NYC NOW - Morning Headlines: Mayor Adams Launches Greenwich Village Task Force, NYC Searches for Homeless Program Site, Hochul Pushes $100M Film Tax Credit, and the Congestion Pricing Battle Takes to Social Media

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Mayor Adams and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg are launching a new interagency task force in Greenwich Village to target open drug use, retail theft, and homelessness. Meanwhile, NYC Health + Hospitals is searching for a site for its Bridge to Home program, which would provide temporary housing for homeless psychiatric patients after hospital stays. Also, Governor Hochul wants to expand New York’s film and TV tax credit by $100 million to boost the industry after the pandemic and labor strikes. Plus, in this week’s transportation segment, the congestion pricing battle hits social media, the latest on BQE repairs, and open gangway trains debut on the G line.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, March 7th. Here's the morning headlines from Tiffany Hanson. The Adams administration is launching a new interagency task force to tackle quality of life issues in Greenwich Village. Mayor Adams and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg say the task force is aimed at curtailing things like open drug use, retail theft, and homeless. Adams says the task force will recruit neighborhood volunteers to coordinate 13 city agencies. He sidestepped questions about why volunteers were needed. This is the city's sixth.

Such task force, it comes as major crime falls, but some New Yorkers continue to say they feel unsafe. NYC Health and Hospitals is looking for a location for its new bridge-to-home program. It's designed to provide a landing pad for homeless patients after they're released from. psychiatric hospital stays. Mitchell Katz is the system's CEO. He told the City Council hearing yesterday that he's looking in the vicinity of Manhattan Bellevue Hospital, which is a hub for psychiatric care. The ideal place, and we haven't yet found it, would be a hotel not used single rooms, a common space for the services that didn't require construction. The Bridge to Home program was first announced in January. It aims to keep patients'

stable while helping them look for permanent housing. It will have 100 beds to start and Katz says he hopes to launch the program in July. Governor Hokel wants to give New York's film and TV industry another $100 million in tax breaks. It comes as the industry has struggled to regain its footing in New York after the pandemic in a pair of labor strikes. Critics say the tax credit is a handout that does not get a good return on investment, but Josh Levin of the Motion Picture Association disagrees. It's an opportunity for a lot of people, and it's a lifeline for people in an ever-increasing, economically challenging region. So I think it's certainly not a handout. Local and state lawmakers increased the tax break from $420 million a year ago to $700 million

just two years ago. The governor proposed this latest boost in her state budget plan. A final state budget is due by April 1st. We should have a sunny day. It will be gusty and chilly. The high near 50, but it will feel much colder. Currently 35 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. It's Friday, which means it's time for On the Way, our weekly segment breaking down the week's transit news. Joining us to WNYC's transportation reporter, Stephen Nesson and Ramsey-Kulife. Let's start with the ongoing eternal battle over congestion pricing. Last we spoke, the Trump administration ordered the MTA to wind it down by March 21st. Hockel sued to stop him and says, no way, she's turning off those cameras.

What is the latest move? Until the next court date, which hasn't been set yet, both parties are taking the fight to where else? Social media. Okay. To that end, Secretary of Transportation in the Trump administration, Sean Duffy, posted this video on X late last week with what appears to be man-on-the-street interviews with construction workers and truck drivers set to a jaunty soundtrack. I think with raised toll prices, raised train fares, now you want to add like tolls on the streets. I think it's definitely borderline stealing.

It's ridiculous. It's destroying the city. I think it sucks. They make it more expensive for me to come to work. Very bad for business. End it for sure. End it. End it.

End it. Okay. so they want to end it. And it took a few days, but Hockel came out with her own video, with her own man on the street interviews and her own jaunty soundtrack. I don't mind paying the $9 total because I can get through the city much faster. I think it must save me at least 45 minutes each time. A little bit after 5 o'clock, on a Monday.

This is 42nd and 9th. No cars here. Wow. So, of course, any politician or journalist for that matter can go out on the street and find opinion to support their own perspective, but we did get some harder numbers this week. Okay. Yeah, and those numbers did come from a new poll from Quinnipiac University this week of registered New York voters. And it found 54% of registered voters actually opposed the toll program compared to 41% who are still in support of it. But that's actually the exact same

breakdown from 2019 when the law was first passed. A majority of Democrats like congestion pricing, while an overwhelming majority of Republicans want to see an end to the tolls. What I did find particularly interesting in this data, this new poll, is for Staten Islanders who responded. 49% now support congestion pricing compared to 46 who oppose it.

And I don't know if you remember this, it kind of aligns with some reporting we did about the Staten Island Express bus riders, many of whom have seen big improvements to their commute times into Manhattan. Wow. I also just can't believe the politicians basically are doing

like on the way politician style. We do on the way. You're welcome politicians. Now, this week we reported on a new plan to fix, speaking of eternal issues, to fix the section of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway in Brooklyn Heights. Last year, the city unveiled a few options for replacing the Robert Moses' creation known as the triple cantilever. What's new and what's the status of the BQE? The good news is the BQE is still standing. Okay.

