NYC NOW - November 14, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

New Jersey’s State Fire Service says it’s making progress containing the Jennings Creek Wildfire along the New York-New Jersey border. Meanwhile, Governor Kathy Hochul outlined updates on New York State’s revived and revised congestion pricing plan Thursday. WNYC’s Clayton Guse has the details. Finally, WNYC wants to hear about your unique holiday traditions. WNYC’s Amanda Rozon shares how you can be involved.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. New Jersey's State Fire Service says it's making progress in containing the Jennings Creek wildfire burning along the New York-New Jersey border. The blaze is now 50% contained, but more than 4,000 acres of forests have burned across both states as of Wednesday. The ongoing drought has heightened the fire risk. New Jersey recently declared a drought warning, giving state officials more control. over water management, while New York City remains under a drought watch.

We're getting more details today on New York State's revived and revised congestion pricing plan after WNYC broke the news Wednesday that Governor Hokel was lowering the base toll from $15 to $9 for vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street. This latest development comes five months after the governor indefinitely paused the launch amid sharp criticism. Clayton Gusa is WMYC's transit and infrastructure editor, and he's here to explain playing the new plan. So Clayton, walk us through what drivers will pay. This is all happening January 5th. The MTA previously planned to introduce these tolls on June 30th. Hoke will put it on pause.

Now they've pushed it back. So in January 5th, drivers will see a $9 toll entering Manhattan south of 60th Street. Can avoid it if you remain on FDR Drive or the west side highway. But if you're driving in the city south the 60th Street during the daytime, that's 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays or 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. That's $9. During off hours on overnights that aren't covered by those periods, regular drivers will pay $2.25, a big reduction when the streets are less congestion. It is a congestion tax. Trucks and buses and other vehicles will pay more.

You'll also see a small charge on your taxi or Uber rides that entered the zone. Ultimately, this is a 40% reduction from the MTA's previous planned price, which the governor kind of lambasted as too high, too expensive. Will certain drivers just not pay? Yeah, there are some. It's similar to what was laid out last year, but a lot of people are forgiven to forget about all the kind of minutia of this over the past five months. So drivers who already pay a toll on the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel will get a $3 credit

against the congestion toll in the daytime. That's as they enter the zone. And similarly, on the Queens Midtown or Brooklyn Battery Tunnels, you'll get a one, $1.50 credit against a congestion toll. That's if you already pay those tunnel tolls and enter the congestion zone during the daytime. And then there's a bunch of exemptions, emergency vehicles entering the zone won't have to pay. There's tens of thousands of municipal vehicles that won't have to pay. There's a discount on low-income drivers that start to get half-price off their tolls after a certain period of time. Similarly, if you live in the zone,

own a car and make $60,000 or less during a year, you can take all the tolls you pay over the course of the year and get a tax rebate. So that's all kind of what they laid out before. That's remaining in place. Clayton, I know some drivers are wiping their brow $9. That's acceptable, I suppose. But I'm wondering, will the tolls go up over time? Yeah, I mean, it's still $9 more than you pay today for crossing the U.S. River or crossing the Hudson in some cases. But no, not for now. Hockel has said, hey, we want to maybe eventually raise the tolls. I mean, remember a key point of this is to reduce gridlock in Manhattan. In theory, if the higher the toll price, the fewer the cars driving to Manhattan, the less traffic there is. But Hogle's saying we're going to

remain at $9 for the foreseeable future. She said through at least 2027. And then after that, it could go to 12, down 2030 way. It could go up to 15. That's a little far down the line. Wow. And remind us how this money will be used. So the whole plan here is to take the revenue, new, take the money from drivers, and use it to fix up the mass transit system, the subways, the commuter rails, the bus systems, which are perpetually in a state of disrepair. This program was first approved in Albany back in 2019, and it was required by state law to bring in enough money to back $15 billion in bonds, construction bonds. So basically $15 billion worth of construction projects that the MTA will use this toll revenue

to pay back over time. Now, there was a question as to whether or not they would be able to take out less money with a $9 toll as opposed to the $15 toll. But the MTA and the governor is basically saying, hey, we can still get a $15 billion loan on this lower price. It just may take us longer to pay it back. But that ultimately means higher interest prices for the MTA. It's like if you pay off your credit card slower, you notice that you end up giving the bank a bunch of interest. Right, right. Looking forward, what hurdles does this plan face?

So Trump is threatened to kill it. I mean, there is some level of federal approval here. That's why Hockel has this January 5th launch date in mind. Trump takes office January 20th. He's threatened to kill it. She says it would be harder for him to kill if it's up and running before he takes office. There's a couple of federal court cases hanging around trying to stop it. The MTA seems pretty confident that they have done the review to not risk having the federal courts kill this program.

