The one-year-old Brownsville Plan includes no rezoning and long-sought community resources, but many residents still have concerns about gentrification and the details of implementation.
Complaints include drivers who are poorly trained and service that is slow and inefficient, regularly making users late for work and other engagements.
But the number of SNAP participants in the city keeps falling. That could reflect good news about the economy, the impact of federal benefit cuts or the persistence at the city level of obstacles to families getting the help they need.
Most teenagers cannot attend summer classes, jobs or internships unless they’re supplied with a MetroCard or are able to pay for one themselves.
After a Council committee approved the Inwood rezoning, a lawmaker had harsh words for the mayor. And back in the neighborhood, Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez faced protesters occupying his office.
Little separates the two candidates except that fact that one pledged not to join the Independent Democratic Conference and the other did. So, how important is that fact?
It’s uncertain how many stations the MTA considers ‘possible’ for accessibility. Some, maybe several, may never be able to accommodate wheelchairs.
The DOE recently said a pilot program won’t be expanded until it works out some of the problems that have led to a low capture rate of organic leftovers.
The city’s framework leaves big questions to answer, forces major issues off the table altogether, and triggers legitimate doubts about the unintended consequences of a rezoning. It also could be a genuine attempt to fashion the neighborhood everyone wants.
Closing Rikers will mean new or bigger jails in at least four neighborhoods. New York City already has 14 correctional Institutions besides those on the notorious Island. Most are barely noticed.
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