NYC NOW - Morning Headlines: Fourth Person Dies in Harlem Legionnaires Outbreak, NYC Council to Override Mayor Adams’ Food Vendor Vetoes, Calls to Pause Summer Evictions, and PATH Train Woes

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

A fourth person has died in the Harlem Legionnaires’ disease outbreak, which has now sickened 99 people. Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams says the Council will vote to override Mayor Adams’ vetoes of bills expanding protections for food vendors and delivery workers. Also, Legal Services NYC is calling on the city to pause evictions on days when the heat index exceeds 90 degrees. Plus, Southern food chain, Bojangles, will open its first Brooklyn location this winter in East Flatbush. And in this week’s transit segment: more delays for PATH riders and new LIRR benches debut at Grand Central Madison.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, August 15th. Here's the morning headlines. I'm Jene Pierre. Officials say a fourth person has died in the Legionnaires outbreak in Harlem, which has sicken 99 people so far. City officials say new cases are starting to decline, but they have not declared the outbreak to be over. They identified several buildings with water cooling towers that tested piety. positive for Legion Nella in Harlem, including a city-run hospital and health clinic. They say all but one of the towers has been disinfected.

The final one is scheduled for remediation today. City Council Speaker Adrian Adams says the council will vote to override the mayor's vetoes of bills intended to help food vendors and delivery workers. The speaker says the vetoes took the council by surprise. The administration was for this legislation until they were not a few days ago. Instacart heavily lobbied against one of the bills, which would raise the wages of third-party grocery app workers. Another bill would decriminalize penalties on food vendors. Mayor Eric Adams is defending the vetoes.

He says raising wages for delivery workers would result in higher food prices, and that cracking down on illegal street vending protects small businesses. Getting evicted in the summer heat isn't just an inconvenience. A new report says it can be dangerous. New York City data shows that more than 500 people, people die from heat-related illness each year in the five boroughs. Now, an organization called Legal Services NYC is asking the city to pause evictions on days when the heat index is hotter than 90 degrees.

Donna Harvey is one New Yorker who has spent some of the hottest days this summer searching for a new home while facing eviction. She says the heat added to her stress. I started to catch a panic attack and anxiety attack because my mental was already in a place of finding adequate housing, stable housing for my child, and I get to a place where now I'm even more flustered. City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bojangles is making a comeback in New York City.

The southern fast food chain known for fried chicken biscuits and sweet tea is opening a location this winter in East Flatb Bush, Brooklyn. It's part of a plan to open 20 spots across the five boroughs over the next decade. The franchise deal is being led by Habib Hashimi, a restaurant operator with locations across New York and Connecticut. Bojangles last had a presence in the city back in the 80s, this time. they say they're in it for the long haul. The air quality is moderate today due to some particle pollution,

and so far all is looking clear for your commute this morning. It's 76 degrees. It'll be mostly sunny today with a high around 87. Partly cloudy skies ahead tonight with a low around 70. And on Saturday, you can expect the sunny day with a high around 85 degrees. 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. NYC. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. It's time for All in the Way, our weekly segment on all things considered, breaking down the week's transit news. Joining us, WNYC's transportation reporter Stephen Nesson and Ramsey Caliphay and editor Clayton Goosa. Path train riders cannot just get a break, man. The Port Authority said they're going to be closing down the Hoboken station over the Labor Day holiday to fix a broken piece of equipment. What is going on?

So just for a little context, the Port Authority actually shut down this station earlier this year for a month. They installed a new system to basically direct trains into the platform, made track replacements and other infrastructure upgrades. But now they're saying that because of a, quote, design issue with that new system, they'll actually have to close the station down again so they can try and resolve the problem. So issues with this new system have really created a bunch of disruptions throughout the PATH system over the summer, especially through Hoboken, so the lines that go to World Trade. Center and 33rd Street. So when we reached out for a comment, the port of he says if, let's say, the contractor or the manufacturer had anything to do with this problem, they will be held accountable. So if you look at procurement documents for this project, it costs about $10 million to install by a company called J-Track LLC. And it's really just the latest indignity that path riders

have to suffer in addition to the fires, the signal issues, all the things that Ramsey was talking about, there's a bunch of weekend closures that are coming for path train riders, while the Port Authority makes $400 million worth of upgrades. I spoke with the mayor of Hoboken, Ravi Bala, and he says these problems that we've been speaking about, he thinks it's symptomatic of systematic infrastructure failures, and he says the path needs to declare a state of emergency. You might as well call it a whole broken station. I mean, to put a finer point on it, I mean, the Port Authority and Path can blame the issues in the contract are all they want, but at the end of the day, it's their contract, it's their system, they have oversight.

And this is, you know, far from the first problem we've seen at Hoboken. Less than 10 years ago, back in 2016, a lot of listeners might remember when there were an NJ transit train crashed at Hoboken Terminal, right, which shares with Path. After, whenever a bumper block, writer said it never slowed down. A person died and dozens of others were injured. So it's kind of a recurring theme over the years here that we continue. you to have problems and incidents and delays at the station. Yeah. All right.

The MTA just installed new benches to the L.I.R. Mezzanine at Grand Central Madison. What can you tell us about that? Yeah, they added 42 new seats to the mezzanine level of the train station. That's in three different waiting areas next to the track, so 21 benches. If you ever been to that station, there's the main concourse that's a bit higher up where riders buy their tickets. There's a bunch of art.

