NYC NOW - Morning Headlines: Federal Government Expands Immigration Registry, Asbestos Concerns in Bronx Fire, Hochul Considers NYC Business Tax Hike, and MTA Faces Federal Pressure Over Subway Safety

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

Undocumented immigrants across the tri-state area are grappling with a new online registry unveiled by the Trump administration, prompting legal questions about whether to enroll. Meanwhile, officials say asbestos has been detected at the site of last week’s massive Bronx fire, though no public health risk has been confirmed. Also, Governor Hochul is reportedly considering raising taxes on large New York City employers to help fund the MTA. Plus, on this week’s transportation segment, the Trump administration is ramping up pressure on the MTA, threatening to withhold federal funding unless the agency provides detailed safety plans and crime data by the end of the month.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, March 21st. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. This morning, undocumented immigrants in New York, New Jersey, and across the USA are asking their lawyers, should I register or not? The Trump administration is rolling out a new online registry for immigrants who've remained. named under the radar of government agencies. Legal Aid attorney Deborah Lee says it's a tricky decision for immigrants.

There's a concern. You know, registering may lead to your detection and detention and deportation and possibly criminal charges. But if you don't register, there's also, you know, the possibility of that. The administration recently began requiring undocumented immigrants to register by way of a new online. inform. Those who don't can face civil and criminal penalties, and Lee says immigrants subject to the requirements should consult an attorney. Worry's this morning for Bronx residents about as best as found at the site of a massive fire that destroyed multiple businesses last week, but officials say there's no public health threat. The fire destroyed six businesses near Jerome and Burnside

avenues. Environmental officials say a licensed contractor is handling demolition with city staff monitoring air quality. Resident Natalie Springer says she worries about dust from the demolition after already dealing with the fire's aftermath. All the smoke came into the building. Basically, it was black. It was bitch black. Neighborhood officials say they're confident in the safety measures in place.

Governor Kathy Hokel is floating the idea of a tax increase on large New York City employers to help fund the MTA. The governors raised the... the possibility of increasing the payroll mobility tax during closed-door budget negotiations this way. That's according to three sources with knowledge of the talks. The tax hike would likely only apply to employers in the five boroughs with a large payroll, though it's not clear what that threshold would be. The MTA would then leverage that money to borrow additional funds to pay for repairs

and upgrades to its bus and rail systems. 44 and mostly cloudy and windy, a gradual clearing, a high in the mid-50s today and gusty. This weekend should be nice, too, with the slim chance of early afternoon showers tomorrow. It's Friday. That means it's time for a weekly segment of On the Way. Covering all things transportation, that's after the break. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. It's Friday, which means it's time for On the Way, our weekly segment for, breaking down the week's transit news.

Joining us is WNYC's transportation reporter Ramsey Khalifa and editor Clayton Guza. Okay, the Trump administration is escalating their fight with the MTA. This week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter to the agency threatening to withhold federal funding unless the agency's leaders send data on subway crime and a plan to improve safety in the system by the end of the month. Is this like a real threat or is this just posse? Well, at the very least, it's another shot across the bow by the Trump administration. against New York City. They've been threatening funding or even withholding funding from New York or attempting to a lot of government agencies and institutions in the city. Duffy's letter, Sean Duffy's letter, specifically asked the MTA for data on crime and public safety as well as

plans to address those issues like fare evasion, subway surfing, the rising rate of assault, mental health crisis. It feels like political prostering in no small part because the MTA releases so much of this data and goes over so many of these plans every month at their MTA board meetings, this data is public. Anyone can access it. You don't need to write a letter and ask and set a harsh deadline to get it. But the question is right. Does Duffy actually want to improve safety on the subway or does he just want to fan political flames? And he released a video on social media that's really sounded more like a campaign advertisement than a policy platform. We have a clip from it here. New Yorkers don't feel safe on their own subways. The continued trend of violent crime, homelessness,

And other threats to public safety, it's not acceptable. And it is worth mentioning that Duffy's video includes a clip of B-roll from the Tokyo Subway, which is apparently mistaken for our own cities. But back to the point. Aside from threatening federal funding, much of what he's saying isn't necessarily controversial. It's something that the MTA harps on a lot. It's a fair evasion costs them a lot of money. Assaults are up from pre-pandemic levels significantly.

And teenagers keep getting hurt and killed. surfing on the subway. So on that end, the substance of it isn't really that crazy. It's the threat of it that really has people's heads turning. Yeah, the Trump administration is trying to make crime and safety a key issue. So recent actions suggest that they're going to make a statement out of targeting New York City. It's a Democratic city. It's more liberal. But crime and how the city addresses that issue is actually overseen by the NYPD and Mayor Adams. So the MTA isn't the agency that's deployed the police into the subway system that was under the direction

and the resources of Governor Hockel and Mayor Adams. So here's Adams today at a press conference talking about both the subways and how New Yorkers are feeling unsafe on the train. I understand New York is feeling that way, but trust me, we look at the numbers, it shows that what we are doing is actually working. I'm going to bring and invite our federal lawmakers

to come in and see what we're actually, what we are doing. What he's pointing to those numbers is just NYPD crime data. And that's showing that major crimes in the subways have dropped in the first month of this year when you compared to that same period last year. Now, we should note that this is not the only way

the feds are getting into the MTA's business. And if you thought we were going to get through on the way without talking about congestion pricing, you were mistaken. The Trump administration is also demanding the agency and its congestion pricing tolls. Now, the deadline, their deadline for that was tomorrow, but that's just changed, right?

