Bill Sanderson – New York Daily News https://www.nydailynews.com Breaking US news, local New York news coverage, sports, entertainment news, celebrity gossip, autos, videos and photos at nydailynews.com Sun, 28 Jan 2024 23:16:15 +0000 en-US hourly 30 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/cropped-DailyNewsCamera-7.webp?w=32 Bill Sanderson – New York Daily News https://www.nydailynews.com 32 32 208786248 NYPD pulled over ‘Central Park 5’ Councilman Yusef Salaam as vote looms on bill requiring cops to record stops https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/01/27/central-park-5-nyc-councilman-yusef-salaam-pulled-over-by-cops-not-given-reason-amid-how-many-stops-act-controversy/ Sat, 27 Jan 2024 19:05:40 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com/?p=7460500 “Central Park 5” City Councilman Yusef Salaam says police stopped him without explanation as he drove with his family through Harlem on Friday night — an incident that comes as the City Council plans an override vote on Mayor Adams’ veto of a bill that would require cops to document their street stops.

Salaam said he “was listening in to a call with my Council colleagues on speakerphone” when he was stopped. Police video of the stop shows he was pulled over about 6:20 p.m. on W. 125th St. near 12th Ave., just east of the elevated West Side Highway.

“I introduced myself as Councilman Yusef Salaam, and subsequently asked the officer why I was pulled over,” Salaam said in a statement. “Instead of answering my question, the officer stated, ‘We’re done here,’ and proceeded to walk away.”

Police said the officer Salaam complained about “conducted himself professionally and respectfully.”

Body-worn camera video showed the encounter differed from Salaam’s recollection, and does not show Salaam asking the officer why he was stopped.

In this file photo, Yusef Salaam speaks during a news interview on March 1, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
Yusef Salaam  (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

It was dark outside as the officer approached Salaam’s blue BMW. He clearly identified himself as from the 26th Precinct, but his name was not audible on the video, and the Police Department did not identify him in its statement.

“I’m Council member Salaam,” Salaam said.

“Oh, Council member?” the officer replied.

“District 9,” Salaam said.

“Oh, OK. Have a good one,” the officer said. He immediately stepped away from the car.

“Everything OK?” Salaam asked as the officer stepped away.

The officer answered: “Yep. You’re working, right?”

Salaam’s brief reply was not audible. “Take care, Sir,” the officer responded.

The officer’s partner also approached Salaam’s car on the passenger side, the video shows. The video shows people were in the car’s front passenger and back seats, but their faces were blurred. The entire interaction lasted less than 40 seconds.

Police said Salaam’s car had a Georgia license plate, and was stopped because officers believed its windows were tinted too dark, possibly in violation of New York motor vehicle law. In a statement, the Police Department said the officer who approached Salaam “followed all proper procedures, including procedures that were put in place after Detective Russel Timoshenko was shot and killed through tinted windows in 2007.”

The officers also filed a vehicle stop report, which the Police Department posted on X with the video and its statement.

“This officer should be commended for his polite, professional and respectful conduct and for using his discretion appropriately so the Council member could complete his official duties,” police said in the statement on X.

Salaam, who joined the City Council this month and was recently named chairman of its Public Safety Committee, said the officer should have explained why he was being pulled over.

Salaam said he was pulled over “in my beloved village of Harlem.” His statement didn’t say exactly where or when.

“This experience only amplified the importance of transparency for all police investigative stops, because the lack of transparency allows racial profiling and unconstitutional stops of all types to occur and often go unreported,” said Salaam.

Salaam on Friday had agreed to attend a Saturday night NYPD ride-along with other City Council members in the hope of better learning how cops deal with the public while responding to calls.

But after the incident, Salaam, who was exonerated after spending years in prison as one of the Central Park 5 teens wrongly convicted in the 1989 Central Park jogger rape case, canceled his plan to attend the event.

