NYC NOW - Morning Headlines: DA Bragg Urges 3D Printer Makers to Block Ghost Guns, New Migrant Documentary Debuts, Queens Bar Wins Top Honors, and New Bus Lane to LaGuardia

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is asking 3D printer manufacturers to prevent users from making untraceable “ghost guns.” Meanwhile, a new documentary called The Arrivals highlights the work of volunteers welcoming migrants at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. In Queens, Donovan’s Pub in Woodside has been named the borough’s best bar. Plus, Governor Hochul is touting a $160 million plan to add a dedicated bus lane on the BQE to improve transit access to LaGuardia Airport. WNYC’s transit team also checks in on the MTA’s latest crime stats and congestion pricing revenue.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, March 28th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is asking companies that make 3D printers to block consumers from making untraceable homemade ghost guns. Bragg sent a letter this week to a Chinese company called Creelty 3D technology asking it to install a software program in its printers that blocks users from printing common gun parts.

The letter also calls on the company to remove blueprints from its cloud platform that show how to print weapons. Bragg says he'll send similar letters to other 3D printing companies. A exposed person for cruelty could not immediately be reached for comment. A new documentary spotlights the work of volunteers helping new migrants, arriving in New York City at the Port Authority bus terminal, Andrea Garberini created a film called The Arrivals. I was a volunteer at Port Authority on that first day, and as I was going about my volunteer work,

I realized that this story needs to be told. So I took out my phone and started filming in Port Authority. Buses of migrants regularly travel from Texas to Port Authority in late 2022. The NYU Law School will screen the film next to. Tuesday, April 1st, that's at 7 o'clock at night. The documentary's release comes as the Trump administration carries out a crackdown on immigration. An unassuming Irish pub in Woodside has been crowned the best bar in Queens. WNYC's Julia Hayward was there as regulars at Donovan's pub got the news. Co-owner Dan Connor surprised the afternoon crowd with the announcement.

We're going to take a picture of all of you in the background, if that's right, with all of you. All right? Dickson was a guy with the Yankee hat. This is Met Country. Donovan's has been a neighborhood staple since 1966. But in 2012, it nearly closed when the original owner put it up for sale, and buyers lined up to turn it into a supermarket or a bank. That's when Connor and his brother-in-law stepped in to save it.

Now, with a plaque on the wall and a bar full of regulars, Donovins has one more thing to toes to. And their Mets, by the way, lost yesterday. The Yankees won in their season openers. The air quality right now is expected to be moderate today because of some particle pollution. Tree pollen levels are moderate. We're in the mid-40s right now under mostly cloudy skies on the way to a partly sunny day, mid-60s for high temperatures on this last Friday of the month.

A 50-50 chance of showers overnight, low mid-50s, then tomorrow. Get ready for this. Mostly sunny. who 79 degrees tomorrow. It's Friday. That means it's time for our weekly segment of On the Way. Covering all things transportation, that's after the break. It's time for On the Way, our weekly segment on all things considered, breaking down the week's transit news. Joining us is W&MIC's Transportation Reporter Ramsey Caliphay and editor Clayton Goosa.

All right, we're going to start with some news about LaGuardi Airport. Or more specifically how people get to the actual airport, Governor Hocal is touting a new $160 million plan to add a dedicated bus lane to the BQE to speed up transit service there. Now, look, I'm going to admit this is no subway extension to the airport. But Clayton, will it actually make it easier to get to LaGuardia? It'll make it a little easier than it is now, but you still got to get on the bus.

I mean, the plan aims to really target the Q70 route. That goes from Jackson Heightswood side up to LaGuardia, along to BQE. It's going to add a dedicated traffic lane on the highway, do some other stuff to make it run more frequently. But you're right, it's not as fast as a subway connection. It's one of the busiest airports in the country and the busiest city in the world. We don't have the dignity of a train there. That's not for lack of trying. And, you know, the Giuliani administration and the MTA then had pitched a subway extension of the N-line to LaGuardia that got some kind of before and really after 9-11.

Fast forward to Cuomo. He pitched an air train that was, you know, would have been a rail link like you would have to pay a second fare, second ride, you know, like the one set, like the one of JFK, but you would have to go all the way out to Willits Point by City Field, and then back there, a lot of people argued that this bus would still be faster than the airtrain when I was reporting. My last job, Cuomo declined and offered to take the bus ride with me several times. Hoko came into office and killed Cuomo's air train. Now this is her plan to replace it. Make the bus system faster, really speed things up for commuters. Okay. Yeah, so this is finally moving forward. Riders can expect a boost in bus speeds to get them to LaGuardia. The plan calls for more frequent service, dedicated bus lane, like you mentioned, on a stretch of the BQE, and to get the buses out of local traffic on streets in Woodside or Jackson Heights. So the city plans actually to reprogram some of the traffic lights, too, so they stay green longer when a Q70 bus approaches. That should help with the flow.

Okay. We still don't actually know when it will be done, but Port Authority's chief development officer Derek Utter says the redesign will bring immediate benefits to commuters getting to Luguardia. The improvements that we are recommending today are to reduce the risk of delays to improve the travel time and to be much more expected travel times to get to the airport. And let's remember LaGuardia was once compared to a third world country. That was said by former President Joe Biden. Now that it's been rebuilt, it's known as one of the nicer airports in the world. The overhaul made it more modern, but didn't bring a new trade line. Yeah, I agree.

