NYC NOW - October 31, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

A New York Democratic representative is warning that the MTA’s construction plans could be in trouble if Donald Trump wins the presidential election. Plus, New York City public school students will have a full week off for the winter holidays, after some activism from an 8th grader. And finally, WNYC’s Sean Carlson discusses six ballot proposals in next week’s election with New York City Councilmember Justin Brannan.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. A Democratic member of Congress is warning that the MTA's construction plans could be in jeopardy if Donald Trump wins the presidential race. Representative Dan Goldman represents parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. He says federal funding for the MTA's next five-year capital plan may never come. I think it's very clear that if that, Donald Trump wins, the money will not flow to New York. And it will hurt not only the MTA, our public transit system,

it will hurt our bridges, our tunnels, our infrastructure. The MTA is already facing an uphill battle to secure nearly $33 billion in funding when state legislators return to Albany next year to negotiate the budget. Many of the MTA's projects rely on matching federal funds. The election is just five days away. New York City Public School students will now have the week. of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza completely off after some activism from an eighth grader. WMYC's Jessica Gould has more.

Isaac Regner had been lobbying for months to get Monday, December 23rd, added to winter break. He even started a petition that got nearly 23,000 signatures. Then, in his classroom, he received an unexpected phone call. Hey, Isaac, how are you? This is your fellow Brooklyn night, Mayor Adams. The mayor says he got the message from Isaac, teachers, and parents, and schools will be closed that Monday. State law requires school to be in session for 180 days, and that's gotten tough as more holidays have been added. But officials say they can swing the additional day off while still meeting the minimum. You and your classmates are now going to be off.

Isaac and his classmates are thrilled. I'm so excited for me off that day. Finally! Winter break will now go from dismissal on Friday, December 20th to January 2nd. Voters in New York City will decide on six ballot proposals in next week's election. We'll dive into those after the break. New York City voters will see six ballot proposals in the general election on Tuesday. My colleague Sean Carlson broke down those proposals with Councilman Justin Brannon,

who represents southwest Brooklyn. Councilmember, the one statewide question is Proposition 1, which would add an anti-discrimination amendment to the state constitution. Can you just tell our listeners how you interpret that question? Prop 1, the Equal Rights Amendment will appear on all ballots throughout the state, and it enshrines civil and reproductive rights in the state constitution. Critics say Prop 1 wasn't written clearly enough. Supporters point out that it would, again, enshrine the right to abortion in the state

Constitution, but opponents do say it's anti-discrimination protections could alter who plays in children's sports. What do you say to that? I think that's a bunch of baloney. I mean, Prop 1 is pretty clear. It'll establish constitutional protections against discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex. It'll protect abortion rights and access to reproductive health care, including IVF and birth control. It'll protect LGBTQ, New York. workers by preventing future state laws from rolling back current LGBTQ rights to equal treatment. I mean, it's everyone, I mean, where there's disagreement on the other props, Prop 1 is universally supported. It seems safe for people that are hoping to, to reelect President Trump.

So let's talk about those other propositions. The other five would amend the city charter, and the city council has been pretty vocal about them. Tell us more about the city council stance on each of those ballot propositions, two through six. Sure. So first, just to set the table, back in July, the mayor announced that he would impanel our charter review commission to put proposals on the November ballot. This happened, you know, conveniently just a few days after word got out that the city council was preparing to put our own proposal on the ballot.

And unfortunately, under current law and a quirk in the law, the mayor's proposals take precedence. So that means he was able to simply by announcing that he would in panel, this Charter Review Commission, he was therefore able to bump our questions off the November ballot. So even though the administration just threw together this commission with the express purpose of blocking the city council, the proposals, to be clear, they're not just placeholder, you know, Lorham Ipsum proposals. These are very clear proposals that are aimed at diluting the city council's power on various issues. It weakens checks and balances. And ultimately, we believe it would make city government less responsive to New Yorkers.

So we've been very clear that, you know, prop one, we're all in. Yes, prop two to six is no, because it would, you know, turn upside down the system of checks and balances that the city, you know, the city council is the co-equal branch of government. And there's a reason for that. There's also a reason why we have to fight so hard to keep that a reality and stay vigilant. And it's because of props two to six that we have to do that. Let's talk a little more about the second ballot question. That one would give the city sanitation apartment more power to clean streets and require

disposal of waste and containers. You know, I feel like if you're a regular New Yorker, you know, it's not a hard thing to say, well, I feel like most New Yorkers would want cleaner streets, no? So would easily vote yes to that. So what would you say to folks who want those cleaner streets? So that's why it's a bit diabolical. You know, look, there's nothing more important than clean streets because clean streets equal safe streets and there's nothing more important than safe neighborhoods, safe communities.

And I think the Department of Sanitation has one of the most important and thankless jobs in the city of New York. They are truly everyday heroes. And the problem with proposal too, like many of the others, is that this proposal skips the typical lawmaking process that allows New Yorkers to help shape proposed laws through input. And it aims to give more power for increased enforcement and regulations to the city sanitation department. These are not necessarily things that we might be against, but there's a process for how you work through these ideas, right? It's not done through a rushed charter review commission

that would change basically the city's constitution. If you want to talk about increasing enforcement for small businesses, if you want to talk about expanding the authority for more rules to give the sanitation department more power, let's talk about it. There's a way, there's a lawmaking process to do that that already exists. And we don't think this is the way to do it. You kind of paraphrase this already, but to dig deeper into this, supporters of the citywide

measures say they would make the city more effective things like letting the sanitation department keep streets clean, things like allowing more transparency on how certain council bills would cost, bring more scrutiny to how city facilities are maintained. Do you see it differently? Absolutely. I mean, I think a lot of that is just disingen. You know, look, we're all, we all want clean streets. We all want to cut back. Certainly someone like me wants to cut back on wasteful spending and we want more budget transparency. But again,

this Charter Review Commission was put together with the express purpose of undermining the City Council. First and foremost, it was put together. It was impaneled in order to block us from putting our question on the ballot. Our question was, was that the City Council have the same input that other legislatures have that Washington has to have more of a say over who the mayor picks for his commissioners to run his agencies. Because City Hall did not like that idea, they, in a matter of 48 hours, they put together this charter review commission and came up with these two, these four fac-cocta questions to try to block us. And again, like I said, these aren't just placeholder questions. These would undermine the checks and balances that the

that the New York City government relies on and that the City Council is a co-equal branch of government. And this would dilute our power, which is ultimately giving more power to the mayor and making this closer to a monarchy and not a democracy. And last thing, to be clear, this is not just about this mayor or this council. Changing the city constitution, changing the city charter means mayors and mayors and city councils to come in the future. So this is especially for the future for us. Councilman, before we let you go, voters around the city have received mailers on official city council letterhead. They detail the council's fight with the mayor over the charter revision questions.

Not all council members, though, are on board with the messaging. Bob Holden filed complaints saying that it's a misuse of government resources. What do you have to say about that? If Bob Holden is against it, then I'm for it. If Bob Holden, look, we have an army of lawyers over here who look this stuff over to make sure we were doing the right thing. we are well within legality to inform voters for the very reasons that you've mentioned, right? Because the average voter might look at these proposals and go, hey, who wants, you know, more, who doesn't want cleaner streets?

Who doesn't want less government's, you know, wasteful spending? Of course, but that's not what's going on here. And the city conflicts of interest board signed off on this. So we're completely in the clear. And I think, you know, the people that are for props two to six, you should take a look at who those people are. That's Councilman Justin Brannon, talking with my colleague Sean Carlson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC.

Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.