“While it is imperative for all of us as New Yorkers to understand the difficult tasks that we ask the NYPD to take on, it is also critical to understand the lived experiences of those subjected to unjust police stops in this city,” he said.

“Many of us in the Council know what it’s like to feel vulnerable and powerless when stopped by an officer, because we have personally experienced triggering interactions like I had last night.”

A number of Council members joined Adams in the ride-along on Saturday evening. The legislators met at the 28th Precinct stationhouse on Frederick Douglass Blvd., and then went on patrols with officers.

Insiders say Adams was using the ride-along to encourage legislators not to overturn his veto.

Salaam’s Council colleagues railed against Friday’s stop, with Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers (D-Queens) calling the interaction “a glimpse into what everyday Black and Brown New Yorkers encounter.”

“Glad my colleague, @dr_yusefsalaam, and his family made it home safely last night,” she wrote on X.

In a statement, Adams thanked Salaam for bringing the police stop to his attention, and commended the officers involved “for following all proper police procedures and being respectful.”

Adams previously said he vetoed the How Many Stops Act because requiring cops to document every one of their stops would take too much of their time from policing. The bill is “extremely detrimental to public safety,” Adams said.

Adams announced the veto Jan. 19. The Council will hold its overturn vote Tuesday.

The How Many Stops Act, which passed the Council last month, lays out three levels of police encounters that cops would have to document. Supporters said the law would prevent the return of the kind of biased law enforcement the city saw during the Bloomberg-era peak of stop-question-and-frisk policing.

Salaam has vowed to seek the override of Adams’ veto ever since the mayor vetoed the bill. He and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams have accused the mayor of peddling a “false narrative” about the bill with an aim to “mislead and incite fear” among New Yorkers.

In a statement Saturday, Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said “lies” are being told about the Salaam stop.

The video “shows the truth about the outstanding, professional work our members do every day,” Hendry said. “This Council member and every other elected official who baselessly smeared our police officers owe them an apology.”

This story has been updated to remove an incorrect characterization of the How Many Stops Act. Under current law, NYPD officers are required to document all traffic stops. Also, while the new law adds reporting requirements, it does not impose additional requirements regarding police explanation to the individual stopped.

With Julian Roberts-Grmela

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7460500 2024-01-27T14:05:40+00:00 2024-01-28T18:16:15+00:00
NTSB cites subway radio glitch in Manhattan No. 1 train crash that injured 25 https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/01/25/ntsb-cites-subway-radio-glitch-in-manhattan-no-1-train-crash-that-injured-25/ Thu, 25 Jan 2024 21:30:13 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com/?p=7445380 A radio glitch kept an MTA worker from alerting colleagues that their disabled subway train was about to smash into a passenger-carrying train beneath the Upper West Side, says a preliminary federal report on the Jan. 4 collision.

The just-the-facts account from the National Transportation Safety Board does not confirm the cause of the crash at the No. 1/2/3 station at W. 96th St. and Broadway in Manhattan, which resulted in minor injuries to 22 passengers and three MTA employees.

But the NTSB report is in line with media accounts — including in the Daily News — that faulty radio communication appears to have had a role in the incident.

Richard Davey, president of NYC Transit, said Thursday the NTSB’s findings so far are “beyond dispute — something that we certainly generally agree with.”

The scene of a subway collision and derailment north of 96th Street on the 1 line on Thursday, Jan 4, 2024. (Marc A. Hermann / MTA)
The scene of a subway collision and derailment north of W. 96th St. on the 1 line on Jan 4, 2024. (Marc A. Hermann / MTA)

Around 2:11 p.m. the day of the crash, an “unruly passenger” pulled the emergency brake cord on the Bronx-bound No. 1 train as it rolled beneath the Upper West Side, the NTSB says.

Unable to reset the brakes on the 10-car train’s front five cars, the train operator offloaded its passengers at W. 79th St.