It is nicer after the renovation. In other news, the Trump administration keeps criticizing the MTA over subway crime. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy used an expletive to describe the state of the system last week. But the MTA is pushing back and also sharing some new details about its crime stats. Ramsey, you were at the agency's board meeting this week. What did you find out? So look, here's the latest numbers that jumped out at the MTA and the NYPD when they looked at the trends, specifically to felony assault. 71 police officers in the subway system were assaulted in 2019.

last year, that's up to 179 officers. So the MTA says it's about one in every three felony assaults last year. But their argument is, as police have flooded the system and enforcement has gone up, so has the likelihood of those assaults. So you might have heard about assaults are on the rise and the subways. It's a cause for concern. It's actually 55% increase from that same period, 2019 to 2024. And again, they're saying that it's the police officers and transit workers

who are the main contributing factors. So let's remember Duffy, the Transportation Secretary, has demanded that the MTA share their crime sets with the federal government. But this information is shared on a regular basis. I go to these board meetings every week, every month, and I see for myself, you get access and get to go through it. So MTA chair generally reminded the public yesterday

that it's actually the NYPD that patrols the subway, not the MTA. He went even further to say that Duffy's actually criticizing the police, not the MTA here. So here's Lee at a news conference yesterday describing the most common assault he sees against, police. Cop stopped someone for fair evasion or for some other offense, and then the offender hits

the cop. Any attack on a cop classified as a felony assault, that pattern has to stop. But look, if you actually remove assaults on cops and transit workers out of this equation, that's still around 347 recorded assaults last year, still way higher than previous years. So when we talk about a boost in enforcement, let's remind people, Governor Hockel deployed 800 extra police officers last year after a series of high-profile crimes. It might also remember when she deployed hundreds of National Guard soldiers to initiate bag checks and also to patrol stations across the system.

Right. And to put a point on it, nobody's arguing that, you know, strings of shootings, subway shovings, you know, mental health crisis on the subway is not a problem. It's just, you know, kind of when MTA chair, Lieber and Governor Hoke will see, you know, Trump's Transportation Secretary kind of politicizing it is where they say, hold on a minute. It's more complicated than you're giving us. credit for, and we are paying attention to this.

Yeah. Okay, so let's do our weekly check into congestion pricing here. The toll is still on, even as the Trump administration tries to kill the Manhattan tolls. This week, the MTA gave an update on how much money they're bringing in through the program. How are they looking, Ramsey? Well, I think it reveals that the MTA is hitting their revenue goals, and they

say they're on pace to generate enough money by the end of the year to get a bond from a bank to start working on a list of major construction projects. So in February, the transit agency collected nearly $52 million. from drivers entering the congestion zone. That means the MTA has about in the first two months of this program a $100 million pot,

but you have to subtract monthly costs to run the program since it started on January 5th. So the bond they hope to get out of the program will go towards building the next phase of the 2nd Avenue subway into East Harlem, more than a dozen station redesigns to add elevators and make them more accessible. A lot of important work. And as for the efficacy of the program, the MTA says the tolls are achieving their intended purpose. It's decreasing travel times into the zone. within the zone and also improving bus speeds. So let's remember this is all happening while the federal government is making a lot of noise

to kill the tolls. The US DOT gave the MTA a March deadline. They extended it another 30 days. The MTA has been clear. We're not going to do anything unless a judge orders us to. Again, kind of two points. Hockel's negotiating with Trump over the future congestion pricing, including using Penn Station and his interest in that project as a kind of a bargaining chip there. And a new poll is showing that it's getting more popular.

About half the people, it's even split between people who support congestion pricing and against a new pole from Emerson. Kind of interesting compared to a few months ago before it launched when it was highly unpopular. Yeah, yeah, interesting. Okay, so before we head out here every week in our On the Way newsletter, we answer a question from a curious commuter. This one is from Deanna Manhattan who asks, if yellow taxi passengers only pay a nominal congestion pricing fee of 75 cents per trip, then why do I see a $2.50-cent congestion surcharge on my receipt? It's really interesting. I love this question. Dates back to 2018 after the summer of hell, right? Remember service fell apart. The MTA,

Governor Cuomo, then needed money to triage the system. Legislature passes this surcharge. It's not 60th Street like the new congestion fee, but up to 96th Street. It also applies to Uber's. But if your taxi hits that zone, you pay an extra 250. That money goes into account to pay for anything from, you know, bus driver salaries, but really track equipment, track upgrades. It's separate from the MTA's capital plan that's funded by this congestion pricing toll. But really, if you get into a yellow taxi below 60th street, you're paying this $2.50 surcharge as well as a 75 cent surcharge on top of whatever other fees you're paying for your cap. So separate charges, separate purposes. One is old, one is new. Interesting. Thank you, Deanna, for that eagle-eyed view of your taxi receipt there. And thank you to WNWC Transportation Editor Clayton Gousa and reporter,

Ramsey, Kleefe. You can stay in the know on all things transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for a weekly newsletter at gotthmus.com slash on the way. My friends, thanks so much. Thanks, Sean. Thanks, 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.

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