NYC NOW - October 2, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

After Tropical Storm Ophelia flooded the subway, the MTA CEO Janno Lieber says the entire system is vulnerable in the era of climate change. Meanwhile, residents in "The Hole," a Brooklyn-Queens border neighborhood, call for city action on persistent flooding issues. Also, the New York Mets are searching for a new manager. Finally, as cold weather approaches, NYC renters prepare for radiator noise and potential heating issues, WNYC’s housing reporter David Brand has the latest.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, October 2. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The MTA is looking toward the future of flooding in New York after the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia hammered the region and paralyzed transportation. The agency says it pumped 20 million gallons of water from the subway system,

MTA Chair, General Lieber, told New York One this morning the entire system is vulnerable in the era of climate change. We need more pumping facilities. We need to attack all the ways in which water gets into the system. We need the streetscape where the asphalt is sometimes taken away the curbs so the water doesn't flow to the catch basin. All those investments need to keep happening. New Yorkers in one neighborhood between Brooklyn and Queens dubbed the whole are still facing the consequences of last week's flooding, and they blame the lack of a sewer system for their woes. Ruben Garcia has lived in that neighborhood for almost 55 years.

It needs a real sewer. This is just pumps. The pump couldn't take all the water, too much water. They should do something about this already. As of yesterday, water still covered some of the neighborhood streets. The National Weather Service says about 7 to 8 inches of rain accumulated in parts of Brooklyn and Queens during the storm causing widespread flash flooding. The New York Mets are searching for a new manager to replace Buck Shawalter.

They've just named a new president of baseball operations, David Stearns, who grew up rooting for the Mets. The Amazons were less than amazing this season, finishing with the losing record and missing the playoffs. 74 in sunny now, sunny and 77 for a hot day and breezy. Tomorrow and Wednesday we'll reach into the low 80s with haze and sunshine. Right now, 74 and sunny. The temperatures are starting to dip, although today, tomorrow and Wednesday won't feel like it. Leaves are changing colors and Spirit Halloween is taking over vacant shops across the city. That can only mean one thing for New York City renters, the return of those hissing and clanging radiators.

October marks the start of heat season in the five burrows when probably donors must turn on the heat and buildings once temperatures hit a certain point. WNYC's housing reporter, David Brand joins us to explain how it works and what we can do if we don't have heat. David, what would you explain as the reason for a heat season and what triggers heat season? Sure. So heat season began Sunday yesterday and it lasts until May 31st whenever the outdoor temperature drops below 55 degrees. So not something we probably have to worry about today, but it's going to be getting chillier and chillier soon. So whenever that happens, property owners must turn on the heat and keep indoor temperatures at 68 degrees or higher between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. and at least 62 degrees at night. These loss have changed over the years, but they actually date back over a century. So in the late 1800s, early 1900s, landlords began replacing kitchen stoves with central heating systems.

Talk about coal-powered furnaces, pumping steam through radiators. A lot of these still around today, actually. But they gave tenants less control. So there were also rules and guidance around ventilation. City officials were encouraging people to keep their windows open to circulate fresh air. This is around the time of the Spanish flu. And that led to even more cold weather complaints. So the city imposed these new minimum temperature laws and started issuing fines back in the 20s.

David, if our home is chilly and our landlord is not turning on the heat, what can we do? Is there a place to lodge a complaint? Yeah, there's a few steps you can take here. So the first one, notify your landlord. Maybe they are aware, maybe the boiler is broken, they have a plumber on the way coming and make the fix. But if the landlord isn't responsive or they just don't turn on the heat, next step is to call 311, the city's complaint and information system.

So you can make a complaint by phone. You can also do it through the 311 online web portal. And that complaint goes to the city's housing agency, the Department of Housing, Preservation, and Development. They'll call you to see if the heat is on, and if they can't reach you or you tell them it's not, they'll send an inspector out. So the inspector arrives after a few days, takes the temperature. They'll also examine some other things like smoke detectors, they'll check for rats and roaches, and they may issue fines. But if the problem continues, HPD could even take the landlord to court.

relatively rare, but it's a possible option. You know, tenants can also do that. They can also sue to get their heat or pretty much any other problem fixed through what's called an HP action by asking a judge to order the landlord to fix the heat. Unfortunately, none of those result in a guaranteed or an immediate fix, but those are the steps that are available. David, that explanation has me wondering, how many complaints does the city get each year and how common are heat issues?

and is it particularly bad for folks who live in public housing? Well, pretty common. I talked with HPD the other day, and they told me that they got 230,000 heat outage complaints last year. That's a lot. And they only had 300 inspectors responding to them. So, you know, they say they get to all of them, but with that many complaints and, you know,

that few inspectors stretched pretty thin, so it can take a while. But city officials told me tenants should first, contact their landlords. The point I had just made, the landlords should be communicating regularly with their tenants to let them know what's going on, when the fix will be done, and that could save some of these through on calls and inspections, I guess, ideally. You know, you ask about public housing tenants? They do deal with chronic heat outages, unfortunately. The number decreased last year, and a federal monitor actually praised

NYCHA's preventive maintenance work and their response times for heat outages. But that's cold comfort for public housing tenants who are stuck in freezing apartments. So when the heat is out, NYCHA tenants should call the customer contact center at 718-707-7-7-7-1, or use the MyNightshow website to make a complaint and find out when the heat's coming back on. David, just a few seconds left. And what if our apartment is unseasonably warm? Because sometimes that heat goes up and it's like you're roasting in there. Is there anything we can do about that?

Yeah, a lot of New Yorkers know that problem too well. It gets too hot when the heat's pumping. It's from those big heavy-duty systems in the basement. But, you know, there really isn't that much you can do. HBD told me there's no maximum temperature rules during heat season. They did encourage tenants to contact their landlords again, ask them to turn the heat down. That's kind of the ideal situation because it saves money, saves energy, and saves a lot of a lot of tough time in a stifling apartment during that. a chilly day. Doubling in my C's housing reporter, David Brand. David, thank you. Thanks a lot, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day

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