Another subway worker, a railcar inspector, arrived at the scene, but also was unable to get the brakes working again. So the MTA decided to take the train out of service, and move it to a yard in the Bronx at the northern end of the No. 1 line.

A flagger equipped with a handheld radio was stationed in the train’s front cab.

Because the brakes were disabled on the front five cars, the flagger’s job was to tell a supervisor in the disabled train’s sixth car about track signals, obstructions and other information about what was happening up ahead.

The scene where a No. 1 train leaving the W. 96th St. and Broadway subway station jumped the track after a collision with another train. (Obtained by Daily News)
Obtained by Daily News
The scene where a No. 1 train leaving the W. 96th St. and Broadway subway station jumped the track after a collision with another train. (Obtained by Daily News)

Davey said subway workers regularly move disabled trains in a similar manner. “We make this move approximately a dozen times a week without any issue,” he said.

The disabled train rolled northward from W. 79th St. at “restricted speed,” the NTSB said. The transit supervisor in the middle car was taking radio instructions from the flagger up front about when to accelerate or apply braking.

“The flagger said he lost radio communications with the transit system supervisor [in the sixth car] near the 96th St. Station,” the NTSB said.

“The transit system supervisor [in the sixth car] did not receive the flagger’s instruction to stop,” the NTSB said.

The radios were working correctly, Davey said — so it’s not clear why the flagger’s instruction didn’t reach the supervisor. That matter is under investigation.

The disabled train passed a red signal at the north end of the W. 96th St. platform as a passenger-carrying train passed in front of it at about 3 p.m., and the collision occurred.

Trip arms are located next to subway signal lights. When a signal is red, trip arms rise up from the tracks to activate the brakes of trains that are wrongly rolling past.

But because the brakes on the disabled train’s first five cars were out of service, the trip arm system was not able to stop the train, the NTSB said.

Neither train was equipped with “event recorders, cameras or other recording devices,” the NTSB said.

The NTSB is still probing the incident, and says “future investigative activity” will focus on how disabled cars are moved, radio communication procedures and “the lack of federal requirements for railcar event recorders.”

Requiring cameras and other event recorders is probably a good idea, Davey said. “As we buy new cars, it will be standard issue for sure,” he said.

After the crash, it took a full day before service was completely restored.

 

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7445380 2024-01-25T16:30:13+00:00 2024-01-25T17:39:00+00:00
Alaska Airlines door panel blows out at 16,000 feet, forcing Portland landing https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/01/05/door-panel-blows-out-of-alaska-airlines-jet-at-16000-feet-ntsb-launches-probe/ Sat, 06 Jan 2024 04:23:39 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com/?p=7365916 An emergency door panel blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday night, depressurizing the cabin and forcing the jet to make an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon.

The Boeing 737-9 jet carried 171 passengers and six crew members, Alaska Airlines said. No injuries were immediately reported.

One mother had to hold to her child to keep him from falling out of the plane, and several passengers’ mobile phones flew out of the gaping hole in the side of the cabin, said a report on Portland TV station Fox12.

This photo provided by an unnamed source shows the damaged part of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, Flight 1282, which was forced to return to Portland International Airport on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. (The Oregonian via AP)
This photo provided by an unnamed source shows the damaged part of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, Flight 1282, which was forced to return to Portland International Airport on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. (The Oregonian via AP)

A photograph posted by another TV station, KGW8, showed that an entire emergency door appeared to be gone from the left side of the plane. KGW said a child’s shirt was blown out of the plane, but that no one was seriously hurt.

A passenger video posted on TikTok showed that the jet’s emergency oxygen masks were deployed. It also showed a flight attendant walking along the aisle speaking to passengers.

The National Transportation Safety Board immediately announced an investigation.

@strawberr.vy

Girls’ trip turned into emergency landing trip… #alaska #alaskaair

♬ original sound – vy 🍓

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was headed from Portland to Ontario, Calif. when the door panel blew out. The plane was at an altitude of 16,000 feet when it headed back to Portland, according to data on the website FlightAware.

