Times Square Councilmember on Platform Safety, Rezoning and More

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Mayor Eric Adams: Gun Violence is not only a law enforcement issue, it is a social issue. A community issue. We will be taking a city-wide approach to meeting this challenge.

Brian Lehrer: Again, Mayor Adams from yesterday's blueprint to end gun violence speech. We will get more reaction now to the mayor's blueprint and also talk about other things as we continue our year-long series now, 51 council members in 52 weeks. In this year of great change in New York City government, with the majority of City Council new because of term limits and a majority-female City Council for the first time, we're going one by one through the 51 City Council districts to get to know your elected representatives and some of what's up in all the city's neighborhoods.

This is week four as we hit District 4, which covers as listed on the council members' website, Carnegie Hill, Central Park South, Garment District, Koreatown, Midtown East, Midtown West, Murray Hill, Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, Sutton Place, Times Square, Tudor City, Turtle Bay, Upper East Side, and Waterside Plaza. The Councilmember from District 4 is Keith Powers. He's a top deputy to Speaker Adrienne Adams, who last week appointed Powers to be majority leader. Last time he was chair of the Criminal Justice Committee, so that's obviously very relevant for reacting to the mayor's new plan.

As we're doing in this series, the councilman will also share the Show and Tell item from his district that he's decided to bring. Each member is bringing one. In this case, I know it's one that every one of you listening right now will recognize. Councilman Powers, thanks for coming on, and welcome back to WNYC.

Councilman Keith Powers: Thanks so much for having me. I love that you're doing this. I appreciate letting me have the opportunity to talk about my district and what we're working on.

Brian: You want to start with Show and Tell? What one person, place, or thing did you identify from your district?

Councilman Powers: Well, there's so many to pick from because I'm so lucky to represent [unintelligible 00:02:11], soo different tourism destination, Central Park, but the one that I have to choose for my district is smack in the middle of it, and that's of course, Grand Central, which is something that as you've noted, everybody knows, but not everybody always appreciates every day, and particularly what we're doing right now all around Grand Central.

What I love about Grand Central is the hub. It's obviously a hub of transit in our region. We're adding Long Island a railroad to it, started coming soon, but there's always little gems inside of Grand Central when you get to really go and explore it. I love the Grand Central oyster bar as kind of a throwback restaurant that's, unfortunately, closed right now. If you really look at what we've been doing in the last four years around Grand Central, it is modernizing Midtown, it is adding a lot of transit and pedestrian improvements to that area and making significant investment into that area so that it will be long be the hub of employment and transit and activities in this area.

For me, it's a special place, because it's always my favorite place to go in my district and just take a look at the beautiful architecture, but it represents so much to our city and our region. I really always encourage people to go take a look at the little things that make Grand Central special, little secrets inside of it, and of course, pay attention to everything we're doing around it. We just did a redevelopment of the Grand Hyatt next door with our new arts and cultural [unintelligible 00:03:38]

In a few years, we have one Vanderbilt that opened up and we have a lot of other stuff happening. It's a really special place and something I always show off to people that are coming to New York because it is a beautiful and wonderful place.

Brian: All right. I'll talk to you about Grand Central for a minute. How about why is it Grand Central Terminal? If so, why do people always say Grand Central Station?

Councilman Powers: [chuckles] Well, that seems like just a New York thing. Maybe the station comes from the subway, but of course, we have Metro-North and we have the LIRR there. Of course, it's this train I take all the time, the four, five, and six but also, of course, has the seven connecting a big part of our city and four, five, and six going from middle Bronx all way down to Brooklyn. I don't know, maybe you have an actual answer to that, but I just assumed it was the nature of how the New Yorkers speak.

Brian: Yes, I don't have a natural answer. I probably say the same thing you just said.

Councilman Powers: I don't think New Yorkers care that it's a terminal, they care about the subway, so they treat it like a station.

Brian: It's a terminal because the Metro-North commuter rails end there obviously, on the New York City end. To that point, I read the MTA stats yesterday that show Metro-North ridership for the weekdays this month is running two-thirds less than the pre-pandemic numbers on the same days in January 2020. If you want to spend some time alone, go to Grand Central Terminal?

