NYC NOW - October 16, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

New York City wants to redesign the Cross Bronx Expressway, long known for its pollution and noise issues. Meanwhile, the city is introducing new rules to limit emissions from large buildings. Plus, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has appointed Chauncey Parker, a former prosecutor and NYPD official, to replace Philip Banks, who resigned last week after the FBI raided his home. WNYC reporters Bahar Ostadan and Elizabeth Kim have more details.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, October 16th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. New York City has taken steps to redesign the Cross Bronx Expressway, long known for creating pollution and noise in the city's northernmost borough. Deputy Mayor Miro-Joshi says the ideas, which are now going to local residents for review,

offer a taste of what the city's future could look like. Tomorrow is about green space. Tomorrow is about covering up the highways. And tomorrow is about more trees to bring cleaner air to this entire borough. Ponds for the highway could be capped to create more public space, including parks. Officials will hold three community workshops in the coming weeks to discuss the redesign ideas. The next will be Wednesday from 6 to 8 o'clock. at MS-331 in Morris Heights.

New York City is rolling out new regulations to limit emissions from its largest source of pollution, big buildings. The new rules from the Department of Buildings allow landlords to pay money instead of reducing emissions by up to 10%. That money would go into a fund for climate-friendly projects

at affordable housing developments. Pete Socorah is a campaign director with New York Communities for Change. He worries the new rules create big loophole. That would mean that pollution would be reduced less if they're granting those kinds of lower pollution limits and handing them out like party favors. A Buildings Department spokesperson says the rule strikes the right balance between meeting climate goals and penalizing building owners. 54 mostly clouding up, mostly sunny today and 57. Then tonight mostly clear, cool down to 44, tomorrow sunny and near 60.

Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson. New York City has a new deputy mayor of public safety. Mayor Adams announced the appointment of former prosecutor and NYPD official Chauncey Parker. Parker will replace Phil Banks who resigned last week after FBI agents raided his home. We're joined by WNYC's Bahra O'Sadaan and Elizabeth Kim. Bahar, let's start with you.

Who is Chauncey Parker? What do you know about him and what should New Yorkers know about the new top public safety official at City Hall? Well, he was the assistant deputy mayor for public safety under Phil Banks. Before that, he was the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner for Collaborative Policing. He's also worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and for the Manhattan District Attorney. Now, those are two offices, notably currently investigating Adams' inner circle. Now, Liz, again, we heard about this earlier today, but have you heard any reaction so far? What has that reaction been to that appointment?

I did. I reached out to Liz Glazer. She's a criminal justice expert. She was a top advisor to former mayor Bill de Blasio. Now, she's been very critical of Adams, but she offered a glowing assessment of Parker, who she has known for 30 years. She told me that he's a terrific choice. He's someone who is inventive and thinks very deeply about public safety. And she also called him a person. of, quote, high integrity at a time when that's what the city needs. Now, that's important because the last deputy mayor for public safety, Phil Banks, resigned amid one of the several federal probes into the mayor's inner circle. FBI agents raided his home last month. Mahar, Mayor Adams ran as a public safety candidate, right, and has been a pretty hands-on manager of the police department. So should we be expecting any dramatic changes under Parker? You know, I think it's too early to tell. Parker said he'll sort of continue doing what he's been doing, which in part has meant meeting with representatives from 15 different agencies every morning. Those agencies are,

you know, people like prosecutors, law enforcement officials, people who run the city's jails. And part of his goal has been to tackle gun violence and the very small number of New Yorkers who are responsible for the majority of shootings across the city. How big of a job is the deputy mayor for public safety? Well, Adams created this position himself when he took office two years ago. It's a role that hasn't existed in city government really since the early 90s. Certainly it's a position that sort of bolstered the representation of law enforcement within City Hall, so to speak. You know, we have Adams, who's a former NYPD captain himself. We had Banks who recently resigned, who was the NYPD chief of department previously. And we had someone named Tim Pearson, who was a former NYPD inspector and aide to Adams. So, actually, Experts have said that this has sort of created an unprecedented effort by Adams to run the police department from inside City Hall. Liz, over to you. Tom Donlin, we barely knew you. The interim NYPD commissioner has only been on the job for a few weeks. He replaced Edward Caban. But there were reports last week that Donlin himself was resigning after his home was searched by federal agents.

