NYC NOW - November 11, 2024: Midday

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

Donald Trump's re-election casts doubt on the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program which shields some immigrants from deportation. Also, landlords in the city soon could face more serious punishments for illegally evicting tenants — while tenants could get more protections. Next, new rules that aim to get piles of smelly trash bags off New York City sidewalks take effect tomorrow After the break, authorities say there’s a sharp increase in sex work along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. WNYC’s Arun Venugopal reports the situation has deeply impacted business owners and local residents.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenei Pierre. This is our one and only episode today. We're taking a day off to observe Veterans Day. Here's your news headlines from Michael Hill. Donald Trump's re-election cast down on the federal deferred action for a childhood arrival's arrival's program, DACA for short, which heals some immigrants from deportation. definitely my C reporter. Arun Vandal Paul says some New Yorkers are preparing for the worst.

Jorge Alguera is 40 and is set to graduate from CUNY law school next month. But the native Costa Rican and DACA recipient says Trump's re-election represented a doomsday scenario for him. He thinks he'll either need to leave the U.S. after living here for nearly 30 years or at least exit the formal economy. It just feels like it's time to sunset operations. in a way, clear out whatever debts I have, start saving, and look for ways to not have a footprint in the U.S. economy. The DACA program protects from deportation those immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children.

It's currently being challenged in federal court, but Trump has said he wants to end it for good. Landlords in the city soon could face more serious punishment for illegally evicting tenants, while tenants could get more protections. The New York City Council is set to hold a hearing tomorrow on several bills on tenant rights. One would explicitly barred landlords who unlawfully evict tenants from accessing city subsidies and tax exemptions for five years. New rules and aim to get piles of smelly trash bags off New York City's sidewalks take effect tomorrow. Residential buildings with nine or fewer units will have to set out the garbage in containers with secure lids for trash pickup. For now, property owners and managers can buy official city bins. Stay close. There's more after the break.

Last month, Mayor Eric Adams launched a multi-agency enforcement effort in Queens in response to what authorities say is a sharp increase in sex work along Roosevelt Avenue. The mayor says the 90-day initiative aims to stop the neighborhood from being taken over by illegal brothels. WMYC's room Venetopal says the same. situation has deeply impacted business owners and local residents. Himalayan Yac is a restaurant on Roosevelt Avenue right beneath the tracks of the 7 train. Soma Dassel is the restaurant's owner and for the last year she's had a problem. She says at night there are men who gravitate to the neighborhood looking for paid sex.

So when I'm standing outside my business, men pursue me. They come and say, hey, hello, beautiful. How are you? Can I get your number? It's not just Dacelle. Her female employees say they have the same issue, to the extent that she lets some of them off hours early, so they can get home without being harassed. Dacel says sex workers on the street

have scared away her customers as well. Stories like this prompted Mayor Adams to launch Operation Restore Roosevelt with the help of hundreds of police officers and state troopers. We're here on Roosevelt Avenue to say no more, to ensure that people are able to enjoy their community. Signs of the crackdown are now in plain sight, more than two weeks into the effort. On a recent night, there were cops everywhere on Roosevelt Avenue, walking in pairs or standing in groups of four on street corners.

Some cops stopped at bars or clubs to check in with the bouncers. Even with all the police presence, sex work appears to continue on Roosevelt. At one storefront I watched as men came in, went close to 11 p.m. There was no signage, just a small for rent sign on the door. The curtains were drawn across the entire storefront, so you couldn't see inside. But as I walked past, there were a couple women who stood outside, one of whom looked at me. And she just asked me if I wanted a massage. I said, no thanks. This is an area that is defined by its immigrants, by countless restaurants and trucks selling momos,

and Civece, biryani and tacos. Shagor Chaudhury is Bengali and has lived in Jackson Heights for years. He says it's common to encounter people having sex in cars. That many seniors in his community have stopped taking their evening walk and that parents have to explain to their kids about the used condoms left on the street and the syringes. It's nasty. I mean, the impact to our neighborhood is serious.

And while some people in the area support the crackdown, others loudly oppose it. So, this includes sex workers and immigrant rights activists who say the enforcement hurts migrants, who turned a sex work out of economic necessity. Bione Garcia is an organizer with the group Make the Road, New York, who addressed a rally at Corona Plaza last week. Garcia is saying we're sex workers, not criminals. and argued that the crackdown was designed to serve as a distraction from Mayor Adams' own legal troubles.

He was indicted on federal corruption charges just weeks before the start of Operation Restore Roosevelt. Garcia and others have called for passage of the stop violence in the Sex Trades Act, a state bill that would decriminalize sex work between consenting adults. But others in the community reject that idea, including Frank Taylor. He chairs Community Board 3, whose members represent the area. And he thinks it's misguided to compare this city to places where prostitution is legal. No one said this was Amsterdam. Democrat Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Jackson Heights, who is now campaigning for mayor,

is a co-sponsor of the decriminalization bill. But at the same time, Ramos says she also supports enforcement because things have gotten out of hand. This is the kind of mid-level policing that needs to happen. On a recent afternoon, we stood outside of Ramos's apartment building just off of Roosevelt Avenue. She gestured across the street from her building to what she said was an active brothel, with male clients regularly coming and going. There are just places like these where nobody has ever done anything about them and will be told that there's a big investigation or don't go so close because it can be very dangerous.

And I believe that to be true, it maybe is dangerous. Alexei Myers is co-chair of the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition and a former prosecutor. She says what's happening on Roosevelt Avenue isn't a quality of life issue, but a problem deeply intertwined with human trafficking and crime. This unfettered market benefits organized criminal groups and traffickers. It's too early to say what the impact of the enforcement action is. The NYPD says they will share data on arrests once the three-month operation is done. For now, though, Somo Daselle is skeptical.

Her restaurant, Malianak, is located on the same block as that massage parlor that I walked past. Over the last year, Daselle said she regularly called 911 to complain about it. I call at least, if not once every week, at least twice a month. In early September, she felt her efforts had paid off when she received a notification on her citizen app that the site had been raided by police. but her happiness was short-lived. They were back in business. Next day. Next day.

Which is why Dust Cell isn't placing too much stock in the city's crackdown. If there is going to be any genuine improvement, she wants to see it with her own eyes. That's WMYC's Arun Vanacapal. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Enjoy the day and thank a veteran. We'll be back. on our regular schedule tomorrow.