Councilman Powers: It's a beautiful place to be when it's a little less crowded because you get to even better appreciate the gravity of the hallway or the ceiling and the clock there and take a walk around. It's just a beautiful place, well-designed, and so important to Midtown and my district, but also the entire region surrounding New York City.

Brian: That Midtown East redevelopment that you were just describing to make it a business hub for generations to come, do you think there might now be too much office space there as whatever degree remote learning becomes permanent reduces demand-- not remote learning, but remote work becomes permanent might reduce demand?

Councilman Powers: Well, we certainly might see some projects that were slated to come on board or are being looked at as development sites that might reconsider or at least put a delay on their plans. Already we've seen the one Vanderbilt project get built, I cut the ribbon on it. We redeveloped JP Morgan's headquarters, which is obviously from one big tenant there to keep them in Midtown in New York City. We did a Grant High, which is a hotel and office building in one and we added a ton of arts and cultural programming around as part of that, which we thought would be a good way to keep people in the neighborhood after they work.

We certainly might see some changes in the plans, but right now we have a number of really good projects that are adding almost a billion dollars of new transit improvements to Midtown, whether, it's Long Island Railroad access, state of new stations, or new access point where it's making it easier to get around Grand Central. I say this, if you've noticed a new way to get in or out of Grand Central, which I do at times, you can really attribute that to the rezoning you did a few years ago.

Brian: The neighborhoods in your City Council District 4 in Manhattan are pretty wealthy as things go, how would you describe violent crime in your district and the level of concern compared maybe to Borough President Gibson from the Bronx, who was just on before you?

Councilman Powers: What's happening in the Bronx and other neighborhoods, whether it's the fire or the gun violence is something that I think the entire city is mourning for right now. I'm lucky my district doesn't always have the same gun violence epidemic that other areas do, but I am as fully committed as she and others are to ending it and putting an end to this very scary few years of soaring gun violence. My district has its share of issues too, and of course, the Time Square incident and the train happened in my district a few weeks ago, two weeks ago. Everybody's a little bit on edge right now, and we all have to be committed to ending gun violence and restoring safety here in the city.

Brian: The incident you're talking about at Times Square because you represent both Grand Central and Time Square, right?

Councilman Powers: Yes, we do.

Brian: Sometimes the more wealthy and white and conservative a district is the more tough on crime the people there want policy to be because they don't see the downsides of that. Do you see that in your district?

Councilman Powers: I see a fair balance, we definitely have a demand for public safety and making sure that quality of life remains pleasant in my district. We have issues that always need attending to, but my constituents are pretty smart and they're pretty balanced. Like certainly I live in Stuyvesant Town, we have a number of folks who have served the city in the police department or in other ways, and throughout my district, people want to have a good quality of life and want to call this place our home. I think they're pretty fair and balanced, so they want a reasonable and functional criminal justice system that's fair to people, but of course, they want the basics to be done, which is to be safe and to be safe [unintelligible 00:08:55]

Brian: Representing Time Square Station and Grand Central, well as, of course, the other subway stops in your district, do you want this flood of additional police officers that the mayor is now sending?

Councilman Powers: Look, I think New Yorkers want to see more presence of folks that if something's happening, there's a danger that they know that there's somebody there to be able to flag or just give them a sense of security particularly late at night. I think there is a role and there can be a function here for folks to be able to make sure that their safety happening inside of it. I think what everybody's asking for over the last couple of years, don't over police, let people be able to travel freely, but to have folks there in case there's an incident, and also to be on the alert for any dangers that might be happening. I think there's a reasonable compromise now.

Brian: For you as a Manhattan Councilmember, do you have any reaction to what the new DA from Manhattan Alvin Bragg got elected on the progressive prosecutor, if you will, set of policies that some people have been targeting him for as "soft on crime" after he got elected, now he's been in office and announced some of these things, even though that's exactly what he ran on and the people of Manhattan elected him.

