Evening Roundup: MTA Proposes Fare Hike, Suspect’s Motive in Midtown Mass Shooting, Battling Mosquitos and NYC’s Trees Count

Title: Evening Roundup: MTA Proposes Fare Hike, Suspect’s Motive in Midtown Mass Shooting,

Battling Mosquitos and NYC’s Trees Count [music]

Janae Pierre: The MTA proposes a fair hike. The suspect's motive in this week's mass shooting in midtown Manhattan. Battling mosquitoes and New York City's trees count. From WNYC, this is NYC NOW. I'm Janae Pierre. The MTA is proposing to raise the cost of a single subway or bus ride to $3 starting in January. Officials say OMNY replaces the MetroCard early next year.

The 30-day unlimited pass will also be retired. That means the 7-day fare capping program will be the only way to get unlimited subway or bus rides. When the fare hike goes into effect, that cap will increase from $34 to $36. The fare hike will also hit the commuter railroads, increasing prices by 4.4%, and the MTA's bridges and tunnels will see a 7.5% increase. Congestion pricing tolls will not change. The new plan must be approved by the board. There will be several opportunities for the public to weigh in before the final vote.

We're still following developments in this week's mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan. The NYPD says it's sending detectives to Las Vegas to question associates of Shane Tamura. He's the man police say walked into a building on Park Avenue Monday and shot and killed four people. Here's WNYC's Brittany Kriegstein with the latest on the story.

Brittany Kriegstein: Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says they're trying to retrace Tamura's steps from Vegas to New York. They're sending detectives to talk to his associates, including one who may have helped him assemble the gun. Tisch also says they're trying to visit the gun store where Tamura legally purchased a revolver in June using a Nevada concealed carry permit, and they're executing search warrants in New York on his car and two phones he left at the scene. Now, what we know about his motives, Commissioner Tisch says Tamura had a note in his back pocket.

Commissioner Jessica Tisch: In that note, Mr. Tamura claimed to be suffering from CTE, possibly from playing high school football, and he blamed the NFL. He also writes, "Study my brain. I'm sorry."

Brittany: CTE is a neurodegenerative disease linked to head trauma that's often associated with professional football. While Tamura wasn't a professional football player, we've heard from experts this week on The Brian Lehrer Show saying that yes, you can have CTE from just playing high school football, just due to the nature of the repeated impacts. Tisch pointing out the fact that he shot himself in the chest rather than the head, which could indicate that he was preparing for an autopsy that would study the effects of CTE on his brain, which is only really evident after death.

Janae: That's WNYC's Brittany Kriegstein. For the latest on this developing story, visit our news site Gothamist.

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Janae: A top New York State lawmaker says it's not possible to raise taxes to make up for federal cuts. WNYC's Jimmy Vilkine has more.

Jimmy Vilkine: Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie says the state won't be able to dig out of a $7 billion deficit without doing some spending cuts. Almost half of that projected shortfall in next year's budget is the result of the federal tax and spending bill signed this month by President Trump. Heastie has previously favored taxing the rich to solve budget deficits, but he says that has limits.

Carl Heastie: Taxing ourselves to $7 billion, that's a lot to tax. That's a big amount to try to tax. I don't know if we can do all of it.

Jimmy: The Bronx Democrat said he couldn't rule out cuts to Medicaid as a result of the new federal law. Lawmakers will hash out a new state budget in the first three months of next year.

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Janae: Mosquitoes can be a real nuisance, a true vibe killer. After the break, some tips to keep them away this summer. Stay close.

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Janae: It's been a wicked mosquito season for our region, and this summer, they seem to be really plentiful. Why is that?

Dina Fonseca: Because it's warm and because it has been raining a lot, and also we had a very mild winter.

Janae: That's Dina Fonseca, a molecular ecologist at Rutgers University. She studies mosquitoes day in and day out and says most of their life stage is actually in water.

Dina: People sometimes forget that there are actually two stages of mosquitoes. They're like butterflies. They have a complex life cycle. The larval part of a mosquito is in water, then little pupa like a chrysalis of a butterfly, and then they emerge as an adult.

Janae: Apparently, only adult female mosquitoes actually bite. Dina says there are lots of different mosquitoes, but there are two different species that are the primary problem for New Yorkers, the pinta mosquito and the Santa Maria mosquito. Dina says the two arrived in the city in 1995. She says they can show up in our backyards, in catch basins, or larger bodies of water. One tip she shares for residents battling these aggravating insects is to lessen the amount of water in your backyard, especially those empty flower pots that become water containers in the rain.

Dina: That's going to control the mosquitoes that are the day biting that really aren't transmitting anything to us right now except a lot of nuisance. For the Culex mosquitoes, it's important to wear repellents.

Janae: That's Dina Fonseca, an ecologist at Rutgers University.

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Janae: The Parks Department is asking New Yorkers to help with its once-a-decade arboreal census. WNYC's Niamh McAuliffe reports on how the trees will be counted.

Niamh McAuliffe: It's a sunny Tuesday morning at Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx. People are split up into small groups examining trees. They're trying to identify the species of each tree and its overall health.

Seran Ayallu: Let's finally go through the overall condition of the tree. Maybe we can step back and take a good look at the tree to decide if it's excellent, good, poor, fair.

Niamh: That's Tree Census Associate Seran Ayallu. She's telling Bronx resident Vivian Young what to look for.

Seran: What do you think? Does it look?

Vivian Young: I'm not sure if I should say excellent because of the yellowing of the leaves and some of the dead trees, but definitely very good.

Seran: Dead branches.

Vivian: Dead branches, right. I would say very good condition.

Niamh: The city has conducted a tree census every 10 years since 1995. Jessica Einhorn is the Parks Department's chief of forestry programs. She says they use this information to determine where more trees are needed.

Jessica Einhorn: We know that trees are not planted equitably across the city. This initiative allows us to operationally plan and know where to plant trees to be able to give the shade and the benefits of trees to the communities that need them most.

Niamh: Robert Hay has participated in the tree census since 2005.

Robert Hay: It was a little different there. We had clipboards and paper that we were writing on. We were assigned a specific zone that we worked on. Then, in 2015, it was more electronic, and you were able to do one block at a time here and there. It became very addictive. You could see your map of what you've already done.

Niamh: Volunteers this year are only being asked to count park trees. There are events in parks across the five boroughs. The city says it's planning to count street trees using cutting-edge scanners mounted on top of cars. Expect to see one driving around your neighborhood in the spring of next year.

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Janae: That's WNYC's Niamh McAuliffe. Thanks for listening to NYC NOW. From WNYC, I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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