NYC NOW - Morning Headlines: NYC Officials Train on Migrant Protections Ahead of Trump’s Return, Mayor Adams Reveals Budget Plans, Adams Set to Meet Trump, and Subway Operations Recap

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

New York City officials are holding staff training sessions on sanctuary protections for migrants and issuing guidance to agencies as they prepare for Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams says public safety, housing, and mental health are top priorities in his proposed $114 billion city budget. Plus, City Hall says Mayor Adams will meet with President-elect Trump on Friday to discuss city priorities. Finally, on this week’s segment of “On The Way,” WNYC reporters Stephen Nessen, Ramsey Khalifeh, and editor Clayton Guse recap their reporting on early congestion pricing data and how the MTA subway system operates.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, January 17th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. New York City officials are preparing for Donald Trump's return to the White House on Monday, in part by holding staff training sessions on the city's sanctuary protections from migrants and sending guidance to agencies. Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro spoke to the City Council yesterday.

Well, we cannot control or improperly impede the actions of federal government. We can and will continue to do everything we can to educate and inform our residents about their rights under local and federal law. The office is also hosting an additional 240 know-your-rights sessions, primarily in shelter, schools and houses of worship. Mayor Adams says he's prioritizing public safety, housing, and mental health initiatives in this year's $114 billion city budget, but he says there's still uncertainty due to an incoming Trump administration. We cannot anticipate the impacts of the incoming federal administration on our city. We do not know how new trade, immigration, regulatory, fiscal, or grant funding policies will affect New Yorkers. The city revised its forecast for migrant-related spending as the number of new arrivals from other countries has gone down by a lot.

Critics of Adams' proposed budget said needlessly makes cuts to libraries, parks, and early childhood education. The City Council will negotiate the budget and pass it. City Hall says Mayor Adams will meet with President-elect Donald Trump this afternoon to discuss city priorities. The meeting follows Trump's comments, suggesting he'd consider pardoning Adams who faces multiple. investigations, including allegations of accepting illegal campaign donations from the Turkish government. Adams' trial is set for April. He's expressed a willingness to work with the incoming administration. He recently met with Trump's border czar, Tom Holman, and announced plans to roll back some sanctuary city protections for violent offenders. Your forecast now, 27 and partly cloudy at the minute,

sunny and 44 high today, but feeling as cold as 20 degrees at times. Tonight right at the freezing mark, then tomorrow, a 50-50 chance of early afternoon rain, cloudy, mid-formis, 40s it is, so we warm up a bit. Mike had a drop of rain or a flake of snow overnight, then Sunday colder with the snow likely. It's WNMIC. Up next, our weekly segment of On the Way, covering all transportation news, that's after the break. On WNMIC, I'm Sean Carlson. It's Friday, which means it's time for On the Way, our weekly segment.

went breaking down the week's transit news. Joining us is WNYC's transportation reporter, Stephen Nesson and Ramsey Caliphay, also editor Clayton Goosa. Here on the way, we never missed the opportunity to talk about congestion pricing. The MTA released its first set of traffic data this week. I'm so curious to hear what it shows. What's the deal? Well, before you start, I want to reiterate to listeners, this is still early data.

There will be plenty of factors in the next few months that can change the levels of traffic in Manhattan. That just makes sense. But here's what the first week of traffic data shows since, congestion pricing went live. Every day on average, there are about 4,000 to 3,000 less cars in the zone compared to a January weekday average from the previous three years before congestion pricing went live. The time it takes to get into the zone has decreased dramatically at all crossings, but especially at the Holland Tunnel, which is right next to our studio, and Lincoln Tunnel. Bus speeds have also increased since the tolls have been turned on, but traffic speeds

traveling northbound on northbound avenues within the zone haven't really changed at all. And there was some interesting info from economist and congestion pricing booster Charles Komanoff who predicts there would actually be a rebound effect. Once word gets out on the streets that it's clear and driving is fast and easy again, personal vehicles will increase on the streets. So all those numbers could change quickly. We've heard from colleagues here, musicians, for example, that are like, dude, you can drive to a gig now and actually find parking.

You could do two jobs in one night and just drive around the city. but that could change. Taxis are also becoming more attractive because you can get where you're going much faster. That's probably one of the reasons Uber was such a big booster of congestion pricing in the first place. But the economist Komenov says, the only way to ensure that the roads stay free of cars

prevent this rebound effect is simple economics. Increase the price, which Hockel plans to do in 2028 to increase it to $12. Right. And you really don't need to be an economist or a rocket surgeon to really know that this is having some effect. Take one step outside. You're seeing less horn honking, less congestion, less air pollution.

