MTA's challenge: getting students, seniors to use OMNY

Plus: Best time to hit the road over Memorial Day weekend [View this email in a browser.]( Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( [Students, seniors next in line for MTA’s OMNY payment system]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: ⛅ Partly cloudy, highs in the lower 80s. It's Tuesday in New York City, where the MTA had hoped to entirely phase out MetroCards by now. Instead, more than half the city's transit riders still haven't transitioned to the OMNY tap payment system. To speed things up, the MTA said it plans to soon [give students, seniors and low-income New Yorkers free or discounted OMNY cards](. Here's what else is happening: - Leaving New York City over Memorial Day weekend? Here are [the best — and worst — times to hit the road]( according to MTA toll data. - Street safety advocates pointed out that 2024 has been one of the deadliest years for Queens streets in the Vision Zero era after [five people were killed by cars]( over the weekend. - The NYPD said it charged one person with felony assault and 24 others with disorderly conduct at Saturday's pro-Palestinian demonstration in Bay Ridge, where police were [captured on video repeatedly punching protesters](. - Nassau County officials said [their emergency 911 system is back online]( after service went down earlier Monday evening. - Brooklyn pastor Lamor "Bling Bishop" Whitehead, who was convicted of fraud earlier this year and now awaits his sentencing, has been [sent to federal jail after violating the terms of his bond](. - Rana Abbasova, a City Hall aide who served as Mayor Eric Adams' longtime liaison to the city's Turkish community, is now [cooperating with the federal investigation into Adams' fundraising operation](. - The Long Island-based private security firm hired by CUNY to deal with campus protests [described pro-Palestinian demonstrators as using "asymmetrical guerrilla warfare tactics"]( — and announced its CUNY contract on social media using "#StopTheSteal." - It's finally happening: The police are [shutting down and padlocking]( unlicensed weed shops. - Former Miss New York Briana Siaca told the New York Post she was [scammed out of $2,000]( by several teens raising money for their "basketball team." - A former NYU student told the New York Post about her struggles with a cheese addiction that was brought on by [the stresses of leading a Zionist student group](. - Grid-connected charging docks for electric Citi Bikes are now up and running [in Hell's Kitchen and Greenpoint](. - Rudy Giuliani lamented that the guy who recently served him his Arizona indictment [didn't do it "stylishly,"]( but rather walked into his birthday party in Florida and simply handed him "a folded-up, crumpling piece of paper." - NPR [wasn't a big fan]( of Ice Spice's debut as a "Saturday Night Live" musical guest. - Climate change is [turning the oceans green](. [“Kids who are going through the gate, they sometimes struggle to find their MetroCard, but they know where their phone is. We got to get that population, which is one of our key populations, we got to get them onto OMNY soon.”]( - MTA CHAIR JANNO LIEBER ON [THE PUSH TO GET STUDENTS AND SENIORS USING THE OMNY TAP PAYMENT SYSTEM]( More from Gothamist [second image]( [Time is almost up for NY lawmakers to make changes to state parole system]( This spring, two bills are pending in Albany that would make it less likely for New Yorkers serving lengthy sentences to die in prison. [Migrants and advocates brace for stricter rules in NYC shelters as evictions loom]( Starting this Wednesday, May 22, adult migrants can be evicted from city shelters after reaching a limit of 30 or 60 days — depending on their age — with limited opportunities to remain, under new shelter rules agreed upon in a court settlement in March. [We Rely On Your Support]( [Inside CUNY's antisemitism probe: Campus talks, professors, students under scrutiny]( A private law firm appointed by the state to investigate claims of antisemitism at CUNY has been interviewing faculty members, scrutinizing events calendars and appearing unannounced at campus meetings. [Eddie Redmayne on the staying power of Broadway’s ‘Cabaret’]( Redmayne, who was nominated for a Tony award for his performance as the Emcee in "Cabaret," spoke with WNYC's "All Of It" about returning to the role he first played as a 14-year-old. [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [New York Public Radio] [WNYC]( | [WQXR]( | [NJPR]( | [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( | [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 [TERMS OF USE]( You can update your [PREFERENCES]( or [UNSUBSCRIBE]( from this list.