NYC NOW - October 20, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Mayor Eric Adams is trying to cut off New York City's supply of flavored vapes at the source, by going after major distributors in court. Plus, city officials order thousands of parking garage inspections in the wake of a fatal cave-in. And finally, WNYC’s Samantha Max visits a community in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where neighbors struggle to help a man with severe mental illness.

NYC now. Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Every single smoke shop has flavored vapes. Like you can buy them at bodegas too, but usually they don't have the flavored vapes. They have like clear or mint. Flavored e-cigarettes are very easy to find in New York City. But the Adams administration is trying to crack down on flavored vapes by going after

major suppliers to the local market in court. New York City banned flavored e-cigarettes four years ago. But users say they aren't sure the city will be able to get rid of its flourishing underground market. Upper West Sider, Anna Miles, recently quit vaping because she was worried about her nicotine consumption. But she says she also frequently ended up with knockoffs of popular brands like Elf Bar. That was sort of confounding to me. And absolutely the inconsistency of product is like making it very easy for me to give it up.

The Food and Drug Administration has only authorized a handful of tobacco-flavored vape products for sale in the U.S. But the federal government has struggled to stem sales of unauthorized brands. New York City's buildings department is imposing new inspection rules on thousands of parking garages. The order comes six months after a deadly caven killed a garage manager in Lower Manhattan. WMYC's David Brandt has the details. The cavern sparked a new effort to find and fix the city's dangerous garages. An existing law requires owners to hire a trained engineer for a thorough review every six years. But many garages were exempt until 2027. A new rule requires inspections

by August 24. Structural engineer Jason Damiano says he and his colleagues will look out for severely damaged concrete, exposed rebar, and other problems. You will see certain times of cracks that indicate some sort of larger structural issue that could be pointing towards some sort of larger failure. Inspectors will report those to the DOB. Stick around. We'll head over to Brooklyn after the break. The debate over how to care for New Yorkers with untreated and severe mental illness has been a hotly debated issue in the city for years. In Greenpoint Brooklyn, however, it's dividing the neighborhood. There, one longtime resident has faced criminal charges of harassing, groping, and assaulting many people. And he's cycled in and out of Rikers and psychiatric.

care. Now, that community faces a difficult question. When someone with mental illness poses a threat, what's the best way to keep both the person and the community safe? WNYC's Samantha Max has a story. Francoise-Livas was walking her daughter home from school with a group of Greenpoint parents one day when they spotted a man who has been arrested on many occasions on charges that he assaulted and harassed people in the neighborhood. She says he was coming toward them on the street. So we all ran against the light to get to the other side. Aliva says things escalated when the man approached a cyclist who was riding by and straddled her bike. So the cyclist ran a red light. The biker rode away. These types of incidents involving the man have become common in the neighborhood. And the chaotic scene confused

Eliva's daughter. My child asks like what's going on. And I, I just, you know, I said, you know, we have a neighbor who's sick. Across the five boroughs, stories like this one play out every day as the city grapples with worsening mental health and addiction crises. In bedstice, residents have expressed fear and frustration about a man who carries a bag of bottles, and then aggressively asks for money after he accuses people who walk past of breaking them.

And in Harlem, people have posted videos on TikTok of a woman who they They say rides the bus on 125th Street with no shoes on, spits on people, and uses drugs in public. Here's one. Why is she on a public bus smoking K2 next to kids and people? Like, stay away from this lady, bro. According to city officials, the man in Greenpoint has gone to Rikers and psychiatric hospitals dozens of times. Court records show he's also started and stopped treatment for alcoholism. He's deaf.

And he and his mom say that, like half of the people in city jails, he has mental illness. Research shows that a tiny fraction of people with serious mental illness commit acts of violence. And even when they do, experts say, other factors besides their diagnosis typically drive them to commit those crimes. But several recent high-profile incidents have put some New Yorkers on edge. We have new information tonight in the tragic death of a woman shoved in front of a moving In January 2022, a man with schizophrenia pushed Michelle Goh onto the time.

square subway tracks during rush hour, killing her. Death has been found psychologically unfit to stand trial. People with mental illness have also been harmed themselves. Earlier this year, Daniel Penny fatally choked Jordan Neely, a beloved Michael Jackson impersonator who Penny said was acting aggressively toward fellow subway riders. The incident sparked calls for better mental health care. Justice Board. Mental health advocates say many New Yorkers are stuck in a holding pattern.

