NYC NOW - September 27, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

Attorneys for New York City Mayor Eric Adams say they're going to try and get the case against him dismissed. Plus, many parents are calling for more crossing guards at school intersections. But as WNYC's Jessica Gould reports, they're finding roadblocks along the way. And finally, the New York Liberty face off against the Las Vegas Aces in the second round of the WNBA playoffs which begin on Sunday. WNYC’s Janae Pierre discusses the highly anticipated match up with sports journalist Jackie Powell.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. Attorneys for Mayor Eric Adams say they're going to try to get the case against him dismissed. The mayor pleaded not guilty before a packed federal courtroom Friday in response to the federal probe that accuses him of accepting overseas travel and illegal campaign contributions. Adams did not speak to reporters outside the courtroom, but his attorney. Attorney Alex Spiro characterized the government's case as, quote, not a real case. Adams is expected back in court on Wednesday. Several high-profile Democrats have called for Adams to resign,

but the mayor says he has no plans to do so. By the way, be on the lookout for a special episode of NYC now this Saturday, where we'll take a deep dive into some key details of the indictment and look ahead to what's next. Coming up, some parents of New York City public school children are calling for additional crossing guards to ease their anxiety as kids walk from home to school and back. More on that after the break. Students returned to school in New York City earlier this month, and that journey from home to school and back can be a source of daily anxiety for many parents. 29 children have been killed in the city while walking to school in the last decade. Many parents say they want more crossing guards at school intersections.

But as WMYC's Jessica Gould reports, they're finding roadblocks along the way. Morning, morning. How are you? Good morning. That's Stephen Cameron, standing in a crosswalk outside PSIS 127 in East Elmhurst, carefully ushering kids across the street. He's a commanding figure in his uniform, a neon yellow windbreaker, and NYPD cap. You're retired NYPD? No, no.

Trinidad and Antibago, detective home. I bought it. I bought it. You bought it? Yeah, I bought it. You can just buy that? Yes, yes. For being a crossing guard?

Cameron isn't an official crossing guard. He's 78 years old with four grandkids who go to the school. The only real crossing guard is at a different entrance. Cameron says there should be more. We need crowded because all the buses come at the same time. Everybody getting out at the same time. the same time, so it makes it a little hectic. Hectic and at times tragic.

Two children have been killed in traffic while walking near the school in the last two years. One of them was 8-year-old Byron Palomino Arroyo. Byron and his mom, Guadalupe, were walking home from school when the driver of a pickup truck turned into the crosswalk, killing Byron and injuring his brother. She says Byron was special in every sense, and he brought joy to their home,

which now feels dark without him. In their basement apartment, his family turned a corner bookshelf into a shrine overflowing with pictures of Byron and his favorite things, stuffed animals, candy, and paper cutouts of soccer jerseys. He wanted a pink messy jersey for his birthday, which was just weeks away when he was killed.

And there was another student at 127, 5-year-old Jonathan Martinez. He was just a block from school crossing a triangle intersection with his dad, when a driver hit him, dragging his body a few feet before his father could scoop him up. Both children were working with their parents. Both children were following, you know, the street signs and following what they needed to do and impatient driver ran them over. That's Marlene Rossi, a 127 parent. She and other parents have been lobbying for more crossing guards and other street safety improvements. But that seemingly simple request has sent them through a bureaucratic maze.

The city education department says talk to the NYPD, which employs the crossing guards. The NYPD says talk to the schools. City Hall says, go to the local police precinct or call 311. I don't know how much threat type they have

before they get something done. Rossi got so frustrated. She even applied to become a crossing guard herself. Twice. Five months later, she still hasn't heard anything back. We need crossing guards to help these kids get through. There aren't as many crossing guards as there used to be.

According to the city's independent budget office, as of this past summer, there were just 1,500 crossing guards, about 1,000 less than before the pandemic. Street safety advocates of the group Transportation Alternatives say data shows a young person in the city is seriously injured in traffic near a school every other day. Donald Nesbitt is vice president of the crossing guards union. He says a lot of members retired when schools closed down during the pandemic, and that left vacant slots. The city then cut some of the open positions to save money.

So it's a huge, tremendous gap. Nesbitt says finding people to take these jobs and stay in them isn't easy. It's $18 an hour, 25 hours a week. If I'm looking to support a family, I can't do it, right, on that salary. Plus, you're outside in the elements. Whether it rainslee or snow or sunshine. And it's dangerous. Just last year, a crossing guard was killed by a driver of a dump truck in Queens.

