February 10, 2012 · www.gothamgazette.com

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Strengthening Career and Technical Education

02/10/12
The city's career and technical education high schools feature prominently on the state’s “persistently low-achieving” list and fail to train for growing industries that are expected to provide high-skill, high-wage jobs in the future, according to this report by the public advocate. The city also does not track the success of specific programs or the career paths pursued by these students.

Drop in AIDS Related Deaths

02/08/12
The Health Department finds a 41 percent drop in HIV/AIDS related deaths among black New Yorkers between 2001 and 2010. Despite this progress, black New Yorkers accounted for 48 percent of all new HIV diagnoses from 2006 to 2010, but only represent 25 percent of the city's population.

State of the Station Platforms

02/03/12
In a survey of 250 subway station platforms by the Straphangers Campaign, all had garbage cans and none of them were overflowing. But 28 percent had exposed wiring, and 50 percent had broken lighting fixtures.

Transport Workers Contract Shouldn't Harm Riders

02/02/12
The public interest will be served by an agreement between the MTA and the transport workers union that maintains a good standard of living for workers, is within the MTA’s ability to pay, and does not force further harm upon riders by increasing fares or reducing service, according to this report by the Citizens Budget Commission.

One-Third of New Yorkers Can't Afford to Retire

02/01/12
Over one-third of older residents across the city are expected to either subsist on Social Security, or not be able to retire at all due to the fact that they have less than $10,000 in savings, according to this report by the city comptroller.

Solar Panels on Public School Roofs

01/31/12
The installation of solar panels on the roofs of public schools could create 5,400 new jobs, according to this report by the Manhattan Borough President's office. It could also produce 169 megawatts of clean electricity; eliminate 76,700 tons of carbon from the air each year; and increase solar capacity in the five boroughs by over 2,600 percent.

The State's Retirement Systems

01/27/12
Employee contributions only make up 11.5 percent of New York State’s pension systems compared to a U.S. average of 33 percent, according to the Citizens Budget Commission's analysis of new Census Bureau figures.

Dual Bin Recycling Trucks

01/26/12
Costs for recycling pickups fell by nearly $575,000 (13.1 percent of collection costs) among the four districts that switched to dual bin trucks in 2007 and by nearly $363,000 (9.4 percent) among the five that converted in 2009, according to this report by the Independent Budget Office.

Motor Vehicle Crashes Involving Kids on the East Side

01/24/12
Children under 18 make up about 30 percent of residents in both East Harlem and the Upper East Side. But according to this report by Transportation Alternatives, East Harlem children account for 43 percent of crash victims, while Upper East Side children represent less than 15 percent of neighborhood car crashes with pedestrians and bicyclists, a three-fold disparity.

New York's Matching Funds as National Model

01/23/12
A properly designed public matching fund system - such as New York City's - can increase the number and proportional importance of small donors as well as their demographic diversity, according to this new draft working paper by the Campaign Finance Institute. Based on an original analysis of millions of contribution records to candidates in all of the states and the city, they argue that matching fund programs serve the goals of public financing better than full public funding.

Quality of Job Recovery

01/19/12
According to the Independent Budget Office, the jobs New York City is regaining don’t pay nearly as well as many of the ones it lost. While the city shed thousands of jobs in such high-paying sectors as Wall Street, it is regaining jobs in industry sectors that pay just a fraction of those yearly wages.

Albany's Economic Development Subsidies

01/09/12
New York ranks 43rd of all states for how many jobs its economic development subsidies create and the quality of those jobs, according to this report by Good Jobs First.

The Water System Rental Payments

01/05/12
This report by the Citizens Budget Commission on a mandate that the public authority financing the water and sewer system pay the city government rent on that system provides a history, review of critiques, and alternative to the current situation.

New Yorkers Living Longer

01/04/12
New Yorkers are living longer than ever before, according to this report by the Health Department. Babies born in the city in 2009 have the record high life expectancy of 80.6 years, an increase of nearly three years since 2000 and nearly two and a half years more than the most recently reported national rate of 78.2 years. Life expectancy for 40-year-olds in New York City increased by 2.5 years (79.5 to 82) from 2000 to 2009, a substantially greater gain than the 1.2 year increase for the same age group in the U.S. as a whole.

Future City Budget Gaps

01/03/12
The Independent Budget Office estimates a budget shortfall of $1.2 billion in 2013, nearly $800 million less than the Bloomberg administration's estimate from their update of the budget for this fiscal year, which includes a financial plan for the ensuing years through 2015. For 2014, the budget office's gap projection is $2.2 billion, $1.7 billion less than the administration's; for 2015 their gap estimate is $1.9 billion, nearly $3 billion below the administration's.

MTA Snow Plans

12/22/11
The MTA's inspector general recommends a number of changes to better respond to emergencies like the snow storm on Christmas day last year in this report. All of it has been accepted by the MTA and incorporated into their new winter weather preparation plan.

