NYC NOW - September 21, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

The MTA confirms there will be no bus or subway service increase when congestion pricing begins in Manhattan next year. Meanwhile, some residents in upper Manhattan are upset over newly installed dumpsters, saying they're ugly. Lastly, nearly half a million Venezuelan migrants, including tens of thousands in New York City, are set to become eligible for U.S. working papers, following a recent announcement by the Department of Homeland Security. WNYC's Economics & Equity editor Josefa Velásquez has more.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, September 21st. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The MTA says it will not increase bus or subway service when congestion pricing starts next year. Charging drivers a fee to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. MTA chair general Lieber says with ridership still down, nearly 30% on subways and buses from before the pandemic, current service can handle new riders.

We can easily accommodate the total 75,000 or so additional transit riders that the congestion pricing system is projected to generate. The MTAs expected to release a proposed cost of the tolls next month. Lieber says the agency is on track to start totaling in May. New dumpsters installed on streets in Upper Manhattan are upsetting some local residents. WNYC, Sophia Chang, explained. The new bins are part of a pilot program that aims to fight the city's rat population by keeping garbage bags off sidewalks. They're on 12 residential blocks in Hamilton Heights, but some locals aren't happy.

Caroline Miller can see two dumpsters from her West 149th Street apartment. You pay like a certain amount of rent for like a pretty cute neighborhood feeling, and now it's like I'm living in the back alley of a school building. hated so much. But Harlem Council member, Sean Abraeu said, the bins are worth the trouble. At the end of the day, we have to make a sacrifice

for the greater good. The pilot program is scheduled to run for about a year. Today's sunny and 72 for a high and on the gusty side as well to keep those temperatures down. The Biden administration will make nearly half a million Venezuelan migrants newly eligible

for working papers in the U.S., including tens of thousands right here in New York City. That's according to the Department of Homeland Security, which announced the move last night. Here to talk about it with us is WNYC, Economics and Equity Editor, Hosef of Alaska. So under the new protections, Venezuelan migrants will be able to legally work without having to wait for 180 days like most asylum seekers. Who's eligible for this? So basically the announcement last night from the White House said that any Venezuelan migrant who has been in the United States as of July 31st is eligible for temporary protected status. That's an extension of what's already in place for a lot of Venezuelans, but unlike the previous version of TPS, that ended in about March of 2021. So what that essentially says is if you were in the U.S. continuously as of late July,

you are eligible to apply for this protected status, which would pave away for people to get work authorization. A big deal for New York City? Huge deal. For the last several months, really the last year and change, both the mayor and the governor of New York have been calling on the federal government to do something over the growing migrant. population in New York. The city estimates that about 40% of the roughly 100,000 people that have arrived in the last year are from Venezuela. And over the last few months, the mayor has really picked up his request to Washington saying that they need help, they need assistance, they need money, they need expedited work permits, they need anything they can get in order to get people

out of shelter than emergency shelters and into permanent housing. And the easiest way to do that would be to give them working papers. Hosepha, have we heard from Governor Hockel or the mayor yet on this? Yeah. So late last night after the news came out, both the mayor and the governor issued statements lauding Washington for doing this, lauding really the president for doing this, because there are only so many options that the Biden administration has

regarding immigration reform. And with a deadlocked Congress, a lot of those things that were on the table are basically non-starter. So one of the few things that the Biden administration can do is extend TPS. And that is something that the governor has called for in letters to President Biden. And even yesterday when she was in Manhattan, she sort of hinted as, something coming down the road. She spoke with President Biden and said that he listened to her and she was really hopeful that something was coming down, hinting that something was on the horizon.

We just didn't know what it was until, you know, about 9 p.m. last night. But Hosepha, as you have just said, and as we know, the governor has been asking for this and the mayor has been asking for this, why didn't this happen sooner? I think there's a lot of political calculations at play. I think first of all, it did take some convincing from both the congressional delegation in Washington and a strong lobbying effort on behalf of Governor Kathy Hockel, Mayor Eric Adams, everyone in Congress, local elected officials to really explain how this situation is playing out in New York, unlike a lot of other cities. New York City has what's called a right to shelter, which means that there are minimum basic standards that shelters have to have, and the city has to provide housing for these folks. And that's really strained and already strained system. We've seen, you know, these 10 cities pop up all across the city, hotels being utilized,

and find honestly some of these proposals that have been floated, whether it's a local work authorization, which would bypass the federal government in general, there's a lot of concerns over that. And trying to expedite working permits is easier said than done. You need to have Congress basically fund more, create more funding for immigration services. So I think at this point, we have reached sort of a culmination,

and that's why we saw what we saw last night. WNYC Economics and Equity Editor, Josefa Velasquez. Hosepha, thank you. Thank you, Michael. 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.