New York
They Earn Tens of Thousands by Turning in Idling Trucks
![They Earn Tens of Thousands by Turning in Idling Trucks They Earn Tens of Thousands by Turning in Idling Trucks](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/22nytoday-truckidling-facebookJumbo.jpg)
Good morning. It’s Tuesday. At this time we’ll discover out about city bounty hunters who seek for vans which are parked with their engines working. We’ll additionally take a look at a photographer’s photos of encounters in the course of the pandemic.
New York Metropolis has a clean-air program that permits individuals to report business automobiles which are parked and idling for greater than three minutes, or one minute exterior a faculty. Those that report infractions by submitting a video can accumulate 25 p.c of the tremendous collected by the town — $87.50 on a $350 tremendous.
This has given rise to a selected breed of city bounty hunter — individuals who seek out idling vans and shoot movies, generally surreptitiously. I requested my colleague Michael Wilson, who wrote about individuals who do that, to clarify.
Are they environmentalists or bounty hunters? What’s uppermost of their minds, clear air or the cash they stand to make as a result of the town offers 25 p.c of the fines to those that report infractions?
These “idling warriors” are fairly up entrance about how nice the cash may be. However they’re additionally very enthusiastic about clear air. One man I spoke to, Ernest Welde, really turned an environmental lawyer to handle air air pollution. He was confronting idling truck drivers for years earlier than this program took place. So it goes each methods.
These persons are urging the town to lift fines, which might improve their bounties, to make certain, but additionally as a result of they imagine the present tremendous schedule is just too low for a corporation like Amazon to essentially care about.
How a lot do they make doing this in, say, a 12 months? Is it sufficient that they’re residing on the cash they make?
For everybody I spoke to, it is a facet gig — simply extra cash of their pockets. As an example, the attorneys I spoke to have full-time jobs already. And the retired guys I met gave the impression to be residing comfortably earlier than this system.
However one among them, Paul Slapikas, mentioned he pulled down $64,000 final 12 months, which is definitely not nothing. I really assume different individuals make greater than that, however a number of bounty hunters declined to share that info with me.
One shorthand estimate is the truth that about 20 individuals collected a lot of the $700,000 paid out final 12 months, some greater than others.
How a lot of an issue are idling vans? How a lot are they contributing to air air pollution, particularly after they idle longer than three minutes?
It is a powerful one, I discovered. There aren’t any go-to research that I’m conscious of — and I could possibly be mistaken — that get at this query.
However there is no such thing as a scarcity of studies on the well being ramifications of respiration within the sorts of pollution related to exhaust fumes. A pediatrician I spoke to warned of the consequences of those fumes on youngsters, who can endure lifetime points.
Folks within the trucking business level out that emissions are far, far cleaner than in a long time previous. But it surely’s nonetheless unlawful to idle for extreme durations.
How harmful is making movies of vans like this? Among the individuals you interviewed mentioned they’d been assaulted.
I believe the hazard ingredient is fairly uncommon, however when it surfaces, it sounds irritating, sure. One encounter led to a lawsuit. A man who was filming a truck claims the motive force and his co-workers knocked him down.
There’s no query that it will get your adrenaline going, making this secret video and being shut sufficient to a truck to seize the engine noise with out being seen. I liked seeing all of the methods to disguise what you’re doing. One man places the cellphone in his shirt pocket whereas it’s filming. One other pretends he’s on a FaceTime name. And Paul Slapikas has a complete routine with props, whereas the cellphone that’s recording will not be even in his palms.
Climate
Will probably be a principally sunny day with temperatures within the higher 50s, and a partly cloudy night dipping to 40.
alternate-side parking
In impact till April 14 (Holy Thursday).
Difficult a DNA database
The New York Police Division instructs detectives to supply one thing — water, soda, a cigarette or gum — to individuals they’re questioning a couple of crime and to gather the cup, can, butt or wrapper after they go away. The DNA is collected, examined and entered right into a metropolis database.
