NYC NOW - September 15, 2023: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day: The New York City Council is signing off on a 5-year permit to allow Madison Square Garden to continue to operate. Meanwhile, a string of bodega stick-ups in eastern Queens has some local business owners on edge.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, September 15th. Here's the morning headlines from David First. The New York City Council is signing off on a five-year permit to allow Madison Square Garden to continue to operate. It's the shortest permit length the garden has ever received. The vote comes as the MTA is continuing to design plans for a new Penn Station, which sits below the garden. Councilmember Eric Botcher says he hopes the short permit will force MSG to cooperate on designing a new Penn Station.

By granting Madison Square Garden a five-year special permit, we're setting a clock that will help bring all the stakeholders to the table to fix Penn Station now. Good government groups say the five-year permit is still too generous and doesn't require the garden to cooperate with the MTA on its plans. A string of bodega stick-ups in eastern Queens has some local business owners on edge. The NYPD reported two bodegas and a gas station were robbed in a seven-minute span on Friday, September 1st. In each incident, three men told store employees they had a gun while a fourth stood on lookout. Another deli was robbed on September 3rd. It was a similar story on Saturday when two delis and another store were successfully targeted within 45 minutes of each other. Police say the burglars netted the robbers, the burglaries netted the robbers more than $16,000.

Officers could not confirm all six busts were committed by the same group, but described the robberies as a pattern. Taking a look at our weather, 60 degrees. We're heading up to a high of 72 today with mostly sunny skies, back down to 60 degrees overnight tonight, and then mostly sunny. To start the weekend tomorrow, we'll be getting up to a high of 76 degrees, up to 80 degrees. on Sunday. It's WNYC. 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.

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