The plane left the gate at 4:52 p.m. Pacific time, and returned to the airport at 5:27 p.m., about 35 minutes later, the FlightAware data shows.

The Boeing 737-9 in the incident is nearly new — it was declared airworthy on Oct. 25, and was given an FAA registration number on Nov. 2, records show.

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7365916 2024-01-05T23:23:39+00:00 2024-01-06T18:17:16+00:00
MTA police fatally shoot parolee armed with machine pistol in Queens: VIDEO https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/12/30/mta-police-involved-shooting-in-jamaica-queens-critically-wounds-criminal-suspect/ Sat, 30 Dec 2023 05:33:30 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com/?p=7336910 MTA police officers shot and killed a parolee armed with a loaded machine pistol during a wild scene on a crowded Queens street as they tried to arrest him for groping a 19-year-old woman, authorities said.

Nearly a dozen people, including two small children, were walking by the officers as they wrestled Bashe McDaniel to the ground near 91st Ave. and Sutphin Blvd. in Jamaica, surveillance video recovered by the Daily News shows.

A second later, McDaniel fired a round from his Mac-10, sending everyone scattering.

“People were running and trying to get away,” a worker at a nearby smoke shop told the Daily News Saturday. “There was a lot of shots fired.You don’t see a shooting like that over here much.”

One officer drew his pistol and fired as his partner jumped off Bashe, who apparently continued to reach for his weapon, even when wounded, the video shows.

At least four shots were fired by MTA police during the exchange, the video shows.

McDaniel, 52, had done five stints in prison, mostly for weapons possession and was convicted of manslaughter in 1990, according to court records.

His death stunned McDaniel’s parents, who said the ex-con was trying to turn his life around.

“I’ve got questions. Questions, but no answers,” Chester McCown, McDaniel’s heartbroken father told the Daily News.

MTA police officers are seen on surveillance footage wrestling a parolee as bystanders watch. (Courtesy of Jamaica Green Grocery)
MTA police officers are seen on surveillance footage wrestling a parolee as bystanders watch. (Courtesy of Jamaica Green Grocery)

“He said he was getting his life back together. So I took his word for it. Then this morning I got this bad news,” McCown, 76, said.

The woman entered MTA’s Long Island Rail Road headquarters next door to Jamaica Station at about 10 p.m. Friday and claimed McDaniel had groped her,  MTA Chief of Police John Mueller said at a press conference.

She said the stranger, who was wearing a baseball cap with the word “Killa” on it, had blocked her path and grabbed her breasts, officials said. She had managed to snap a photo of him before reporting the incident to police.

MTA cops went looking for the groper and quickly found McDaniel steps from Jamaica Station and Long Island Rail Road headquarters.

A MAC 10 sub machine gun is seen where an MTA Police officer shot a male brandishing the gun on Friday, in front of 91-04 Sutphin Blvd. (Sam Costanza for the New York Daily News)
Sam Costanza for the New York Daily News
A submachine pistol is seen where an MTA police officer shot a male brandishing the gun in Jamaica, Queens on Friday night. (Sam Costanza for the New York Daily News)

McDaniel was wearing a distinctive jacket with a letter “B” on it that had been described by the victim, Mueller said. He was also a match for the man in the photo the victim shared with police.

“We showed him a picture of himself that the victim of the forcible touching took,” Mueller said.

The two MTA officers — whose body-worn cameras were turned on — tried to arrest McDaniel, but he put up a struggle, Mueller said.

“He refused to put his hands behind his back,” the police chief said.

The officers Tased him and wrestled him to the ground, but McDaniel managed to get off a shot with the Mac-10, which police said was equipped with a 30-round magazine.

The officers returned fire, fatally striking McDaniel, said police. The machine pistol was found under his body as EMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital, where he died a short time later, Mueller said.