The Authorized Assist Society mentioned in a class-action lawsuit filed on Monday that the database violates state regulation and constitutional protections in opposition to unreasonable searches. The lawsuit requires DNA profiles that attorneys argue have been gathered illegally to be deleted and for the database to be shut down.
Sgt. Edward Riley, a police spokesman, mentioned in an announcement that officers believed the usage of DNA adopted the regulation.
New York State regulation requires a conviction or a courtroom order earlier than somebody’s DNA may be saved in a state-run databank. However the metropolis’s database consists of DNA from individuals like Shakira Leslie who’ve been arrested or questioned however not convicted. Leslie, 26, was a passenger in a good friend’s automobile that the police pulled over for a visitors infraction within the Bronx in 2019.
The police searched her and located nothing unlawful. However when the officers discovered a gun in one other passenger’s bag, everybody within the automobile was arrested, charged with possession of a weapon and brought to a precinct. There, she was given a cup of water.
She was launched hours later, and the weapons cost was dropped. Later she realized that the police had taken her DNA from the cup with out asking. They later examined it and used it to rule her out as a suspect.
“I used to be shocked, upset,” mentioned Leslie, who’s a plaintiff within the Authorized Assist lawsuit. “I simply felt violated. I utterly misplaced belief for N.Y.P.D.”
The most recent New York information
Photographing private area within the pandemic
Quickly after the time period “social distancing” entered the language, the photographer Renate Aller determined to doc what staying six toes other than different individuals seemed like. She invited buddies over, one by one, or invited herself to the place they dwell. Both manner, she stayed exterior. She positioned two chairs on the sidewalk in entrance of her constructing in SoHo — or theirs, when she went visiting — and put her digicam throughout the road, setting the timer to take 9 photographs, with three seconds between every one.
Then she crossed the road, walked into the images and sat down. Generally she and the opposite particular person in every picture seemed into the digicam. Generally they checked out one another. Generally they danced. All the time they have been six toes aside — thus the title “Sidewalk, 6’ Aside in New York Metropolis” for an exhibition of the pictures on the New-York Historic Society.
It was the primary time in weeks that lots of the individuals within the pictures had encountered others within the exterior world. Aller contrasted these early weeks of the pandemic with the primary few weeks after the Sept. 11 assaults that destroyed the World Commerce Middle in 2001. Then, Aller mentioned, “Folks have been scared to be exterior. This was the alternative. We have been scared to be inside.”
To mark the 2 years of the pandemic, this week’s Metropolitan Diary entries options reader tales of life in New York Metropolis in the course of the pandemic.
Pricey Diary:
I used to be working at a espresso store in Midtown close to Grand Central Terminal in early March 2020. Towards the top of the morning rush sooner or later, I circled from the counter to handle some fundamental duties that had been uncared for within the chaos.
After I turned again, I noticed it: a single N95 masks, wrapped in plastic, on high of the pastry case.
I requested a person who was ready for the cappuccino he had ordered whether or not it belonged to him.
He shook his head. So did the opposite individuals within the line.
Whoever had left it was gone or didn’t wish to be recognized — a stranger who, in the course of panic and confusion, noticed me and selected to assist.
— Grace Brunson
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Ship submissions right here and learn extra Metropolitan Diary right here.
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New York
Senator Menendez’s Resignation Letter
![Senator Menendez’s Resignation Letter Senator Menendez’s Resignation Letter](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/23/doc-4ddf28bf-7055-4adb-bc76-b-promo/doc-4ddf28bf-7055-4adb-bc76-b-promo-facebookJumbo.png)
ROBERT MENENDEZ
NEW JERSEY
COMMITTEES:
BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN
AFFAIRS
FINANCE
FOREIGN RELATIONS
The Honorable Phil Murphy
Governor of New Jersey
Office of the Governor
Trenton, N.J. 08625
Dear Governor Murphy,
United States Senate
WASHINGTON, DC 20510-3005
July 23, 2024
528 SENATE HART OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON, DC 20510
(202) 224-4744
210 HUDSON STREET
HARBORSIDE 3, SUITE #1000
JERSEY CITY, NJ 07311
(973) 645-3030
208 WHITE HORSE PIKE
SUITE 18-19
BARRINGTON, NJ 08007
(856) 757-5353
This is to advise you that I will be resigning from my office as the United States Senator from
New Jersey, effective on the close of business on August 20, 2024.