But remember, this is coming right after an election when cost of living was a main concern among voters. So you could expect Republicans and others really putting up a fight and challenge to this, not just politically, but potentially legally, to try and stop the program and tolls from being collected. That's WMYC's Transit and Infrastructure Editor Clayton Guseau. Thanks, Clayton. Thanks, Shanae. What are your interesting holiday traditions? WMYC wants to hear them.

Find out how to take part after the board. break. You're living next to everything now. Thanksgiving is a special American holiday, centered on food and traditions. While most of us celebrate in similar ways, many families add their own unique flavors and customs. With the holiday season approaching, we want to hear about yours. My colleague Michael Hill spoke with Morning Edition's assistant producer Amanda Rosone for the details. So Amanda, what sort of things are you interested in hearing from people?

We want to hear all the ways listeners make Thanksgiving unique to them and their families, and we want to hear a bit of the backstory about how these traditions got started. We asked some employees around WNYC and Gothamist about something special they do for the holiday, and we got some pretty great responses. Here's Rose Boubeon. She's a receptionist at WNYC, and funny we should start with her story, because how she celebrates the holiday is unique to her and her family, because their Thanksgiving spread is traditionally American.

She's originally from Los Angeles and her family's from Mexico, and she says most Mexican-American families in L.A. They make bosole and tamales and a lot of these other traditional Mexican foods. But her family does it different. And the reason for that was because my grandmother used to be, before she actually immigrated to L.A., she was living in Juarez in Mexico, and she was a housekeeper for an American family on the Texas side of the border. and she learned how to cook all the traditional American dishes for Thanksgiving. And so by the time she actually immigrated to L.A., she loved to be able to do that. It was just like her badge of honor as a newer American citizen.

She does say her family still sneaks posole and tamales onto the table. Amanda, how about you? Does your family do anything special? So my family's from the Dominican Republic, but we eat a pretty traditional. traditional American Thanksgiving. And in my family, they're the big cooks. And they make the main dishes. And they're the little cooks like me who, you know, heat up the corn or plate up the cranberry sauce. And as a little cook, it's also my job to keep the big cooks fed throughout the day. So I get started early in the morning making pastelitos. And they're, you know, Dominican empanadas. I make some with cheese and some with beef. And I'm just frying them up all

day, like a pastelito factory, basically, frying a batch after batch, making sure the cooks eat. And and keep their energy up. And when the first batch comes out, it's usually welcomed with ooze and ahs. And I just really look forward to that every year. How about you, Michael? Yeah, man, I don't do turkey because I found out over the years

we tend to throw out a lot of the turkey. There's a lot of part of the turkey that we don't eat. So I started doing cornish hands. I do a half dozen of them. I season them, and then I slow-cooked them. I know some of the recommendations are. I cooking for an hour and a half.

Most of the time, they're covered so that they stay moist. I cook them for a good, too. three, sometimes four hours. Okay, so Michael, staying on the topic of Turkey, here's WNYC Transportation and Infrastructure Editor Clayton Gusa. I think he shares your feelings. He eats Duck on Thanksgiving.

This tradition started in earnest in the early 1900s when my great-grandfather was a German-speaking immigrant. It's long been received by my ancestors as a superior foul. Duck also makes a far superior gravy than turkey just by virtue of the fact that duck's fattier. I don't know at this point in my life why people eat turkey on Thanksgiving. I don't think people should be eating turkey ever. Amen, I have a feeling the anti-turkey sentiment will be a common theme here. Who's next?

This is Milton Ruiz. He's the audio engineer for Morning Edition, who plays all the cool music, listeners really love. He was born in Puerto Rico. He says Thanksgiving dinner with his pie obsessed in-laws is a bit of a culture shock. Oh, I need to go there. When I was growing up, you could go to Burger King and get an apple pie pocket type of thing, and I always found it pretty gross. Fast forward to 2014, and I am now spending my first Thanksgiving with my now-wife's family. There wasn't just a traditional turkey feast.

There was a nine-foot table full of pies. Okay, man. Tell listeners how they can participate, and I got to talk to Milton goes, pie obsessed in-laws. Hey, count me in. I love pies. So listeners, we want to hear from you. What are some of your unique holiday traditions and how did they come to be? You can send us a brief voice memo at Your Voice at WNYC.org. We may play your story on the air.

And if you have photos you want to share, send those over to at Your Voice at WNYC.org. We may post them on our social media. edition's Amanda Roseone in conversation with WMYC's Michael Hill. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.