They put their life on a line. Officials in Mayor Eric Adams administration say they're working hard to recruit and retain crossing guards. There's a new class of more than 100 guards graduating this month. And officials say they're taking other steps to make the streets safer for students. like reducing speeds near schools and improving visibility at intersections. But for Rossi, it's too little and it's too slow. We walk to the spot where five-year-old Jonathan Martinez was killed.

Now you see all this stuff happening? This wasn't here. Now there are signs, street markings, and concrete barriers. But it took so long. Is your impression that these changes are made after? there's a fatality? Absolutely. Absolutely after.

How are you doing today? All right, Steve. Yeah, take it easy. That's why local grandpa Stephen Cameron says he'll keep doing everything he can to help, manning his post and directing traffic. You do this every day? Every day, yeah.

The most important thing is to cross here and the security for them. And Guadalupe Arroyo stays alert as she walks her surviving children into school every day, right past the spot where Byron was killed. She says it's hard to keep going sometimes. She feels his absence so much. But she knows she has to be there for her other kids.

Just last week, a driver made a turn on red. Guadalupe says if she hadn't grabbed her daughter, she could have lost her too. That's WMYC's Jessica Gould. If you follow the WNBA, you know that Sunday is a rematch of two heavy-hitting teams. The New York Liberty opened the second round of the playoffs against the defending champs, Las Vegas Aces. Now, for those who don't know, there's some history here. The Aces beat the Liberty last year to capture the championship. For more on this highly anticipated series, I'm joined by sports journalist Jackie Powell.

All right, Jackie, this is a new year and the Liberty have dominated this season. How can they beat the aces? What will they need to focus on? So it's really interesting because they often like to say, well, we have to focus on ourselves. We have to focus on playing Liberty basketball, which it's a sports cliche. But I think in this case, there's actually truth to it in that I actually just spoke to 23 MVP Brianna Stewart. And she sort of said that last year, they weren't really connected on a level that would have yielded the result that they wanted.

And so the way that they beat the Aces this year is by being more connected and talking more. So that's a huge part of it. I guess when you talk schematically, they're going to have to play aggressive defense. They're going to have to set the tone first, just like they. did against the Atlanta Dream. They will also have to carry through some of the advantages they had during the regular season matchups this year. The Liberty out rebounded the Aces, and that's a product of John Cole Jones and Brianna Stewart, and sometimes Sabrina Yonescu, who is a bigger and a stronger guard, who can rebound the ball. The Liberty will probably look to crowd Asia Wilson

and make her as uncomfortable and block her passing lanes because that is the 2024 MVP. Yeah, yeah, AAC's superstar Asia Wilson was named MVP of this regular season. Let's talk a bit more about how the lips can slow her down. Yeah, the thing about the Liberty's defense this season and what makes it different from last season is they have players on their roster that are bigger and that are longer. Granis Stewart is 6-4 and she's a wingspan of 7-foot. A new player on the squad is Leonie Phoebish, who broke out in game one against the dream in the first round. She is a 6-4 guard with also a 6-4 wingspan.

So sure, the Las Vegas Aces may have more athleticism in their back court and in Asia Wilson, but how the Liberty counter that is they're aggressive themselves and they show the aces their length. You have Kayla Fortin, who is sort of one of their role players who's known to just bring energy and muck things up on defense. I could tell you I saw in practice. She was trying to fight over a screen against a practice player. And you could hear the Liberty's coaching staff like cheer and egg her on, because essentially that's the type of energy that they need in this series. They need to be the tougher team and they weren't a year ago. Yeah. Let's talk a bit more about team energy. You know, lucky for us, the libs have

home court advantage. How helpful is that? Oh, it's incredibly helpful. This was a goal that they set out to accomplish at the beginning of the season. They wanted to get that number one seed because they knew that getting the number one seed gives a team home court advantage throughout the entire playoffs. And the beauty of playing at Barclays Center is not only will the Liberty have each other, but they're going to have potentially 17,000 fans in the building mostly on their side. That's sports journalist Jackie Powell. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Shout out to our production team. It includes Sean Boutt, Amber Bruce, Owen Kaplan, Audrey Cooper, Leora Noam Kravitz, Jared Marcel, and Wayne Schoemeister,

with help from all of my wonderful colleagues in the WNYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the people at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrato. I'm Jenae Pierre. Have a lovely weekend. Catch us tomorrow.