“To our knowledge there is no other danger to the community,” Mueller said, adding that the two officers involved in the shooting were taken to an area hospital for trauma, but “they are not injured or hurt.”

One of the officers involved in the shooting has been an MTA police officer for three years, an MTA police source said. The other has been with the MTA police for a year. Both were assigned to District 3 at the Jamaica station and neither officer had fired their guns before during their time with the MTA.

Many MTA cops join the department after working for other police forces, so it wasn’t immediately clear how much law enforcement experience the two officers had before their showdown with McDaniel, the source said.

MTA police could not immediately confirm how many shots were fired during the exchange.

Police secured the scene where an MTA Police officer shot a male brandishing a MAC 10 sub machine gun (pictured here) on Friday, in front of 91-04 Sutphin Blvd. (Sam Costanza for New York Daily News)
Police secured the scene where an MTA Police officer shot a male brandishing a MAC 10 sub machine gun (pictured here) on Friday, in front of 91-04 Sutphin Blvd. in Queens. (Sam Costanza for New York Daily News)

Pictures from a Daily News photographer showed what appeared to be a semiautomatic weapon on the ground at the scene, along a block of retail businesses.

The “Killa” hat was also on the sidewalk by the weapon, and numerous evidence cones were spread across the scene, suggesting multiple shots were fired.

McCown said McDaniel’s mother had to go to Queens to identify their son’s body.

“I was shocked. Devastated,” he said. “[I] couldn’t even eat no breakfast this morning. I didn’t really feel like eating.”

Police on the scene where an MTA Police officer shot a male brandishing a MAC 10 sub machine gun, on Friday, in front of 91-04 Sutphin Blvd.Sam Costanza for the New York Daily News
Police are pictured at the scene where MTA police shot and killed a man brandishing a gun on Friday on Sutphin Blvd. (Sam Costanza for New York Daily News)

McDaniel has an extensive criminal record that includes five misdemeanor and seven felony arrests.

He had been repeatedly in and out of prison since 1990, when he was convicted of manslaughter for killing someone in Greenwich Village on Aug. 10, 1988.

He was released from prison in 1997, only to be back behind bars in 2000 on a weapons possession conviction, prison records show.

Over the years, McDaniel did brief stints in prison for weapons possession and attempted burglary. His last prison stint was in 2017 after he was convicted of weapons possession and assault. The arrest, once again, happened in Greenwich Village.

He was released from the Riverview Correctional Facility in Ogdensburg, N.Y., on Sept. 22, 2022 and was on parole until 2026, records show.

MTA police officers are seen on surveillance footage wrestling a parolee to the ground as bystanders watch. (Courtesy of Jamaica Green Grocery)
MTA police officers are seen on surveillance footage wrestling a parolee to the ground as bystanders watch. (Courtesy of Jamaica Green Grocery)

McDaniel grew up in lower Manhattan and stayed with his mother when he wasn’t in prison, relatives said. Recently, he began living with his girlfriend in Queens.

McCown last saw his son a few weeks ago, he said. During their conversation, he said he had gotten a construction job and was keeping out of trouble.

“I ain’t seen him groping no girls that’s for sure. I don’t know whether he had a gun or not, they’re still investigating,” McCown said. “He’s real loved, I know that.”

Marana Doris, a worker at the Jamaica Green Grocery near the shooting scene said that section of Jamaica has become “very dangerous” in the last few years.

“Maybe two years ago, after the pandemic, it started to get crazy,” Doris, 44, said. “There’s people selling drugs on the corners and it gets dangerous at night.

“Stuff like this, it makes you scared to be around here,” she said.

Mueller said the NYPD was assisting MTA police with the investigation and was collecting evidence. An NYPD spokeswoman referred all questions about the shooting to the MTA.

The MTA police chief said he and his officers will try to determine where the machine pistol originated.

