NYC NOW - November 8, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

Local advocates are urging New York City Mayor Eric Adams not to roll back the city's right-to-shelter law. Plus, hundreds of victims are seeking to hold prominent city hospitals accountable after they allege their doctors sexually abused them. And finally, we hear from New Yorkers in Addisleigh Park, Queens.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. In New York City, advocates are urging Mayor Eric Adams not to roll back the city's right to shelter law, which guarantees a bed to anyone who asks for one. More than 90 groups signed letters to Adams and Governor Kathy Hokel asking them to preserve the legal obligation, even as migrants continue to arrive in New York City. Dave Giffin is Executive Director of Coalition, for the homeless, one of the groups that signed the letter.

If that right to shelter is weakened in any way, what we're going to see is thousands of more people sleeping on the sidewalks and in the subway system just as winter is starting to approach. Last month, the Adams administration asked a judge to allow the city to suspend the right to shelter law during a state of emergency. The city is in confidential mediation talks with advocates to settle the matter in court. Stay close. There's more after the break. Hundreds of people are accusing doctors at prominent New York City hospitals of sexually abusing them. Now, they want the institutions held accountable.

WMYC's Catalina Gonella has the story. Three New York City doctors made headlines this year when they were either charged with or convicted of sexually abusing patients. Former Columbia University gynecologist Robert Haddon was sentenced to 20 years in prison over the summer. Gialin-Chang, a former gastroenterologist at New York Presby. Queen's and Darius Paduke, a former urologist at Wild Cornell and Northwell Health, were also arrested and charged this year. Advocates like former had inpatient Marissa Hottstetter said the institutions that employed them bear responsibility to. We don't offer survivors many options for recourse. And the institution, the employers, these enablers, don't voluntarily step forward

and offer anything. Hundreds of them are suing the hospitals, alleging they failed to stop abuse they knew was happening. A group of Haddon survivors has asked the state attorney general Ants Columbia University to investigate how Haddon got away with abuse for years before his conviction. A group of Paduke survivors is asking the state health department to investigate the hospitals that employed him

to determine the systemic issues that may have contributed to his alleged prolonged abuse of patients. Mallory Allen is an attorney representing former Paduke patients who say they were sexually abused by the former urologist during medical exams. The focus of our lawsuits is on negligence, right? The hospital's failure to protect the patients that are in their care, right, a systemic problem. Spokespeople for Wild Cornell, Northwell Health, and New York Presbyterian Queens said the hospitals are cooperating with authorities in the cases of Paduke and Chewold. Chang. Columbia did not respond to a request for comment about Haddon. That's WNYC's Kathleen Gonella. Every few weeks, we team up with a nonprofit street lab to collect and share

stories from neighborhoods across the five boroughs. We recently stationed ourselves in Addisley Park Queens. Here's some of what we heard. My name is William Scarborough, and I am the president of the Addisley Park Civic Organization. I've lived here since 2002, and it's a very nice community to live in, and I'm very proud of it. We are a landmark community. This is an historic district because of the famous people, the entertainers, the musicians, the statesmen that have lived in Addisley Park from Billy Holiday to Count Basie, to W.E.B. Du Bois, to Lena Horn, to James Brown.

But separate and apart from that, I love it because of the people that are here now. My name is Stephen Celestin. I moved with my family to Addis Lay Park in 2018. As a family practice doctor, I feel like I'm always on duty one way or the other. And it's just been a really great feeling to be included in the community. Everybody was so welcoming, almost like we were in the south, which I used to live there before. Unfortunately, I have pretty long hours, so there are some events I don't get to go to. But I'm always kept in the loop.

Anytime I do show up anywhere, it's always like, oh, welcome back as if it was just yesterday. My name is Alney Marie Ryland. I have very fun memories of Addisley Park. As a teenager, I remember coming over here, going to James Brown's house and knocking on the door and sometimes he'd come to the door and sometimes not. And he used to give free concert in St. Auburn's Park. So all the kids and all the teenagers had an opportunity to go to one of his concerts. I mean, it definitely made us feel special.

It made us feel like we were all in the same community. My name is Taisha Johnson. What brings to my mind is my grandmother. She's lived in this neighborhood since the early 70s. Her and her first husband, he actually found his home because he was really into black culture and knowing his history.

And my grandmother is from the South. So all she wanted to do was build a different life from then. Eventually, they did separate. He moved to Florida, and she stayed in his house ever since. since and she became one of the first women to join the police force. She did about 30 years on the forest and she retired in 91 and that's the year I was born. She's one of the most stable people in my life.

So hearing her talk about her time on a forest or even her time when she lived in South Carolina is always enlightening and just reliving those moments that I would never see or understand. through her eyes. My name is Gina Marie Flagg Tolliver. My mother, Marie Flagg, was born and raised here. She is the reason that I decided to move here with my husband. I think on her block she may be one of the longest people living right now on that neighborhood. Count Basie actually lived on her block,

and they used to have big parties over there at Count Basie's house. Her and her siblings used to go down there and just have a good time. My name is Lisa D. Wade. I am the historian for Add a Slavehart. And living in this community, it is a family. You have two and three generations who have grown up in this community, and that's really, really important. In this day and age where there is book banning and things are changing

and our stories are being erased, it's much more important for it to come from us and not be told in some kind of distorted form. This place has a lot of history, has a lot of glory, and it's worth fighting for. That's a collection of voices from Addie's Lee Park, Queens. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day.

I'm Junae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.