The City Council on Thursday passed a “groundbreaking” legislative package that forces the city to divert food-based garbage away from landfills and reuse it instead for environmentally friendly purposes like composting and generating cleaner energy. But there’s much more to do for the city to reach its Zero Waste goals.
On Wednesday afternoon, two buses carrying more than 60 people from city shelter left for the Ramada Inn in Albany, where officials say they’re also nearing capacity. Those who opted to leave include asylum seekers who’d spent weeks in one of the city’s respite centers, where services are limited and future placements are uncertain.
This summer, utility companies must submit plans detailing how they’ll implement a series of solutions to make electricity rates more affordable for electric vehicles. But their plan has fallen short of giving the MTA the preferential rate it says it needs to able to foot the bill, as it seeks to transition its 5,800-bus fleet off fossil fuels.
What could a city like New York achieve if it repurposed some of its 3 million curbside parking spots? It could help drivers kick their addictions to cars and avert climate catastrophe, writes Henry Grabar, author of the new book “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World.”
Reactions to the news were subdued in City Hall Park Thursday, where the organization VOCAL-NY had gathered to mourn not only Neely, who had been unhoused, but the at least 815 other unhoused New Yorkers who, according to city data, died in the year ending last July.
At a Council hearing, officials said the city has recorded 318,000 “engagements” since February 2022 between street homeless residents and police or outreach workers, including instances where the same individual was contacted multiple times. Of those, 4,600 people have agreed to go into shelter; about 1,300 people remain in those placements.
“Out there you are vulnerable. It’s safer in here behind doors,” Kevin, who declined to provide his last name, told City Limits outside the 30th Street Intake Shelter Thursday. He is among several currently or formerly homeless New Yorkers to empathize this week with the late Jordan Neely.
Protestors crowded the F train station Wednesday in response to the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, chanting “Housing, not cops,” and “Homeless lives matter” alongside repeated calls for justice.
En el primer trimestre de este año, el Departamento de Protección al Consumidor y al Trabajador (DCWP por sus siglas en inglés) de la ciudad emitió 414 multas a vendedores ambulantes en la ciudad. La agencia ya no lidera la inspección de vendedores desde el 1 de abril, fecha en que el Departamento de Sanidad (DSNY por sus siglas en inglés) empezó a hacerse cargo de estas funciones.
In the first quarter of this year, the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) issued 414 tickets to street vendors. The agency is no longer leading vendor enforcement as of April 1, when the Department of Sanitation took over.
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
Founded in 1976 in the midst of New York’s fiscal crisis, City Limits exists to inform democracy and equip citizens to create a more just city. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