The question that I'm kind of wondering is if and when will the popularity of this program swing in the other direction. We saw that happen in Stockholm 20 years ago, very unpopular at first. People said, oh, this is improving quality of life for pedestrians in the city, quickly became a popular program, congesture pricing there. Interesting stuff. Okay, this week, your team has put out a series of really interesting. stories, I will say, about how the subway system functions and the dire condition of the essential equipment that keeps those trains running. Let's just take a step back here. Talk about what you learned about how the transit system functions. Well, for me, it was wild to see just the layers of problems

that can slow down the MTA when it's trying to make basic repairs. So we hear about overnight shutdowns all the time, weekend shutdowns all the time, think, okay, at least they'll fix this problem that we have. That's actually maybe not the case. That was evident in these train yards, or even the trains that are used to fix the tracks, to transport gear to fix those tracks, don't really work all the time. It's like trying to get a job done with broken tools. It's not really possible. MT officials actually told me that all the scheduled weekend work that they often have, they don't really have the time or the resources to get that done and get them finished because they don't have enough functioning equipment to actually do it. So that means more weekends

with more shutdowns and service until they can actually get that done. And I visited some revealing places like a substation. That's the place that sends power to get the trains running, as well as a signal room, which is how the signals and tracks are controlled. Those places have such old equipment. The parts aren't even manufactured anymore. So the MTA has to make those parts either in-house or go on eBay to find them. None of this is efficient or modern. But what's really incredible is that, you know, they have these skilled workers who have just figured out how to make it happen with the tools they have. You know, and the MTA is, you know, basically squeeze the life out of this system that was designed 80 to 100 years ago. But they've really impressed

upon us that it's at the end of the line. And in terms of continuing to use this equipment, there's just so many more challenges now. In addition to climate change and trying to run, you know, newer modern train cars and signals with this old equipment. Yeah. I mean, the MTA, it's, it brokered some access with us for this. We had to really, you know, as part of this investigation, really negotiate our way into things. Because the MTA, it's, it brokered some access with us for this. You know, they have this $65 billion construction plan they're trying to fix. It is a brutal list of aging equipment, old train cars that they need to replace, all this stuff that they need support to fund. Our goal here is to not only shine a light on the problems and the rot in the city's transit infrastructure,

but this team also compiled a database of a decades worth of the subway delays, obtained internal incidents on some of the most egregious subway breakdowns in recent years to really show the direction and what's at stake here, with the city subway system. And that's that it's in a complete, utter state of disrepair and desperately needs a boost of work and money and new equipment. Whether or not that comes, that's up to lawmakers. Yeah. Now Ramsey and Steven, you also spent time getting the voice of the people talking to riders

to get a sense of how the system works or does not work for them. We've heard all riders gripe about stuff, but what did you learn? It actually didn't take long for us to find people who are so-called super commuters. Those are people who stay within the five boroughs and have to commute over 90 minutes,

each way every day to get to work. Stanford researchers found that since the pandemic, super commuting into the city has grown by 89%. And they defined super commuting as trips more than 40 miles along. So people who moved out the city, but still come in for work. I actually found a lot of people in the situation who take the A train, like 52-year-old Kim Jamie.

She works in the Bronx and lives in Far Rockway. Last week, I left out of my house at 7.30. I didn't get to the Bronx almost 11th in the morning. And that's hectic. Three hours, four hours on the train. That's too much. What do you think about the subway system more generally? It sucks. It sucks.

Her usual commute is two hours a day, so you can imagine why she thinks that. But for riders spending so much time on the trains, what they hate most is when those trains don't actually show up on time either. Here's Franklin St. Aange. He's a rider waiting for his train on a platform at Broadway Junction to get to work at a body shop in Ozone Park. I work six days a week, and to tell you the truth, four days out of the week, The trains are late.

The experience at times could be very monotonous, man. It's something where your state of mind just has to be ready to call your job. I'm going to be late. It's basically a continual thing. I was really struck by how everyone has just adapted to this uncertainty. You build in extra time, expecting the worst. But that also comes with a lot of pessimism about the reliability of public transit. Here's 36-year-old Joel Petra from Woodside Queens.

Very inconsistent. I don't really know how to plan for my time. time because sometimes the trains are 15 minutes in between, even on the weekdays and the afternoon. And some days, they're a few minutes in between. It's hard for me to predict. And I've been in the city for 10 years, actually 11 years, and it's always been this way. So I've just never really seen an improvement on that front. That's basically the challenge the MTA faces now. Prove to riders they can use this money and use it well to improve transit and their experience.

Yeah. Okay, so we're going to squeak this in because I love it so much. every week in our on the way newsletter. We answer a question from a curious commuter. This one is from Kevin in Manhattan. Kevin asks, what if you live and drive within the congestion zone, but occasionally drive outside the city and then return home? Yeah, so the MTA's 1,400 cameras tracking when you enter and exit the zone, you leave the zone and come back.

You're going to get hit with a fee. Now, there is, for people like Kevin, there are, you know, potentially like Kevin, people who live in the zone, there is a segment of people who can be exempt from the tolls. If you live below 60th Street in Manhattan, it makes it. $60,000 a less year, the MTA is required by state law to refund your tolls in the form of a tax rebate or credit through the state tax system. So there are some carve-outs and exemptions, but yes, you live, you live in the zone, you leave come back, you're paying. Going throughout it, the MTA's cameras aren't necessarily going to catch you entering or exiting. You're exempt

from that part, but Kevin, if you're going out of town, you're going to pay nine bucks. Tough cookie, Kevin. Thanks, Kevin, for the question. And thanks to WNIC transportation reporters, Stephen Nesson and Ramsey Caliphay and editor Clayton Guza. You can stay. the know on all things transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for a week of newsletter at gotthmus.com slash on the way. These are heady transportation days. Thanks so much, my friends. Thanks, Sean. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you this afternoon.