Did Adams address those reports of his new commissioner's resignation at all today? I mean, he did. The mayor says that he. has a police commissioner and it's Tom Donlin. And he said what he's often said in the past, which is when there's an announcement, he'll make it. There was a lot of confusion around this issue last week. There were several reports that Donlin was on the way out, but it's unclear now whether that was perhaps premature.

The mayor did do a press conference with Donlin last Thursday around subway safety and homelessness. and he's been very much in the public eye in recent days. But obviously, the problem is as long as he is an interim commissioner, there's going to be a lot of anticipation and speculation on who Adams plans to name as the permanent commissioner. And also the fact that he's under federal scrutiny also adds to this sense of urgency that Adams needs to find a replacement for him. Liz, we also learned last week that the Manhattan DA is investigating Mayor Adams' top advisor, Ingrid Lewis Martin, and one of the mayor's protégés over at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

What do we know about that case? And did the mayor address that today? What we know is that the Manhattan DA sees the phones of Ingrid Lewis Martin and also Jesse Hamilton. that is, as you mentioned, the deputy commissioner for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. Now, the two of them had their phone seized on their way back from a trip to Japan. Their phones were seized at Kennedy Airport by investigators. Now, Lewis Martin, we know, is the mayor's chief advisor. She has his ear on multiple issues. Hamilton is in charge of real estate transactions for the state.

the city. So together, those two facts have generated a lot of questions about what investigators might be looking for. These are two people who have a relationship with the mayor that stretches back decades. Now, the mayor has been very tight-lipped and disciplined, actually, when it comes to any questions he's been given about the investigations. He basically says to ask his defense attorney. But one question he was repeatedly asked, and which he did answer, was whether he knew that Hamilton and Lewis Martin were taking this trip to Japan where they were traveling with not only a lobbyist, but a real estate broker for Cushman Wakefield. Now, the mayor's answer to that was he doesn't ask people about their personal travel plans. Interesting.

Now, another thing folks may have been hearing today on our air and just in the news in general is that the city's health commissioner, Dr. Ushman Vassen, is leaving his post much earlier than expect. This sounds pretty familiar at this point, right? Like we just heard recently that former school chancellor David Banks had said, hey, I'm going to resign, but it's going to be in a couple months from now. But then turn around and said, oh, no, actually, I'm going to leave months earlier than I had originally said. Why is Wasson leaving ahead of schedule? Vasson says it's a family matter. And the mayor basically backed that up today when he was asked about it. I specifically asked the mayor whether he had any prior knowledge that,

Vassin had some kind of issue. And he said, the mayor said yes. And the mayor also added that his rule for his staffers is that they should put family first and he completely respects the decision. Now, this does have sort of shades of schools, Chancellor Banks kind of moving up his own resignation. But there are differences here that are important. Thanks was among those who had their phone seized by federal investigator. So he is tied somehow to those investigations. And it was City Hall that announced that his resignation would be moved up. This is different. Like, Basan doesn't appear to be tied to any of the ongoing federal corruption investigations. He initially resigned last month and said he would leave sometime early next year to spend more time

with his family. But today, he himself put out that he wanted to move that timeline up pretty dramatically. His last day is actually going to be Friday now. Before we let you go, did the mayor address any of the multiple investigations into his administration and his campaign? His answer was, ask my lawyer. That's WNYC's Elizabeth Kim and Bahar O'Sadan. Thank you so much for your reporting. Thanks, Sean. Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll be back this evening.