In fact, now I'm seeing in the news that he may be rolling back one of those policies that he talked with us about on this show just the other week. That is not seeking jail time for people convicted of gun possession without displaying the gun or without using the gun in a crime. He wanted that not to result in prison time, simple gun possession without actually having used the gun in any threatening way. Now it looks like he's starting to roll back that and saying they will go after illegal gun crimes in the traditional way. I think he used that word, traditional way. I'm curious if you have any reaction as a former criminal justice chair and City Council to the whole Alvin Bragg story so far?

Councilman Powers: I know him fairly well and we've spoken when he was running. I've spoken to him about this memo that he put out to get clarification on exactly what he was planning to do here. I've always found him to be a very sensible voice and somebody who actually listens and wants to find a balance. I do think it would be a good idea to make sure that gun possession and obviously using a gun, there's a line in the sand on that. There's a lot of different ways to think about crime and think about violence in the city, but to me, the line in the sand is when you decide to carry a gun or bring a gun into public. I think it would be smart to look at having a line in the sand on that particular one.

I'm hopeful that he is somebody, and I think he is somebody who will listen and see what's happening in the city and amend policies as they occur or as things are changing. I'm always trying to be sensible and a guy who's listening. You're right, elections have consequences or have results. This is something he ran on, but I think he's doing a smart thing by listening to folks, and I do hope possession and gun violence does have real enforcement against it because that's one thing that is really scaring New Yorkers right now.

Brian: Before we take some phone calls that are coming in for you, you are the council's majority leader now, a top deputy to Speaker Adrian Adams. Was there anything in the mayor's anti-gun violence plan yesterday that City Council will have to act on? I know there are things the state legislature will have to act on that will be controversial and hard to get through. I know there are things that the Congress of the United States will have to act on and will be controversial and hard to get through. What about City Council?

Councilman Powers: Our role is going to be obviously funding and resources for a lot of the programs that he's talking about, whether they're about foster care, we talk about some increase in resources to fight the gun violence and increasing mental health services and a lot more. That all goes to our city budget process, which basically starts now. Over the next six months, we'll be working with the council and the mayor's office to figure out what their priorities are, and what we agree with and what we disagree with.

Of course, we're hopeful our federal partners will get tough on the actual gun trafficking laws and gun control laws here to make our lives a lot, lot easier, but when you talk about increasing services to New Yorkers to address the needs here in the city, a lot of that is going to go through the city budget process. We're going to have a big say in how that money gets spent, but obviously, we want to work with the mayor on addressing what is a very scary moment in the city.

Brian: The mayor talked on the campaign trail about reducing the police budget to some degree. He's not talking about defunding the police in the sense that people usually mean that, but he talked about inefficiencies in the police department. He talked about getting people out from behind desks onto the streets so that the city could save money on the NYPD and still have as much law enforcement. Where are you on increasing or cutting the police budget or holding it the same?

Councilman Powers: I want us to be smart and efficient as well. I think that the decision to try to simplify this conversation is a bad one on both sides. It's one of the largest budgets we have in this city. There are, of course, inefficiencies in it. We have to be demanding more out of every agency including the NYPD. It can't be a separate conversation and everything else, it's part of a conversation we have in the budget about how to spend money.

I think the mayor is right. We should be looking at every agency, especially one this size, and looking for ways that we can be more efficient. I'm not saying we can increase, we have to decrease, we have to be smart about how we're approaching crime, and we definitely need to increase services like mental health services because that is a very big part of the public safety conversation right now. That should be a priority of all my colleagues out of the mayor is to really look for other social services that can be lifted up as we're trying to really hold the line on public safety right now.

Brian: I guess there are so many things in the mayor's plan that could be scaled up and demand a lot of money that you-- I think are also on the Finance Committee, is that right?

Councilman Powers: I am, yes.

Brian: You're going to have to decide, right? He's talking about, I think, 250,000, I think I saw that number, summer jobs. Which a lot of people would consider a great violence prevention program. He and you were talking about scaling up mental health services, as you just mentioned. Our previous guest from a Cure Violence Group, a neighborhood group in the Bronx, and the Borough President was also talking about massively scaling up funding for these community groups that are violence interrupters and violence preventers because there are good groups out there, but there's really just a handful of them, and they don't have that much money, and they don't have that many people. If this is really a big solution, it's going to take a lot of city funds. Do you think you can do everything the mayor laid out in that plan yesterday?