Happy to report. Good news. The city embarked on some emergency repairs to fix some of the deteriorating sections there in Brooklyn Heights. It also reduced traffic from three lanes to two lanes. lanes you'll remember on this 1.5 mile stretch of roadway. And last year, it started ticketing some of the overweight trucks that contribute to the most wear and tear there. And, you know, trucks are heavier nowadays than when the roadway was designed. So last November, it did start issuing $650 fines to overweight trucks there. And the DOT reports this week that the number of trucks on

the roadway has dropped by 60 percent, which is good news for them. And that's because it'll extend the lifespan and basically buy the city more time to come up with a more permanent solution. Okay, but what about the replacement options? So, right, last year you said they unveiled these three options, different ways to deal with traffic and different ways to integrate the Promenade at Brooklyn Heights to the Brooklyn Bridge Park below. But they also said these three options would cost at least $5 billion. Now, a Brooklyn Heights architect name Mark Wuders has a new option he believes will be cheaper by millions and likely a faster, less disruptful way of fixing the roadway. He believes the retaining wall there does

not need to be torn down, which is what the DOT wanted. He also thinks an MTA fan plant there that the DOT said needs to be relocated could maybe not be relocated, and that would save a ton of time and money. And he also wants to keep two lanes of traffic in each direction. That's something that groups like the Regional Plan Association can get behind. They've said his proposal is something to take seriously. And quite basically, you know, I can't describe an architectural rendering to you in great detail over the air, but, you know, he basically wants to move all lanes of traffic to the lower level, which he said would allow for construction to take place without badly disrupting existing traffic. For now, the city says it will consider his plan, and this spring it plans

to begin the environmental review process for this project. That all means that we're basically stuck with the current BQE for a while. This is really, still, believe it or not, the start of the process. Okay, Ramsey, the MTA also announced a new round of those open gangway trains on the G-line You rode the first one in service. What was it like? Yeah, so the MTA decided to move one of the existing open gangway trains on the C line and move it to the G. Remember, those are the trains where you can pretty much walk the entire length

because there's just no doors in between the cars. They pretty much converted one of the C open gangway trains. Those are 10 cars into two open gangways for the G into five train cars each. Oh, because they're the tiny trains. They're a large smaller, exactly. The transit agency says they'll be bringing in two more open gangways to the G. train. And like you said, if you've ever ridden the G, you'll know that the length of the train is a lot shorter than the regular subway lines. That's just because the line gets below

average ridership. It's also the only subway line in New York City that doesn't go through Manhattan. The shorter train means riders typically have to run to the center of the platform to get onto the train. If they're late, they have to catch it. We should add the MTA will never extend it and make it longer. Probably no plans to make it longer. They're asked about it all the time. So the president of NYC Transit, Demetrius Critchlow says that this often leads to overcrowding it, ends of the subway car. So the Open Gangway will somehow resolve that because you can just leave the back and go to like, let's say, the middle of the car. The train also features wider doors, brighter lighting, more digital screens to see the next stop on the train. So here's

Edwin Montez. He wrote the first Open Gangway to hit the G train. I could get used to it. You know, we all, we've got to get accustomed to new things and that's how things change. Can you name like maybe one thing that you like about the new cars, something that you notice? The shiny seats. They're very noticeable. Pretty shiny. I should say it also smelled pretty good. Oh, nice. Good. A new train car smelled. Pleasant change. So while riders were excited for a new train, you know, many of them, like Montes said that they still are nostalgic for those old trains with the orange and yellow conversation receipts.

Yeah. And we should add that more open gangway cars are coming to other lettered lines. The MTA appears to be a fan of these train cars after all. Last year it announced it would be ordering more. Basically enough train cars to run four more open gangways. And those could be arriving soon. And we should also say that is made possible with money from congestion pricing. Okay. Speaking of the G-Train, every week in Gotham is on the way newsletter, we answer a question from a curious commuter. This one is from Kenneth and Brooklyn. Why did G-trains recently switch back to being older models? Will the G-be getting back to the newer train cars that was running anytime soon? Yes, so most of the current fleet now on the G-train are those

older yellow and orange conversational seatings that I brought up. That's because the transit agency has been investigating a defect on the tracks, so they've had to pull a lot of those newer trains out of service. In the interim, they'll be using these older trains. Once they fix it, you can expect those new trains to come back. Well, thank you, Kenneth, for the question. And thanks to WNYC Transportation Reporter Stephen Nesson and 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 at gothamis.com slash on the way. Stephen Ramsey. Thanks so much. Thank you, Sean. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day.

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