March 18, 2010 · www.gothamgazette.com

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Specialized High School Admissions
February 8th, 2010

Some 958 students received the good news last week that they had been admitted to Stuyvesant High School, considered by many to be the city’s best public high school. Only 7 of those proud students are black.

The figures announced Friday represent a continuing decline in the number of black and Hispanic kids admitted to the city’s academically elite schools. Last year, 12 blacks got into Stuyvesant. Seventeen Hispanic students received admission to Stuyvesant this year, compared to 24 a year ago.
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By Gail Robinson on February 8, 2010, 11:32 am
In category: Civil Rights, Demographics, Education, Measuring UP | No Comments »

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A Night of Counting
January 26th, 2010

Last night thousands of volunteers scoured the city for men, women and children who call the streets home.

It happens every year since 2003, and it’s called the HOPE Street Survey — or the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate. Volunteers for the city’s Department of Homeless Services tour the five boroughs from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. looking for people living on the streets. The count is supposed to capture an estimate of the city’s homeless population that do not use the shelter system.

Every year, according to the department, the numbers have declined, and since 2005 they have almost been cut in half — from 4,375 to 2,328.

Advocates dispute the study’s findings. Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless wrote that the survey has “an inherently flawed methodology.” The survey, he continued, fails to count the homeless that are in hard to reach locations and it doesn’t factor in inclement weather.

Last night, for instance, was unseasonably warm.

Either way, we won’t know last night’s results anytime soon. According to the press office at the Department of Homeless Services, the count can take weeks to compile.

For more, listen to this segment from Brian Lehrer this morning.

By Courtney Gross on January 26, 2010, 5:47 pm
In category: City Hall, Demographics, Gotham City, Health, Housing, nextNY | No Comments »

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Immigration's Female Face
July 15th, 2009

This post was filed by Jackie Pearce.

The face of immigration in America is changing, according to experts, advocates and media representatives who gathered at the Ford Foundation auditorium this afternoon. That face, they say, is a woman’s.

The panel discussion focused on a poll recently released by New American Media, which looked at the problems and experiences of the often-silent female immigrant. Women now account for the majority of immigrants coming to the U.S. — 53 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

By Gail Robinson on July 15, 2009, 5:51 pm
In category: Civil Rights, Demographics, Gotham City, Immigrants, Measuring UP | No Comments »

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Domestic Workers Push for Bill of Rights
June 12th, 2009

Taking care of children and the elderly: Check.

A bill of rights: left blank.

Early this morning, dozens of domestic workers and their allies set up shop outside City Hall, participating in a 24-hour vigil to lobby for a bill that would provide basic labor protections for domestic workers in New York.

Domestic laborers said that the 24-hour vigil is symbolic of their working situation. “We work in the employers’ house around the clock, 24 hours,” said Joycelynn Gill-Campbell, a former nanny from Barbados who is now a full-time organizer with Domestic Workers United, a grassroots group.

If passed, the domestic workers’ bill of rights would be the first bill to address their exclusion from federal and state labor laws. Though its prospects, according to some legislators, looked good at one point, it too could become a casualty of the Senate stalemate.

“I know what it is to be treated less than a human being and to be exploited and abused,” Gill-Campbell said. “We have to create history. The bill of rights is about correcting all the injustices that have been done.”
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By Alex Kane on June 12, 2009, 5:23 pm
In category: Albany, Civil Rights, Demographics, Eye on Albany, Gotham City, Governing, Immigrants, nextNY | 1 Comment »

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New Yorkers in Poverty
March 12th, 2009

The New York State Community Action Association has released a report on New York’s poverty rates. Statewide, 14 percent of the population lives in poverty, compared to 13.3 percent of the nation as a whole. But in New York City, the gap is much wider. The federal poverty line, which is the definition the report uses, is an annual income of $18,310 for a family of three.

Here’s some of the more striking highlights from the five boroughs:

The Bronx poverty rate, at 28 percent, is double the state average. Furthermore, nearly 40 percent of children live in poverty there. In Manhattan, which has a poverty rate of 18 percent, blacks and Hispanics are three times as likely to live in poverty than whites.

Both Queens and Staten Island have lower rates than the state and national averages, with poverty rates of 12.1 percent and 10.1 percent respectively. And in Queens, the racial disparity in poverty rates is much less pronounced than the other boroughs; there are less blacks in poverty there than the national average for the general population. But in Staten Island, nearly four times as many blacks are in poverty compared to whites.

