NYC NOW - September 5, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Two of New York City's largest landlord trade groups, the Community Housing Improvement Program and the Rent Stabilization Association, are joining forces to form the New York Apartment Association. The group is lobbying to push for rollbacks to state rent regulations in order to raise prices on about a million rent-stabilized city apartments. Meanwhile, Times Square shuttle riders now have full cell phone service and internet access between Grand Central Terminal and Times Square. Plus, police are searching for the suspect who shot and killed a man at the Rockaway Avenue station in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, on Wednesday night. Finally, more than 900,000 New York City public school students start classes this Thursday. WNYC's Jessica Gould previews the academic year.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, September 5th. Here's the midday news from Veronica Del Valle. Two of New York City's biggest landlord trade groups are joining forces. The Community Housing Improvement Program and the Rent Stabilization Association both formed in the 1960s to represent owners of rent-stabilization. apartments. Now the pair are officially merging to form the New York Apartment Association.

The group is lobbying to rollback state rent regulations so landlords can raise prices on roughly a million rent-stabilized apartments in the city. If you use the Times Square shuttle, you can now enjoy full cell phone service, including internet access on the short ride between Times Square and Grand Central Terminal. MTA chair Jana Leiber says it's part of a plan to add 5G connectivity to all underground subway tracks by 2032. It's the first line to be fully connected. This is a major step forward in modernizing our transit system, whether it's checking email, answering a phone call.

People want to be able to do work on the mass transit system. Officials say connectivity will come to parts of the four, five, and six lines next. Police are searching for the person who shot and killed a man at a Brooklyn subway station last night. Police say it happened at around 1115 at the Rockaway Avenue station in Bed-Stuy. Officials found 47-year-old Freddie Weston with a gunshot wound to his head. He's the fifth person to die in a shooting at a Cidde subway station this year. Police haven't made any arrests yet. A previous version of the story misstated the neighborhood where the station is located.

Stay tuned for more after the break. Class is officially back in session today for more than 900,000 students in New York. York City's public schools. My colleague Michael Hill spoke with education reporter Jessica Gould for a preview of the academic year. Let's start with the cell phone ban. The schools, Chancellor David Banks, hinted in late June that a ban could be in place this school year and Mayor Eric Adams supported it. Here he is back in June. Phones and schools are big distractions. I understand that particularly after 9-11 parents wanted to have contact with their children, I respect that. But it is a huge from bullying to communications.

But now the mayor says he is not ready. So Jessica, a full ban won't be in place this year, or at least as school starts right now. What's changed? Well, the mayor says it's really complicated, and he needs more time to work out the details, including what kind of storage would be used for the phones, whether it would be lockers or pouches,

and who would enforce the rules, what are the consequences? and then there are questions about, you know, kids who need their phones to monitor health things like, you know, sugar for their diabetes, or if they need it for translation, if they're still learning English. And parents are concerned. They're concerned about reaching their kids in emergencies. And this is top of mind, you know, after something like the shooting in Georgia yesterday. Have you heard of any schools saying they'll enact their own ban? Many schools are. The officials say that about half of them. the city schools have some ban in place. But it's a real patchwork. And educators say not having a full ban puts a lot of pressure on them. So I talked to one teacher who took it on herself to fundraise for a phone locker, you know, from donors. And then I've heard other things where, you know,

schools are inviting kids to lock up their phones, but aren't, you know, forcing them to do it. The city released data over the summer that showed reading proficiency is down from last year. This comes during a new effort to improve literacy that we've been reporting here. What does the data say? And what is the city doing to address it? Yeah, so the scores in grades 3 to 5 went down a couple points in reading in the last state tests. So it was 2.6 points down to be precise. And a little under half of students scored proficient. Now, these kids who are being tested, they're a little older than the youngest kids who are learning to read and might benefit most from the curriculum overhaul.

And the education department says that the youngest kids did show on their internal screeners a little bit of growth. But this is raising questions about the new curriculum, particularly as it rolls out now to all elementary schools citywide, whether the curriculum is strong enough and teachers are getting enough training. There are changes coming to some math classes as well. Tell us more about that. It's similar to what's happening with reading. So the city wants to streamline curriculum. So they're going to be having middle schools and for ninth graders in algebra, they have to use vetted curriculum so that, you know, officials say that they're using the strongest curricula possible. But these new resources have gotten mixed reviews from teachers. So I'm going to be watching how that rollout works. goes. Let's talk here about the free preschool program. Many parents of young children have been watching the back and forth between the mayor and the council and other activists over the

future of the city's free preschool program, especially for three-year-olds. Where does all of that stand? Yeah, after cutting early childhood funding, the mayor faced a huge backlash from parents. And he's restored some of that funding, not all of it. But he promised all families that applied for 3K slots for their little kids, that they would get one. And then when offers went out, there were thousands of families who were waitlisted. Now the mayor says everyone who applied did actually get a spot. But I've heard from a few parents who only got spots far away from where they live that would take too long, you know, in a different borough to get there.

Or they found out too late after they already paid for private daycare. And this has become a real political issue and a potential liability for the mayor. He recently held a press conference, you know, trying to tout how he's restructured early childhood and invested in it. And he has expanded programs, certain programs, you know, for kids in special education preschool programs or for immigrant families. But there are a lot of parents who say it's still not enough to keep the city affordable for them so that they can stay here. That's how Jessica Gould will know you be watching this and a whole lot more in the school year. Jessica Gull, WNMC and Gothamist Education reporter. Jessica, thank you. Thank you.

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