“We will try to track down where the gun came from, how it got here and how it got into the hands of someone who is on parole for a firearms arrest,” Mueller said.

Since being formed 26 years ago, MTA cops have fired their weapons on just five occasions, agency officials said. This is the third time an MTA police shooting turned fatal.

The last time MTA cops used their firearms was in 2011 on Long Island, when officers accidentally shot an off-duty Nassau County police officer in plain clothes carrying a rifle.

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7336910 2023-12-30T00:33:30+00:00 2023-12-30T17:15:55+00:00
MTA bridges, tunnels see record traffic in 2023 despite higher tolls in sign of NYC economic health https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/12/28/mta-bridges-tunnels-see-record-traffic-in-2023-despite-higher-tolls-in-sign-of-nyc-economic-health/ Thu, 28 Dec 2023 21:52:46 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com/?p=7331035 In a sign of New York City’s economic health, MTA bridges and tunnels saw record traffic in 2023 despite a 6% increase in E-ZPass toll rates.

Some 335 million vehicles paid tolls in 2023 on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Triborough Bridge, which link to Queens and the Bronx, and other MTA-run crossings, the agency said Thursday.

That was an increase of 1.3% over the prepandemic year of 2019, when the MTA recorded the previous record of 330.7 million paid crossings.

Crossings at MTA bridges and tunnels generally track the city’s economic condition.

An aerial view of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island. (Shutterstock)
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. (Shutterstock)

Toll crossings declined during the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, the Gulf War recession of the early 1990s, and the Great Recession of 2009.

The steepest decline ever came during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Traffic rose after E-ZPass was introduced in the late 1990s, and after the elimination of toll barriers in 2017.

Toll crossings hit the record despite the 6% increase in E-ZPass toll rates on Aug. 6 — which was accompanied by a 10% jump in tolls charged motorists without E-ZPass.

Tolls are a big source of MTA money. They were forecast to rake in about $2.4 billion to the MTA in 2023 — about 14% of the money that’s the agency’s total revenue, which also includes subway, bus and train fares, and taxes.

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7331035 2023-12-28T16:52:46+00:00 2023-12-28T19:11:17+00:00
Con Ed steam line blast shuts down part of Manhattan in east Midtown as city tests for contamination https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/12/27/con-ed-steam-line-blast-shuts-down-part-of-manhattan-in-east-midtown-as-city-tests-for-contamination/ Thu, 28 Dec 2023 00:49:09 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com/?p=7327108 A rupture in a Con Edison steam line in east Midtown early Wednesday shut down several blocks between Park and Second Aves. around E. 52nd and E. 53rd Sts.

Air testing found no asbestos contamination from the rupture, Mayor Adams said at a news conference on Wednesday evening — but he said that “out of an abundance of caution” the city has distributed N95 face masks to people in the area.

“We recommend that New Yorkers living in the area wear masks and stay indoors while we complete the cleaning,” Adams said.

The steam line exploded at 2 a.m. on East 52nd St. between First and Second Aves., officials said. The line was capped by around 6:45 a.m., said city Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol.

The cleanup in the area is expected to take several days, said Iscol.

Steam service was shut to eight customers, Con Ed said.

Con Edison sells steam to 1,600 commercial customers in Manhattan south of W. 96th St. on the West Side and E. 89th St. on the East Side. Its steam customers include the Empire State Building, the United Nations, Rockefeller Center, as well as museums and hospitals.

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7327108 2023-12-27T19:49:09+00:00 2023-12-27T19:59:25+00:00
MTA formally taking public comments on Manhattan congestion toll plan https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/12/26/mta-formally-taking-public-comments-on-manhattan-congestion-toll-plan/ Tue, 26 Dec 2023 23:51:53 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com/?p=7322984 MTA bosses are taking online comments about plans to toll vehicles in Manhattan from 60th St. through Midtown south to the Battery.

