NYC NOW - September 12, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

Two migrants from a Clinton Hill shelter are healing after being struck by a car driven by restaurant owner Hamzeh Alwawi, who's now charged with attempted murder. Meanwhile, quarterback Aaron Rodgers faces a season hiatus after an MRI revealed a torn left tendon. Also, Google Translate isn’t just for regular people, it’s what every New York City agency employs to translate government websites into any of 130 languages. But as WNYC’s Arun Venugopal reports, it’s not always accurate. Finally, Mayor Adams orders extensive budget cuts due to costs from the influx of over 100,000 migrants in New York City over the past year; these reductions will affect various city services. WNYC's Elizabeth Kim has the latest.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, September 12th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Two migrants who live at a shelter in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, are recovering from entries after police and witnesses say a local restaurant owner plowed into them with his car. Prosecutors are charging Hamzae Al-Wawi with attempted murder. WNMIC's Brittany Craigstein has more. Joandri Lozano Bracho says he was in the wrong place at the wrong time early Sunday morning.

The Venezuelan migrant and other witnesses say Alwawi was yelling about immigrants, accusing a delivery worker of stealing food from his restaurant. Then, Lozano Bracho says Alwawi ran over him once and then tried again. Lozano Bracho is still staying at the shelter, at Hall Street and Flushing Avenue. He's worried about finding a job he can do while injured. Hansel-O-Wa's attorney did not respond to our request for a comment. Police say the motive involved stolen food, but did not disclose more details than that. Multiple reports say an MRI confirms New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rogers has a torn left tendon. He likely will miss the rest of

the season, much more to come on the condition and the future of the Jets and this 39-year-old throughout the day. 77 and partly sunny, mostly sunny in a high of 83 today. Google Translate is not just for regular folks. It's what every New York City agency uses to translate government websites into any of 130 languages. But as W&YC's Arun Ventico Paul reports, it's not always accurate. Earlier this summer, a reporter for Singtow Daily,

Chinese language news site. Notice something strange about the text on the website of the New York City Planning Commission. Readers who clicked the Translate button and opted for the Chinese language translation were presented with such phrases as building a city together with the Communist Party of China. Another said, in this way, the Chinese Communist Party and the public can make wise decisions on every project that passes public review. Turns out the problem was Google Translate, which took the initials of the Planning Commission, CPC, and turned it into Chinese Communist Party, over and over. In this case, it appears there was a mistranslation.

Casey Berkovitz is a spokesperson for the Department of City Planning. He said mistakes like this are pretty unusual. This is the first time anybody who I work with has encountered an issue like this. The problem was quickly fixed. But some people found it pretty funny that the City Planning Commission became the Chinese Communist Party, if only briefly. This is hilarious. Councilmember Shahana Hanif said there's also a serious side to the bad translations

because many communities just don't utilize government resources, including the Chinese community, which stands at more than 600,000 and is the largest Asian subgroup in the city. One of those reasons is because official government documents and important notices, even if they're translated, the quality of translation is incomprehensible. Last year, Haneev pushed for the creation of a city office of translation and interpretation, which would provide interpreters to every city agency. However, the effort stalled. Arun van deGopal, WNYC News.

Google has not yet responded to a request for comment. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. Mayor Adams is ordering billions of dollars in budget cuts in response to the mounting crisis of the more than 100,000 migrants that have arrived in New York City over the past year plus. The mayor says the cuts will impact all types of city services. Here he is in a video message city hall released over the weekend. The simple truth is that longtime New Yorkers and asylum seekers will fill these potential cuts and they will hurt.

WMIC's Elizabeth Kim covers the mayor. She joins us now to give us more. Liz, what kind of cuts are we talking about here? We're looking at across-the-board agency cuts that could total. as much as 15% for the upcoming fiscal year. City agencies would start with a 5% cut in November, and then they could face two additional 5% cuts over the course of the budget planning cycle.

Now, a 15% cut would be the largest that we've seen in many years. Just for some perspective, during the pandemic, Mayor de Blasio ordered most city agencies to come up with roughly 3% cuts. weren't services city services already compromised because of staffing shortages across city agencies? What would these cuts mean for the city's continued push to hire people? That's right. The city agencies have already been struggling with staffing shortages.

Last year, there were reports from many agencies, from buildings to health to social services, that indicated that staffing shortages were slowing down. work and they were also affecting vulnerable New Yorkers. Just to give you a few examples, the city has had trouble processing food stamps, paying pre-K providers, and staffing public health clinics. Now, a big recruitment effort is underway, but there are still thousands of vacancies. The budget cuts will likely mean that many of those jobs will not be filled. Now, the mayor says, hey, we can avoid these budget cuts if the federal government and the state government step in and help the city in dealing with the crisis. What specifically is Adams looking for from Washington

and Albany? Well, to start with money and lots of it, city officials are estimating that the migrant crisis will cost $12 billion over the next three years. Now, when it comes to Governor Khoeckel, she did approve around a billion and a half for the city's migrant funding in the state budget, and the city has already spent that so far. Now, she's offered some more assistance in building new emergency shelters and helping migrants with the asylum process. But Adams clearly needs even more help. And he also wants the governor to take a more active role in managing the crisis and helping to relocate migrants to other parts of the state. Now, with Biden, Adams is similarly looking for both financial and policy intervention. His biggest

priority with the White House is getting them to expedite the process by which migrants can work legally. Now, my question here is, is this just a bargaining ploy? I mean, how dire is the budget that Adams would say we have to do this? Or is he just trying to get money from the state and federal government? Well, the budget situation is certainly dire. Even before we factored in the migrant costs, the city was already projected to face a deficit of $5 billion, mostly because federal stimulus funding that was given to us

during the pandemic is now drawing up. But is it a bargaining ploy? Absolutely. The mayor didn't mince words during his announcement. He said that this difficult decision had to be made because of a lack of substantial help from Washington and Albany. And he did say that the cuts could be averted. Now, here's the million dollar question, or should we say billion dollar question? Is there any indication that additional assistance from the state or feds is coming?

So the governor, as I said, she has provided the city. with more help in setting up additional emergency shelters and paying for those. But she's drawn a line against relocating migrants because this is a very politically treacherous issue for her, given that there are conservative-leaning parts of the state that simply don't want migrants in their communities. Biden's hands are similarly tied. He's facing a Republican-controlled house that doesn't seem very likely to approve either funding or expediting work authorization. WNIC's Elizabeth Kim covers Mayor Adams and City Hall. You can read her reporting on our website Gothamists.

Thanks so much, Liz. 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. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.