NYC NOW - September 13, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day: New York City Mayor Eric Adams will appoint former FBI official Tom Donilon as interim commissioner of the NYPD after Commissioner Edward Caban resigned Thursday. Meanwhile, the mayor's attorney is requesting more time to respond to a campaign finance audit due to an ongoing federal investigation. Also, New Jersey and federal prosecutors are asking a judge to end some oversight of the state's women’s prison. Plus, New York Public Radio, which operates WNYC, is cutting more than 26 positions through a mix of layoffs and voluntary departures. Finally, on this week’s transportation segment, On The Way, WNYC’s Stephen Nessen and Ramsey Kalifeh discuss the state’s response to a lawsuit pushing for congestion pricing, former President Donald Trump’s vow to cancel the program, efforts to cap Citi Bike costs for members, and a new jaywalking bill.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, September 13th. Here's the morning headlines from David Furze. Mayor Adams is tapping Tom Donlan, former FBI official as interim commissioner of the NYPD. The move comes amid multiple federal investigations into the mayor's inner circle that have now reached the police department. Commissioner Edward Caban resigned yesterday. One week after federal officials seized his and his twin brother's phones as part of an investigation into James Caban's business as a nightlife consultant.

Adam says Donlin is a Bronx native who ran the FBI, NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force. The mayor's attorney is citing an ongoing federal investigation to ask for more time to respond to a campaign finance audit. As WNYC's Bridget Bergen reports, this wasn't the first time. campaign attorney Vito Pitta asked for multiple extensions to respond to a draft audit of Adams' 2021 campaign, and the campaign finance board granted them. The 900-page document, WNYC First Report on in July, flagged some $2.3 million in unaccounted expenses. In emails obtained through a Freedom of Information request, Pitta said the ongoing investigation by the U.S. attorney in the Southern District had consumed significant time and attention.

The CFB set a new November 29th deadline. On that timeline, the campaign could receive more public matching funds before its current audit is done. The state of New Jersey and federal prosecutors want a judge to end some oversight of the state's women's prison. WNYC's Matt Katz reports. The Edna Mahan Correctional Facility was put under consent decree three years ago. The arrangement was meant to force reforms after prison officials were accused of cover bring up violence and sexual abuse by staff. Scores of officers were arrested and suspended.

Now the Department of Justice, which investigated and then pushed for federal oversight in the first place, once part of that decree lifted. In a court filing this week, officials said the prison has complied with requirements to supervise housing areas, educate prisoners on their rights when it comes to sexual abuse, and create a process for reporting alleged abuse. New York Public Radio, which operates WNYC, is eliminating more than, than 26 rolls through a mix of cuts and voluntary layoffs. President and CEO LaFontaine Oliver sent an email to staff yesterday outlining the staff

reductions. The Gothamist and WNYC Newsroom is losing three roles. The show notes from America has been canceled and classical music station WQXR will no longer produce podcasts. The cuts are expected to save $6 million annually. Currently, 64 degrees sunny today with a high of 81. It's Friday. That means it's time for a weekly segment of On the Way, covering all things transportation. That's after the break.

I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. It's Friday, which means it's time for On the Way, our weekly segment breaking down the week's transit news. Joining us as WMIC's transportation reporters, Stephen Nesson and Ramsey Caliphay. Well, well, well, our old friend here on The Way, the story of the story of the, The spring, the story of the summer, we're inching towards fall. Congestion pricing continues to dominate the transit world. Ramsey reported this week on the state's response to a recent lawsuit that aims to force Governor Hockel to kickstart the indefinitely paused tolling program.

What's new? Look, as we continue to unravel this last-minute decision to pause the tolling plan, court filings have actually revealed more about Hockel and her legal team's thinking on the program more generally. Look, remember, she's argued that the pause is temporary. We hear that all the time. And she did it because she thinks drivers just can't afford this $15 toll with inflation. She actually made it a whole talking point that New Jersey drivers wouldn't be able to go to their favorite diners in Manhattan.

And she also believes that this is still a fragile Manhattan recovery. That's where we're at. So it wasn't politics, she said. She said, you know, despite there was reporting on the contrary that says she's under pressure not to jeopardize, you know, a handful of very competitive Hudson Valley and Long Island congressional races. But now we kind of have hard proof. her lawyers argue in court filings that it's just the opposite, that in fact this is political, and in fact her voters should decide whether they want congestion pricing at the quote voting machine. That's something they refer to at a judge's previous ruling on this topic.

So arguably, this has actually already been decided through the voting machine when Hockel ran on this support for congestion pricing when she ran for governor. So if you do look at polls, it is true that there's been opposition to the new tolls, a Siena College poll from August estimated it's about 59% of likely New York state voters felt congestion pricing is quote or should quote be permanently scrapped. But Sean, avid on the way listeners will probably know they've heard me say before. In Stockholm, they did put it to a vote. And in fact, before they did that, they gave the public a taste of the roads with congestion pricing for a few months and then they took it away and let voters choose which they like better.

