WNYC News

A very special Thanksgiving edition of On The Way rounding up the latest transit news. 

Free buses, city-owned grocery stores, and free universal childcare. Those are just some of the policy proposals that attracted a majority of New Yorkers to vote mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani into office. Those same proposals also turned off many voters who worried about the impact they could have on the city's finances. The policies have been labeled socialist policies by both supporters and opponents. But New York City has been here before. Kim Phillips-Fein, a history professor at Columbia University and the author of Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics, joined WNYC host Michael Hill to put this moment into historical context. 

On Thanksgiving, we're usually celebrating the turkey on the table. This year, we're also celebrating New York City's most famous turkey on the streets. 

Astoria is the only wild turkey in Manhattan. She first popped up in Queens, which is why she's named after the neighborhood.  

David Barrett runs the popular social media account Manhattan Bird Alert and often keeps a close eye on Astoria. He joined WNYC's Michael Hill to give an update on the bird's seasonal adventures.

Zohran Mamdani sends more than 100 government employees pink slips, state Attorney General Letitia James scores a big win against the Justice Department and more in this special Thanksgiving edition of Politics Brief. 

Mayor-to-be Zohran Mamdani's decision to keep Jessica Tisch on as commissioner of the NYPD surprised some of his base. Mamdani has praised Tisch's work rooting out alleged corruption, but the two differ on other strategies regarding public safety. 

One of those is bail reform. Mamdani supports it. Tisch criticizes it, blaming it for a post-COVID rise in crime. 

The Data Collaborative for Justice at CUNY's John Jay College looked at the impact of the law in the state over more than 4 years. The results of that report sheds light on the impact the law has had on recidivism.

René Ropac wrote the report. He joined WNYC's Morning Edition host Michael Hill to break it down.  

The runoff election for Jersey City mayor is this Tuesday, December 2nd. 

Former Governor Jim McGreevey and city councilmember James Solomon will face off against each other, after neither got enough votes to declare a winner on November 4th

WNYC's Morning Edition spoke with both candidates. Councilmember James Solomon told WNYC's Michael Hill why he wants to govern Jersey City as the next mayor.

The runoff election for Jersey City mayor is this Tuesday, December 2nd. 

Former Governor Jim McGreevey and city councilmember James Solomon will face off against each other, after neither got enough votes to declare a winner on November 4th

WNYC's Morning Edition spoke with both candidates. Former Governor McGreevey served from 2002 to 2004. He told WNYC's Michael Hill why he wants to govern Jersey City as the next mayor.

The Solomon campaign said in response to this interview: "It's sad but not unexpected that Jim McGreevey is resorting to lying about James. The facts are clear: the contract for Right to Counsel has been awarded to legal aid attorneys who are seeing clients, and James has the strongest ethics and anti-corruption plan in this race, while Jim McGreevey's trail of corruption spans three decades, multiple offices, and several indictments and investigations."  

Two-thirds of the families living in a Queens housing complex — most of them formerly homeless — have been served with eviction papers in the last two years, court records show.

The high rate of eviction filings in a single supportive housing building, one that gets public dollars to subsidize rents and provide supportive services, is raising red flags among tenant advocates. They say the city isn't doing its part to ensure providers are keeping the most vulnerable New Yorkers housed. It’s a failure that not only harms families but can also wind up costing taxpayers far more money in shelter beds and other services.

“ There's something really wrong in a situation where we have families that were homeless and went into supportive housing and then find themselves either homeless again or very close to it,” said Craig Hughes, a social worker with the Tenant Rights Coalition at Legal Services NYC.

”What we're seeing in many cases is jumping to housing court is actually not the last option; jumping to housing court becomes a very quick option that providers take.”

More New Yorkers are running out of food to feed their families — an uncertainty that was exacerbated this month after an unprecedented freeze on federal food assistance left people in limbo for two weeks.

With Thanksgiving approaching and SNAP funds resumed, families are figuring out how to stock their fridges, pay their end-of-the-month bills and still enjoy holiday meals. A new report by the anti-poverty group Robin Hood and Columbia University last week found families with children facing food insecurity are short an average of $205 a week. The report found more than one in three adult New Yorkers and four out of 10 families with children need more money for food.

“The data confirms that we are in the midst of an affordability crisis where New Yorkers even well above the poverty line are increasingly struggling to afford food,” said Ryan Vinh, one of the authors of the report and a research analyst at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.

Gothamist asked our audience for tips on a Google form and on air, and more than a dozen readers and listeners responded with their best strategies from asking grocers for a deal to substituting pineapple juice for maple syrup. Reporters also interviewed shoppers outside stores for their best tips.

New Yorkers say they’re still playing catch-up after a historic two-week disruption in federal food assistance benefits earlier this month.

The Trump administration’s decision to stop Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments during the government shutdown overwhelmed New York City’s food pantries, pushed SNAP recipients to skip meals or stop paying other bills to afford to eat, and suppressed sales at local grocery stores. Now, recipients say they are still feeling the consequences of a benefits break that shattered their trust in the program.

”How can you forget?  I'm already preparing myself for when it's going to happen again,” said Alvin Copeland, 64 who received his food benefits late. “The damage is done already.”

In New York City, about 1.8 million people rely on the monthly assistance to afford their groceries. Most recipients are children and older adults. While some already rely on food pantries to patch together enough food to feed their families, others turned to soup kitchens and food banks for the first time, even before benefits stopped Nov. 1.