The report’s authors note that while the data is as recent as possible, it “is still too old to reflect the current economic conditions facing New Yorkers”

By Mike Muller on March 12, 2009, 9:44 am
In category: Albany, Community Development, Demographics, Economy, Measuring UP | No Comments »

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Enforcing Anti-Discrimination Lending Laws
March 5th, 2009

The city comptroller yesterday filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s attempts to enforce national banks’ compliance with state laws against discriminatory lending. The brief used data from the comptroller’s office showing the need for such enforcement in New York City.

“In New York City, African-American and Hispanic home buyers and owners, at all income levels, have been the victims of disparate and unequal treatment by home mortgage lenders, including national banks and their affiliates,” Comptroller William Thompson said in the brief.

Using data from his office’s Foreclosure Prevention Helpline, the comptroller’s office found that homeowners in danger of facing foreclosure are concentrated in black and Hispanic neighborhoods, regardless of the areas’ income levels.

“This starkly disparate outcome appears to result from the exact issue [Cuomo] had attempted to investigate before being enjoined: that ‘a significantly higher percentage of high-interest home mortgage loans are issued to African-American and Hispanic borrowers than to white borrowers.’”

The data adds to numerous other studies that come to similar conclusions from the Furman Center, the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project and the New York Times.
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By Mike Muller on March 5, 2009, 8:03 pm
In category: Albany, Civil Rights, Demographics, Economy, Housing, Law | No Comments »

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Crowded Classrooms?
September 3rd, 2008

With New York City’s 1.1 million public school students back in school — and some in pretty crowded schools at that — Brownstoner readers debate this week’s Gotham Gazette article on how luxury housing development is squeezing nearby public schools. Disagreement raged over whether the situation is a problem and who is to blame.

“Anyone with half a brain saw this coming,” said Cobblehook. And now, another reader said, the city needs need to fix it. “The fact that the local authorities cannot quickly utilize this money to upgrade the infrastructure is an indictment of the bureaucracy. Why should it take so long for the [Department of Education] to add on capacity?” the writer wondered.

But, hey, what crowding? One comment called the problem overblown and “a good problem to have.” Another went so far as to frame the crunch as a way to improve schools: “A school becomes excellent because people with resources … send their kids to that school and then get involved in it. …There are schools that need help that you can make a difference in. Then, not only do YOUR kids get a great education that you were instrumental in creating, but other kids whose families have fewer resources also benefit.”

So what about it Wonkster readers? What’s the situation at your child’s school? Is crowding a problem in New York’s classrooms? And if so, what should the city do about it?

By Gail Robinson on September 3, 2008, 12:32 pm
In category: Community Development, Demographics, Education, Land Use | No Comments »

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Calculating Poverty
July 14th, 2008

Good data is almost always a good idea, so it’s hard to dispute Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s effort to update a formula for determining the poverty level, a formula that has existed since the mid 1960s.

If the mayor’s method of calculation were to be used, the percentage of New Yorkers considered poor would increase from about 19 percent to 23 percent. Cynics have observed this could help the city since, in the event that the federal government adopted the mayor’s method, more New Yorkers would be eligible for various types of assistance.

No matter how one does the math, though, the Bloomberg years have not been good for New York’s poorest citizens — despite the general economic boom.
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By Gail Robinson on July 14, 2008, 1:35 pm
In category: Demographics, Economy, Social Services | 5 Comments »

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The Politics of Change in Lower Manhattan
July 1st, 2008

The New York Times reports that “The Lower East Side of Manhattan is being SoHo-fied. (Or is it Chelsea-fied?)” The travel section article lists hidden L.E.S. art galleries that have popped up in the past year or so – though the galleries mentioned by name are likely to lose their “hidden” status fast. The reporter takes the new art scene as a sign of the changing face of the area.

And while demographic shifts could have implications in the art world, they may also affect September’s elections, potentially even threatening the re-election of 32-year incumbent and Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver. (For more on this race, see Gotham Gazette’s Running Against Albany on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

As New York Magazine noted last month in an article about the speaker, “It’s not the old neighborhood anymore.” Silver hails from Lower Manhattan’s Orthodox Jewish community, which has shrunk in recent years.
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By Sara Jerome on July 1, 2008, 12:13 pm
In category: Demographics | 1 Comment »

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To Be Poor in New York
May 27th, 2008

Gothamist commenters have plenty to say about Cara Buckley’s recent Time’s piece, written (apparently) in a demographic vacuum, about the suffering (oh, the suffering) of young, white new yorkers trying to get by on a budget. Tight budgets have them making difficult choices like mascara or lip gloss while foraging for B.Y.O.B. brunch spots (making your own waffles is, apparently, as unimaginable as a Saturday morning without mimosas). I double checked: April Fools Day has long passed. A little refresher course: the median income in New York City? $38,293. The suffering of a single guy making that and then half again sounds like the distant wail of one teeny, tiny violin.

