August 23, 2023
Solve Two Crises At Once: Put Migrants In NYCHA
As New York City gives over soccer fields and recreation centers to housing for a wave of migrants, and Gov. Hochul feuds with Mayor Adams, one public housing resident on the Lower East Side has a better way. The New York Times reports that Camille Napoleon “has hosted as many as 12 migrants at a time in…
August 13, 2023
The Bill to Repair NYCHA Projects Doubles—but Pols Won’t Fix the System
We knew Big Apple public housing is in dangerously bad shape—but it turns out it’s twice as bad as we thought. New York City Housing Authority officials just revealed the $40 billion estimated in 2017 for the new roofs, pipes and boilers the aging projects need has ballooned to $78 billion. Yet a state plan billed…
August 11, 2023
Why Does NY Campaign To Stop Smoking But Not Illicit Drug Use?
The New York drug policy philosophy — what might be called making drug use safe, legal and everywhere — has hit some serious snags. On Monday, US Attorney Damien Williams warned that he may shut down the city’s “safe injection sites,” where illegal hard drugs are used under medical supervision. That same day, a state Supreme Court judge…
August 7, 2023
Union Square Melee Proves Riots Have Little to Do with Real Political Grievances
The most revealing thing about Friday’s Union Square pop-up riot is that as police dispersed the mob, members started chanting, “Black Lives Matter.” Make no mistake: This was not a protest on the part of teenagers drawn to 14th Street by Kai Cenat, an online “influencer” with millions of followers, including thousands eager for free PlayStations he used…
August 7, 2023
The Right Way to Fix Public Broadcasting
The kabuki theater of Washington budgeting has again featured the lightning-rod issue of public broadcasting. Last month, a House Commerce subcommittee voted to zero-out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), whose funds go to NPR and PBS; just six days later, its Senate counterpart voted to maintain the funding. Both critics and defenders of the system will…
August 5, 2023
Rent Control ‘Shabbifying’ NY’s Housing As Owners Feel the Squeeze
Perhaps cowed by tenant protests, the Rent Guidelines Board has backed off rent increases of as much as 16% (for two-year leases) for the city’s 900,000-plus rent-regulated apartments. That property owners should be limited to modest hikes (2.5% for one-year leases), even as their costs of fuel, taxes and repairs go up, ignores the fact that inflation…
July 30, 2023
26 Miles of Scaffolding Blights NYC’s Public Housing, Some Up for 10 Years
No New York pedestrian would disagree with Eric Adam’s characterization of the city’s ubiquitous sidewalk sheds at stalled construction sites as “ugly little green boxes.” But his targeting of private buildings owners with $10,000 a month fines for scaffolding that stays up for more than 90 days without building repairs proceeding also suggests selective prosecution. …
July 25, 2023
Not Just Tulsa
Earlier this month, an Oklahoma judge ruled that the City of Tulsa cannot be held legally or financially responsible for the actions of the violent mob that burned down the city’s Greenwood section, known as the Black Wall Street, in 1921. Three survivors of that murderous riot will not, it appears, receive compensation. Despite their disappointment, the…
July 19, 2023
Adams’ Smart Migrant Move Could Help the City’s Overburdened Shelters—and Migrants Themselves
A hint of common sense has emerged in the Adams’ administration policy toward the wave of migrants crowding the hotels once occupied by the tourists the city’s economy needs. But the mayor’s just-announced 60-day limit for single adults in the city’s shelter system raises the obvious question: Where should they go next? There’s a short…
July 17, 2023
Biden Tries to Revive His Eviction Moratorium Through the Back Door
The federal overreach that was part of the Covid pandemic response included a ban on residential evictions, ordained by, of all agencies, the Centers for Disease Control. Ultimately, the Supreme Court slapped down a Biden-administration effort to extend the ban — which had no serious public-health basis. But that has not stopped the White House from…