Midday News: AG James Slams Federal Calls for Her Prosecution, the City Pauses Composting Fines, and the Trump Administration Wants Control of Penn Station O...

Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WNYC, it's Friday, April 18th. Here's the Midday News from Michael Hill.

Michael Hill: New York State Attorney General Letitia James says the Trump administration's allegations against her have no merit. The Federal Housing Finance Agency referred James to the Department of Justice for prosecution this week. The agency accuses James of falsifying records about two of her properties to lower her loan rates. James says this has more to do with retribution than any wrongdoing by her. She made her remarks on New York 1.

Attorney General Letitia James: I will not be bullied, I will not bend, I will not break, and I will not bow to anyone. No one is above the law, including the president of these United States.

Michael Hill: James' office won a case accusing President Trump of inflating his net worth for favorable loans. Trump is appealing. James has also sued the Trump administration several times over executive orders.

Mayor Adams' administration says the city is going to hold off on issuing fines to buildings that break new composting rules at least through the end of the year. Curbside composting has been mandatory since October. Sanitation inspectors began fining buildings that did not separate the organic waste from other waste earlier this month. Now, the city says it will not fine buildings with fewer than 31 units after all. The mayor's office says more needs to be done first to bring New Yorkers up to speed on the new laws. The Sanitation Department says it issued more than 4,000 tickets since enforcement began a little more than two weeks ago. The department says it had already noted an increase in compliance.

Elevated risk for a fire spread today because it's so dry and windy, so be careful out there. Good Friday forecast, mostly sunny and 67. Then, tomorrow, partly sunny and all the way up to 84 degrees. Right now 62 and mostly sunny.

Janae Pierre: Stay close. There's more after the break.

[music]

Michael Hill: A major new development for the future of New York Penn Station. For years, the MTA has led a plan to rebuild and expand the dilapidated train hub. Yesterday, the Trump administration said it's taking it over and kicking the New York Transit Agency off the project. To unpack what all this means for us, WNYC's transportation reporter Stephen Nessen joins us now. Stephen, first of all, what exactly are Trump administration officials saying about their plans for Penn Station?

Stephen Nessen: In a letter to MTA Chair Janno Lieber, the Federal Railway Administration says it will now be the lead agency, like you said. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was a little more harsh. He slammed the MTA, writing that there's no reason to delegate leadership for this project. He said the MTA's history of inefficiency, waste, and mismanagement meant a new approach is needed. What does that mean in practicality?

As you may or may not know, the MTA and Amtrak have been working together on two plans, really. One to fix up Penn Station itself. You've sort of seen already what the MTA has done on the Long Island Rail Road side of the station. The plan going forward was to unify the rest of it, make it grander, make a grander entrance, more light. They also want to expand the number of tracks, which would allow more trains to use the station. Really, I think the bottom line is all of those plans were still in their infancy and was little more than just wishes and colorful renderings at this point. Now the Trump administration is going to let Amtrak take the lead. What they hinted at or what they are likely planning to do is to rely on a public-private partnership to move the project forward.

Michael Hill: I am wondering, Stephen, what's the governor's reaction, Governor Hochul and the MTA?

Stephen Nessen: In a statement, Hochul is spinning this as a win for her and for New York State. She says she's met with Trump several times and asked the federal government to help fund the project. She thanked him in advance for building a $7 billion train hall in New York. Although, in what I can only read as sarcasm, she says, "This saved New York taxpayers $1.3 billion that would have gone into this project." I think Hochul wanted to be the one to cut the ribbon and take credit for a new Penn Station. The MTA, for its part, sent a terse statement pointing to its 33rd Street concourse, the one I described that's already completed, saying that it was completed on time and under budget. It also wrote that it expects to be part of any future planning for the train hall. It is one of the major leaseholders, of course, of Penn Station.

Michael Hill: Now, Stephen, Madison Square Garden has always been the biggest obstacle in the way of a Penn Station renovation. It sits on top of the train hall. If it was moved, it would make things easier, but it's also hard to move a major sports and concert arena. Would a federal takeover over the project, would that change things at all?

Stephen Nessen: Probably not. I should say there is one plan that's already out there. It's by an Italian firm called ASTM. It got a little bit of traction a couple of years ago when The New York Times wrote about it in great detail. That plan also kind of fizzled since the MTA was leading the project, and they rejected that plan. The plan included building a new light-filled entrance to Penn Station on 8th Avenue that would be across from the Moynihan Train Hall. I think the main opposition from The New York Times is that it would require the purchase and demolition of the theater at MSG, the little side thing over there. The MTA said that would require paying the owner, James Dolan, millions of dollars, and it would cost as much as $2 billion just for that entrance alone. They said that wasn't a good use of money.

Well, that plan could be back on the table. Like I mentioned, the Trump administration seems interested in a public-private partnership, and that firm would shoulder many of the costs. That is an idea that is popular with the Trump administration. There is another group, we should add, that is connected to Trump, pitched by a group called the National Civic Art Society. They're based in DC. The person that supports them is this man, Thomas Klingenstein, who donated more than $10 million to Republicans in the last election. He wrote an article on his website called Make America Beautiful Again, which talks about classical and traditional architecture, something that was part of an executive order issued by Trump in 2020, that all federal buildings should not be modern or brutalist, but have this traditional sort of Trumpian architecture. You could see that being popular in Washington. It remains to be seen what plan Amtrak ultimately adopts or how they'll move forward with the project.

Michael Hill: Now, we've heard plans for Penn Station for years and years, as you've described. Is there any hope that the Trump administration taking over this project will actually move this forward? What are the city's power brokers saying about this?

Stephen Nessen: I spoke with advocate Tom Wright. He's the president and CEO of the Regional Plan Association. He tells me he's hopeful this could help.

Tom Wright: Things haven't been moving forward lately as the railroads have had kind of competing demands. From my perspective, Penn Station is owned by Amtrak, the federal government, and it makes sense for them to be leading the renovation plans.

Stephen Nessen: He notes the new LaGuardia terminal, the airport terminal, was also a public-private partnership. Private companies get some of the money from the businesses that lease the space. He's hopeful that maybe that model could also work for Penn, too. You may recall Hochul sort of tried this with the developer Vornado, who's going to build these tall buildings around Penn Station. That plan fizzled, of course, after office space did after the pandemic. Penn is one of the busiest train stations in the country. There's also, though, the Gateway project there that is moving forward. That could mean in the future, more trains would be able to use Penn Station.

The MTA is still planning to send Metro-North trains to Penn Station pretty soon. The whole Penn Station redevelopment was really a contentious project. It remains contentious. I think a lot of stakeholders are going to want an open and transparent process no matter what happens. There's a lot of pieces moving forward and a lot of parties at the table.

Michael Hill: WNYC transportation reporter Stephen Nessen on the federal government taking over the rebuilding of New York Penn Station. Follow along for more updates of the future of Penn Station at our news site, Gothamist. Stephen, thank you as always.

Stephen Nessen: Thank you.

[music]

Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now, from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.

[music]

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.