One commenter came up with a fairly plausible theory: the Times is trying to stir up their comment boards by offending as many new yorkers in a single article as they possibly can.

For real coverage of New York City demographics, economics and fianance, I suppose we’ll all have to read Gotham Gazette.

By Amanda Hickman on May 27, 2008, 10:39 am
In category: Demographics, Gotham City | 1 Comment »

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Working From Home? Get Out Once and a While...
April 23rd, 2008

A common reply to the announcement that you work from home is: “Wow, that’s the life. Rolling out of bed and working.” But a number people that do work from home around the world seem to find something missing with the lack of an office. A common sentiment is the need for community offered by coworkers. There’s the absence of having somebody to chat with at the water cooler about new work ideas or somebody to grab lunch with. And a productive work space is another concern. Having a television five feet away from your desk can be a distraction for some.

In response, home-workers from the Czech Republic to Chicago have increasingly been forming a new type of work collective called “coworking.” And New York City – where about 1-in-25 workers stay at home – has a plethora of its own coworking events and locations. They range from meetings in people’s homes and in cafes, businesses that open up their offices for coworking events, and dedicated coworking office spaces where one can rent a space for a given period of time.
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By Mike Muller on April 23, 2008, 8:05 am
In category: Community Development, Demographics, Economy, Tech, nextNY | 4 Comments »

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Geography of a Housing Plan
March 6th, 2008

The Independent Budget Office has released maps and analysis of the locations of affordable housing funded under the mayor’s plan to create or preserve 165,000 affordable units. About 61,000 have been funded so far.

In Manhattan, Staten Island, and Brooklyn, about 70 percent of the units will be preserved while the Bronx is split between construction and preservation and construction accounts for 60 percent of the units in Queens.

Most of the preserved units are clustered in Northern Manhattan and North Brooklyn while the created units are more evenly spread out amongst the city.

Manhattan has the majority of funded affordable housing with about 23,000 while the Bronx ranks second with about 20,000. The Bronx has the most low-income units with over 17,000 and Manhattan is second with over 16,000. But Manhattan has the vast majority of moderate-income units with over 2,200; about double the Bronx, which is the runner up.

To view the maps and full analysis, click here for the PDF.

By Mike Muller on March 6, 2008, 7:10 am
In category: Demographics, Housing | 1 Comment »

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The Bad News is the Good News
January 20th, 2008

Most New Yorkers applaud the drop in crime. But to every silver lining there must be a cloud. Lower crime rates mean fewer prisoners, and Errol Louis writes in today’s Daly News, that concerns upstate communities whose economies rely on prisons and prisoners.

The Spitzer administration is seeking to shut down four prisons, saving the state more than $44 million over the next two years. But officials in some of the affected areas want to stop the move. After all, prison work crews clean and repair roads — virtually for free, residents have jobs in the prisons and the practice of counting prisoners as residents of the communities where they are incarcerated swells the upstate population, bringing in more aid and giving those areas political clout.

None of that impresses Louis. “Downstate advocates of prison reentry – a policy of redirecting public resources to schools, housing, jobs and recreation programs instead of prison – need to get fired up and jump into this debate,” he writes. And he says Spitzer must “hold firm and make clear that the last thing upstate’s ailing economy needs is a fiscally and morally bankrupt

By Gail Robinson on January 20, 2008, 3:20 pm
In category: Albany, Crime & Safety, Demographics | 1 Comment »

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Surprise, Surprise: Congestion Comes from Jersey
December 11th, 2007

As the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission continues to mull over traffic-calming proposals, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan, the city’s Independent Budget Office released a report this morning revealing those Manhattan-bound commuters will at least be able to afford the possible toll.

The report (available here) states that the majority of commuters entering the proposed congestion zone, which is below 86th Street in Manhattan, are not New Yorkers, and those that are driving private cars make 30 percent more than other commuters.

More than 25 percent of all car commuters come from the Garden State. It looks like New Jersey sends us their vehicles, while we send them our garbage.

By Courtney Gross on December 11, 2007, 12:48 pm
In category: Demographics, Transportation | 1 Comment »

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Flatbush Residents Don't Find Their Borders So Ambiguous
December 6th, 2007

An attempt last week by the New York Times to boil down the “ambiguous” boundaries of “Flatbush proper” was met by a bit of derision and laughter from some of the local bloggers. The Brooklyn Junction enjoyed the attention lavished on the area by the Times, but called their map “neighborhood gerrymandering.” The Junction notes that the Times’ map doesn’t even include the Flatbush Development Corporation, and the blog posts some other maps that offer a different idea of what Flatbush comprises.

