New York City is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment.
Consider the possibility that there are more people living in NYC between 42nd St and 202nd St than in all of Alaska. Even if living in NYC was sustainable past 2020, the people don't realize the wider opportunities there are far away from NYC. Actually there are more people in the top 10 New York City zip codes than in the whole state of Alaska. Imagine the possibilities.
It should take awhile to grasp the significance of this variation in population density. It’s hard to comprehend.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
The nation’s largest metropolitan area is the 23-county New York City region, which spills over into Long Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It had 18.8 million residents in 2005, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. No. 2 Los Angeles was far behind at 12.8 million.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
New York City is planning on 1 million more people moving there by 2025.
http://www.newyorkfed.org/...
New York has a lot of problems that are beginning to surface. For example 9.5% unemployment. Is national security at risk when its population is heavily concentrated in such a small area? The region still hasn't recovered from 9/11 terrorists attacks.
Here is part of an article about Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, in a recent Village Voice -
"Mike Bloomberg's worst scandal cost two firefighters their lives. If we lived in a media world in which facts and memories mattered, the nonchalance at the highest levels of the Bloomberg administration about the hazards and warnings at the Deutsche Bank building..."
http://www.villagevoice.com/...
The looming question is: How can quality of life be maintained at reasonable levels under the current models of government?
The Mayor is ultimately responsible.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
This error that nearly caused mass evictions may be portrayed as a computer glitch. If it was then it points to a serious weakness in testing and quality control at NYCHA Information Technology organization. But suppose it was concealed attempt to purge thousands of tenants from public housing.
http://newyork.realestaterama.com/...
Matthew Abuelo reports that in May 2009, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg named John B. Rhea to serve as Chairman of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the nation’s largest public housing authority. Chairman Rhea has more than two decades of investment banking and private sector experience.
Chairman Rhea oversees an agency that provides affordable housing to more than 402,000 low- and moderate income City residents in 340 housing developments and 178,000 apartments across the five boroughs. NYCHA administers the nation’s largest Section 8 program, which assists more than 95,000 families in renting apartments in private homes, and works in partnership with City agencies and nonprofit agencies to provide additional services to residents.
http://www.examiner.com/...
The appointment of former Lehman Brother's economic strategist, John B. Rhea to head NYCHA which administers public housing seems to fall in line with the Mayors plan to marry public housing and the private sector. For those of you who are keeping score, Rhea held his previous position at the time of the failed investment firm's collapse.
John B. Rhea has no experience in housing - none. So it seems a bit puzzling why Mayor Bloomberg would put him in charge of an agency which oversees 178,000 apartments throughout the five boroughs, which house just under 408,000 residents. The office is is also in charge of Section 8 housing and runs the federal voucher program. The two programs combined make up 8% of all New York City housing, and which largely serves those earning $23,000 dollars and less a year. Rhea's disconnect from the population that he will be serving becomes only too clear when, while speaking at an event announcing his new position he joked about "not taking the job for the money". He'll be making $189,700 a year.
How could this be bad news for the working class?
One tenant at the Lincoln Houses in East Harlem made six appearances in Housing Court from October to May, when the Housing Authority dropped the case after her lawyers, with the firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf, threatened to sue the agency. Like other tenants taken to court, she received free legal help.
And a tenant at the Jefferson Houses, also in East Harlem, borrowed hundreds of dollars from relatives to try to pay off nearly $1,000 in back rent that had been miscalculated.
"It’s been frustrating, depressing and nerve-racking," said the Jefferson Houses tenant, Janet Rivera, 45, whose daughter dropped out of the Borough of Manhattan Community College this year after the family received an eviction notice. "I really did think I had to move."
The public housing agency "discovered a problem with its welfare rent calculation system and has been proactive in addressing the issue," its general manager, Douglas Apple, said in a statement. He said that the agency "moved quickly to ensure that its residents were not hurt by this by granting rent credits and ensured that no one would be adversely effected by legal action stemming from a rent calculation error. Based on current data, no one has been evicted" and no families are still in Housing Court as a result of the error.
Tenant advocates say the rent credits are inadequate, and they want the agency to compensate those wrongfully taken to court and to reimburse those who made payments on their rent arrears, like Ms. Rivera.
A Housing Authority spokesman said the agency is prepared to grant cash reimbursements to tenants who can prove they made payments because of the error.
Some tenants complained that the authority failed to take their concerns seriously for months.
New York City Comptroller, Bill Thompson, audited the NYCHA Data Center and Department of Operations in 2005. At the time NYCHA did not have adequate controls to identify and eliminate user IDs of inactive users, lacked written program-change control procedures; computer hardware and software items on hand were not annually reconciled with inventory records; and NYCHA’s disaster recovery plan was incomplete.
http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/...
The Comptroller’s Office offered a list of recommendations that NYCHA would have to complete to bring the data center and department of operations into compliance. The written response to the audit was signed by Douglas Apple. NYCHA wrote that the recommendation for implementing written procedures for making changes to computer applications and system software , the fifth recommendation, was not applicable since NYCHA had such procedures in place. One could conclude that it was business as usual at the NYCHA Data Center and Department of Operations from 2005 forward.
NYCHA reports to Mr. Bloomberg, not Mr. Thompson. Bill Thompson has gone on record advocating more housing for moderate and middle-income families –
http://www.youtube.com/...
This entry in The Daily Gotham is from January 2007. Daniel Millstone introduces the public to a pattern of selling NYCHA properties, which in turns reduces the pool of property available for moderate income tenants that NYCHA is expected to serve.
http://dailygotham.com/...
The piece ends with the dire prediction - The coalition defending public housing tenants is, at present nowhere near powerful enough to do the job. Forces and leaders who should be their key allies are equivocal. For example, DC 37 which represents the vast majority of NYC employees and endorsed Mr. Bloomberg has voiced no serious criticism of his NYCHA plans when he was running for re-election. Margarita Lopez, a well-loved lower-east former City Council Member endorsed Mr. Bloomberg for re-election and is a member of the NYCHA Board. Even for Lopez, a vocal public housing advocate, defense of NYCHA's budget was not a condition of her endorsement of Mr. Bloomberg. As I see it, tenants, union leaders (and their members) and progressive New Yorkers have not yet been united to protect NYCHA's assets and operations.
Abuelo concludes that the appointment of Rhea could come back and haunt the mayor in this year's Mayoral elections. Despite a recent Marist College poll which show's Bloomberg's approval rating at 59 percent, disenchantment among the New York working class could be more than enough to tip the balance to any Democratic challenger, which for the time being, is likely to be William Thompson.
http://www.r8ny.com/...
http://www.youtube.com/...