What's going to happen? Yeah, so Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, he shared on social media earlier this afternoon that the DOT will be extending their deadline to end congestion pricing by 30 days. The MTA's position has been clear. It's that they got word when the feds turned off the tolls. We're keeping them on until a judge tells us to,

not the federal government. The federal DOT under the Biden administration, they already signed the dotted line to approve the program last year. And it's a binding contract that the feds just can't rip up. So as you might remember, within the hour of that demand to kill congestion pricing, the transit agency filed a lawsuit against the DOT making their arguments on why the program is working.

Yeah, and that lawsuit is being overseen by one of the judges, the same Southern District, Manhattan federal judge, who upheld congestion pricing against lawsuits trying to stop it last year for months and months or more than a year. And the MTA is arguing that the federal government not only doesn't have the grounds or the legal authority to kill the program, kind of citing states' rights and a previous approval under the Biden administration. But that this judge has heard these arguments before. The very same arguments were arguments that he served before. And the judge wasn't really in any hurry to issue a ruling on this lawsuit ahead of this deadline, push back 30 days while the whole whole whole host of

issues, including congestion pricing. All right. Another big news. It is the end of an era in New York City subways. The MTA says they're going to stop selling metro cards, but at the end of this year, as they switch to Omni for Subway and Bus Fair Collection, it is a long time coming, right, Clay? Yeah, I mean, no more Swipity Swipe, just tap-a-Tap with Omni. The MTA issued a contract in 2017 that, you know, aimed to sunset the Metro Card by the end of 2023. As two years ago, there was delays from COVID. There were manufacturing problems. They pushed it back to this year. At long last, it's finally going to go away. You know, the world's also, also changed a lot over the last eight years since they first issued that contract. I mean,

tap to pay is really the norm at your deli, at your bodega, at a restaurant. A lot of the time, you don't give your card anymore. They're coming up and you can tap your phone, which is new and deal it on the device. You know, that was a norm in other countries, like a lot of Western Europe, before New York, we finally caught on. But the subway really represents not only this kind of change in from analog to digital, but really just a change of kind of payment methods everywhere. Yeah. And here's the big asterisk with this news. If you still have your metro card after the end of this year, it'll still work on the Fairgate's until a date that they haven't really specified yet next year to use on subways and buses. The retirement is just for the

sales of new cards, but you'll still be able to use them. But the caveat is once the money runs dry, you won't be able to refill it on the machines. So if you don't have a metric card, the only way to pay will be through buying a new Omnic card at the new vending machines or select retail stores like at a CVS or Walgreens. Those vending machines are still limited to certain stations, but the MTA is saying that they plan a rolling out at least one Omni vending machine in every station by the fall. That's also the same time where they'll be getting rid of every Metro card station in New York City. That's going to be at the same time.

So, of course, you can use your digital wallet on your phone to tap or with a credit card that has that tap feature. Right now, the MTA says about 85% of regular fare riders and 55% of reduced fair riders use Omni anyways to pay into the system. Wow. I'm not one of them yet. I'm embarrassed to admit that. Yeah, I'll catch up.

Yeah. Now, the MTA says killing the metric card is going to save the agency $20 million a year. But, you know, when it comes to these kinds of things, saving the MTA money, is it something that's actually going to save riders money? Yeah, I mean, it's certainly going to save the MTA money. Printing vinyl Metro cards when you're also running a whole other fair payment system is going to be costly. But the thing that we're looking at is that Omni doesn't have a 30-day and limited pass option. Oh. Metro cards do. Oh, interesting. The MTA is saying, hey, riders leave a lot of unused rides on.

those 30-day unlimited passes. They cost $132. I haven't used one in a while. But as, you know, the MTA gets rid of it, they're kind of setting the stage to get rid of it. I mean, the MetroCard, you know, shifting away from the tokens 32 years ago, allowed the unlimited pass to exist. And that also corresponded with a big boom of ridership on the subway in the 90s. And like Clayton said, the MTs actually making an argument that people are losing money if they use this 30-day unlimited pass. So they say that most riders don't even break even with the amount of rides that they're getting during a weekly or a monthly pass. So the totals, about $40 million every year in preloaded fares that the MTA says being underutilized,

it's not being spent. But now in turn, with tap to pay, we have this newer system. So it's basically a fare capping for a seven-day period. What that means is if you ride the subway or bus 12 times within that seven days, the next and future rides, again, within that period are free. And that it caps at $34. But now there's going to be an increase to the fair to about $3 later this year. And that'll likely increase that weekly cap.

Well, thanks to WNMIC editor Clayton Goosa and Transportation Reporter Ramsey Caliphay. You can stay in the know on all things transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for our weekly newsletter. That's at gothamis.com slash on the way. Clayton Ramsey, as always, thanks so much. Thank you, 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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