On this week's show with hosts John Tarleton and Amba Guerguerian:
—The latest front in Mayor Eric Adams crusade for public safety: New York City’s vast subway system. On Friday, Mayor Adams announced that the city would now be taking a zero tolerance approach to unhoused people in the subway system. Alex Vitale, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the author of “The End of Policing" talks about the Mayor’s new strategy for policing the homeless and his broader approach to public safety.
We also speak with speak with Peter Malvan, who spent 32 years living as a homeless New Yorker. During that time, he lived in the subway systems, in shelters and in parks. And from 1991 to 2011, he worked jobs. Peter has now been housed for the past year and a half. He is the Vice President of Midnight Run and a homeless advocate with the Safety Net Project, Persons with Lived Experience of NYC, Homeless Can’t Stay Home, & VOCAL-NY and a member of the Coalition for the Homeless NYC.
— Slumlord C+C Management has just taken over Harlem River Houses from NYCHA. This means that the tenants of the complex are no longer protected by Section 9 public housing laws and instead fall under Section 8 low-income housing rules, which are less protective. This privatization and gentrification scheme being pushed by Eric Adams puts the roughly 600,000 people living in NYCHA buildings at a larger threat of eviction and bad conditions. On Saturday, tenants of Harlem River Houses and their allies held a rally to speak out against the privatization. Vanessa, and Ryan, members of the United Front Against Displacement, speak with us about the struggle. Vanessa is also a tenant of Harlem River Houses.
—We briefly speak with retired teacher Roberta Pikser about the battle to keep the city from transferring 250,000 retired city workers from Medicare to the privately-run Medicare Advantage.