The Junction also has a good wrap up of the online reaction to the article, which includes a post by Flatbush Gardener that has an informative take on the issue. The Gardener posts an historic map from 1873, points out that the Times has “confused” the area’s boundaries in the past, and notes a physical demarcation in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden of the old Township of Flatbush.

By Mike Muller on December 6, 2007, 9:35 am
In category: Demographics | No Comments »

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Walking While Black
November 19th, 2007

Here’s a thought-provoking statistic from yesterday’s New York Times City. Donna Lieberman and Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union analyzed stop and frisk statistics released by the police department earlier this month. They found stops of white New Yorkers amounted to 2.6 percent of the city’s white population. But for blacks, the number of stops was equivalent to 21.1 percent of the population. Since the police probably stop few elderly black women or very young children, the effect of police actions on one part of the population – presumably young black males – becomes glaringly apparent.

For both groups the overwhelming majority of stops – about 89 percent – did not result in an arrest.

(To view Andy Pressman’s entire graphic with the data, click here.)

By Gail Robinson on November 19, 2007, 12:47 pm
In category: Civil Rights, Crime & Safety, Demographics | 1 Comment »

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Minorities and Subprime Mortgages
October 18th, 2007

With study after study showing how subprime lenders are targeting blacks and latinos, some bloggers and advocates have been calling this the new redlining.

One recent study, by New York University’s Furman Center, found that the 10 neighborhoods in the city with the highest concentration of subprime mortgages had black and hispanic majorities, while the 10 neighborhoods with the lowest number were mostly white. Subprime mortgages – which are at the root of the foreclosure crisis and have high interest rates that can escalate unexpectedly and include steep fees and payment penalties – are generally directed towards borrowers with shaky credit or limited income.

But research by the New York Times found that higher income level black and hispanic borrowers with good credit were still very likely to be steered towards subprime loans.

With all this in mind, the Times editorialized that, in order to find out whether or not subprime lenders have been discriminating against minorities, Congress should force them to disclose their risk profiles of borrowers.

Recent data from PropertyShark.com showed growth in foreclosures around the city to be slowing, leading a couple blogs to say that things are not so bad for the city as a whole. That may be true, but apparently only for white New Yorkers.

By Mike Muller on October 18, 2007, 8:18 am
In category: Demographics, Economy, Housing | 2 Comments »

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Poor Health For Minorities and the Poor
October 9th, 2007

Last week the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released new figures on infant mortality – numbers which fell slightly in 2006 compared to 2005. Although progress has been made – 6.0 infants out of 1,000 births died in ‘05, while that number decreased to 5.9 in ‘06 – the figures still show racial disparities among minority populations, like Puerto Rican and black New Yorkers, whose rates are more than double that of white and Asian populations.

The disparity is not a factor of poverty alone, but also teenage pregnancies and out of wedlock pregnancies.

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By Courtney Gross on October 9, 2007, 9:33 am
In category: Demographics, Economy, Gotham City, Health | 1 Comment »

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Is the Price of Milk Different on Your Block?
October 4th, 2007

In attempt to assess the disparities in prices at various stores around the city, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer reached out to his listeners and had them go to stores and see how much it cost for a six pack of Budweiser beer, a quart of regular, non-organic milk and a head of iceberg lettuce.

The biggest difference in price was in beer. A D’Agastino in Murray Hill charged the most for beer at $10.99, while a place on Grand Street in the Lower East Side charged the lowest at $4.99. The biggest difference in lettuce is $2.29 versus $1.29. $2.59 was the highest paid for milk versus 99 cents for milk in the Lower East Side.

Supermarkets were not only usually cheaper than delis, the prices were much more stable. This is particularly problematic, Lehrer notes, because many supermarkets shun low income neighborhoods.

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By Mike Muller on October 4, 2007, 11:43 am
In category: Demographics, Economy | 3 Comments »

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Little Liberia
August 16th, 2007

When conversations turn to Staten Island, references to child soldiers don’t usually come up. But the borough is home to a large community of former child soldiers, writes Alissa Quart in Mother Jones magazine. The island, she says, has the largest population of Liberians outside of their native country, and the enclave is often called “Little Liberia.”

Many of the young residents of the community, though, bear scars from their previous lives. According to one estimate, as many as 80 percent of the people who fought in Liberia’s civil war were children. Assimilation has proved difficult for these young people, who were taught to kill, not to read and write. Detailing the struggles of these young victims with terrible memories, the reporter offers accounts of a hard life in a new country, as the immigrants struggle with their own violent outbursts and with bigotry from local residents.

By Mike Muller on August 16, 2007, 9:54 am
In category: Demographics, Immigrants | No Comments »

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