Obesity in Schools Drops

12/20/11
Obesity rates among public elementary and middle school students in the city have decreased over the past five years across all race and ethnic groups, according to the Department of Health. This marks the biggest decline in childhood obesity by any large city and stands in sharp contrast to the stagnant nationwide rates. The overall obesity rates among kindergartners through eighth graders decreased 5.5 percent with the sharpest decline seen among children ages 5 to 6 years old.

Eliminating Local Funding for Medicaid

12/13/11
The state's unusual requirement for substantial local government financing of Medicaid places an inequitable burden on taxpayers in less affluent communities, according to this report by the Citizens Budget Commission. Because Medicaid provides health care services primarily to the poor, low‐income counties pay a disproportionately large portion of Medicaid costs relative to their population size and wealth.

Cycling Continues to Grow

12/11/11
Commuter cycling grew by 8 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to this report by the Department of Transportation. It also more than doubled from '07 to '11, and nearly quadrupled in the last decade.

Ballot Design Deficiencies and Lost Votes

12/08/11
In 2010, tens of thousands of votes in New York state did not count due to overvotes — the invalid selection of more than one candidate. This report by the Brennan Center for Justice demonstrates how the lack of adequate overvote protections disproportionately affected the state's poorest communities, suggests commonsense reforms, and examines national implications.

Smaller Incomes and Fewer Opportunities Post-Recession

12/02/11
New York families have smaller incomes and face fewer opportunities following the official end of the Great Recession in 2009, according to this report by the Fiscal Policy Institute. More than 500,000 employment opportunities have been lost, equaling $31 billion in earnings. Also, median weekly wages for workers in the bottom half have fallen by 3.4 percent over the past four years in the city and by 0.8 percent in the rest of the state.

Combating Nursing Home Abuse and Poor Care

12/01/11
A report released today by the Long Term Care Community Coalition indicates that the state has levied fines against 12 nursing homes for substandard care and other safety issues in the last three months. Fines range from $4,000 to $24,000. The state also took other actions against 13 nursing homes for causing resident harm or putting them in immediate jeopardy over the same period.

Spending on AIDS

11/30/11
Over 25 years, the city's HIV/AIDS Services Administration has seen its caseload increase sharply and then, starting in 2003, leveled off, according to a report prepared by the Independent Budget Office in advance of World AIDS Day. In 2010, the city's spending per case began to decline. That spending reached a peak of $7,133 per case in 2009 and is now $6,872.

Community College Graduation Rates

11/28/11
Only 28 percent of individuals who enrolled in New York City’s six community colleges in 2004 left with a degree within six years, according to this report by the Center for an Urban Future. But the national graduation rate is even worse: just 26 percent of community college students nationally graduate within six years.

New York is Cleaning Waterways

11/18/11
New York City is tackling its water pollution problems, such as stormwater runoff and one of the worst sewage overflow issues nationwide, by employing green infrastructure and design and it can save money as a result, according to a peer-reviewed report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Green Jobs in New York City and State

11/17/11
Businesses reported that 34 percent of construction jobs in the state and 27 percent in the city were green, according to this report by the New York City Labor Market Information Service at CUNY. But hiring is limited because the green economy is embedded within the general economy, which has been slow to recover from the recent recession.

Business Council's Voters Guide

11/11/11
The Business Council of New York State released this voters' guide, which measures legislators' commitment to improving the state's economic climate and performance by scoring their support for key business legislation during the 2011 session. Lawmakers were rated for their stance on 11 bills such as the real property tax cap, Medicaid spending reductions and program reforms in the budget, Article X siting legislation, Recharge New York and an improved Excelsior Jobs Program.

Homeless Shelter Population Hits New Highs

11/10/11
According to this report by the Coalition for the Homeless, 41,204 homeless people slept in the municipal shelter system at the end of October - the first time ever that the shelter population has reached that level. There were also an all-time record 16,934 children bedding down in municipal homeless shelters, a 10 percent increase since May alone.

Tracking Development Deals

11/09/11
The Independent Budget Office has examined annual reports submitted by the Economic Development Corp. on its discretionary deals and has issued a brief summarizing the information on 1,098 projects undertaken between 1994 and this year. In terms of number, it found more projects were in manufacturing than any other sector. However, when one looks at the size of the projects, information and financial services comes out on top. This area accounted for the largest value of new projects during the Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani administrations, but under Bloomberg, stadiums have been the number one beneficiaries. Despite the data provided by the development agency, the Independent Budget Offices says it remains difficult to determine what effects its efforts have had on job creations and retention.

Vouchers and Crime

11/04/11
No evidence exists to link an increase in the number of housing vouchers in a an area with a rise in crime, according to a new study by NYU's Furman Center. The paper looked at 10 major U.S. cities, including New York, controlling for other factors the neighborhoods. While crime does tend to be higher in neighborhoods were many low-income people with the vouchers live, the study concluded this was not the fault of the voucher holders but rather because "voucher holders tend to move into neighborhoods where crime rates are increasing."

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