Then there's a very, very steep escalator that goes down to the mezzanine. And a lot of people like to hang out there. It's closer to the train station. It's closer to the tracks. If you're in a rush or if you just want to feel more comfortable before the train arrives, you can hang out over there. So they mostly wait there. And MT officials really received a lot of feedback from customers saying,

hey, we need a place to sit before the train comes. And also they said that there's been growing ridership on the LIR, so there's more demand. So this all started last October. They added a couple seats. And now they're just doing a lot more. So if you actually look at the benches, just a little visual, they're black and gray, can seat two people,

and they have a medium-sized handle in between. So you actually can't really lay down, but we'll get more to that in a second. Yeah, and, I mean, really what we're talking about is two years of the MTA hand-wringing and wondering of a really simple question, should we add seats to a train station for people to sit in while they wait to write,

and you compare that with, you know, Grand Central Madison is the newest train station in the city, one of the other new ones, Moynihan Train Hall, right, it's not a new station, but kind of an extension of Penn, so to speak. They're famous since it opened in 2020 that they have no seats. People are sitting on the floor throughout the lobby.

That's run by the Empire State Development Corporation, not the MTA like this one. But, you know, this isn't crown jewels, so to speak, of an MTA station. I mean, it was years of delays. It's way deep under Grand Central. It's covered in marble. It finally opened a couple years ago. There's still no bar down there to give you that, you know, kind of delight of having a drink while you wait for a train. So you can't sit at a bar.

that's going to have that's going to change soon. It's also a tremendously long hallway and a long hike to get to the tracks. Right. You would be tired. You need a breather. But really, but really we can call this what it is and we can get to this a little, we can dive in a little bit more. But this is, you know, this is a deterrent to keep people from sleeping and or loitering,

particularly homeless people in the station. And another indication of that really is just look at the kind of rules that have been applied to these new seats. You need to be a ticket holder. and the MTA also put a 90-minute time limit for how long you can actually sit there. How do you enforce them like that? I don't know how you'd enforce it. I think there are police nearby, but I don't know who's sitting there for that long.

Stop watch. So officials, when they roll this out, it's kind of interesting when you hear the language. They said they wanted to be, quote, smart about where they place these seats, about the process of rolling it out. What's clear is that both in the design and the rollout that they just want to, or they're rather thinking about the homeless population or people who might loiter. So I spoke with John Ritter. He's a professor of architecture and urbanism at NYU. And he really places these new benches in the city's history of hostile architecture. Certainly clearly designed so you can't lie down on it or sleep on it,

which is the thing that they clearly want to avoid. They want to keep people moving through there. I mean, look, what this responds to is the fact that public space is the space of last resort for people who have no resources. And this citywide shift towards this more hostile design. It really stems from the rise in homelessness in New York City in the 1980s. So what Ritter said is the continuation of these ideas in new designs might really not be necessary,

especially in a day and age where we have police all over the train system. There's also increased surveillance. Maybe you don't really need the design to change, or rather you don't need the design to be anti-homeless to really, I guess, achieve those goals. Yeah. All right. Every week, we answer a question from a curious commuter. This week, Michael from Brooklyn asks, why do the fair gates not display your remaining

balance on your Omni card. With the machines, it seems they decided to not bother with anything to make them user-friendly. What's up with that? Well, the MTA acknowledges that there are limited displays on the Omni screens. Spokesperson Eugene Resnick tells us that Omni readers are designed to be fast, simple, and secure. You know, the MTA sort of now expects the users, people to use Omni, that they're going to check their balance on an Omni vending machine or online or your bank account or one of the customer service centers located around the city. But it's true. It's not as easy to check the balance as it was with the Metro card where you just swiped

and it was right there. That said, you know, the MTA hinted that when the Metro card is fully phased out early next year, the MTA may be updating the Omni screens to provide more information. I mean, I'd hope so you have this little, this screen that's actually not so little. You can really see it well. I mean, they've got to use it for all kinds of things you'd hope for. Well, what kind of things would you want? Like baseball scores, the weather.

I mean, realistically, think about it, I don't know how many taps I've done in that seven-day period. When have I got to my 12th tap? When I get free? Also, since they transitioned from the Monday through Sunday schedule and a seven-day period, whenever that week starts for you, when I guess I just don't really know when my day starts. I'm curious to get more information from that. Exactly. When is my week being? I don't know when that started.

You work all the time. Right. I mean, they should put the next scores on these times. Okay. Put the scores. All right. You're wondering. But, but.

Compare this to what the metric card does, I guess, still. If you have a, like, I don't use one anymore, but when you used to have a 30-day pass, you'd swipe, and it would show you when it would expire, and it would expire on midnight that day. So you'd swipe in the morning, and it'd be like, oh, no, it's going to expire tonight. And because of the way that it worked, you'd have to swipe, you'd have to use it by midnight. You remember, I remember, like, busting my butt to get to a subway station and through a turnstile by midnight, and you felt like Cinderella. And sometimes I still feel like Cinderella, but for different reasons.

Clayton Gozo. Yeah. Before we go, speaking of Omni, real quick, isn't that going to be the only option next year when the Metro Card phases out? That's right. It's the only option. Starting early next year, you'll have to use Omni. But it's not the only big change that's coming.

That's when the MTA's biannual fare hike goes into effect. Subway fares, bus fares are going to go up to $3. Tolls and bridges are going to go up to 7.5%. and LIR and Metro North Riders will pay 4.5% more for their 7 and 30-day tickets. Next week are the Fair Hike hearings. You can weigh in three chances on Tuesday and Wednesday. Okay. Well, thanks to Michael for the question.

Thanks to WMYC Transportation Reporter, Stephen Nesson and Ramsey Caliphate and editor Clayton Gouza. You can stay in the know in all things transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for our weekly newsletter at gotthmus.com slash on the way, my friends. 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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