Politics Unusual: NJ Transit president, NYS Sen. Gournardes

Welcome to politics unusual. I'm Teresa Priolo in for Morgan Mackay. Big money. Big tech. Big questions about who's picking up that tab. The World Cup brought the world to New Jersey and left New Jersey transit with a massive bill. CEO Chris Calori here and we're asking him where's the money going to come from to close that gap. Then Metta agrees to a major settlement. But will it change the way big tech does business. State Senator Andrew Ginnardus joining us over the fight over data privacy and whether the government can keep up with big tech. And then later the horse carriage industry has been front and center this summer. We're asking New Yorkers how they feel about that issue. Let's begin with New Jersey transit. New numbers are out showing record ridership during this summer's World Cup at MetLife Stadium. But despite that spike in passengers and transit says it's still lost nearly four million dollars on this global soccer event. So we want to understand why. Joining us now to break down those numbers is New Jersey transit president and CEO Chris Calori. Chris thanks for being with us. Good to be with you. So let's talk stats. Let's begin with those stats. What was the total ridership that you saw during this event. For the eight games during the FIFA World Cup tournament we moved a record three hundred and seventy thousand people in and out of the stadium which was a performance better than we've ever done. So as we understand it there was a roughly four million dollar loss on this. Why did that happen. I think context is important on a typical MetLife game or an event. New Jersey transit subsidizes 85 cents and only makes 15 cents on the FIFA World Cup. We actually made 93 cents on the dollar. Just to also remind your viewers no mass transit system in the country or even the world for that matter perhaps except for Hong Kong actually makes money moving people. This is a not a profit making enterprise. It's a it's a service that we provide people. So from that standpoint we are we are happy that the delta or the variance was three point nine. I want to make sure I understand. So energy transit did not make money on the event. No system makes money on the event. But we made more money than any system would have or has in fact made on an event of this. When you talk about a four million dollar gap though where will that money come from. How will that be closed. And can you guarantee riders that ultimately they will absorb any of that. In fact the memo that my CFO wrote to me reassures. In fact the governor's committee the governor said that we will not impose any costs of the service we provided on our regular commuters. Nor will we cut service. I went one step further and said I will not ask the legislature for any supplemental funding to cover this delta. What we will do though is we have access to more land that we are planning on selling and leasing anyway. We believe in the next 12 months we will make enough revenue to meet this. But is there a concern that pulling that move using that card so to speak it's a one time move. Well there's a one time delta. OK so fix it now and it won't be a problem that rears its ugly head in the future. Let's talk a little bit about fair hikes. Of course we're gearing up for people to go back to work. No more summer Fridays. Is NJ Transit ready for the fall rush. So look I think what we have tried to focus on over the last several years is both FIFA as well as move the commuter that we typically move every single day. And I think what we've shown is that we would do just that last year this year and also coming into the fall. One thing I will forecast for the viewers is just like we did in the spring of this year. There's going to be a portal cut over to which will start sometime in the fall and end before Thanksgiving. So that is going to be a challenge. We will be coming up with a very very clear messaging on that in the next several weeks. But that is going to impact commuters in what we will be clear on what. We do remember the last one. We might not remember everything but we we have a clear memory of that. All right. As far as fair hikes are concerned riders were hit with a 15 percent fair hike in 2024. And that was followed by annual 3 percent increases. If you look at NJ Transit's operating budget right now if I understand it's about three and a half billion dollars with fares only covering a portion of that. So riders are paying more and more each year. Talk to us about the tangible improvement that they should be able to point to to say that's what I'm getting for my money. And I'm so glad you asked this question because New Jersey Transit has been around for 47 years. Thirty five out of that 47 years we've not had a consistent funding source. When you don't have consistent revenue you run into reliability problems. What I have said and what we've tried to do is whether it is improvements in communication modernizing equipment making sure the basic things of cleanliness safety are addressed. We are trying to do that step by step in fact the governor signed an executive order executive order 16 that imposes those measures on us as we go forward. So the riders in the long term are going to begin to see the kind of improvements on reliability on safety and cleanliness that we ask them to pay for and they have paid. But I want to emphasize you can't have a reliable system especially when just like every other mass transit system including New York Subways that it is not meant to make a profit. This is a service we provide. So the costs go up. Labor costs go up. We want to make sure that there's consistent funding to make sure the services. Just one more on the fare hikes. Should riders assume now that a 3 percent increase annually is the standard going forward or do you anticipate that given the challenges of the agency that that's going to increase. So I think what the board did before this governor came in and I came in is put in place a an annual 3 percent increase in. By the way if you look at MTA if you look at all our companion systems whether it is a frequent or a automatic we all follow the same trajectory. The goal is to make sure we have consistent funding source so we can keep making the improvements that the customers demand of us. There is no point in saying there's not going to be a fair increase for five years and then come by the 15 percent. That actually I think is worse which is what happened in 2024. It is better to have a consistent fare policy so that people know that there is a predictable improvement and