Councilman Powers: We've got to start and we have to start this year with a lot of that. Some of the programs, like the mental health programs he's talking about using existing funds like the [unintelligible 00:16:33] money to divert to serious mental illness, we're certainly going to need state partners and maybe even our federal partners to help deliver some funding and resources for some of those programs because obviously, we're always reliant on that, but we should start on a pathway and really identify our priorities, but we have to look at the economic climate of the cities, especially based on where we are with COVID and see which resources we have and how to best deploy them.

I think there are some high priorities here, and that's probably, for me, the mental health aspect of it is to get people real treatment and help that need it. Conversation basically starts today where the mayor is going to put out his budget and we're going to start evaluating it. Lots of hearings in March and then May, and assess which programs are really working. This is a big one for the mayor and we're certainly a big [unintelligible 00:17:22] for the council as well to make sure we get this process right, we move funds to the right places.

Brian: Here's Alida, who I think is in your district. You're on WNYC. Hello, Alida.

Alida: Hi, thank you. Your shows are always so thought-provoking. Thank you for that, Brian. Hi, Councilmember Powers, I know you know me. I'm calling about the open restaurant program. I'm concerned about some issues relating to fire safety. One is propane heaters. I did some research. Not only can they emit a carbon dioxide, but they are a potential fire hazard in themselves, especially in an enclosed space. We know that a lot of the outdoor sheds are fully enclosed with plexiglass windows and doors. The propane heaters need to be installed, maintained, and operated correctly. Who will enforce that?

The other issue relating to fire safety, and I've asked firemen about this, is that the fire trucks have to slow down as they turn corners because of the intrusion of the restaurant sheds into the roadbed. I'm wondering what your comment is about that and how the safety of New Yorkers can be protected with the idea of having a permanent open restaurant program. Thank you.

Brian: Alida, thank you very much. Sounds like she is somebody who you already know as a neighborhood activist.

Councilman Powers: I do.

Brian: Before you answer her specific question, let me ask you to step back on this one step and say, how controversial is this in your district? How divided do you think people in your district are? Obviously, your District 1 with so many restaurants. Between the virtues of the permanent outdoor dining and the hardships that that places on some of the residents in the buildings and in the other ways that the caller was describing.

Councilman Powers: Great question. Thanks, Alida. Alida's the Head of Community Board 8 for a period of my time. It's always good to hear from her. She's always on top of the issues. Let me just take a step back and say where we're at. We're in this process of doing a land use action to allow the open dining program to continue in a more permanent way. We're going to actually have to come up with regulations and rules guiding a long-term program and obviously make a decision about whether to keep going on it.

There's definitely been some controversy in parts of Manhattan, and I think some parts outside of my district even more than in my district. I've seen a good reception from it, from people in my district for the most part, but there are these issues that pop up. That's, of course, the sanitation issues around it, the appearance of them, there's a lot of other things that have come up and of course, the fire safety issue. What I would say is this, we are looking at the longer-term program here. I am a supporter of the open restaurant's program. I think it was one of the good successes here during COVID.

Of course, it was set up very quickly on purpose to allow the restaurants to make some much-needed revenue at a point where they were desperate. It was a good program to help our restaurants and our beloved small businesses in business. Now we have to think about what the long-term plan looks like. That's everything from safety around fire, to sanitation, to the street cleaning and everything else. We're looking at it and when it comes to propane, I have said that I thought perhaps we should continue [inaudible 00:20:47] the propane to not throw another burden on the restaurants, but that may not be part of the long term program if we decide to move forward with it.

We are going to have to look at fire safety as a major component to anything we do in the city. I think we're going to have to do all of that. It's going to be hard, there's going to be a lot of communities that have different feelings about how it should continue, what should the rules be, but I think a well-regulated program can exist. I think we should keep open restaurants, and maybe figure out exactly when and how it should exist. That's a conversation we're going to be having in the next couple of months in the city council.

