MetroFocus: The Podcast

New York City is getting ready to implement congestion pricing starting next spring. MTA Chair Janno Lieber recently announced that the transit authority is on track to begin tolling drivers coming into Manhattan below 61th Street in May 2024. What's still not clear is how much the toll will cost, but it’s estimated it could be anywhere from $9 to $23 per trip. Also not clear is who would be exempt from paying the toll and by how much. Tonight, we discuss the future of congestion pricing and address the concerns that many New Yorkers still have about the existing plan. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella believes that Staten Islanders will bear the burden of congestion pricing in NYC, in terms of cost, traffic and pollution. New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams lays out the reasons he supports the policy, while acknowledging the concerns of working class New Yorkers and communities of color. And, journalist Ben Max lays out the details of the plan as it stands.

Future of Policing: Crime-Fighting Robots?

In September, Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD unveiled a new subway-patrolling robot called K5, which patrols the Times Square subway station from 12AM to 6AM during a two-month trial. The new surveillance tool is one of a growing fleet of NYPD robots which have been criticized, due to their cost and the potential to infringe on people’s privacy. New York State Senator Jabari Brisport joins MetroFocus with his thoughts on these new police robotic technologies.

"Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues, and Heroes Behind New York Place Names"

Each day, millions of people drive on the Major Deegan, the Hutchinson Expressway, the Outerbridge Crossing, and the Holland Tunnel. Few travelers remember that, before these names were attached to New York’s many roads, bridges, tunnels, neighborhoods and institutions, they were actual people. In a new book, “Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues, and Heroes Behind New York Place Names,” law professor Rebecca Bratspies uses the naming of New York City’s infrastructure as a unique window into urban social structures and the city’s ever-changing inhabitants.

Last week, Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Mayor Eric Adams’ legal challenge to suspend the decades-old right to shelter rule. Many homeless advocates claim if the mayor is successful, New York City could see more homeless and a major uptick in tent encampments. Tonight, we revisit an interview with activist Shams DaBaron who is all too familiar with the struggles by New Yorkers who experience homelessness, having personally navigated the city’s shelter system throughout his life. As part of our Chasing The Dream initiative, he shares his firsthand account of life on the streets and discusses the work he is doing directly with city officials to fix the shelter system.

Inside The Protests

A reporter who was in the heart of Friday’s pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protests in Times Square joins MetroFocus to share what he saw that day.

"Right To Shelter" Architect Slams Adams' Challenge of Landmark Housing Guarantee

Just over 40 years ago, 26-year-old attorney Robert Hayes took on a pro bono case that turned into the biggest legal victory in history for homeless New Yorkers. That victory, the right to shelter, is once again being challenged, this time by Mayor Eric Adams. The mayor’s argument: the city does not want to nullify the law but rather modify it in the face of the asylum seeker crisis. As negotiations continue in court and signs of a compromise reportedly emerge, Robert Hayes, the original architect of the “right to shelter,” joins us to discuss the city’s response to the crisis.

An Exploring Hate special report on the conflict in the Middle East. The events in Israel and Gaza are being deeply felt in the Tri-State area. Tonight, we talk with the mother of an 18-year-old who narrowly escaped the bombing with her life, but made it out of Israel and is now traveling halfway around the world to reunite with her family. Also, we’ll hear from a former WPIX-11 New York reporter for whom Mayor Eric Adams made a public plea for her safe return. Then, to give us some context around what is happening in Israel and Gaza, and what comes next in the conflict - we talk with David Makovsky, the director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel relations at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Latinos constitute one of the most rapidly expanding voting blocs in American elections. A recent analysis by the Brookings Institution underscores the profound impact of this demographic. Latinos not only possess the highest ratio of first-time voters among any voting bloc in the country, but this growth is largely fueled by voters under the age of 30. According to an analysis by Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Gabriel Sanchez, this surge in Latino could prove decisive in 2024 - particularly when we consider that this growth is concentrated in pivotal battleground states like Arizona and Nevada. Tonight, we’re joined by Gabirel Sanchez, Latino USA anchor Maria Hinojosa, and Jolina Jimenez, Youth Advocate with the non-partisan organization YVote, to dissect and explore the demographics powering this key electorate, and the issues that young Latinas and Latinos say matter to them most.

As economic inequality continues to intensify in the United States, we consider at how we got to this point. In the new book “Hell to Pay: How the Suppression of Wages is Destroying America,” author Michael Lind argues that our biggest problems, from political polarization to the growing culture wars, are rooted in the actions that big businesses have intentionally taken to ensure that the power of organized labor decreases, and their own power and wealth increases.

Tonight, our special report on the migrant crisis in New York City continues. We give you an inside look at the conditions of one of the temporary shelters being used to house migrants and consider why so many migrants are choosing New York, out of all cities, even after our mayor and governor have so publicly discouraged their arrival. While some New Yorkers are protesting the new shelters and blaming the migrants for city wide issues like crime and cleanliness, others are working to support the migrants, and arguing that the city’s problems existed long before any bus arrived from the southern border. Joining MetroFocus again to discuss the issues are: CeFaan Kim, a reporter for WABC-TV New York; Rommel Ojeda, a community correspondent for Documented; Joe Germanotta, performer Lady Gaga’s father who is an Upper West Side resident and small business owner of Joanne Trattoria; and Ilze Thielmann, the director of the nonprofit organization Team TLC NYC, which assists migrants and asylum seekers in New York.

Mayor Eric Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul, and President Joe Biden have recently been at odds over the handling of the New York migrant crisis. This as Mayor Adams is heading on a 4-day trip to Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia to “learn more” about the root causes of the situation. In night one of a two-night special report, we discuss the impact that the arrival of over 100,000 migrants has had on the city’s resources and neighborhoods, and how much will this end up costing taxpayers. Joining MetroFocus to discuss the issues are: CeFaan Kim, a reporter for WABC-TV New York; Rommel Ojeda, a community correspondent for Documented; Joe Germanotta, performer Lady Gaga’s father who is an Upper West Side resident and small business owner of Joanne Trattoria; and Ilze Thielmann, the director of the nonprofit organization Team TLC NYC, which assists migrants and asylum seekers in New York.

Housing Works, the first recreational marijuana dispensary to open in New York, recently reported that in their first six months of operation they sold $12 million dollars’ worth of marijuana products, doubling their initial sales projections. Though this particular dispensary has been successful, the rest of the state has lagged behind. Housing Works’ sales represent over one third of the $33.4 million dollars that the entire New York State legal recreational marijuana industry generated in that same time period. As a whole, New York’s sales numbers pale in comparison to other states, such as New Jersey, which generated $24 million dollars in marijuana sales in their first month alone. Tonight, Mona Zhang, states cannabis policy reporter for Politico, and Jeremy Berke, the founder of Cultivated, a newsletter focused on the cannabis industry, join MetroFocus to discuss why New York is lagging in sales behind neighboring states, where the tax money generated from legal marijuana is going, and why there are so many illegal cannabis stores still open throughout New York City.