NYC NOW - September 4, 2024 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

Mayor Eric Adams says two dozen new school buildings are ready to welcome students to classes on Thursday. Also, some residents in Crown Heights plan to sit out future West Indian Day parades, after what some called an unsafe event on Labor Day. Plus, WNYC’s Arya Sundaram reports on tension near Randall’s Island, the site of a tent shelter that houses newly-arrived migrants. And finally, WNYC’s Tiffany Hansen and Bahar Ostadan discuss the sometimes forgotten role of the New York City Sheriff’s Office.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. Mayor Eric Adams says 24 new school buildings are now open and ready to welcome New York City public school students to classes on Thursday. He says the new buildings will add more than 11,000 seats for students plus new facilities for arts and athletics. We want them to have science labs, music rooms, special education classrooms, gyms, auditoriums, and libraries that are modern in the state of the The new buildings are spread across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. Adam says it's the largest expansion since 2003. Some Crown Heights residents say they plan to sit out future West Indian Day parades after gunfire killed one person and hurt several others at the event.

But some city officials are insisting the event overall was safe. WDMIC's Charles Lane has more. Both Mayor Adams and public advocate Jemone Williams said police presence at the parade was adequate and effective. Williams added, that gun violence needs attention and not just when it happens at the parade. However, Marvin McGregor, who lives along the parade route, says he didn't feel safe attending this year. To me, next year, make sure I'll hear clean and stay in my house. Because I don't need to get into no problems.

The father of the man who was killed this year says he was urged not to go by his girlfriend. A sprawling tent shelter opened on Randall's Island last year. now 2,200 newcomers, mostly asylum seekers, call it home, while New Yorkers who live nearby, call the complex an endless source of worry. We'll love that story after the break. Randall's Island has long been a destination for joggers, nature enthusiasts, and picnic goers. For the last year, it's also been the site of a massive tent shelter that houses newly arrived migrants to New York City. As W.M.I.C.'s Arias Sundaram explains that has created some tension.

Outside the sprawling shelter, new asylum seekers gather on the grassy river banks. A group of Venezuelans play dominoes, while a barber from Guinea cuts his friend's hair. Another sell cold drinks and food to scrape by. The shelter on Randall's Island is one of the largest in the city, with over 2,000 people. The Local Parks Alliance says there's been a steep decline in visitors from neighborhoods near by. Darian Martin is a maintenance worker for the sports fields there. You will feel smothered. They definitely dominate that whole, that whole section when you come off the bridge. The local council member and deputy speaker Diana Ayala says she's gotten more

complaints too. People don't feel safe. You have a lot of parents that are upset about the loss of the space, right, and that impacting programming for their children. And then you have, you know, the garbage and the noise. A fatal shooting near the shelter in July has only added to the concerns. A viral TikTok in Spanish calls the shelter a living hell. It's from Alcibiades-onofre, a New York influencer sharing news about immigrants in the U.S. In the last few weeks, the city has responded to the complaints, removing about 800 beds, ramping up security, and clearing out some homeless encampments nearby.

But that hasn't quelled the worries, which isn't lost on the migrants staying there. Juan Miguel says he's seen scowls from some people passing by. Inside the shelter, residents say petty thefts and fights are common, often over trivial issues. And there's not a lot of privacy. That's why some prefer to be outside, like Jose Barbouena from Venezuela. But he said he's also frustrated with immigrants getting stereotyped. And the public focus on the social called Migrant Crime Wait. He said new migrants are

in this country from years ago. He said new migrants aren't bringing violence here. The overall crime rate in the city is on the

decline, even as more migrants come. Joindertigas and many other migrants I spoke with say their main concern is getting work. He said he's still

waiting. for a work permit. Asylum seekers like him can't get one until at least six months after they apply for asylum. His goal is to eventually save enough money so he can leave and find his own place. That's WNYC's ARIA Sundaram. New York City has a law enforcement agency you may associate more with small towns or even the Old West, the sheriff. But how is that different from, say, the NYPD? My colleague Tiffany Hansen talked with WNIC's Baja Oostodon for more. I'm sure we've heard of the sheriff, but what exactly does the New York City Sheriff do? Well, it's housed in the Department of Finance and they carry out mandates for the state courts, such as evicting people. In COVID,

they shut down raves, fight clubs, and now they're really focused on cannabis enforcement. The cities launched a new effort called Operation Padlock to protect. The sheriff's office helped shut down this summer alone more than 750 stores suspected of selling weed, without a license. The sheriff is also involved in auctioning off seized property, abandoned property. Am I right about that? That's right. The next auction is in Queens on September 4th. There's a 1995 Honda on the docket. Now, you'll need to pay the full price for the car in cash and you'll need to pay any unpaid tickets. I checked out the list for that Honda and it comes out to $946.60. You can go to the Sheriff's Office website to find out the dates for those car auctions.

All right. And the article that you have up on Gothamist right now, you wrote that the sheriff also auctions off real estate. So tell us about that. They do. It's real estate and personal property that's been seized by the city. The dates for those auctions are listed in a very vintage concept called local newspapers, plug for local newspapers.

If you win the bid, you have to pay at least 10% of the price in the moment and the remaining balance within three days. All right, you mentioned it. What is Operation Padlock to protect? Well, the city and state has gone around all five boroughs looking for stores alleged to be selling weed without a license to do so. Now, if you're a landlord operating a business or, you know, renting to a business that's suspected of selling weed without a license, you could get in trouble. The sheriff says, watch out. All right. So you have to tell us now, who is New York City's sheriff and how did this person get into this role? The New York City sheriff is a man named Anthony Miranda. He was appointed by Mayor Adams in 2022. He's run the gamut in law enforcement

across the city. He was in the NYPD. He retired as a sergeant. He actually headed the National Latino Officers Association and sued the NYPD for giving harsher and more frequent penalties to minority officers. He won that suit. That's WMIC's Bahar Ostadan talking with my colleague, Anthony Hanson. It's going to be an A-plus weather day in New York City Thursday as more than 900,000 students head back to the classroom for the first day of school. Meteorologist Brian Simnecki says the sun will be out and the air will be just cool enough to make it not feel like summer anymore. We're looking at highs topping off in the middle and upper 70s. So really a really, really nice day to start. And the good news is those conditions are going to really continue into Friday, too.

The next chance of rain for our region could be Saturday night before cool, dry conditions return on Sunday. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNIC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Sean Carlson. We'll be back tomorrow.