a predictable fare. Let's talk about reducing some of the issues that transit is often plagued with for the for the commuter that is standing at Penn Station after another delay another cancellation. When do they actually start to feel the benefits of all the investment. So there's two things. Let's talk about Penn Station for example. There is a project underway that under Amtrak's leadership that we are actually working with them on is to completely transform Penn Station. I believe that's an eight billion dollar project that Amtrak is heading with the federal government's help. And I think that's going to improve the customer experience substantially. I know everybody wants to see that happen on the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak is committed to making improvements and they are. In fact I think the experience this year has been better than the year before and certainly the year before that. So that is the investment that they're from my standpoint. Governor Sherrill has asked me and in fact given us the money to modernize the entire rail car system that we currently have. I I don't understand how you can actually run a reliable system with rail cars that were made in the 1970s and 80s. That is what we have for a big chunk of our fleet. So we are going to modernize all those rail cars and buses between now and 2030. Before we go give me one measurable benchmark if you can. A year from now what should riders look to to determine whether or not NJ Transit has gotten better is successful is really using their fares appropriately. I'll give you two. One is clean windows. If I hear about clean windows one more time I know that that is the single most important issue it seems like to the customers. I'm halfway done with my colleagues to get those windows clean. The second one is modernization equipment. We are receiving on average 15 new buses every month and rail cars are going to start coming in at the end of this year or early next year. So they're going to see. So are you sleeping more now than you did when you first took over the job. Well let me put it this way. I'm able to actually think more about what we need to do for our commuters every single day than actually be focused on commuters and FIFA fans. Yes. All right. CEO of NJ Transit Chris Calori we appreciate your time. Thank you. Metta reaching a landmark settlement over teen social media addiction. Coming up we'll be joined by New York State Senator Andrew DiNardo to talk about the agreement and the steps that he is taking to keep kids safe online. For years lawmakers have accused social media companies of designing their platforms to keep kids hooked. Now Metta is agreeing to major changes and billions of dollars to settle those claims. New York Senator Andrew Gennadis has been leading the push to rein in big tech and protect our kids online. So is this finally a real change or simply the cost of doing business with Metta. Senator Gennadis joins us now. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it. Let's quickly talk about this settlement. It's being celebrated as a huge win for keeping kids safe online. Let's go through some of what Metta has agreed to. We have a full screen that shows some of the different agreements. First a two hour daily time limit turning off likes by default limits on beauty filters those sorts of things. No notifications during school hours shutting off the platforms between midnight and 6 a.m. As I mentioned you have been pushing for this. What do you think of these changes. This is certainly a huge step forward in terms of keeping kids safe. And you know for years Metta and other companies have been saying they're doing everything in their power to keep kids safe. They prioritize kids safety. They're doing everything they possibly can. And then all of a sudden now when they're faced with losing a multi-billion dollar lawsuit they reverse course and say actually there's 10 other things we could we could have been doing. And we're happy to do now. This goes almost further than the law that we passed here in New York two years ago. The safer kids act that I authored to go after these algorithms to go after these overnight notifications. And the money here is really significant. New York will stand to receive more than a billion dollars because of this settlement. That's money that can be used for education mental health to help provide real in life experiences for kids to help replace what the phone and social media has has done to their lives over the last decade plus. Let's read Metta's statement. So in the wake of this settlement they released a statement saying ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platform is absolutely imperative for Metta. We want to get this right for parents and teens. And that's why we've partnered with states attorneys general to set a new industry standard. Now one of the states involved in the lawsuit of course New York state. And we also heard from Leticia James. So let's quickly put up what she had to say as well. Children in New York and nationwide are suffering while companies like Metta reap immense profits by intentionally addicting them to their social media platforms. We cannot allow social media companies to continue fueling the growing rates of low self-esteem isolation and depression among our youth. You mentioned that New York is set to receive a little over a billion dollars from this settlement. In your estimation how should that money be used to specifically combat what the A.G. is calling out self-esteem isolation depression among our youth. And the data shows that there's lots of things we can do. You know there are so many playgrounds across the state that don't have that are dilapidated that are broken down that are falling apart. Basketball courts that are missing hoops and nets. You know there's so many spaces we can be creating for young people. We can be investing in after school centers. We can be investing in community centers to give kids a place to go after school so they can have these real life in-person experiences where they're not relying on a phone and social media feed in order to keep them entertained. Fueling this mental health crisis we can invest in opportunities to bring kids together socialize do new activities do new programs. I'd love to see a lot of these resources going towards that because unfortunately whenever budgets get tight those are always the first things to get cut. You always hear I hear it in my office all the time. Oh we don't have enough money to fund the the after school program. Oh you can only. We don't have enough