From Columbia Radio News in New York, I’m Kate Cox.
Mayor Bill de Blasio met with parent activists at City Hall this afternoon. The mayor got an earful from parents who blog about the need for universal pre-k and more after school programs. He said Albany needs a push from parents like them to move the initiative forward.
DE BLASIO: “They need to hear parents say, great, have your differences but we’re waiting for our product, we’re waiting for our outcome, ‘cause we need this to happen in September.”
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The mayor has been in a public debate with Governor Cuomo about where the funding for universal pre-k should come from.
The February jobs report announced this morning showed the national unemployment rate rose slightly to 6.7 percent. Here in New York City, the rate is just under eight percent. James Parrot is the chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute. He says most of the increase has come from the types of jobs that don’t add much to long-term growth.
PARROT: “Many of the jobs being added on net, in the city’s economy pay very low wages. So we’ve seen a real spurt in restaurant employment and in other low-wage sectors.”
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Tough winter weather made for lower growth than anticipated.
The New York City Health Department is investigating an outbreak of measles in northern Manhattan and the Bronx. Sixteen cases have been identified, about half of them are children, four people required hospitalization. Measles is highly contagious and can be transmitted through coughs or sneezing. The Health Department is urging all New Yorkers to make sure they’re vaccinated.
New York State is getting the first payment of a nineteen and a half million-dollar settlement with ExxonMobil. It’s part of an agreement for Exxon’s responsibility in an oil spill in Greenpoint, Brooklyn more than four decades ago. It was one of the country’s largest environmental disasters, with an estimated seventeen to thirty million gallons of oil leaked into the ground water. The first grants will be used to promote composting and and a waterfront park.
And art abides in the city this weekend. The 77th annual Whitney Biennial opens tonight. This is the last Biennial in the Whitney’s current space on Madison Avenue. The Armory show and the Independent Art Fair in Chelsea are also on display.
It is thirty-six degrees in New York. The weekend looks warmer, with highs in the low 50s expected on Saturday.
Kate Cox, Columbia Radio News.
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