NYC NOW - September 25, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

The MTA board unanimously approved a $65 billion capital plan to rehabilitate the city's transit infrastructure over the next five years. Meanwhile, the NYPD says the Battery Tunnel remains closed due to the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, despite plans to reopen it by noon Wednesday. Plus, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks is stepping down at the end of the year. The announcement comes just weeks after the FBI searched his home and seized his phone. WNYC’s Jessica Gould has the latest.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, September 25th. Here's the midday news from David Furze. The MTA board unanimously voted in favor of the agency's new $65 billion capital plan that aims to rehabilitate the city's aging transit infrastructure over the next five years. MTA chair, Jan O'Leber, says the subways, buses and commuter rails would risk failing without the plan.

The reason we have a capital program is that there's so much substantive work and thought and analysis that's gone into it, make sure that we are meeting the needs of the system and meeting the needs of New Yorkers. The MTA may have passed a plan, but there are still big questions as to how they will fund it. The agency needs state lawmakers to sign off on at least $33 billion in new funding to pay for all of the work. NYPD officials say the battery tunnel is still closed to drivers. It was supposed to be reopened around noon today.

This is WNYC. Stay close. There's more after the break. Another week, another high-profile exit from the Adams administration. This time it's the chancellor of America's largest school system, David Banks, who recently had his phone. seized by the FBI. Joining us now to discuss is WNYC's education reporter Jessica Gould. Jessica Banks says he is retiring, but the timing is notable, isn't it? Yeah, definitely it is.

As you just mentioned earlier this month, the FBI searched the home of the chancellor and his partner, Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. An agent also searched the home of his brother, Deputy Mayor Phil Banks. the investigation reportedly revolves around the youngest Banks brother, Terence Banks, who used to be an MTA supervisor and who recently opened a government relations firm. Terence Banks has claimed to have represented companies that got contracts with the city, and some of those projects involved schools. But all the Banks brothers have denied wrongdoing emphatically.

Here's David Banks over a week ago. Here's what he had to say. I have always lived my life with integrity every day of my life. And anybody who knows me knows that. He's also said that he loves his brothers, and he said that his lawyer told him he's not the target of the investigation. Did Banks acknowledge the investigation in his announcement about stepping down? No, no. He said he's retiring, not resigning.

And it's not immediate. it's going to be at the end of the calendar year. So in his letter to the mayor, he talked about how proud he is of his efforts, including to overhaul literacy instruction, which he's called legacy work that included a stronger foundation in phonics for younger students and new curricula. He also talked about welcoming migrant families into the schools and special education, expansion, and other programs. How is Mayor Adams' response?

Well, Adams and David Banks have been close, and Banks was one of Mayor Adams' first appointments. So he also said he was really proud of the chancellor's work. We know that improving literacy was very close to both of their hearts. Adams often talks about struggling as a child because he is dyslexic. But interestingly, I've been hearing rumors starting this summer that Banks might be leaving, And I did notice some dissonance between them recently, between the mayor and the chancellor. Like when Banks indicated that a cell phone ban might be coming as soon as the summer, and then as school started, Adams walked it back and said that the city wasn't ready.

In his letter, Banks said he told Adams earlier this year he planned to retire. Well, if you're taking your kid to school right now, you may be less concerned about these investigations and more concerned about what this means to the schools. So tell us, we just started a new school year. What does this mean for parents and kids? Yeah, I can't say that for many kids, who the chancellor is is top of mind when they go to school in the morning. And kids and teachers are really busy carrying on their own work. We do expect the mayor to announce Chancellor Banks's replacement probably today. And sources say it's the current Deputy Chancellor Melissa Ramos. And I think that the next chancellor will probably be carrying out the same

initiatives, including the shift in the literacy and math curricula, which has been going on for a little while and is bumpy. And I think also, though, bigger picture, there has been criticism in recent years that mayoral control of the schools leads to a lot of flux in the system. So when there's a change in mayors. There's a change in chancellors and then there's, you know, change in chancellors sometimes within a mayoral administration and that can be shifting priorities. So one way of teaching, reading may be in and then it's out or early education looks one way and then it looks another. So I think critics may say this can lead to a lot of change for the school system that makes it harder. On the other side, you know, critics of the previous way of handling things with the

Board of Education say that was corrupt. So either way, lawmakers were already saying that this kind of change can be destabilizing and speaks to the need for more of a consistent governance structure. For example, Queen's state Senator John Liu said he was concerned about how this change may impact the class size law that's supposed to limit class sizes in the years to come. and he said, you know, heaven help our city. So that was his point. WNYC's Jessica Gould, thank you for joining us. Thank you.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.