the less fortunate and those who need us to be here with food and clothing and things like that. For now, Woodard's church is safe. Most of the major changes to the neighborhood are still years away. That's WMYC's Liam Quigley.

Long before Brooklyn was just pavement and buildings, the borough was covered with hardwood forest. And many of the trees in that forest were American chestnuts. The tree was a vital part of the ecology and early economy. But over the last century, have been all but wiped out by a blight from an airborne fungus. But an effort to bring the tree back to Brooklyn is now bearing fruit. Literally, my colleague Michael Hill talked with Bart Cheser, a chestnut expert who volunteers with the Prospect Park Alliance. Bart, tell us about the effort to restore the trees.

What are some of the things people have tried to do to save them? Well, after the blight first occurred, they cut down large swaths in Pennsylvania to hopefully stop it from spreading. But, you know, the principal, major scientific efforts, started with the American Chestnut Foundation. And my efforts in New York City and Brooklyn is basically built upon the work that they have done locally.

What do you do? Okay. Basically, it started in 2004. When working with the American Chestnut Foundation, we first planted some native chestnut trees in Prospect Park. Many of them were lost to blight, but a few of them continued to survive. In one area, we actually had trees that grew to 40, 50 feet, and we had the opportunity to collect seeds from those trees, which we then planted in Prospect Park in Greenwood Cemetery to Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

At that time, also, though, the American Chestnut Foundation was initiating a breeding program where they basically crossed the American Chestnut with the Chinese Chestnut, which is another species of chestnut, but it's blight-resistant. How many chestnut trees do you think we have now in Brooklyn? I think I have about 100 chestnut trees between one foot and about 45 feet. In the last couple years, a number of the trees have reached a size that they're producing nuts and we're able to collect them. Two years ago, we collected about 25. This past year, we've collected over 400, so it's been quite successful.

How can people, how can we help? Well, a lot of it's education telling people about chestnut trees and why they're important. But what I should say is this year for the first time, we're at a point. where we have more seeds than we have places for them to plant. Is that a good problem to have? Yeah, it is a good problem. But the question is what we do next with these trees. So we're actually starting the New York City 1,000 American Chestnut Tree Challenge,

where we want to take these 400 trees, distribute them throughout the city, to interested individuals and organizations to start planting these trees. and the goal is to have 1,000, 10-foot chestnut trees growing in the city. They're basically free to anybody, any person or organization, and if they contact me, we'll arrange to get them these chestnut seedlings. We'll instruct them on how to plant them, where to plant them, and basically to monitor their growth, and when they reach 10 feet to let us know,

and we'll see if we could meet that 1,000 tree goal. That's chestnut expert Bart Cheser, talking with my colleague Michael Hill. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. Enjoy the day. We'll be back with three episodes tomorrow.