This will give time for my staff to transition to other possibilities, transfer constituent files that
are pending, allow for an orderly process to choose an interim replacement, and for me to close
out my Senate affairs.
While I fully intend to appeal the jury’s verdict, all the way and including to the Supreme Court,
I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important
work. Furthermore, I cannot preserve my rights upon a successful appeal, because factual matters
before the ethics committee are not privileged. This is evidenced by the Committee’s Staff
Director and Chief Counsel being called to testify at my trial.
I am proud of the many accomplishments I’ve had on behalf of New Jersey, such as leading the
federal effort for Superstorm Sandy recovery, preserving and funding Gateway and leading the
federal efforts to help save our hospitals, State and municipalities, as well as New Jersey families
through a once in a century COVID pandemic. These successes led you, Governor, to call me the
“Indispensable Senator.”
I thank the citizens of New Jersey for the extraordinary privilege of representing them in the
United States Senate.
Sincerely,
Pabet Menang.
Robert Menendez
United States Senator
New Jersey
cc: The Honorable Kamala Harris, President of the Senate
The Honorable Ann Berry, Secretary of the Senate
New York
How Well Do You Know Literary Brooklyn?
![How Well Do You Know Literary Brooklyn? How Well Do You Know Literary Brooklyn?](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/22/books/review/22Quiz-Brooklyn/22Quiz-Brooklyn-facebookJumbo.jpg)
A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz celebrates Brooklyn and novels set around the bustling borough. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. Links to the books will be listed at the end of the quiz if you’d like to do further reading.
New York
See How Your Subway Service May Suffer Without Congestion Pricing
![See How Your Subway Service May Suffer Without Congestion Pricing See How Your Subway Service May Suffer Without Congestion Pricing](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/10/multimedia/2024-06-28-subway-projects-index/2024-06-28-subway-projects-index-facebookJumbo-v4.png)
After Gov. Kathy Hochul halted New York City’s congestion pricing program last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority cut $16.5 billion worth of planned upgrades to the city’s vast transit network, mostly to account for the loss of funding that was tied to revenue from the toll.
Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Notes: The chart shows the $28.5 billion in uncommitted funds in the M.T.A.’s 2020-24 capital program; an additional $27 billion had already been committed.
The impact of the congestion pricing suspension on the M.T.A.’s funds for capital projects
Projects were cut from each part of New York City’s transit system, which is the largest in North America and is used by millions of people every day. The projects included elevator and ramp installations that would make subway stations accessible for people with disabilities, structural repairs to aging infrastructure and upgrades to 1930s-era signals that regularly cause delays.
Here are some of the subway projects the authority says it has shelved:
The cuts announced by the M.T.A. — the state agency that runs the subway, bus and commuter rail lines — will also affect transit outside the subway system. The authority has postponed the purchase of more than 250 electric buses and charging infrastructure at bus depots, as well as upgrades to regional rails and a ramp reconstruction on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
The $12 billion remaining in the M.T.A.’s capital funds will be spent on projects the authority considers the most urgent, like track replacements and repairs to power substations. It will also replace some of the “least reliable” subway and railway cars, the authority said in a report.
All told, there are 92 subway stations that will not get planned improvements, including 22 stations that will not get new elevators or ramps; 10 that will not get upgrades like structural repairs, platform replacements and new barriers between platforms and tracks; and 71 that will not get upgrades to their public announcement systems.