The base toll for passenger cars will be $15. Trucks and buses will pay more, and discounts will apply to motorists who arrive in the city via toll tunnels or bridges. Discounts will also be offered for travel overnight and on weekends.

An online form on the MTA’s website is set to open Wednesday at https://contact.mta.info/s/forms/CBDTP. The MTA will also take comments via email at cbdtp.feedback@mtabt.org.

Four public hearings are planned, on Feb. 29, March 1 and twice on March 4. People who wish to speak at the hearings must sign up online. The hearings will be livestreamed on the MTA’s YouTube channel.

The MTA has backed the toll plan set out by the Transportation Mobility Review Board, a panel established to design the congestion toll schedule.

The MTA hopes to finalize the toll rates in the coming months, and start charging the tolls in May. The plan faces legal challenges in New Jersey federal court.

 

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7322984 2023-12-26T18:51:53+00:00 2023-12-26T19:16:04+00:00
MTA seeks ideas to deter NYC subway fare evaders with modern gates https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/12/26/mta-seeks-ideas-to-deter-nyc-subway-fare-evaders-with-modern-gates/ Tue, 26 Dec 2023 23:20:35 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com/?p=7322606 New York is stepping up its effort to replace century-old subway turnstile technology with modern gates that deter turnstile jumpers and other fare evaders.

Fare evasion has reached “crisis levels,” the MTA said Tuesday as it announced a request for information from companies interested in helping replace the subways’ turnstiles, emergency exit doors and other barriers with modern fare gates.

The subways lost $285 million to turnstile jumpers and other fare evaders in 2022 — and  stanching the problem is a “critical challenge,” the MTA said in its request for ideas about new subway gates.

Riders in Queens can already see the type of gates the MTA is considering at the Sutphin Blvd.-Archer Ave. station in Jamaica.

The chest-high metal and glass gates are nearly impossible to jump over or crawl under. They swing open when riders slide MetroCards or tap OMNY-enabled phones to access the platforms.

First-ever low turnstile fare array replacement with new wide-aisle fare gates at Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue-JFK Airport station EJZ Station in Jamaica, Queens. (Photo credit: Ray Raimundi / MTA)
Ray Raimundi / MTA
The MTA is trying out these fare gates at the at the Sutphin Blvd.-Archer Ave. station in Jamaica, Queens. (Photo credit: Ray Raimundi / MTA)

When you leave the system, the gates swing open automatically — and swing shut quickly enough that no fare cheater coming into the station will be able to get past.

Gates like those the MTA anticipates installing on the subways have been used on the Paris Metro for years. Boston’s “T” first installed fare gates at subway stations in 2005, and has started installing them at commuter rail stations.

The request for information the MTA published Tuesday will not lead directly to a contract to install the gates, the agency said.

But it does provide technical specifications for what the MTA seeks.

The gates will have to allow 25 passengers a minute to enter the subway system, and allow 50 people a minute to depart.

They’ll have to be vandal-resistant, free of “sharp edges or corners,” and made of materials “designed to withstand NYCT’s [New York City Transit’s] harsh operating environment.”

The gates must meet requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act, and provide access to people with “disability or any other need, such as pushing a stroller or transporting luggage or packages.”

The MTA has been inching toward the installation of fare gates over the last couple of years. It displayed fare gates built by several companies at Grand Central Terminal in May. It displayed another idea for a fare gate at Brooklyn’s Jay St.-MetroTech station in 2021.

Installing new gates is among the recommendations released in May by an MTA panel that studied the agency’s fare evasion problems.

Besides the $285 million lost to subway fare evaders in 2022, the MTA lost $315 million to bus fare evaders, $46 million to bridge and tunnel toll evaders and $44 million to commuter train fare evaders.

The MTA has made some mechanical changes to the existing turnstile system meant to deter fare evasion — but it believes gates are a better long-term solution.

