NYC NOW - October 12, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, October 12th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. A federal judge is ordering New York City jail officials to meet immediately and make a plan to improve dangerous conditions at Rikers. The order comes after the federal monitor charged with overseeing Rikers last week, filed a damning report saying the same.

city is not being transparent about the violence at Rikers. The federal judge called the lack of transparency disturbing. She demanded city officials meet with the monitor by October 18th next Wednesday to devise a plan that can be implemented immediately and to decrease unacceptable levels of harm in city jails. A spokesperson for the city's law department says they will work to comply with the order. New Jersey homeowners and renters who apply for the state's new tax program last year will automatically see payments hit their bank accounts today. The state legislature instituted the Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters Program, known as Anchor, last year. It expands on a previous tax relief program to include renters and increase payments

to seniors. On WNIC's asked Governor Phil Murphy last night, the governor called the program historic. This knocks your property tax bill back a decade or more in, in most of the state. In most, you cases. So it's a big game changer. Payments range from $700 to $1,750 for seniors and from $450 to $1,500 for applicants younger than 65. Paper checks go out starting next week. There's still time to apply. You can check your eligibility at anchor.nj.org. 67 and sunny now, sunny and 70 today. Tomorrow, Friday the 13th, Sunny and 64. NYC.

New York City's first major soccer stadium is facing a roadblock. Queensboro President Donovan Richards said he's withholding his approval of the $780 million stadium, that is, until the Adams administration brings back a popular street vendor market shut down this year in Corona Plaza. WNYC's Aria Sundaram reports. The 25,000 seat stadium is set to open in 2027. But first, Richards needs to sign news. street maps of the area. Here's what he told hundreds of people at a gala last week.

What I've said to the administration is, I will not sign off on any football stadium until my vendors are returned to Corona Plaza. And you can tweet that. Sanitation police cleared out dozens of vendors from the plaza this summer, citing concerns about overcrowding and, quote, dirty conditions. City officials are now in the midst of ironing out plans for an outside company or nonprofit to oversee a long-term market there. But that could take months. In the meantime, vendors say they've struggled to find other work and pay for everyday expenses.

Here's Karina Kaufman-Gutierrez from the Street Vender Project. People have now been out of work for over, I think it's over 75 days. That's two rent cycles. Richards has to sign off on new street maps for the area before the lengthy land-use review process for the stadium can start. But City Hall said even with Richards' ultimatum, they expect that process to kick off in the coming weeks without any delays. Aria Sundaram, WNYC News.

It's been just a couple months since the New Jersey Attorney General's office took over the Patterson Police Department after years of corruption, allegations of pervasive police brutality, and the deadly police shooting of a man in an apparent mental health crisis. But top Patterson police officials want control back, and they're suing to get it. Joining us now is Joe Melan. Conoco, editor of the Patterson Press, to explain the latest on this conflict.

Joe, tell us more about who's suing the attorney general and what they claim. Well, the two plaintiffs are the ousted chief, Engelbert Berrbara, and a gentleman named Mark Ballour, who was identified in the lawsuit as the acting public safety director. And this lawsuit is supported by the mayor. He is not a plaintiff at the moment, but he describes himself as an interested party, and he unabashedly expresses his support for this lawsuit. And basically what they're alleging is that the Attorney General's office went too far in its takeover and that it exceeded its authority under state law.

Under, their contention is that the Attorney General's office can only intervene in a particular case in investigation or proceedings. seating, but that by taking over the entire police department, they violated New Jersey's home rule, law, as well as its constitution. We know that the AG, New Jersey had broad, broad powers, but, Joe, remind us, what are the circumstances causing the AG to take control of Patterson police? Well, quite frankly, the Attorney General's office has repeatedly said that they didn't come in because of any one particular matter, but, you know, over the last five years, there

There was the infamous FBI investigation in Patterson, in which you had eight cops convicted and go to federal prison over a wide variety of allegations, not allegations, convictions involving drug dealing, making illegal traffic stops, et cetera. Now, I'll say this, they didn't come in right away after that, and so, you know, but that's part of the background. The state takeover came just about three and a half weeks after the shooting of the police, the fatal shooting of Naji Seabrooks. After a long standoff, Seabrooks was in a mental health crisis that precipitated protests

and widespread criticism of the way the police department handled that incident. Joe, have we heard from the Attorney General yet a response? Yeah, actually, they came, to the lawsuit, they came back punching, you know, and basically said that, you know, described the lawsuit as meritless and said that it just showed the need for the intervention. Often one side facing litigation is circumspect and doesn't comment or comments very minimally. In this case, they came back with very robust rebuttal. And one saying that if essentially there weren't so many problems, we wouldn't have had to take over. do we have a sense Joe what comes next here i guess is heading to court to a judge quickly here

please yes there is there there's an effort to get in injunction and what the uh the police chief and and public safety director asking for is immediate action from the courts returning them to authority in the police department that's gonna actually quite frankly there's a their oral arguments scheduled in that matter later on today it's not clear whether the judge will make a ruling today or hold off. But in theory at least, in legal theory at least, it's possible that the judge could return the police chief back to power within hours. Joe, we'll have to leave it there. Joe Malenconico is editor of the Patterson Press. Joe, always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you, sir. Have a good day.

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