Bronx News Network

Affordable Housing Project Aims For Six-Figure Incomes

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The 5 million square feet of new apartment space that the city wants built on the Queens side of the East River will include 3,000 apartments of affordable housing, according to a request for proposals released this week by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.The proposed complex at Hunter’s Point South is “in accordance with the Mayor’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, which responds to the changing housing needs of New York’s communities by committing to the new construction or rehabilitation of 165,000 housing units by 2014,” the RFP reads.But in an illustration of the complexities underlying “affordable” housing, most of the city-subsidized units at Hunter’s Point will reserved for families making more than the average city family. Sixty percent of the 5,000 apartments at Hunter’s Point South are supposed to be affordable; the rest are market rate. But two-thirds of the affordable housing being constructed there will be reserved for people making between 81 percent and 165 percent of the area median income, or AMI. For a family of four that income range translates to $63,000 to $130,000.One-third of the affordable housing will be available to families making less than 80 percent of the AMI, or $63,000.The city will subsidize all the “affordable” units, and those units are required to be affordable permanently. If a developer wants to build more than the required 3,000 affordable units, the RFP states, those units “should be skewed toward the upper tier in furtherance of this project’s middle income goals.”Area median income is defined by a federal government formula, which yields an estimated median of $79,200 for a family of four.

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Hey New York! We're Number … 49?

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Start spreading the news: Auckland is one of 48 cities around the world (five of them in the United States) with a higher “quality of life” than New York. Photo by: Joerg Mueller

A worldwide ranking of cities for quality of life suggests that New York is not even the second best locale on the East Coast. By: Jarrett Murphy

New York’s ego has suffered a few bruises in recent years. Failing in its bid for the 2012 Olympics. Watching both its former mayor and junior U.S. senator strike out in the 2008 presidential race.

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The Whitest City Agencies

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A federal judge’s decision to appoint a special master to oversee the New York City Fire Department’s compliance with a court-mandated revision of hiring practices has once again put the FDNY’s racial makeup in the headlines.But New York’s Bravest aren’t the only city workers with a disproportionate racial skew. According to figures obtained by City Limits about the municipal workforce as of the end of 2009, several other departments are notably white. At the same time, other agencies are disproportionately black. (See chart below.)The Census Bureau, which treats race and Latino origin separately (meaning Latinos can be of any race), estimates that New York City is about 35 percent non-Latino white, 28 percent Latino, 23 percent non-Latino black and 12 percent non-Latino Asian. Overall, the city workforce is 38 percent white, 36 percent black, 18 percent Latino and 6 percent Asian, according to statistics from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (which, unlike the Census, considers race and Latino origin to be mutually exclusive).

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Report: Fraud Common Among Top Debt Buyers

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In addition to shoddy mortgages, deed theft and usurious payday loans, there’s another predator sucking money out of low income neighborhoods of color: debt buyers. According to a study released this week by the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project these firms – which buy credit card, fines or other debts with the aim of collecting them from debtors – regularly file fraudulent lawsuits against low income, elderly and disabled New Yorkers. In many cases, the report alleges, debts have already been paid off or forgiven. A spokesman for DBA International, an industry association did not return a phone call and email request for comment. Between January 2006 and July 2008 the top such firms operating in NYC collected more than $1 billion through court judgments.

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City Council Endorses School Turnaround Zone

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The New York City Council passed a resolution this week unanimously endorsing the proposed School Turnaround Zone (STZ), a strategy designed to help struggling schools improve their performance and avoid closure. Developed by the parent-led Coalition for Educational Justice, the STZ would integrate school-improvement strategies with strong leadership, giving schools three years ‘in the zone’ to demonstrate progress.The STZ also has the support of Council speaker Christine Quinn and Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio. But the decision whether to adopt it ultimately rests with the Department of Education (DOE), which is independent of the City Council.If adopted, the STZ would represent a significant departure from the DOE’s current approach to struggling schools. To date, the DOE has closed 91 schools and is attempting to obtain court approval to shutter 19 more. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has met with education advocates to discuss the STZ proposal, and has referred the matter to Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg, says Megan Hester, spokesperson for the Council for Educational Justice.DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld would not comment directly on the Council’s resolution.

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4th & 8th Graders Get National Report Card

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The reading abilities of New York City fourth graders are improving, according to the results of a national test released Thursday, but eighth graders’ scores remain virtually unchanged.Since 2002, the city’s fourth graders have posted steady, incremental gains on the test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, with 12 percent more students now demonstrating at least a basic command of the skills tested. The biggest leaps occurred among New York’s neediest students, said New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein in a webcast earlier today, citing a 13-point gain in the mean test score for fourth-graders eligible for free lunch, most of whom are Black and Latino. Scores for white and Asian student remained relatively constant.Overall, the city’s mean scores still lag behind New York State’s mean scores, but the city performed better than many large urban school districts. Among the 11 large urban school districts that participated in the test in 2007 and 2009, New York City was one of four that showed fourth-grade gains. Additionally, New York City’s mean scores are catching up with the nation’s mean scores.During his webcast, Klein acknowledged that eighth grade achievement was “the largest challenge” and attributed the gains in fourth grade achievement to his reforms. The Department of Education has implemented changes that will allow each school to opt out of one-size-fits all citywide curricula.

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NYPD Sued Over Stop-And-Frisk List

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If you’re one of the 575,304 people stopped and questioned or frisked by a New York City police officer last year, your name might be in a database, where, the police commissioner says, it will remain “indefinitely.” On Wednesday the New York Civil Liberties Union sued to stop the practice, claiming that the NYPD policy violates state laws requiring arrest records to be sealed in cases where guilt of a crime is not found.The name of anyone who is busted or given a ticket goes in the database. But the vast majority of those stopped by the NYPD are not arrested or given a summons. However, even if they aren’t found to be doing something wrong, people who are asked for their name and give it (they don’t have to) are in the database as well.There, says Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, it will stay “indefinitely, for use in future investigations.”The NYCLU argues that since state law requires that records in criminal cases that end in dismissal or acquittal, or with a conviction or guilty plea for a non-criminal violation (like disorderly conduct), be sealed, the NYPD database violates that law.The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two men, one from Harlem and one from Clinton Hill, but the NYCLU asks the court to certify a class of all the people whose names are in the database even though they weren’t convicted of crimes. Kelly has said that the stop-and-frisk policy “has played a major role in the reduction of crime in New York City.”

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Hazards Of Eating NYC Fish

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The contaminants in Hudson River waters include PCBs, mercury, cadmium, various insecticides, and dioxins and furans – which can come from incinerator smoke and car exhaust.