Below is a list of the subway stations where upgrades have been put on hold, based on what the M.T.A. has detailed so far:
Projects on hold at 41 stations in Brooklyn:
Union St R
- upgrade to public announcement system
4 Av-9 St R
- upgrade to public announcement system
36 St D N R
- upgrade to public announcement system
59 St N R
- upgrade to public announcement system
Bergen St F G
- upgrade to public announcement system
15 St-Prospect Park F G
- upgrade to public announcement system
Church Av F G
- upgrade to public announcement system
Avenue X F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Neptune Av F
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
- platform or waiting area replacement
Jay St-MetroTech A C F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts A C G
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
Franklin Av C
- upgrade to public announcement system
Nostrand Av A C
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
Utica Av A C
- upgrade to public announcement system
Euclid Av A C
- upgrade to public announcement system
7 Av B Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Kings Hwy B Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Avenue U Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Neck Rd Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Sheepshead Bay B Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Brighton Beach B Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Ocean Pkwy Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
W 8 St-NY Aquarium F Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Jefferson St L
- elevator or ramp installation
Nevins St 2 3 4 5
- platform or waiting area replacement
Crescent St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Norwood Av J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Cleveland St J
- upgrade to public announcement system
Van Siclen Av J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Alabama Av J
- upgrade to public announcement system
Chauncey St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Halsey St J
- upgrade to public announcement system
Gates Av J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Kosciuszko St J
- upgrade to public announcement system
Myrtle Av J M Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Flushing Av J M
- upgrade to public announcement system
Lorimer St J M
- upgrade to public announcement system
Hewes St J M
- upgrade to public announcement system
Marcy Av J M Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Kings Hwy N
- elevator or ramp installation
18 Av D
- elevator or ramp installation
Projects on hold at 9 stations in the Bronx:
Norwood-205 St D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Bedford Park Blvd B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Kingsbridge Rd B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Fordham Rd B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Tremont Av B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
161 St-Yankee Stadium B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Wakefield-241 St 2
- elevator or ramp installation
Brook Av 6
- elevator or ramp installation
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
3 Av-138 St 6
- elevator or ramp installation
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
Projects on hold at 27 stations in Manhattan:
Roosevelt Island F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Lexington Av/63 St F Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
47-50 Sts-Rockefeller Ctr B D F M
- upgrade to public announcement system
42 St-Bryant Pk B D F M
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
34 St-Herald Sq B D F M
- upgrade to public announcement system
Broadway-Lafayette St B D F M
- upgrade to public announcement system
2 Av F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Delancey St-Essex St F
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
East Broadway F
- upgrade to public announcement system
190 St A
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
145 St A C B D
- elevator or ramp installation
W 4 St-Wash Sq A C E
- upgrade to public announcement system
Canal St A C E
- upgrade to public announcement system
Chambers St A C
- upgrade to public announcement system
World Trade Center E
- upgrade to public announcement system
Lexington Av/59 St N R W
- elevator or ramp installation
168 St 1
- elevator or ramp installation
3 Av L
- new fencing between platform and track
5 Av 7
- elevator or ramp installation
Times Sq-42 St 7
- new fencing between platform and track
Delancey St-Essex St J M Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
Canal St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Chambers St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
Broad St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
110 St 6
- elevator or ramp installation
59 St 4 5 6
- elevator or ramp installation
7 Av B D E
- elevator or ramp installation
Projects on hold at 14 stations in Queens:
21 St-Queensbridge F
- upgrade to public announcement system
111 St J
- upgrade to public announcement system
75 St-Elderts Ln J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Ozone Park-Lefferts Blvd A
- upgrade to public announcement system
Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer E J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Sutphin Blvd-Archer Av-JFK Airport E J Z
- new fencing between platform and track
Jamaica-Van Wyck E
- upgrade to public announcement system
Parsons Blvd F
- elevator or ramp installation
Sutphin Blvd F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Briarwood E F
- elevator or ramp installation
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
Howard Beach-JFK Airport A
- upgrade to public announcement system
Broad Channel A S
- upgrade to public announcement system
Far Rockaway-Mott Av A
- upgrade to public announcement system
Rockaway Park-Beach 116 St A S
- upgrade to public announcement system
Projects on hold at 1 station in Staten Island:
Clifton SIR
- elevator or ramp installation
-
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