Brian: One more from your district, Bonnie in Murray Hill, you're on WNYC with councilmember Keith Powers. Hi, Bonnie.

Bonnie: Hi, good morning. Thank you, Brian, for everything you do. Councilman, I live at 35th street and Third Avenue, on the actually 13th floor. There are four or five small buildings North of me that have been empty, probably over a year, and [unintelligible 00:21:50] posted on May 9th, 2020, that a 17 storey mixed-use building is going up where those buildings are, nothing has been done yet. I live on the 13th floor. I have a little room here, which is my office that I work from, I look up Third Avenue. Most importantly, I have air and I have light. If this 17 storey multi-use building goes up, I will no longer have air and light. I can't seem to get a straight answer from any city organization. I'm hoping you can get me some information and help me.

Councilman Powers: Hey, Bonnie nice to hear from you. I hope you're hanging in there. I'd be happy to help you. I'm not sure if I know the exact details of this project. There were some projects that we call as of right in the city, which are the landowner, the developer can [unintelligible 00:22:47] and has a right to build what they're allowed to build there. Some have to come to the City Council for approval. Either way, for us, it's really important that you have, of course, light and air, but also that you're working from home like you said, you're not getting, construction that's keeping you go up or disrupting you in the middle of the day.

What I'll tell you to do is and my staff I know is listening to this is call my office, the number is 212-818-0580. We'll get the address of the building for you. We'll figure out what's going on and we'll get you the plans. Of course, we need to reach out to the folks that own the building to get a better sense or set up a meeting even to address what are some of your concerns there. I think step one is to be figuring out what the plans are. This is, obviously, you might imagine, an issue we get all the time here in Manhattan so something we're equipped to do, and we'll be happy to help you out.

Brian: All right, Bonnie, we'll be happy to take your contact information off the air and pass it on to council member's office. We're just about out of time. We're ending these 51 council members in 52 weeks segments with a quick lightning round. Short questions and really short answers. Okay, some of these are policies, some just let the public know you better. What's the most common reason that constituents contact your office?

Councilman Powers: Noise in construction is a big one, and development is one of the biggest ones. Right now, those are always concerns that we get.

Brian: We just had an example of that.

Councilman Powers: Yes.

Brian: All right. What's one area of policy where you've seen actual progress during your four years in city council?

Councilman Powers: The criminal justice stuff is part of it. Also, I think we've done a lot to help the restaurant industry which I really care about during COVID, third party apps, regulations, open dining, and others. I think that has been really significant in keeping them in business.

Brian: Did you have any political heroes growing up?

Councilman Powers: No, I didn't. I hate to say it, I wasn't that political and [unintelligible 00:24:47] college or high school. I'm not sure I had any specific heroes but now the-- My first job was working for my state Senator Liz Krueger or my neighbor, and she always taught me how to be graceful In politics.

Brian: What's one recent book or movie you would recommend to the listeners to read or to see?

Keith Powers: Oh, my. Well, my staffer is listening and her father wrote a great book called New York, New York, New York. I would have to plug that and recommend that.

Brian: Finally, what is one fun fact about Grand Central Terminal that we didn't get to at the beginning of the segment?

Councilman Powers: There's a lot of hidden gems in there that you can go find and one of them is like the Campbell Apartment, which is this bar that many people probably know about. I just love the Grand Central Oyster Bar, which I mentioned earlier, which isn't a secret but it is a place that I feel like every New Yorker should go, hopefully, reopens and every New Yorker should go in there and have a [unintelligible 00:25:43] or something else.

Brian: Keith Powers, now the New York City Council Majority Leader as selected by Speaker Adrienne Adams, a representative mostly from the Eastside, we could say from the Middle East, but we're talking about the mid-eastern portion of the borough of Manhattan as we are going 52 council-- I blew it again, 51 council members in 52 weeks, we were up to District Four this week. The council member from District Four Keith Powers, thank you so much.

Councilman Powers: Thank you.

 

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