money to fix the broken basketball hoop. And I think we can move past those excuses now. So one of the things that I thought was sort of interesting with Leticia James in her statement she was saying this is not incidental harm. This is the business model that these companies thrive off of. Absolutely. And as a parent it got me wondering what is the parental responsibility here and how does that match with the government's responsibility. Parents absolutely have a role to play here. But what I what I have found over my years of working in this space is that parents often don't even know what their kids are seeing on their phones because we assume that the Facebook feed that we see the Instagram feed that we see is exactly what our kids are seeing. It is night and day. You could be sitting right next to your kids and you would have totally different social media experiences. And so parents just it's designed for them not to know and understand what their kids are being fed on these platforms. And so while yes parents have a responsibility to teach their kids about online safety and about setting limits and whatever is appropriate for their family the company should not be off the hook. This is like cigarette companies saying it's not our fault that nicotine is addictive. Parents you should do a better job of keeping cigarettes away from your kids. Don't blame us. Meanwhile they have all this research for decades knowing that they intentionally were creating addictive products because they wanted lifelong customers. We wouldn't accept that excuse from big tobacco and we certainly are not going to accept that excuse from big tech. But I think when most people hear big tobacco they fully and immediately understand the implications of it. And I wonder if we have gotten to a point where we understand the implications of big tech because tech is so much a part of our day to day experience. It's so integral to the way we do everything. So to remove it the way you would remove a cigarette doesn't seem truly possible. That's that's that's a very fair point. And we're not saying that we want to return to a world where we don't have tech anywhere in our lives. Tech is indispensable in the 21st century for kids for adults for everyone. But how these platforms are have infiltrated our lives have taken over our lives. It's designed to addict us solely to make them money. They use the same psychological effect that casinos use with slot machines. Why does a combustible gambler keep gambling. Because they keep pulling down that lever hoping the next poll is going to be the jackpot. That's exactly why any of us an adult a kid can spend hours scrolling. Maybe the next video is going to be redeeming. Maybe the next video is going to be the content I've been looking for over and over and over again. It's the exact same science. And tech has a responsibility for not putting out products that they know are going to be harmful to people. Senator Andrew generous. We appreciate you coming in and talking to us about this. And we know that your fight on this issue far from over far from over. Yes thank you. We appreciate it. All right. The battle over horse drawn carriages in Central Park remains a hot button issue coming up. New Jersey City Council voted to increase property taxes by slightly more than 15 percent this week. This comes out to around fifty one dollars a month for the average residential property and does not include other budget increases. The new mayor blaming the hike on mismanagement by the previous administration. The increase will apply to this year's third quarter tax bill. The battle to ban horse carriages in New York City continues to heat up the push for change gaining momentum after an 18 year old tourist was killed when he was thrown from a horse drawn carriage in Central Park. The city council now considering a law that would phase out and completely ban horse drawn carriages by June of 2028. We asked New Yorkers what they think about this issue. I know about the horse carriages in Central Park and I feel like it'd be nice for tourists who have seen the horse carriages online to be able to experience them in the future if they want to go to Central Park. The horses should be in places that are meant for horses. Concrete is not good for their feet. Obviously people need jobs people need businesses but not at the expense of horses that should be out upstate New York. We should keep them. Yeah. Like that's like like you you walk by Fifth Avenue you walk by you know Central Park South. That's like a staple. That's that's what you see. I mean I'd rather them ban like scooters that go over 30 miles per hour and hit one of my clients who's like old. But I mean I don't really care very much truthfully. So next up we're going to test your knowledge of the tri-state region. So stay with us. Now a historical flashback. We're looking back on some significant days in history. Forty five years ago this week August 24th Mark David Chapman sat in a New York City courtroom with a copy of Catcher in the Rye in front of him as he hears a judge say he will spend 20 years to life for murdering John Lennon the legendary Beatle shot by Chapman four times outside of the Dakota on the Upper West Side. Chapman has been up for and denied parole 14 times. His next opportunity will be this coming February. And finally tonight we're testing your knowledge on some local history. Last week we asked you in the 19th century New York Harbor produced roughly half of the entire world's supply of what specific food item. The answer oysters. The New York Harbor contained an estimated 350 square miles of oyster reefs long before pizza or hot dogs. Oysters were the ultimate New York street food consumed by both the rich and the poor at a rate of roughly one million oysters a day making the city known as the oyster capital of the world. Now to this week's question. Who is the only U.S. president born in the state of New Jersey. And don't you Google it. Do not go Google that answer if you know it or if you want to take a shot at it. Go ahead and screen the QR code scan that right there on your screen. It's going to take you to our Web site Fox 5 and Y dot com where you can type in the answer and then check back here to see if you're right. That does it for this episode of Politics Unusual. If you missed any part of the show if you just want to check it out again we're now on Spotify and any other platform that you listen to your podcast on. Be sure to follow us. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Teresa Priolo. Have a safe weekend and we will see you next week.