When they are in crisis, clinicians may try to connect them with services. If that doesn't work, some may be arrested and taken to jail or a hospital. But jail and hospital stays are rarely long-term, and often they wind up back on their own, sharing the city with people who feel uncomfortable or even unsafe in their presence. There's no one sort of consistently on that person's side. looking out for them, helping them navigate New York City's very complicated, complex, difficult to manage mental health system.

That's Matt Kudish, with New York City's chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. So I think, you know, we cycle through and we kind of pass the baton. Kudish and other mental health advocates say a handful of factors have created a crisis in New York City. In the mid-20th century, the U.S. emptied out most psychiatric hospitals, promising to provide services in the community instead. But Kudish says, The investment in community mental health never happened. The city has also lost hundreds of psychiatric beds in the last couple decades.

Clinical psychologist Filipiano says things only got worse during the pandemic when many providers stopped offering in-person services. And that put people at risk of psychiatric relapse. We were just disconnected for too long. Abraham I.U. knows what it's like to feel stuck in a psychics. of hospitalization and incarceration. The 42-year-old has schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. And he says he's been jailed and hospitalized many times.

But Ayu says his stays in mental hospitals haven't been particularly helpful. You're sitting there waiting. Then somebody comes by and says, are you feeling suicidal or homicide? If you say no, he says, then you're released. You're here to get some help. You ain't getting no freaking help? Ayu is homeless and spends most of his time in Crown Heights. He says he often feels misunderstood by the people around him, even villainized.

IU wonders if the man in greed point also feels misunderstood. He wishes residents of the neighborhood would make more of an effort to build a relationship with him and find out what he needs instead of trying to remove him. It's very easy to villainize people that are in the circumstances that me and that gentleman share. But you quite normally, because we have mental illness, we're normally not villains. were normally just misunderstood. Earlier this week, I went to the 10th floor of Kings County Criminal Court, where a judge was reviewing a long list of cases pending against the Greenpoint Man.

WNYC isn't naming him because some people have threatened to hurt him. His mother told me people beat him up twice after people hung flyers with his photo around the neighborhood. The man has been on Rikers for three months while he waits for a psychological evaluation to find out if he's fit to stand trial. If not, the cases against him could be dropped and he could be committed to a hospital until medical professionals decide he's not a danger to the community.

An officer uncuffed the man's hands so he could communicate using sign language, and an interpreter said the man didn't understand why there were still cases against him, that he doesn't think there's any evidence. He said he's angry and stressed and frustrated. Local council member, Lincoln Wrestler, says this case highlights the failures of the city's mental health system.

I am just incredibly disappointed by how slow this all moves. Wrestler says his office has spent dozens of hours working with residents, police, prosecutors, and the health department to connect this man with mental health treatment. But he says it's been really hard. When we have somebody in crisis, we should be able to work together much more quickly to get the help and treatment and support that is needed to stabilize the situation. Wrestler says the city can and must do better. That's WMYC's Samantha Max. One note before we get out of here, we're dropping another special episode Saturday morning.

It's the third installment of WNYC's five-part investigative podcast series, imminent danger, one doctor and a trail of injured women. But look at how an OBGYN was later, allowed to practice in Oklahoma, even though he had his license stripped from him in New York. Be sure to check it out. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Quick shout out to our production team.

It includes Sean Boutage, Amber Bruce, Ave Carrillo, Audrey Cooper, Leora Noam Kravitz, Jared Marcel, Jen Munson, and Wayne Schoenmeister, with help from the entire WNYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the people at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrival. I'm Jenae Pierre. Have a great weekend. We'll be back tomorrow.