Needless to say, roads with less traffic were a winner at the ballot box. And we're likely to learn more. The state is in court in two weeks just to defend the pause. We should note, the governor is considering relaunching congestion pricing, but only if the toll is reduced from $15. Stephen, how low can she go? Well, most experts tell me it's $9. And that's because if you'll remember when the MTA did their extensive years-long study, it looked at a range of options from $23 on the high end to $9 on the low end. Ultimately, they settled for something in the middle at 15.

But if Hockel comes back with something lower than $9, that sets off a whole host of other issues. The federal government, no doubt, will have to likely re-review the final tolling structure if it's that much different than what was approved, and that could take some time. There's an upcoming presidential election. Former President Trump says if he were to be elected, he'd kill congestion pricing on day one. how realistic is that? You may remember his administration is also accused of holding up congestion pricing during his time as president, so folks are taking that threat seriously. Remember, they found a way to hold up congestion pricing by not telling the MTA which type of federally required environmental review it had to do. The shorter one, known as an environmental assessment, which it did end up doing, or a more complicated and lengthier one that's known as the environmental impact statement. The reason I'm giving you this sort of long, you know, jargony bureaucratic language is because this is actually one of the main arguments the state of New Jersey is using in its ongoing lawsuit against the tolling plan. New Jersey claims basically the MTA did the wrong type of study. Here's lawyer Michael Gerard with Columbia Law School and director of the Sabine Center for Climate Change Law on what the federal lawyers defending the case might do if

Trump is elected. The government could decide to settle that case by conceding and saying, yes, we do need to do a full environmental impact statement, and that could take years. Another lawyer I spoke with from California, who's watching this closely, says if Hockel does choose a toll rate below $9, that same New Jersey judge himself could just side with the state and say the program has changed too much from its original plan, and the MTA does need to do that more extensive review. So do we know how the MTA would head off any of those scenarios? Hockel could just unpause and start up the program before inauguration day on January 20th, which

would make it harder for Trump to stop. And it would actually solve a lot of problems at the MTA, like that $15 billion funding gap that's still hanging over their heads. Switching gears from the machinery of politics to city bike, Stephen, you reported in this week's On the Way newsletter that city council member Lincoln Ressler wants to cap the cost of city bike, the cost of those rides for members. He doesn't want members to pay more than what it costs to ride the subway. Tell us more.

So Ressler is an avid city bike user. He commutes all the time. I've even seen him myself. He's in the zone. He didn't even see me. But he takes roughly, he's taken 4,500 city bike rides. So this is an avid member, truly. But they've had two price increases this year alone.

And he tells me he's had enough. The costs for riders right now are out of control. And it's just not fair to ask a New Yorker to pay $10 for a city bike trip for, you know, 40 minutes to get from one neighborhood to the next. next. That is too much. And it's time for government to step in and ensure that our bike share program is actually affordable for all. For anyone that's been out of the loop on this or isn't a city bike user or member, you may have seen a lot of these light gray city bikes zooming around the city recently. In fact, the company Lyft, their own city bike tells me 40% of their fleet are now e-bikes like this, these pedal assist e-bikes. And even members have to pay extra to use

them. They pay 24 cents a minute now. And so for Ressler, that means it costs him $10 to go from Greenpoint to downtown Brooklyn. He says that's just too much. Lyft, for its part, says the reason it's had to raise prices like this is because the e-bikes are actually very expensive. They cost a lot to maintain. They have to swap out the batteries and you can't just do it there. They need to take them to a special place.

So Ressler's introducing this bill on the council. He did it today. But he also is a carrot for Lyft. He wants this new cap to go into effect the next time they do a contract negotiation. but by then he also wants the city to help them connect these docks to the city's electric grid so you can charge the e-bikes on site, which he believes will save them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lyft did not respond to a request for comment, but I should note the company has had financial issues in other cities over the same issue.

But then again, New York is the largest bike share system in the country, so we'll see what happens. Yeah. Okay, finally, can we talk about the, hey, I'm walking here, Bill Ramsey, you reported on it this week. Can I jaywalk now? What's the deal? Technically, no, not yet. So a bill to decriminalize jaywalking was passed in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee earlier this week in the city council.

And it seems set for a vote today, but abruptly it was just pulled. There was an amendment to that bill that would make pedestrians more liable, and that seemed to make advocates a bit upset. Advocates say it's important legislation. You know, city data does back that up. It shows that really the vast majority of people ticketed for jaywalking are black and brown New Yorkers. Only 4% of those ticketed just this year were white. So it's unclear when a new version will come forward,

but council speaker Adrian Adams, says it's still going to be negotiated. That's W&MIC transportation reporter Stephen Nesson and Ramsey Caliphay. You can stay in the know on all things transit. Or ask a question of your own by signing up for our weekly newsletter at gotthmus.com slash on the way Stephen Ramsey. Thanks so much. Thank you. We had a very active conversation in the newsroom today about where.

How low can she go come from? I thought it was a game show. It actually comes from this song. 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.

See you this afternoon.