Evening Roundup: Case Against NJ Congressmember Advances, Viral Scale Model of NYC Gets Official Exhibit, and Elizabeth Street Garden is Becoming a City Park

Elizabeth Shwe: The federal case against New Jersey Congressmember LaMonica McIver moves forward, a viral scale model of New York City gets an official exhibit, and the controversial Elizabeth Street Garden becomes a city park. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Elizabeth Shwe in for Janae Pierre. The Trump administration's federal assault case against New Jersey Congressmember LaMonica McIver will proceed. District Court Judge Jamel Semper rejected the Democratic lawmaker's request that the case be dismissed. McIver has been charged with assaulting federal immigration officers outside a Newark detention center back in May. McIver argued she's been selectively and vindictively prosecuted. In a statement, McIver says she is disappointed in the judge's ruling and will continue to fight the charges against her.

Joe Macken's scale model of every building in New York City is getting its first museum show. Macken is a trucker upstate and spent 21 years building the scale model out of nothing but styrofoam, Elmer's glue, and balsa wood. After his kids encouraged him to post about it on TikTok, it went viral. The Museum of the City of New York says it'll be exhibiting the model early next year. The museum's deputy director, Elizabeth Sherman, says she loves the monumental model for its personal touch.

Elizabeth Sherman: There's this way in which, while he's not sharing intimate, personal stories in the model itself, it feels to me like it's really communicating from one person's personal New York to each of our personal New Yorks.

Elizabeth Shwe: The exhibit he built this city, Joe Macken's model, will open to the public on February 12, 2026.

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The Knicks just lost their first home game of the season after falling 124 to 107 points to the Orlando Magic Wednesday night. The Knicks were 7-0 at MSG and had won five straight overall. Jalen Brunson scored 31 points, but seemed to sprain his ankle on a drive to the basket in the final minutes. The severity of his injury is still unclear. The Knicks play again at home Friday night against the Miami Heat, and the Nets will play against the Orlando Magic Friday night in Florida.

Coming up, the battle over Nolita's Elizabeth Street Garden comes to a head. That's after the break.

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The Adams administration is turning the Elizabeth Street Garden into a city park. The small city-owned lot in Lower Manhattan is at the center of a housing debate in the city. WNYC's housing reporter, David Brand, says this all started 25 years ago when the owner of an art gallery in the building next door got permission to lease the lot and store some sculptures there.

David Brand: He started letting some members of the public enter on a limited basis.

Elizabeth Shwe: Then, in 2012, the city pledged to build affordable senior housing in the lot. When they started that, a few years later, it triggered some pretty intense concern.

David Brand: A lot of local residents, including some celebrities and the community board, say, "This garden's a unique oasis downtown. We need to preserve it."

Elizabeth Shwe: Housing groups say the city needs more affordable housing in every neighborhood, even the rich ones. David says the fight has continued for a decade until earlier this year, when it looked like the garden was actually going to get evicted. This Thursday, something changed.

David Brand: What changed was Adams named attorney Randy Mastro as first deputy mayor.

Elizabeth Shwe: Before Mayor Adams appointed Mastro for the first three years of his term, he supported building the senior housing on the lot.

David Brand: After he appointed Mastro first deputy, Mastro maneuvered to first stop the eviction. Then, in June, he announced this agreement with the local council member Chris Marte to stop the plan altogether.

Elizabeth Shwe: In exchange, Marte said he'd support affordable housing plans for three other sites in the area. All of those are in very early stages and will probably take years to become reality.

David Brand: Critics are saying this is like a one-in-the-hand, three-in-the-bush situation, one concrete plan versus three more amorphous ones.

Elizabeth Shwe: David says turning the garden into a city park is the Adams administration's parting gift to supporters of the Elizabeth Street Garden. Mayor Zohran Mamdani also commented on the move Thursday.

Zohran Mamdani: It is no surprise that Mayor Adams is using his final weeks and months to cement a legacy of dysfunction and inconsistency.

Elizabeth Shwe: Mamdani has said multiple times that he supports building senior housing at the site. As recently as a few weeks ago, he said he would evict the Garden in his first year in office. For now--

David Brand: It really does look like, after this year's long saga, that the Elizabeth Street Garden is here to stay.

Elizabeth Shwe: That's WNYC's David Brand.

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Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Elizabeth Shwe. See you tomorrow.

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