“Everyone should pay their fair share to ride mass transit,” NYC Transit President Richard Davey said in a statement. “Modernized fare gates are the natural starting point for subways to address this problem”

 

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7322606 2023-12-26T18:20:35+00:00 2023-12-28T21:12:04+00:00
LI man confirmed held by Hamas in Gaza, synagogue says; Omer Neutra serves in Israeli armed forces https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/10/13/li-man-confirmed-held-by-hamas-in-gaza-synagogue-says-omer-neutra-serves-in-israeli-armed-forces/ Sat, 14 Oct 2023 00:00:01 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com/?p=7155142 A New York City-born Long Islander has been confirmed held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, his synagogue said in a statement Friday.

Omer Neutra, 21 — like his parents a dual citizen of the US and Israel — went missing when Hamas terrorists invaded  Israel on Saturday.

“We are praying every day for Omer’s safe return to his family and friends,” said a statement from the family’s synagogue, the Midway Jewish Center of Syosset.

Omer Neutra — an honors student and captain of the basketball team at the Schechter yeshiva in Williston Park — went to Israel after he graduated in 2019, planning to spend a gap year there.

But he ended up enlisting in the Israeli military, and from the Schechter yeshiva in Williston Park in 2019.

He was serving at a small base near Gaza when Hamas terrorists took him hostage.

He last spoke to his mother and father on Friday night before the war erupted.

His parents, Ronen and Orna Neutra, have not elaborated on a statement they issued shortly after they learned of his disappearance. They had assumed their son was taken by the terrorists.

“We ask the Hamas leaders to continue to treat Omer and all the hostages in a humanitarian way in accordance with international law,” the statement said.

President Biden spoke Friday with the families of 14 Americans taken hostage in the terror assault.

“They’re going through agony not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children, are,” Biden said. “You know, it’s gut-wrenching.”

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Internet star Kai Cenat faces misdemeanor in Union Square riot case; NYPD frees him with desk appearance ticket https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/08/05/internet-star-kai-cenat-faces-misdemeanor-in-union-square-riot-case-nypd-frees-him-with-desk-appearance-ticket/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/08/05/internet-star-kai-cenat-faces-misdemeanor-in-union-square-riot-case-nypd-frees-him-with-desk-appearance-ticket/#respond Sat, 05 Aug 2023 01:01:16 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com?p=34347&preview_id=34347 Internet influencer Kai Cenat was freed from police custody early Saturday after he was charged with misdemeanors for sparking a riot in Union Square on Friday that drew thousands of people and resulted in dozens of arrests and injuries.

Around 12:15 a.m. Saturday, Cenat left the 19th Precinct station house on E. 67th St. on the Upper East Side.

He’d been in custody since Friday afternoon, when thousands of people — mostly teens — crowded Union Square in Manhattan in the belief Cenat was going to give away PlayStation gaming consoles and other prizes.

Kai Cenat, in a gray hoodie, is rushed early Saturday from the 19th Precinct stationhouse on the Upper East Side.
Kai Cenat, in a gray hoodie, is rushed early Saturday from the 19th Precinct stationhouse on the Upper East Side.

Clad in a gray hoodie and accompanied by a burly bodyguard, he was rushed into a waiting SUV and driven away. He did not answer reporters’ shouted questions.

Three law enforcement sources told the Daily News that Cenat was given a desk appearance ticket. The ticket, which does not require bail, will require Cenat to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court for arraignment on misdemeanor charges of inciting a riot, said the sources.

Under New York Law, inciting a riot is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by no more than 364 days in jail. People convicted of such offenses often get no jail time.

During the Friday afternoon melee, police officers called to the scene from across the city were pelted with bottles, paint cans, rocks and other debris, countless people were injured, and evening rush hour subway service was diverted from Union Square.

Cenat, 21, was among around two dozen people arrested in the incident, which he’d advertised on X — the site formerly known as Twitter — and in other online hot spots.

Cenat has amassed six million followers on Twitch, a site that focuses on streaming people playing video games.

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