NYC NOW - November 14, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Immigrant delivery workers protested outside the Midtown headquarters of DoorDash Wednesday, claiming the food delivery company owes them tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages. Meanwhile, WNYC���s Liam Quigley reports on how the ongoing drought is causing a spike in brush fires across the metro area. Plus, New York City renters could soon be off the hook for broker fees. WNYC’s housing reporter David Brand has more.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, November 14th. Here's the midday news from Veronica Del Valle. Immigrant delivery workers are claiming the meal delivery company DoorDash owes them tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, and they want to see the money in their pockets before Donald Trump did. takes office. The workers protested yesterday outside of Doordash's midtown headquarters. Sean Garcia is the director of advocacy for transportation alternatives. He says the threats against these workers are only growing. And we know in the coming months that we're going to be

at even more threat with this new presidency. The City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection says it's investigating Doordash for widespread violation of local laws protecting workers from wage theft. A Doordash spokesperson says, the company adheres to the city's minimum payrolls. A Trump administration spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment. Fires in New York City parks are relatively common, but WNYC's Liam Quigley reports the ongoing drought is fueling a spike in brush fires. Parks Department records obtained by WNYC show that the agency received reports of more than 400 fires since 2020. Many are brush fires, and they're getting bigger during the ongoing drought.

I spell. Morgan Monaco, the president of the Prospect Park Alliance, says the threat of another devastating fire remains high. All it takes is one ember that could, unfortunately, if left unattended, really take over a whole section of the park. The FDNY says it responded to a record number of brush fires in the last two weeks. New Jersey, New York officials are updating residents on the fire. Stay with us for the latest. Up next, New York City renters. could soon be off the hook for broker's fees. That story after the break. They say there are only a few guarantees in life,

death, taxes, and for New York City renters, brokers fees. But that last one could be changing after a city council hearing yesterday. WNYC's housing reporter, David Brand, spoke with my colleague Michael Hill with the latest details. So, David, the city council passed a bill that ships the cost of brokers off the renter and onto whoever hired them. You were at this hearing. Tell us what was discussed. Well, renters hate broker fees in New York City, and that includes many council members who themselves are tenants or who were tenants. It's this huge upfront cost that can prevent people from moving. Tenants typically have to pay a fee equal to 15% of their

annual rent, and that's on top of a security deposit and their first month's rent to move in. So council members were celebrating this step to get rid of those fees for a lot of tenants. But they're also placing this bill in a deeper political context. Here's Bill sponsor Chi Jose, a Brooklyn council member. Today is a win for all New Yorkers and proof of what progressive governance can accomplish. Progressives were getting criticized and kind of beaten up after the election where we saw this right-word shift in New York City and nationwide. So a number of Democrats on the council were saying this shows they can delight. liver on populist policy that makes things more affordable for everyday people.

David, the Real Estate Board of New York is among the bills to tractors opponents. What's their argument? They say it's going to cost more for landlords and that it's going to disrupt the status quo when it comes to the housing market here in New York City. Rebony's main appeal to renters is that this is going to lead to higher prices, to higher rents. They had support from one of the most conservative members of the council yesterday. It's Vicki Palladino of Queens. These fees aren't going anywhere. They are now just going to be built into rents, and rents will go up as a result. So Palladino says this could backfire for tenants.

Why wouldn't landlords just pass the feedback to the renter as part of rent, as she says? In at least some cases, they probably will. And this could lead to higher rents for some number of tenants. But, you know, nobody really knows what's going to happen, either on the tenant side or on the landlord and the broker side, I've talked to a lot of people, and I think a lot of people are just waiting to see how this plays out. The 15% fee I mentioned that tenants are currently paying, that's arbitrary. That's, you know, brokers charge that because they can in this extremely tight housing market, and tenants will pay that.

We'll see if landlords will end up paying that same amount. They might be, say, well, we'll pay a smaller amount or we'll pay based on volume. This is really going to change the business model for brokers and make some changes in the housing market here. Maybe landlords say to tenants, you can get this apartment for $3,500 a month, or you can pay a fee to the broker and get it for a little less, $3,200. So there's a lot of unknowns here when it comes to how the effect this is going to have. What we do know is for about a million rent-stabilized apartments, this isn't going to impact the rent because those rents are set by a board every year. David, the next step is the mayor will have to sign it into law. Has he said if he supports this?

Mayor Adams isn't taking a stance. He hasn't said he supports it. He hasn't said he doesn't. He says he worries about the impact it could have on small property owners and on that argument about rising rents. I asked the mayor's office yesterday, a spokesperson told me he's closely watching the bill. So I asked, you know, what does that mean in this context? The bill just passed. It goes to him for signature. He could, you know, choose to veto it, even though there's a veto proof majority in the council, they would probably override that. Or he could just let it lapse into law. after 30 days. So what is closely watching mean? Is he going to closely watch it on his desk while he weighs a signature? They didn't respond to that. So we're going to see what happens over the next month. David, just a couple seconds left. Not every city has broker fees like this.

How and why did this come about? Yeah, this harkens back to the days before voicemail and cell phones and street-easy when people would look in newspapers, especially the village voice for an apartment listing and contact a broker. and it was a lot more inconvenient back then. And so the broker would set up the showing and help them communicate with the landlord. WNYC's housing report of David Brand.

David, thank you. Thanks, Michael. 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. More soon.

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